Alabama
updated
7:06 p.m.
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Terri Sewell was unambiguous in her support for health care reform at the Downtown Democrats' lunch in Birmingham last Friday. She declared, "I will go to Congress and make sure that health care gets passed. A comprehensive health care bill that includes a public option." Sewell may not be the most polished public speaker in the field, but she came across as serious about the...
Left in Alabama - 6:43 p.m.
Alabama's state budget year runs from October 1 to September 30th. Normally that's no big deal, but next year it puts us in danger of losing out on 3 months of higher federal Medicaid reimbursement from a provision in the Jobs for Main Street Act and its counterpart in the Senate. Congress extended federal medical assistance percentages (FMAPs) to provide a higher rate of...
Left in Alabama - 4:20 p.m. - 2 clicks 
Patricia Evans Mokolo was the surprise of the day at the Downtown Democrats' lunch in Birmingham last Friday. She was virtually unknown to me, but arrived early with a couple of her staff (it's a true grassroots campaign so they may constitute her entire staff) so I was able to speak with her one on one for a few minutes. She's a very passionate advocate for lifting pe...
Left in Alabama - 11:28 a.m. - 6 clicks
Lawyers for debt collectors have filed fraudulent documents in U.S. district court, seeking to unlawfully exclude evidence that points to multiple violations of federal law. The motions probably amount to attempted fraud on the court and represent the latest action in a lawsuit my wife and I filed against Pennsylvania-based NCO and Birmingham-based law firm Ingram & Associates. The suit alleg...
Legal Schnauzer - 9:48 a.m. - 3 clicks
Less than one month after fatal shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), workplace violence has struck on another campus. Nathaniel Brown, a custodian at Ohio State University, shot and killed his supervisor early Tuesday morning and wounded another boss before turning the gun on himself. The Ohio State incident did not involve any students or faculty members. It comes after...
Legal Schnauzer - 9:21 a.m. - 2 clicks
Temporary Alabama Congressman (and noted political adulterer) Parker Griffith has been telling the media that "liberals" were behind yesterday's protest at his poorly-attended, low-dollar fundraiser with Congressman John Boehner: h/t to Go Blue and the Decatur Daily: “I am standing by my principles, and I will not be deterred by these liberal groups that are intent ...
Left in Alabama - Tue 5:27 p.m. - 5 clicks
AL-03 Congressional candidate Josh Segall launched his new campaign Web site today . In an email to supporters, he encouraged everyone to check it out: It begins a new phase of our campaign – delivering my message to the people of Alabama. Beyond the standard sections where you can donate, volunteer and read my bio, the website also includes the following: On my homepage ...
Left in Alabama - Tue 2:04 p.m. - 7 clicks
The question is not whether the current bill is the best possible health care reform bill; the question is whether this bill is better than the status quo. Only a fool or a Republican would think it's not. Artur Davis, you, and I all know that this bill is the closest thing we are going to get to universal health care this session. Artur Davis has made it clear that his opposition to the bil...
Left in Alabama - Tue 12:21 p.m. - 4 clicks
A small, public university in Alabama made a major decision last week, and it illustrates an alarming trend in higher education. The University of Montevallo , which sits in Shelby County about 30 miles south of Birmingham, is a liberal-arts school with an enrollment of about 3,100 students. The school had been searching for a new president for several months and announced last week that it had ...
Legal Schnauzer - Tue 11:03 a.m. - 4 clicks
Sen. Hinton Mitchem (D, Union Grove) was elected to the Alabama Senate in 1978. This will be his last year . Our own CommonSense predicted this several days ago . I'm very grateful that Mitchem has made his decision public so that Democrats will have a fighting chance to recruit a candidate for his Senate seat. I'm hearing that Rep. Jeff McLaughlin is unlikely, b...
