Archive for: February 2007

It seems like the worst time ever to take a break from blogging, but there’s something gnawing at my stomach that’s telling me I have to focus on my upcoming marriage. So even though Jeff Sessions is saying really stupid things that I would just love to tear into; and even though there’s a special session coming up; and even though there’s an election in the near future with candidates that people might like to know about; I’m out.

If anyone is a good writer and free thinker with politically savvy and has thought about blogging, I’m still open to taking on more contributors. I’m a little picky, but not too bad. Feel free to email me — dan@betweenthelinks.com.

Also, I want to make sure everyone understands that the blog awards idea is a long-term project. I won’t even be touching that one until I get back from Europe. Even then, it’ll probably be another month or more before I even have a site up. However, if you’re interested in participating or have some ideas, please email or comment it up.

Toodles.

The Alablawg (happy anniversary) has a great idea for an Alabama Blog Awards. I’ve thought about doing that before. I think the best idea would be to have different awards with a “Best Overall.” Bloggers could serve on small committees — one committee for each award — that take nominations and vote for the winner of the individual award. Then everyone can vote for “Best Overall.” Of course, committee member would be barred from voting for their own site if it’s a nominee. Anyone can nominate anyone as long as the blog meets specified guidelines. Here’s my rough idea of the different awards:

• Best Alabama Blog Overall
• Best Alabama Blog Discussing State Politics
• Best Alabama Blog Discussing National Politics
• Best Alabama Personal Blog
• Best Alabama Conservative Opinion Blog
• Best Alabama Liberal Opinion Blog
• Best Local Blogger in Alabama (for those that focus on community issues)

It’d also be cool to have some images made up for the winners to put on their websites. Would anyone be interested in participating? This would include nominating blogs, reading blogs in the committee, and voting on blogs.

It hasn’t been attached yet, but it’s starting to weigh me down. I have a bachelor party and a million other things tommorrow, so there will probably be no posts. Next week will probably be light posting because of last-minute things. The week after that is our honeymoon, so I’m guessing blogging will be out of the question — especially since we’re not taking the laptop. Hopefully the contributors will step it up a bit.

By the way, we’ve had about 4 or 5 people already ask us what we’re doing after the wedding… for our wedding night. They want to go party or hang out or something. Do people just not get it?

Regarding the Presidential primary-mania that’s sweeping the country, I like Red State Diaries suggestion. Let’s just do the primary tommorrow.

Take THAT, New Hampshire.

Last year our legislature voted to move the Presidential primary to Feb. 5 in 2008 instead of June 3. The rest of the primaries would be unaffected. The idea was to bring some more spotlight to the state and force Presidential hopefuls to actually campaign here instead of writing us off because our primary is relatively late.

Not to be outdone, California moved their own primary back from June 3 to Feb. 5. Since California’s population is about seven times that of Alabama, it would effectively take any spotlight we had.

Partially because of this move by California (and mainly because Feb. 5 is Mardi Gras in 2007), Alabama legislators are working on a bill to move the primary back even further to Feb. 2, which is on a Saturday. It would be interesting to see if voter turnout is higher on a Saturday. Oh, I know employers have to let you vote, and I know the polling places are open 7 to 7, but who wants to go wait in line after working all day?

The state who leads the pack in early primary voting is New Hampshire. New Hampshire decided they liked being the first primary some time ago and gave the New Hampshire secretary of state the power to unilaterally change the day of the Presidential primary. So if Alabama tried to make their primary election day earlier, the secretary of state for New Hampshire would just move it even earlier with the efficiency that our legislature could never beat.

So now Wyoming is just going to let the New Hampshire secretary of state determine their primary election day too. The Republican Central Committee voted to do just that  by passing a resolution to choose their GOP delegates on the same day as New Hampshire’s primary — whatever day that is. Wyoming has a delegate system, and the Wyoming Democrats have decided not to follow suit with their GOP counterparts, so this is strictly a GOP thing.

I don’t know a whole lot about Barack Obama, but I like his style. So far, he seems to be the most authentic candidate for President of the United States. He was recently attacked by John Howard, the prime minister of Australia and a strong supporter of President Bush’s Iraq War policies. In fact, Howard was pretty rude and used the Republican method of equating opposition to President Bush with compliance with terrorists.

He was specifically attacking Obama for his proposal to withdral U.S. forces from Iraq by March of 2008.

In a news conference here, Mr. Obama dismissed the remarks, saying it was “flattering that one of George Bush’s allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced.”

Mr. Obama said Australia had sent 1,400 troops to Iraq, a fraction of the American force.

“If he’s ginned up to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and send them to Iraq,” Mr. Obama said. “Otherwise, it’s just a bunch of empty rhetoric.”

