Archive for: August 2006

This story just seems a little sketchy to me. Hopefully our resident blogger legal expert, Wheeler, will be able to chime in on this one at The Alablawg. In the meantime, here’s my two cents.

Alabama Circuit Court Judge Charles Robinson ruled that part of the Alabama Pawn Shop Act of 1975 was unconstitutional because it violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause. The equal protection clause says:

No state shall make or enforce any law which shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

I can’t find the opinion anywhere on the internet, but apparently the justification is that the Alabama Pawn Shop Act effectively caps interest rates at 300% annual interest while all other money lenders in this state are limited to charging 24% interest. It seems that the judge said that since it is mainly a certain segment of the population that uses pawn shop and title loans, the Act legally discriminates against the poor and minorities by charging them a much, much higher interest rate. Since people who have the income and credit history to get a bank loan are afforded a legal cap of 24% annual interest while everyone else is only affored a cap that can be as high as 300%, the state is failing to provide an equal protection of the law.

None of the states surrounding Alabama can charge such a high rate, and I am happy to see these predatory loans go away. Part of me, however, thinks the argument sounds a little too contrived to be real. I don’t know — is this judicial activism?

No word yet on whether or not the defendent wants to appeal.

* Wheeler links to this post with Decision Says Title Loans are Unconstitutional 

Apparently radio host Frank Matthews (a.k.a God’s Gangster) is so mad about the Democratic Party being full of “niggers and gay,” as he put it, that he is going to run a write-in candidate against Patricia Todd for House District 54. Danny at Doc’s Political Parlor did us all a favor and talked to Matthews about it.

“We are absolutely going to have a write-in candidate,” he said. He was “85% sure” that Gaynelle Hendricks would be the candidate. She hasn’t agreed to it, but he thinks she will. “That’s the great part about a write-in candidate. They don’t have to agree to it.” But if she is not the candidate, “we will have another strong candidate.”

A little background information on Frank Matthews. Born in Cleveland, he says his youth was full of gang violence and trouble, but that he went on to host his own television show and is now a radio personality in Birmingham. He has run for office before, for state representative, Birmingham city council and even mayor. He always loses.

Does anyone know if he started calling himself the “Mayor of the Airwaves” before or after he tried to run for mayor?

* Kathy of Birmingham Blues links to this post in “Definite” Write-in Campaign In District 54?

We’re number 2 in obesity — the second fattest state in the union. It’s not that I’m not doing my part for us to reach number 1, but we really have to hand it to Alabama’s “Year of Food” campaign:

Alabama’s “Year of Food” campaign has been named the nation’s top tourism drive by the National Council of State Tourism Directors, Gov. Bob Riley announced Tuesday. …

The campaign, which began at the end of 2004 and stretched through 2005, included a cook-off contest among 60 chefs, a food products promotion in more than one thousand grocery stores in partnership with the Alabama Grocers Association, and a stamp featuring a tomato logo used to mail information to media.

One of the most popular things of the “Year of Food” campaign was the Top 100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before you Die. It included all of the high-fat cult favorites.

You can also think the liberal federal government for helping Alabama with our food problem surplus of food. There are many people on food stamps in Alabama — we do have the 8th highest poverty rate after all. The federal government spends so much money on food stamps and welfare (0.01% of the total 2004 budget) that the attorney general’s office has to spend time and resources arresting people who are frauduently trying to get welfare.

Rush Limbaugh even reports that the federal government is giving so much food to Alabama’s poor, that they’re literally killing them by shoving food down their throats. According to Rush:

I think you might then say that the obesity crisis could be the fault of government, liberal government. Food stamps, all those — you know, I’m gonna tell you people a story. I — just, well, the government, you could say, is killing these people because we know obesity kills, and the government’s killing the poor.

(h/t to Lee P at A Bama Blog)

While it may make for a dramatic campaign slogan, I’m not sure that legislation to execute convicted child molestors will survive judicial review. Troy King is making it one of his Big 3 platform. The Big 3 are:

1. Propose legislation to be able to execute child molestors
2. Propose legislation to allow child sex abuse victims to testify without the accused being present in the courtroom.
3. Propose legislation to keep convicted sex offenders from working or living within 2,000 feet of YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs.

