Archive for: September 2006

I’m really happy that the Democrats have so many Iraq War veterans to run in Congressional races around the country. In Illinois, one of those candidates is Tammy Duckworth, a double amputee.

“Instead of a plan or a strategy, we get shallow slogans like ‘Mission Accomplished’ and ‘Stay the Course,”‘ former Army Capt. Tammy Duckworth said in the Democrats’ weekly radio address. “Those slogans are calculated to win an election. But they won’t help us accomplish our mission in Iraq.”

Spoken like a true patriot. It’s not that I want a Democratic majority. I just want to end the Republican majority.

Crossposted at Politics in Alabama yesterday.

This is something that I have been thinking of lately and have talked about with a few people, but I feel that some of the major democrats (not necessarily the Democratic Party) have given up on Lucy Baxley winning in November.

Before you jump to the comments section to tell me I am an idiot and wrong. Look at this.

Jim Folsom Jr. raised $982,109 while Lucy Baxley raised only $796,109. This of course is for this session only. If you take a look over the reports and put them in chronological order you will see they (Baxley and Folsom) were neck in neck up until about the last month when Folsom started pulling ahead getting big contributions. The major democratic money givers backed off giving money to Baxley, and instead decided to focus their efforts on Folsom Jr., who they believe will be the next governor of Alabama (in 2010).

While I am sure you will never get any major democrat to admit this, I believe there was a backroom meeting among the big money givers (including Paul Hubbert), and they decided that it was time to focus on Folsom’s campaign against Strange and give up on Baxley.

Another supporting fact is seeing the major push of support from local democrats to Jim Folsom Jr’s campaign and the lack of support being given to Baxley. I have talked to a few people inside the local Democratic Party in Jefferson County and they have agreed that there is a major push for volunteers to the Folsom camp, and not to the Baxley camp.

So what do you think? Has the major Democratic Party contributors backed off on supporting Baxley against Bob Riley? Are they focusing on the race for the Governor’s mansion in 2010? I think so, but I am curious as to what you all think.

• Atlanta.voic.us links to this post with Alabama: Democrats in Give-up Mode 

If you defend the attack on America known as the Military Commissions Act of 2006, then at least read the thing.

The PDF is here. (it works now)

If you want to tell me how this doesn’t spit on the Constitution (and you’ve read it, not some Fox News pundit), then you can comment about it or email me. Feel free to invite your friends.

I’m just too mad about all this crap in Washington to write posts this morning. State issues and politics just don’t seem important when the writ habeas corpus is being permanently suspended. Is this what conservativism has become? Then call me a nutty liberal. Don’t call me a Democrat, though. Artur Davis sided with the freakshow called the GOP, so I think I may need to write in someone. Does anyone want to get a vote for Congress?

Davis did vote against the illegal surveillance bill, however. He was the only House member from the Alabama delegation.

Don pointed me via email to the Russ and Dee website. They say:

The bad guys won. We were fired Monday, September 25th, before we even finished our show. When we asked “Why?” the person charged with ‘executing the sentence’ (he obviously didn’t make the decision) just shrugged his shoulders, bit his lower lip, sort of looked down at the floor and said. . .nothing.

Here’s the reasons: Politics and Shame. Pressure, dirty tricks and carefully laundered “green stuff” (money makes lots of things happen, just ask Hank) thru an “outed racist” governor whose ties to membership in the racist Grand Masonic Lodge of Alabama were exposed and made public on our show.

Couple that politically-breathtaking revelation with our relentless campaign against the business interest backed illegal alien invasion that is killing our country. . .with our continual pounding away at the threat of Islam and its Muslim followers who seek to destroy the United States and all “the infidels” (which is every Christian and Jew and remaining non-Islamic “unbelievers” in the country). . .and there you have some key ingredients for some very bad, very powerful people “pulling the trigger ” to silence us and to keep you from having information that might make you decide to vote them out-of-their powerful offices and positions.

Keep strong, keep speaking out, stay informed and please keep watching our website. G-d Bless Each and Every One of You. Remember. . .what happened to us is a direct assault on YOUR FREEDOM OF SPEECH. ‘Never give up. Never Give Up. . .Never, Never, Never give up.’

