Archive for: March 24, 2008

I seem to remember a man named Jim Folsom, Jr. promising me an interstate in west Alabama if I voted for him. Well, I voted for him. Where’s my interstate? I know these things take time, but I haven’t even heard a whisper from Little Jim.

I remember saying at the time that the lieutenant governorship was the highest, most powerless office in Alabama. The truth is that the lieutenant governor virtually no formal power to do anything to fund or build an interstate. But hey, I lived in Tuscaloosa. It’s really annoying to have to go through Birmingham to get anywhere else without being stuck behind a logging truck.

I think there’s some people in Sheffield wondering about their railway overpass too. (Actually, they might have gotten their overpass by now for all I know).

I just wanted to point out that this website looks awesome since I’ve re-done it.

Still a little buggy. Sorry.

I’ve read some of the articles about the US Supreme Court case regarding the special election in Mobile with some interest. If you’re not aware, Sam Jones left his Mobile County commission seat in 2005 when he was elected mayor of Mobile. Governor Riley then appointed Juan Chastang, a black Republican, to the commission seat.

People said there should have been a special election. Locals got upset and the US Department of Justice got involved. Thanks to the Voting Rights Act, they run elections in Alabama. The USDOJ challenged the appointment and a three-judge federal panel ordered a special election. Chastang lost that election… bad. Merceria Ludgood, a Democrat, received around 80% of the vote.

So Riley is asserting that the election wasn’t proper, and the Supremes heard about it today. This is even more interesting because Riley just recently did it again. When Larry Langford became mayor of Birmingham, Riley appointed George Bowman to Langford’s Jefferson County commission seat. This is… yeah… exactly what a judicial panel faulted him for in 2005 except for a few changes in proper nouns.

I don’t know what is legally correct here. Maybe Riley has the authority to appoint vacant commission seats — I really just don’t know. Executive appointments in times of vacancy certainly aren’t unheard of. Special elections cost money and all. But the most amazing thing I’ve heard was this:

Riley … declined to say whether he would try to reinstate Chastang [as a Mobile County commissioner] over the will of the county’s voters if he were to win the case.

“We’ll make that decision at the time,” he said. “I’m not going to rule out anything.”

That he would even consider installing “20% Chastang” over “80% and actually elected Ludgood” blows my mind.

• Flashpoint: No telecom immunity
• Flashpoint: The Phone Book Myth
• Thomason Tracts: Council asserting its independence…
• Thomason Tracts: It’s the big sewer crisis story!
• Bessemer Opinions: Healthy Kids… a Great Idea
• Legal Schnauzer: The Audacity of a Dope
• Captain Plaid: Coverage of Cheryl Sabel’s support of “A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq”
• The World Around You: U.S. Supreme Court hears Alabama voting rights case Today
• Left In Alabama: Why is Bud Cramer retiring?
• Doc’s Political Parlor: Griffith’s Not-So Good Friday Announcement
• Doc’s Political Parlor: Raby or Not
• Birmingham Blues: It’s Good To Know He’s Not In a Bread Line
• A Bama Blog: A real CON
• Clarion Caller — The Blog: 4,000
• MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy: Support the Troops - Shoot an Antiwar Protestor
• Thomason Tracts: Big Gym Shorts is probably behind this
• Left In Alabama: The Democratic Party Is Popular
• Doc’s Political Parlor: Raby Not Running for AL-05 Seat

I think the color scheme is finally less blinding. I’m working on the website layout between building a robot, so it’ll probably be a little while before all the kinks are worked out.

Sorry I tend to re-do the website every few months. I get bored with the way it looks.

An article and a LOE:

Dear Editor: The Democracy Defense League would like to announce their first statewide meeting on April 1, in the State Capitol Auditorium, Montgomery, from 10 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. Admission is free. Secretary of State Beth Chapman and Attorney General Troy King have graciously accepted invitations to be our guest speakers. They will be addressing the growing voter fraud problem in Alabama. The Alabama legislators have also been invited. The press and the public are welcome and encouraged to attend this important event.

The DDL is a non-partisan, multi-racial grass roots organization whose only mission is to eliminate voter fraud through legal means; i.e., overhauling Alabama’s inept election laws, promotion of citizen involvement, education, poll watching, and reporting voting irregularities to the Attorney General’s and Secretary of State’s Offices.

Almost 2,000 voters in 43 counties have already joined with us to make honest elections the norm rather the exception in our great state! For further information about the DDL, please visit our Web site: www.thedemocracydefenseleague.com, or contact Pattie Dismukes at 334-624-9296 or Carolyn Payne at 205-372-4175. We look forward to meeting all of you on April 1 in Montgomery.

Back in my day (and now) you only had to take PE for one year in high school. Representative Ken Guin has a bill in the legislature that would make it mandatory for all four years.

Guin says he’s worried about Alabama being such an obese state. I know my story is anecdotal by definition, but I had no obesity problems in high school — I was just a nerd. I took Calculus and was on the magazine staff. I didn’t have time for another PE class nor was it something I really cared about. I wasn’t incapable of physical activity — I spent about half a year doing cross-country before I realized I just didn’t have time for it.

In the end there’s just not enough time in the school day to make students do everything. I say just let them do what they want. I could have done track or taken harder classes and worked on the magazine staff. I felt like the latter was better for me.

It’s a work in progress. I’ll get all the bugs worked out eventually.