Possible Cuts in MAX is coming, but the In-Town Transit Partnership is coming

Hoover announced after 2 public hearing Tuesday and Wednesday that it's going to cut or  reduce the Metro Area Express (MAX) of the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (BJCTA). 

With sales tax and other revenue down, Hoover trimmed its 2009 budget and anticipates a leaner budget for fiscal year 2010. The city is proposing to provide $50,000 for transit for 2010, mirroring 2009. The authority, also known as MAX, sought $119,155.

Since the BJCTA is funded by the cooperation of municipalities rather than an adequate funding source from the State of Alabama like most states (except Georgia).

On the other hand, there is some positive news in improving public transit in Greater Birmingham with the In-Town Transit Partnership (ITP).  The Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB) has applied for the Transportation Investments Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant that would provide 100% funding without a local match for improving the public transit within the City of Birmingham.  The project would be projected to beginning of operation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) along with its feeder routes would be 2012.

Woman is beaten in front of daughter in Morrow, Georgia (Metro Atlanta)

I don't know if this is a sign of the times or just random,

An black Army Reservist and her daughter were leaving a Cracker Barrel in Morrow, in southern portion of Metro Atlanta, when a white male, Troy Dale West, attacked Tashawnea Hill by beating her in the head several times.  Hill alleges that she did nothing other than told West to "watch it when going through doors" because he hit her daughter.  Also he used the epithet, "black, nigger bitch" while pummeling Hill in the head. This incident occurred last week. 

According to Hill herself on CNN Newsroom quoted, "Some white people were even standing around and smiling while the incident occurred", and witnesses also said they said the same.  However, West claims that she spat on him, but the same witnesses said that didn't occur at all.  The Atlanta FBI office is investigating this as a potential hate crime.

All I got to say is it does like a hate crime and this is Metro Atlanta once again proving what I said about Atlanta.  It's not paradise in there no more than it is in Birmingham...

Is there conspiracy to destroy ACORN?

According to the current CEO of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), Bertha Lewis believes so.

The relentless attacks on ACORN's members, its staff and the policies and positions we promote are unprecedented. An international entertainment conglomerate, disguising itself as a "news" agency (Fox), has expended millions, if not tens of millions of dollars, in their attempt to destroy the largest community organization of Black, Latino, poor and working families in the country. It is not coincidence that the most recent attacks have been launched just when health care reform is gaining traction. It is clear they've had these tapes for months.

Now ACORN is without its own self-induced controversy associated with the proven claims of voter fraud, but according to Lewis that they were the ones that reported the fraud themselves.
However, I can see where she is coming from because the recent controversy associated with 2 conservative film documentary makers, Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe, have posted videos that would depicts themselves as a pimp and prostitute at ACORN offices in a number of cities including New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, San Bernardino and San Diego.  Giles is daughter of conservative commentator, Doug Giles, and contributing member of the BigGovernment.com, a site that peddles conservative ideology.  O'Keefe is the founder and editor-in-chief of the The Centurion, a conservative magazine at Rutgers University.

Sounds like to me it "gotcha journalism" more than trying to get to bottom of the issue because these 2 clowns are 2 twenty-year-olds with nothing else better to do with themselves.  Interestingly, they have only done interviews associated with this story with FOX News.  Also its another form of attempt to destroy community organization amongst inner-city, lower-income people (usually people of color).  Ironically, ACORN had endorsed Obama in the Democratic Presidential Primaries and General Election and now more than ever because they helped him get into office.  Hmmm........

Also one worker caught in this prostitution mess said they edited the story to look like ACORN supported prostitution and tax evasion.

Jimmy Carter said it: "Wilson's outburst is based on racism" and Tim Wise has already reiterated

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

LOL, former President Carter said in an interview with Brian Williams for a future special on NBC and again Tuesday at the Carter Center in Metro Atlanta said explicitly that Congressman Wilson's outburst last week during the speech before the joint session of Congress was racially based.

"Aversion to have a black person as president.”
“I think it’s unprecedented to attack a president, wishing he were dead, and equating him with animals and Adolf Hitler.  That was the point that I made.”

