Archive for: April 2006

This week’s award has to go to Mark Montiel. After a short period of time, newspaper readers across Alabama will go from asking, “Who’s Mark Montiel” to associating him with some real Republican values. If you don’t know who he is, Mark Montiel is a Republican candidate for Alabama attorney general. He will face the incumbent attorney general, Troy King, in the Republican primary in June.

The two Republicans aren’t just facing each other in the primary election. Mark Montiel represents Hugh McInnish, who has brought a lawsuit against the state for illegally spending money. The controversy started in 2004, when McInnish was able to get the Alabama Supreme Court to stop all “community service grants.” Individual legislators would no longer have direct control over taxpayer money.

During the session, however, the legislature was able to come up with a clever plan to get around the court ruling. They’ve created a Community Service Grant Commission, who they give money to through regular funding. It’s really the same thing, with each legislative district being appropriated a certain amount of funds. Half of the Republicans in the legislature didn’t go for it, Governor Riley vetoed it, but the legislature overrode his veto.

So McInnish and Montiel are bringing it to court again, and poor Troy King has to be in the unusual position of defending the legislature. It’s part of the job description because he represents the state. Unless King manages to handle this REALLY well, he will be spending the primary election season legally defending pork barrel spending (a big Republican no-no). Meanwhile, his Republican opponent in the primary will be spending the primary election season in a legal crusade against pork barrel spending.

Even if the voters realize that King simply has a job to do, Montiel has still raised his name-recognition and credibility with this case. He’s no longer a nobody, he shares a court room with the same attorney general he wants to oust. It’s very impressive, and I don’t even think it’s political meaneuvering on Montiel’s part.

By the way, forget both these jokers. Vote for John Tyson!

Warning: Nerd post ahead. I’ve been mulling around the President’s many uncoordinated technology and science initiatives, and thought it was finally time to make fun of him. Before you read on, I promise I am serious about all of this. I don’t even read science fiction. I promise all of this technology and engineering is a lot closer than you would believe.

President Bush just doesn’t seem to get it. Back in 2004, he suggested a bold new vision for NASA — go to Mars. Mars? What are we going to find when we get there? A big red planet that’s going to cost billions of dollars for a few people to see in person. Billions of dollars that could be spent here on this planet, where we’re sure there IS life.

Earlier this year, the President announced his American Competetiveness Initiative, where he wants to increase government expenditures in research and development. According to the President, this research will lead to scientific and engineering advantages that will help keep the United States as the world’s superpower. The problem with this is that it lacks focus. Billions of dollars will be thrown around to different industries, diluting the potential results this type or research and development could create.

Yesterday, the President unveiled yet another initiative. This one is a four part plan to make sure the United States is capable of meeting its growing energy demands without becoming too dependent on foreign sources of energy and without making the cost of energy prohibitively expensive.

With one, single initiative, we can begin to solve all three problems at once, but the President may need to do some research to figure it out. We can have a initiative that will commercialize and lower the costs of space travel, lead to American innovation that would rival the world and could eventually make the United States 100% energy independent. It’s even likely that the United States would quickly become the largest exporter or energy in the world.

This initiative would need to be done in two parts:

1. Build a space elevator

How do we normally get into space? We strap ourselves on top of two million pounds of explosives and 500,000 gallons of fuel and blow it up. The resulting explosion (controlled, to be fair) throws us into space. It’s extremely inefficient and extremely expensive. Instead, we should build a space elevator:

A space elevator is a physical connection from the surface of the Earth, or another planetary body such as Mars, to a geostationary Earth orbit (GEO - In the case of Earth) above the Earth at roughly 35,786 km in altitude.

Basically, it’s a giant string. One end is attached to the Earth, the other is attached to an orbiting counterweight. The earth spins, and it is the same idea as holding a ball and string and spinning around in circles. We then climb up the string into space. Of course it’s a little more technical than that, but not as challenging as sending a group of travellers to Mars. It would also make space travel much, much cheaper. It currently costs about $20,000 per kilogram to send something in high orbit. With a space elevator, it would cost about $200 per kilogram.

Sound crazy? The only part of the technology that isn’t quite here yet is a tether that’s long enough, strong enough, and light enough to do the job. But it’s on the way. Some R&D money from the federal government would speed it up.