We’ve received hundreds of your emails and tons of phone calls. We’re getting to them as quickly as possible. Write to us. We need to hear from you and you need to be heard!

In Faith,

Russ and Dee

There you have it. A coalition of the Bob Riley campaign, racist Masons, business interests, underpaid Mexican immigrants, and Muslims are behind them losing their show. I assume their station had something to do with it too, but I don’t know for sure. And because they were silenced by these interests, which doesn’t include anyone that is Constitutionally required to respect anyone’s speech, YOUR freedom of speech is under attack. I’m going to miss these guys. Does anyone have any Russ and Dee audio archives on file?

If you’re wondering why they don’t spell “God,” I assume it’s in the Jewish tradition of not writing the name of God, which only really counts if you’re writing the Hebrew for the actual name of God (which isn’t the Lord, even though that is how your Bible translates it). I’ll refrain from writing it even though it’s a made-up tradition. If you’re curious, though, you can do a web search for the Tetragrammaton

Bush arrives in Birmingham today — the Birmingham area that is (the white suburban area, that is). He and Riley are expected to meet up at the airport and travel to the Hoover Public Safety Center for an energy briefing. Apparently, all of Hoover’s city vehicles run off an ethanol fuel blend, which is pretty cool.

The two Republicans are then going to a Riley fundraiser. For those not familiar with this, basically the President shows up so more people will come and people will pay more money to go to a dinner with the governor and the President. I don’t know how much it costs to attend this fundraiser, but it’s probably thousands of dollars, and you can probably pay more to get to shake the President’s hand or something.

Bush is not expected to make any public speeches or address the public at large while in Birmingham.

The Memphis-headquarted St. Jude Children’s Research hospital recently opened a pediatric cancer clinic in Huntsville. Its doors will open in January. Randy Owen, lead singer of the band Alabama, appeared at a news conference to praise the new clinic. St. Jude is the only charity I reguarly give to except APR (I do the Red Cross when something happens).

All children treated at St. Jude are treated without regard to the family’s ability to pay. St. Jude is the only pediatric research center where families never pay for treatments that are not covered by insurance, and families without insurance are never asked to pay. They have treated children from across the United States and from 70 different countries. They are also a leading research hospital.

Donate to St. Jude now.

Joe Reed has been challenged to a debate by Rick Sellers, a long-time Republican activist and consultant. Sellers ran and lost for US Senate in 1992 and is currently working on a project called Grass Roots Debate, because he claims:

Liberal millionaires like George Soros, are spending millions to help the Democrats distort the truth to the American public.

His answer is therefore to create an “objective” organization himself to host “honest” debates between liberals and conservatives. First of all, I hate this stupid idea about how there’s a liberal and a conservative take on every issue. People can’t even agree what “liberal” and “conservative” mean anymore. Second, if you want to see who the millionaires are spending money on, you’ll see that most of the individuals and corporations donate to both parties so they can control whoever wins the outcome. But if anyone favors the fundraising game or the “distorting the truth” game, it’s the Republicans.

Joe Reed is my other favorite person in the world. This bully leader in the Democratic Party is active with the AEA and most recently made headlines for trying to halt the nomination of the voters’ choice for House District 54 with whatever technicality he could find.

If these two get together to debate, I think I’ll miss it.

The News is apparently inept when it comes to reading campaign finance reports. Now that I have had a change to see the reports on the Secretary of State’s website, a slightly different picture is painted. The problem with the newspapers seems to have been that they didn’t understand that candidates who had no primary opposition will usually file their expenditures and contributions from the primary season in the 45 day report.

• The governor’s race was accurate. Riley has outraised Baxley 4 to 1 since the primary. Baxley has raised less than $800,000 compared to Riley’s $3.3 million. He has also outspent Baxley 3 to 1 and has $3.2 million cash on hand compared to Baxley’s measly $616,000.