Well, you have to  give it up to President Carter because he is saying what most rational and coherent individuals without presumptuous ideals about the controversy surround President Obama have been saying for awhile now.  The LGBTs have been complaining, but due to the inactivity associated with the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT), Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), and federal hate crimes laws covering sexual orientation and gender identity.  However, that doesn't really lie along the lines of true aversive racism rather privilege idealism and impatience.

Now, the fools associated with the "tea parties" also known as the "Taxed Enough Already" groups, they seem to focus on things that should have been talked about during the Bush administration.  This will talked about right now since this past weekend on CNN Newsroom, Don Lemon interviewed Tim Wise, an anti-racist author and public speaker from originally from Nashville, spoke about how much of the Republicans and Libertarians that have been gawking about the President's "out of control" policies is based on "white racial guilt".


Interesting because I've been wondering that myself about most of this resentment even before this outburst and all that jazz.  Ironically, I know of one gay Army reservist that is white and "Libertarian" that tries his damnest to ignore the foolishness of so many of the "tea parties".  I mean how many signs does one need to see to know that there is something up with some white Americans in this nation with this presidency.  There was little to no real controversy aside from the liberal Democrats booing Bush during joint sessions and other meetings, but it seems that these conservatives and border-line anarchistic individuals seems to be hell-bent on destroying the Obama administration because he is black more than he is a Democrat.

Clinton had dealt with the foolishness of the social conservatives and Republicans by just throwing it back at them and essentially shutting down Washington in 1996.  However, Obama has to tread shallow waters of not seeming to be bias on basis of race, party, or ideology.

Boy, what a mouthful!

He's been rebuked, well actually just formally admonished

Yeah, the House voted 240-179 formally to admonish Congressman Wilson of South Carolina.  Apparently fellow South Carolinian Congressman, James Clyburn was the main person to bring it to the floor for vote.  Also Wilson spoke today exclaiming:

"I think it is clear to the American people that there are far more important issues facing this nation than what we're addressing right now..."

Well, Wilson is trying to downplay it even though he is the first member of Congress in its 220-year history to be formally "rebuked" in the House.  IMHO, he should just been thoroughly censured if not expelled, but that's me.  Also the members of the Congressional Black Caucus pointed out the racial aspect of this outburst and some of this foolishness tied to the controversy with all this anti Obama crap.  However, it is what it is.  I'll touch on some interesting stuff I heard on CNN this weekend later or tomorrow.

Gotta love the idiot savancy of Alabama laws

The sex toys store Love Stuff in Hoover apparently has lost their court battle in the Alabama Supreme Court.  The claim is that the store is violating the state's anti-obscenity law and it is too close to daycares and churches.  Blah, blah, blah!  None of that is true because the area of Hoover it is located is at least a quarter of a mile from any daycare or church. 

Yeah, Alabama's anti-obscenity law claims that bans "adult-only entertainment" near churches and child care centers.  Get this it was passed in 1998 by a Huntsville Democrat in the Alabama State Legislature.  Once again affirming the screwiness of Alabama Democrats and why I absolutely hate the way they operate along with why I'm an Independent. 

Now we have to spend our time lobbying to have this stupid law repealed by the State Legislature so that it can remove the embarrassment from the state's reputation.  Another stupid move by Alabama...

Artur Davis - "Railroad Values"

Artur Davis - "Railroad Values"

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Artur Davis is running ads for governor

He's already started airing radio advertisements on urban and urban gospel radio stations across Alabama.  So its seems he already hitting the ground running with the 2010 gubernatorial campaign.  Compared to Ron Sparks, he does seem like he wants to do things for Alabama compared to other governors.  However, one has to remember the State Legislature, and Alabama Democrats at that are fools who will do anything to get anything done to serve themselves.  So even if Mr. Davis becomes governor, he has an uphill battle ahead.

U.S. Census bureau will count same-gender loving couple

Well, according to yesterday's Washington Post, the US Census Bureau will count same sex couples in the 2010 Census.  They did count same-sex couples in the 2000, but the Bush administration enforced the usage of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) to prohibit the releasing of the numbers since they aren't "officially" recognized couples.  With the 2010 Census they will be counted and released since the Obama administration gave the A'OK to count and hopefully (if Obama gets re-elected) released in 2012 or 2013. 