Okay, I can go along with number (3) for sure. Number (2) sounds like a good idea, but I’m not sure it would be Constitutional since it does say,

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to be confronted with the witnesses against him. (6th Amendment)

As far as number (1), it just seems like more Troy King grandstanding.

In response, John Tyson said that instead of spending his time coming up with ways to make it look like he’s doing something, Tyson spent his time as District Attorney of Mobile gathering 634 child abuse convictions.

Apparently on yesterday’s radio show, Russ and Dee “outed” Bob Riley as being a member of the Grand Masonic Lodge of Alabama. They also claim that the Alabama Masons exclude black from joining them, which means that Gov. Riley is a member of a racist organization.

Couple of things here. First of all, they are mostly right. I believe the charter of the Grand Lodge specifically excludes non-white people from joining (although I can’t find a copy of that charter). However, I don’t think that would be enforced if an African American tried to join. African American Masons simply tend to join the Prince Hall Grand Masonic Lodge of Alabama. Historically, Prince Hall Masons were the “black Masons,” and it’s always been sad to me that the two groups haven’t done more to join the 21st century.

I’m not saying that Alabama’s Masons aren’t closet racists who need to change their charter. But I would like to point out some hypocrisy that Russ and Dee are fervent defenders of the Alabama Constitution of 1901 and have spoken against a convention to re-write it. It seems like there’s some racist things in there too, aren’t there? In fact, I think seem to remember some things about the proceedings from convention of 1901:

The Southern man knows the negro, and the negro knows him… if we would have white supremacy, we must have it by law… These provisions are justified in law and in morals, because it is said the negro is not discriminated against on account of his race but on account of his intellect and moral condition… There is in the white man an inherited capacity for government, which is wholly wanting in the negro.

The Grand Masonic Lodge of Alabama also excludes atheists from their ranks, and that rule is enforced. I don’t see Russ and Dee talking about that one.

* Politics in Alabama linked to this post in Alabama Bloggers Roundup

It seems the news that Alabama pays the lowest taxes in the union isn’t music to some newspapers ears. Both the Montgomery Advertiser and the Anniston Star have editorials out today saying that having the lowest taxes in the county may not be a good thing if we are not getting essential services.

And according to a Census Bureau report released yesterday, 17% (or 754,000) Alabamians live in poverty, which makes us number 42 in the nation. That’s up from 2003 when our poverty rate was 15.2%. This is despite the fact that our low unemployment rate continues to be the envy of the nation. So everyone’s got a job, but we’re still poor.

Talk of low taxes doesn’t really mean a whole lot to the poorest family’s in Alabama. They may not pay income taxes, but they are still taxed to purchase items required to survive — baby formula, groceries, medicine, etc. I think it’s time we really started talking about permanently removing the sales tax on essential items such as groceries. The Birmingham News has an editorial about that today, and I agree with their conclusion.

(h/t to G’s Daily Daily News Digest at Doc’s Political Parlor)

Danny at Doc’s Political Parlor has a sneak preview of the upcoming Republican “Contract with Alabama” that is meant to mimic the successful national Republican “Contract with America” (successful at the polls if not in legislation).

Danny says that the Alabama Republican version will include a ban on PAC-to-PAC transfers, which is a popular proposal that would make campaign-spending more transparent. You can read all about PAC-to-PAC stuff in my [trying to be funny] post here.

Both the Republican Contract and the Democratic Covenant call for an end to PAC-to-PAC transfers. It would seem like the legislation is already written and just waiting for the legislature to go back into session, right? So if we don’t see some legislation about this being debated in committee on Day 1, we can start getting mad, right?

Well, I somehow doubt this campaign promise will be remembered. I hope I’m wrong, but here are some facts from the Secretary of State about PACs in Alabama:

• 4 PACs have been formed so far this month.
• 14 have already been formed since the end of the primary.
• 245 PACs have been formed since the last gubernatorial election.
• Total, the Secretary of State has 909 Alabama PACs in her database.
• There are an estimated 4,000 national PACs that don’t have to register with the Alabama Secretary of State in order to participate in PAC-to-PAC transfers.
• No one really knows how many state PACs exist in the other 49 states that can also participate in PAC-to-PAC transfers.

All of those PACs represent a wonderful maze where political candidates can hide the true source of their campaign contributions. For all we can tell, any one or any thing can be floating the campaign of a candidate and filtering it through all of those PACs. If you expect the next session of the legislature to get rid of this money pit, you’re pretty idealistic. If you’re like me and don’t expect a whole lot out of the lobbyist-incumbency complex, I hope you’ve at least heard of I&R.

