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The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20090125011536/http://leftinalabama.com:80/
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President Barack Obama is staffing his Justice Department with some of his predecessor’s fiercest critics, among them lawyers who were fired by President Bush or who quit jobs working for his administration.
Four forensic pathologists agree that Larry Swearingen, set to be executed Tuesday, could not have committed the 1998 murder that sent him to death row.
I teach several Sociology courses both online and on several campuses in the Dallas area. In my introductory sociology courses around the middle of the semester, lo and behold, it is race and ethnicity time! On many levels this is good because it opens up dialogue and addresses the disparities that exist in the United States. Inevitably some of the students get very emotional and defensive and I tend to become a mediator/negotiator, rather than a facilitator of learning.
Has President Obama fulfilled Dr. King’s dream of freedom, justice, and equality for all Americans? As President Obama declared in his Inaugural Address, we are on a journey toward realizing the promise of America. In his March 18, 2008 speech on race, delivered in Philadelphia, then candidate Obama explained “…I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy…” President Obama understands perhaps more than others that his inauguration is a beginning and not an end.
The Montgomery Advertiser's lead article today is about Councilman Willie Cook, who is running to be Montgomery's mayor. " Cook said in a statement he gave the department that he asked the woman for oral sex in exchange for not arresting her. When she refused, he asked her if she would be willing to use her hand to bring him to orgasm."
Cook had been working for the Department of Public Safety. "Cook said Friday that he is issuing no apologies for the incident now because he already did that long ago."
"I made a mistake. I admit it. Everybody who knows me knows my history. They know my contribution to the community."
It is great to feel safe on the highway when you know a trooper is nearby. It is also great to know about the current city council. I would like to know what Cook's contributions are to the community.
This is shameless diary-whoring, but it's not for me. BenGoshi has a kick-ass diary at the top of the rec list over at DKos and, considering the zillions of comments he's dealing with there I doubt he will have a chance to cross-post it here. So, go over there and read it ... comment and recommend too.
Based on news reports it appears to me that certain Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee have violated Federal Bribery & Graft Statutes and are now subject to indictment and conviction for their crimes.
The following will(1) set forth the nature of what I believe are illegal acts and the applicable Federal Law.
...
To me it appears that Senator John Cornyn of Texas and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania are walking dangerously close to -- if they've not already crossed -- the line of felonious acts relating to the confirmation process of Attorney General Nominee Eric Holder.
I lay out the (simplified) case for the prosecution below.
A few words from Gwen Ifill's new bookThe Breakthrough: Politics and Race in the Age of Obama have created a tempest in a teapot among some Alabama Democrats. Ifill's book just hit the shelves Tuesday so I doubt many people have actually read it yet, but a few folks are raising Cain about it. The book includes an entire chapter on Congressman Artur Davis and the tempest was precipitated more by Mary Orndoff's Birmingham News article than by the actual book. Here is what Orndoff wrote:
Ifill writes that Davis said he "had no choice" but to support a congressional inquiry into the criminal case against former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who claims he was targeted by politically motivated Republican prosecutors.
Davis told Ifill that he worried it would "smell of the old-fashioned partisan politics he claims to eschew," but he was the only Alabamian on the committee leading the investigation.
"Barely know him, barely know him," Davis told Ifill. Davis also said he expected most Alabamians to ignore the Siegelman controversy and that he was "counting on it to fade away well before 2010," Ifill wrote.
You can see that Orndoff is paraphrasing what Ifill wrote -- and Ifill was paraphrasing at least some of what Davis said. That's kind of like playing the old "telephone" game where somebody says "nice weather we're having" on one side of the room and "Mary Jane shot her husband" comes out on the other -- a bit of meaning is lost every time that paraphrase thing happens. It's no one's fault, just a fact of life.
There's more below the fold -- I apologise in advance for the length of this post. My desire to paint a fair and complete picture carried me away and it's interminably long.
Having just returned from a few days in the land of no internet (or at least the land where this cheap skate was unwilling to pay the outlandish daily access fee), I was interested to read the diary and the many comments thereto on the conviction of State Senator E.B. McClain of Birmingham.
Many of the comments pertained to Blog Etiquette and I do not wish to rehash or repeat those here.