• The lieutenant governor’s race was also accurate. Strange has outspent Folsom by about $200,000 — $1.2 million to $980,000. That’s got to be too close to be comfortable to Strange. According to the News, Folsom’s money primarily comes from AEA and trial lawyer PACs while Strange’s money mainly comes from BCA and other business interests. Strange spent almost all of his money defeating his primary rivals (he only had $5,000 after the primary), but has managed to make a great come-back. We also shouldn’t forget that all the money he spent for name recognition in the primary season wasn’t in vain. People still remember he’s tall. He’s probably even more recognizable than Folsom, a former governor and lieutenant governor. This is going to be an interesting race, and I bet the Democrats are happy that they didn’t have the primary opposition in this race.

• For attorney general, King and Tyson seem to be about even in the fundraising game, which is bad news for the challenger, Mobile District Attorney John Tyson. Both men have raised about $430,000 this reporting cycle. King has more contributions overall from earlier in the year, but he spent a lot of money in the primary against Mark Montiel. Tyson, on the other hand, spent little money in the primary and the money he did spend went to consulting and infrastructure. King has spent about $180,000 this cycle while Tyson has spent $221,000. In the end, Tyson is holding his own pretty well, but he’ll have to do a lot better against an incumbent who manages to get his name in the paper once or twice a week. Tyson has about $80,000 less than King left over, so he’d better get some more money if he wants to win. He’s got my vote on merit, but any office less than governor is all about name recognition.

• The Secretary of State race is where the money game starts to drop in state-wide constitutional offices. Incumbent Nancy Worley has a measly $33,000 in contributions this cycle and has spent $19,000 against her Republican opponent, Beth Chapman. Chapman herself has managed only $48,000 and has spent $23,000. The game is in Chapman’s favor, and Worley is one opponent that will be easy to beat. She gets her name in the paper too, but never for anything good. Chapman also had no primary opposition which, along with superior fundraising earlier in the year, has helped her to have $178,000 left over in campaign cash compared to Worley’s $67,000.

• State Treasurer isn’t even really a race. Kay Ivey, the Republican incumbent, who has had no bad press and even some good press, has over $241,000 in the bank. Steve Segrest, her opponent, has not even reached the fundraising threshold required to file a report. In other words, he has raised so little that he doesn’t have to file.

• Since the primary, Samantha Shaw has spent almost $25,000 on her campaign for State Auditor. Her Democratic opponent, Janie Baker Clark, has only spent $14,000 during the primary. Clark only claimed $100 in contributions for the general election compared to Shaw’s $11,000. This is another race heavily in the Republican favor.

• The Democrats will be happy to know that Ron Sparks is set to keep his office as Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries. Sparks has raised almost $200,000 this year alone and has spent less than $50,000. He claims $170,000 cash on hand. His Republican opponent has claimed modest contributions of less than $10,000 and expenses of less than $20,000 (he also took out some loans). He has less than $500 in cash on hand. Sparks also has the incumbent advantage of getting a free campaign sticker on just about every gas station pump and cash register in the state.

• When it comes to chief justice, the money starts to pick up again. It’s a little hard to analyze because Nabers spent money in the primary where Cobb had no opposition. But since the beginning of the year, Nabers has raised over $2.8 million and has spent all but $134,000. Most of that went to defeat his primary challenger, Tom Parker, but his name recognition from the commercials still counts. Cobb has only raised $806,000 and has spent all but $348,000. So maybe she can beat Nabors in a last-minute media blitz? That seems to be her plan so far.

I’m not going to go in the other races around the state until the final report just before the election when I’ll do another election prediction based on campaign spending.

• Politics in Alabama links to this post with Alabama Bloggers Roundup 

Sen. Shelby (R-AL) has announced a $1.7 million federal grant for the Birmingham area mass transit. $1 million will go to purchase three new alternative-fuel buses for Vestavia Hills and Hoover and the other $700,000 will buy two diesel hybrid-electric buses for Jefferson County. Shelby’s announcement comes on top of an announcement made yesterday by Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-Vestavia) of a $3.4 million FTA grant to expand and transform the Morris Avenue bus transfer facility into a full service multi-modal facility.

If Birmingham is going to have mass transportation, federal money will likely be required for it. Alabama is one of only four states, according to Danny, that provide no money for public transportation, and the only one east of Colorodo.