BAM! I’ll have to see how he thinks on a few issues of substance, but Obama has an early nod from me. He sure beats the hell out of Hillary…

Dear God, can the 2008 Presidential election just wait a few more months. I’m soooo not ready for this yet. I need a rest, man, seriously.

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program is a federal program started by President Clinton that insures family’s with children who make too much money for Medicaid but not enough to afford a private plan. In Alabama, it’s called All Kids. Bush’s new budget only funds about 33% of what advocates were hoping for, even though it’s a massive $2.9 trillion piece of mess.

I was starting to feel bad for the little kids until I saw this in the Advertiser.

Hunter Hall is a bit of a daredevil. Although he’s only 8, he’s broken his right arm twice, his leg once, and he’s sustained a leg-length burn from a curling iron.

Add 15 visits to the emergency room for problems related to his asthma, and this rambunctious youngster has managed to accumulate the kind of medical expenses that would overwhelm most family budgets.

Then I understood what all the capitalists were getting at. I think that kid needs to be moved to a private plan so that he (his mom, I mean) has to pay for services rendered. Perhaps then he woudn’t abuse the free health care by breaking bones so often. People are more careful when spending their own money (his mom’s own money, I mean). Instead, this kid has no incentive to be anything but a carefree kid who lives dangerously at your expense.

(Being cynical again, by the way…)

This exchange was overheard during a House Judiciary Committee meeting on January 31 with Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Elwood. The topic was President Bush’s signing statements, and the exchange is recalled from a liberal viewer.

Davis asked whether it was Elwood’s position that if the president thinks a law unconstitutional he should not follow it?

Elwood: yes.

Davis then said that Alabama had a Governor once who thought letting black people vote was unconstitutional. How, Davis asked, is that different from the president’s position?

Elwood avoided an answer.

Davis asked again.

Elwood said that governors are subject to federal law.

Davis asked whether presidents are not subject to the law as well?

Elwood said only if the Supreme Court has ruled.

Davis asked why the President’s interpretive power would exceed the Congress’s.

Elwood hemmed and hawed.

If anyone can find a video of this hearing, please let me know. Where was I when this happened?

• H/T Doc’s Politial Parlor

Alabama has a serious overcrowding problem among its prison population. You may recall last year how there were issues because the state was keeping state prisoners in county jails. In turn, some counties were having overcrowding problems and were shelling out major cash to house prisoners in other systems.

The Alabama Corrections Commissioner is apparently not advocating for my approach to the problem — releasing nonviolent marijuana smokers. He is, however, advocating for another approach that I can get behind.

Of the roughly 3,600 Alabama inmates classified as elderly in the regional study, Prison Commissioner Richard Allen said as many as 300 are so mentally or physically incapacitated that they are no longer a threat to the public.

In the even that some of these elderly and sick individuals have family members who are willing to accomodate them, Allen would like to see them released to their care. Governor Riley supports this plan.

“We’ve got people that just are almost comatose or semiconscious, that have never been out of a (wheel)chair, and we’re trying to develop policies to be able to go ahead and release them into a nursing home,” [Riley] said.

Allen is also trying to work out a deal with the Alabama Medicaid Agency to transfer some elderly, nonthreatening prisoners to nursing homes as a last resort. I personally think there’s a serious inherent problem with having such a large prison population, but Commissioner Allen can’t make or rescind laws. For his role, I think this is a great plan.

That’s the best way I can describe the campaign reform bill proposed by state Sen. Wendell Mitchell (D). Alabama Moderate already posted something about this, but the bill seeks to threaten people with jail time for… lying. Not lying in a court of law, and not lying in a way that endangers others, but lying during a campaign. Punishable by up to six months in jail:

To post, publish, circulate or otherwise spread a false statement about a candidate knowing it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false, with the intent of affecting a campaign.

You would also get jail time for placing a spy in another candidate’s office. Another arrestable offense would be, “use the title of an office not currently held by a candidate in a manner that implies that the candidate does currently hold that office.” So does that include John Tyson’s campaign signs? They all said, “John Tyson. Attorney General.” A commenter here at BTL thought he was trying to imply he was the current attorney general because he didn’t put that three-letter word — “for” — between the two.

You have to hand it to this guy Mitchell, though. He’s a smart politico. This is going to be part of a larger bill that includes a ban on PAC-to-PAC transfers and introduces new spending caps on campaign contributions. So the freedom-loving politicians that don’t want to criminalize free speech will oppose this bill, and by proxy oppose a ban on PAC-to-PAC transfers. If the bill passes, Mitchell gets protection from the nasty campaigning that happened for his seat the last election. If it fails, he gets to be seen as the guy who was pushing so hard for a ban on PAC-to-PAC transfers but the other legislators just wouldn’t let the bill pass.