What I found interesting and worthy of a separate diary was the assertion that the verdict was simply the result of McClain being black and/or a Democrat (with the implied statement that McClain was framed and that the justice system is racist).
Caveat - this diary is not a comment or attack on those expressing those thoughts. I choose to consider those thoughts as a reflection of the distrust many have for the justice system and it is that distrust I wish to talk about.
As my moniker indicates this is a subject near and dear to me. I spent many years of my life within the legal system both as a prosecutor and a criminal defense lawyer in Alabama.
Challen Stephens of The Huntville Times filed NPR exaggeration revs up residents in today's paper. George Mason University/Mercatus Center economics professor Russell Roberts, also buttering his bread at The Hoover Institute and as author of Invisible Heart, while appearing on NPR's "All Things Considered", referred to Huntsville's I-565 as a "lake of asphalt" setting off an alleged weeping and gnashing of teeth. Appearing as an alternative to Nobel Prize winning Paul Krugman suggesting investments in infrastructure, Roberts used his air time to argue for the right's standard solution of "tax cuts" and lie, or at least "exaggerate". NPR gave the bums a chance to shill their stuff and it comes back and bites them on the butt. Details follow ....
Congressman Bright is holding Congress on Your Corner meetings around his district tomorrow -- there were some today as well but those are kind of irrelevant at this point. The schedule for Saturday is below the fold.
If anything I feel a bit sad for him. There he was, giving the benediction for the country’s first black president. A black man elected not soleley by other blacks, but also by a very large number of whites. The very fact that Lowery was standing there proved that white people didn’t hold Obama’s race against him as Rev. Lowery was accustomed to many decades ago. By his definition they had already embraced what is right (actually left in this case, but you know what I mean). Poor Lowery just can’t seem to overcome his training that the white man is evil enough to recognize that a black man has been made the most powerful man in the world thanks in large part to white people. It must suck to not be able to fully realize and accept what you’ve helped accomplish.
Have you wondered just what the heck Parker Griffith was thinking when he voted against the Lily Ledbetter Equal Pay Act? Was it an anomaly or the sign of even bigger disappointments to come?
Ask him yourself! He's holding a series of "Open Houses" at his new district office in Alabama over the next couple of days.
The first one is this morning in Decatur! This afternoon, he's in the Shoals. Griffith finishes up in Huntsville on Monday.
The Fighting Elephants began their campaign to regain the Republican majority by sending out a press release positively savaging several freshmen Democrats for voting to release the remaining $350 million of the TARP funds.
Here's an excerpt from one of them:
Washington- In a brazen act of sheer cowardice, Rep. Parker Griffith (D-AL) broke one of his biggest campaign promises only weeks after being sworn into Congress. In Washington today, Congress voted on releasing the remaining $350 billion from the Troubled Assets Relief Program, paving the way for the second part of the financial bailout to be handed out.
Unfortunately for our elephantine friends, they did this yesterday. And the House didn't vote on the TARP funds until today.
You can probably guess the rest of the story.
Well, as it turns out, every Democrat the NRCC targeted with their release voted for the "TARP disapproval" bill, blocking the release of the second $350 million.
Made a liar out of the NRCC, yes they did, which is no very difficult feat. Parker Griffith (D, AL-05) did not "break one of his biggest campaign promises." Here's a statement from his office on the TARP vote:
Yesterday we had an opportunity to block the release of the second $350 billion. I voted to prevent the release of this money. When this motion unfortunately failed, I voted for controls, accountability and transparency.
...
Again this afternoon, I voted to prevent the release of the $350 billion. I will continue to work for much-needed oversight because I believe the people of the Fifth District are best served by a thoughtful process that yields accountability and transparency with the use of their money.
The NRCC needs to spend a little more time checking their facts before they hit send on those nifty little attack messages, 'cause there are plenty of us out here with the google doing our own fact checking.
The Lily Ledbetter Act passed the Senate today with 61 "Aye" votes. It came after ludicrous amendments by DeMint (demented), Isaakson, and Sen. Vitter (R-Pampers). I don't have time to flesh this out but I'm sure someone will.
