Corruption in the Alabama house
Apr 6 at 12:12am by Macranger
“MONTGOMERY, Ala. — There is fear in the halls of the Alabama State House. Your colleague may be wired. Somebody may be watching you. An indictment looms.
After a dozen legislators received subpoenas one day last month in a criminal investigation, an atmosphere of paranoia and anxiety has descended on the gleaming white building that houses the State Legislature, many of its occupants say.
Legislators are sweeping their offices for bugs. Routine horse-trading for votes is stymied, for fear it could be misinterpreted. A wary lawmaker agrees to meet a reporter only in a wide-open parking lot. After-hours get-togethers are off.
The concern is a result of a long-running federal investigation into corruption within the state’s system of two-year colleges that has led to guilty pleas on bribery and corruption charges by one state lawmaker and the system’s former chancellor. The Birmingham News reported in 2006 that a quarter of the 140 members of the Legislature had financial ties to the college system, with most of the jobs or contracts going to lawmakers or their relatives. Recent reports indicate the number has grown to nearly a third of the Legislature.
The fear is all the more acute in that the current investigation centers on Democrats in their last redoubt of power here, the State Legislature, and takes place against a backdrop of intense partisan ill-feeling. Many here maintain that a former governor, Don Siegelman, who was convicted by federal prosecutors and jailed last year, was singled out because he is a Democrat.
Anger among Democrats was re-stoked last week when Mr. Siegelman emerged from a federal prison after nine months, freed on bond by a federal court in Atlanta that said his appeal had raised substantial questions.
Legislators say they are merely unwilling points on the same political continuum as the ex-governor, whose case has drawn notice in Congress.
“There’s a direct link between the Siegelman debacle and what’s going on here,” said one legislator, nervously looking around. Like many, he refused to be quoted by name.
“There’s a fear factor,” another lawmaker said. “It’s kind of scary.”
Like corrupt old Don, the “scary” thing is that Democrats in Alabama, just like around the country, have a problem with admitting they’re crooks when they get caught. They even put together quaint little tales of intrigue to explain away the corruption, which has been quite national of late.
Nevertheless, this isn’t about anything except old fashion political corruption in state that has a long history of it. I know I lived there for five years and saw it first hand. Liberals can play the blame game all they want, but the prosecution and subpoenas are warranted and it’s about time.
History Channel take down of the “Truthers”
Aug 21 at 10:10am by Macranger
First Popular Mechanics, now the History Channel. Rick Moran has the details of the History Channel special that takes the 9/11 conspiracy theorists to the proverbial woodshed and kicks the crap out of them.
“In what will surely be seen as a defining moment for the 9/11 truther movement, the History Channel has delivered a blow for sanity and rationalism by airing a superior documentary entitled 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction.
There’s no other way to say it; the truthers got reamed.”
Don’t know if that will stop the nutbags from continuing their delusion tho…
No strain at the “base” of the GOP
Jul 8 at 9:09am by Macranger
There is a disturbing meme among some bloggers and pundits that the GOP is in some type of crisis because of immigration or the war, but that is simply not true.
I meant to address this on the MacRanger Show yesterday but our GOP fundraising and voter registration drives have never been greater. As a local official I know from where I speak, and there has been no so-called “backlash” as some would call it. We are actually doing just fine.
Quite frankly the only ones really talking about the “divide” are liberals and moderates and fence sitting independents.
But I know from where I speak, and as of today we are well above our goals for the year and there isn’t any slow down that we can detect. That is saying a lot from such a liberal state as Florida.
In short the GOP is alive and kicking and we will - as we did in the Great Divide of 1976 - survive. I know that in other quarters of the country there are those who attemp to create a divide over the immigration debate citing the hispanic vote or lack thereof. Look, I hate to break it to people but the reason 2006 wasn’t like 2002, or 2004 was because of one thing and one thing only.
Conservatives lost their conservatism. We lost our way, mostly because our beliefs and core values were forsaken. We turned “liberal” in our spending, corruption, and especially on our core issues of small Government. As conservatives we have always won based on the fact that our system of governing works. Liberalism doesn’t work and never has. Because of that people vote for us not because we pander to them but because they believe in our principles of government.
Here is something that should be said. When it comes to principles, hard issues such as the war, immigration or whatever call for standing your ground even though others may see things differently. Yet it also means not compromising with those who say that they are one thing yet act as another.
RINOS as I’ve noted can count their days in the GOP, we are going to actively challenge them in upcoming elections with pure conservatives - not liberals in disguise. We don’t have to compromise our values and beliefs simply for the sake of “agreement”. Again, it’s high time to sweep the party, such as we did in 1980 and now is as good a time as any.
With that in mind, our version of MoveOn, which coincides with the Florida movement - “Conservative Renewal 2008″ is well on way to becoming a reality and will help keep the broom moving.
UPDATE: Since a commentor brought the name of my old boss up to claim that he would have never supported the name “RINO” I will guote the Great One himself. Read it carefully.
“A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency, or simply swell its numbers…. And if there are those who cannot subscribe to these principles, then let them go their way.” — Ronald Reagan.
Exactly what I said in the post above.
