Archive for: July 2007

Six Packs For Soldiers. I assume Marines too. Maybe airmen and sailors.

Red state, blue state? Who cares! Liberal, conservative? Doesn’t matter! We’ve got our differences…that’s true. But for just a moment, we are putting them aside, joining together, and sending a frothy, refreshing “thank you” to our fighting men and women. Please join us, make a toast, and make this just the first thing of many that you do to help these brave men and women.

State Senator E.B. McClain (D-Midfield) has re-joined the majority Democrats in the Senate, so that the coalition lines are now 19-16. AEA Boss Paul Hubbert has been working on the others, even bringing in a professional mediator from Washington.

I still don’t think all 5 dissident Democrats will come back to the majority, but if they can get two more to organize and vote with them on procedural moves, that’s all that matters. With 21 votes, the Democrats can effectively run the Senate. If another two dissident Democrats do return, it will probably be Senators Larry Means and Tom Butler. I don’t see Senators Jim Pruett or Jim Holley coming back very easily, but you never do know.

What would possess a guy to put aside his job and social life to count to a million live on the internet? God knows, but after 5 weeks, Jeremy Harper has passed 500,000. Watch the insanity yourself.

• H/T Mixed Media 

An interesting website about Don Siegelman: http://www.thetruthaboutdon.com/

This website is contains newspaper reports on the corruption of Don Siegelman dating back to 1994.

The Truth About Don Siegelman exsist for the benefit of everyone who cares to know the truth. Over the course of the last year we have seen the truth come out about former Alabama Governor and now convicted felon Don Siegelman.

Most interesting, to me at least, is that it’s completely anonymous. I’m not refuting anything on that page, and I’m not trying to say someone doesn’t have the right to put that information out there. I’m just curious. The only thing I can find out is that the domain was registered on July 24, and that’s only because the DNS servers keep that information. It looks fairly professional with decent graphics, clean XHTML coding and a crisp design, but identifying information that is usually embedded in the HTML code is missing. That information isn’t required, but it looks like the creator of the page doesn’t want anyone to know who it is. There’s no information on the site to identify the creator, not even a pseudonym.

The information is accurate. It’s just a collection of negative press articles about Don Siegelman. I’m just curious who’s behind it, and I’m only really curious because it’s so obviously hidden.

• H/T Flashpoint

Those dastardly feds are going to be getting all in Alabama’s business again. You remember all the problems that happened in the 1960s? You know, where the FBI was unjustly investigating accidental deaths of black people? Well, now they’re coming back and taking a “fresh look” into 7 “cold cases,” or unsolved accidents, that “appear to have been racially motivated.”

“What we’re trying to do is get to the bot­tom of these things,” said Michael Gavin, the Civil Rights Program co­ordinator for the FBI field office in Mobile. “We’re taking a fresh look at all of these cases.”

It’s no fair! Alabama’s attorney general even started his own Cold Case Unit just last week. He even promised to give “cases from the Civil Rights era” a “special emphasis” — not a priority, but emphasis. That’s even better. We even made sure to fully fund this Cold Case Unit with $200,000 — that’s almost three times as much money as we spent rebuilding the governor’s pool. I’m sure you understand now that we mean business.

As first mentioned on Doc’s Political Parlor, I also have a source confirming that Justice Harold See (R) will soon be retiring from the Alabama Supreme Court.

Justice See’s seat is the only seat up for election in 2008 so this is pretty big news. It’s possible that he will retire early so Riley can appoint another Republican in his position before the election. Incumbency has its advantages. Judge Deborah Bell Paseur, who ran in 2006 for Sam Welch’s seat, is expected to run from the Democratic side.

Of course it was just a bunch of internet spammers.

• H/T Gordon Unleashed 

The “Alabama Line” at Doc’s Political Parlor made the Tuscaloosa News this weekend.

Doc’s Political Parlor at www.politicalparlor.net has already handicapped potential candidates for state and federal offices next year. He’s also rating picks for 2010, when the governor’s race without an incumbent and a U.S. Senate race will headline the ballot.

The odds can be seen at Doc’s Political Parlor on the sidebar.

Taken by Brian T. Murphy
5th and 20th
Birmingham, AL

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Want to participate? Send me your pictures!
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From Brian: Standing on the corner by the financial center building, looking west past what I want to call the Southtrust and Amsouth building (now Wachovia andRegions).

Going to be doing things a little differently this week. Instead of making it a trivia question, I’m just going to put up a quote I particularly enjoy. Please feel free to discuss, however. Basically, I feel like I can’t put up some quotes that I know people wouldn’t get because it’s from a somewhat-obscure source.