[Here's a link to a Gadsden Times story on the bill's passage -- Lilly Ledbetter is a home town girl for them. They say the bill will land on President Obama's desk soon and he will certainly sign it. -- mooncat]
We, the United States of America, your top quality supplier of the ideals of liberty and democracy, would like to apologize for our 2001-2009 interruption in service. The technical fault that led to this eight-year service outage has been located, and the software responsible was replaced November 4. Early tests of the newly installed program indicate that we are now operating correctly, and we expect it to be fully functional on January 20, 2009. We apologize for any inconvenience caused by the outage. We look forward to resuming full service and hope to improve in years to come. We thank you for your patience and understanding,
Sincerely,
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
The above is from my inbox and I thought it an appropriate opening for today's Links I Like.
The guilty verdict ended McClain's 14-year career in the Alabama Senate.
"It's over," the Midfield Democrat said. "The Senate seat is gone as of the verdict. I no longer want to be referred to as Sen. E.B. McClain."
Gov. Bob Riley will set a special election to fill the seat, said McClain, who also served two terms in the Alabama House of Representatives.
I don't know the ins and outs of this case, but will say that the transfer of large sums of money gives the appearance of impropriety and McClain and Pettagrue obviously failed to convince the jury that their dealings were innocent. Now what does this mean for the upcoming legislative session?
It sounds like McClain is out of the state Senate immediately. That leaves three vacant seats in the senate, since Parker Griffith resigned after election to Congress and Sen. Pat Lindsay recently passed away. Even more importantly, all these vacant seats were held by Democrats in a body where the balance of power was already razor thin. Senate President pro-tem Hinton Mitchem was elected on a 17-18 vote in 2006 with the understanding that Mitchem would step aside this year in favor of Rodger Smitherman. Can the Democratic majority bring some of those rogue Democrats back into the fold for a vote to elect Smitherman President pro-tem? I think they need two out of the three to make it.
The way to make government responsible is to hold it accountable. And the way to make government accountable is make it transparent so that the American people can know exactly what decisions are being made, how they’re being made, and whether their interests are being well served.
The directives I am giving my administration today on how to interpret the Freedom of Information Act will do just that. For a long time now, there’s been too much secrecy in this city. The old rules said that if there was a defensible argument for not disclosing something to the American people, then it should not be disclosed. That era is now over. Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side not of those who seek to withhold information but those who seek to make it known.
To be sure, issues like personal privacy and national security must be treated with the care they demand. But the mere fact that you have the legal power to keep something secret does not mean you should always use it. The Freedom of Information Act is perhaps the most powerful instrument we have for making our government honest and transparent, and of holding it accountable. And I expect members of my administration not simply to live up to the letter but also the spirit of this law.
I will also hold myself as President to a new standard of openness. Going forward, anytime the American people want to know something that I or a former President wants to withhold, we will have to consult with the Attorney General and the White House Counsel, whose business it is to ensure compliance with the rule of law. Information will not be withheld just because I say so. It will be withheld because a separate authority believes my request is well grounded in the Constitution.
Let me say it as simply as I can: Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this presidency.
Chief Justice John Roberts tried to work from memory yesterday when administering the oath of office to President Barack Obama and his memory failed him. Roberts got a word out of place. It made no difference to whether or not Obama was the legitimate president -- he became president at noon, oath or no oath, correct oath or not. But "out of an abundance of caution, because there was one word out of sequence, Chief Justice Roberts administered the oath a second time." according to a White House statement. Probably also because some wingnut nuts were flapping their lips over Roberts' misstep.
At 735 pm, Roberts administred the oath of office again to obama in the map room. Robert gibbs said the wh counsel, greg craig, believes the oath was fine Tuesday, but one word was out of sequence so they did this out of a "an abundance of caution."
"We decided it was so much fun..." Obama joked while sitting on a couch.
Obama stood and walked over to make small talk with pool as roberts donned his black robe.
"Are you ready to take the oath?" Roberts asked.
"I am, and we're going to do it very slowly," obama replied. Oath took 25 seconds.
After a flawless recitation, roberts smiled and said, "congratulations, again."
Obama said, "thank you, sir."
Smattering of applause.