2. Build a Solar Powered Satellite System

A Solar Powered Satellite (SPS) System is basically an orbiting power plant. Huge satellites in geosynchronous orbit would gather energy with large solar panels. The satellite would then convert the energy into a microwave beam (or another type of electromagnetic radiation), and “beam” it to a receiving station on earth. The receiving station would then convert it into electricity and put it into the electric grid that’s already in place? Sound crazy? The technology already exists, and has for years.

The only reason we don’t have orbiting power plants right now is that it would be too expensive to launch these things into high orbit. That’s why we need a space elevator first. With that, and some government help on the research side, it could be cheaper than building a nuclear plant, with the same energy output, and no nuclear waste.

The President has stated that he wants to build more nuclear power plants, and I agree with him. But it’s only a short-term solution, and there are some big risks with nuclear power. Instead, why don’t we use the large nuclear power plant provided by God. Enough energy bounces off the Earth’s atmosphere in a day to meet our energy demands for a decade. Solar Powered Satellites will be positioned in high orbit (like some communication satellites). This would mean they would be in the sun 99.9% of the time (they’d be in the dark for about 2 hours a year). Also, if we’re not careful, Japan will beat us to it.

Did some random researching on ALISON today. Found an interesting section about impeachment.

If Parker is really that bad, forget psychological charges for his incompetence or ethics charges for writing an op-ed in the Birmingham News. If you really think Tom Parker is bad enough to be removed from office, initiate impeachment proceedings against him. The Alabama Code (Section 36-11-6) provides:

Any five resident taxpayers… may institute proceedings of impeachment under Sections 174 and 175 of Article 7 of the constitution upon giving bond, with sufficient sureties, payable to the officer sought to be impeached, conditioned to prosecute the impeachment to effect and, failing therein, to pay all costs that may be incurred, which bond shall be taken and approved by the clerk of the court before which the proceedings are proposed to be instituted.

I don’t know if this has ever been attempted, and I’m not sure how it would be enacted. Perhaps it would force the Alabama House of Representatives to vote on possible impeachment. According to the Alabama Code, an elected or appointed offical may be impeached for:

1. Willfull neglect of duty. Check
2. Corruption in office.
3. Incompetency. Check
4. Excessive dunkeness or drug use.
5. Any offense involving moral turpitude. (Can I define moral turpitude?)

The only thing he can’t be impeached for is anything he’s been cleared of by the Judicial Inquiry Commission. So you can’t go after him about the Op-Ed piece (not sure that’s impeachable anyway). So get four friends together and petition for impeachment today!

NBC13 is running a story about people making home-made ethanol, which can bring your fuel costs down to about $0.75 a gallon.

Some people have gotten so desperate to find cheaper gas they are making it at home.

There are dozens of Web sites explaining how to make homemade ethanol and in Tennessee, companies that sell kits said business is booming.

If you really want to save some money, go over to Greasecar.com. There, you can buy a conversion kit for a diesel engine that’ll make your car run almost completely off of vegetable oil. The car would have to start with the diesel fuel because the vegetable oil has to warm up before it is thin enough. This process takes about a minute, and you then run on vegetable oil for your trip. Before you can cut off the engine, you have to flush the vegetable oil out of it and replace it with diesel again (so you can start it next time). The kits come with an automatic sensor and safety system so you don’t have to think about that process too often. The best part is that vegetable oil can be found for free. Just go to a Bar and Grill and they’ll be happy to give it away instead of paying some guy to dispose of it for them.

If you can’t afford the $800 for a conversion kit, or if you don’t happen to have a diesel car laying around, you can always buy a bike. That’s my plan. We’re actually moving closer to downtown this summer so I can hopefully bike around (among other reasons).

If you’re not willing to bike around, give your car a tune up. You’d be surprised how much gas mileage you can save. You can also save up to 30% by driving the speed limit, and calming down a little bit. Flooring the gas at a green light just to stop at a red light 100 yards down the road will kill your fuel efficiency.

A state judicial panel cleared Mini-Moore of ethics charges brought by Tuscaloosa attorney Joel Sogol. Sogol brought the charges in response to Parker’s Op-Ed piece written in the Birmingham News which heavily criticized the Alabama Supreme Court for following U.S. Supreme Court precedent in a death penalty case involving convicted rapist and murderer, Renaldo Adams.