Left in Alabama - Mon 9:27 p.m. - 7 clicks
Tonight the man with the Tan joined the Congressman in no man's land for a GOP fundraiser in Huntsville, AL. Parker Griffith, as you might recall, is the former Howard Dean supporter and Congressman who switched to the GOP in hopes of boosting his re-election chances. Forces aligned as the good side joined the dark side for a bipartisan protest of tonights Boehner/Griffith $100 a head fu...
DailyKos (Alabama) - Mon 7:48 p.m. - 4 clicks
With a crowd of about 400 sign-waving, chanting protesters outside the Huntsville Marriott this evening, temporary Congressman Parker Griffith (R-Liar) and his new best friend, Congressman John Boehner, decided that discretion was required. They pulled in quietly, snuggled together in the back of an SUV (they left the same way: incognito ) and were whisked into a no-press-allowed "fundr...
Left in Alabama - Mon 6:20 p.m. - 3 clicks
2010 - Artur Davis takes break from campaign trail to oppose health care refom. 2006 - Artur Davis writes "The Health Care We Owe Each Other: Universal Care as the 21st Century Social Compact." Sadly, we have all become accumstomed to a certain degree of hypocrisy from our leaders but this is beyond the pale for a so called progressive. Please, explain why you believe Davis will still be b...
Left in Alabama - Mon 5:08 p.m. - 6 clicks
. "Misrepresentations of a material fact made willfully to deceive, or recklessly without knowledge, and acted on by the opposite party, or if made by mistake and innocently and acted on by the opposite party, constitute legal fraud." Section 6-5-101, Code of Alabama The foregoing law has been affirmed in numerous cases. In 2008 Parker Griffith ran for Congress, in Alabama's...
Left in Alabama - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 3 clicks
"The best investment Alabama can make is in itself," says Jeremy Sherer, Democratic candidate for Alabama Treasurer, as he pledged to deposit state money in Alabama financial institutions that "...make small business loans, entrepreneurial loans, farm loans, student loans, and invest within our local socio-economic fabric." If only Sherer had been Treasurer last summer - instead of Kay ...
Left in Alabama - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 3 clicks
Former Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison on Friday for his conviction on corruption-related charges. The facts and the law, as we understand them, indicate that Langford probably was doing some things he should not have been doing. And the former mayor's actions might indeed have violated federal bribery and fraud laws--even though our impulse is to que...
Legal Schnauzer - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 5 clicks
Maybe it was the specter of Jesse Jackson coming to Alabama to support workers at electronic-bingo facilities. Maybe it was a circuit judge ruling that the governor's anti-gambling task force could not raid the state's best-known gaming facility, allowing VictoryLand to reopen. Whatever the cause, Alabama Governor Bob Riley is showing signs of what we can only describe as a psychological dist...
Legal Schnauzer - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 5 clicks
One of my major beefs with Parker Griffith's decision to switch parties midstream is that he automatically gave up his committee assignments, two of which were very important to the future of North Alabama. He sat on the Transportation Committee which influences road funding and the Science and Technology Committee which oversees NASA, among other things. Griffith had no committe...
Left in Alabama - Mon 3:07 p.m. - 3 clicks
Right out of the gate: h/t to 'mooncat' and Left in Alabama & to Real Clear Politics for this No Laugh-Track Needed, the Guffaws Should Come Naturally This is a rather simple, "Before & After" thing. First, though, The Setting: In 2008 Huntsville, Alabama, physician Parker Griffith ran for Congress, for Ala's 5th Congressional Distric...
DailyKos (Alabama) - Sun 7:27 a.m. - 8 clicks
Why do Americans continue to elect Republicans, even though the party's candidates consistently have failed to provide competent or ethical governance? The answer, according to an intriguing new piece from Scott Horton of Harper's , lies in the racially tinged politics of Alabama. And that can only lead to two words--George Wallace. Sarah Palin, the GOP's current shining light on the national ...
Legal Schnauzer - Fri 10:06 a.m. - 7 clicks
People hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the recent tragic events on the campus at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) are not likely to find it from reporting in The New York Times, purportedly the nation's leading newspaper. The Times has invested considerable resources on the UAH shootings, which left three faculty members dead and three others wounded. Much of the repor...
