Captain Bama - Progressivism and Populism from the Piedmont Branchheads of Alabama

Captain Plaid - New Approaches for New Days

2006-08-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

I'll be cross posting the following across the five efforts. I'll keep Captain Plaid up and running via Blogger, although TypePad continues to call me. Until I announce otherwise, Captain Bama is leaving the building. For the near future at least, I'll abandon Tin Shop Tartan. I'm going to put Captain Jimi in the holster as well in that I can fight the culture war on the main blog. Marque Stuart has long been neglected and my inner Martha will need to be surpressed even further given these next few weeks ... and perhaps even months and years.

I've been slack in posting these last few days but family called. I was unexpectedly called in to help a relative with a business/building project and that has been the priority these last few days. Even though the fam might not always understand me, I am thrilled to help any of my brood. I understand Highlanders had "broken men" that had left their own Clans and joined with another in some respects, generally free to return to or assist their kin as circumstances required. Maybe that is what is going on with me? There have surely been plenty of shifts and changes for me over this summer! Here's the immediate deal ...

I'll be working for a Progressive Political Action Committee until mid-November. Reporting on Labor Day for duty, I'll be in Milwaukee for the first few days but they'll soon farm me out to at least one candidate. Although there may be some races for Governor or other state/local positions, I'm likely going to be working in one of the competitive U.S. House districts. I could be working pretty much anywhere but doubt it will be in Alabama or even the South (Florida doesn't count as the "South" does it?). Country come to town?

I'm hoping to find future work, ideally in politics/policy or some type of non-profit education, away from rural East Alabama. I'm looking in relatively urban areas along the East Coast or in the Mountain West. This PAC I'll work for next will assist in placement and yet I've got friends and contacts that are also looking and helping. The experience will hopefully teach me much plus it will admittedly help expand my resume. By the first of the year I hope to have a long term position nailed down. If anybody knows of something that might suit me please let me know. I'll work like two trojans. I can get along with most folks, even though some family and a few past "significant others" might disagree.

I'm leaving for several reasons. I've mentioned that several fundamentalist family members reacted rather harshly to a letter I sent First Baptist Church on their shilling of Amendment One, the Alabama Contitutional Amendment on banning same-sex marriages that every major paper or reasonable authority in Alabama agreed was not necessary and even foolish. Some have expressed displeasure with my Letters to the Editor to my local paper. I think I've done four since the first of the year and I've yet to have anybody say my facts were wrong. In every letter I challenged Bu$hCo (and often the GOP and conservatism and ...) so I think that was mostly the problem. Again, explain where I was wrong! Until then, and probably even after then, I feel very patriotic to have spoken out against the abuses of this worst administration ever. Additionally, my ex-wife has gone on the warpath so that my ability to have the type of relationship I'd like with my son has become more of a challenge.

I've left the classroom after five years back in the trenches frustrated with NCLB and other bureaucracy, with this last years's experience trying to teach the young adults of Heard County, Georgia being the final nail in that coffin. I was also feeling "cooped up" in that teachers are forced to work inside cement block rooms for most of their day and not always able to engage people and the community as might be ideal for any profession. I'd pondered returning to the practice of "country law", thinking a low overhead practice where I could perhaps avoid the drudgery of merely paying the bills might be rewarding. I'd thought I could do criminal defense and some worthy activism plus simply help folks but I've decided I can't remain here in rural East Alabama and keep my sanity. I'm somewhat afraid I'd wind up an angry, lonely old man. Living in this conservative backwater, even though I cherish some of the rural lifestyle, might do more harm than good. As a single man, the social scene around here is especially scary. I love the dirt and woods and critters and ..., and certainly a few dear friends, but I'm now certain I need another setting.

I've learned to live simple, and the older I get the less I seem to need, but I want "purpose" to my life. I seek intellectual and spiritual experiences. I want to work with people that generally possess a Progressive outlook. I want to find my place in a vibrant community that values learning and art and compassion and service and health and ... I've long though about building a "home" where I'll feel some measure of security and completeness. My experiences as a child, with my mother dying rather young plus several other unfortunate realities, have I think tempered me where I default to seek "place", although I'll argue this is a very Southern, perhaps even Scottish, trait.

My failed marriage and practice, one that I'll submit I've placed in the proper order, plus the resulting troubles, were certainly events I'd have just as soon avoided. Ten to seven/six years later, I'm twice the man I was and I'm just forty. I can still be a good father, even though the idea of moving away from my son is the toughest part of these changes. In fact, given the current attitudes and actions of my ex-wife, I'm perhaps making the best of a bad situation. I wanted to be near "the boy" through these early teen years but if I'm better centered by being elsewhere then more good might result.

I've really enjoyed posting on these five blogs and hope they've been valued for at least effort if not for insight. I've only done a few on Marque Stuart but I've dropped 126 posts on Captain Jimi. Tin Shop Tartan has seen 127. A total of 186 post appeared on Captain Bama. Captain Plaid has had 279. Over seven hundred posts! Many hours of mousing and keyboarding (with Blogger being bloggered often making it take longer!) but I've learned so much. I appreciate the comments and communcations. For those that have honored me with a blogroll link feel free to leave any or none. I'll continue over at Captain Plaid, with the caveat that if my new gig doesn't allow time then posts might be scarce. I anticipate a new email addy once I get settled in.

Thanks again for allowing me to share my thoughts and frustrations plus my hope for a better world. Peace ... or War!

The Conquest by Conservatism - ALDLC Caves!

2006-08-16T19:28:00.000-07:00

The Anniston Star reveals most Alabama citizens lean Republican. In my local paper today, the Alabama Legislative Democratic Leadership Conference released their "Covenant for the Future" with a full page ad. "Republican Lite" is being too kind. I'll remain pro-choice and favor some type of method to make sure same-sex couples aren't being treated unfairly yet I can live with them avoiding the issue. The ALDLC is going rather full anti-immigrant and low tax and God and ... If our state party wants to pander to the Republican leaning population they are being short sighted and simply wrong. If they'd attack the GOP failures they'd do the national party and their candidates much more good. I've posted on this often but it still frustrates me. I'll ponder for a few days but I'm thinking I'll want to make some calls. Peace ... or War!

Alvin Holmes Schools Alabama Christian Coalition

2006-08-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

Actually Representative Holmes schools other Progressives and our community but the post title didn't work describing his action that way. Even Alvin Holmes, never one to run from (or perhaps even cause?) controversy, can't school the Alabama Christian Coalition. Candidates that seek reform should reply to the ACC's position requests with the same type of response that Mr. Holmes used, alerting the media and their constituents so they'll eventually learn what the ACC is really about.

Kim Chandler of the B'ham News reports in "Lawmaker rebukes Christian Coalition" that Alvin Holmes, in response the ACC's annual survey, replied with three questions. Holmes is alleged to have written "Until you answer these three questions, Go straight to hell." He signed "Peace be with you." however.

The three questions are as follows:

Reveal its sources of income.
Disclose if it received any money from Ralph Reed or convicted lobbyist Michael Scanlon to lobby against gambling in Alabama.
Explain why the group opposed a bill that would require nonprofits to reveal sources of income if they do election advertising.

John Giles will likely dodge these answers so that he and ACC can continue to look out for the Big Mules willing to use his organization to distract poorly informed "values voters" from the disastrous conservative policies that are destroying our state and nation. I'm neutral on gambling except for wanting regulation and revenue should more come to us plus fair and open elections on making the decision. I am far from neutral on much else the ACC hinders such as constitutional reform, tax adjustments to help the poor and middle class, judicial selection reform, etc. Peace ... or War!

Gerald "Dino" Dial Crawfishes On Complaints

2006-08-13T07:50:00.000-07:00

Mike Linn reports in today's Montgomery Advertiser "Dial says Benefield violated campaign act" yet Dino says he "simply wants to inform the party chairman" and is not challenging the election. Since he has missed by the June 19th deadline to do so by nearly two months I suppose he's not.

Kim Benefield rightly labels Gerald's actions as "sour grapes". Claiming Kim's 45 day report was "second grade work", Gerald asserts "If I had done that, they would have been on me like stink on manure."

Mr. Dial, you have stunk up Goat Hill for many years and the voters of this District had enough of your bullshit. Miss Twinkle might want to listen Gerald but I think you've done enough for the Democratic Party and this District/State. Governor Riley and the GOP will I'm sure find a place for you to collar up again for the Big Mules. Peace ... or War!

Laundering Michael Scanlon's Gambling Money

2006-08-12T10:27:00.000-07:00

Mr. Scanlon was first mentioned here on Bama way back in March. In April I noted his connection to Alabama in giving money to four state PACs. Via a Tin Shop Tartan post, I had a comment from "Tim" scolding me for suggesting "Bob Riley" was named in a Senate report on the Choctaw money. I've never believed $13 million was realistic but some gambling money helped Bob Riley beat The Don in 2002. I still think the Governor needs to 'fess up and set the record straight but the statement below seems to be a start at coming clean.

Mr. Scanlon was of course previously Congressman Riley's Press Secretary when he was back in DC but he then moved up the food chain to work for Tom "The Hammer" DeLay. Scanlon entered various guilty pleas back in late 2005 for his involvement in the Jack Abramoff scandals. He is understood to be cooperating with the authorities, no doubt providing sleepless nights to plenty of pols and other wheeler dealers . The scandal seem to be mostly involving Republicans.

Mary Orndorff and Kim Chandler report in today's B'ham News "Lobbyist's interest in state races dates to '01 : Scanlon said to have funneled cash to Riley ". Bob Riley's camp gave a statement as follows:

"A decade before anyone knew the problems he would face, Michael Scanlon worked for Gov. Riley while he was a member of Congress," Riley spokesman Josh Blades said in a written statement. "It is logical that Scanlon would want to support his former boss in his campaign for governor. Bob Riley has been a life-long opponent of gambling in Alabama, and that fact will never change, regardless of who contributes money to his campaign."

With PAC to PAC transfers legal and providing the ability to hide, at least during an election cycle, sources of funds here in Alabama I'm expecting we'll never have the type of leadership we'll need. Although I'm a fan of "Initiative and Referendum" plus efforts to disclose funding and of course long overdue constitutional reform, I'll offer that my one dream reform would be Alabama/America using some type of "Clean Money Election" system. Public financing of campaigns alone might make the above less needed. If we could simply get some folks down at Goat Hill/up in DC that would actually represent the public rather than the Big Mules then we'd see other reforms fall into place. Peace ... or War!

DINO - Democrat In Name Only

2006-08-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

Starting from the right, as he'd surely prefer, we've got Zell Miller. "Give 'em hell Zell" is a long time but thankfully retired Georgia pol. He's a duel nostalgic former Marine infamous for his 2004 performance at the RNC in NYC. His support of Bu$hCo while still in the Senate was a given. On the left, where he often was before becoming Bu$hCo's favorite Senate Democrat, we've got Connecticut's Joe Lieberman. Painted by the nasty Republicans as "Sore Loserman" from the 2000 stolen election, he's done a legitimate claiming of the label with Ned Lamont just this week. Rejected by his own party and providing even more ammo for Bu$hCo, this Deputy Dog favoring polician is going to run as an independent. Slap in the middle, looking almost like a "love child" of the two with that innocent smile and ridiculous tie, we've got our own Gerald Dial.

After noting just yesterday Gerald's performance in a media buy for Bob Riley, Gerald now has the audacity to ask my Alabama Democratic Party to boot Kim S. Benefield from the ticket. The reporting of Kim Chandler of the B'ham News reveals Gerald is concerned over not only her campaign forms but also those, or rather the forms they didn't have to file, of four other Senators that helped fund her win.

Perhaps this is a sign that ALFA and the BCA and Alabama Power and ... aren't going to pony up for Jim Ingram this fall? They've already spent at least a half a million this cycle on their boy only to see him get crushed yet we know Big Mules pockets are very, very deep.

I'm wanting the Democratic Party to examine the claim (figuring if there's been an error it was a clerical or honest mistake from a candidate first running for this type of position) yet once solved I'm hopeful Dino will be placed on waivers so the other teams can claim him. I'd trade him for a bucket of spit but I'd be happy to just let Miss Twinkle have the Clay Combover. It's time we, and Gerald for that matter, cut our losses. Peace .. or War!

Lucy on labels ... "like being called fat by a hog"

2006-08-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

If I'd have been able to reply to the Riley campaign's opening salvo, a negative one no less, where he uses an everyman (I think nearly every demographic and gender being included) ad to suggest Lucy Baxley is "too liberal for Alabama", I'd have challenged the label rather than allowing him to get away with the language. While I did like the tone and folksiness of "Being called liberal by someone who proposed the largest tax increase in Alabama history is like being called fat by a hog." I'll first remind you, and hope you know this already, that "liberal" doesn't mean "free spender" Miss Lucy! Like many Democrats you're allowing the Republicans to use the Karl Rove approach where they tell your potential voters who you are and what your party stands for.

The report comes from The B'Ham News' Charles J. Dean in "Gloves come off in fight for governor's mansion : Baxley's 'a liberal'; Riley's 'a hog'" and you can find the ad on Riley's media site. I noticed soon to be former Alabama State Senator Gerald "Dino" Dial doing his impression of Zell Miller/Joe Lieberman as Riley's representative Democrat. That the Clay Combover helps out Clay County's own doesn't surprise me but Gerald Dial is as much a Democrat as he is an underwear model. Dissing on John Kerry and Hillary Clinton might not cause you much harm yet I'm with The Decatur Daily in thinking you embrace Bu$hCo at your own peril. A 46% approval and 51% disapproval for Bu$h has me hoping you'll go right ahead with this approach. Shilling Bu$hCo's failed Iraq policies shows love to Lucy!

Like the image above suggests, the GOP message is being shown to be talk not walk. Your party takes care of Big Oil and Big Pharma while holding an increase to the minimum wage hostage to try to pass the Paris Hilton Inheritance Protection Act. Our shrinking middle class with even larger concentrations of wealth over the last two decades is a reality that even folks in Alabama are recognizing. The Ambramoff/Reed/Scanlon (Riley's former staffer!) scandals are getting deeper and deeper. You've so far avoided the details of the gambling money questions but sooner or later some assertive reporter will hem you up. Alabama has plenty of problems that will require capacties of a person from a party that doesn't seem to loathe government. Labeling somebody "liberal" might be a favor given how more and more Americans are waking up the failures of "conservatism" and especially how that philosophy has been implemented by the Bu$h administration. Thanks Governor! Peace ... or War!

Bob Riley Shills For Bu$hCo's Iraq War

2006-08-09T06:38:00.000-07:00

Maybe Governor Riley is going to step aside to seek a Senate seat? Surely he can't think supporting Dubyah and especially Donald Rumsfeld, even here in the Heart of Dixie, will serve his bid for re-election as our Governor. He managed to get a dig in at Hillary Clinton which might help but mercy if this report didn't confuse me as far as his strategy in his present race. Phillip Rawls of The Associated Press reports via The Montgomery Advertiser "Iraq mission 'honorable,' Riley says".

Mr. Rawls reports,

The war can be won "if we keep the politics out of it," Riley said at a news conference.
Riley scoffed at a question about whether he is simply a Republican governor parroting the party line for a Republican presidential administration. "Certain things should transcend politics. The United States at war is one of them," the governor said. ...
... Riley, who visited Iraq in March, said, "I've never talked to a person in the military yet who didn't say we ought to stay and we ought to win the war."
But he said the extensive media coverage of the war can be demoralizing for troops.
"To a large extent, the media doesn't help a lot of times in reporting every incident over there," he said.

Lucy Baxley also supports our troops, demonstrating you can do this without blind faith in a failed administration. A portion of her statement, released after the staging of Riley with soldiers (I wonder if they were as scripted as Bu$hCo's past stagecraft?) that have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, presumably on the taxpayer's dime, reads as follows:

"However, the American public has a right to hear from Rumsfeld and President Bush what their plans are for bringing this conflict to a successful conclusion, and assurance that the sacrifice of American lives have not been in vain."

Bob Riley is apparently one of the true believers left in the GOP. John McCain and Chuck Hagel and ... are hardly thrilled with how this effort has been prosecuted. "Stay the course" is not a strategy Bob! For that matter the American public has soured on this war. Dick Cheney's "last throes of the insurgency" hasn't exactly come to fruition has it Bob? We are approaching 3000 KIA and thousands more wounded? A trillion dollars could be spent here, although Bu$hCo assured us the oil would pay for the war. Our National Guard commander admits the force's equipment is at least broken and will need a substantial infusion of money to fix. Recruiting is becoming very difficult for the Army and Guard. Torture, abuse, rape, murder, occupation, broken infrastructure, civil war, ... where do you get off trying to spin this fiasco Governor?

How Governor Riley thinks this "war can be won" is beyond me and apparently also escapes a good number of military men, analysts, and pundits. Bu$h and Rummy and ... blew it. Now there's only a question of "How bad?" with salvaging some limited good from much bad as our only hope.

Perhaps the Governor is talking about Iran winning once the "Shia Crescent" is complete? The neo-cons said we'd "reshape the region" yet I don't think they meant doing it this way!

That women are losing as fundamentalism in the form of "Virtue and Vice" authorities, is now present in much of Iraq, not to mention returning to Afghanistan after we'd supposedly liberated these people from the Taliban, surely can't be what the Governor is defending. Children and other innocent Iraqis surely aren't winning when the Bu$h administration simply failed to plan appropriately for the period after Saddam Hussein. The militarism of Bu$hCo and their haughty rejection of international, Arab, peace groups, UN, .... alternatives has worked out swimmingly hasn't it Bob?

Could the Governor be thinking of more earnings for Halliburton/KBR and other war profiteers? Big Oil is winning with prices so high that profits are at record levels.

Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda and other extremist groups are certainly winning their recruiting war. The prestige of and sympathy toward the U.S. is at very low levels on the international stage so perhaps our competition is winning if one accepts a zero-sum game.

That 1600 Alabama National Guard members will be in Iraq this next year might not be a concern for the Governor but I'm expecting it is a huge burden on their families and these soldiers. Of the 130,000 American soldiers in Iraq now, some back on tour after tour, and their families, not to mention those rotated back home, know the costs. How his President and Dubyah's neo-conservative handlers gamed the intelligence and disengenously sold this war is not a concern either for men like Bob Riley. Sending our fighting men and women into combat without the proper equipment doesn't trouble a loyal Republican like Bob Riley.

I was already supporting Lucy Baxley but I truly appreciated the way she called Bob Riley out for his shilling of what seems like standard GOP talking points. If Bob Riley is this out of touch and willing to twist reality we certainly don't need him leading this state. Turn off the Faux News Bob and get real. This dog won't hunt. Peace ... or War!

How Can Bama Dems Best Help National Party?

2006-08-08T06:04:00.000-07:00

Blogger image posting is still bloggered but it matters not beyond aesthetics on many posts. Typepad still calls to me ...

I have been pondering (perhaps soon I'll be where I can tell you why) how my Alabama Democratic Party can best fit in with the national party. While I know organizations like ALEC are prepared to fall back to the state level should conditions turn on the national stage, few could doubt that the Big Mules have long had control of Alabama. On my side, groups such as AEA, ADC, ASEA ... seemingly have a great deal of influence in the party. That is hardly a negative in some concerns yet I've at times wondered if our approach isn't short sighted as far as goals.

If there's not a change in the nation's direction I'll simply offer that we are screwed! We can't continue seeing the middle class shrink as hyper-capitalism runs wild. From just the failures of militarism to the challenges of globalism, not to mention global warming and our fossil fuel dependence, with health care concerns to boot, the GOP has simply bungled everything. Bill Maher's "George of the Bungle" is certainly representative of the Republican failures. Again, I'll argue that "conservatism" as a doctrine has failed once implemented under Reaganism yet certainly the last few years we've seen that total GOP power is simply dangerous to our nation and world.

This Liberal Journal post examines Paul Krugman's recent "Centrism is for Suckers" piece in the New York Times. Since the Gray Lady put up their Select wall before Krugman and other amazing talent, I've missed much NYT column wisdom. LJ shares a good portion, and perhaps even all, of the column that contrasts the actions of various left and right groups. He demonstrates that Republican leaning organizations often fall in line with the GOP's agenda even when perhaps it is contrary to their own direct concerns. His examples on the left are groups like the Sierra Club and NARAL which endorse moderate Republicans like Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island. The Sierra Club's reply is also provided. I'm conflicted on where I'd fall on this issue, although I'm learning toward Krugman. Perhaps the Sierra Club could split the baby and praise Chafee while blasting his party?

This piece has me pondering how the Alabama Democratic Party could best advance restoring our national party to majority status in the U.S. House and Senate and also support a return to the White House. In my House District, the 3rd represented by Mike Rogers despite the best efforts of our current party Chairman, I'm optimistic at least this seat could return to our side. Now I know the national party hardly did their part in losing it but that's in the past. I certainly don't think Mike Rogers could withstand a campaign that focused on the GOP's disasters given the lack of satisfaction with Bu$hCo and the Rubber Stamp Congress. If our state party doesn't celebrate the national party and also attack the GOP's corruption, incompetence, false values, hypocrisy, ... then are we now doing our part?

Between the gerrymandering and the power of incumbency some House districts here will remain out of play but a message that serves the interest of statewide and national elections should I'd argue remain supportive of the Progressive agenda that only the Democratic Party can carry out. Individually and collectively I think we can reach out to many voters that as of late seem to default to the GOP. We'll do this at times by sacrificing short term goals however. When we run candidates that try to be Republican Lite that is harming our long term interest isn't it?

I guess I'm offering that the years of the Blue Dogs are over. Centrism isn't working and perhaps can't given the current approach by the GOP masters. I want to confront, confound, confuse, contrast, ... the state and national GOP machine. I am still hoping that Governor Dean will take the bait from Ms. Andress-Cavanaugh. Embrace his message and use it. Lucy Baxley and other statewide candidates need the support of voters that have fallen to the other team. The few remaining "values voters" we lose by heading left can be overcome by tapping into our populist streak. I'll suggest that without a shift we'll not only continue to lose influence in this state but at the same time not advance the interests of the good guys on the national stage. We must run these foxes out of the henhouse, and I figure the main henhouse to focus on is up in DC. Peace ... or War!

Is there time (or will) to pause for a restoration!

2006-08-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

I'm a huge fan of H. Brandt Ayers and his Anniston Star so I'm hesitant to question his position in today's Editorial that is labeled "Timeout for America". Mr. Ayers is offering that we (our military and citizenry) need "a pause to refresh body and soul" to best formulate a way "to rebuild American prestige abroad" and also "to revive morale at home". Mr. Ayers' Progressivism is apparent in referring to the frustrations of the average American with a government that simply doesn't work for their interests. His true concern for our fighting men and women provide a welcome contrast to the neo-con cheerleaders milking American patriotism. He is right to refer to the leadership that former Presidents Carter, Bush, and Clinton could provide to the next occupant of the White House in both foreign and domestic policies.

I'm however worried that the modern GOP, and perhaps some Centrist Democrats as well, aren't prepared to move from the methods and policies of the recent past. I am convinced that the modern Republican Party has pushed so far in accumulating and projecting power that they'll have a hard time leaving the Atwater and Rove style of "campaigning"under Gingrich and Armey and DeLay and Lott/Frist ... style "leadership" behind. Throw in the neo-conservatives and right wing media machine and Dobsonites and ... and we've got an even larger mess. When we consider how much influence the well-funded Corporatist "think tanks" and "policy shops" and "deep lobbying" are, along with the levels of money involved in gaining and holding office, I'm not so sure our leaders are going to be able to take a breather, much less turn a corner.

After the emergence of "unitary executive" theories and practices under Bu$hCo, will a President give up that power? Strip Search Sammy and Uncle Thomas plus perhaps others might not limit the Presidential power. Since many members of Congress often act as if they work for a President if from their own party how will they shift toward a new paradigm?

Since the Reagan Revolution, built off (or not?) Powell's Chamber of Commerce memo a decade before, we've had twenty plus years of "conservatism". The Clenis, especially after 1994's Contract on America, was often Republican Lite. Bush the Elder's more moderate Conservatism was still largely an extension of Reagan's militarism and voodoo economics. (I'm nearly certain many deals were cut in the wake of Iran -Contra!) The Reagan Republicans were largely in control of the party yet there were a few statesmen found even in tht community. Some abandoned that style when they saw what happened when paleo-conservatives like Pat Buchanan and other rebels like Ross Perot went off the reservation. ManyRepublicans loathed Clinton for much and we saw what they were willing to do to try to destroy his Presidency. The Republican Party has not built their powerful machine to garage it and perhaps lose control, especially after the Clinton terms slowed their agendas.

Now that this administration and his Rubber Stamp Congress have shifted policies to the extreme right to pacify their Christianist base while actually serving their Corporate agenda, not to mention trying to be a "War President", I'm think a pause and breather is wishful thinking.

Plus there's hope that beginning this fall the capture of either the House or Senate, ideally both, could allow Democrats to actually accomplish something. Progressives have held essentially no power in these last few years. With Democrats in control, even if mostly centrist in orientation, liberals can show the nation a new direction. Having subpoena power can prevent Republican controlled committees from stalling and burying investigations into the abuses of Bu$hCo. When the American public sees what I'll argue is the truth behind this administration's deceptions and illegal actions, we can hope the Republican Party will be discredited. As Americans, and the world to boot, continue to suffer under what the right wing has wrought, they'll possibly be receptive to Progressive ideals and ideas. While I don't think the early 1930s provides a fair comparison our nation is as close as it has been since that period. When we drop in the "global war on terror" and the challenges of globalism we are even closer to a crisis.

Recognizing what Mr. Ayers offers, and there's much to his ideas, I want action not pause. Like President Carter's "morass speech" back in the day, there's serious truth here. Still, like Carter's administration being largely just a pause after Watergate, I don't want to lose the chance to take the nation is a new direction. Given this need, dare I write "crisis", and the nature of modern politics (geared to "war rooms", talking points, and getting through the next news cycle) I'm not so keen on a breather but rather looking for vigorous and forward looking leadership. Peace ... or War!

Is B'ham News Editorial on Judicial Reform Historically Accurate?

2006-08-05T19:00:00.000-07:00

(I've got a nice toon of Karl Rove talking with Plato to drop here but Blogger is once again bloggered up! Several of the Alabama crowd have had their fill of Blogger and perhaps I will bolt soon as well. I hate to complain when something is free but I'd be pleased to pay if the damn thing would just reliably work for me!)

The B'ham News suggests reform in how Alabama's appellate judges are seated is a great idea but advises us to not hold our breath. I concur on the lack of optimism but wonder if they've not been a little too quick to assign blame to past Democratically controlled Administrations and Legislatures. The Editorial Board is responsible I guess in total as the author(s) of the piece are not identifid. Perhaps they are correct as I was a young buck and not even in law school until 1988. Here's what troubled me.

Change can only be accomplished through the Legislature. Once, change was impossible because Democrats dominated the appeals courts and objected to any change. Now that Republicans control the courts, they're adamantly opposed to change, too.

I certainly remember the "tort hell" battles in the Legislature and the 1994 elections where Karl Rove got the first wave of Business Big Mules judges on the Bench. In yesterday's post I linked The Atlantic article on Karl Rove's work here in Alabama that reveals what I think Bu$hCo is built on. I digress. Here's the issue - For the life of me I can't recall any efforts to reform judical elections that Democrats have hindered.