Kanye West and his ness

Geez Kanye, why in the hee haw hell would you do this?  I was laughing at all your antics up until this incident which was tacky, classless, and so uncalled for.

I mean I'm not a fan of Taylor Swift either, but let the girl have her moment and then you and your Beyonce worship has gone too far.  You just like to attention whoring, but then yet we all know that since your mother has passed nobody can put you in check.  Also he was apparently drunk because he was carrying a bottle of Hennessy on the red carpet.  Also Amber Rose needs to sit down because she is not that hot and she looks like somebody's mama in that get up.

SMH, at why Rod 2.0 was praising Kanye just last week with "his new look".  You gotta look deeper than praising this fool because it's not worth it.  Just because it looks good doesn't mean it's good for you...

Oh yeah, in related news: there is a huge number of tweets on Twitter calling Kanye a nigger, coon, and the works.  Oh another lesson in "look for a reason to talk shit about black folks" file.  Kanye thank you for setting black entertainers and regular folks back and thank you ignorant white Twitter users for showing that you obviously one episode away from using racial epithets.  America needs to have a catharsis on its covert racial issues because this episode brought out amongst some white Americans that love to use the epithets when its so convenient.  
He doesn't represent me as a black person, but still...

The South and Southwest leads the nation in the number of insured

The U.S. Census Bureau released its annual report yesterday saying that 46.3 million Americans are without health insurance.  This is mainly contributed to the major recession the country has been facing since early last year where so many people have lost their jobs along with their health insurance.  Also the poverty rate has increased as well from 12.5% in 2007 to 13.6% in 2008 which translate to 39.8 million Americans living in on income below the poverty line (the highest since 1960).  It doesn't take a mathematician to figure out that it has a lot to do with the large number of jobs losses also...

Also the Institute of Southern Studies broke it down even further:

Divided by region, the uninsured were mostly likely to be found in the South (18.2 percent) and West (17.4 percent). Texas lead the nation with the highest percentage of residents who are uninsured, at just over over 25 percent. The other states rounding off the top five states with the highest average rate of uninsured people include: New Mexico (23 percent), Florida (20.5 percent), Louisiana (20 percent), and Arizona (19.6 percent).

So it basically says that the South and the Southwest are the main regions were the most impoverish and uninsured people live.  Ironically, they are also the regions where there are so many Blue Dog "Democrats" and socially conservative Republicans are cock blocking any kind of health care reform.  If one connects the dots even further I bet you can find a majority of them are sponsored by health insurance corporations or something related or affiliated with the health care industry.

It's a damn shame because you would think empathy would be more widespread in a time where so many people are suffering and struggling to make ends meet.  Instead we have clowns on the internet, town hall meetings and public forums like Congress acting out screaming lies and misinformation about undocumented immigrants getting health care or the bankrupting of the nation to block any type of health care reforms that would help the majority of these clowns neighbors (literally).

Some more things about Congressman Addison Graves "Joe" Wilson, Sr.

Well apparently, he has a financial issues.  According to the Congressional Quarterly Politics (CQ Politics), he has more debts than assets. 

In Wilson's case, he updated a form revealing what he owned in 2008. The new version, filed at the end of July, has different assets than he identified in May.
Wilson now reports that his assets at year's end (not counting his residence) fall somewhere between $952,000 and $2,030,000.
Much of that was tied up in property owned by the Moseley Wilson Partnership.
His debts, in the form of personal loans and mortgages, fall somewhere between $880,012 to $1,930,000.
The major differences between the two reports are the addition of Exxon-Mobil stock worth $15,000 or less and a property in Springdale, S.C., worth between $50,001 and $100,000.

Well, looks like his gamble, I mean outburst was an attempt to get the fundraising efforts off the ground.  However, according the DCCC his Democratic opponent, Rob Miller, has raised over $2,000,000 from 25,000 contributors in the last 48 hours.  Damn!  That some major dough in 2 days.