Adams had been sentenced to death, but committed the crime when he was a minor. The Supreme Court ruled in their Roper decision that it is cruel and unusual to execute a person for crimes he or she committed as a minor. So the Alabama Supreme Court unanimously commuted Adams’ sentence to life in prison, and Parker wrote the press. He says he wrote the piece because he had to recuse himself from the decision due to his earlier involvement in the case.

“I am grateful that the Judicial Inquiry Commission has acknowledged for the first time that Alabama judges have free speech,” Parker said Wednesday.

Sogol said the decision hasn’t changed his mind about the appropriateness of the justice’s commentary.

“I still think it’s inappropriate, but the Judicial Inquiry Commission doesn’t think it’s unethical,” he said.

And it was inappropriate. Parker called for the Alabama Supreme Court to be an active judiciary that dismisses the demand of Article VI of the U.S. Constitution. I can agree that removing him from office for expressing his opinion may be a little too far, but Parker himself went too far in writing the piece. His colleague on the court, Justice Mike Bolin, has already called him an “activist.” Justice Tom Woodall went so far as to say he was “deceitful,” and claims he cussed Parker out over the ordeal.

Are you kidding me? The U.S. Senate wants to give every American $100 to offset high gas prices? That has to be the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard. Why don’t you just lower the federal fuel tax which is 18.4 cents per gallon for regular (that’s not including the Alabama tax of 20.3 cents per gallon).

In order to give EVERY TAXPAYER a rebate, you’re going to have to come up with the billions of dollars this would cost, then you’d have to pay for the administrative and bureaucratic mess this would create. After all that crap, gas will still cost almost $3.00 a gallon.

Instead, you could give a tax holiday for the federal fuel tax (gasoline only) for one year. End the tax for 11 months, and then gradually bring it back in over the next 2 months. It would provide the same amount of relief to the average driver as a $100 check because a driver burns an average of 489 gallons per year. At 18.4 cents a gallon in taxes, that’s $91.93 in fuel taxes the average person spends annually. It would also give more relief to those people who spend more money in gas as opposed to those who walk to work and don’t own a car.

Oh, that’s right. It’s an election year and they want the voters to see a $100 check courtesy of their incumbent in Congress. Your possible vote is worth $100 of your own money, apparently.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Although this really is my original idea, I’m using figures from Gravmag. Special thanks to Mr. Gibson for compiling that information and Gun Toting Liberal for pointing it out.

Here are the new rules for how parents must protect their children:

1. If your child is under age 1 and under 20lbs. weight (dirty diaper not included), you SHALL have him/her in a rear-facing infant car seat at any time a motor vehcile is in motion and said child is an occupant of said motor vehicle.
2. If your child is between the ages of 1 and 5 (but not yet 5) and under 40lbs. weight, you SHALL have him/her in a forward facing child car seat at any time a motor vehcile is in motion and said child is an occupant of said motor vehicle.
3. If your child is less than age 6 (but not yet age 6) and the aforementioned rules do not apply, you SHALL have him/her in a booster seat at any time a motor vehcile is in motion and said child is an occupant of said motor vehicle.
4. If your child is between the ages of 6 and 15 (but not yet 15), you SHALL have him/her properly secured in a safety belt, regarldess of said child’s position in the motor vehicle, at any time a motor vehcile is in motion and said child is an occupant of said motor vehicle. (see exceptions in 32-5B-4, Alabama Code 1975)
5. Failure to comply with these instructions constitutes a crime against the great state of Alabama, and you will be charged a fine appropriate to the violation.

The law is looking more and more like the tax code every day. Riley signed it.

You may remember that some time ago, the internet sweepstakes machines at the Birmingham Race Track were siezed by Jefferson County Sherriff Mike Hale. Of course, it’s illegal to gamble in this state. However, Circuit Judge Scott Vowell later ruled that the “internet sweepstakes” machines were not gambling, because of the way gambling is defined in Alabama law.

Apparently, no one told Cullman County, where police raided Ricky’s Internet Cafe and siezed 30 “internet sweepstakes machines.” They siezed another 22 at a residence off CR 718.