This American Judicature Society information seems to suggest that I'm right in my hesitancy to accept this editorial but I'm asking for help. Surely the B'ham News is not referring back to 1966 for their authority! Justice Heflin and other leaders brought Alabama up to speed in many areas and merit selction was I'd guess a barely fought issue. I just don't think the period before the shift toward a two-party state, and that is at least into the late 1980s, could in any way support what this editorial is suggesting.

If any of the few readers that visit can provide me with their understandings I'd appreciate. I might even try to contact the B'ham News and ask for what they are basing this argument on. Again, that it could have been this way would not surprise me. Still, my recollection is that the BCA and other Big Mules were going at their concerns in the Legislature rather than up at the Judicial Branch. Once they got their "tort reform" stuff through and it was rightly found flawed is when they went after Sonny and the Supremes.

For the B'ham News Editorial Board to just "make this up" is hardly what I'd expect and I'm hoping they haven't. Progressive Democrats, and there are a few left here, would likely welcome judical reform as it is absolutely "meritorious". We like those types of ideas and to have this Editorial suggest my party has outright dimissed them is irresponsible if offered without cause. The public is cynical enought already, rightly so here in Alabama, but let's not increase the lack of trust by stretching the historical record. Peace ... or War!

Alabama State Bar seeks Judical Election Reform

2006-08-04T17:36:00.000-07:00

The Alabama State Bar's new President Fournier "Boots" Gale III of Maynard Cooper & Gale, P.C. in B'ham has announced the Bar's long effort to appoint rather than elect appeals court judges will see the introduction of legislation this next March. The reporting by Eric Velasco reveals the money being dropped in these races. While I have some interest in political consulting so that I might should celebrate these millions, I'm shocked and offended it has been this much. Mr. Velasco gives us the numbers as follows:

Since 1993, interest groups have poured almost $48 million into state Supreme Court races alone - including $4.6 million spent in the Republican primary for five state Supreme Court races so far this year.

The idea that the average Alabama voter is capable of voting for plain politicians is a stretch but to have them judge judges is a total terror. I've posted on this appointment process back when Tacky Whacky Tom Parker and the Mini-Moores were on the stage.

While I look forward to help elect Sue Bell Cobb as Chief Justice, plus seeing the other Democrats seeking slots on our Bench win so as to restore order to the universe, this ought to be acceptable to anybody except for the most partisan. I'm sure Big Mules like having the conservatives they've got in place now but do they really expect Alabama to shift back toward the left significantly? Radicals like Roy Moore and Tom Parker being elected can be Exhibit A and B. Karl Rove's involvement down here in Alabama in 1994 is Exhibit C. Peace ... or War!

Not just estate tax where GOP has "No Shame"

2006-08-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Sandy Huffaker’s image from MSNBC’s Cagle Syndicate appears above (assuming Blogger isn’t still being contrary, that being the main reason I’ve been slack in posting lately) but was prompted by the Anniston Star’s Editorial of today entitled “Shame on the GOP”. How the Republican Party is handling the estate tax is I think as revealing as anything they’ve done. The party of “family values” is at least looking out for the Walton (Wal-Mart) family!

Although I’d argue the party of arguably our greatest President Abraham Lincoln has generally favored the powerful over the weak, the words of Theodore Roosevelt in his famous “New Nationalism” speech from back in 1910 resonate with me. Although this speech is worth reading on a variety of issues, TR’s thought on taxation might be distilled as follows:

No man should receive a dollar unless that dollar has been fairly earned. Every dollar received should represent a dollar’s worth of service rendered—not gambling in stocks, but service rendered. The really big fortune, the swollen fortune, by the mere fact of its size, acquires qualities which differentiate it in kind as well as in degree from what is possessed by men of relatively small means. Therefore, I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective—a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion, and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.

The estate tax issue has rightly been labeled as the “Paris Hilton Benefit Act” and as E.J. Dionne, Jr. points out the amount of money is amazing, especially considering our deficit, plus the limited amount of people affected by the tax is minimal. Dionne writes,

With so many other taxes around, it's hard to understand why this is the one Congress would repeal. It falls, in effect, on the heirs to the wealthiest Americans. Fewer than 1 percent of the people who died in 2004 paid an estate tax, and half the revenue from the tax came from estates valued at $10 million or more.
Yet, because the wealthy have gotten wealthier over the past three decades or so, the estate tax produces a lot of money. Counting both revenue losses and added interest costs, complete repeal of the estate tax would cost the government close to $1 trillion between 2012 and 2021, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

My understanding is that only a few wealthy families will pay the vast majority of estate taxes. Worries over losing the family farm are false fears. In Alabama, estimates are that forty nine estates would need to file estate tax returns in 2009 if the tax were to apply to wealth over $3,500,000.00. I recall Jeff Sessions attempting to use the destruction of Katrina to find victims of what the Rove Republicans have tried to label the “death tax”. That Senator Sessions defended his “legislative ambulance chasing” by declaring the estate tax as “immoral” reveals much about Jeffy B and the ReThuglicans.

Additionally, I had two semesters of “tax law”, which I admittedly loathed, yet even I learned all sorts of estate planning techniques. Few “regular folks” have to pay any estate tax if they’ll do a minimal amount of planning. Via charitable trusts, Q-tips, gifting out, … the average low millions estate will simply not be raided by the treasury. For politicians like Jeff Sessions and other GOP operatives to continually suggest this will occur shows they are simply liars! For a large majority of Americans and Alabamians to fall for the lies shows they are fools! If a person says estate taxes are wrong policy on principle then we’ll talk but don’t just lie about who might suffer under this most Progressive of taxes.

Warren Buffet and Bill Gates and … know much of what yields wealth is where you start and also how society assists the accumulation of wealth. David Francis of The Christian Science Monitor reports in “It Takes a Village to Raise a Millionaire” that

Unfortunately, their prospects of reaching the top of the economic ladder are fading in the United States. It's becoming a nation of more rigid inequality, starting at childhood. That, anyway, is the conclusion of some recent research.
A new report by Ms. Lui's United for a Fair Economy (UFE), a liberal advocacy group based in Boston, done in conjunction with an affiliate, Responsible Wealth, finds that economic success usually depends on help from society, and often more on wealth and privilege than talent and dedication.
For instance: Almost a third of the Forbes 400 richest people were born onto that list, with an average net worth of $2.6 billion. Another quarter inherited a small business, oil lands, or perhaps had well-to-do parents able to provide an expensive education and family friends helpful in a business career.
Meanwhile, income mobility between generations has been falling, concludes Bhashkar Mazumder, an economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, in a 2003 paper. Most children of rich parents stay rich, and children of the poor stay poor. When compared to Canada, Finland, and Germany, the US stands out for "its relative lack of mobility," he says.
That implies that the increased inequality in incomes in the US in the past few decades, "is likely to remain a feature of the US economy for some time," he adds.
Such conclusions are troubling for a culture that for so long has believed in the self-made man and woman

Tremendous resources that I’ve located just this morning are Responsible Wealth and United for a Fair Economy. It does my heart good to see wealthy people and plain old regular folks that follow the traditions of Progressivism that Republican Theodore Roosevelt knew were moral and wise. Here’s hoping the Republican Party can return to some measure of reasonable action. Concentration of wealth is not conducive to a democratic society nor is it a good value.

Few Republicans on the national stage today are speaking this language. They aren’t welcome to do so perhaps? If they wish to speak out and can’t without consequences, then the Democratic Party, or even third party options, would likely welcome them. I think many reasonable people are fed up with a GOP that is based upon power and spin and discipline and manipulation and dirty tricks and … I know I ran across a Digby post that pointed out that many young activists cannot recall a less partisan time. Digby’s description of the GOP’s “scorched earth” style is accurate. I value and agree with his line of “But the modern Republican party must undergo fundamental internal change before it can be trusted.”

I know I’ll have a hard time trusting anyone that enables the direction our nation is moving. I’m fed up with the Fundamentalism and Corporatism and Neo-Conservative aggression and … I’ve closed nearly every post with something I believe, that being “Peace … or War!”. I’m always seeking peace but until there’s a genuine effort to have peace I’m going to stay in war mode with the Bu$hCo (Rove, DeLay, …) version of the GOP.

I’m not going to engage in Atwater/Rove style politics such as swift boating and the like as I’ll try to seek facts and reason and compassion as my foundations but I’ll fight for Progressives and against the modern Conservative movement. As Digby said, “We can beat them on the field of ideas. But we have to engage.” I too long for rational Republicans to take their party back. If and when you do, I’ll be ready for bi-partisanship as I think will be true for many on my side of the divide. Progressives/liberals want our society to advance so we’ll always default to working together yet I think plenty are learning how to fight. This estate tax stunt has shown where the GOP is trying to take our country. They’ve lost the benefit of the doubt and to trust them is foolish and counter-productive.

I appreciate how our Anniston Star routinely provides us a voice of reason here in Alabama. This coverage of the estate tax issue is so valuable, especially when Alabama has bought the “every tax is a bad tax” mentality. I’m afraid however there is little reasoning with the leadership of the Republican Party. They have no shame. Peace ... or War!

NRO's Jonah Golberg is back in The Star!

2006-07-31T19:20:00.000-07:00

About a week ago "Doughy Pantload" made The Star that prompted this post. Jonah is well known as a "warblogger". He supports Bu$hCo and the Republicans nearly every column. Jesus General has some nice images contrasting real heroes, those making sacrifices for Bu$h's stupidly thought out and dreadfully handled war of choice, with the likes of Jonah. Dubyah was a rich boy cheerleader so the irony is running rich.

~~Today's~~ Sunday's "Dumb, lazy folks should not vote — More voters could undermine process" has a general point that I'll agree with in that the idea of getting voters to the polls via entry into a lottery is misplaced. The proponent is a touch odd perhaps in his approach to getting people to vote yet Jonah's response is a combination of his arrogance and distain for both liberals and poor people. Here are portions:

... Since the civil rights era, Americans have been indoctrinated with the message that voting is the essential yardstick of citizenship. Editorialists, civics teachers and an assortment of deep-thinking movie stars residing in Periclean Hollywood have gone to great lengths to tell Americans that voter apathy is a terrible evil and that, conversely, high voter turnout is a sign of civic health.
Indeed, for several years, voting rights activists have been pushing to give prison inmates and younger teenagers the right to vote, presuming that giving rapists, killers and Justin Timberlake fans a bigger say will improve our democratic process.
The push to make voting much easier has been considerably less controversial.
Weekend voting, voting by mail and online voting are constantly greeted as vital reforms of our electoral system. And although some of these reforms are probably benign, all assume that even the slightest inconvenience in voting is an outrage because democratic health is purely a numbers game: More voters equals a healthier society.
My own view is that voting should be more difficult because things of value usually require a little work. That goes for citizenship, too.
Consider Internet voting. In the conventional view, the only legitimate criticism of online voting is its susceptibility to fraud. Almost no one questions its advisability if it worked — even though online voting assumes that we desperately need to hear from people who otherwise couldn’t be bothered to get off the couch.
Voting fetishists often liken democracy to a national "conversation" or "dialogue." So, tell me: What intelligent conversation is aided by the intrusion of Beavis and Butt-Head?
What is surprising about Doc Osterloh’s wacky idea is that the franchise maximizers hate it. The New York Times dubbed it "daft" and "one of the cheesier propositions on the November ballot." USA Today called it "tawdry." Fair enough.
But I think part of the reason they’re so scandalized is that Osterloh is taking their logic to its natural conclusion. Advocates of increasing voter turnout already frame the issue in terms of "what’s in it for you." MTV’s condescending Choose or Lose campaign, which aims to get 18- to 30-year-olds to vote, says it all right there in the name; the gravy train is leaving the station, and the ballot is your ticket onboard.
Just beneath the surface of much of this voter activism is the assumption that increased turnout would move American politics to the left, by redistributing wealth to the poor and disenfranchised. There’s probably some merit here, which explains why so many get-out-the-vote groups are proxies for the Democratic Party.
But that doesn’t change the fact that they are trolling for votes among people who don’t appear to take their citizenship very seriously. Osterloh’s bribery scheme merely exposes this motivation in a way that embarrasses voter activists.
Osterloh admits that he’s motivated by more than democracy worship. "One of the goals that I’ve had in my lifetime is to see that all Americans have health care like every other major country on Earth. One of the ways to do that is to make sure that everybody votes." At least he’s honest about it.

Perhaps the "poor and disenfranchised" have not gotten the rewards for their talents that has Young Jonah. Thir mothers might not be filthy rich plus an insider? Maybe they've become frustrated with The Man? I surely am! I expect the idea of redistributing wealth terrifies this child of privilege. Maybe getting enough voters will finally prevent Big Pharma and the insurance industry and ... from stopping some type of universal health care solution.

I'm not sure if by giving prisoners the franchise means after they've done their time. I think more folks are worried about those convicted of minor crimes losing the franchise for the balance of their days, something that is clearly influencing poor and often African-American communities.

You mention Beavis and Butthead as a put down to disinterested voters, and I concur up to a point, but some studies do suggest the more educated a person is the more likely they are liberal. And since your beloved Bu$hCo is surely the dumbest and most arrogant SOB we've ever had in the White House I'm not sure you want to go here. Then again, you and Bu$h have much in common. I've understood some type of quote that he was born on third but really think he hit a home run. You can relate huh Jonah!

Finally, in Ohio, tax exempt mega churches and other evangelicals likely made the difference in the GOTV battle so I'm really not up to being lectured on this issue. Also, who can forget your party making young black kids wait in line for hours at that college? And there is little dispute that Ohio's GOP SoS Kenneth Blackwell did an illegal purge of poor urban black voters! Loading up the numbers of voting machines for suburban voters by pulling them from urban areas was clearly done. Stretch the line and perhaps some will walk away? Florida tactics made even the more evil. I guess your side does laugh at these open, admittedly silly, efforts to level the playing field. After all we don't own Diebold!

I'm figuring if Jonah is a regular for The Star I'll have lots of material. Peace ... or War!

API's Michael Ciamarra simultaneous shilling of "lawsuit abuse" while defending Bu$hCo

2006-07-30T14:12:00.000-07:00

I'm rather pleased that my right wing radar was working so well as I immediately thought API when I saw the title of this Huntsville Times opinion peiece entitled "Irresponsible Litigation". I did however guess it was from API President Gary Palmer but it turned out to be VP Michael Ciamarra's.

Or maybe it was his? As I posted on before, it is hard to tell at times. This prior post also is a decent overview of the Right's "policy" efforts, with some attention paid to API and their relationship with the Heritage Foundation and ALEC. I'm amazed at the ability of some conservatives to get in multiple talking points and attacks and strawmen and .... Labeling Specter's threatened lawsuit as "show trial punitive legislation" while defending Dubyah and claiming there's a "lawsuit frenzy' is an instant classic. He's nearly to Jim Wooten levels.

David Prather of the Times thankfully had some sensible examination of Bu$hCo's actions above Ciamarra's shilling. I've been relying on Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe for the reporting of this all too common Bu$hCo radicalism. Peace ... or War!

Scots Up Still on Alabama Two Year System

2006-07-30T12:44:00.000-07:00

The B'ham News has Brett Blackledge and Kim Chandler reporting "Lobbyists retained despite ban" that reveals even more questionable behaviors at many of our JuCos. Read it and weep. Big money, our money I'd add, is/was being spent by these colleges, often hiring lobbying firms as "not lobbyists", although the BOE had forbidden! Note the connections! Follow the money! Demand accountability!

This relatives working in the system salary summary is amazing. I'm all for folks being paid a fair wage yet some of these educators/bureaucrats are stacking some serious cheese. What employees and professors at Auburn University were paid for their work is significantly less than what many of these people are drawing. Teaching in Georgia public schools, with a challenging population at both schools I served in, with several years of experience and a Masters (plus a JD and nearly an Ed.S. that don't count), paid me a salary in the high thirties or barely over forty.

Perhaps many of these public employees have put in many years and hard work to get to the point to where they are so well-compensated. It may be true that most, if not all, are in these positions due to their qualifications rather than connections. I doubt, given the culture that apparently seems to be present at our two-year system, that the work is more demanding than similarly situated service in academia and government. Since the "not lobbying" work above was often couched as consulting work then I'm wondering why folks perhaps earning this kind of money need a little special help. Many of these public employees also hold solid benefits. Just imagine the state retirement drawn off those last few salary years!

I'm simply having a hard time reeling my Scots in thinking of how hard people I know, and that includes me, work in public service positions and then seeing how much these folks and families are banking. Peace ... or War!

Jeff Sessions plus ... are "Shortsighted on Energy"

2006-07-29T10:14:00.000-07:00

"Big Oil" might not own Jeff Sessions outright as Oil and Gas ranks #15 on his industry support according to The Center for Responsive Politics yet if he's prepared to simply label people opposing expansions of Gulf Coast drilling as "haters of fossil fuels" maybe they can save their money? The Anniston Star gives us the details in their Editorial from today entitled "Shortsighted on Energy" with the close as follows:

Damaging human health effects, especially on the young, can be blamed on the exhaust that comes from so many tailpipes and smokestacks. The environmental damage to our water and air is another toll. Also, injury is done to pristine natural views as rigs go up just off shore. The exception is Florida, where residents there see this green (as in environmental) issue as a green (as in a prosperous real estate market) issue.
Then there is the by-product caused by enriching Arab states with petro-dollars, which in turn are often used to fund terrorists and prop up thugs.
Taking these things into consideration, dependence on fossil fuels becomes more costly than is generally perceived.
But you can take this big-picture argument only so far. As the old economics saw goes, “In the long run, we’re all ... dead.”
True, but visionary leadership would look beyond oil and gas, both finite resources. Statesmen and stateswomen would look to clean, renewable sources with more passion, more vigor and more money for research and development. They would invest in R&D so that the United States would be the world’s leader in next-generation energy. They wouldn’t waste time with strawman arguments about hating fossil fuels.
They would speak instead about loving the nation so much that they insist on investing on the next big thing, one that is cleaner and doesn’t keep the nation beholden to problematic foreign sources

"Stateman" hardly comes to mind with Jeffy B does it? Recognizing the complexity of the dealing to get us to this point is a good start. Certainly Gulf Coast states have some serious financial issues to consider and there are other Big Mules with plenty at stake here. I'm simply not comfortable in trying to tackle the status of the House and Senate bills but from what I understand neither are going to be the end of the story.

However, I am fine with suggesting that with energy prices (and profits!) through the roof this might be the ideal time for bold thinking. The Apollo Alliance might be a good start to understanding the many benefits to a Progressive energy policy. The Center for American Progress has some solid ideas that even Jeff Sessions might not label as hateful. Can you believe this guy had the gall to declare fossil fuels as "hated" in front of God and everybody? Richard Pombo (R-ExxonMobile) wouldn't have used that language.

We know Bu$hCo and the GOP isn't going to propose anything that concerns their Big Mule backers yet Jeff Sessions willingness to attack rather than consider another way confirms my longing for an alternative. Alabama, and our nation as a whole, deserves better than he'll ever deliver. Peace ... or War!

Alabama JuCo's "Hee Haw" Hiring Hullabaloo

2006-07-28T07:08:00.000-07:00

A tip of the tam to a Republican reader and source for the find above. I'd missed this J.D. Crowe gem from the Mobile Press-Register. You can see and even purchase Mr. Crowe's work here.

Of course the BOE would not be as open as our Hee Haw cast. They'd have it all worked out beforehand I'd guess. David Prather of the Huntsville Times is right to begin his editorial from today's paper with the following:

Secret decision-making continues to plague the state school board
Thomas Corts, the retired Samford University president, is an excellent choice to head Alabama's two-year college system. But through no fault of his own, he will start the job with a huge problem.
That's because the Alabama Board of Education continues to conduct its business so maladroitly it almost defies belief.

"Maladroitly" is a new word but unfortunately here in Alabama we'll likely need to file that one away for later use. That the Board of EDUCATION can't seem to learn the error of their ways says much I fear about our state.

Good luck Dr. Corts, you're gonna need it. Peace ... or War!

Will the Bama BOE please demonstrate "leadership"?

2006-07-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

You'd think they'd learn! But this is Alabama. Slowing down and holding open meetings and seeking public input and ... would seem to be a good move toward the Alabama Board of Education resolving the disaster of our two- year colleges that their lack of oversight and openness has brought. Here they go again.

Indeed Dr. Thomas Corts, retired President of Samford University, might be a good choice as Acting Chancellor, yet as the B'ham News notes the manner of making the choice is very poor form. The News opines:

For the record, that's not what Alabama's open-meeting law envisions. With narrow exceptions, public boards and bodies are supposed to make decisions in public. Meeting in public to ratify decisions made in private at the very least violates the spirit of the law.
But even if you disregard the law - and a majority of the board is apparently all too willing to do that - private decision-making is the wrong way to set the two-year system on a more accountable and trustworthy course. How can the board demand openness from the people it hires if it's not willing to operate in the sunshine itself?
If Corts is the best person to take the helm of this badly listing ship, an open process is only going to make that fact more apparent.
If the school board goes the back-room route to hiring Corts, it's not only a disservice to taxpayers but a disservice to him.

What is complicated about this? Instead of Governor Riley going along with and in fact enabling this end run he should have reminded the BOE what has gotten us into this mess.

As an aside, Dr. Corts' service with Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform seems like a damn fine sign, even if the BOE can't show him the way. Like many here, he'll just have to work around the lack of leadership and the many barriers toward progress. Peace ... or War!

More "Wrong Thinking" from Jim Wooten on Education Standards and Testing

2006-07-26T09:17:00.000-07:00

I've given Jim "The Tool" Wooten some slack lately. I think part of the reason is due to the new format of his "Right Thinking" work in the AJC where comments are provided. The comments are often as dreadful as Jim's positions, with little if any southern hospitality shown by some posters, yet maybe that is Jim's role at the AJC. His work seems to attract a rather bizarre mix. I've long found his reasoning and writing difficult to follow, yet when it comes to his shilling the right's ideas on "education" he often demonstrates an especially horrible lack of understanding.

Although some comments are top drawer in his following "Right Thinking", Jim's "Expanding government’s reach OK if it adds education options" is yet another example of how the Conservative approach to education is flawed. One comment mentioned that trying to convince Jim of the error of his ways is like "flogging a dead horse". I agree but want to point out the value of scolding and confronting "The Tool" is to perhaps move his readers toward a more complete view than Jim generally provides.

Jim Wooten writes, in part, with my comments appearing parenthetically in bold, as follows:

The testing requirement is an example to conservatives of how to bring about reform — and get better outcomes. Whether children are compared across state lines is immaterial. That’s relatively meaningless. (Testing takes time away from learning and since it is a given that it is merely "a snap shot: on a given day that ought to be less emphasized. Useful but relying on testing is just plain stupid! Note the "outcomes" language. Once again, learning is not about input and output. I've often figured the "business model approach" would soon fall into broad ridicule if we could get a few from the business community to spend some time in the trenches with educators.)
But if the curriculum is standardized and children are tested on it, as Georgia is doing with its Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests in grades 1-8 , what it reveals about how schools and children compare is important. It identifies where the problems are — and draws attention to them. (I've taught under the Georgia Quality Core Curriculum and worked on preparing tests to attempt to measure effectiveness of the learning. I've also peeked at CRCT test questions. The persons preparing these tests are often not educators, plus clearly not historians, and many questions would offend an undergraduate in a measurement class. The canned curriculum increasingly forced on schools makes us too often teach "an inch deep and a mile wide" which is certainly not the way the average child best learns.)
Over time, incidentally, as Georgia upgrades the curriculum and pulls up the laggards, children here will perform to national standards on tests such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the SAT. It’s a matter, I believe, of standardizing curriculum and testing it, constantly raising standards for what’s considered passing. Georgia’s on the right course. (Your ideas Jim are easily sold. Makes sense to many yet as that cartoon above reveals it is hardly a solution. Rigor is lacking I regret in many classes and yet my experience in a Georgia High School, after four years in a Georgia Middle School, hardly encouraged this educator. I do agree with the "incidentally" you used in that improvements would merely be by "chance".)
Once parents get information about their child and their child’s school, they need to be able to act on it. The brilliance of NCLB is that it begins to promise parents the same thing that HOPE scholarships promise parents. The promise is that there’s a reward for effort. (I'm lost here Jim, as I am often in trying to follow your "right thinking", yet using "brilliance" with NCLB simply doesn't seem to compute. Perhaps the rare reader can help me decipher your point?)
HOPE says to eighth-graders that regardless of family income or circumstance, effort will be rewarded and the doors of college will be opened. (Having experienced "grade inflation" pressures at the High School level and "pass them all" realities at the Middle School I must object. I'll also add that kids that have been taught under the "one damn fact after another" approach are hardly going to groove when tyhe arrive through the doors of college. The 21st century jobs are going to require creativity aren't they?)
NCLB says to parents that if they care enough about their child’s education to get involved, they don’t have to eat their frustration simply because they can’t afford to move and are powerless to force change on their child’s school. (I'll submit that parents that care don't need a bureaucratic wet dream to have influence over their child's education. In fact, many parents are plenty frustrated with our testing and curriculum. From schools to parents, NCLB limits the freedoms of schools, parents, etc.)
... For the poor, the first key is to provide access to better education. The second, as he spelled out to delegates, is to own something. A home. And for some, a business. “Ownership is vital to making sure this country extends its hope to every neighborhood,” Bush said. (Jim's writing of delegates to the NAACP meeting Bu$hCo finally had the cajones and courtesy to appear before. Jim is back to the simultaneous shilling of GOP talking points it appears but yes it appears "poverty" seems to be the factor in learning or not, even if Margaret Spellings ignores her own Department. Once again, their own research shows vouchers don't accomplish anything. Solve the poverty and the learning will often follow. I've got a feeling Jim and his crowd might not like the idea of "busing" and "social engineering" don't you?)
It starts with families, a mother and father in the home. Then education. Then ownership. Then self-sufficiency and independency. Then less government. (Once again, what about the poverty? What about college tuition costs? What about jobs for poorer people instead of corporate profits being the focus of our trade policies? What about making sure a parent or parents don't have to work like two trojans to pay the bills? What about affordable and decent health care? What about ...?)
If an expanded federal role in the traditional purview of state and local government does indeed bring about reform, and competition — by giving parents information and incentive and means to act on it — it will have been a completely worthwhile expansion.

Although one has trouble thinking Jim is "conservative" and/or "libertarian" after reading this apologia for Big Government, his last portion has the obligatory market reference for Old Jim to keep his bona fides. "Competition" and "incentive" thrown in there and Jim's said the magic words perhaps? I must ask, "How competitive is our society when the fat cats keep getting fatter and regular folks keep backing up?" yet that's another issue. There's no dispute that this has been generally true for the last twenty-five years but unlike Jim I frown on painting with such a broad brush.

I'll not make Jim's head explode by bringing in Bandura's "self-efficacy" and yet somebody might benefit. Reading in this area really influenced my thinking and teaching and ... It's hard to sell Bandura to folks like Jim maybe yet it seems like common sense, which he likes to claim as his.

I'll move along I suppose as "flogging a dead horse" is rather unproductive work. Peace ... or War!

Some more "Wheeling & Dealing" at our JuCos?