"All right." Obama said. "The bad news for the pool is there's 12 more balls."
Now, we've settled that little non-issue in short order. Time to move on.
Do you doubt that Congressman Artur Davis is close to Barack Obama? The Obama's hosted a late evening (early morning?) champagne toast after dancing at 10 inaugural balls last night. Check out the attendees:
Among those present: Oprah Winfrey Valerie Jarrett David Axelrod Mayor Daley Craig Robinson Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) Rep. Melissa Bean (D-Ill.) Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.) Rep. Artur Davis (D-Alabama)
That's a bunch of folks from Illinois plus Artur Davis. Inner circle stuff. Maybe Davis can put in a good word for Alabama to mitigate the thorn-in-the-side-ishness we've been hearing from Senators Shelby and Sessions.
Davis was one of the earliest supporters of Barack Obama's presidential bid and as such he was a hot interview catch yesterday. I saw him on ABC and on MSNBC. As usual, he was poised, articulate and intelligent, the sort of national news interview that makes folks in the rest of the country think we've got our act together down here in Alabama. This conversation with Chris Matthews and Steve Hildebrand contains some interesting points that bear on the 2010 Alabama gubernatorial race.
We haven't devoted much space to the upcoming special election for mayor of Montgomery, the 2nd most populous city in Alabama, and I'd like to begin to remedy that. As a distant observer, my insight into the state of the race is limited, but perhaps I can set the stage and some of you closer to the action will fill in the character details. As with most municipal elections in Alabama, this one is officially nonpartisan so we don't have the "Republican" and "Democrat" labels as a guide. Who are the more progressive, forward looking candidates in this race?
Basic information:
Of course, the need for a special election came about when former Mayor Bobby Bright was elected to Congress. The filing deadline is January 27 for a March 10 special election. If needed, there will be a runoff on April 21 and the new mayor will take office on May 1.
City council president Charles Jinright is now the acting mayor of Montgomery but he has said he will not run for election to the office.
Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint. President Barack H. Obama 1/20/2009
I would like to make note there were over 2 million people at the inauguration of President Barack Obama and not 1 arrest. Not one protest. There were no so called "first amendment zones". No police brutality. The people were safe and free. God Bless America
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. ~President Barack H. Obama 1/20/2009
Update: Although The Azalea Trail Maids are Alabama's official representatives in the Inaugural Parade at tax payer expense, Huntsville Native Rev. Joseph Lowery delivered the last word at the inauguration of the first African American President of the United States.
Hayden remembers Lowery's father, Lee, a prominent businessman in Huntsville. Every day, Lee Lowery wore a formal shirt and tie. He ran a pool hall and owned rental property on Church Street and Holmes Avenue. Among his properties was the Sweet Shop and Sugar Bowl Cafe, one of the most famous businesses in Huntsville's black business district.
Joseph Lowery was Lee's oldest child and only son. He was born in Huntsville in 1921 and lived here into his 20s.
"He was one of the bright kids of his time," Hayden says. "He was known as a rich kid who was mischievous. He would take a dare."
Among Lowery's most daring acts was to enter the Post Office Cafe in downtown Huntsville and ask for service in a segregated restaurant. This was in the late 1940s, as Hayden recalls.
After Lowery walked into the Post Office Cafe and asked for service, he got into a scuffle with the white man who ran the restaurant. Hayden, now in his early 70s, lived in Huntsville at the time. It was such a prominent incident, he recalls, that Lowery had to leave.
"He didn't want to be lynched so he left town," Hayden says. "If Lee hadn't been such a prominent businessman, his family would have starved to death. But he was able to survive after Joseph hit the man in the Post Office Cafe."
Last week, Hayden and some friends in their 70s and 80s recalled the incident at the Post Office Cafe. Says Hayden: "It's ironic that a man had to leave town 60 years ago and now he's doing the benediction at the presidential inauguration."
Bye Bye George W. Bush! (H/T) Jack and Jill Politics
Booman wonders what Bush thought as he was flown away and he looked out of the helicopter at the throngs of cheering people giving him the finger and singing 'nah nah na na hey hey-eh goodbye.' Was it relief that it is over or regret that he failed? Or something else.Bush Family Flies Off to Texas.