I guess this could be a different case. In the Birmingham case, the judge ruled that, although the machines were a sham designed to look like gambling, they were in fact a sweepstakes. If you’ve never been there, you go to the place and buy “internet time” from the front. As soon as you buy the time, it’s already decided whether or not you are going to win or lose. You simply go to one of the many video screens that look an awful lot like a slot machine to see whether you won money in a very elaborate, “slot machine-like,” way. At least that’s what the lawyers told the judge.

Politics in Alabama has a great post about the 45-day pre-election report for some of the major candidates for state-wide office. The amount of money a candidate receives is the best indication of whether or not he or she will win. If you don’t believe me, go to Open Secrets.org, find out how much money your senator or representative raised last year, and compare it to his or her opponnent. I guarantee you the one with the most money won.

Back in Alabama, here are some key observations. Check it out for youself:

• Over 57% ($334,940.01) of the contributions Moore received this period are non-itemized. In other words, we have no idea where they come from. For comparision with the other candidates, we have Bob Riley who has 1.3% ($6,504.00) non-itemized, Lucy Baxley who has 2.4% ($9,404.00) non-itemized, and Don Siegelman who has no non-itemized contributions. As far as I know, a candidate must report all contributions in excess of $100. So he would need at least 3,349 people giving him exactly $100.00 for this to be correct. Maybe there are some other exceptions I don’t know about.
• In the Republican primary for lieutenant governor, Luther Strange has out-raised everyone else. He has about $100K more than George Wallace and over $200K more than Mo Brooks. Hilbun Adams seems to have gotten a waiver for the 45 day report.
• Troy King has out-raised, out-spent, and has more cash on hand than his likely Democratic opponent, Mobile District Attorney John Tyson. Of course, Tyson will not be running against King until the general election. King’s only opponent in the Republican primary, Mark Montiel, has not filed a report as of this posting.
• In the Republican primary for Chief Justice, incumbent Drayton Nabors has significantly outraised and has a sizable warchest when compared to Roy Moore clone Tom Parker. Nabors has over $109K in cash-on-hand compared to the $2,185.45 Tom Parker has.
• Tom Parker 2 (a.k.a Ben Hand) has managed to “outraise” his Republican opponent in the primary. Incumbent Champ Lyons has $91K in the war chest compared to Hand’s $100k. However, Hand only really raised $420.00 from 3 people in Opelieka and Auburn. The rest of it is a loan.
• Tom Parker 3 (a.k.a. Hank Fowler) only has $200.00 in his war chest. His opponent, Tom Woodall has over $63K
• Glen Murdock, who is running for the only open seat on the Supreme Court, has managed to significantly out-raise his Republican opponent, former Associate Justice Jean Brown. Brown has only $10K to spend compared to Murdock’s $185K. I guess that BCA endorsement he picked up despite being a Moore supporter really does help.

Loretta Nall is the Libertarian candidate for governor. For all you so-called lefties, she publicly and explicitly supports prison reform. Worried about the religious influence in Alabama politics? Loretta manages to say,

While the other candidates in this year’s election will spend their time trying to out-Jesus each other my campaign will offer no such shenanigans.

while completely respecting your decision to be a relgious person.

For all you so-called conservatives, she wants to end the government control over your child’s education with a voluntary voucher program. She wants Alabama to refuse to comply with the REAL ID Act, and she’s the only candidate for governor other than Don Siegelman who has publicly stated he or she supports bringing Initiative and Referendum to Alabama.

Unfortunately, because of the duopoly the Repuglicans and Dummocrats have over state and national politics, those in power have managed to keep her off the ballot for the time being. In order to be on the November ballot, she needs tens of thousands of signatures. If you want to help her out:

Go here to see the petition to put the Libertarian Party on the ballot.

To learn more about Loretta Nall, you can go to:

Her Campaign Blog or her Campaign Website. This is not an endorsement of Loretta Nall, although I may end up endorsing her before it’s all over. For now, I’m still holding out for Riley. Regardless of who I end up voting for, though, she and the rest of the Libertarian Party should be on the ballot.