2006-07-24T07:19:00.000-07:00

"Your education is the one thing they can't take away from you boy!" was one of my Old Daddy's sayings. He stressed the value of learning for its own sake up to a point but figured it was an investment as well. I've mentioned in various posts that Governor Wallace at least in part used the JuCo system as a political network and here in Alabama nobody is likely shocked that moving money amongst the players is part of the arrangement.

Despite all of this, I'm surprised that once again Brett Bleckledge of The B'ham News has delivered. Today's "Firm linked to official's brother : $135 million in business went to Merchant Capital" reveals that big money and "family values" once again intersect in our "education" efforts. Blackledge reports the following:

The state's two-year college system has given more than $135 million in bond business since 1999 to a Montgomery investment banking firm linked to the brother of Debra Dahl, the system's vice chancellor for finance.
Records show the bond business, which represents more than two-thirds of all bonds sold by the system since 1999, generated more than $1.1 million in fees for Merchant Capital, an investment banking firm in which Dahl's brother, Ken Funderburk, is executive vice president.
The work that went to Funderburk's firm came after Dahl's office took over all postsecondary education bond business in the state. In 1998, system officials forced all two-year colleges to coordinate their borrowing through Dahl's office, records show. Colleges hired their own firms for bond issues prior to the change in policy. ...
System records show that Merchant Capital received the lion's share of bond work from the two-year system, having been chosen to handle 20 of the 27 bond issues from 1999 through 2005. That amounted to $135 million of the $205 million in bond issues sold during the period to raise money for two-year college building projects, records show.
Dahl's office did not use a competitive process to sell the system's bonds, instead using a negotiated sale that allowed the system to select the investment banker and work out an agreement, records show. System spokesman Andre Taylor said state law does not require the system to sell bonds through a competitive process.
The system's bond records show that Merchant Capital charged the system on average more in fees than other investment bankers. Merchant Capital's average fee on bond deals was 8 basis points, or 8 one-hundredths of a percent of the total amount borrowed. In some cases, the firm charged as much as 13 basis points for bond issues, records show.
The average fees charged by other banking firms that handled two-year system bonds ranged between 6 and 7 basis points.
Had the system paid an average of 7 basis points for all of Merchant Capital's work, it would have saved more than $190,000 on the bond deals handled by the company, an analysis of the fees charged shows.

There's also the issue of a college scholarship awarded to Dahl's daughter from former Fire College Director Lanston's Foundation yet that's small change. The Alabama BOE must demonstrate some serious efforts to address these issues and the culture of the JuCo community.

I've yet to read Jennifer Washburn's "University, Inc.: The Corporate Corruption of American Higher Education" yet her work seems relevant up to a point. Her investigative work reveals how the corporate world has often readily stepped in to help our often cash strapped school. But there's a cost. In the long run the learning often suffers when profits and funding become a focus. Campus Progress has a nice "top ten" things students should know about big business is influencing education.

At our Alabama two-year system it appears that at least one major focus of some of the "leadership" was demonstrating an intersection of both profits and funding, either for their own or another leader's "own". Again, this is an outrage, if in fact accurate, from simply a fiscal and ethical standpoint. As an educator, I'm more concerned that the culture of the schools may have been in fact less driven by the goal of stretching minds and more by lining pockets. Peace ... or War!

"An Education You Can Build On" Meant What?

2006-07-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

Back in the day when I did more boosting than bitching, I've sat and stood before the wall pictured behind Roy Johnson at Southern Union in Wadley. I'm almost certain it reads "Southern Union" at the top with "An Education You Can Build On" appearing below. Facilities were provided for regular banquets with the Chamber, Partners in Education, .... where the local powers that be, such as they are in my locale, could network and pat each other on the back.

Brett Blackledge of the B'ham News is back with a report in today's paper entitled "Johnson's $1 million home tied to colleges" that actually hasn't much which surprises me. Given the massive amounts of money flowing through contruction projects at the various JuCos, especially my local Southern Union, it would be easy for plenty of give and take to occur. I'm somewhat troubled by the building at SUSCC, even though I think we ought to have wonderful facilities, when I know some K-12 schools in Alabama are in dreadful shape. I've long wondered about the money flowing in and out of various pockets.

As for the reporting, the explanations given by various contractors and workers make some sense and perhaps there's not that much to complain over. Some of this at least seems questionable but not outrageous. I figure there is more and I hope the Board of Education will conduct further inquiries. I found it ironic that the private people were willing to talk to the media but "efforts to reach" various public employees "failed". I trust the BOE will not fail to reach these educators.

Dr. Joanne Jordan, long associated with, and former interim President of, Southern Union, appears in the coverage referencing her home over on Lake Martin. A contractor reviewing her building plans with no charges resulting troubles me little yet I did note her son Ben Jordan serves as Business Manager at Southern Union and her son Andy Jordan holds the same position at Central Alabama.

Yet more intrigue is revealed here. The Alabama State Board of Education must create some clear standards and methods by which the public can be aware of how our entry level higher education efforts are serving the state's citizenry. "An Education You Can Build On" is likely a good marketing tool but "Education" goes well beyond the "You" as "We" benefit as well. Creating a system where top drawer education can and will occur, perhaps especially so for the population generally served by these schools, is the foundation upon which our state's progress depends. If "sweetheart deals" and "taking care of your own" detracts even marginally from the true mission of our schools then we've got a problem beyond simple waste and even graft. Taxpayer accountability is a given I hope. Peace ... or War!

Jonah "Doughy Pantload" Goldberg In My Star?

2006-07-22T06:39:00.000-07:00

Thursday’s Anniston Star has an opinion piece entitled “Why a cease-fire makes no sense” from Jonah Goldberg of Tribune Media Services that I’ll just let you read for yourself should you choose. Using "no sense" is one of Jonah's classic approaches to complexity. I wanted to educate my few readers on young Jonah and his "qualifications" on geo-politics, military strategy, international relations, history, …

While I don’t outright dismiss some of Jonah’s “thinking”, as every once in a while he'll do tolerable work, I can’t help but ponder on what makes Jonah, or George W. Bu$h for that matter, smarter than others who have walked this same rocky and perilous ground.

Young Jonah’s first brush with fame, beyond his infamous mother Lucianne Goldberg, came from his access to the Linda Tripp (You remember her as the older "friend" of Monica Lewinsky don't you?) tapes. Inda Schaenen, in Salon, described him as “The Jester of Monicagate”. Perhaps he earned the title via his genes as Mom was rather the gossip fan from telling of how LBJ would twist a nipple in the elevator and then going after the Clenis and … She even admits to creating a fake news organization to earn press access to the McGovern campaign while being paid by one of Tricky Dick’s operatives to keep the Nixon team up to speed. Genetics? My Old Daddy used to say, "Blood will tell boy." Yet Jonah's environment, one of wealth and intrigue and ..., has to have something to do with his current approach doesn't it?

Jonah got his start in the right wing machine at the American Enterprise Institute working for Ben J. Wattenberg. He is now a Contributing Editor to The National Review (Online) and a frequent contributor to TownHall. He is even a columnist for the LA Times after they headed right by replacing Robert Sheer with young Jonah.

Juan Cole, an actually scholar on the Middle East that speaks three dialects of Arabic, has a long-running conflict with Master Goldberg for his lack of knowledge of this region. Yet, from my understanding Professor Cole is most perplexed why Jonah is treated as even a casual observer by much of the media. Likewise, young Jonah is willing to cite “truthiness” to his readers in a role as climate change denier, going so far as to suggest a few changes of degrees might have some pleasant consequences. “Bugged” immediately after Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll was released, I understand, but cannot readily locate links, that Jonah joined with fellow NRO “talent” Katherine Jean Lopez in various fantasies of her ordeal, both pre and post-release. Young K-Lo got her start with The Heritage Foundation. Do you see a pattern here?

Jane Hamsher of FireDogLake wrote her “All in the Family” post on second-generation “talent” like Jonah, known around the lefty blogosphere as “Doughy Pantload”, with a portion of her writing as follows:

I bitch about this a lot so don’t expect me to pass up a golden opportunity. This is exactly the kind of second-generation junk thinking being produced on the right by people like Ben Domenech, Jonah Goldberg and George W. Bush — people who vault into to (sic?) highly paid, influential positions despite a complete and utter lack of talent or skill purely because of who their parents are and their willingness to say just about anything. Badly. A group who have tragically confused the wingnut welfare system for some kind of meritocracy, who think their megaphone comes as the result of skill and don’t acknowledge that both privilege and think tank underwriting are largely responsible for the opportunity to appear on the stage in the first place.
I always like the articles these pissy rich kids write about the welfare state and how it doesn’t encourage people to refine themselves and their ideas by engaging in competition. One need look no further than this article and those by people like Herbert Spencer scholar Jonah Goldberg (oh and let us not forget his work on Upton Sinclair) to see the utter hypocricy involved in this argument by those who are usually making it: nobody would pay for their crap if it wasn’t being underwritten by someone with a political agenda, and there is no need for their work to rise to anything above sub-mediocrity in order to keep getting subsidized.
This childish world view, unsullied by any contact with people from other cultures or life experience, scornful and elitist and promoted beyond anything it would earn as a result of its own merits, exists not only on the page — it is running the country and playing Army Men with the Middle East. No doubt they resent it mightily when Professor Cole shows up to puncture their delusional bubbles and deliver, in the words of Wolcott, a "righteous punk smackdown." Once again they send the second-rate and intellectually shiftless to defend the fort.

Jonah’s warmongering is of special note in that he offers up excuse after excuse why he can’t go fight. 101st Fighting Keyboarders indeed! To have him celebrating a delay in ending death and destruction makes me want to Ralph.

That Jonah Goldberg’s opinion is being published is fine, even in "my Star", yet I at times wish a reader could quickly obtain backgrounding on “authorities” or “columnists” so readers might be a little better informed. Young Jonah, actually just a few years younger than I, seems to hardly be an expert on much of anything yet he surely does appear willing to claim the truth. Peace …or War!

Alabama Gubernatorial Candidate Loretta Nall Visits Near The Highlands

2006-07-21T05:37:00.000-07:00

Loretta Nall was gracious enough to drive east to Roanoke last evening to speak to a small gathering of some of my friends. A bonus was that a local Libertarian I'd lost touch with dropped by as well. Very impressed we were plus we hope Loretta will return as she's able. Visit Loretta Nall for Governor. Be sure to drop by her blog as her writing will both touch you and make you think. Give her some money and some "linky love" (a Blue Gal phrase) to help her get her message out. Thanks Loretta! Peace ... or War!

Update on Dr. Gundlach's Claims Against Auburn

2006-07-18T06:16:00.000-07:00

I posted last week on Auburn University Sociology Professor Gundlach's claims that Dr. Petee, his Department's Chair, was doing "fake classes" for athletes. Today's B'ham News has Jon Soloman reporting "Professor says he won't help with probe" that seems to throw even more gas on the fire. Not that I'm a huge sports nut but I hate to see this tarnish Auburn's reputation. After the damage Bobby and Lowderites have done this is the last thing Auburn needs. At least The Braves are finally playing good baseball. Peace ... or War!

Bob Riley - No Bu$hCo but "Right Track" Has Ruts

2006-07-17T12:38:00.001-07:00

The "Right Track" might not be working for everybody Governor. Back in June you spent taxpayer money trotting around the state celebrating all you've done but Sunday's news ought to rachet back your glee. Tiffany Ray of the Birmingham Business Journal appears on MSNBC with "Alabama near top in bankruptcies". Here's the deal from the start of the article:

Despite the growth of the Alabama auto industry and other economic gains, the state is reporting bankruptcy rates in 2006 that rank among the highest in the nation.
And with high poverty levels, low job growth and weak consumer protection laws, experts say the state isn't likely to lose its place near the top of the bankruptcy list.

When I think of Bob Riley as Governor I can't help but think of Dubyah touting his accomplishments in Texas, where the Governor is not much more than a figurehead. The scholarship I've been exposed to has the Lone Star State way ahead on the weak Executive continuum. But Alabama's close!

There is no doubt the rich have gotten richer and the poor poorer under Bu$hCo. The trend holds in Alabama with the following statistics cited by Ms. Ray:

In Alabama, 16.9 percent of residents, or about 763,000 people, lived in poverty in 2004, according the U.S. Census Bureau. That's up from 13.3 percent, or 583,000, in 2000.

The tax cuts for poorer people might help but I'll argue the Democrats provided the leadership on that effort and your Republican Big Mules darn near derailed the effort.

Here's yet another thing to ponder from Ms. Ray's work:

In 2000, Alabama reported about 353,000 manufacturing jobs, he says. By 2004, that number had dropped to 286,000.
During that time, the state's population grew 1.9 percent, below the U.S. average of about 4 percent, a sign of low economic activity, Norris notes.

Let's not forget the rough spots in the road Governor. Many Alabama citizens are barely getting along with high fuel costs. Since your President came into office tuition costs have risen so much that it has become prohibitive for me to take classes. Health care costs are astronomical.

Fianlly, the magazine that keeps on handing you awards cites this as a positive for the South:

* the most preferred region for investment by foreign companies by a large margin? * the least unionized and most right-to-work region in the world's richest country?

Low wages and low taxes has always been the Southern recipe for economics. I hope folks know "right to work" is more accurately labeled as "hard to organize". This hasn't exactly worked out that well, and I'll offer that in the modern world it can't work out favorably, for our region. I'm not so sure this magazine is going to recognize factors that will truly transform Alabama. Lack of consumer protection leads to abuses where the trial lawyer community is often the group that seeks a remedy to mistreatment of regular folks but that's another issue.

In fact, consider how North Carolina got to where they are getting all this good press from this same magazine. My understanding is that they educated their citizens to where they were head and shoulders above other Southern states. With the exception of some factory farms and the like, much of North Carolina's growth is in research and technological areas.

Finally, this magazine looks about a decade or more behind. They seem rather supportive of "globalization" and I'm rather sure they approve of the corporate welfare approach (overpaying for jobs). Selling job sites and training programs and ... is growth on the back end. Education is doing it on the front end. It might not show up until decades down the road and it is hard to measure but it works.

You just got back from China. Do you really think Alabama can win in the low cost and limited regulation game? Peace ... or War!

Concerns Over Top Spot at Snead State

2006-07-16T11:17:00.000-07:00

Dana Beyerle of the NY Times Montgomery Bureau reports in The Gadsden Times "Some fear cronyism in Snead president pick" that builds off the Alabama BOE's recent firing of Roy Johnson. Forty plus applicants for the top spot seems astronomical. Many have Alabama connections. Ought to be interesting. Peace ... or War!

Bama BOE Has Some 'Splaining to Do

2006-07-15T11:24:00.000-07:00

Bob Johnson of AP appears in The Montgomery Advertiser with "Firing raises open meetings law questions" questioning an end run around Alabama's "open meetings" law when the State Board of Education recently canned Roy Johnson and hired Dr. Renee "Four's Better Than Five" Culverhouse as the Interim Chancellor.

Isn't this failure to do things by the book and with disclosures and ... what got us in this mess? The Board seems to need educating as Dr. Culverhouse might not have been the best choice, even on an interim basis. Ella Bell's apparent sexism (Five uses of "he/him"? I'm not so sure about that ignorant, backward progress down the road Ms. Bell and I hope Joe Reed scolds you given what he said above your quote.) is another thing but I'll move along.

That the State Board has so much of their own nepotism at issue wouldn't have been the reason for handling things so quickly would it? Leaving Betty Peters and Stephanie Bell, allegedly the only two Board members free from scrutiny on taking care of their own, out of the counting votes before the meeting makes a Scot ponder.

"Paging Brett Blackledge." Peace ... or War!

DNC's Howard Dean Has Free Air Fare to Alabama

2006-07-14T14:38:00.000-07:00

Alabama state GOP chair Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh has offered to buy National Democratic Chairman Howard Dean a plane ticket to come down to Alabama to "publicly outline the positions of the national Democrat Party on any number of issues". I'm not sure how much more public outline she wants than what the DNC's website offers.

The DNC's "Agenda" seems clear enough. If nothing else the "Corruption and Abuse of Power" pages are worth a visit. You mentioned The Don's guilty verdict in your release so I'm sure the crime and graft of the GOP offends you just as much. The DNC's blog "Kicking Ass" is a good reference for what the party believes.

Ms. Andress Cavanaugh ends her anouncement of today with

“The Alabama Democrat Party can’t hold hands with the national party when nobody is looking and run away when it’s convenient,” Cavanaugh said. “To paraphrase another well-known Alabamian – there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between the national and Alabama Democrat parties.”

I'm not so sure the state Democrats run away from the national party, especially with these national poll numbers. In fact, the national party left Joe Turnham rather on his own and yet he still nearly won against Mike Rogers in my own U.S. House District. I'm more liberal than most local Democrats so I'm not following why anybody should be ashamed of Governor Dean and the national party. If being out of mainstream means your Secretary of State Candidate Beth Chapman's speech back in 2003 makes sense then I'll be happy to stay out. (You GOP gals are getting good at channeling George Wallace's Politics of Rage.) I am thrilled that Governor Dean is instituting a "Fifty State Strategy" so perhaps we'll do a better job down here. Joe Turnham is reminding us of what we'll not hear from Ken Mehlman or the Goopers in B'ham this evening.

I'm hoping Governor Dean will take her up on the offer. Get the press and proceed to setting the record straight. Talking points seldom hold up in a legitimate discussion. Dean's Presidential campaign and recent work has demonstrated he can talk to all of America, even here in one of the Reddest of the Red States.

Finally, I know Ms. Andress-Cavanaugh has left her position with the lobbying group based in Mississippi due to their gambling work. It seems she conferenced in or was at a meeting I was attending some years back. It was a political issue and seems like it was a group of "liberal trial lawyers" from over in my area. I think we met in Alexander City yet I'm not certain. Does anyone know ifshe once worked on that side of the fence. I know she tried to do work with or for the AEA once, although she now rips them for their political positions that generally favor the Democratic Party.

I'm not sure if it is still open but I wondered if Ken will make an appearance at Birmingham's Tool Box? We know family values are a vital part of the GOP platform yet Ken might enjoy some Southern hospitality. Peace ... or War

Auburn Sociology Professor Alleges Special Treatment for Athletes

2006-07-14T10:14:00.000-07:00

Auburn University is back in the news with more bad press. Certainly Bobby Lowder and some of the other idiots down there deserved attention yet I'm disappointed by this AJC piece from Bill Sanders entitled "Auburn investigates allegations - Professor: Athletes got high grades in class that required no attendance and little work". I'm counting 50 plus Google News hits so far, including The New York Times piece that was painfully detailed.

Dr. James Gundlach alleges Dr. Thomas Petee has been too easy on certain student athletes in his "directed reading" classes. I'm not so sure I'd want to air issues with my department chair in thenewspaper yet certainly not about one who is an expert in homicide! Telling a journalist he's "groupie-esque around athletes" might make for plenty of tension up on the seventh floor of Haley Center.

I've taken a graduate seminar with Dr. Petee some years back and found him to be fair and reasonably demanding. He was always willing to talk at length about school violence issues even when I was not in his class/department. I've known of Dr. Gundlach merely by name and face yet can't offer any opinion one way or the other beyond the belief that roasting coffee beans like this seems to be far too much hassle. Certainly if he's concerned he ought to have gone forward at AU yet I'd have preferred this news coverage to have been limited until after the investigation is complete.

I know this mess goes on yet I'm thinking Dr. Petee will be cleared or perhaps merely scolded by the investigation. If he's done wrong then I hope and trust AU will solve the problem. If folks in the athletic department were in on the fix then they better have consequences as well. I agree that athletics often does seem to come first down on The Plains yet I saw little if any evidence when I was down there of professors gaming the system. I also knew plenty of athletes that worked hard to earn their grades. Some were slackers I'm sure but the guys and gals I knew down there took care of their academics.

It saddens me when an intitution and people you respect face troubles. Peace ... or War!

Dressed Down - GQ's Sean Flynn on Ralph Reed

2006-07-14T08:37:00.000-07:00

I am in awe of Sean Flynn's GQ piece on Ralph Reed. North Carolina is proud of you I'm sure Mr. Flynn. Just read the thing but be ready for some work clicking through all the pages. I'm going back for another turn. I'm hardly a GQ fella but I'll buy the issue with this article. The image from Eric Lesser is likewise amazing. I recall David Sirota calling John Stossel "smarmy" recently yet Ralph also wears it well

I'll hope plenty of folks in Georgia and beyond consider this man as representative of the Christianists that are a huge part of the GOP machine. If even a tenth of the stories about him are true then he's a truly awful person. I've made my share of mistakes yet to have this character talk of character turns my stomach. That he's be more welcome around most of my family due to his "faith" and politics makes it all the worse. My old Daddy's name was "Ralph" and I carry the handle as my middle name so my scorn is complete for Mr. Reed. He makes me want to ralph.

Republican "values" run rather thin when folks like Ralph Reed are examined. I wonder how John Giles of the Alabama Christian Coalition and some of the others around here that work the "values voters" side of the fence would measure up to such scrutiny? When these self-righteous folks enter the public forum then Progressives can, or perhaps should, call them out for "sinning" even though I'd much prefer to avoid throwing stones.

It did me good to recall how Ralph helped Fumbling Fob lose to The Don, bless his heart and here's to a short stint at Club Fed, back in the day. Now I'm longing for the times when the Governor's race was sort of contested but I digress. If The Don is a sinner, and a jury thinks he is although I'm sure appeals are to follow, it might be that he and Ralph Reed both fell in love with money. However, at least The Don hasn't built his entire career pretending to be a Godly man. Peace ... or War!

The one thing they can't take away from you ...

2006-07-13T05:18:00.000-07:00

My old daddy, faulted as he was, surely valued education. He left JSU after doing his time in the Navy toward the end of WWII. I think he simply missed "home" but I often think what he could have done with a little more formal education. He helped make sure his four kids earned several degrees.

Three educators and one social worker, although two sisters have not worked in the last decade or two. He was a smart man that liked politics. My understanding is that he called in a connection or two to get his kids jobs or at least their foot in the door. I still think he'd be a touch outraged by what appears to be going on in our two-year system. Maybe all these family members are top drawer, highly qualified, hard working folks but then again there seems to be lots of smoke here.

The post title is built off a line he said more than once, that being, "Education is the one thing they can't take away from you boy.", figuring they meant "life" I guess. Hardly the optimist was my Dad and yet I think I know what he meant. We all know "It's not what you know but who you know." and darned if that one doesn't seem to hold as well, perhaps especially so here in Alabama.

The image here is of Dr. Renee Culverhouse, President of Gadsden State Community College and interim Chancellor of Alabama's two year college system. I posted yesterday on Roy Johnson being shown the door. The Mobile Register reports in their "Board to study nepotism policy following firing of chancellor" the following:

The interim chancellor chosen by the board, Renee Culverhouse, is not immune to the issue either. She has informed the board that her husband, daughter, brother and son-in-law are employed by the two-year college system.

Roy Johnson had five family members on the payroll so I guess four is a step in the right direction. Now I agree, up to a point at least, with something the piece referenced above contains, that being a statement attributed to Board President pro tem Sandra Ray that states,

She said it's natural that there would be more than one family member working for two-year colleges because in many families working in education it is a tradition passed down from one generation to another.

Please note that Ms. Ray has a daughter and son working in the two year system!

I'll also agree with Political Science Professor William Stewart that you don't want to "throw the baby out with the bath water" in creating a better policy. There's middle ground yet a clear policy ought to have already been nailed down. It appears that plenty of folks have some 'splaining to do.

This situation can partly be traced back to one reason George Wallace pushed so hard for JuCos and technical colleges. Networks, perhaps especially those built on nepotism up to a point, can be handly tools for getting things done in this state. Wallace valued quantity of quality,as might still be the default position here in Alabama, yet this state can hardly afford to have foolishness going on at any level of education.

I also know how hard it is to get your foot in the door at a JuCo in an academic field. I've been told you start way lower in pay at Auburn than at SUSCC plus you aren't expected to publish. Your teaching load is only barely higher. I also know they pay dreadfully low for part-time instructors. An insulting rate if you intend to do a good job with the instruction and grading and prep and ... Maybe they are using the part-time instruction as an audition. Could be they are wanting to see if you'll play nice and all that stuff.

The following is my real concern. Taxpayers are hardly going to pony up when they see, or even think, leaders like Johnson and ... are milking the system. These positions are fine jobs I'm thinking compared to how many Alabamians keep their bread buttered. I know how hard I worked in the classroom and I'm figuring most of these folks were hardly toiling as I didbut probably making just as much if not more than I was. I'm certain there's some resentment from Joe and Jill Sixpack when they see the "family business" in action. This sort of stuff goes on in K-12 settings as well yet it depends on the system I'm sure. Again, qualified people should not be disqualified simply because of family connections yet you've got to create safeguards to prevent abuse or the appearance of monkey business.

It's a damn shame when we see our Executive and Legislative branches asleep at the switch on anything yet to have this be so in education is intolerable. Peace ... or War!

State Board of Education Boots Big Johnson

2006-07-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

Erin Elaine Mosely of The Montgomery Advertiser provides a solid summary yet let's not forget Brett Blackledge of The B'ham News is the reporter that has been all over this mess. I'm figuring Brett is not going to make the Johnson's Christmas card list. His reporting ought to get several awards.

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer gives us a brief bio of Mr. (not Dr.!) Johnson. Qualified? Hardly! That Roy Johnson has risen to this position in the first place says much about Alabama. I've met Roy a few times and can recall thinking WTF essentially every time.

I've been blogging on this for some time, especially as relates to Southern Union in that Wadley, the main campus, is just across the river from The Highlands.

I've yet to see anybody critical of the State Board exercising the no cause clause to end Johnson's tenure. Hope springs eternal that the Board will consider how folks are hired and money is spent yet I understand even a few folks on that entity are tainted by those issues. Peace ... or War!

Johnny Green tapped as AU's Dean of Students

2006-07-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

One of my former Political Science profs, Dr. Johnny Green, has been named as Auburn University's Dean of Students. Congrats! As of this Saturday, Dr. Green will be in this new position where I'm sure he'll do an outstanding job. Peace ... or War!

President Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III

2006-07-11T08:07:00.000-07:00

Jeff Sessions says "Wait one cotton picking minute"! The Big Mules were perhaps thinking Virginia's George Allen, assuming he gets past James Webb and I'm not so sure he will, might be the closest thing to Bu$hCo's "intellect" the GOP has in the wings for '08 yet Jeffy B could very well be at least a fall back position.

Alabama's Junior Senator might actually be a reluctant candidate yet very few politicians are harmed when they are considered for the top spot, unless you get laughed at in public. I'm laughing, perhaps to keep from crying, but I'm truly tickled.

Paleo-conservative Hugh McInnish, good Scot that his surname suggests he is, has been blogged on before for his adoration of Senator Sessions ... and his connections to V-Dare and other "questionable" characters/organizations.

To learn, via Mary Orndorff of The B'ham News that "Sessions focus of planned draft for presidential run", that McInnish, an "especially conservative Republican from Huntsville", hopes to get the Alabama GOP to "draft" Sessions into a run for The White House is revealing. McInnish's "thoughts" on drafting Sessions appear on his CurbAEA site. Total tip of the tam to Dan Roberts of "Between the Links" for getting the mention in the News. Dabble on Dan!