Following the call made by current Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb and former Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, a former associate justice is calling for the merit selection of judges. Kenneth Ingram would at least like to see non-partisian elections, but he would prefer merit selection.

Former Republican Chief Justice Gormon Houston is leading a Bar Association group that is developing a plan to amend the selection of appellate judges. Former Chief Justice Howell Heflin tried to introduce nonpartisan elections during his term, but the legislature did not adopt his proposal.

Despite the fact that he’s a Republican, Mike Hubbard is the new chairman of the Alabama Republican Party. He succeeds former chairman Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh by a unanimous vote by the state Republican Executive Committee– he was the only candidate as far as I know and enjoyed the endorsement of Governor Riley.

No one got these the first time, so here we go again. The first is very current and was written to President George W. Bush. Who said this?

Do you not think that if all of us come to believe in and abide by these principles, that is, monotheism, worship of God, justice, respect for the dignity of man, belief in the Last Day, we can overcome the present problems of the world?

This next one is also fairly current, and was written by a novelist:

Give us this day our daily bread. Oh sure.
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Nobody better trespass against me.
I’ll tell you that.
Blessed are the meek.
Blessed are the merciful.
You mean we can’t use torture?
Blessed are the peacemakers.
Jane Fonda?
Love your enemies - Arabs?
Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.
The hell I can’t! Look at the Reverend Pat Robertson.
And He is as happy as a pig in shit.

Guess in comments. No cheating.

I got such a response from my last post about Wendell Mitchell that I’ve decided to post about him again.  I couldn’t help but notice this article earlier today while skimming the Birmingham News.  This comes among accusations that he doesn’t actually live in the district that he represents.  (Then again, something could have happened while I was disconnected from the outside world over the last three weeks.)  I found it interesting, and I’m interested in hearing what others have to say on this bill, the timing, and the underlying issue regarding Sen. Mitchell.

It just makes you want to hug a puppy. Riley has invited the lieutenant governor and the speaker of the house to Europe with him on an industry-recruiting mission… a super-secret industry-recruiting mission at that:

“We can’t provide specifics because the state has signed confidentiality agreements with each of these major companies,” said Governor Riley.  “However, since the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker and I will be out-of-state for several days, we felt it best to release some information about our economic development mission.”

They’re even expected back on Valentines Day (I kid you not). I’ll pay $20 to the person who can meet them on the tarmac with a heart box of chocolates.

Riley is also announcing that he is joining forces with the popular Democratic Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries, Ron Sparks. It’s a good move for Riley — Sparks is so popular that gas station owners across the state have been putting stickers with his name on them on their gas pumps for years. They’re going to work together on an alternative energy committee:

“This bipartisan alliance will work to find common ground on proposals that promote homegrown sources of energy,” Governor Riley said.  “We are eager to advance the development of renewable energy resources that help secure our energy future and also provide an opportunity for rural economic development in Alabama.”

That sounds great, and so does bipartisanship.  But I have a few questions. Who, specifically, is on this committee and what are their qualifications? Who is funding this committee and what are the public costs? What are the specific goals of this committee; in other words, what good will this do besides looking good? I guess I could call the phone number I got with the press release. I’m not criticizing the committee — it sounds like a good plan. I’ve just been noticing how little these press releases actually say.

John Rogers (D), a state representative (and a fun Trussville road to drive down at 2:00AM) is bringing up the Birmingdome again. Despite what I’ve said before, I now want them to build it. That’s right. I want them to build the dome.

Why? Because I want to be able to say, “I told you so” for the rest of my life. If only I hadn’t been a child when Langford brought us Visionland. If I had been politically knowledgable, I would have said it would be a bad idea, and to this day and for the rest of my life I would be able to say with extreme snootiness, “I told you so.”

So I missed the theme park, but I’m here for the dome. So just build the damn thing. And when we sell it at a great loss, I’ll be there… smiling. And who knows? Maybe it’ll work and Birmingham will become the best-est city in the southeast and people from all over the world will come to see our dome. Either way, I’ll win.

So is Danny apparently.

So Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn) is a businessman. He is the president of Auburn Network, Inc. and a director of Craftmaster Printers. These companies received $881,673 from the Republican Party during the last two years. Since it was in the news, and since Hubbard is a politician, my first thought was, “Oh, it was money laundering.” But no, they paid the companies for advertising.

OH MY GOD! The Republican Party bought advertising products from a company that has a Republican officer? ARREST THEM! ARREST THEM ALL!

Okay, Montgomery Advertiser, maybe a conflict of interest could exist if Hubbard started acting improperly. But a potential conflict of interest is hardly a story, and it makes it look like you guys are just picking on the Riley-endorsed, top-contender for the chairmanship of the Republican Party.

The title of the article is “Hubbard had business ties with GOP.” Wow, who would have thought that a Republican with political and personal ties to the Republican Party might also have business ties with them.