Yesterday, the Alabama Republican Assembly held an Endorsing Convention and endorsed some candidates. They only endorse a candidate if at least two-thirds of those voting approve of a specific candidate. Before you read who they are, here’s one of their “conservative beliefs,” of a list of several others, some of which I agree with:

Conservatism without a moral anchor is baseless and void. We assert that God’s Law, as recorded in the Holy Scriptures, is supreme in our land. Our laws and our system of justice must demonstrate a reverence for Divine Law in the Public Forum, without prejudice to any single denomination.

Although Alablawg asserts that can be read several ways, I think it’s pretty clear. “God’s Law … is supreme in our land” sounds too much like the Constitution’s assertion that it is the supreme law of the land. These guys want some form of a theocracy. “Our laws and our system of justice must demonstrate a reverance for Divine Law” clearly take the Roy Moore approach to a government that secuarly enforces scripture. “Without prejudice to any single denomination” seems to indicate that they are only talking about Christian denomination (or it would have said “religon” and been less specific about “scripture”).

So here’s their endorsement list (a.k.a. “list of people I won’t be voting for”). Remember, everyone on this list received a 2/3 majority backing from the organization.

Governor: Roy Moore (big surprise)

Lt. Governor: Mo Brooks (a little surprising)

State Auditor: Chess Bedsole (who?)

State Board of Education (Dist. 2): Betty Peters (I could care less)

Chief Justice: Tom Parker (a.k.a. Mini-Moore)

Supreme Court (Place 1): Ben Hand (a.k.a. Tom Parker 2)

Supreme Court (Place 2): Hank Fowler (a.k.a. Tom Parker 3)

Supreme Court (Place 3): Alan Ziegler (a.k.a. Tom Parker 4)

Supreme Court (Place 4): Glenn Murdock (a.k.a. Tom Parker 5)

The Assembly couldn’t unite enough around a candidate for Attorney General or the Public Service Commission to provide an endorsement.

Sometimes, I read comments from an earlier post and start to reply.  Ten minutes later, I realize that it’s too big for a comment, so I post it.  These probably have several grammar errors and might not flow very well, but here it is.

I tend to play Devil’s Advocate with this issue, but I’m not pro-illegal-immigration either.  I am a little split, but I tend to believe that American citizens should reap the rewards of American taxes.  I think you can’t have a country without borders.  So even though it is a “government-made” crime to cross this imaginary line, we still have to have it.  We have governments for a reason, after all.

But where I probably split with people like the Minutemen is that I don’t think these guys are little Satans coming to America to destroy it.  I don’t think you have to demonize them to see that they are hurting America.  As I see it, we need to do 3 things (although it’s anyone’s guess as for how to accomplish it):

1. Deal with the immigrants that are already here
2. Deal with the security situation that allows them to so easily cross the border
3. Deal with the economic situation that makes them want to leave their home country to work in the US for slave wages

Of course the biggest controversy is what to do about number 1.  Some say we should deport them or throw them all in jail.  I just think that deporting them is not feasible, and throwing them all in jail is not justifiable.  That what I mean when I see it’s a government-made crime.  I don’t think it’s ridiculous for it to be a crime, I just think it would be ridiculous to put someone in prison for several years because of it.

Of course I woud pick the guest worker to citizenship road.  Some call it amnesty, and I sympathize.  But if we were a little prickish about it, I think you’re indignation will be satisfied.  Make a special status (guest workers) just for the ones over here.  Make it several years before they’re eligible.  Make them learn English, pay taxes (even an additional tax to pay for the beauracracy this would create), pass a citizenship test, and hold a job.  If they get in any trouble more than a traffic ticket, deport them and make them ineligible for US citizenship for the rest of their lives.

Of course, this won’t matter unless number 2 and 3 are dealt with first.  If we legalized the immigrants here without solving the pourous borders or economic insanity that is Mexico, we’ll just be right back here in a few more years.

The Alabama Democratic Party issued a press release saying that recent polling by the Capital Survey Research Center says that more Alabamians identifiy with the Democratic Party than with the Republican party. According to the survey, 46.5% of Alabamians identify themselves as Democrats and 43.4% identify themselves as Republicans. The survey was conducted on 852 registered voters in April.