The idea that Jeffy B. has "dug in his heels against the White House" is amusing. I agree he has on immigration yet that seems consistent with his past. I know, as does the Anniston Star, he's been carrying Bu$hCo's water on plenty more. I met Senator Sessions when he visited Roanoke earlier this year and found him mostly in line with the Rubber Stamp mentality. I'm thinking the "one good thing" which might result from Jeffy B's drafting would be if he carried his affinity for comely young women staffers with him to the White House. Since the Senator loves Abu Gonzales he could remain on as AG. Both of their legal minds put together might actually equal one lawyer.

I'm still thinking the "authenticity" of George Allen will carry the day for the Paleo-Conservative/Nativist crowd in 2008. Dubyah became a "cowboy" and the Coach's boy(his mother is French!) will use his interest in "redneck religion" to reach their Red State voters. So dream on Hugh. I'm afraid we are stuck with Senator Sessions folks. Peace ... or War!

American Bar Association's Task Force on Presidential Signing Statements

2006-07-11T07:21:00.000-07:00

Nat Hentoff, hardly a flaming lefty as demonstrated by this "Judical Murder" piece on Terri Schiavo that goes after the ACLU with special zeal, got ink in today's Anniston Star for his "In many cases, Bush alone decides what is law" piece. The reporting reveals the ABA will soon release a report on President Bu$h's uncommon reliance on signing statements to essentially up front tell Congress he will interpret laws how he chooses. "I am the decider" indeed!

Revealed initially and then followed up by the reporting of Charlie Savage of the Boston Globe, I am pleased the ABA is doing what the Rubber Stamp Congress has avoided. I guess the GOP can follow the example of Troy King by whining and attacking this organization's "liberal bias" once the report comes out like the AG did with the Alabama death penalty ABA task force. I did note the task force is seemingly made up of serious legal minds yet I'm not sure if the Rubber Stampers care one way or the other.

I can't help but think the ABA will blast Bu$h and Congress for these radical signing statements and the general lack of constitutional balance these last few years. Kudos to The Star for educating our region. Peace ... or War!

SPLC's Mark Potok & MSNBC's Tucker Carlson

2006-07-10T19:28:00.000-07:00

I don't have a video or link or transcripts yet, and perhaps never will, yet I was certainly pleased to see Mark Potok, Intelligence Project Director of own Southern Poverty Law Center, handle Tucker Carlson this evening. Tucker tried mischaracterizing the SPLC's concerns of extremist types using recruiting shortfalls to enter the military. Mr. Potok, who appears to the left, simply wouldn't allow Carlson's foolishness to go unchallenged. Well done sir! Peace ... or War!

UPDATE - July 11, 2006 - Here's the transcript:
Well, is the United States military becoming a training ground for neo-Nazi and other extremist groups? An organization called the Southern Poverty Law Center says oh, yes. That group claims white supremacists are taking advantage of relaxed recruiting standards to join the armed forces where they get weapons training and explosive training. Are we breeding a new generation of Timothy McVeighs? That‘s the question.
Who knows, but I will point out the obvious point, that the Southern Poverty Law Center raises quite a bit of money pedaling the notion that indeed, it does. That the military does harbor potential Timothy McVeighs. So let‘s ask someone who‘s intimately involved with The Southern Poverty Law Center, which incidentally has called the defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to do something about this. Mark Potok is joining us now from the Southern Poverty Law Center to explain why he believes the military is being infiltrated by white supremacists. Mark, thanks a lot for coming on.
MARK POTOK, SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER: Well thanks for having me.
CARLSON: It seems like you have no evidence at all that this is actually true. Do you?
POTOK: Well, I think that‘s completely false. You know...
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: How many white supremacists are in the military then?
POTOK: Well, listen to what I have to say. First of all, you might want to remember that back in ‘96, as well as ‘86, there were two scandals, two major scandals having to do with extremists in the military.
CARLSON: Yes, I remember.
POTOK: In 1996, a neo-Nazi gang based in the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg actually murdered a black couple as some kind of initiation right. That produced a big scandal, which ended with William Perry, then the defense secretary, issuing a strengthened set of regulations, designed to stop this very phenomenon. At the time, a study was done by a task force on extremism in the Army and what they found actually was that 0.52 percent of the armed forces, if their survey was accurate, were extremists...
CARLSON: OK. OK...
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: ... right to the president. That was 10 years ago...
POTOK: Well that works out to 7,300 people...
CARLSON: ... 20 years ago. How about right now?
(CROSSTALK)
POTOK: OK, what I‘m talking about...
(CROSSTALK)
POTOK: OK, well let me say my peace.
CARLSON: Please.
POTOK: We did quite a lot of work looking at this and we found a number of anecdotal instances. Later on as we got into the reporting, we started to talk to actual Defense Department investigators. Several were not named, one did speak for the record and was named, a man named Scott Barfield and had some fairly amazing things to say. One of them, for instance, was that he and his crew had identified 320 extremists at one single fort, Fort Lewis, in the state of Washington where he stays. When the commanders were informed of this, only two were thrown out.
CARLSON: OK but...
POTOK: He went on to say...
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: I‘m sorry. You have gone on quite a bit and I guess the reason I sound a little bit agitated is the implication of what you‘re saying is pretty serious.
POTOK: I agree.
CARLSON: You‘re suggesting that the military, the Army is in fact allowing this. They‘re not doing their best to root these guys out, if in fact they know that there are 300 extremists, whatever that is at one military base, and only two have been brought to justice. You‘re implying that the U.S. military is in league with white supremacists and that‘s a very, very strong thing to say...
POTOK: No, that‘s a completely...
CARLSON: ... and you seem to have no actual evidence...
POTOK: ... false allegation.
CARLSON: What do you mean? You‘re the one making the allegation.
POTOK: Well I‘m not implying...
CARLSON: And you don‘t have any names. You don‘t have...
POTOK: ... that the military...
(CROSSTALK)
POTOK: Do I get to speak on your show?
CARLSON: Go ahead. I‘m waiting for the evidence...
POTOK: OK.
CARLSON: ... with baited breath...
POTOK: What we are saying is that the standards have been relaxed by some recruiters and some commanders in some places. We are not alleging that Secretary Rumsfeld is somehow in league with neo-Nazis, as you seem to have read our report, and is somehow colluding to bring these people into the military.
CARLSON: I‘m not saying that.
POTOK: That‘s plainly false. And that‘s not at all what we suggest. What we suggest is that there‘s been a lot of pressure on the military in terms of recruiting. Last year, as you probably know, they failed to make their quotas. They have made them this year, but this pressure has been ongoing and building since the actions in Afghanistan, of course afterwards in Iraq.
CARLSON: OK, but you still haven‘t given me an example within the last 10 years. I can give you two examples and more...
(CROSSTALK)
POTOK: ... man named Robert Lee West (ph) who is right now in the military. You know we have pictures of him on our Web site holding a bunch of military weapons and posing in front of a swastika flag...
CARLSON: Wait a second. We also...
(CROSSTALK)
CARLSON: Sir, let me finish.
POTOK: Sure.
CARLSON: We have a number of examples of radical Muslims in the ranks of the U.S. military killing people. For instance, there was a soldier, an enlisted soldier in Kuwait...
POTOK: Yes.
CARLSON: ... right before the invasion of Iraq, who fragged people in his unit because of Islam. You had John Lee Muhammad, who is an Army veteran, who was trained in the use of firearms in the military who became an observant Muslim and shot a bunch of people, the famous D.C. sniper...
POTOK: That is true.
CARLSON: You could make a pretty compelling case that radical Islam is a problem in the enlisted ranks and instead you‘re claiming that white supremacists are the problem. And I don‘t see them shooting up anybody. My only point is maybe you‘re stuck in a different decade. Maybe it‘s time to kind of update your stereotypes of what the risks are.
POTOK: Well you may think they‘re stereotypes, Tucker. You‘ve named me two cases which I know about very well.
CARLSON: OK...
POTOK: In fact...
(CROSSTALK)
POTOK: ... a number of cases—excuse me.
CARLSON: Have you issued a report about the Islamic shooting...
POTOK: Yes, we‘ve issued a lengthy report about it. Apparently, you haven‘t looked at it.
CARLSON: Haven‘t seen it...
POTOK: But we certainly have and we‘ve issued a fairly detailed letter to the secretary as well and you know whatever you may think, our purpose is not to sully the armed forces or even to attack the secretary. Our point is to remind people and in particular, the secretary of defense, that this has been a serious problem in the past, to the point where two secretaries of defense, whatever you may pick, thought that it was a very serious problem and issued regulations, instituted task force studies and a number of other measures...
CARLSON: Yes. No, I get it. I get it. Look, Mark, I get it. I get it.
POTOK: You may recall there were congressional hearings on this matter.
CARLSON: It was a serious problem—but so was typhus in Washington, D.C. and it‘s not now. Maybe this is still a problem. Maybe it‘s not. I‘d like to see more evidence, but I—in the meantime, I appreciate your coming on. Thank you.

Learning from H. Brandt Ayers

2006-07-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

H. Brandt Ayers of The Anniston Star has long been one of my heroes. As a youngster I devoured his paper and still turn to it often. Today's edition gives us "How liberals failed schools" examing the serious troubles of the Anniston City School System. Hardly a bleeding heart liberal, although perhaps as close to one as many in our area ever have been exposed to, Mr. Ayers writes:

... By the time the Green decision had been fully applied by the lower courts, the Anniston system lost 2,000 students, was 55 percent black and mostly poor. In 2000, the system was more than 95 percent black, 84 percent poor enough to need meal subsidies. A majority of poor, socially and educationally unprepared children flooded systems from Birmingham to Boston, and middle-income parents of both races fled to avoid the deluge.
In a rueful conversation with one of Anniston’s civil rights veterans, the Rev. Nimrod Q. Reynolds, he agreed that parental reaction would have been the same if poor white "redneck" students overwhelmed middle-income black school systems.
Integration became an end in itself, a value greater than education, or so it seemed to the president of the Mississippi NAACP at a 1972 regional education meeting in Jackson. I asked him, "What is more important: education or integration?" He replied without hesitation: integration.
But more and more integration didn’t translate into better and better education for either race. The result was more and more re-segregation.
A Southern statesman, William Winter, who would kick-start school funding in Mississippi as governor in 1982, had this to say about the double anchor of race and poverty: "Discrimination is not limited to race. The line that separates the well educated from the poorly educated is the harshest fault line of all. This is where we must begin. We must get the message out to every household and especially every poor household that the only road out of poverty runs by the schoolhouse."

Tough talk but true I think. Gradualism might have had its own perils yet not likely would it have created endemic poverty such as is true for Anniston. Having taught poor white "redneck" students I will concur on the flight factor. I left my last school after but one year mainly due to the frustrations of working with "rednecks". I would likely not want my child attending that school and I'd choose flight if necessary to avoid. I'll confess "Public policy be damned!" when it comes to our own.

I was pleased that Mr. Ayers mentioned Raleigh as I've read of their successes in trying to make sure no school is "too" poor. If you'll keep it below 40% free and reduced lunch levels it seems to make a difference.

The real reason for this post is simply to celebrate what a tremendous gift Mr. Ayers' talents are to our area. He and The Star have taught me much and they are appreciated. Before I leave this amazing man, the U of A creating a Community Journalism Masters program with the sacrifices of Mr. Ayers must also be recognized. Peace ... or War!

Southern Poverty Law Center and The Gray Lady

2006-07-07T20:13:00.000-07:00

The New York Times cited our SPLC's concerns about how extremists may be taking advantage of the recruiting crunch caused by Bu$hCo's disastrous Iraq policy to get advanced military training. While there's plenty to moan and groan about with how Dubyah and his cabal have handled Iraq I'll admit I'd never thought about this consequence. Scary stuff! Indeed I do believe history will have little doubt that this is the "Worst Administration Ever!" Peace ... or War!

Garrison Keillor on Ralph Reed

2006-07-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Salon (just watch the ad!) gives Garrison Keillor space for "A peach of a scandal in Georgia : Ralph Reed's shameless snookering of Christian congregations should spell doom for his political career. But will it?" Ralph Reed has to be one on the top ten folks on my "I'd like to whip their ass!" list. I loathed his work with the "Christian Coalition" and when he "sold out" officially to the Big Mules his place on the list was confirmed. "Should" indeed Mr. Keillor ... but this is deep in the heart of Jesusland. Peace ... or War!

Jim Wooten's "Folderol"

2006-06-28T11:36:00.000-07:00

I had to look "folderol" up but it means "nonsense". That "The Tool" knows this word surprises me not. Jim let me down yesterday with his "Liberals find living in past to their liking" in that he's a constant source of material. While I guess some of what Mr. Wooten is writing in the above might make sense to some people, I'm simply lost.

About halfway through he writes,

The intent here is not so much to argue for the much-needed modernization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but to note the difference in the way liberals and conservatives approach government.

I've actually blogged on the difference in that approach just yeserday. I can understand the scholar's work I'm building off even if a can't do the same for this "journalist". Wooten then goes on to write,

Liberals associate behaviors and conditions with geography.

We do? Of course there is often an association I'd accept plus we liberals do like to try to grasp as much information as we can in seeking solutions. So what's the problem Jim? The Tool adds,

Instead — and this is, again, where liberals and conservatives differ — the smart solution is to forget playing “economic justice” power games (which is what the Voting Rights Act preclearance provisions also engender) and design market-needs transportation systems.
The notion, though, that conditions, behaviors, values and real estate are inextricably linked gets us a lot of misdirected government effort and spending.

Huh? I have read this column over and over but I'm still struggling with what point(s) he makes. He got a plug in for his beloved "markets" and slammed government and spending, with special scorn for education spending, yet beyond that I'm confused. Shifting the VRA issues to disputes on transportation planning facing The ATL seems like a poor way to make any point yet we know "Wooten's World" allows for some special "thinking". Citing Lynn Westmoreland is understandable for The Tool but I'm used to skewed statistics and/or pseudo-research and/or shilling of GOP talking points when I read his "thinking right". Perhaps Jim just tried to cobble together too much conservative "logic". It's not like he's getting paid for this is it?

If anybody can translate The Tool for me I'd appreciate the help. The VRA might need polishing up but the legislation is still relevant. Beyond that, I'm not sure how to engage Jim just yet. Peace ... or War!

Boston College Professor Alan Wolfe Explains "Why Conservatives Can't Govern"

2006-06-27T17:57:00.000-07:00

I recently posted "Dick Armey's Astroturfing of Alabama" where I attempted to remind folks of just how much Dick and his brand of Republicans, unfortunately the one's that are fully in charge of the GOP these days, hate government. Today I ran across Alan Wolfe's Washington Monthly piece entitled "Why Conservatives Can't Govern" which ties nicely into the prior post. Here's portions of what Mr. Wolfe wrote:

Contemporary conservatism is first and foremost about shrinking the size and reach of the federal government. This mission, let us be clear, is an ideological one. It does not emerge out of an attempt to solve real-world problems, such as managing increasing deficits or finding revenue to pay for entitlements built into the structure of federal legislation. It stems, rather, from the libertarian conviction, repeated endlessly by George W. Bush, that the money government collects in order to carry out its business properly belongs to the people themselves. One thought, and one thought only, guided Bush and his Republican allies since they assumed power in the wake of Bush vs. Gore: taxes must be cut, and the more they are cut--especially in ways benefiting the rich--the better.
But like all politicians, conservatives, once in office, find themselves under constant pressure from constituents to use government to improve their lives. This puts conservatives in the awkward position of managing government agencies whose missions--indeed, whose very existence--they believe to be illegitimate. Contemporary conservatism is a walking contradiction. Unable to shrink government but unwilling to improve it, conservatives attempt to split the difference, expanding government for political gain, but always in ways that validate their disregard for the very thing they are expanding. The end result is not just bigger government, but more incompetent government.
"Ideas," a distinguished conservative named Richard Weaver once wrote, "have consequences." Americans have learned something about the consequences of conservative ideas during the Bush years that they never had to confront in the more amiable Reagan period. As a way of governing, conservatism is another name for disaster. And the disasters will continue, year after year, as long as conservatives, whose political tactics are frequently as brilliant as their policy-making is inept, find ways to perpetuate their power. ...
In the 1970s, the conservative impulse went underground, incubating in a string of new think tanks funded by conservative philanthropists and sympathetic corporations. Although some of those who followed in Goldwater's footsteps--Nixon, Reagan, Bush, and then Bush--professed to share his distaste for government, none stood in the way of its growth. When given the opportunity, they shied away from enacting the think-tank talk of washing government down the bathroom drain. Although Ronald Reagan, a convert to anti-federal-government conservatism, won the White House in 1980 by feeding on public disgust with the excesses of liberalism, whatever plans he may have had to roll back the federal government were blocked by a Democratic Congress and public opinion. (Remember, for instance, the drubbing the GOP took in 1982 when it tried to axe Social Security benefits). Newt Gingrich and his revolutionaries rode a similar wave in 1994, but their plans were at least partially stymied by Bill Clinton's control of the White House and, again, by public opinion (the GOP lost seats in 1998).
With the election of George W. Bush in 2000, anti-government conservatism won control of both elected branches. This was something new. ...
If government is necessary, bad government, at least for conservatives, is inevitable, and conservatives have been exceptionally good at showing just how bad it can be. Hence the truth revealed by the Bush years: Bad government--indeed, bloated, inefficient, corrupt, and unfair government--is the only kind of conservative government there is. ...
Governing well would require them to use the bully-pulpit of office to educate and uplift their base. But since contemporary conservatives get their political energy from angry voices of rage and revenge, they will always blame others for the failures built into their ideology. ...

This is a good work. I'll read it again and then once more. I also expect I'll return to it later for it is much grist for the mill. Peace ... or War!

Captain Plaid - Why I'll Continue Blogging!

2006-06-27T09:31:00.000-07:00

I’ve been busy lately but I’m getting a fair amount done around the property. Time is scarce even with the summer vacation from “teaching” the “scholars” I was working with this past year. I’ve also had some flack from my conservative/evangelical family on my blogging and the rare “Letter to the Editor” to my local rag, even those that were mistakenly viewed as such. My ex-wife has gone on the warpath to boot! I have several projects that are going to take some serious effort and time, plus I’ve got to figure out how to start making a living this Fall. I’ll admit I’ve pondered dropping the whole blogging enterprise. I’d continue to read as much as I could but might stop posting. But I’m not, at least not just yet. Here’s why:

Blogging gives me a chance to vent. “If you aren’t outraged then you aren’t paying attention!” seems to work for me. I am often amazed at the lack of understanding in our “leadership” from the national to local level. Journalist and pundits disappoint me as well at times yet the pseudo-commentators and Astroturf organizations and those playing The Mighty Wurlitzer deserve my/our scorn.
Blogging lets me communicate and connect. I do read several major and also a few minor blogs yet rarely comment. However, I can feel connections with others that are concerned enough to share. I’m stuck here in the boonies of East Alabama with less human contact than might be ideal. I like being alone at times yet admittedly enjoy intellectual discourse and basic banter about the things of life. Sharing ideas and thoughts seems so human. Blogging, both reading and writing posts, seems very suitable for that process.
Writing, and thinking for that matter, can be a creative release. I like to build and do. I am sure my mind is improved from the process. Seems harmless at least. I’d love to be able to profit financially from the work yet doubt that will happen. But I do profit in other ways.
I truly learn from reading and thinking. Blogs, plus the links and resources they’ve sent me to as well, have taught me so much. I am learning how to be a better writer, with a long ways to go admittedly, yet even this relatively well-educated man learns plenty every day from reading the posts of some super smart folks. I believe we should learn until we die. When we stop learning then we might as well check out. I’m just forty. I think often that a well seasoned man could contribute to this sort of effort even it he can’t work like a young man.
This blogging seems so democratic. Regular folks are able to challenge the authorities and powerful and those with an audience. The marketplace of ideas on steroids it seems.
Blogging is a bargain. A high speed line tied to an admittedly old computer and I’m there. Lots of bang for the buck it seems.
Blogging expands my world. I get to read ideas from people around the planet that I’d otherwise never know. I get views certainly from locations that I’m not likely to visit. I hear from the Left Coast to DC to Philly to NYC to The ATL to Colorado to …
I feel more patriotic by blogging. I’m connected to a group that cares about our nation. We often are critical of our governments yet I think that is the ultimate sign of patriotism. We seek the ideal that this country can be. I believe in the work of the ACLU and other groups that seek the protections of those freedoms and traditions that makes this nation still worth saving. I believe in social justice and these efforts allow me to work in those fields.
I like politics and public policy. Armchair wonk? My four main blogs had been thought out as “thinking globally and acting locally”, with Marque Stuart being an aside that I hope to return to as able. Captain Plaid (nation/world) to Captain Bama (region) to Tin Shop Tartan (local) work in that continuum. Captain Jimi lets me fight the culture war in one location yet I continue to believe there’s often overlap in all areas. I still think Progressivism may best be "sold” through local applications. Fighting back against conservatism’s powerful message machine almost requires insurgency on the local level given how the mainstream media and some Democrats continue to let them get away with distortions and talking points. Also, some centrist Democrats are nearly as bad at the GOP with their allegiances to The Big Mules very certain. Progressives have few leaders on the national stage, with Russ Feingold being one exception it seems. In Alabama and locally, Lefty Progressives are even more rare.
Finally, I blogged on Howard Zinn via Captain Plaid just yesterday. One segment he wrote was “…we still might accept as our civic duty the responsibility to buttress our fellow citizens against the mendacity of our high officials.” So I’m carrying out my “civic duty” perhaps? “Responsibility” is a good word. We do the painful at times due to duty. Nothing could be more important for citizens of our world than to engage and care. I do.

I’ll soldier on, as always. Peace … or War!

Dick Armey's Astroturfing of Alabama

2006-06-26T12:40:00.000-07:00

Former GOP House Majority Leader Dick Armey and current Chairperson Of Freedom Works (originally Citizens for a Sound Economy) dropped an op-ed in The Anniston Star this Sunday entitled “The sky didn’t fall in Alabama after all”. While I applaud The Star in allowing Dick the chance to contribute to the marketplace of ideas I wanted to respond.

Dick Armey simply hates government. A Grover Norquist level of hatred. Maybe Grover’s “Field Marshall” to the Dick Armey? Perhaps once seen as simply a conservative ideologue, after years of DeLay and the rise of “The Machine” who can guess. Dick’s advocated a “flat tax”. He referred to Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank as “Barney “Fag”. His office was one of the main slime spreading centers going after Al Gore in 2000. He was one of the main cheerleaders of Bu$hCo’s efforts to privatize Social Security yet he is seemingly now frustrated with his own Republican Party.

Dick Armey’s infamous “Charlie Story” that was used to demonstrate the peril in raising the federal minimum wage was apparently made up. Maybe all the allegations of sexual harassment and also not getting tenure had Dick distracted while he was at North Texas State? Here’s what Molly Ivins, rather familiar with Dick in that both are from Texas, via Mother Jones, reported,

For years, Armey told the story of Charlie, a janitor at North Texas State when Armey taught there. According to Armey, Charlie was a retarded man who loved his job; then in 1977, the federal government raised the minimum wage, and Charlie was fired because the university couldn't afford to keep him on anymore. A month later, Armey saw Charlie in a grocery store with his wife and infant child, buying provisions with food stamps. "My heart's been broken about it ever since," Armey often lamented.
Unfortunately, no one else who worked at the university at the time had any memory of Charlie. What's more, the chancellor explained, janitors at North Texas are state employees, so the federal minimum wage would not have applied to any "Charlie."

In the above 2002 piece, Ms. Ivins described Dick as follows:

Armey is a no-compromise, free-market ideologue: His great heroes are Adam Smith and Milton Friedman. He is so devoted to free-market ideals that he wants to abolish Social Security and the home mortgage deduction, along with the minimum wage, and replace the progressive income tax with a flat tax.

Dick’s CSE/FW claims to be grassroots yet at best it is Astroturf given that the money to pay the bills comes from the Big Mules. In fact just recently FW has jumped into the net neutrality issue. And guess which side they jumped to? You got it! Big Teleco uses this “grassroots” organization to throttle one major tool for democracy. Lots of profits for Dick in all of this I’m sure.

Here’s how Riley’s Amendment One was described by Jason White of Stateline.org:

The tax increase hits Alabama's wealthiest residents, corporations and large landowners hardest. Most low-income Alabamians would get tax cuts. The plan would raise nearly twice as much revenue as is needed to wipe out a $675 million budget deficit. The extra $525 million is slated to fund college scholarships, bonuses for teachers who agree to teach in rural and poor schools and performance-based contracts for school administrators.

Dick and Grover had interfered with Riley’s tax plan before the election so I guess he figured it wise to come back and gloat over the grave. John Giles of The Alabama Christian Coalition, when he’s not helping Grover and Ralph Reed with their gambling clients, also was involved in defeating Riley’s plan. So why does Dick now care about Alabama’s tax issues? Well, I’d argue he doesn't, except so as to make some political points. This is a portion of what was printed in The Star, with my emphasis supplied:

Turns out the sky didn’t fall after all. Remember the 2003 debate over Amendment 1, the state constitutional referendum that would have created the largest tax increase in Alabama’s history? The talking heads and professional alarmists had a field day, earnestly and ominously predicting that prisoners would be let loose and high school football would lose its funding.
But Alabama’s taxpayers knew better than to buy the scare tactics, defeating Gov. Bob Riley’s $1.2 billion tax hike by a 2-to-1 margin.
And, the predictions that the sky would fall if Amendment 1 failed were not even close. Three years after voters rejected higher taxes, the state is rolling in a $700 million budget surplus. Prisoners are not roaming the streets, high schools still play football on Friday night, and no one kicked grandma out of the nursing home. Turns out the taxpayers called the liberal bluff that massive tax hikes were needed to avoid budget shortages.
So what happened? After years of legislative mismanagement and spiraling spending, Alabama faced a $675 million budget deficit in 2003. But when the voters refused to let Riley pass the buck onto Alabama taxpayers, the governor had no choice but to buckle down, prioritize and reduce nonessential spending.
Working closely with the Legislature, he cut out a half-billion dollars in line-item spending and $40 million of pork from the budget. They also shrunk the size of the state bureaucracy by reducing the number of state employees and vehicles. It wasn’t easy, as there was tremendous political pressure from big government interest groups, but they got the job done.
.... Keeping taxes low makes Alabama more attractive for business and investment.
More important, holding the line against higher taxes in the lean years after 9/11 resulted in quicker and stronger recovery today. It’s a win-win approach.
… His latest $60 million tax relief package, unanimously approved by the House and Senate, was a step in the right direction. But that’s not enough. It is not even one-tenth of the surplus economic growth has brought the government coffers.
Pro-growth tax relief will help continue Alabama’s virtuous cycle of lower taxes, more economic growth and a more efficient government. Research consistently shows that when it comes to taxes, businesses and residents vote with their feet; and if given the incentives, they will most certainly vote for Alabama, bringing jobs for the people and revenue for the state.
But this lesson is lost on many pundits who insist on frittering away the surplus on more government programs. …
Increasing funding for bureaucratic programs would put Alabama back on the vicious tax-and-spend cycle that it took so long to break. …

Dick, the reality is that the Big Mules defeated the Riley with tactics that you GOP style operatives have honed to perfection. In the latter phases of the campaign, with poll numbers looking bleak, some people did surely stretch the dire predictions yet no responsible person can deny that Alabama, as did much of the nation, faced a serious budget crunch.