If you want government to intervene domestically, you’re a liberal.
If you want government to intervene overseas, you’re a conservative.
If you want government to intervene everywhere, you’re a moderate.
If you don’t want government to intervene anywhere, you’re an extremist.

— Joseph Sobran,
syndicated columnist

Not that I agree with everything Sobran says or does.

Here’s the deal. I get a pretty decent amount of traffic for a state political blog, but it’s really starting to top out. I think one major impedence to growth is the fact that my domain name, while interesting, doesn’t really evoke thoughts of state political commentary.

So I’m thinking about getting a new domain name. I just need a good idea first. Please email me anything you can come up with.

Taken by Rep. Jim McClendon
Bradford Pears
Springville, AL

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Want to participate? Send me your pictures!
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This scene is located on Jim McClendon’s farm. The Bradford Pear is a cultivated variety of the Callery Pear, native to China. This cultivar is especially sought after for aesthetic reasons — it’s white flowers and the fact that it’s tolerant to urban conditions. However, it also has a short lifespan, generally less than 30 years.

“I thought you were off until sometime in August for school. Why are you still posting?”

Well, I’m addicted. Actually, posting and keeping up with the state is taking a big back seat. I think the quality of my posts have gone downhill a little. Basically I’m writing when I’m taking a break or I don’t really have enough time to do anything with school.

Despite being praised as having some of the best open records laws in the country, some aren’t happy with the Alabama Department of Industrial Relations compliance. A Circuit Court judge has now ruled twice that they must release some records on worker-compensation funds. Hasn’t happened yet.

Also, a radio personality named Dale Jackson is finding it difficult to get compliance with the city of Huntsville.

I guess all these Presidential candidates coming to Alabama has really gotten people around here interested in the race. Although we’re no where close to states like New York and California in Presidential campaign contributions, we have out-contributed Louisiana, Kentucky and Tennessee with $1.2 million.

The list (with both parties integrated) of Alabama’s 2008 Presidential campaign contributions so far:

• John Edwards (D) - $394,137
• Rudy Giulliani (R) - $249,375
• Hillary Clinton (D) - $160,265
• Mitt Romney (R) - $133,250
• John McCain (R) - $110,725
• Christopher Dodd (D) - $58,850
• Barack Obama (D) - $52,764
• Bill Richardson (D) - $22,950
• Ron Paul (R) - $17,117
• Duncan Hunter (R) - $7,550

The mayor of Lipscomb has resigned amid allegations that he was illegally holding office because of a 1994 burglary conviction. The Bessemer district attorney, who called for his removal, says he has no other problems with the man now that he has stepped down. No word yet about that stolen car the mayor was driving around.

The legal successor to the mayor, Mayor Pro Tem Gaston Randle, is also under a felony investigation, along with another fellow councilman. However, he can legally hold the office as long as he isn’t convicted.

I haven’t really had time to follow this story because I would have wanted to research the little details if I was going to get into it. Some wanted the execution delayed, others wanted it to go forward. Darrell Grayson was executed today, and Bob Riley issued this release to explain why he would not stay the execution.

There has been much attention focused on the convicted killer, but seemingly ignored has been consideration of his victim, Mrs. Annie Laura Orr. She was a defenseless 86-year-old woman who lived alone and died a horrifying death almost 27 years ago. The killer’s own numerous confessions, his own trial testimony where he himself admitted guilt, and the overwhelming physical evidence left a jury no doubt he perpetrated a cruel and monstrous crime upon a helpless elderly woman.

Despite his multiple confessions and the physical evidence, the convicted killer filed several appeals after his conviction. All were denied by state and federal courts. His convictions of burglary and murder have been upheld at each level of the appellate process.

No new evidence has come to light that would warrant either a reprieve or a commutation. DNA testing would neither prove nor disprove this killer’s guilt. He was convicted of burglary and murder, not rape and murder, so legally DNA testing would not exonerate him even if there is no DNA evidence that he raped Mrs. Orr. Non-DNA evidence of the convicted murderer’s guilt, however, is abundant. Barring intervention by the U.S. Supreme Court, this execution will go forward as scheduled.

Drummond Coal Company was found not liable for the 2001 murders of three union leaders in Columbia by a Birmingham jury yesterday.

The families and the Colombian energy union had sued Drummond in Birmingham federal court under an 1700’s law that allows plantiffs in foreign countries to sue U.S. corporations for their actions overseas.