An immediate disclaimer. As you can see by clicking on the link above, the Captial Survey Research Center is the polling department of the Alabama Education Association, which is well known to get along with Democrats better than Republicans in the state. However, I’ve never heard an accusation against them for being biased against Republicans in their polling.

Even if those numbers are within some sort of reasonable margin of error, you have to consider just how overwhelmingly Republican Alabama has been in recent years. According to the press release:

Similar polling from as recent as 2004 showed Republicans with a 12 point lead in party identification,” says Alabama Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham. “We are now approaching having a majority of Alabama voters identifying themselves as Democrats” says Turnham. “The soaring trade and budget deficits, the quagmire in Iraq, skyrocketing gas prices, and a loss of American influence in the world along with a real failure to enact true homeland security at our own ports has eroded Alabamians views of President Bush and Republican leadership in general” noted Turnham.

It’s sure been making me lean a little more to the left than usual.

This week’s award squarely goes to Justice Tom Woodall. It’s about time someone in the Republican party stood up to the Mooreites. Wheeler at Alablawg has dubbed this Supreme Court Republican primary the Clone Wars because every race has a Roy Moore/Tom Parker clone running for it.

Woodall is being challenged by Hank Fowler for his judicial seat in the Republican primary, but you can’t even think of Hank Fowler without thinking about Tom Parker, the leader of the Mooreite pack. And you can’t think about Parker without thinking about Roy Moore, the group’s lord and savior.

In the Decauteur Daily, he had some biting criticism for his Republican opponent, Hank Fowler:

“It irritates me that nobody respectable will run against me in the primaries,” Woodall said. “Instead, I get one of Tom Parker’s flunkies running against me.”

He also had some mean things to say about his fellow Justice Tom Parker, who is running against Drayton Nabors in the Republican primary for Chief Justice. Justice Parker made headlines recently for writing an op-ed piece in The Birmingham News where he attacked the judicial decision of his colleagues on the court. Just what we want in a judge, eh?

“I think I was the only (justice) who actually called Parker to cuss him out, but we all were mad,” Woodall said. “It was cowardly and deceitful, and a whole lot of other words that I guess I won’t say here.”

He then expanded his criticism of Parker, alluding to the well-known fact that Justice Parker doesn’t seem to get much of his judicial work done.

“He doesn’t handle his cases; he just lets them pile up,” Woodall said. “He’s apparently so busy conspiring against the rest of the court that he doesn’t have time to be a judge.”

Woodall seems to have some respect for Roy Moore. He says he liked him personally and respected his work ethic. But he still had some criticism of the Ten Commandments Judge:

“Roy never had much interest in the law. I’d say he has an average legal mind. He’s got enough of a legal mind to know that a lot of what he says (on the relationship between state and federal courts and on the separation of church and state) isn’t true,” Woodall said.

“I sometimes think (Moore) has said it so much he’s starting to believe it, but it’s all gibberish.”

… “I think everything Roy’s done since the first camera was in his face was for political reasons. But I still have a lot more respect for Roy than I do for Parker.

Of course I think this whole thing points out the inherent flaws associated with an elected judiciary, but as a politician, Woodall impressed the hell out of me. This is the first time I’ve heard a candidate speak about the Parker insurgency that way. They have zero credibility, and it’s about time someone said it.

State Representative Dick Brewbacker (R-Montgomery) is retiring after only one term in office. He says he is leaving because of a disgust in Montgomery politics and because his son is in poor health.

When he got on the ticket in 2002, he wasn’t expecting a walk in the park, but he was surprised by what he calls the “lobbyist-incumbency complex” that runs Goat Hill.

That’s an excellent term, and I think I’ll be using it from now on. During this session, he introduced two bills (introducing only two bills is itself a reason for me to like a legislator). The first is HB372. The synopsis reads:

This bill would require the Clerk of the House of Representatives and the Secretary of the Senate to post on the Internet website of the Alabama Legislature information relating to travel expenses of members of the Legislature that are reimbursed by the state … This bill would require the State Auditor to independently review and verify the posted information.

It passed the House committee on Internal Affairs on April 6, but was then mysteriously indefinitely postponed until it died. The other bill he introduced was HB411, which reads:

This bill would require lobbyists to disclose all expenditures on public officials, and require those persons who lobby the Executive Branch to register with the Ethics Commission.