While the economy has indeed picked up, as is true across the region, Alabama is still doing things on the cheap. We’ve got state prisoners housed in county jails and schools still struggling. I knew state employees that experienced the budget cuts that you were so pleased with yet they soldiered on. You slam them as bureaucrats while I can call most public servants. It is amazing to me that your side dismisses government. When Bu$hCo botches Katrina your folks can take a failure and still use for the company line. An effective government program can still do more for less than anything in your beloved market. Are there problems? Certainly so. Yet when you paint with such a broad brush you are simply getting sloppy.

The tax breaks you mentioned above at least shifted some of the burden off the poorest of the poor. The most recent tax legislation did not give breaks to the fat cats that you and yours often do the bidding for yet it did not increase their taxes.

An educated workforce is still the main reason people will come to Alabama in a modern economy. Feet, at least those of much of the more educated population, have been leaving for many years Dick. A reason to stay is what is needed and as long as people like you are running down government it will not happen. Your loathing of government clouds your thinking. I know it sells to a certain segment of our population but no serious person ought to give you the time of day when you start at such an extreme position.

Alabama has been on a “vicious tax-and-spend” cycle? Who knew? Right wing talking points are all you've got at times isn't it?

Anybody that knows their Alabama history and politics can see you are shilling on something that you aren’t qualified to address. Peace … or War!

Dr. Wayne Flynt - Alabama's Resident Intellectual

2006-06-25T06:51:00.000-07:00

Via The Gadsden Times, Dana Beyerle, Montgomery Bureau chief for the New York Times Regional Newspapers, reminds us of the contributions of Professor Wayne Flynt to our state. The article is clear that Bobby Lowder's micro-management of Auburn University motivated Dr. Flynt into leaving AU early. I only had the chance to take one class with Dr. Flynt and valued partly since he was one of the few "old school" essay. He was brutal in his essays but by the end of the term I had a handle on his style. I always valued the man!

One portion of the writing distured me however. Beyerle wrote,

"... Flynt is no bleeding heart liberal since he believes people are responsible for their actions and consequences."

What liberal doesn't know that? Labels are so very dangerous. Especially when the next sentence is ,

"I also know that a lot of bad choices are conditioned upon things that are beyond our control," he said, such as under-funded education, politicians and governments that don't place a premium on economic and social equality and the economic hand that Alabama and much of the South was dealt since the end of the Civil War until the 1960s and 1970s when opportunities on par with other regions of the country first began.

The average "bleeding heart liberal" simply looks at the big picture. Peace ... or War!

I love The Anniston Star!

2006-06-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

I grew up with The Star and perhaps it influenced me some in becoming a flaming pinko lefty Progressive. Today they have "Christ haunts our culture" by Auburn First Baptist's James L. Evans scolding the so called "Alabama Christian Coalition" and others of the radical right. This makes up for Cranky Cal Thomas the day before maybe with his "end times" theology and gay bashing? Their "Helping out the Rich" rightly takes on the GOP wanting to trash the Estate Tax while at the same time refusing to raise the minimum wage. Peace ... or War!

B'ham and Eastern US needs Conservation Funds!

2006-06-21T20:32:00.000-07:00

Pat Byington, a Southeast senior associate with The Wilderness Society who also serves on the Alabama Environmental Management Commission, dropped a nice op-ed on The Birmingham News this past Monday. His/her "Federal conservation funding looks like it's on life support" ends with this:

... America's most important and successful conservation funding programs are on life support at a time when they have never been needed more, not only in Birmingham, but in the entire eastern United States. According to a recent U.S. Forest Service report "Forests on the Edge," more than 40 million acres of private forests, primarily in the East, are likely to be developed by 2030. At the same time, enormous tracts of timber company lands are being sold off, like International Paper's recent sale of 6 million acres of Southeast forest.
Let's put those numbers into proper perspective. During the next 25 years, the East will lose to development sprawl an area of private forest land larger than the entire state of Alabama. Gone. Never to return.
Sadly, the two most important tools the public has to battle rampant development sprawl and the permanent loss of valuable forest land are the programs mentioned above that have been zeroed out or slashed to the bone by the U.S. Congress.
It's not too late - these programs can be saved. This month, the U.S. Senate will have its chance to come to the rescue of the LWCF and Forest Legacy programs, as it has done in the past. Sens. Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions have been champions of conservation funding over the years. We need their help in Alabama, and especially in Birmingham, now more than ever.

Federal spending is bad according to some. Seems like we can't afford much due to Bu$hCo's poor budget work. They might have been champions in the past yet Jeff especially loves Bush! Peace ... or War!

Can a Lefty Progressive be a Southern Baptist?

2006-06-19T19:00:00.000-07:00

Considering myself a “recovering southern Baptist” and thinking I might have a little, well actually a lot, to add beyond what I can cover via a comment, plus I think it will be a decent post on its own if Bamacrat allowed that as they once seemed to allow, I’ll try to add to what John Hubbard recently posted on Bamacrat as “Good Choice, Baptists: Part II”. John commended the Southern Baptist Convention for selecting an “outsider” named Frank Page. According to John’s source, Associated Baptist Press, Page said, “I'm not trying to undo a conservative movement that I have supported all these years." He said he would continue the trend of appointing leaders who believe in the inerrancy of the Bible but who also have "a sweet spirit."

John closed his post with:

“I haven’t been keeping up with SBC politics and don’t really know any of the candidates, but Page seems like a good choice and has his priorities straight. The most important duty of the SBC should be to organize and fund missionaries to spread the message. That’s what the Cooperative Program accomplishes. People are not lead to God through gay marriage bans and lower taxes for the wealthy. They are lead by people going out in the community and teaching the word of God. I’m glad we have a man in the position that understands the importance of the Cooperative Program and will encourage its growth.”

I'll cover the "Cooperative Program" later yet unfortunately there a small but very significant part of the CP that goes way beyond "spreading the message", at least the message that I think John is considering. I do however agree an “outsider” taking the helm at the SBC likely is better than their usual annointment yet I recall from my youth that each church essentially does their own thing. From what I’ve learned of Frank Page it appears his candidacy was partially bolstered by Baptist bloggers which I thought was rather a nice touch. Grassroots growing everywhere these days it seems. It is nice to see any populists win one. If the other candidates had Karl Rove and Swift Boaters on standby it might not have worked out as well Frank.

Dr. Page is 53 with grown kids. He is the pastor of a 4300 member South Carolina megachurch named Taylors First Baptist Church located between Greenville and Spartanburg) plus he’s a Southern boy. Some six years ago Page wrote "Trouble with the Tulip: A Closer Examination of the Five Points of Calvinism" with that being the topic of the reporting of Ken Camp of Associated Baptist Press entitled “Will election of SBC president deal blow to neo-Calvinism?” Here is the Founders Ministries Blog that seems to best deal with Page’s take on the matter and damned if I’m not totally confused. Normally when I’m struggling I dig until I have at least somewhat of a handle on something yet I could give less than a rat’s rear end over this doctrinal spat. I’m sure my enlightened sisters and/or their broods can explain since they have all or at least most of the answers, or so they "know".

The WaPo’s Tim Whitmire reporting “Page Touts Conservatism As SBC President” has me less than optimistic on the significance of Dr. Page's selection for the immediate future. The following especially influences me:

Bill Leonard, dean of Wake Forest University's School of Divinity and a frequent critic of SBC leadership, is less sure that the Southern Baptists have reached a turning point. He noted that Sutton and Floyd likely split the traditional conservative vote, allowing Page to eke out his win.
"Whether it becomes a 'kinder, gentler' denomination, publicly, depends on how much the traditional leadership _ especially certain seminary presidents respond," Leonard said in an e-mail interview.
"Page's narrow election may give false hope to many," said Robert Parham of Nashville's Baptist Center for Ethics, which also opposes the SBC leadership. "Even if Page wants to pursue a reformation, he can't overturn decades of fundamentalist control and organizations stocked with fundamentalist employees."

E. J. Dionne Jr., of WaPo fame appears in The San Francisco Chronicle with his “Evangelical evolution” yet I’m rather sure he’s being a bit too quick in his optimism.

Whatever the case, the real portion of John’s post at Bamacrat is his seemingly total blessing of the "Cooperative Program". Now I’ll agree it does some good even though it is based in evangelism via the Great Commission. I’m hardly an Evangelical and rather the Universalist or skeptic or Bokononist or … Whatever I am, I take great exception to the funding of The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Here’s the deal, and the real reason for the post, straight from their “What is the CP” site:

“The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission is dedicated to addressing social, moral, and ethical concerns, with particular attention to their impact on American families and their faith. They also provide print resources that offer scriptural responses to the moral and ethical problems of our culture”

The good news, not that “Good News”, is that the ERLC only spends 1.49% of the money the Cooperative Program took in for this last year. From $189,000,000.00 that is still a big chunk, especially given what they do with that money and the right wingers they fund. Just recently they did this. The ERLC allows a little freelancing it seems to make Richard Land fully a tool of the Republican Party. Dr. Land and his minions appear to me to be simply some crazy wing nut partisans, lots of that going around it seems these days, even here in Alabama where they hardly stand out anymore, but darned if I want to have a church I attend shilling for and supporting the Republican Party. I beg, and I don’t use “beg” lightly, to read up on the positions that the ERLC/SBC is taking on various matters and then decide on your own. Many of their concerns and the overwhelming majority of their concerns simply don’t fit my way of thinking.

Accordingly, I will not darken the door or give one thin dime to the SBC I expect, unless I’m required to by family and social obligations of course. I’m also likely to speak out against their radical positions when given the chance. If these culture warriors are helping the Big Mules control our government then how can we let them go without challenging their approaches? Is there any doubt that Land was a Bu$hCo enabler in 2004? That he has limits, perhaps motivated most when it comes to losing tax exemptions, should not reduce his arch-conservative credentials. Land went after Mickey Mouse dammit! But most of all never forget how wired in, and it goes both ways I’d offer, Bu$hCo is with Dr. Land and his SBC/Evangelical groups. PBS Frontline piece on Land/Bu$hCo is certainly revealing. Again, my “beg” applies to the above.

Returning once again to the SBC, Southern Baptist also did the following at Greensboro:

“Messengers passed a resolution opposing the manufacture and consumption of alcohol and urging the exclusion of Southern Baptists who drink from election to the convention’s boards, committees and entities. It passed approximately by a fourth-fifths majority. Like other resolutions, it is not binding on SBC churches and entities. All total, messengers passed 15 resolutions, including one that sought to balance faithful enforcement of the United States’ immigration laws with compassionate outreach to all immigrants. It passed nearly unanimously with no debate. They also adopted resolutions that: expressed displeasure with U.S. senators who recently failed to support a constitutional marriage amendment; affirmed Christian teachers in the public schools and encouraged Southern Baptists to provide a godly influence on school systems through such means as election to school boards; and condemned all human species-altering technologies, including the creation of human-animal hybrids. "

Of course my emphasis is suplied. So that is where that “human-animal” hybrids remark in the SOTU came from! I thought Dubyah had simply mangled the King's English again. I've already posted on the school issue at Captain Bama and it was far “worser” than many folks imagined. Get a brain Morans! Radicals! Wheeler’s takes, both of them, on the whole drinking thing works for me and in honor of the SBC I’m tipping my second Bourbon and Water as I polish this thing off.

Returning to the actual Southern Baptist Convention, here's an article from Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer covering Richard Land and the SBC loving Bu$hCo entitled "Conservative base shows no Greensboro cracks - Rice finds warm crowd, nary a sign of fading support for GOP, Bush". The White House has the full text and even a video of Bu$hCo pandering to the base. "Activist judges" and "culture of life" and "abstinence" and "faith based" groups/initiatives and ... were all covered!Dubyah didn't mention that he'd allegedly proclaimed The Constitution as "just a goddamned piece of paper" yet if he'd cleaned up his potty mouth I bet lots of the Bible Thumpers would responded favorably. The paper this bunch likes to study on is "The Bible" and of course that supplied by the Dobsonites or former John Bircher Tim LaHaye or The Moonie Times or...

I admittedly missed “Marriage Protection Sunday" and the commentary of Barrett Duke (although the prior link mistakenly calls him Duke Barrett). Again, hell will freeze over before I'll give a dime or my time to the SBC if they continue their political activity for the ReThuglican Party. I know Dr. Evans of Auburn First Baptist has rather Progressive approach even though the SBC might frown on his positions. Still, I figure he's rare in this neck of the woods. It's a scam folks where Karl Rove is just punking you/them, and therefore "us". The fundamentalist foolishness of recent years simply has gotten to the point to where I'm not going to be a part of this denomination any longer.

To each his own." and "Whatever gets you through the night." has always worked for me. I'd like the same courtesy. At least I think I'm due some willingness to engage me rationally and politely on where I'm mistaken, with the bottom line that it is 100% my decision on what I choose to think, believe, and do. Peace ... or War!

David vs. Goliaths

2006-06-18T07:04:00.000-07:00

I'm reading "Hostile Takeover" by David Sirota as of late. Wonderful writer and political thinker. Young talent that will likely have a very bright future. Molly Ivins described him as, "Sirota is a new-generation populist who instinctively understands that the only real questions are "Who's getting screwed" and "Who's doing the screwing?" I was pleased to note Sirota in The Anniston Star today scolding the "centrists" and consultants that seem to want the Democratic Party to be little more than Republican Lite. Peace ... or War!

Jim Wooten - "Nothing to see here. Move along."

2006-06-17T18:09:00.000-07:00

I posted via Captain Plaid on the AJC's resident Tool of the Right just today with a rather long rant entitled "Wooten's World - No Doubts just Dogma". I used a variant of the above universal law enforcement line and figured it surely applies to what The Tool wrote on June 2, 2006 in this Thinking Right "thoughts for the week". One could find plenty to take exception with in nearly anything The Tool shills yet I'll just point out this gem ...

The convictions of former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling tell us as much about the ethics and morality of the corporate world as the conviction of Linda Schrenko tells us about the ethics and morality of educators. And that is precisely nothing.

Let's begin "seeing" the "nothing" Jim. I know Lovely Linda and Kenny Boy Lay are Republicans. I'll not even bother with links as I think anybody that has been in the loop knows Jim's simply choosing, and I really hate people that are purposefully ignorant don't you, to overlook what appears to be common understandings.

I understand Kenny Boy was Bu$hCo's largest individual contributor over his political career and certainly at the Pioneer level in recent efforts. Lay's bride, named Linda herself, plus Jeff Skilling and of course Kenny Boy each kicked in $100,000 for the 2000 inaugural fund plus an Enron jet flew Bush the Elder and Bar up for the show. Kenny Boy was of course right there with Dead Eye Dick in formulating the Bu$hCo energy policies that have worked out so well, although Cheney had fought access to the records with every trick in the book, finally getting a little love from his duck hunting buddy Justice Scalia.

Lovely Linda stole over a half a million from the state and feds, with a little help from her lover of course. Family values! Ms. Schrenko was state super when I first started teaching in Georgia so I know what a twit she was. Calling her an "educator" is an insult to educators you tool. Bureaucrat. Creationism advocate. Patronage provider. Darling of the Christian right. Foe of the PTA since they were too liberal. Saboteur of Roy Barnes. Such a Bu$hCo fan that she was there when he signed No Child Left Behind into law. A total joke and a testament to what conservatives keep electing.

Kenny Boy's Enron stole from California during their mostly manufactured energy crisis. At least all that worked out for Republican Ahnuld. Enron called off the White House which let California ride this one out on their own. Enron stole from their employees and other investors plus I'm sure the taxpayers have some consequences to boot. Huge blow to Houston's economy. Enron's lies buttressed by Arthur Anderson killed off that old accounting firm. Deregulation of the energy industry pushed through by Bush the Elder essentially allowed Enron to grow into the monster it became. It was a monster you know. Huge player. Free market capitalism gone wild.

Plus there's the fact that it has taken years to bring Lay and Skilling before the Bar. Allegedly the most expensive criminal trial in history yet Jeff is now stiffing his defense lawyers for the rest of the fees. There's a special place in hell for those people. "Didn't pay your lawyer? Come on in as there's no need to wait in line." Of course Satan looks out for criminal defense lawyers!

Enron/Worldcom/Tyco ... Nothing to see folks! Schrenko ... Move along! The World of Wooten is a happy place I guess. Conservatives seemingly can often dismiss anything that challenges their certainty of "Right Thinking". Jim's maybe taking yet another one for the team? He's not above defending Ann Coulter so we at least know he's a true believer. I bet Bu$hCo is going to give you a medal Jim so keep up the good work.

Finally, the idea that this Tool has the audacity to write of "ethics" and "morality" simply floors me. Jim Wooten, you've shown us that you simply don't measure up in that facet. Peace ... or War!

Bloggered Again!

2006-06-17T06:39:00.000-07:00

Lynn Loves Stephen? I'd tried in vain to get Blogger to act right and let me drop an image with the post below on Lynn Westmoreland's Gomer Pyle Four Commandments moment. And don't you know Lynn's high school sweatheart/wife was ready to refresh his recollection on one that he couldn't recall! This image in this post will perhaps do until I can coax some love from Blogger. Free so I feel bad complaining yet I'm having more and more troubles these days getting it to act right. I'm sure George Bu$h and/or conservatism is to blame. Peace ... or War!

Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert gets to know yet another Georgia Gooper

2006-06-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

After Stephen Colbert “Van Dyked” Phil Gingrey and even earlier had sat down with Jack Kingston to discuss his experiences as an African-American (Kingston’s a Republican so you likely think … but he lived in Africa briefly as a young child), you’d have thought somebody would have told the Georgia Republican delegation that Colbert was just pretending to be a right wing blowhard. I know he’s originally from South Carolina, and they are all good old boys even if their names sound a little French, but Colbert is on Comedy Central! I’d read that Kingston managed to score an internship for his little girl on Colbert’s show and had even sent a letter out urging other Georgia Goopers to appear on the show yet after seeing how these talks turn out WTF was Lynn Westmoreland thinking. Do these Georgia boys not get staff to do some of the heavy lifting?

Colbert’s “Better Know a District” is of course really about allowing some politicians to reveal they are total goobers. (GOP and goober > "gooper") However, Georgia has been especially kind to Colbert. While Kingston’s 1st District covers the Savannah area, Dr. Phil’s 11th District meanders from Heard County up into Cobb County. It is essentially Newt’s stomping ground so one can imagine. I think Gingrey’s main platform was I’m pro-life, like tax cuts, value welfare … as long as it is the corporate type that helps the chemical industry, know the 2nd Amendment is the most important part of our Constitution, and think terrorists really suck. However, the man is obviously intelligent and displayed charm and grace. As a bonus Gingrey apparently defends the right of homosexuals to drive. If Colbert doesn’t want to see the “highways all gay-ed up” avoiding Midtown is a good start. Westmoreland’s district is rather close to The Highlands so naturally I was appreciative of the insight I knew Colbert would provide me when he got to know The Fighting 8th.

Going back to Congressman Westmoreland’s thinking he would not wither under Colbert, it is not like the AJC didn’t warn him! And Lynn surely heard the nasty things Colbert said to Our Leader at the White House Correspondents Dinner just recently. Busy turning back the Voting Rights Act, claiming that GA has long ago gotten its act together, the Coweta Conservative apparently didn’t notice this as well. Just short of five out of the ten isn’t bad I guess for most folks yet Westmoreland had reached his office as a strong advocate of public displays of the whole Ten Commandments. Maybe Lynn was just playing politics with the Commandments as was suggested way back in 2004? He said then “We are under consistent attack from the ACLU for displaying religious documents in our courthouses" but he surely can’t blame those godless liberals for simply not knowing them, especially as a good Baptist. I’d have thought he, even if he didn’t finish college, knew at least most of them but Brother Lynn tanked on this pop test.

It’s not like he has been too busy introducing legislation to study up on them to where you can nail even a majority is it? Then again, maybe he needed some talking points like the auto industry provided him in doing their bidding? Perhaps Westmoreland and the other kewl kids in the right wing actually need The Ten displayed in the Senate and Congress so they can actually recall them? I know the only wall of separation your Georgia co-sponsor Charlie Norwood seems interested in would be the one he wants built between the US and Mexico! Maybe Lynn’s church could develop a CD or tape series for him to listen to as he goes about the peoples and/or God’s business?

Bill Simon of the Political Vine thinks the Congressman is funnier than Larry the Cable Guy and also might have a future in acting, as long as the role is as Gomer Pyle. I’m thinking if “the base” ever sees this performance he might need something to fall back on. Peace … or War!

Southern Baptists ... A "moderate" resolution?

2006-06-16T15:02:00.000-07:00

Tim Whitmire of the AP turns up in The Seattle Times with "Baptist leaders reject school-exit plan" reporting

The proposal, offered by Roger Moran of Troy, Mo., and Texas author Bruce Shortt, came as many of the nation's 16.2 million Southern Baptists are concerned about how classrooms are handling topics such as homosexuality and intelligent design.
Instead of putting the exit strategy before delegates to the Baptists' annual meeting, the denomination's resolutions committee called on members to "engage the culture of our public-school systems" by exerting "godly influence," including standing for election to local school boards.
Those ideas were part of a more moderate resolution overwhelmingly approved Wednesday at the final session of the meeting. Delegates also approved a resolution urging school districts to accommodate parents and churches wishing to provide off-campus biblical instruction during the school day.
Moran called the two resolutions "one more sign we're moving in the right direction."
The public-schools issue has simmered for several years. A resolution similar to the one offered by Moran and Shortt failed to pass two years ago. Delegates at last year's annual meeting approved a resolution urging parents and churches "to exercise their rights to investigate diligently the curricula, textbooks and programs in our community schools."
The proposal from Moran and Shortt complained that curricula teaching "the homosexual lifestyle is acceptable" are being implemented in schools. It also criticized a court ruling last year that banned a Pennsylvania school system's classroom mention of intelligent design, the notion that life is so complex it must have been created by a higher intelligence.

"Get a brain" indeed. The court ruling came from a Bu$h appointee, understood to be a church going Christian, who felt enough outrage at the foolishness in Dover PA that he blasted the "godly influence" that these school board members had exerted. Read, I do hope reading can be accomplished here, the "thinking" of Mr. Shortt expressed on wing nut World Net Daily. Here is the most extreme,

... Contrary to what many Christians have been led to believe, there is no such thing as a 'neutral' education," Shortt writes. "All education is religious and conveys a worldview, and there is no more important decision that we make as parents than how we educate our children."
Continues Shortt: "Unfortunately, Christian parents allow an aggressively anti-Christian institution to form the minds of their children, and the fruit of that choice is bitter. The overwhelming majority of children from evangelical families leave the church within two years after they graduate from high school; only 9 percent of evangelical teens believe that there is any such thing as absolute moral truth; and, our children are being forcibly indoctrinated to believe that homosexual behavior is acceptable." ...

"All education is religious" and "forcibly indoctrinated"? "Good grief, there he goes again!" as was written by my true believer sister just recently. Returning to Mr. Moran, according to one article I ran across, has home schooled his almost ten kids. He was at least fruitful and multiplied is seems. That these wing nuts are "messengers" speaks loudly I'd argue for this denomination.

Yet another reason to reject the radicalism and lack of reason in the Southern Baptist denomination. By the way, the above image allegedly comes from the "You Don't Speak for Me Cindy" bus tour effort of Move American Forward. Despite what "Crazy As A Run Over Dog" Ann Coulter has suggested, in as tasteless and outrageous a manner as possible, while marketing her "Godless : The Church of Liberalism", approved by America's Best Christian Betty Bowers, it appears that the Reich Wing is perfectly willing to confront ideas they disagree with such as those expressed by Cindy Sheehan.

The guy holding the "Get a Brain Morans" sign was also holding a "Go USA" sign. Go where is uncertain yet I do fear we are heading in the direction of the Morans. Peace ... or War!

Missouri Plan for Selecting Appeals Court Judges

2006-06-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

A Birmingham News op-ed gives us "Ju$tice for $ale? - Alabamians ought to be deeply concerned about the amount of money being spent to elect supposedly impartial Supreme Court justices" and while I think just a portion of the problem I agree with the change. Now that the Business Community and a few Bible Thumpers have their folks rather in place I'd not hold my breath. The thing is that we've known we are getting some second rate candidates for a long time and we also know that the average Alabama citizen simply doesn't know enough to choose politicians much less jurists. The Alabama Bar has long urged use of the Missouri Plan for selecting judges. Damn fine idea. Peace ... or War!

Jones School of Law gets ABA Blessings!

2006-06-14T20:47:00.000-07:00

The Montgomery Advertiser's Mike Linn gives us the news that Jones School of Law has been granted provisional status in their long effot to become fully accredited. Although in hindsight I wish I'd have gone another direction in law schools, I can't say that our class was weak. My understanding is that our class had a higher pass rate for those first taking the Bar than the U of A and Cumberland. A few great Professors yet some others seemed to be just going through the motions or perhaps simply too busy with their caseloads to fully prepare. My biggest regret is not trying as hard as I could have. I did the reading and listened and actually learned something based on rather high Bar scores yet I know I could have worked at the deep issues a little harder.

Some professors were idealogues however that fit in just fine with some of the more extreme Faulkner crowd. Lt. Colonel John Eidsmoe was my Constitutional Law Prof. I thought some of his ideas were rather bizarre then yet now it seems he is a contributor to Council of Conservative Citizens plus a Moore-On. We were fortunate to have known each other in my timid stage. Your radical midwestern stiff ass and my current version of speaking up when I see questions that need asking would have likely bumped heads. I'd have been polite in the bumping I'd hope yet I'd bump if I thought it needed doing. I do recall one of the really sharp students expressing shock over some of your ideas. This older student, who I think blew everybody away with his Bar scores, even talked about the how and why yet I was a young pup so perhaps not listening as well back then. I'd have had serious discomfort even taking a class under you if this CCC appearance is something you think is reasonable.

The worst thing is that Eidsmoe's degrees and former teaching and military service gives legitimacy to many far right organizations that are simply far beyond the mainstream. I wonder if your family would tell you to "Just stop it!" (as a family member did with me for my limited activism in confronting what struck me as injustice and/or ignorance) or are they proud of you. With your "thinking" and "service" maybe we can arrange a trade, as my crowd would likely love having you in the fold!

Mr. Eidsmoe, your far right groups and their/your thinking continues to gain influence it seems. I fear that Lefty folks like me are often seen as "bizzaro", borrowing the recent description of my thinking on the discrimination amendment by an especially quick to judge sister. I know she'll be praying for me and perhaps even turning to such authorities as James Dobson to confirm how right she is and how wrong I am. And I bet sooner or later I'll likely be getting even more Evangelical-themed books that tells me how I'm lost or flawed or ... Peace ... or War!

Update - Late afternoon of June 16th, 2006 - A comment pointed out that John Eidsmoe has been exited from Jones some time back so I amended the post slightly. I'm pleased that he's no longer associated with Jones. I'm especially pleased the ABA is now associated with Jones.

Outlander #2 - AJC's Jim Wooten Defends Coulter

2006-06-13T21:15:00.000-07:00

Jim Wooten of The Atlanta Journal Constitution has been a reliable source of ridicule for Captain Bama. Following in Alabama’s Attorney General Troy King’s prancing footsteps, Jim Wooten, still “The Tool”, is “Outlander of the Day” for June 12, 2006. Congrats Jim! Also, the AJC’s new opinion layout is a rather cool, especially for this rag.