Also according to the Institute of Southern Studies, Addison was one of the many South Carolina State Senators that voted to keep the Confederate flag on the SC State Capitol grounds in 2000.  He's also a member of the Sons of Confederacy, which doesn't scream "non-bias" at all.  ***eye roll***

This is a quote from Addison discussing the vote and defending the Confederacy from a BBC News report:

"That's offensive to me that they would take my heritage and make it into a Holocaust era type description. I find that very offensive, and it's not true," Senator Wilson said. "The Southern heritage, the Confederate heritage is very honourable."

Oh, how precious!  He thinks the radical group of individuals fighting to maintain to right to enslave people to maintain their economic dominance was honorable.  You get a gold star for being an a-hole.  This guy is a gift that keeps on giving and his skeletons are just creeping out of the closet.

In 2003, Wilson called it "unseemly" for the mixed-race daughter of Sen. Strom Thurmond, Essie Mae Washington-Williams, to identify the longtime South Carolina senator as her father after his death.
"It's a smear on the image that (Thurmond) has as a person of high integrity who has been so loyal to the people of South Carolina," he told The State newspaper of Columbia. Wilson had worked as an intern in Thurmond's office. After a public outcry, he said he had the utmost respect for Washington-Williams.

Apparently, his last election wasn't a "clean sweep" in South Carolina's 2nd Congressional district.  He beat his opponent Rob Miller by only 8% in a district that is more right-of-center.  So its doesn't bode well for Addison Graves Wilson, Sr. come next year after all this stuff have come out of the closet, or does it?  You never known when it comes to the South and its bizarre congressional districts because all the odds could be stacked against the idiot candidate (in this case is a socially conservative and obviously not racially progressive Republic) and they can still win.  Just look at what happened here in Birmingham where the idiot candidate won even though his opponent was clearly the better choice.

BB&T and its takeover of Colonial Bank

According to reports, including the Birmingham News, indicates that the BB&T Alabama operation is going to be headquarted outed of Birmingham.  Also the new head of the Alabama division is also a black man, Donta Wilson, which is a change considering pretty much all the heads of Birmingham corporations or regional HQs are older white males.

It is all following the acquisition of Colonial Bank by BB&T last month after the Montgomery-based financial institution collapsed due to major home loan defaults in states like Florida and Nevada.  Ironically, the company had purchased a number of small banks in Florida, Texas, and Nevada during the early 2000s after the financial regulations laxation due to the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 allowing anybody to acquire another financial institution as long as they have the cash.  Well. the 2007 home foreclosure crisis did Colonial Bank in because large number of home loan defaults in 2 of their expansion markets (Florida and Nevada).  The writing was on the wall to founder and former CEO, Bobby Lowder, because he stepped down earlier year after a huge quarterly loss.  Then Colonial Bank failed on August 14, 2009, and was taken over by FDIC and acquired by BB&T.

Raleigh-based BB&T was barely in Alabama before the Colonial Bank acquistion mainly with locations in rural areas in the eastern and northern portions of the state like Anniston and Oxford.  However, upon the Colonial Bank acquisition, it has become the one of the largest financial operations in Alabama and among the nation's top 10 largest financial institution.  However, the upside to this is Birmingham has gained another financial regional HQ, which is located on the former Shades Valley High School site located in Birmingham city limits.  It's not as good as was pre-2003 where Birmingham was home to some 4 large financial giants and known a "heavyweight", but its still good.  Now if we can acquire the regional HQ for Wells Fargo since they acquired Wachovia who had acquire the more financial solvent institution SouthTrust after the cheap ass former CEO didn't want to name his replacement instead sold the bank to Swiss-cheesed up Wachovia.

Attempts to rejoin SWMA fails

Well, Bettye Fine Collins attempted to get a resolution passed Tuesday to have Jefferson County rejoin the Storm Water Management Authority of Jefferson County (SWMA) after pulling out earlier this year.  Instead the commission also voted unanimously to carry over another resolution to authorize the finance director to transfer as much as $1.4 million from the SWMA account to the organization.