Currently, Alabama lobbyists only have to report expenditures that exceed $250 in a day to a single legislator. So they could theoretically spread $250 a day to every legislator and not tell anyone about it. Persons who lobby the governor are not required to even register with the Ethics Commission. This bill was was never debated or brought up in the committee it was filed in. Go figure.

He’s even against the House Boat Ban, which I ranted about earlier. He calls it the “throw-the-peasantry-off-the-lake bill.”

“A bunch of wealthy developers telling people if they can’t afford a lake house, they can’t spend the night on the lake,” he said. “It’s the biggest abuse of government I’ve seen in four years.”

Riley spokesman Jeff Emerson said the new law would “protect the beauty and quality of life around these lakes.”

It also pleased Alabama Power, which owns 4,375 acres of developable land on Lake Martin, Lake Weiss and Lake Harris, the three lakes affected by the ban.

So we have a Republican who actually believes all that stuff about an open government with citizen legislators. Who knew.

Roy is convinced that the President visited Alabama today to help Governor Riley win the primary election. He has previously accused the Republican leadership, Chairman Twinkle Andress in particular, of supporting Riley.

“This visit is political payback in exchange for his complete cooperation with George W. Bush and shows his great concern for the upcoming primary election on June 6. Both the state Republican leadership and now the president himself have wrongfully attempted to interfere in this Republican primary and it won’t work,” a statement from Moore’s campaign read.

I can agree that the Republican establishment probably doesn’t want Roy to win the primary. It makes me wonder why Roy continues to align himself with the Republican party. I think he’d be more successful as an independent or third-party candidate.

But to accuse the President of meeting with Riley to help his campaign is strange for a couple of reason. First of all, who cares if it is true. The President can and has endorsed candidates for office before. Also, I don’t think this President would do anyone any favors right now by campaigning for him. Alabama might slightly like the President still, but his approval numbers in Alabama aren’t high enough right now to brag about.

Aside from that, there’s no need for the President to support Governor Riley. The latest polls have him with a 44-point lead over Moore.

I promise. The semester is almost over, and the end of the semester test crunch is coming to an end. Now I just have finals left.

For those who have e-mailed me about the Tom Woodall comments in the paper, I plan on featuring that this weekend with a new bit. The weekends are pretty slow for news and traffic, and pretty big for hangovers. Instead of just not posting like I have been, I’m going to do a “Politico of the Week” bit. Basically, I’ll just comment on something some politician has done to impress me lately. I won’t necessarily stick with Alabama and national figures, but that’s all I normally read about.

So who will I be impressed with? Tom Woodall? Roy Moore? Tom Parker (a.k.a. Roy Moore, Jr.), Hank Fowler(a.k.a. Roy Moore III)? Check back this weekend. If you guessed right, you win the prize of not being brain dead.

The President will be in Tuskeegee today to detail his plans for the American Competitiveness Initiative. Here’s the story behind this initiative. America’s economy is growing, but not very quickly. There’s cheap labor overseas. Dirt cheap. I’m not just talking about the back-breaking labor — I’m talking about engineers, technicians, specialists, everything. Although Americans might take a modest lowering of wages with just a grumble, we won’t accept the low wages given by these overseas companies (or American companies that move overseas… traitors). Bush’s idea is that the one area we have an edge in is technology. If we’re going to pay our engineers so much money compared to China, they need to come up with more. It may not seem fair, but it’s true.

White House officials say Bush chose Tuskegee because its Center for Advanced Materials, or T-CAM, produces the type of research that underpins the American Competitiveness Initiative. Bush will get to see how T-CAM researchers use nanotechnology to engineer lighter and more durable materials while reducing production costs.

So better technology (patented by American companies) will drive the cost of American goods down. We keep getting paid pretty well, American companies continue to make money, and maybe we’ll save the Earth from global warming as a bonus (ha ha… just kidding).

Alabama Democrats are calling on Governor Riley to use the time to announce that he will donate his dirty Scanlon/Abromoff campaign money to Tuskeegee University. As I posted earlier, Riley received $100,000 from Michael Scanlon. Because the Democrats gave him the idea, he probably won’t do it. But I think it would only help his campaign. It would certainly only help Tuskeegee University.