Jim Wooten I think first merited a post for his position on school funding with my title as “Conservative Tool Jim Wooten on School Funding” and just the next day posted as “I rest my case on Jim Wooten's shilling!”. I’ve hit him on a long series of at least partial thinking just a few days later with “Jim Wooten's Wrong Thinking”. I then got after him for continuing to rely on The Manhattan Institute’s Jay Greene to shill ideas on public education, a particularly favorite topic of The Tool, with “Jim Wooten Needs New Source & Topic!” yet was soon posting “Jim Wooten is Right and Still Wrong” with another effort to set poor Jim on the straight and narrow with “Educating the Haves & Have Nots Plus the Tools”. “Writing” of Maureen Downey of The AJC led me to then post “Does Jim Wooten have a "toolette" at the AJC?” where Ms. Downey’s using the “noted” Jay Greene in shilling the GOP line.

Yet today I ran across Jim Wooten, via a “Hang ‘er high, that darn Ann Coulter “ “Thinking Right” column entry, defending “Crazy as a Run Over Dog” Ann Coulter’s recent attacks on 9-11 widows. She’s so off the chart on this one that skralyx at Daily Kos (tip of the tam to Digby!) points out that even RedStaters have had enough of Angry Ann. But not The Tool! His “thinking” is such that I guess Ann’s logic works for The Tool. Please read some of his/her fans in the comments section below. Scary stuff! Ann’s “meticulous research” was one of my favorites. She not only fudges footnotes yet also uses them for more flawed flaming.

Jim, you’re The Outlander of the Day, and it has been long, long overdue. I’ve challenged your sources and logic yet no responses so far. Here’s hoping that eventually your talent for synchronized shilling will be revealed for what it is. Jim, you are simply a huge Tool! So it is Peace ... or War!

Attorney General Troy King - Outlander of the Day!

2006-06-12T08:16:00.000-07:00

Prince Troy, here's an image of William Augustus (Hanover), second surviving son of George II, later titled "Duke of Cumberland", and labeled by many Jacobites as "The Butcher", that I've been inspired to study up on just recently. Remarkably, your rise to power via Sir William's favor, plus that of F/Bob, resembles that of this "General". I'm starting an "Outlander of the Day" award to recognize such remarkable character. And guess who is my first recipient?

While Mobile’s John Tyson Jr. is running a “law and order” campaign that partially bothers this lefty, geared as a criminal defense lawyer even if not presently in the fray. I understand that DA Tyson has persecuted for years and I'm sure that influences his ideas. Also, his handlers likely know most Alabama voters respond to this type of approach. However, I also believe Alabama values loathe arrogance from those in power!

Alabama's current Attorney General Troy King is rightly ridiculed by The Decatur Daily for his response to the American Bar Association (ABA) calling for a moratorium on Alabama using the death penalty until at least some changes occur. Now while I’d like to see the death penalty taken off the table, or at least until serious questions can be resolved, although I’m sure my many Christian family members support killing by the state, which also gets to decide how a woman handles her own body according to their views. Contrast how these two candidates respond to the ABA’s recommendation, actually prepared by a team of Alabama lawyers. King shills the “liberal” and “activist” stuff nearly as well as he did back in Tuscaloosa. Let us not forget that King even had a cow when Bill Clark, a former President of the Alabama Bar Association, had the audacity to suggest mere discourse on the issue some years back!

Somebody I respect says King does a decent job on some matters yet is prone to prance around at times in demonstrating his bona fides. Prance on King! Stuff like this might get you sent home come this fall. I think even here in this Red State the “liberal” and “activist’ stuff is wearing a touch thin. With the efforts of some lefty types, or mere reasonable moderates or even thinking conservatives, to call you and your ilk on your tactics I think it will wear thinner still. However, at least you win “Outlander of the Day!” for June 12, 2006. Peace … or War!

Michael Ciamarra of The Alabama Policy Institute Shills (and Steals!) on Lawsuit Abuse

2006-06-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

A Michael Ciamarra, the/a Vice President of The Alabama Policy Institute, drops “America's lead in lawsuits unchallenged” in my local weekly, The Randolph Leader. To have the API shilling their foolishness here, and in likely in many other papers (He made The Montgomery Advertiser) across Alabama, really frustrates me. The API and their Big Mule backers are hardly above lying yet they excel at twisting and spinning to support their shilling.

However, the most remarkable thing is that this tool of the right lifted the majority of this mess straight from Newt Gingrich. Have you ever heard of plagiarism/attribution … or Google? I expect my high school kids were smart enough to know better than straight stealing! Apparently the Right’s Mighty Wurlitzer troops need some training. From Box Turtle Ben Domenech to the replacement for Claude “The Fraud” Allen, namely Karl Zinsmeister of The American Enterprise Institute, you guys are getting sloppy! His other “source” in the US Chamber of Commerce and we know, or at least should know (I’m sorry I’m implying that I’m smarter than my sisters and/or their broods and/or others in my little village again!), how unbiased they are, especially in the 2004 election. They apparently even started this “Conservative Message Machine” way back in the early 1970s.

Stepping back in time a bit myself, likely in the early 1970s as well, I’m nearly certain that I heard my mother, hardly a political person from what I recall, once say, “Liars figure and figures lie.” Maybe she’d be pleased that I’ve referenced what I learned from her. Possibly my Dad might appreciate the political ideals I value and try to practice. I don’t expect either would be thrilled with all that I think and do and yet in carrying out my life I have usually always considered my roots and current branches. Caring for these lines and their legacies ought to be known is a given. Yet as always, I am prepared to stand alone in doing what I think is best for my world. How I attempt to show my patriotism and love for my neighbors might not be what others would choose to do, yet I benefit from the process. No profit in it, and perhaps even some negative consequences that I’ll handle as an individual surely, yet it does seem at least a little noble. Knowing that my son will be living in the world to come is certain as well. Probably quixotic but this seems like a relatively harmless way to try to move attitudes and engage with important issues. But of course the family way to judge me is that I’m just “showing off” or engaging in a pathetic attempt to prove “I am somebody!”, to which I’ll just add my own “Good grief!”

I’ve previously posted on Gary Palmer and his API. First I tackled his use of Paleos to keep the butter on the Big Mules bread. Then I bounced another’s work against Gary Palmer complaining on lack of educational progress despite the fact that his team has been winning on the “policy” making the argument that conservatism might have responsibilities for both of their concerns.

For the bottom line folks, this API is part of a “deep lobbying” tactic the Big Mules use to influence policy through pseudo “think tanks” and semi legitimate research and policy shops. Many are blessed as 501(c)(3) non-profits so the business community and the winners get to deduct their donations and then keep more of the money these organizations help them “earn” and “retain” and … Nice investment and certainly more profitable for the worker bees doing “service” at these entities than the many non-profits of the Progressive community. ALEC Watch is a good place to start in understanding how big business is not just involved at the national level.

I had wanted to respond to API President Gary Palmer for his “policy” on taxation that was contrary to University of Alabama Law Professor Susan Pace Hamill’s consistent application of her understanding of Christianity and poverty. This professor (with theological and legal papers hanging on her wall) has written and spoken often over these last few years on Alabama’s regressive tax structures. Recently she ventured into the pandering abortion legislation being considered in this session up on Goat Hill. Gary Palmer’s response was “Class Envy” that managed to get in plugs for school vouchers and family values and faith based initiatives and displaying the ten commandments and school prayer and ”liberal” bashing and .... Jim Wooten might have another member on the Olympic Synchronized Shilling Team if that sport ever comes to pass. Our Professor has long offered her own ideas on how Alabama’s poverty could be remedied from a position of I’d hope influence and legitimacy.
Gary Palmer’s authority is Marvin Olasky. Good work when you can get it Doc! Infiltrating academia is certainly one of the toughest parts of this machine’s work but thank goodness for starving schools so that money talks and bullshit walks... as in the door so they can then work under even more legitimacy. Getting them on the payroll of the state is brilliant, as is the deductibility and good press for funding certain chairs and department. Exhibit A might be Jay Greene. Even Douglas Feith, described by Bu$hCo loyalist General Tommy Franks (ret.) as “the stupidest f’ing guy on the planet”, has landed a plum job at Georgetown. Jesus General obtained his syllabus. Neo-Con Omarta? They’ll rehabilitate him at Georgetown at worst plus he can’t talk too much in the ivory tower can he?

As for another of Mr. Palmer’s authorities, the late William Temple was actually very much an advocate of the social welfare system that England has in place now. Maybe you need to think a little more on what Dr. Temple was saying rather than explaining it for us? Reading a goodly portion of his work seems like a good start. Lots of this partial reading going around these days!

Returning to the “lawsuit abuse” fantasy the business community rolls out every do often, I’ll give you portions of what Mr. Ciamarri wrote, with my comments appearing parenthetically and in bold (Which I’m sure is because I’m being “flamboyant”!) the following:

In 2004, 2.2 percent of America's gross domestic product was made up of lawsuit costs. That's $260 billion dollars in lawsuits - $860 for every man, woman, and child in the country. (“Lawsuit costs?” Doesn’t that count judgments awarded in court, by arbitration, by settlement, by … And wouldn’t that also include business claims made by companies and entrepreneurs? What about collections? My understanding, and I’ve had trouble finding authority for my belief, is that a large portion of the lawsuits filed in this nation are over business disputes. Corporations can pay their top level folks astronomical salaries and benefits compared to the worker bees yet the “trial lawyers” are surely the bad guys. Also, insurance companies failing to pay legitimate claims would be included wouldn’t they? And then there are the medical malpractice cases, just those that actually are discovered of course? Almost 200,000 Americans die while still actually in the hospital every year from medical errors according to this study. You’d include greedy pharmaceutical companies that gamed the research stats to put an unsafe product on the market wouldn’t you? I also wonder is whether the Bu$hCo White House gave Newt the figures you passed off as your own ideas? I also really enjoyed Stephanie Mencimer work in Washington Monthly entitled “False Alarm : How the media helps the insurance industry and the GOP promote the myth of America's "lawsuit crisis.")
It gets worse. On average, lawsuit costs have grown two to three percent faster than the American economy since 1950. From 2001 to 2004, the increase in lawsuit costs was more than double the rate of America's economic growth. That means more and more of our productivity is eaten up by lawsuits every year. (Part of that could be due to the fine job Bu$hCo has done with the economy yet your figures are apparently lacking in substance. Again, what are “lawsuit costs”? Is this the costs of filing, paying for depositions, travel, attorney fees, etc.? Indeed, post war America did see some jumps in “lawsuit costs” as folks were back to making a decent living and buying often unsafe cars and living large and … yet these last few years have seen a drop in filings. Notice the attribution to the following work by Ms. Mencimer linked to above (and again here) the fact that I’m placing her thoughts in quotes as follows: “According to the National Center for State Courts, a research group funded by state courts, personal injury and other tort filings, when controlled for population growth, have declined nationally by 8 percent since 1975, and have been falling steadily in real numbers since 1996. The numbers are even more dramatic in places with rapid population growth, like Texas, where the rate of tort filings fell 37 percent between 1990 and 2000. Even in liberal California, the rate of filings has plummeted 45 percent over the past decade.”)
America's lawsuit culture drives businesses overseas, scares away investment in America, and puts doctors out of business. We need a change of direction that protects the individual but doesn't cripple America's economy. (“Lawsuit culture” is to blame? I thought businesses outsourced for cheap labor and lack of regulation. Investment in American seems OK in that China and some others foreign nations are holding much of our increasing debt due to the tax cut policies of Bu$hCo. “(P)uts doctors out of business.” is part of the message and not reality as we know insurance companies don’t have anything to do with the premiums continuing to rise despite “reforms”. At least the pharmaceutical companies are being served with the drafting of the Medicare bill. As an aside perhaps, yet related to how the Big Mules try to deliver their messages, I can recall a tool from the AVALA being invited to a local civic club by one of the local car dealers several years ago. He spoke of employers being terrified of workers suing them if they get hurt and then collecting punitive damages from juries. I asked him to repeat as I thought I’d misunderstood but got the same lies. I then asked him why he was telling this lie when he surely knew workers compensation laws applied and that punitives much less jury trials were not part of the process. Realizing he was caught I guess, the man launched into an attack on me as a apparently a trial lawyer. I again asked how that changed the lies he’d just told. I could never get him to explain his lies. But then again I was probably just embarrassing my family, even though many of them butter their bread in the legal system. If not that I was just “showing off”. I couldn’t get an answer from the car dealer that brought him in to speak either. Imagine! However, since this car dealer regularly darkens the door to First Baptist Church in Roanoke often we all know who the superior human being is don’t we?)
Here's one idea. Personal injury lawyers should be held responsible for filing junk lawsuits. If a judge finds a case to be frivolous, the lawyer that filed the case should be forced to pay for court costs. This will help focus our courts on only the most worthy cases and free the American economy from the constant threat of lawsuits. (There’s Rule 11 in the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure but certainly The Code of Alabama, 1975, as amended, Section 12-19-270, et seq, “The Alabama Litigation Act” applies. This is essentially what you want isn’t it? Why suggest this is not already part of the law? And “court costs” are hardly all that is involved in that attorney fees, costs, and expenses are all recoverable. Plus there are ethical standard in play. And why are “personal injury lawyers” singled out? I’m sorry, as I forgot that Newt singled them out and that you just copied and pasted. Again, I’m thinking the American economy needs freeing from plenty more than frivolous lawsuits!)
According to a 2006 U.S. Chamber of Commerce study, Alabama ranks 47th in the nation when it comes to tort reliability and a predictable civil justice system. It's time to create a 21st century system of civil justice that provides faster solutions and reduces the negative effects on our economy and still guarantees every American the right to justice. (You mean arbitration don’t you, even though I’ll admit your link seems to give the good, bad, and ugly on that process? That Alabama appellate courts are truly conservative isn’t enough? Bu$h 41 and 43 plus Reagan appointees on the Federal level must not satisfy either? Lifetime appointments to the federal courts yet you are worried about what exactly? Give me the proposal please and I’ll consider. Maybe you can lift from another darling of the conservative movement when they come up with something that actually works better?)

I’m sure Ciamarri’s family is so proud their boy made the papers, especially since he's part of the values that really count. Maybe he'll even work in a little scripture next time. Legitimate, and likely well-paid, job helping create policy to serve his world and all makes it surely seem swell I bet. Yet with a little digging and thinking I’ve perhaps shown them, and most importantly neutral readers, that there is a good bit more going on here. Plagiarism is just the tip of this iceberg! Carefully considering, which surely involves reading and thinking, seems like a prerequisite to me for understanding much of anything. In our “talking points” world perhaps this is even more so. Faith in what you are told seems to work for some yet it is a dangerous place I’ll argue. To have Ciamarri’s (or Newt’s?) arguments accepted without challenge seems plenty dangerous.

I’ll continue to close with something that I mean, namely “Peace … or War!”

UPDATE - June 12, 2006 - Perhaps Newt.org does encourage "collaboration" by taking suggested language and shilling it by "activists". Amazing message machine so a tip of the tam to merely how well the Right does this work. Still, I'd think that Mr. Ciamarri, a VP with API, ought to be able to develop his own langauge. I'll give him that if he had permission, implied or implicit, to use then it "aint stealing". I will not yet change the title of my post but perhaps might in the future if I've goofed up. I've actually emailed Newt.org and asked about this issue. I have not been contacted by Mr. Ciamarri or API yet want to get this right. Either as Newt's ideas or that of the API, I'd offer the opinion is wrong or at least mostly wrong. A pox on both your houses!

As an aside, Newt is often so wrong when he is wrong that it is hard for me to work with his good ideas. Plus, he often comes across as arrogant and hypocritical and ... I'd trade him for any of the Bu$hCo crowd and given the field in 2008 he is as good as any Republican so far that is flirting with running. At least Newt has a brain and after eight years of Bu$hCo we need as much of that as we can get! However, we surely can't afford much more conservatism even if handled rationally as the "philosophy" is wrongly reasoned and dreadfully implemented in today's form.

The bottom line is I don't want to assign "poor form" if in fact borrowing these ideas was allowed and certainly not if encouraged. Peace ... or War!

Kim S. Benefield Over Gerald "Dino" Dial & $$$!

2006-06-07T06:11:00.000-07:00

Per the figures that are nearly complete, with the one precinct being provisional ballots in Randolph County according to my understanding with likely few votes at issue, has Kim at 9302 (53.2%) and Dino at 8184 (46.8). Dino was the only one of the Three Amigos sent home of the Republican Lite crowd that was allegedly targeted by Lowell Barron. I'm naturally thrilled. I knew Dino was doing some really low stuff lately so I figured he knew he was on the ropes. Even with the polling plus what I was hearing/thinking it is nice to nail this campaign down. And to have Kim rewarded for her hard work and decency and character and ... is even better! Kudos to her and all that helped.

I'm guessing this race cost over a million, a staggering amount indeed, with the majority spent by Dino of course. There is likely some ad buys and indirect efforts by various groups outside the campaign that I've not counted. With about 17,500 votes in all, one it talking about $57.00 per voter in spending. That is ridiculous. And the thing is that I'm thinking $75.00 per vote is likely more accurate. I'm wondering if this is a record and will attempt to scratch around and find out. For such a rural district, it seems like a very expensive campaign. Kim's funding was solid yet Dino's Big Mule backers had to dip into their deep pockets to try to keep him. Now it will be interesting to see how the Big Mules take to Jim Ingram. They'll see opportunity in getting an openly Republican Senator in this slot even though Dino did their bidding as well as perhaps they could have wanted. Again, having to spend this much shows a need for some reforms. More on that later! Peace ... or War!

Gerald "Dino" Dial - To Know Me Is To Loathe Me?

2006-06-05T20:05:00.000-07:00

Huge tip of the tam to Danny at Doc's Political Parlor for this last salvo in their top ten politcal questions, with #1 being "Who will control the Senate?". I've just lifted his text, I hope without this being too poor form, as I'm very interested in the 13th Senate District with my friend Kim Benefield going against the Clay Combover, Gerald "Dino" Dial. Here's what Danny gave us, with my emphasis supplied:

District 13 (Chambers, Cherokee, Clay, Cleburne, Lee, Randolph):Sen. Gerald Dial's race for his ninth term in the legislature was supposed to be an easy win for the incumbent. But, Randolph Circuit Clerk Kim Benefield's full coffers have allowed her to buy a lot of expensive Birmingham TV time to show her ads in Lineville. Former state Democratic Party Chair Phillip Kinney now does opposition research for Matrix. Kinney told one of the senators in the Preuitt group that they could not find anything negative on Benefield and that they were going to have to make something up. That is why you get the ad that tries to connect Benefield with Barron who "used $5,000 of your money to pay a shoeshine man to shine shoes for senators." I must admit that if that is the worst thing you can say about Benefield, you are really stretching.
Especially since news reports said that it was Sen. Bobby Denton (D - Muscle Shoals) who paid $5,000 to the shoeshine man (though Barron approved the payment from money allotted to Denton).
The polling has had Benefield a few points ahead most of the race, and the power of incumbency was expected to help Dial make that up, but the last I heard that has still not happened. It's a long district with Dial's hometown Lineville in the middle.
One source told me that the farther you get from Lineville, the better Dial polls. The closer you get to Lineville, the worse he polls. His point, I believe, was that the less well-known he was, the better he polled because of his incumbency. The more well-known he was, the better Benefield polled.
Dial was originally expected to win in a walk, but now he's running hard. He may well lose this one.

I'm optimistic! KIm has worked hard, as she has all her life. When you talk with her you can sense her decency and smarts, two things that are hardly associated with Dino. Maybe folks that know Gerald will turn out strongly, as the more you know about Dino the less you like him. Thanks again Danny! Peace ... or War!

Gerald "Dino" Dial Winds up His Campaign in Style

2006-06-05T19:09:00.000-07:00

Tacky style. Liar style. Racist style. Before I get off on today's Distractions and Deceptions of Dino Dial, I'll send you to The Cleburne News, reporting done by Wayne Rupple, where Larry Lee sets the record straight on Dino's lies and whining. Damned if this brave National Guard leader isn't bad to whine! Read the article to get Dino's side (or sides more accurately) to the matter yet here's what I'll send you to, with my emphasis supplied:

Lee responded by saying that he is a resident of Lee County, some of which is in District 13.
"In 1994 I ran for the state senate in District 31 (Covington, Coffee, Dale, Houston counties). was supported by the business community, especially BCA, led the primary and narrowly lost in the the Democrat primary."
He said he feels Dial's comments about his seeing a “fat state salary” is "way, way off-base and I have no clue what’s he talking about. I find it very interesting that Senator Dial is attacking me when I’m not a candidate for office."
Of the bill itself, Lee asks, "Why then was this bill supported by the Speaker of the House? Why did it pass the House with 98 'yes' votes and no 'nay' votes? Why did it come out of Senate committee with no 'nay" votes? Why did it have a total of 17 Senate co-sponsors? Why was it supported by such groups as Alabama Farmers Federation, National Federation of Independent Business, County Commission Association, VOICES for Alabama Children, Economic Development Association of Alabama, etc?
Lee maintains Dial "has very little knowledge of this bill" because the board would have been made up of such a wide array of appointments from the Governor on down that there would have been little room for one group to gain control. (Captain's comment - My understanding is that Dino did not bother attending any of the meetings as did those that supported the legislation. Ignorant on purpose? Dial actually admits that he relied on what another Senator was telling him! Dino, it is your job to know the legislation.)
"I helped draft the thing," and Dial's charges "just isn't true" he said.

I also heard the radio spot where Dino's folks, in this case named as the Alabama Retail Association according to what I've been told yet actually indirectly funded by ALFA. Dino's handlers hire some dreadful talent to sing a parody of "My Darling Clementine" with Kim Benefield as the darling of "trial lawyers". Horrible ad yet since trial lawyers are often the only thing standing between many citizens and big business running roughshod over our rights I'm not so sure that is a problem for anybody that really understands Alabama's week protections for the little man. Plus, Kim has worked with lawyers all her adult life in the Randolph County Circuit Clerk's office. Just because Dino can't seem to get along with the folks he works with I guess he assumes that if Kim is well thought of then she must be up to no good. You're projecting, as in your faults and tactics Dino.

Yet the slimiest and sorriest thing I've seen since Bu$h 41's Willie Horton TV commercial or the Wallace camp's "Wake Up Alabama" in 1970 came in my mailbox. Slick mailer that apparently Jim Preuitt is alos using in his effort to keep Dinos from going extinct with Kim linked with Hank Sanders of Selma. Dino (and fellow traveler Jim) is going after Sanders for his support of higher taxes, gay rights, and trashing the death penalty. Sanders simply believes in a Progressive tax code (even having an estate tax via the state), favored placing GLT folks under hate crimes protections, and also wanted a moritorium on the death penalty given the many problems we continue to see. The African American community is being unfairly treated plus we have common questions of innocence and simply decency and expense and ... Dino is likely sneaky enough to like the idea of linking Sanders to Kim Benefield to tap into the neo-confederate, League of the South, backwards vote.

One more day and we'll know if Dino's days are numbered. I'll be watching the Secretary of State's race as well with hopes that Ed Packard can give the good guys a chance to hold the office in the fall. I'll vote against Amendment One of course. I've got a friend running for Probate Judge as a Republican yet I'm hoping she can win her primary, especially since her opponent is an ALFA regional director. Exciting times for a political junkie! Peace ... or War!

More Kim Benefield for Senate District 13 Press

2006-06-04T14:53:00.000-07:00

Jerry Rutledge of The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer gives a good description of the race and has the candidates respond to four basic questions. Kim S. served her cause well while Dino fluffs the facts. Courage in the classroom? That's not what we call it now Dino! And does the U.S. really accept your Guard status? What "the Montgomery crowd throws at you" nearly made me spew. After 32 years down there you have the audacity to use that line? Take control of wasteful spending? That's a Republican line Dino! Kim quoted Thomas Friedman and the need to be preparing kids for the jobs of the 21st century. I doubt Dino has ever read Friedman much less the New York Times where he regularly writes.

Brock Parker of WTVM in Columbus gives us some good material on Dino. If the score is still tied after you being in the game for decades maybe a new quarterback is in order? And the payday lenders aren't controlled by your legislation but rather given legal status as loan sharks. You say Kim doesn't know anything about attracting industry yet 98 of 98 folks in the House thought the Rural Center concept made sense only to see you kill it dead with your hot air. Every other state that has tried the approach believe it has merit. Research says it works. Who the hell are you kidding with this logic? And even today in the Anniston Star, locked behind a subscription wall, Kim openly talked of a state minimum wage. I guarantee the only jobs your Big Mules want our folks to have are low wage ones so they'll surely want to keep you down at Goat Hill.

Dino = Democrat In Name Only = Gerald Dial = Big Mules' Boy = ...

Send a real Alabama Democrat to Montgomery to represent the 13th. Gerald "Dino" Dial has had two plus decades up on Goat Hill. We've had enough and probably too much of his "service". Kim Benefield will represent the interests of the branchheads instead of taking care of the Big Mules. Peace ... or War!

Ed Packard for Alabama Secretary of State!

2006-06-04T11:15:00.000-07:00

Nancy Worley is of course facing opposition in the primary from one of her own employees, not to mention well-funded and clearly connected Beth Chapman seeking the office this fall. For an incumbent to have such universal scorn is odd yet both The Montgomery Advertiser and The Birmingham News are endorsing Ed Packard for June 6th. There are reasons that seem to be clear yet here's enough for me. It is going to be tough enough to hold on to this office, a critical one in that we know the GOP has a long history (Katherine Harris in Florida and Kenneth Blackwell in Ohio in recent national elections for instance) of expecting partisan politics from their Secretaries of State, so Ed Packard seems to be our last best hope given all the scandals and concerns with Ms. Worley. All things being equal, although I hate to rely on this sexism still likely present here in Alabama, it might help to have a man running for the office. Fighting off the GOP means taking advantages of any little edge. Peace ... or War!

A mere cross post on Gerald "Dino" Dial!

2006-06-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

I posted "Gerald "Dino" Dial even spends like a Republican!" on Tin Shop Tartan yesterday and wanted to share to perhaps a larger audience (all four of you!) that stop by. Peace ... or War!

Wilmington NC in 1898 - America's Only Coup!

2006-06-01T06:08:00.000-07:00

Captain Bama ventures far from the Highlands to Eastern North Carolina this morning. The image to the left is from a book I read with Dr. David Carter in his top drawer New South seminar several years back when spending energy and money on The Plains. Good book, as are most UNC efforts. Buy it a Powells or ...