Back in June, Gov. Riley said

With your help, we can continue to move this state forward where never again will we ever be 48th, 49th, or 50th again in anything.

Well, we’re 50th in the list, “States whose citizens pay the highest in taxes” according to the Public Policy Institute of New York State. I have a few questions for Bob Riley:

1. Why do you want Alabama to be taxed more?
2. Would you be satisfied if we paid a little more, or do you want us to be the most taxed state?
3. ::Random question that brings up the $1 billion tax proposal::
4. ::Random question that assumes Riley has no sense of the poor in Alabama::
5. ::Random question that makes it seem like Riley wanted to veto the recent Democratic Knight-Lindsey tax relief plan::

Clarification: I’m making fun of Joe Turnham, not Bob Riley. I would like to point out, however, that Alabama has both the lowest taxes in the country and one of the most Democratic legislatures in the country. Explain that one to me, fiscal Republicans.

Here’s a fun story from Colorodo. A teacher there named Eric Hamlin was suspended for hanging flags in his classroom, including the flags of Mexico and China. The class? World geography. The teacher was removed by the principal because a state law in Colorodo says that foreign flags can not be hung in the classroom except for limited period of time and only if it is part of the lessons for that immediate time frame.

I want to know why it is “illegal” to display foreign flags in a classroom in the first place. What sort of reactionary garbage provoked that practice? The reason this is titled, “Why I’m scared of conservative psychobabble” is that I am about 90% sure this was a heavily conservative (althought not necessarily Republican) hot-button issue somewhere in Colorodo state politics. For all I know, it was introduced after the recent demonstrations in California had immigrants waving Mexican flags. I heard it at the time — “That should be illegal!” Well, this is what happens when it is. Stupid crap like this.

(h/t to Flashpoint)

Unless you have an interest in the I&R page or the 2006 candidates list, you can probably skip this. This is a log of changes to my three public pages I’ve taken over the last week. I was under the false impression that Wordpress logged all changes. Maybe I’m a software nerd, but I want to log everything I change except for content of posts.

If you use the I&R Page, and espeically if you use the 2006 candidate’s list, you may want to make a note of the changes.

If you are a candidate or work on a campaign, please check to see if my information is accurate on the 2006 Candidate Contact Info page. I do what I can, but keeping up with the 243 candidates who are running for non-judicial elected offices in Alabama is kinda hard.

I&R Page

• Gene Ponder, Ted Little and Peggy Martin are now listed as supporters.
• Many senators are now listed as dodgers.

2006 Candidates Contact Info

• Sue Mitchell was listed as the Democratic nominee of HD4 without contact info
• Christopher Word’s email was added for HD28
• Jeremy Sherer’s email address was added for HD34
• Allen Treadway’s email was added for HD51
• Patricia Todd’s email address was added for HD54
• Earl Hillard’s contact information was corrected for HD60
• Anne Skelton was listed as the Democratic nominee for HD62 and contact info listed
• Bryant Melton was removed as the Democratic nominee for HD70
• Chris England was listed as the Democratic nominee for HD70 without contact info
• Amy Beckerle Smith’s email address was added for HD101
• All hyperlinks should be removed

Homepage

• All items in all groups in the sidebar were edited to fit on one line
• Feedburner is now listed under the “syndicate” group by request
• An “unpaid staff” group is now listed with a list of administrators and contributors to this blog
• The “daily reads” group has had many additions and deletions as I read new blogs and as others are removed for lack of posting, suddenly boring me, etc.
• The Electronic Frontier Foundation and Beer Advocate have been added in the “activists and info” group
• Two new categories added — “God loves you” and “Newsies”
• “Awards and orgs” group added to contain several items that were just hanging at the end

The word on the street is that the Russ and Dee Show will host Loretta Nall after the October 30 debate and give her an opportunity to use their show to answer all of the questions from the gubernatorial debate she is being excluded from.

I’m a little surprised, but am very glad that Loretta might be able to speak to Russ and Dee’s audience.

A new proposal from Jefferson County commissioner Sheila Smoot would release information on 33 county fugitives who skipped out on their bond. The hope is that local bounty hunters will pick up their trails for a chance at a percentage of the total $1.8 million in bond money. The discussion is slated for Thursday, but Larry Langford has already expressed concerns about the county’s power to release “investigative information.”

