Archive for: October 12, 2006

My I&R page now shows that both candidate for Alabama Senate district 16, Jabo Waggoner (R) and Russ Parker (D), publicly support making Alabama the 25th state to have a form of Initiatives and Referendums. Waggoner had previously refused to answer my emails and snail mails about the subject, but Kathy of Birmingham Blues recently let me know that she presented the question to them both at a candidate forum in Vestavia Hills.

Mucho thanks to Kathy for getting that information. Have you asked your state Senate or state House candidates about their views on I&R? Please do so and email me. If you need some help finding the candidates for the districts you live in, I’ll be happy to help you out. The candidates will be much less likely to ignore a potential voter than me.

I purposely don’t talk about national topics on this blog because it would require me to write three times as many posts. However, there is some stuff I want to point out.

• North Korea has a bomb, which is bad news. I personally think it’s a refutation of Bush’s “You’re either with us or against us” policy. I know some people think differently, and that’s fine, but Senator John McCain is an idiot and a partisan hack for trying to blame this on Bill Clinton. You can argue that Bush’s policies will work out in the end, but the North Koreans didn’t start developing nuclear weapons, kick out the weapons inspectors or withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty until well into Bush’s first term. McCain has officially lost any respect I had for him, and I will never again say he is a moderate Republican or “straight talker.”

• Mark Warner, who visited Alabama earlier this month, has decided not to run for President in 2008. It’s too bad — he seemed like he could have made a good candidate.

• Lastly, I just want to say I think it’s sad that the Republican majority in Congress isn’t threatened by the Patriot Act, the loss of habeas corpus, the failed Iraq War,  the method of bringing us to war, an otherwise bleak foreign policy, the outing of a CIA operative, the DOJ lying about “secret laws” to arrest airline passengers for not showing their ID, Jack Abromoff, no-bid contracts, Tom Delay, illegal wiretapping of American citizens, Abu Ghraib, pro-torture policies, and all of the other crap this administration and Congress has come up with. No, it’s threatened by an underage sex scandal that involves no actual sex with a teenager who was legally in the age of majority. I’m not saying Foley is a great guy, but as far as Republican Congressional scandals go, this is pretty weak. I understand that it’s a big deal about what Hastert did or didn’t do, but why is this sticking?

I realize I’m mainly mad at Republicans at the national level, but they are in charge of every branch of government and the country is having a bad time right now. And unlike John McCain, I refuse to defy logic in order to somehow blame everything wrong with this country on Bill Clinton or the minority party. Trust me, if the Democrats are in charge after the election, you’ll be hearing how much I don’t like their socialist plan for America.

Just a couple of things I thought everyone should know about. First off, Danny at Doc’s Political Parlor has opened up Doc’s Political Parlor Forum for the upcoming elections. They are a lot more navigable and readable than al.com’s forums.

Also, in case anyone hasn’t noticed already, Red State Diaries is back to regular posting after a long hiatus. Alabamian is probably the best writer in the Bama blogosphere.

This is just to let you know that the Decatur Daily finally figured out what was going on with Henry White’s campaign.

They also pointed out an error in his Republican opponent’s finance report where a $1,000 business contribution was listed, which is $500 above the business and corporate limit. I happened to know, however, that it was actually a personal contribution that had the wrong box checked, which has no limits. Still, good on them for reading the finance reports.

The college politcal parties on Auburn University apparently host a political debate annually to increase awareness of elections. The debate was scheduled for Tuesday, but the Democrats pulled out, citing the Republicans refusal to allow the college Libertarians to debate.

The campus political groups hold debates annually to inform students of the issues by party. But Kristy Cottrell, chairman of the College Republicans, said last year’s three-party debate was “too confusing” and students had a hard time understanding where each party stood.

Right… Here’s the real reason. The Libertarians are traditionally believed to take votes away from Republicans the same way Ralph Nader is believed to take more votes away from Democrats. It’s because the Libertarians might give the students at Auburn University a freedom-loving, small-government politcal party that didn’t also demand homophobia or loyalty to a fascist President.

Oh yeah, let’s not even bring up the fact that House District 79, which covers the Auburn area, has a Libertarian candidate on the ballot. The president of the college Republicans says that doesn’t matter because not all of Auburn’s students live in that district. I bet they’re not all registered to vote, either, so why hold the debates at all.

(h/t to Loretta Nall for Governor)