The WaPo provides us "1898 Race Clash Ruled a Coup : Panel Asks N.C. To Consider Reparations" by the AP's Mike Baker which references Professor Gilmore's work. I knew enough about the Wilmington "Riots" to know that plenty of historians accepted this event was not completely, or perhaps even partially, spontaneous. Here's where this relates to Alabama:

Wilmington likely became a "catalyst" for the violent white-supremacist movement around the country, with other states taking note, lead researcher Lerae Umfleet said.
Later violence -- in Atlanta in 1906; Tulsa, Okla., in 1921; and Rosewood, Fla., in 1923 -- mimicked that in Wilmington, and some white leaders called on the North Carolina violence as an example to incite fear in blacks.
"Jim Crow had passed in a few other states," Umfleet said. "But the whole white-supremacy campaign in North Carolina was watched around the country. People built on what happened in Wilmington."
Glenda Gilmore, a Yale University professor who wrote about that turn-of-the-century strife in her 1996 book, "Gender and Jim Crow," said North Carolinians must understand their true heritage.
"The facts have been there for all to see -- it's the interpretation that's been a point of contention," Gilmore said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "Even the most well-intentioned white people think there was a sort of riot, when indeed it had been a racial massacre."
Before the violence, which led to a Democratic takeover from Republicans and Populists, black men in North Carolina had been able to vote for about three decades. But Democrats quickly passed voter literacy tests and a grandfather clause that disenfranchised black voters until the civil rights movement of the 1960s.
"The growth of Wilmington was stunted as a result of what happened in 1898," Joyner said. "Wilmington has never recovered economically, socially or politically."

Reuben Kolb? Anybody know what "fusion party" references? Eufaula in about 1900? The 1901 Constitution?

Here's the deal! The Big Mules (the old Planter Class and New South industrialists for the most part) knew they were done if poor whites and blacks figured out they could work together for change. Before resorting to violence you divide via "white supremacy". Intimidation can be direct or economics based. An example might be, "Sam, I'm not so sure I want to let you crop this land with what I've been hearing." Merchants and bankers not extending credit to the poor whites if they got out of line is yet another example. Just in case that sort of effort failed, the 1901 Constitution concentrated power up on Goat Hill to keep the few local abberations limited in what they could accomplish.

Although Alabama Citizens for Contitutional Reform had at one time some more easily obtained historical material (which I'd have used to provide links to my questions above) they still have much to offer on why we need a fresh start. "Coup" might be too strong yet this dreadful document comes mightly close. A hundred years is long enough! Peace ... or War!

American Taxpayers Take One for the Team

2006-05-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

Allan Sloan of Newsweek reminds me how little I learned in two semesters of Tax law with Thurston "T Bone" Reynolds with his "A Double Play for the Atlanta Braves". While the only reason perhaps to post here on Captain Bama is that the Braves are "our" team, the real issue is the way Time Warner which currently owns of the team will likely trade to Liberty Media, a massive holding company. Here's the way, in part, how Mr. Sloan explains

... The companies would bring home total tax savings I estimate at $700 million—far more than the Braves are worth. Sure, we other taxpayers would be shut out. But what's baseball without a sacrifice? ...
Most fans would call this long-pending transaction (which may finally have been announced by the time you read this) a "sale" of the Braves. But it would actually be a trade. To be specific, it's what tax techies call a "cash-rich split-off, " a game that's just gotten a big assist from President George W. Bush's recently enacted $70 billion tax cut.
How does the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 involve the Braves? Here's the play-by-play. (Here's where I am humbled so I'll leave off the play by play yet try some color commentary.)

"Making my/our tax cuts permanent will keep our economy strong!" is what Bu$hCo and the ReThuglicans claim. Now while I'd argue the economy is hardly strong, the real mystery to me is how the Big Mules get regular folks to vote their candidates into office where the "public servants" then hand gifts out the Fat Cats that essentially are paid for from the pockets of the little man/woman? The few goopers that I can get to explain (of course not counting those that just hate government!) their infatuation with tax cuts use that tired and discredited Laffer curve model which spawned the Reagonomics disaster of supply side infamy. I know plenty of folks in the 80s that did not care for being at the trickle down end of those policies. So where are the jobs created with this? How does the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 do anything but help the suits and the stockholders? $700 million might not pay for much more than a week or so in Iraq but since the oil revenues they promised would haven't shown up I guess every little bit helps pay Halliburton. Worst administration/Congress ever! Peace ... or War!

Does Jim Wooten have a "toolette" at the AJC?

2006-05-30T16:54:00.000-07:00

Maureen Downey is not yet comparable to the AJC's resident Conservative Tool Jim Wooten who seems to weekly recycle right wing "think tanks" claims about education, citing often flawed "research", in his quest to save our society with his beloved market forces. Yet I fear she's been drinking some of The Tool's Kool Aide when I read stuff like today's "Count on teachers making the grade" Ms. Downey, with my emphasis supplied, writes in part

The public risks whiplash keeping up with the latest twists and turns in the education research. …
"Classroom grades are horrible predictors for how students do later on," says noted Manhattan Institute researcher Jay Greene. "The SAT is the single best predictor as to how a student will do in college."
These conflicts reflect a seldom acknowledged truth in education: There's a lot of uncertainty about what works and what doesn't.
In the meantime, schools invest millions of dollars in innovations and reforms that sound impressive, but don't amount to much more than a new coat of paint on a rickety old house. And when those reforms don't deliver the promised results, schools cling to them anyway because they've spent too much money and time to walk away.
The emphasis on student achievement in the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the requirement to use data to substantiate outcomes are prompting researchers to devise more reliable ways to capture effectiveness.
"The biggest revolution caused by No Child Left Behind is the revolution in education research," says Georgia State University's Gary Henry, a scholar in educational policy and evaluation. "We are getting better at figuring out what works. But what we are seeing is almost nothing that has a very large effect."
Even when the research shows a gain, it's a very small gain produced under the best of circumstances. That's because most reforms only tug at the edges and don't address central flaws in public education: A teacher's track record of improving student performance is hidden from public view, and that performance is not used as a factor in teacher salaries.
Researchers agree that the most reliable predictor of teacher success is past success. So what parents ought to look for is a teacher who has demonstrated gains in student scores from one year to the next. That track record is more telling than a teacher's academic credentials or experience. Yet, parents never see that crucial piece of the puzzle.
"We should, as parents, have that full data," says Henry. "We have the capacity here in Georgia to make that data available. Basically, it is a flip of a switch. That would empower parents to really be active."
Apparently, that's just what schools fear, a flood of active parents armed with data showing that Ms. X raises test scores year after year and Mr. Y does not. Because that would force schools to do something about Mr. Y— either offer him professional development or suggest a career change.
Even without test scores, the informed parents in a school community sleuth out the best teachers. At a recent Girl Scout event with his own daughter, Henry says parents were deep in discussion over the one or two teachers they hoped their kids would be lucky enough to dodge next year. The parents will have to trust luck; the school has already sent them a letter saying they should not try to influence teacher assignments by making specific requests.
No reform will revitalize public education until schools stop protecting ineffective teachers and start rewarding effective ones. Parents have the right and the responsibility to try to get their kids in the classes of the teachers with proven skills.
Schools can introduce block scheduling, shrink class size and increase honor courses, but those reforms are empty gestures without bright and motivated teachers in the classrooms.

I'll write as if sitting down with Ms. Downey and perhaps will even email her my post. As for your citing Professor Greene, “single best” works for me yet that is hardly the issue is it Ms. Downey. The Manhattan Institute is a typical right wing “think tank” with funding that is revealing. Now that the Walton Family has set Greene up at Fayetteville he’s too legit to quit. Lots of profit in pandering I expect even for “scholars” that supply tools like Jim and his ilk grist for the mill. Great work if you can get it huh Jay?

So Miss Maureen, can anyone claim “truth” in education based on your own article? Most bizarre is that you are seemingly suggesting the average politician and bureaucrat listens to those truth tellers? Alfie Kohn and Michael Apple, who are as true as any scholars that I follow, aren’t getting into the conversation in educational policy these days. The right wingers don’t want to hear anything that doesn’t jive with accountability dominated discourse. Do you think Bandura’s ideas on self-efficacy work with standardized testing and teaching to the test? Hardly so yet any serious student of learning knew NCLB was dead contrary to theories that held lots of sway with Progressive educators. We have now a whole new generation of suits and bureaucrats that have learned the way to the top is by the numbers and buzzwords. Accordingly, many of the new hands on deck buy into the politicos and consultants “solutions”. Upton Sinclair long ago wrote, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” The “truth” is that learning is what most humans are wired to do. We want to learn. Today’s schools aren’t exactly celebrating “learning” with their current approaches are they?

“Sound impressive” to the suits and the average ignorant voter makes me think of Colbert’s “truthiness”. And also I know that plenty of money is flowing to the corporations and consultants selling these reforms. But the bottom line is “what works” for folks like you and The Tool is simply test scores isn’t it? Outcomes and data and achievements and … are all business-oriented conservative contructs and I’ll offer up a prior post “No Wonder We Have So Many Dropouts & Darlings” that I think covers a good chunk of what I want to parry with on your “thinking”. These constructs simply are not part of “learning”, at least not of anything beyond learning disjointed facts and processes. We’ll need problem solvers and creative cooperationists for the 21st century yet you right wingers seem to want to teach to get more tools rather than thinkers. Is that the purpose or just a positive byproduct?

GSU Professor Henry, an apparently neutral and I’d argue more authentic scholar in educational policy and evaluation than Dr. Greene, is likely correct in acknowledging that improvements are minimal even in those efforts that seem to work. However, your idea that the central flaw is simply not enough market forces and even more reliance on those damnable scores. This is laughable but for the fact your op-ed and The Tool’s trash get regular ink and readers via the AJC. It’s the model and societal factors and too much standardized testing and the … C’mon, you really can’t want to be a toolette can you? Are bad teachers part of the problem? I’m sure this is partially true yet laying the whole mess with the educators is hardly fair and certainly not complete.

Indeed consistent improvements are a solid part of showing a good teacher yet it is hardly the only factor. Again, what is success? And what about the new teachers we are desperate for with the baby boomers starting to leave the field. There is also good research that suggests many top drawer teachers leave early on due to the bureaucratic and disciplinary hassles that your model has made even worse? How do these new teachers get in the mix? And how do you compare one class and year to another? How do you isolate variables like past teachers/schools, home changes, personal problems, hormones, distractions, motivation, parental support, drugs and alcohol, discipline, distractions, materials, etc? How much will it cost to really disaggregate the data and then explain to parents. Wait to you see the costs of litigating the probably losing cases where teachers get docked on data driven evaluations that can’t hold up on examination by even a marginal attorney. A little thinking and even you tools can perhaps see the folly? Plus isn’t there much to be said for modeling intellectual thought or creating a love of learning or teaching social skills or teaching kids how to think or …? Can’t really measure that can we? And what happens if that hard work pays off in a little longer time than when you measured the kid. If teachers touch the future then should we not test then?

Your active parents wanting to dodge a certain teacher I’m sure got that information via their “connections”. They likely have some “clout” and enough get up and go where I expect their kids have at least that going for them. Yet what about the less informed or motivated parents and their kids? Market forces and reward pay in your approach would hardly work in many areas of our region yet you might only be thinking of the Professor’s Girl Scout high end world. Even around the ATL you surely know there is plenty of variety. You actually think these parents are only focusing on test scores and, even if they were, do they need the data to make a decision about their kid? Local people often know who the good teachers are as you’ve claimed in your writing. If they want to decide then enroll their darlings in a private school! Public education should meet as many needs as possible for individual parents and their kids yet it is PUBLIC. The good achieved for the whole society is what policy needs to be built around yet these conservative ideas have had their twenty years of “reform” that has done little if anything. NCLB is the ultimate top down big government solution yet you now want to let this have a local component of parents "drafting" the teachers?

So I’m really reading just a little more “competition” and “free the market forces” and … There’s no shame is there? There is certainly little if any consistency? It appears that your approach is the same old same old that Jim Wooten shills. Welcome to the tool shed Ms. Downey. Peace … or War!

No Wonder We Have So Many Dropouts & Darlings

2006-05-29T08:48:00.000-07:00

I have some hesitancy to link to anything written by Gary Palmer of The Alabama Policy Institute yet he does give us a decent article entitled "How many are missing? The shocking truth about Alabama's dropout rate is being ignored" from The Huntsville Times. Also in The Times a community columnist named M. Ann Zaffrann gets ink for "Some parents drive teachers to distraction - and off campus" yet be aware that she's writing of the early college years. I think both these op-ed efforts reveal consequences of the same policies and conditions that influence learning provided in our schools.

Returning to Mr. Palmer's "thinking" he is mostly right for his concerns on the numbers yet I'll give you this to consider:

But the majority of analysts and lawmakers have come to this consensus: the numbers have remained unchecked at approximately 30 percent through two decades of intense educational reform, and the magnitude of the problem has been consistently, and often willfully, ignored."

At least two decades and guess which way "reform" has been heading. More and more "conservatism" and "accountability" and you guys in the well-funded and connected right wing policy "think tanks" are doing more and more to destoy public education. Gary Palmer, although heading up the Alabama Policy Institute, is a mid-level operative that spins the corporate GOP "talking points" and often skewed "research" with really no challenge here. He'll tap into "values" at times of course to rally/calm the Bible Thumpers. Sooner or later organizations like Progressives States Network and the like will push back but it will take time and money that Progressives in Alabama don't often have. So here he takes a problem that his side has not remedied and winds up blaming and not really offering solutions. Indeed we need to know our numbers yet focusing on numbers is really the whole business approach isn't it? He writes of revenues and salaries lost yet doesn't seem to express concern for loss of learning. Maybe his side needs future voters that aren't inclined toward critical thinking.

As for Ms. Zaffrann, she writes of several anectodal experiences that are worth reading yet she ends with this:

... This over-solicitous behavior inevitably breeds the inability to function within the students themselves. One young woman came to my office and told me she "didn't know what to do."
When I asked what specifically confused her, she responded that she didn't know anything - how to apply for financial aid, where to get her books, etc.
I looked at the pile of materials she had in front of her and asked whether she'd read the information that had clearly been supplied for her use.
She hadn't. Hey, why read if you can get someone to spoon-feed you just like at home?
I have had more students than I can mention who were responsible, conscientious and dedicated. My guess is that they were expected to develop these traits - by their parents - as they grew older. ...

My brief time doing GTA instruction work at Auburn saw some of this yet perhaps not so much as she has described. My students were on the edge of entry into The College of Education, an amazingly demanding admission process being involved, and taking various technology classes but a few were a little weak on maturity and independence. Professors and other GTAs did often express amazement over how poorly prepared these kids seemed.

So Mr. Palmer is frustrated that so many kids are dropping out and Ms. Zaffrann thinks even those that do graduate lack the capacity to think and act independently. Plus some are lazy. Or used to being "spoon fed". Or glued to their cell phones.

As for both our writers, I'll first offer that experiences and attitudes are overwhelmingly influenced by what occurs outside of the classroom. Some research I've read puts the classroom instructional factors at less that 10%. I've often used thirds with the kid and their homelife, the many layers of bureaucracies, and finally the classroom teacher making the whole of what influences learning. Of course teachers teach those they've been assigned and have remarkably little power in the model. We can only influence what goes on in our classroom and so many of the factors outside limit us from making the hard choices of dismissing the unable and unwilling.

We are using a model that is a hundred years old to prepare kids for industrial jobs. Dropping twenty or even thirty something kids into a cement block room and demanding they sit down and work, rather that explore, flies in the face of our modern world. The post-industrial world needs thinkers and those able to work with copius amounts of information. One might suspect Mr. Palmer is not eager to have thinkers unless that contributes to the numbers and even then his side figures a little learning is just enough.

Solutions are a bit more complicated yet Progressives have no influence these days given the power of the Right so it might not matter just yet. I'm working on a good approach but I know what is wrong with our current efforts. Alfie Kohn's "What does it mean to be well educated" is one work that I'm tackling over the summer yet Michael Apple will be soon on the shelves as I need to revisit his ideas. Lefty educators are partially silenced or at best ignored these days yet darned if the right hasn't had their chance. Of course some folks argue they really don't want to fix public education but rather kill it. At best their belief that "market forces" solve all problems is part of the trouble.

Speaking, or more accurately writing of, the marketplace of ideas, admittedly our culture often doesn't value educated people. Dumb dads are a staple of sitcoms and that vapid vamp Paris Hilton can be Exhibit A for how media (corporate owned even if they employ the Hollywood elite) models success and favorable habits for our youth. Faux News expresses outrage over decency yet Fox Network distributes the most debauchery according to some authorities.

We also have a long history of anti-intellectualism in America yet I'm not so sure if we are backing up even further these last few years. Several professors I trust argue that the average undergraduate is dreadfully unappreciative of learning. Given that the average kid has been measured on learning "one damn fact/process after another" maybe that is to be expected. Teachers also teach via spoon feeding in that they simply don't have time to make a student muddle through to a solution in that they've got to get ready for the standardized tests. Our kids are taught with worksheets and reading guides and all the canned curriculum that our textbook companies make a killing preparing and then selling to the big markets in California and Texas and ... These kids either soldier on and learn despite of the system, jump through the hoops, or walk out the door. I'd argue that most of those, and certainly our society as a whole. that stay are hardly well served even if they stay in school. Part of this is due to the fact that if a kid will simply sit there and sort of kind of work then their overwhelmed and often less than ideally prepared or supported or empowered or ... teachers will be more than willing to meet them halfway. We simply "play school" all too often. We know that Alabama, most evident with the Wallace Community College System, values quantity often more than quality.

I've argued at times above that the "accountability" movement and conservative, business-based models have much to do with both of these concerns. I'm merely guessing here yet I bet many of these doting parents and spoiled/lazy kids lean toward the right in the political spectrum. It might be from my liberal bias yet this idea seems to have held up over the years. Could be in that many Americans are shocked when they understand the overwhelming factor in where a person lands on the economic food chain is where they started.

So will anybody here in Alabama challenge No Child Left Behind, the ultimate example of flawed, no downright fucked up, ideas that have overwhelmed local and state control of education. It is so odd that just a few years ago Reagan's Revolution toyed with ending the Federal Department of Education in that it really is contitutionally not handed to the Feds. Yet these small government advocates have created No Data Obsessed Bureaucrat that makes every system jump through hoops that can't be imagined. I didn't have the heart to ask Lucy Baxley, more on that later, her position on NCLB when she visited our villages today yet I'm sure it would have not been a substantive response, as would be true for likely any politician. Why? Because it has become too complex and conservatism has seemingly won the war. The politicians continue to use and abuse our schools, according to their need and perceptions, yet professional educators are generally not allowed at the table when it comes down to solutions.

What a massive post. In fact I had one that was much more solid nearly polished off when Blogger got ornery and forced me into losing my work. Might come back and polish yet I'll go ahead and post, for better or worse. Peace ... or War!

Political Framing 101 - Gerald Dial's Snarkasaurus

2006-05-28T08:08:00.000-07:00

Too cute! Not really fair to this Flintstone icon yet Gerald "Dino" Dial has a new mascot. Lowell Barron, not that I'm a huge fan of the Pharmacist from Fyffe, has grown tired of wrestling with the "Democrats in Name Only" on top of Goat Hill. Kim S. Benefield is sending Dino Dial home from "representing" the 13th. Peace ... or War!

"Alabama Getaway" ... with regrets to The Dead!

2006-05-26T06:36:00.000-07:00

I regret going silent these last few days. Grumpy gut and closing down the classroom and summoned to the hayfields and … I’ll be back in the saddle surely this evening. Hope to even get something up on Marque Stuart given my labors about the property. Give me some comments, suggestions, challenges, … on any of my five blogs listed below. Peace … or War!
Captain Plaid - Progressive Scot
Captain Bama - Southern Scot
Tin Shop Tartan - Localism
Captain Jimi - Culture Warrior
Marque Stuart - Home & Garden

Pandering Pols Address "Education" in Alabama

2006-05-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

Our four major candidates for Governor were interviewed by The Birmingham News in regard to their positions on "education". "Candidates take differing tacks on education" indeed per the reporting of Charles J. Dean and Mike Cason. Nothing remarkable with Roy Moore talking his usual bizarre mixture of choice and local control and consolidation and religion and waste and ... He's truly pathetic. The Don made lots of sense at times which makes me even sadder in that I think he's so tainted where he'd likely have a hard time being elected or governing. I'm not against a lottery beyond the fact it is regressive. I voted against it the last time simply for that reason. Might as well have it with so many sister states cashing in. Lucy was loving lots, yet perhaps too much, leaving her a bit vague as I regret seems to be her strategy. Governor Riley was adequate yet he, like all the candidates frankly, left much to be desired.

A good place to start fixing education would be challenging the conservative takeover in education that has been afoot for the last twenty plus years. Not much chance on tackling "No Child Left Behind" or the other standards-based disasters. Real reform is likely way beyond these folks as The Don would have little chance of creating radical changes even if he could earn the office again. I don't have time or space to offer specific ideas just yet but hope to soon post on Captain Plaid or elsewhere.

The one area that I'll cover here in their position on "intelligent design". (My running commentary will be in bold italics.) Might cut a little but will give most of their ideas as follows:

Question: Do you support the teaching of intelligent design in public schools?
Baxley: "Describe what you mean by intelligent design. (Do you need a moment to think or could you perhaps not know this Lucy?)
(Critics refer to it as the new version of creationism, that there must be a grand creator behind life on Earth.)
"Let me tell you first of all, I believe in the grand creator. That is unwavering in my belief." (You might have lost my vote here. Pandering and not part of science.)

(As governor, would you propose legislation calling for the teaching of intelligent design?)
"No, I would not. I have my faith and my belief and what creation is to me. This is the core of my being. And I have a great respect for others having their relationship with their creator and their beliefs just like I do. This idea will never begin with me. But if someone came forward with that idea, you've just described what puts it in the hands of the people, it would have to go through committees for the public to be heard on it. Then it would be voted on by the voting members of the Legislature that the people have sent down there to cast their votes for them. Let me just say this. I can't think of a situation under which I would personally be supportive of it." (Waffling again! Also, what about folks that don't have a belief that there is a creator?)
Moore: "At one time in our country there was freedom to teach your children what you believed to be the truth. Now there is a mandate on what you teach your children. I disagree with the mandate. I agree with the freedom. I also subscribe to Thomas Jefferson's quote in his bill for religious freedom, that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical. That means for you to be made to pay your money to teach something you don't believe is sinful to your children. To pay money to somebody else to teach your children something you don't believe, and hate, is sinful." (You probably do hate science! Sinful? What a wanker!)
(The teaching of Darwinism, Darwin's theory on the origins of life, if you disagreed with that, didn't believe that as a parent you would ..."
"Take them (my children) to another school."
(So you wouldn't oppose the teaching of evolution in schools where parents wanted it taught?)
"No. ... I'm not against public schools. If that's where parents want to send their children, they should have that freedom. They should have the freedom to send them to which public school. That's free enterprise. But if they want to send them to a Christian school or a homeschool, they should do that too."
(So, one more time, should intelligent design be taught in public schools?)
"If that's what parents want."
(But how would that work given the fact public schools are a governmental entity?)
"I don't think the state should mandate one theory over another. Not to allow alternatives is a type of tyranny." (Can you be any more inconsistent or illogical Roy?)
Riley: "I think we should at least have the ability to have a logical discussion about different views. Now, when we came into the process of defining it as intelligent design, I'm not too sure that's how I would phrase the debate because when you say intelligent design that takes it to a step that some parts I'm not too comfortable with. But to say a child needs to be exposed to theories that I believe a majority of the people in this country believe ... that believe there is a God, a deity, that did excise control over this world. I think most people in America believe that. To say you can't bring that up as an alternative doctrine is wrong." (Logical discussion? Majority thinking determines what we teach in a science class? My gracious!)
(So you would sign a bill if it made it through the Legislature mandating the teaching of ID?)
"It's not that I would mandate teaching of ID. But I would always support the idea that any teacher has the ability and option to talk about alternate philosophy, beliefs and ideas" (So they can teach polytheistic ideas on the origins or life. What about animism? Where does this line of logic end Governor?)
(So it would be all right for a teacher in the course of teaching evolution or origins of life to say another viewpoint is ... and then tell the story of Genesis?)
"Absolutely. Yes." (Good grief! You are walking away from the others in the polls! Why pander ... unless you really feel this is appropriate?)
(What would you say to people who said that would be interjecting religion into public schools?)
"It's not interjecting religion. At least religion to me is when you start talking about the denominations, about what people believe. I think most people in America today would say, if you polled them, that there is a God and God did have a part in the creation of this world and for a teacher to recognize that or at least recognize that as a belief of a majority of the people in this country, sure I think it's OK." (Again, the majority decides our science curriculum? Maybe we could let the many neo-confederates here work on our teaching of slavery and the American Civil War? And what are the lines about "not interjecting religion" and "religion to me is when you start talking about the denominations, about what people believe." all about? Isn't the literal story in Genesis "what people believe" Bob?)
Siegelman: "Frankly, I think that religion should not be taught in public school. That should be something that is reserved for parents and preachers and their children. I think we're straining at a gnat to swallow a camel. There are bigger issues out there that our kids are concerned with. They need to learn to read and write and add and subtract. They need to learn to get along with others. They can learn all of that stuff in schools, and there are some things I think are best reserved for parents and preachers and left out of public schools." (The Don may have just earned my vote despite the legal troubles he is facing.)

What a grand choice, as usual I lament, we have in Alabama. The Don is certainly the sharpest and most in line with my thinking and yet he's facing The Man with his legal troubles. Looks a bit questionable at least so I'm waiting. Still, Reverend Roy is still as crazy as a run over dog. Lucy is still a bit goosey on her positions and approach. Bob Riley ought to know better on some of this and we know he's conservative and pro-business. He could ratchet back some of the wing nuts in his leadership position and likely return to office yet he either is following this trend or is scared to stand up to the Religious Right. For either he will not earn my vote. Peace ... or War!

Are Alabama Same Sex Couples Accepted?

2006-05-21T13:03:00.000-07:00

I found this in today's print edition of The Anniston Star but I'll send you to The Boston Globe for David Crary of The Associated Press reporting "Gays see shift in momentum toward acceptance in Alabama: But their causes are still enduring share of setbacks". This articles got lots of coverage across America and can't hurt as to Alabama's reputation for intolerance. I'll be voting "No" on the Constitutional Amendment on June 6th and perhaps even doing a "Letter to the Editor" of a few local rags offering my reasoning yet I fear it will indeed pass with rather high numbers. Ignorant Alabama voters rejected Amendment #2 back in 2004 that kept racist language on segregated schools so surely ignorant Alabama voters will do the bidding of John Giles and the religious wing nuts on this issue. Peace ... or War!

Damage Control from Chancellor Roy Johnson

2006-05-19T20:57:00.000-07:00

The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reports "Chancellor: son-in-law won't work as attorney for 3 colleges" yet "He said his wife, son, daughter and daughter-in-law continue to work in the two-year college system, but that none were hired by him and all had jobs in the system before he became chancellor." Peace ... or War!

Rudy Loves Ralph ... and his cousin, gay friends, ...

2006-05-18T09:52:00.000-07:00

Jonathan Hutson at Talk to Action serves up Ralph Reed Embraces 'Blatant Adultering Cousin-Fucker'. Here are some gems:

Just how desperate does Georgia lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Reed have to be to court and count on the support of a pro-choice, pro-gay, pro-gun control, divorced Catholic politician from New York who has confessed to having sex with his cousin on a regular basis over the course of 14 years?
On May 17, 2006, Reed issued a salvo against Fulton County judge who, in Reed's terms, dishonored the "sanctity of the institution of marriage" by striking down Georgia's gay marriage ban. In a press release on the homepage of his campaign web site, www.ralphreed.com, Reed called the ruling "just the latest example of a liberal judiciary run amoc [sic]." Reed, who cannot spell amok (okay, who gives a kissin' cousin fok?), added that "Georgians agree in their belief that marriage should be defined as a man and a woman in holy matrimony."
Holy matrimony, Batman! Does Reed's definition of sanctified marriage include a man and his third cousin? Well, what about a man who married his third cousin, Ms. Peruggi, then had the marriage annulled after a brief 14 years as soon as he "discovered" (in the midst of an adulterous affair with Ms. Hanover) that his wife was not his third cousin, but actually his second cousin? What about a man who has an annulment, marries his lover waiting in the wings, and then ends his second marriage with another adulterous affair? ...