According to this very old article from Slate, the numbers speak for themselves. Bounty hunters account for 88% of returned “skips,” while police are only able to nab about 10 in customs or routine traffic stops. Granted, this is due in large part to their freedom to work just outside the normal bounds of the law. Some “recovery agents” may prove to be more trouble than they’re worth. But, with Birmingham’s homicide rate growing by leaps and bounds this year, I’m willing to hear all suggestions.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, see L. Scott Harrell’s, “How to Become a Bounty Hunter in 9 Easy Steps.”

Everyone’s heard by now — the Republican candidate for the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals, Terri Thomas, has family ties to the Klu Klux Klan. Everyone’s acting pretty weird about it. A few points.

• Joe Turnham, the chairman of the Democratic Party, has asked Thomas if her family’s ties to the KKK will affect her ability to rule on the bench. That’s a pretty dumb question. Why doesn’t he get more to the point and just ask her if she personally subscribes to the philosophy of white supremacy or the KKK.

• Turnham has also asked her to disclose her campaign contributers to see if extremist groups are funding her campaign. I’m pretty sure she will comply with this request as it is required by law.

• Her brother, a lawyer who reprsented Klan members in a 1980 civil suit, said, “Why would it be relevant to Terri what any of her family would or would not have done?” This is the dumbest question of them all. Of course it matters. It would certainly be wrong to immediately label her a racist, but she isn’t a private citizen. She’s running for public office. Her family ties obviously affects who she is as a person, and she can expect some serious questions.

• I hate to seem like I’m taking sides, but her oppoent, Democrat Jim McFerrin, said some sense, “People want to know how far the apple falls from the tree, and I think that’s fair enough.” To be fair, he probably said that while skipping and dancing.

• Thomas herself answered Turnham’s crticism pretty well. After pointing to her career record, she said, “I’m not my brothers, I’m not my sisters, and I’m not my parents and I’m not my cousins. I’m not my grandparents. I am me, and I am fair. I am not prejudiced at all.” Thomas also says that she was not aware of her parents’ affiliation with the Klan. She’s going to have to make it crystal clear that she isn’t a white supremicist, but she’s on a great start.

I think her family ties to the Klan are free game in an election, and I think Ms. Thomas has answered the questions very well. It also seems like she may have been caught by surprise, so hopefully she can have a more thorough answer soon. Even the accusation only helps the Democrats, and I realize the Democrats released this information with dirty smiles on their faces (just as the Republicans would have). But it’s a fact and it’s something the voters should know about and thoughtfully consider (as if voters think).

I wish Joe Turnham and the Democrats would do without the heavy-handed criticisms until Thomas had a chance to answer, though. Turnham is skating very close to making this a dirty political attack smear campaign, and maybe he’s already gone too far. He got the information out there and spread some dirt while justifying it as informing the voters. Now he needs to stay out of it.

If a Court of Civil Appeals race is this fun, I can’t wait until next month!

* Politics in Alabama linked to this post in Alabama Bloggers Roundup

Kathy at Birmingham Blues is asking the organizers of the October 30 gubernatorial debate to allow Loretta Nall, the Libertarian/write-in candidate for governor, to participate in those debates.

She is running a write-in campaign because Alabama’s restrictive access laws kept her off the ballot (she did her best to raise the 41,000 signatures required), but her candidacy is real, and she is willing to address issues that the two major party candidates won’t touch.

She has also forwarded along the contact email address for the organizers of the debates. A big thanks to Don for passing this information along. If you’d like to see a candidate who is actually willing to touch issues that matter in this state, please contact the following people.

Barbara W. Larson, Executive Director, Leadership Alabama
James W. Williams Jr., Executive Director, PARCA
Allan Pizzato, Executive Director, Alabama Public Television
Felicia Mason, Executive Director, Alabama Press Association

The likelihood of the Loretta joining the debate is pretty low, but it feels good to tell people in charge how you feel. At least it makes me feel good. Even if she doesn’t debate, she has promised to do a “stand-in” from the parking lot and answer the moderators questions and react to the other two’s answers.