• Flashpoint links to this post with Shelby Pork Report X 

Here in Alabama, we do things a little differently than you no-good yankee hippies. You city boys in New York and Los Angeles can have your sinful lives, but here in Alabama:

1. We have a divorce rate 33% higher than the national average.
2. Alabama teens are 36% more likely to get pregnant than the national average.
3. 36.5% of births are out of wedlock (near the national average).
4. Minority marriages have dropped 29% since 1999.
5. Female-headed households are 4 times as likely to live in poverty.
6. Rapes in Alabama are on the rise even though they are falling nationally.
7. Robberies in Alabama are on the rise even though they are falling nationally.

There are some okay things in the report as well, but sometimes you have to look at the negative.

Well, The Free Republic and The Burning Taper are reporting that they were allegedly fired over the Masonic white supremacy issue. I have no idea how factual this is, but it would make sense, especially if, as Kathy has suggested in comments, this issue angered a big advertiser with the station.

From what I do listen to on the 101.1 The Source, Russ and Dee have been diverging from the other shows’ ideology for some time now. Dee Fine especially seems to come across as a religious nut who is convinced there is a secret shadow government that wants to put Mexico in charge of the United States and convert us all to Islam while eminent domaining everyone’s property. I’m paraphrasing, of course.

I kid Dee, but I’ll be sad that they’re gone. And I still think they deserve credit for publicizing Riley’s membership with the Grand Lodge and the Grand Lodge’s racism. I always thought it was funny, though, that they called Riley a flat-out racist for being associated with the Masons but were unable to see why anyone would have a problem with Terri Willingham Thomas having ties to the Council of Conservative Citizens.

I got an email about it yesterday and apparently Loretta Nall confirmed with Russ Fine. They were let go yesterday morning without any explanation. Russ and Dee are understandably upset and claiming it is politically motivated and a violation of their freedom of speech.

Now, I’m no fan of Russ and Dee despite having used them as a source a few times. I think they’re pretty uninformed and border-line conspiracy theorists. But that doesn’t mean I have a problem with them being on the air. But I also don’t see how this can be a violation of anyone’s First Amendment rights. The First Amendment does not mean that the owners of 101.1 The Source have to provide a forum for them to speak. The only possibility they have is claiming it was a violation of their civil rights, which is notoriously hard to argue. I would imagine it would also make them hypocritical. I didn’t listen to their show often, but I know of at least one time they made fun of a civil rights violation.

So I doubt they have any chance of a civil suit, even though that’s what it seems they are after. They may be able to use the same claims in a letter-writing campaign and call-in campaign, though.

• Flashpoint links to this post with Russ & Dee fired on air 

It’s not yet time for my predictions, but we do have some preliminary reports from the cnadidates on their fundraising efforts. Although not available on the Secretary of State’s website, different newspapers are reporting some initial findings:

• Riley has outraised Baxley 4 to 1 so far. Baxley has raised less than $800,000 compared to Riley’s $3.3 million. He has also outspent Baxley 3 to 1 and has $3.2 million cash on hand compared to Baxley’s measly $616,000.

• This is the surprise in the chief justice race. Sue Bell Cobb has managed to raise more money than Drayton Nabers. The headline is a little misleading — “PACs help Cobb raise more than Nabers in race for Chief Justice.” PACs help everyone win, and Cobb only beat Nabers in fundraising by $60,000. The article later explains that just over half of Cobb’s money comes from PACs while 61% of Nabers money is PAC money. Tom Parker seems to have helped Cobb more than expected. Of the $509,000 Nabers has spent on his campaign, $202,000 was spent beating Parker. That means $307,000 was spent against Cobb while Cobb has managed to spend $396,000 against Nabers.

• In the lieutenant governor race, Strange has outspent Folsom by about $200,000 — $1.2 million to $980,000. That’s got to be too close to be comfortable to Strange. According to the News, Folsom’s money primarily comes from AEA and trial lawyer PACs while Strange’s money mainly comes from BCA and other business interests. Strange spent almost all of his money defeating his primary rivals, but has managed to make a great come-back. We also shouldn’t forget that all the money he spent for name recognition in the primary season wasn’t in vain. People still remember he’s tall. He’s probably even more recognizable than Folsom, a former governor and lieutenant governor. This is going to be an interesting race.