America's Mayor indeed. Do any of Ralph's remaining supporters not ponder this? Peace ... or War!

More on Anthony Ray Hinton's Death Case

2006-05-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

Bob Blaylock of The Birmingham News gives us another look at Anthony Ray Hinton's death penalty case with today's "Why won't state take innocence claim seriously?" I'd posted earlier on Mr. Hinton with a post I titled as "Justice on the Cheap" in a "Pro-Life" State!" yet the Criminal Justice system is where the rubber hits the road. Alabama is a "law and order" state and District Attorney elections aren't won with reason and tempered justice I fear. Law enforcement can be incompetent and corrupt and ... with me basing this on plenty of professional experiences. Our courts, with the Alabama Supreme Court being the most conservative in modern history, are likewise not going to the seasoned and reasoned but rather the connected and projected. One of the main reasons I want to get back in the practice is to join issue on these problems. Nothing to gain gives me more freedom to go hardcore with my activism and advocacy that I did not possess in my first effort. I was always hard nosed in defending my clients yet in the years to come I want to educate our public as to the reality of injustices still continuing in Alabama. Peace ... or War!

Bama Dems Toss & Answer "Softball Questions"?

2006-05-13T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tom Gordon of The Birmingham News reports "State Democrats pose questions to candidates" yet I'm somewhat disappointed by the nature of the questions. Here they are:

"Please provide a brief biographical sketch."
"What in your background has prepared you to serve in the office for which you are running?"
"What are three goals you will work to accomplish if elected?"
"What is the most pressing challenge facing the State of Alabama and how will you work to effect positive change in this area?"

I want some tough ones that hems these folks up at least a little. I'd like to know their position on Constitutional Reform, PAC to PAC transfers and campaign finance disclosures and lobbying and ... , judicial elections ... Missouri Plan and/or non-partisan and ... , same sex marriage/civil rights, 1st Amendment issues with special emphasis on establishment and separation clauses, improving that damnable ALICE system, environment, education, poverty, capping damages in civil lawsuits, death penalty, abortion, gun control, rural Alabama, drug policy, prison issues, criminal defense of indigents funding and standards, sex education, following or fighting No Child Left Behind, teachers having a workable way to boot the disruptive non-achievers from their classrooms, educators' pay and perks, willingness to take on the Big Mules, outreach to the branchheads, ability and desire to establish meaningful web/email communication, ...

There's more to add. If anyone wants to drop comments or emails offering additions I'd appreciate. Also, I'd like your thoughts on why we should or shold notask the tough questions. Indeed it might give the GOP some ammo yet I still think the idea of speaking clearly and completely will resonate with the public. If the public hears the issues Progressive Lefty ideas can win. Long view maybe but I'm not interested in sending Republican Lite to Goat Hill. Peace ... or War!

Athens Suitor Spurned by Roy Moore

2006-05-12T12:45:00.000-07:00

Polygamy might be the answer Roy? Multiple spouses might allow you to boost those dreadful poll numbers? Holly Hollman of The Decatur's Daily gives us the story and Jonathan Palmer provided the image for "Traditional marriage - Athens man proposes while Moore speaks" The story, in part, reads,

Equating silence with treason, Moore said Christians have remained silent too long on issues such as prayer in schools and abortion, and must be vocal on defining marriage.
"We didn't want to offend so we have remained silent," Moore said. "This is not a political issue, but a moral issue. It is about the destruction of an institution ordained by God."
Moore predicted more than 90 percent of those who vote June 6 will support the traditional marriage amendment.

Jean Cole of The News Courier also covered the event with her "‘Few disagree’ with gay marriage ban - Roy Moore expects 90 percent to vote for ban". Her Athens-based writing, in part, reads,

... Garth held the sign, stood among the crowd and quietly recited the Lord’s Prayer with the crowd during the invocation. Three Athens police officers stood behind him in case he started a ruckus. ...
To some, the amendment seems redundant.
State law already bans marriage between people of the same sex. However, a Constitutional amendment would prevent courts from striking down the state law, as courts in Boston and San Francisco did.
While a man handed out Moore political signs from a box about 150 yards from the speakers, Moore told gatherers, “This is not a political issue, it a moral issue,” he said. “When we forget God, we forget our morals.”
The crowd applauded.
Failing to vote for the amendment may have repercussions, said Tim Anderson, one of several speakers at the event. “You get to choose today, “ he told the crowd. “When we stand before God, we won’t get to choose.”
His remarks drew widespread applause and some “Amens.”
The rally, called the Stand Up For Traditional Marriage Rally, was sponsored by the Athens Limestone for Quality of Life Committee, a group which reformed this year under chairman Mike Westmoreland. Westmoreland is pastor of Madison Street Baptist Church.
The proposed amendment defines marriage in the state Constitution as a union between a man and a woman only.
It would also prevent Alabama from recognizing same-sex marriages from other states. State legislators voted in March 2005 to put the amendment on the June 6 ballot.
It is sponsored by Sen. Hinton Mitchem, D-Albertville, and cosponsored by 11 other senators. Fear for Alabama’s children prompted Mitchem to sponsor the amendment.
He said he watched television coverage of a rally in San Francisco in which two men were kissing.
“That was not conducive to the welfare of our children, “ he told The News Courier Friday.

So Garth was going to start the ruckus? Love the language .... NOT. He's a non-violent protester. Even if he wanted to heckle Alabama's Favorite Theocrat I'm thinking the First Amendment would have needed protecting more than anything else.

These Alabama pandering politicians (Would that be an oxymoronic moron?) might need to check out the federal Defense of Marriage Act. I think there's a violation of the "full faith and credit" clause yet perhaps not. Also, if they can't marry/partner up then they'll not be filmed at a rally? Marriage cools the passion Senator, or at least it did with my wives. Kids are seeing plenty that comes from major media owned by massive GOP oriented folks like that Aussie Murdock's FOX yet you want to pass a law in Alabama? Like an Alabama court would rule to allow gay marriage. What are you folks on Goat Hill smoking?

This is a "civil rights" issue at least up to a point. If benefits are extended to traditional couples then same sex couples ought to be able to make those same choices. I'll vote "No" of course simply to be contrary yet I do not think the issue matters in Alabama. Pandering for votes and distracting voters from significant issues and problems is all this mess is about yet it reveals the wingnuts among us.

Roy Moore has long been a member of our "Crazy as a run over dog Club" yet he is still perhaps not to the level of founding member Ann Coulter. She'd have urged her fans to smite him and if they'd have declined then she'd ridicule them for not being the brownshirts of her dreams.

This post makes me all the more inclined to just go ahead and order Michelle Goldberg's Kingdom Coming : The Rise of Christian Nationalism.

Tip of the tap to Mr. Garth! Peace of War!

Wheeler Nails "Frivilous Lawsuits"

2006-05-11T15:30:00.000-07:00

Wheeler at Alablawg gives us a fine work with this post. I've suggested essentially the same thing in some conversation and/or forums and it works when we, people of reason merely, can be heard over the Mighty Wurlitzer of the right. It takes personal contact often yet facts are stubborn things when we get down to the branchheads. Of course, if the media would confront these wingnuts or those on the right wing payroll it would make our job easier. Good job, as always, Wheeler! Peace ... or War!

Is Alabama's Secretary of State Stephanie Worley Wasting Public Funds?

2006-05-10T17:45:00.000-07:00

The Mobile Press-Register Op-Ed from today takes Secertary of State Stephanie Worley to task for spending public funds on voter education. Seems like a waste to me and yet at a minimum I'd argue it is questionable for her to appear in the media spots if she's facing re-election. Here's the guts of the piece:

The total cost for running the ads would be $563,717. The money would come from interest earned on federal funds used to implement the federal Help Americans Vote Act. While these aren't tax dollars, they are clearly public funds.
Bottom line: Politicians seeking re-election have no business spending public dollars to encourage folks to vote. There's an inherent conflict of interest in that.
Get-out-the-vote drives, which are appropriate in a democracy, are better handled by citizen activists, not government officials.

I know there are likely plenty of other issues out there yet this one seems appropriate. Note that she is a Democrat. I'm an equal opportunity advocate or at least I attempt the same. Peace ... or War!

Show DINO Dial How Rural Alabama Regards Him

2006-05-08T21:29:00.000-07:00

Pamela Chism, the executive director of the Friends of Hale County Foundation, was given space in a recent Anniston Star to lay into DINO Dial. I've posted earlier on this latest Dial disaster at Captain Bama and just today on Tin Shop Tartan. Ms. Chism's op-ed is titled "Speaker’s Stand ... Sen. Dial shows disregard for rural Alabama" where she talks of her faith and how Christians walk the talk. Gerald Dial is all talk and no walk, even for his own rural district. Folks here in the 13th can show our regard for Gerald Dial by replacing him with Kim Benefield. Peace ... or War!

"Justice on the Cheap" in a "Pro-Life" State!

2006-05-04T12:40:00.000-07:00

Judge Sue Bell Cobb is getting my vote and support for the fall's Chief Justice race. Yesterday's op-ed in The B'ham News, entitled "A Mockery of Justice", just confirms my decision. Regarding Appellant Anthony Ray Hinton, an unqualified "expect" provided ballistics evidence that was savaged on cross. This "evidence" has now been shown to be such that the conviction seems very improper. Amnesty International gives us some allegations, even beyond the firearms testimony, that seem rather solid. However, The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals voted 3-2 to let the injustice continue. Inadequate representation seems enough and the case will likely not pass federal review yet why not do the right thing at our appellate court? A new trial is certainly appropriate in this death case. Kudos for Judge Cobb and Shaw! And shame, based on the evidence I'm privy to, on Republican judges Baschab, McMillan, and Wise! While I don't think we should even elect Judges, I'm sure you Republicans reap the benefit of your party claiming respect for "the culture of life". Yet, in this case you choose death. Peace ... or War!

Anniston Star on NPR's "All Things Considered"

2006-05-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

David Folkenflik reports on NPR's "All Things Considered" with an audio link. "It fights above its weight class." was my favorite quote. Training ground for some top tier papers and a rare liberal intellectual voice in Alabama. Journalism resource as "a teaching newspaper" for the U of A and non-profits and ... My gracious isn't this a grand approach. Well done Brandy! I love The Anniston Star! Peace ... or War!

Alabama Shakespeare Festival offers Alabama Rooted "To Kill a Mockingbird"

2006-05-02T10:04:00.000-07:00

The Alabama Shakespeare Festival is a treasure of Alabama that I've often had on my "one of these days" list. I'm going to take the boy to an adaptation of "To Kill a Mockingbird" that the ASF is offering over the summer. Classic story that ought to be solid. Now that I'm bolting the classroom I'll be able to visit the ASF and other cultural offerings rather than simply crawling home every evening and collapsing. Of course having the money to go might be the issue now. Peace ... or War!

Ava Lowery's "Peace Takes Courage"

2006-05-01T16:46:00.000-07:00

An amazing young woman from Alabama named Ava Lowery has truly impressed me with her "Peace Takes Courage" efforts. Very moving animations and writing from one that gives me hope for our future. She's just fifteen but this young peace activist could very well make an impact that is exponential in scope. I've added her to my resources and plan to share her work. You make Alabama proud Ava! Peace ... or War!

As long as we are electing Judges ...

2006-05-01T12:57:00.000-07:00

Tom Scarritt of The B'ham News opines "Voters are the judge and jury" focusing on "Crazy as a Run Over Dog Tom Parker" for the most part. He's crazy and apparently lazy to boot. Mr. Scarritt says we should be glad these judges are speaking out. Yet what we are getting is simply more proof that idiots can be elected as long as idiots (offered in a non-disparaging way ... for the most part) are doing the voting. Elitist perhaps yet I often think that few voters are aware enough to select our leaders yet I'm certain the average layperson can't evaluate a jurist at the appellate level, and possibly the circuit/district level as well. The Alabama State Bar's suggestions, based on the "Missouri Plan", is long overdue. Additionally, Mother Jones's reminds us that activist fundamentalists are lurking more and more with "The Bible Bench". Peace ... or War!

Major Alabama Political Action Committees

2006-04-30T15:57:00.000-07:00

David White of The B'ham News provides a super nice summary of the many PACs in Alabama. I'll give it to you in print view. Scary way of doing business since PAC to PAC transfers allow money to be hidden. Simple disclosure seems foundational yet Alabama politicians continue to pander for votes on "family values" and other distractions rather than tackling real reform. Peace ... or War!

Truman Capote Exhibit Opens in Monroeville

2006-04-28T10:44:00.000-07:00

Garry Mitchell o the WaPo reports "Alabama Literary Town To Open Capote Exhibit" referencing of course Monroeville.

Rare family photos and a collection of writer Truman Capote's letters to his favorite aunt in Alabama -- on topics ranging from Harper Lee to Tallulah Bankhead to his longing for down-home butter beans -- are going on permanent display in Alabama's literary capital, where the writer spent some of his boyhood.
The collection is a coup for the town that was spun into memorable works by Capote and, under the name Maycomb, by Lee, his childhood friend and neighbor. It was assembled by Capote's cousin Jennings Faulk Carter, who donated the collection to the Monroe County Heritage Museums for an exhibit that opens April 27 in Monroeville's Old Courthouse on the town square.

I'm ready to go! I've recently watched Capote and want to learn more about the man. Peace ... or War!

NCLB "Highly Qualified" Teachers Scarce in AL

2006-04-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

Bu$hCo's "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) is not the start of conservatism finishing off public education yet it might be the last straw. While the idea of having "highly qualified" teachers makes some sense, it is perhaps more form than substance. Still, it is interesting to see reporting by Greg Wright in The Mongomery Advertiser entitled "State fails to get best teachers" where he, in part writes,

When it came to getting qualified people to teach children essential subjects such as math and English, Alabama had one of the lowest success rates in the nation in 2004-05, according to U.S. Education Department data.
Alabama had teachers rated highly qualified in 82 percent of core academic classes such as math and English. That was below the national rate of 91 percent and ranks the state 39th out of 49 states and the District of Columbia. Figures for Delaware were not available.
Alabama children who live in poorer areas had even lower odds of having teachers who know their subject, the department said. For instance, 67 percent of Alabama secondary school core academic classes at schools in high-poverty areas had highly qualified teachers, compared to 84 percent in low-poverty areas, the department said.

This last paragraph was especially relevant for me. Teaching in a very poor school, even across the river in Georgia, makes me appreciate the demands those teachers and students and communities face. With Georgia paying a little higher than Alabama, the differences might be even more extreme. I personally favor a radical approach toward education with a dumping of the common canned curriculum and meaningless measurement supplied by NCLB. I'll explain, probably on Captain Plaid, how I'd do education if ever given the power. Peace ... or War

Tom Parker Slips the Noose on Ethics Charges

2006-04-26T18:24:00.000-07:00

I'd previously posted on Tom Parker facing ethics charges for his newspaper opinion on the Alabama Supreme Court following the opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court on not executing children. Today we learn that the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission has rejected the complaint. Tacky article at best. Peace ... or War!

Alabama Power Settles EPA/DOJ Pollution Suit

2006-04-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

Going across the pond to The Guardian, relying on AP reporter John Hailprin, we see that Alabama Power has finally been forced to deal with pollution concerns. Although the Bu$h administration has hardly been agressive in dealing with any pollution concern I am pleased to see some action in this area. Peace ... or War!

An NRA Shill - Another Reason to Reject Riley?

2006-04-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

I've already posted a scolding on Goat Hill passing the ridiculous NRA sponsored "self-defense" legislation, with Governor Riley apparently supportive and certainly signing, even if the pandering politicians would have likely pushed this disaster on regardless of his position. Yet pandering is part of the process it appears. The National Rifle Association has announced that it will endorse Riley in the general election this year. In accepting the endorsement, Governor Riley disengenously claims,

"Ladies and gentlemen all across the country, and it has been for a long time, there has been an attack, an attack on our rights to own and bear arms," Riley said. "Well, if you grew up in Alabama, that is a way of life. It's part of our culture."

I know this is part of the ReThuglican playbook Governor yet this is a LIE! Quit lying! Stop the madness and get real. The GOP and the NRA and the Religious Right and ... has to be challenged for their LIES. Their slick marketing and direct mailing and ... would make Karl Rove jealous, although I expect Karl often helps them in their efforts. While polls are not looking good for the Democrats this fall, with Lucy not running a campaign worth a darn it seems as she's even with The Don, I'll pull the lever under the Rooster this fall. Your LIE above is reason enough. Peace ... or War!

Sinners in the Hand of an Angry GOP?

2006-04-24T19:09:00.000-07:00

I'm reading that the White House and the ReThuglicans are heading right for the base in the face of the 2006 elections as the GOP leadership knows that if the Democrats get control of either chamber then the game is up. Leadership shifts and subpoena powers will allow a complete investigation of the Bu$h cabal. So we can expect "family values" to be part of the push. So it is interesting to see "Red state depravity" from today's Anniston Star. I also understand a strong correlation exists between education and progressivism. Peace ... or War!

Criminal Justice Reform - "Ignore the Demagogues!"

2006-04-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

Surely no Alabama Politician down at Goat Hill would "ignore rationality and practicality for political purposes" as suggested by The Hunstville Times. In their op-ed from Friday the 21st of April, David Prather gives us "Real prison reform" where he, in part, writes,

Too many women are behind bars - and too many men as well.
Alabamians like to put criminals behind bars. Politicians know this. So they enact laws that put people in prisons and jails more easily and keep them there longer.
Putting more people in prison isn't cutting the crime rate, though. It is, however, increasing dramatically the costs of warehousing criminals.
But Alabamians don't want to pay higher taxes to run the prisons. That's leading to an inevitable confrontation between jurists, both federal and state, and corrections officials, both state and local. It's a good bet it also will inevitably lead to mayhem and worse at overcrowded facilities that are inadequately staffed. ...
But there is the larger issue that involves both male and female prisoners: There's no need for a great many of them to be housed, fed and clothed at public expense. It would be far more effective, and far cheaper, to have them on parole or under house arrest or re-entering society under reasonable supervision.
To do that, though, politicians are going to have to get enough nerve to say that rehabilitative efforts for nonviolent criminals make more sense than throwing the book at them and putting people in prison who don't need to be there to ensure public safety. ...

One effort referenced by Mr. Prather is the DOJ's Commission on Girls and Women in the Criminal Justice System. Worth a visit to this detailed study yet I'm linking to the summary. On Tuesday I posted on a meeting in Randolph County dealing with these same issues. The meeting often came down to limited funding and canned materials as we even do alternative sentencing, and surely education, on the cheap here in Alabama. Peace ... or War!

Gerald Dial Single-handedly Talks Alabama Center for Rural Development to Death

2006-04-21T18:33:00.000-07:00

Clay County's DINO Gerald Dial is singled out for his inexcusable actions in amending to death an effort to establish an executive agency like every other Southern state uses to help rural areas. The Mobile Register Op-Ed from the 20th of April points out that the Alabama Development Office has had their chance to help our 1.2 million rural citizens. Additionally, studies and common sense shows that rural areas have special circumstances that require a different approach than what ADO offers. It is time the 13th had a Senator that was not a tool of the Big Mules but rather looked out for the branchheads. I'm not sure what the Governor's position was on the CRD but given that he's also from Clay County I think he has some 'splaining to do as well. Gerald Dial's time for excuses has long ago passed. Peace ... or War!

Does AVALA Again "Confuse" Comp and Tort Law?

2006-04-20T13:19:00.000-07:00

The Montgomery Advertiser, in their April 20, 2006, edition printed a "Letter to the Editor" titled "Lawsuits scare away business prospects". The letter was from Alabama Voters Against Lawsuit Abuse Board Member Kerry Kelly. I'll come back on a day when I have time and destroy their arguments with FACTS but for now I'll tell a story from "back in the day".

Perhaps eight or ten years ago, even back before the 1999 reforms when Alabama had been painted as "Tort Hell", a local car dealer brought an AVALA speaker to a civic club in which I was involved. The man gave his apparently canned talk referencing how businesses are not coming to Alabama due to our out of control juries and trial lawyers and ... He actually said something like "If these factories think their workers are going to sue them every time they get nicked up and a jury is going to write them a huge check and then they also have to be worried about punitive damages and contingency fees of up to 50% where the jury knows this and that and ... then they aren't about to bring a business to Alabama."

I was of course practicing law, seldom if ever doing "tort" cases, and maybe I was out of uniform or perhaps this "suit and a speech" clown had not been told the Roanoke Lions Club had been infiltrated. I asked him something where he repeated what he said. And then again got him to clarify about fears of workers suing their employers and the punitives and fees and a..." Total certainty on what he was shilling to these suckers.

When I simply reminded him that workers compensation laws applied to employee injuries and that no jury was involved and the judge simply applied the law to what the evidence seemed to suggest and that fees were capped at 15% you could see the fear in his eyes. I immediately challenged him to explain why he was LYING to this audience. Then I asked him if LIED every time he came to talk to an audience such as ours. Game, set, and match. He literally refused to talk to me after the meeting. I just wish I had a tape and I could show the rest of Alabama how this lying and sneaky and nasty AVALA works. One of these days I'll try to track the money. I bet it goes all the way to BCA and AMA and US Chamber and ...

I'm sure I'll get a chance to write again on "tort reform" as President Bu$h is shilling "junk lawsuits" and "defensive medicine". Let the lies begin. Peace ... or War.

A Tip of the Tam to The AJC's Mike Luckovich

2006-04-20T13:09:00.000-07:00

The AJC's Heather Vogell reports "AJC cartoonist Mike Luckovich wins 2nd Pulitzer". More of his work can be found on The AJC's Opinion pages. I've been working in Georgia for nearly five years now and I've bought an AJC nearly every morning that I've crossed the river. I've enjoyed his work and will continue to thank him for helping us think. Having him working out of the AJC is especially enjoyable. Peace ... or War!

Alabama's favorite theocrat can't count or ...

2006-04-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

Kim Chandler of The B'ham News reports "Moore accuses Bush of trying to stop him from winning primary" with Alabama's favorite theocrat seeminly demonstrating that he can't count past Ten. As in commandments of course. CROD member Roy Moore claimed,

"This visit is political payback in exchange for his complete cooperation with George W. Bush and shows his great concern for the upcoming primary election on June 6. Both the state Republican leadership and now the president himself have wrongfully attempted to interfere in this Republican primary and it won't work," a statement from Moore's campaign read.

One recent poll has you down by 44% and Bu$h is down to 33% approval from a poll released today by Faux News. Your former colleague Justice Woodall claimed just recently that you had but an "average legal mind" but surely you learned to count.

I'm thinking the Clone War is about over. Thanks for entertaining us for a while Roy, Tom, ... Peace ... or War!

Bu$hCo Talks Technology & Teachers in Tuskegee

2006-04-19T14:24:00.000-07:00

Erica Pippins of The Montgomery Advertiser tell us "President Bush talks technology in Tuskegee". Only serios Red States might have their GOP leadership appear with Bu$hCo with his poll numbers in the tank. In "Pink States" candidates run the other way when Dubyah comes calling. Bob Riley and Mike Rogers must be feeling rather safe.

I've long ago decided that The Decider in Chief believes the talk is more important than the walk. Why else would you tell some Maryland kids just yesterday that science is a "cool subject" and yet have the worst record on supporting science in the modern presidency? I don't have enough time to drop all the links of respected scientists and organizations taking you to task. About the only "professional" you have listed to is Dr. Bill.

Bu$hCo has once again relied on "hunches" rather than research/facts as your plan to rush "science and math professionals" with minimal training in pedagogy into a modern American high school might not look real pretty or be effective. "Fuzzy math" and "junk science"!

You've cut overall funding in K-12, college tuition costs and student loan interest charges have gone through the roof, NCLB is a total disaster driving good teachers from the profession, ... Heck of a job Bushie! Peace ... or War!

If the Klan built a new Klavern building would it actually use Undocumented Labor?

2006-04-19T13:38:00.000-07:00

The only reason I ask is that one of my students, who swears he lives near the Klan HQ over here in West Georgia, told me that this group is using Latino labor in their new building efforts. Should the story be true as to ethnicity, with me having no doubt that the KKK is alive and well in Heard County despite their ommission from this map from the SPLC, these workers could very well be American citizens or possess a valid green card. At least this kid's tale let me lay into this nasty hate group with a vengeance. Georgia has just passed the toughest legislation on providing social services to undocumented people. I've found Heard County to be hardly the most "progressive" community plus did not think the Hoods would really want to use Hispanics yet ... Lots of paradoxes here.

Yet I have no doubt that the Bu$h administration and other Big Mules are looking the other way on businesses that hire undocumented workers. Enforcement has simply been a joke on the labor side since Dubyah rode into to town. The Christian Science Monitor described it in ther editorial from today as "Wink, wink" with a direct hit on the lack of resolve on the employer end being why reform 20 years ago did not work. Does anybody in DC have the political will to accomplish real reform? Peace ... or War!

2008 Olympics - Simultaneous Shilling Shoe In

2006-04-18T21:29:00.000-07:00

Admittedly the 2008 Olympics are not going to have this event. Plus the Olympics are being held in Beijing so I doubt this Good Free Market American Patriot would go to The People's Republic of China, even if the PRC now owns most of our debt thanks in large part to his comrades of conservatism screwing up the surplus trends from essentially eight years of sanity. But if they did have shilling as an event, we'd have a possible champion right here in the South.

Conservative Tool Jim Wooten dropped an opinion today that at least should go into the "Shilling Hall of Fame". With my emphasis supplied, here's what he wrote,

In his final year as governor of Florida, Jeb Bush is going down swinging.

Faced with a state Supreme Court ruling that a school voucher program for children in chronically failing schools is unconstitutional, Bush is putting it on the line in his last year as governor, trying to convince the Florida Legislature to amend the state constitution.

Bush's efforts there offer a lesson to those who seek to provide parents alternatives to traditional public schools for their children.

The lesson is that any reform of public education that involves something other than pouring more tax dollars into it requires resilience and, as with the war in Iraq, a willingness to change tactics in response to entrenched opposition. When one approach is blocked, try another. ...

The Florida Supreme Court — the liberal Florida Supreme Court that forced the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in the state's hanging chad election controversy in 2000 — struck down Opportunity Scholarships affecting about 700 children in January.

The Tool even got a dig in at Democrats in the Georgia House blocking legislation to "change twelve" words as they "locked down as a voting bloc". Jim, do you write your columns straight from the talking points they send you? Do you weave the same old arguments from the voucher boys with those from the Bu$hCo boys and your other patrons to get essentially the same old same old agenda? I'll return for the snark and the facts as I'm tired (Some folks don't get paid to pander!) and need some rest. Good night Jim. I'll see you soon. Peace ... or War!