Archive for: October 24, 2006

My server has been down all day, so if you tried to come here I apologize. I’ve been in contact with tech support throughout the deal, and they backed up this site to another server as a fix. It should work now.

I don’t think we are, but the politics of an election season sure are pulling out all the stops against incumbent Bob Riley. As part of the recent Senate investigation into the Bob Riley / Michael Scanlon connection, an email was discovered that indicates that Jack Abromoff praised Michael Scanlon for his work in Alabama. Kim Chandler and Mary Orndorff tell us more.

In the e-mail from Abramoff to his partner, Michael Scanlon, Abramoff wrote that he had just spoken with a Choctaw official about the 2002 elections and the need to oppose a gubernatorial candidate who might let competing tribes open casinos. Abramoff said he praised Scanlon’s Alabama work to the Choctaws.

“I reminded her that if you had not done what you did in Alabama, she would have to spend millions over the next four years (damn!!:-)),” Abramoff wrote to Scanlon in the Dec. 9, 2002, e-mail.

The Birmingham News refuses to have supporting documents available to their readers, so I don’t have a copy of the email.

Well, it’s not exactly like Abromoff and Scanlon are the most trustworthy people in the world, is it? Maybe they even lied to each other in 2002 because that’s what they do. They lie about Bob Riley — to the Senate, to the people, to each other!

“That Senate report is nothing but a day-by-day chronicle of the ridiculous lies that Jack Abramoff told,” Riley spokesman Josh Blades said.

I don’t think Governor Riley has done anything illegal at all, but it’s becoming more and more obvious that his 2002 election campaign had large sums of money, knowingly or unknowingly, coming from Indian gambling interests. While that doesn’t offend me, it might offend large numbers of religious Alabamians who see it as their duty to tell us all what to do with our money. There is a second page of the email which is missing from the Senate report.

I haven’t been watching For the Record reguarly for a couple months, but tonight they will be profiling the race between Nancy Worley and Beth Chapman for Secretary of State. Tim Lennox is the man, and it should be an interesting discussion. My understanding is that they will be interviewing candidates for several statewide races up to the election.

They’ve already interviewed Drayton Nabers and Sue Bell Cobb. You can view the video online.

The show comes on every weeknight on Alabama Public Television at 6:30PM. It is then replayed at 11:00PM.

In the list of “positions that should probably be appointed,” this ranks just above judgeships in my opinion. I’m not even sure what this department does except put stickers on gas pumps and cash registers. The general duties of the commissioner are layed out in Title 2 Chapter 2 of the Alabama Code.

The race for commissioner pits incumbent Ron Sparks (D) against Albert Lipscomb (R). Sparks is finishing his first term as commissioner. He is a former county commissioner and was appointed Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries in 1999. In 2002, the people elected him commissioner with 51.3% of the vote in a three-way race against Republican Lee Alley and Libertarian Maude Hulcher. Since then he’s done his job, making headlines when Vietnamese fish were found to be contaminated and when he implemented a cattle ID system after a bovine with mad cow was discovered in Alabama.

Albert Lipscomb is the chairman of the Baldwin County Commission and a former state senator. There is no doubt that he has more political experience in this race, so it’s odd that he has not been more actively campaigning and fundraising. Sparks has him beat hands-down in money raised. Lipscomb’s little campaign activity has been to criticize (politely) Spark’s cattle ID system and his promotion of Alabama exports to Cuba — he thinks we shouldn’t be dealing at all with the people under Castro.

Lipscomb just seems a little too ideological to do a job that is essentially just a job (that should be appointed). I really don’t care about this race too much, but Sparks hasn’t blown anything up as far as I know. As if it really mattered, I’m voting for Ron Sparks (D).

The beginning of the 401st amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901 begins with:

The legislature may hereafter, by general law, provide for the promotion of the production, distribution, improvement, marketing, use and sale of soybeans. The legislature may provide for the promotion of soybeans and soybean products by research, education, advertising and other methods, and the legislature is further authorized to provide means and methods for the financing of any such promotional activity by prescribing a procedure whereby producers of soybeans may by referendum among such producers levy upon themselves and collect assessments, fees, or charges upon the sale of soybeans for the financing of any such promotional program or activity in cooperation with buyers, processors, dealers, and handlers of soybeans.

The really funny part is that this amendment is an amendment to the 315th amendment of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901. It’s a good thing a majority of voters approved this measure. Where would Alabama’s soybean industry be today without it?

I never got around to talking about this when it came up, but Mark Montiel, who failed to oust Troy King in the Republican primary, is representing an Autauga County man in a lawsuit filed against Secretary of State Nancy Worley and Probate Judge Al Booth. The suit claims that four powerful Democratic incumbents should be removed from the ballot because they improperly filed their campaign finance reports.

The lawsuit fails to list several other Democrats and Republicans who filed their FCPA reports in the same manner. Not having seen the complaint, I imagine it has to do with the fact that incumbent politicians who have no primary opposition don’t file campaign finance reports until after the primary. When they do file after the primary, the list all of the contributions and expenditures that occured before the primary election was held.

This is obviously a political stunt, and a bad one. If he wins before the election and the four Democrats are removed from the ballots, would it not also mean many Republicans are just a lawsuit away from having their names removed as well. Maybe he’s hoping there wouldn’t be enough time for that, or maybe he’s hoping the controversy will be enough to affect voters. It’s a dirty trick regardless.

There are two lawsuits against Hyundai that allege that former state, city and county officials defrauded landowners out of millions of dollars for land that is now owned by the company. The lawsuit alleges that the state officials, on behalf on Hyundai, offered $4,500 an acre for a group of landowners but then later offered $12,000 an acre to two sisters for their land. I don’t really know or care about the merits of this case. Here’s what I find interesting:

Gov. Bob Riley is working to get Hyundai Motor Co. dismissed from a lawsuit stemming from land it owns in Montgomery because he fears the legal action will hurt economic development in the state. […]

Riley acknowledged working on behalf of the South Korean car manufacturer in an interview with the editorial board of the Montgomery Advertiser last week. […]

The governor expressed concern that prolonged litigation will have a chilling effect on economic development in the state and possibly hinder Hyundai or its suppliers from expanding here.

I obviously didn’t sit in on the interview Riley had with the Advertiser, but there seems to be no indication that Riley had concerns about the merits of the case. His only concern is that the lawsuit would offend the Korean automaker and slow economic development in the state. Concern is warranted, but it raises my eyebrows that he would intervene on behalf of Hyundai in a lawsuit brought by Alabama landowners.

I can’t say I blame Riley for his behavior. So long as this state whores itself out to the world as a cheap labor force, this is what will happen. The state of Alabama, with a Democratic legislature and Republicans and Democrats as governor, have given billions in tax incentives to bribe invite foriegn companies to locate their business interests here. As a short term approach, this can be a good thing and a boom for the economy. But Alabama’s government needs to start figuring out ways to level the playing field so that home-grown buisnesses and Alabama business leaders and citizens can decide the future economy and politics of Alabama instead of having foreign and out-of-state corporations controlling our economy and, to some extent, our politicians.