Alabama Public Television is set to host a gubernatorial debate on October 30. That’s just 8 days before the election, which has never made any sense to me. Why would you wait until most people’s mind is already made up. By this time, the polls should favor Riley over Baxley by about 3 to 1. I wonder if Riley will come up with a way to cancel the debate. There’s really no reason to debate if you’re ahead.

They also seem to be excluding Loretta Nall. I’m pretty disappointed in this, but I guess it makes sense if she is not on the ballot. Still, it would have been nice to have a different voice on stage. It would have been nice to actually hear some good ideas instead of the same old political posturing that the major parties advocate.

There will also be debates between the Democratic and Republican candidates for Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. The event is being hosted by Leadership Alabama, PARCA, APTV, and the Alabama Press Association. It’s not clear how tickets will be handled, but Leadership Alabama is saying their members will have access and that tickets are by invitation only. Organizers have said, however, that the public will be able to submit questions.

The Democratic Executive Committee passed a resolution Saturday formally asking Larry Darby not to run as a Democrat in future elections. They felt his anti-Semitism wasn’t good for the party. Just another tip o’ the hat to Alvin Holmes, he introduced the resolution and had been talking it up prior to the meeting Saturday.

Darby said he believes the resolution passed because party leaders were surprised by how many votes he received in the race against Tyson.

“They are scared to death of me,” he said. “That’s why they don’t want me to run, because they are afraid I’m going to win next time.”

(In my Carlos Mencia voice) Duh-duh-duh! You think?

Joe Turnham said the resolution doesn’t have any legal or procedural weight. It does not have the power to bar Darby from being on future ballots. The Democratic Party leadership can make that determination the next time Darby tries, though. And like I said before, that will never happen again.

For the sake of completeness since I talked about the Chris England nomination before, I thought I would share this report from Kathy:

The local party endorsed Chris England, an assistant Tuscaloosa city attorney who is also the son of county Circuit Judge John England. Joe Reed doesn’t like John England, so he found his own nominee, Ken King. Joe Turnham had nothing but praise for both of these young men. Chris England narrowly edged Mr. King, and after the vote I watched as they shook hands and then hugged, with Ken promising to support Chris. Later, I walked out to the lobby and saw them, still deep in conversation, and they shook hands again when they parted. These two look like class acts, people, and I hope they are the future of the party.

This is a very good thing since the local Democrats in District 70 had officially endorsed Chris England. Although not an election, it was another instance of Joe Reed trying to decide the nominees of the Democratic party, the voters be damned.

The District 70 nomination was open because the previous Democratic nominee, incumbent Bryant Melton, is about to go to prison.

A quick note on the idiocy of the traditional media types over at Fox News. This is about the Comair Flight that crashed after apparently taking off from runway 26 instead of the runway they were cleared to take off from, which was runway 22, in Lexington, KY. They had some “expert” on Fox who was apparently a pilot and he was asked if this could be a tower error. The guy said no, because it’s not the job of the tower to make sure they’re on the right runway. This is why pilots are idiots and shouldn’t be asked questions about air traffic control.

Okay, the tower isn’t a tall building with windows for the scenary. While this might not be 100% the tower’s fault, they will probably be admonished for not visually confirming the aircraft’s position before clearning him for takeoff. It seems like there’s something in the 7110.65 FAA Air Traffic Control Manual about that. I think it’s Section 3-1-7:

Determine the position of an aircraft before issuing taxi instructions or takeoff clearance.

Theoretically, if the pilot readback, “Runway 22,” even though he was on runway 26, that is an acceptable way to execute position determination. Legally, pilots can be trusted to know where they are at. In practice, however, that’s a bad way to do business. Even if the controller used the pilot’s readback of the correct runway to determine position, however, that doesn’t explain how he didn’t see him when he followed Section 3-1-5:

a. Ensure that the runway to be used is free of all known ground vehicles, equipment, and personnel before a departing aircraft starts takeoff or a landing aircraft crosses the runway threshold.

This means that before an aircraft starts his takeoff roll, the controller is supposed to look out his window and make sure there isn’t a truck, tree or deer on the runway. It’s hard to see how he could do that and not notice the plane was on the wrong runway.

The pilot went to a runway other than the one the tower told him to go to. The pilot made a mistake, but it’s at least partly the tower’s fault because they’re supposed to be keeping an eye on that thing. It’ll be interesting to see if they were playing cards instead. We played Spades alot, but I guarantee you that every time we chirped up the radio, we were looking out the window.