I’ll be able to report more when the financials reports are available online.

I earlier explained that Michael Lavender, a Democrat, was running a write-in campaign for House District 70. At the time, he said:

“I began this write-in campaign because I believe there is only one issue and that is, ‘Will the people have the opportunity to select their representative?’” Lavender said. “Therefore I am offering myself as that selection.

Well, he’s changed his mind. He made the announcement on Great Day Tuscaloosa, and said he was told by fellow Democrats that his write-in campaign would hurt the party. I fail to see how offering voters a choice would hurt the Democratic Party; it’s not like a Republican was going to win.

Jamie Kizzire at the Montgomery Advertiser has found a consensus among political experts in the state. When it comes to voting, a candidate’s political platform matters little:

Most voters base their decision on “what they feel about the candidates,” said Larry Powell, a communications studies professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. But that’s not to say they’re picking a candidate who doesn’t represent their beliefs.

“They’re remarkably adept at identifying the candidate that represents their interests,” Powell said.

All things being equal, I think most voters have their minds made up after seeing 5 minutes of television footage of them. You just kind of click with some people. I don’t really think this is such a bad thing. Sure, I wish people would actually read the candidates’ platform statements, but I think it’s wrong to underestimate the power of perception.

Take the 2004 election. Bush’s persona is of a wealthy guy who goes to church, means well, has a vision of what the world should be like, among other characteristics. Is it any surprise that most Americans voted for him over the academic-sounding, aloof John Kerry? The people’s perceptions guided them to a quick decision, but it is likely the same decision that most of them would have made anyway.

My point is that the voters don’t care about the issues. They just want someone who they think will do a decent job — it’s very much like a job interview. Qualifications matter, but impressions matter a lot more. If you show up for an interview at a bank with an M.B.A. and a dirty t-shirt and shorts, you’ll probably lose to the smartly-dressed guy with a bachelor’s degree and for good reason. This is a republic. We elect people to run the government. While the platform has its place, most voters would rather have a warm fuzzy feeling that they trust the candidate to do what they,the voter, would do.

This is the reason I think we should elect fewer positions in the state government. Choosing a governor based on an impression is great, but choosing the state’s Chief Justice based on anything except merit is crazy. You’re very likely to end up with someone who voters identify with but is incompetent or uninterested in doing the job. It seems like that has happened recently…

Facebook.com is an online community of college students. It’s very popular, and I have to admit that I’m a member. Anyway, an unscientific survey conducted on that site shows Gov. Bob Riley leading by a landslide.

The popular social networking Web site conducted an unscientific survey showing students supporting Riley led those backing his Democratic challenger Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, 59.86 percent to 36 percent on Friday. Libertarian write-in candidate Loretta Nall garnered 4.14 percent.

I guess it’s fun, but of course it’s not a scientific poll. I am a little surprised by a few things, though. First, I would think Facebook users would represent a more tech-saavy crowd who would be more likely to vote Democrat. Maybe that’s a bad assumption to make, but I always think of nerdy people as more liberal. The biggest surprise to me, however, is Loretta Nall’s 4.14%. It’s surprising because you have to proactively choose to select any candidate on Facebook. I wouldn’t have thought 4.14% of any group would even know who Nall was.

Once again, I’ll be back in full swing on Monday. But since I’m not “reguarly posting,” this is going to turn into my weekend therapy. Instead of a Politico of the Week, here’s some things about me that you probably won’t like. I can almost guarantee something will make you mad. I know most people won’t read this long thing, but I’m still going to write it because I have a soapbox.

• Just because it isn’t rape, murder or mutilation, doesn’t mean it isn’t torture.

• Strapping a person to a board, wrapping his head in a sheet and pouring water on his face until he almost drowns with the intent of making him think he is dying is torture.

• Sending any person to a country with the knowledge that the country will torture that individual for any reason is a violation of international law which we are subject to because the United States Senate has ratified treaties to that effect and, according to the United States Constitution, treaties have the full effect of law. If this “extraordinary rendition” is done systematically, it is a Crime Against Humanity and individuals involved are subject to prosecution by an international court.