Apparently, Collins realized that the county government can't afford to make payments on its bonds, pay its employees, or maintain anything at this point that if they were to do their own water testing and management that would require them either hiring or training 15 employees to do this (which they can't afford).  So it was a smart move on Collins part, but too little, too late because what's done is done and the "majority" (3 commissioners) have cock-blocked the county from rejoining the organization.  However, after the resolution failed to pass (3-2) she said that she wouldn't bring it up again.

Of course this another lobbying move by BARD, Business Alliance for Responsible Development, who are IMHO the fools like Alabama Power 'n dem that likes to make sure the Greater Birmingham area continues to sprawl out of control.  The main commissioners blocking the resolution includes Bobby Humphreyes, Jim Carns, and Shelia Smoot, who allegedly have all been recipients of campaign contributions from organization affiliated with BARD. 

SWMA was created back in the 1980s as a result of the EPA getting on to area governments for not being up to federal guidelines when it came to stormwater and drainage runoff to area waterways.  So this "ahead of its time" regional agency was created with the involvement with then all area governments including Birmingham, Jefferson County, and all municipalities.  However, BARD has made it their goal to destroy SWMA accusing them of "having too many employees", "being another bureaucratic mess", "wasting valuable funds" etc.; in other words, used faux libertarian accusations without offering any solutions themselves other than promoting further irresponsible development and sprawl.  Ironic, considering their name has "responsible development" in its tag.

Sigh!  SMH
   

OH, how ignorant!

Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina, a Republican, has shown his ass for sure last night during the President's speech on health care reform.  During the middle of the speech when addressing the concerns involving the coverage of illegal immigrants with the proposals being false then Congressman Wilson yells, "You lie!" twice.


Now the look on Speak of the House Nancy Pelosi was PRICELESS because she was looking like "I know he didn't" look on her face.  Whereas President Obama was mean-mugging while Vice President Joe Biden and First Lady Michelle Obama (according to a number of sources) were looking down and shaking their heads.

He issued an apology shortly after exclaiming "I let my emotions get the best of me...", but that's beside the point.  It's a damn shame because the blatant disrespect in recent memory was never shown for Presidents Nixon, Carter, Regan, Bush 41, Clinton, or Bush 43 during their speeches regardless of how much opposition.  Respect was shown for them during their speeches and press conferences.  The only incident that was close to this was an act of disrespect by an Iraqi citizen throwing both of his shoes at President Bush (43).  However, it wasn't another American citizen doing this like Congressman Wilson last night.

Some social conservatives and ignorant white people need to get a clue, Barack Obama is president and you have to give him the due respect.  You didn't see liberals, black, Hispanics, or other people talking crap to Bush or Regan when they were disliked across the board by those groups, so don't play that "I can do it" crap because that ain't happening.

Oh, yeah it'll be funny if he winds up censured because of this.  Ironically, according to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), his opponent in the upcoming 2010 midterm elections, Rob Miller, has received at least $200,000 in campaign contributions since last night's outburst by Congressman Wilson. 

Interesting. there's 2 GLBT events going on this weekend in Atlanta and New Orleans both are examples of the factionalism of the GLBTs

Well, this weekend (or should I say since Wednesday) there has been the annual Southern Decadence in New Orleans where mostly white gay, bisexual, and transgenders have flocked.  Whereas, since Thursday in Atlanta there is Atlanta Black Gay Pride this weekend as well.  Both events are large well-known GLBTs pride festivities, but the kicker is that Southern Decadence is well-known for catering primarily for white gay, bisexual, and transgender people with controversial entertainers like Shirley Q. Liquor, who is known for their racially-degradating statements about black females.   On the other hand, the Atlanta Black Gay Pride is more or less black-oriented with events and parties as such. 

This brings me to the problems associated with the GLBT community when it comes to race.  Most black GLBTs tend to feel unwelcomed at the mainstream events like Southern Decadence or the regional gay pride events in their cities because of the fact if you look at the imagery and things promoted it seems to be aimed towards primarily white GLBTs over any other group.  I've heard the argument a number of times, "Yeah, but white gay and lesbians are more out about sexuality" or "white people make up the majority of the  population".  Yeah, the same is true about Canada, but you don't see them constantly pushing the idea of "white image" without any form of diversity of ethnicities including black, Latinos, or Asians.  Just Google the 2009 San Francisco Pride week controversy with the "unofficial pride guide" book and its lack of diversity. 