Legal Schnauzer - Thu 6:04 a.m. - 10 clicks
Officials at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) have tried to separate student leaders from a prominent alumnus who spoke out about the school's poor work environment following recent fatal shootings on the campus. Samuel Parks, a former student-body president who graduated in May 2009, says administrators have instructed him not to communicate with current student leaders. That came ...
Legal Schnauzer - Mar 3 - 12 clicks
Mrs. Schnauzer and I recently took a walk down memory lane by attending a Three Dog Night concert in Birmingham. It turned out to be more than a musical adventure; it also helped put the modern American economy in perspective. The concert was at the Alys Robinson Stephens Performing Arts Center on the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) campus. UAB is my former employer, and I hate to giv...
Legal Schnauzer - Mar 3 - 10 clicks
A spokesman for Alabama Governor Bob Riley decried what he called "low-road tactics" when a pro-bingo crowd shouted down the governor and his wife during an anti-bingo rally last week on the State House steps. Hypocrisy among Republicans is so blatant that it takes a lot for one example to stand out. But Riley spokesman Jeff Emerson definitely managed to stand out with his latest whopper. That'...
Legal Schnauzer - Mar 2 - 5 clicks
For the old man is waiting to carry you to bingo! Yes, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are expected to attend a pro-bingo rally in Montgomery. Because it’s about justice! ...
Birmingham Blues - Mar 2 - 4 clicks
An associate of Alabama Governor Bob Riley threatened a Christian Coalition leader over gambling issues, according to a lawsuit filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court in May 2007. Dr. Randy Brinson, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, states in the lawsuit that he supported a bill in the Alabama House of Representatives that would tax and regulate gambling and help fund Medicaid. Br...
Legal Schnauzer - Feb 25 - 4 clicks
Governor Bob Riley's campaign to shut down electronic bingo in Alabama started at about the same time a Mississippi Choctaw casino was laying off employees. Do you see a connection? Bob Gambacurta, writing at the Montgomery Independent , sure does. And it shows that the story of disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff still resonates in the Deep South. Gambacurta also raises a critical point about...
Legal Schnauzer - Feb 24 - 5 clicks
Rob Riley, the son of Alabama Governor Bob Riley, paid a $10,000 fine in 2008 for his role in a decade-old campaign-finance ethics case. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) announced the fine in a press release dated June 20, 2008 . But we can find no record that the story was reported in any of Alabama's major newspapers. Was the story covered up by Alabama's mainstream press, and if so, why...
Legal Schnauzer - Feb 23 - 3 clicks
Coverage of the fatal shootings at the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) so far has focused on the crime itself and the background of the alleged perpetrator, neuroscientist Amy Bishop. But we are seeing signs of a more complex story starting to emerge, one that includes a focus on the workplace environment at UAH--and the actions and inactions of University of Alabama officials. A promi...
Legal Schnauzer - Feb 22 - 3 clicks
The story of last Friday's fatal shootings on the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) campus has taken a number of twists and turns, most of them focusing on the background of neuroscientist Amy Bishop, who has been charged in the case. But perhaps the most stunning development since news of the shootings first broke came in a report two days ago from The Chronicle of Higher Education . An...
Legal Schnauzer - Feb 19 - 5 clicks
Amy Bishop, the neuroscientist who is charged in last week's fatal shootings on the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) campus, has a number of troubling incidents in her past . News reports, so far, have focused on Bishop's actions and her background --with little scrutiny directed toward administrators at the University of Alabama. Based on what we've learned about the UAH shootings, a...
Legal Schnauzer - Feb 18 - 5 clicks
A professor at the University of Louisville has pleaded guilty to fraud-related charges and agreed to serve 63 months in federal prison. The case has alarming ties to Alabama, with implications for a university president, the governor, and the governor's son. Robert Felner, a former dean of the college of education at Louisville, faced nine federal charges, including money laundering, mail frau...
Legal Schnauzer - Feb 17 - 3 clicks