• It is possible to hate Bush and not be a Clinton fan. If I point out a major flaw against Bush and the best you can do is, “But Clinton…. ::Sniffle:: ::Sniffle::” then you’re just… dumb. Clinton also committed Crimes Against Humanity, but he’s out of the White House. Let’s focus on the criminal that’s there now.

• Freedom of Speech is not granted by the US Constitution, so saying, “They’re not American citizens so they don’t have the right to say…” just makes you look dumb. If you are fond of saying that non-Americans don’t have rights protected by the Constitution, read these words. Governments don’t grant natural rights, they restrict them. How can the government proactively give you more freedom to speak and write what you want? All they can do is restrict those rights by threatening to punish you if you do not conform to their standards of speech and word. The Constitution does not grant these rights, it protects them by saying that our government won’t restrict them.

• Whether or not abortion is illegal or immoral is about the most unimportant and uninteresting political topic I’ve ever heard of. I want to shoot myself whenever I hear this come up on television. Here’s the truth — Christians should be against abortion. Republicans should be against government-imposed morality and therefore for abortion rights. If you can’t understand how a single person can be against abortion yet also pro-choice, you need to move to a facist country where you’ll fit in more.

• Democrats have no issue positions and are a party of nothing. All they can do is try to steal Republican issues and “fake it” like it’s their own.

• You can’t cut taxes until you cut spending. “Starving the beast” doesn’t work. While we’re at it, if we live in a state that has both the lowest taxes and one of the greatest tax burdens on the poor, the problem isn’t the amount of taxes we pay, but the system of taxation.

• Executing child molestors and rapists is not justified. Neither is executing anyone else for that matter — the state is too incompetent at everything it does for it to have that power. But even if the death penalty is justified in some cases, we should not execute convicted child molestors.

• The second amendment is one of the few Bill of Rights that is not at all qualified. It is an absolute right. Saying it is inoperative because most individuals can’t buy tanks may be the official view of the US Supreme Court and the ACLU, but it’s wrong. If you believe in “gun control” you want the government to ignore 26 words of the US Constitution.

• If you believe in “state’s rights” but also believe in the federal government’s authority to ban marijuana, you are a hypocrite.

• If you believe in “state’s rights” but also believe in the federal government’s authority to ban partial-birth abortion, you are a hypocrite.

• If you believe in “state’s rights” but also believe in a lot of other “conservative” issues, you are probably a hypocrite.

• If Alabama is having such a prison overcrowding problem, we should stop sending people to prison for smoking marijuana.

• Iraq is in a civil war, it was a mistake to go there, no one knows how to make it better. If we just leave, it might be better or it might be worse. We are completely in the dark at this point. All I know is that when a guy drives me into a ditch, I don’t give him back the keys and say, “Hey, how about you pull us out of this one.” Americans are really dumb sometimes (especially in 2004).

• Farmers shouldn’t get government subsidies and neither should large corporations. I don’t care how expensive or how hard someone’s life is going to be. The government won’t make it better.

• Modest government funding of arts and sciences is justifiable and good for the country.

• The military’s budget should be cut. We spend way too much money in that area on stupid projects and waste. Better yet, we can first just cut the stupid projects and waste and spend an adequate amount of money training, feeding, paying and arming the Marines, airmen, sailors and soldiers around the world.

• If you’re a Republican, you should ask yourself, “What has the party done for this country lately?” I bought their load of BS in 1994 with everyone else, but I would like you to objectively re-evaluate your relationship with them and do it without even thinking about Democrats. The Democrats suck, but being better by comparison doesn’t make the Republicans good.

• If you’re a Democrat, you should ask yourself, “What has the party done for anyone lately?” They mostly support the Iraq War. Every Democratic senator except Feingold voted for the Patriot Act. They are mostly against gay marriage. If they lost the 2004 election against George W. Bush, they’re obviously completely incompetent.

• Almost forgot, homosexuals should be allowed to get married, own a car, adopt children, join the military, and do everything else a person would be allowed to do if they didn’t do something you personally disapprove of.

• You can have your arguments about Auburn and Alabama, but Alabama has the best team name in the NCAA. Crimson Tide? There is no equal.

I could go on, but I feel better now.