Well, I'll also scratch the surface for time purposes on how so many non-white GLBTs have faced rejection from gay clubs and events because of their skin color or ethnicity.  Along with the sexual fetishization that occurs with so many white GLBTs on the idea of cultural tourism where they just want to be with someone sexual because of their ethnicity.  Also lack of outreach of GLBT oriented organizations reaching out to  GLBT of color when it comes to the STI crisis including HIV and AIDS.  You rarely see predominately-white GLBT orgs go into poor neighborhoods advocating economic justice, but wants the support of the poor and people of color.  Support is a two-way street and one must put in their work if they want support in return rather than expect support.  Yeah, the GLBT community is a mess when it comes to interaction of races and ethnicities. 

However, the point of this post is that as long as Southern Decadence wants to allow entertainers like Shirley Q. Liquor to perform degradating blacks then what do you expect?  Many black GLBTs have this cautious disposition to enter a space where it is predominately white (outside of their work environment) because of the fact that there is this racialization notion that exists.  It would be cool to one day see that, but there are some serious things that need to occur with both white and non-white GLBTS when it comes to race and ethnicity.  You can't just judge and presume anything about an individual because of their phenotypical appearance rather get to know them and judge them for who they are.  In meanwhile, Atlanta Black Gay Pride will continue to be its own separate thing where black GLBTs and their admirers will gather while the Southern Decadence will be where mostly white GLBTs and their admirers in New Orleans.

A little late, my take on the settlement of the suit involving Langford and Central Alabama Pride

The lawsuit dubbed as "Langford v. Central Alabama Pride" has been resolved with the organization receiving a guarantee from the City of Birmingham that there wouldn't be any further interference in the preparation of Central Alabama Pride Week festivities and $40,000 in legal fees.  This suit comes from Mayor Langford's revocation the parade permit and allowing city workers to place rainbow flags and other decorations for the annual pride parade thrown every June on the Southside.  However, Langford allowed decorations for the national conference for the black fraternity Omega Psi Pi and the Magic City Classic parade in downtown. 

Well, Langford should have known better not to push his views on the city when he knows you can't do that stuff.  However, he is the same mayor who has called for a prayer rally in a public facility on taxpayers' dollars.  So he has that "do as I say, but don't do as I do" mindset which has cost the city $40K when it could have just shut up and kept it moving.  I mean he is friends with out-of-the-closet homosexual John Katapodis so what's the real deal?   

SMH, Van Jones resigns overnight

According to a number of media sources including the Associated Press, Van Jones has resigned from the post of White House Environmental Advisor.  He is a champion of the creation of "green jobs" to help move the American economy from just one where it still uses the old ways of manufacturing instead the promotion of smart manufacturing and energy conservation among other initiatives.  He has been under fire for the past week since the media "discovered" that he is one of the "100 Noble Americans who signed the 9/11 Truth Statement.  Also he doesn't hold his tongue on his views of Republicans, he is quoted saying at the 2009 Berkley Energy and Resources Collaborative at the UC-Berkley:

"The answer to that is: They're assholes. That's a technical political science term. And Barack Obama's not an asshole. I will say this, I can be an asshole. And some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are gonna have to start getting a little bit uppity.

Do you blame him saying what he said?   Some Republicans are assholes in Congress and some states because they seem to be them main ones against "smart growth" initiatives along with putting a cap on urban sprawl.  Too many of them want to be "no men" rather coming up with coherent alternatives to the Democrats proposals on a number of fronts including "green jobs", health care reform, and energy conseravation.

So many Republican including the obnoxious Glenn Beck at Fox News Channel have spend the better part of the week throwing shade at the man and calling for his resignation. A number of Congressmen like Republican Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana saying "his extremist views and coarse rhetoric has no place in this administration or public debate" and Senator Christopher Bond saying "Congress should investigate his fitness for the job."

Ironically, Karl Rove after making a number of asinine statements didn't resign from the Bush Cabinet at all after numerous Democrats and liberals were calling for his head for years. 
He said in his e-mail sent yesterday that:

"On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me..."

I'm really disappointed that Mr. Jones let his critics force him to resign from the post.  I just don't get why so many Democratic officials will cower under pressure.  I say "screw them" because you have a job to do and don't let others opinions orchestrate the duty you were assigned.  Jones just folded like a lawn chair after this week of "heat" from bizarros like Glenn Beck and propagandists Republicans like Rep. Pence and Senator Bonds. 

As I've said before with his administration, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't, so you just gotta do what you need to do to get things done.

Honestly, what has gone wrong with Birmingham

Well, IMHO Birmingham is a victim of the "social aversion" and classism.  The city used to be way better than Charlotte, Nashville, Memphis, and Jacksonville along with being much larger than Raleigh, Orlando, and Tampa (all of whom have surpassed the city population and metro area size).  However, there is a huge leadership void in the region because nobody wants to step up unless they have been "vetted" by the current establishment.  The Richard Arringtons, Larry Langfords, and Frank Matthews don't help united the cause of the improving the city without reminding progressive whites in the city that THEY'RE NOT BLACK.  How many times do we have to do this to them when many of them chose to reside in the city over the "Over-the-Mountain" communities like Homewood, Vestavia Hills, Mountain Brook (if they can afford it), or Hoover.  Instead we have that strife that exists then you have the "powers-that-be" leadership like George Barber, Charles McCrary, and Dowd Ritter, the useless CEO of Regions Financial Corp, who doesn't do anything but talk about what "needs" to occur in Greater Birmingham.

There are traces of revitalization such as Crestwood, Redmont, Glen Iris, and Southside that have all comeback from the pits of slum-dom.  Now the real question is what needs to occur to get these groups of progressive whites and progressive blacks to come together to get things moving here?  This is just another post in my series of what is wrong with Birmingham series.

Gotta give it up to the Alabama Democrats in the Legislature for being a-holes when comes to ethics reform

Well, apparently ethics reforms has been blocked by the foolishness of the Alabama Senatorial Democrats when it came to the bill that will have strengthen the ethics codes for teachers.  Now I know the controversy includes the requirement of teachers reporting another teacher if they curse while at school (which is stupid and could be amended out of the new policy).  However, I have to give it up to the Senatorial Republicans for wanting to push the new education policy code anyways in Legislative Council to passage, but it was blocked by Joe Turnham and the Senatorial Democrats because Alabama Education Association (AEA) and its president Paul Hubbard fought to block it.

Both of the Democratically-controlled chambers of Alabama Legislature wanted anything to do with the strong ethics proposal pushed this year by Bob Riley, a Republican that would give the Ethics Commission subpoena power, tighten the legal restrictions on gifts for public officials, impose limits on how much lobbyists can spend while they wine and dine public officials, and mandate more disclosure of that spending.  They also avoided passing a Republican-sponsored bill that would expand the definition of lobbyists to include those who lobby the executive branch of state government, require more precise financial reports from public officials and allow the Ethics Commission to initiate a complaint with just four of its members instead of all five.

Ironically, most of the officials indicted in the past 18 months have all been Democrats on the state level including former state legislator Sue Schmitz and the fools involved in the two-year college system corruption.  Yet, I guess partisanship overcomes rationality and prevention of further foolishness. 

Man, this are the times and reasons why I'm an Independent because Democrats have their severe flaws as well as Republicans, but they should know better when it comes to ethics.  2010 is going to be election year for the State Legislature so they better remember that some of us doesn't have such a short memory when it comes to ethics laws. 

Shame, shame, shame! 

Uh, oh! Another Republican is apparently a closet case

These are another one of the 'friends' that love to talk shit, but they act like their shit doesn't stank.  His name is Andre Bauer, he is the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina.  Apparently, Mike Rogers of Blogactive.com has outed his clown for sure.  He goes into detail how Mr. Bauer's numerous flings with young men (nearly half his age) to him being a "confirmed bachelor".  Oh yeah, I love the "confirmed bachelor" part because that is code word for being a "friend".  His spokesperson is screaming foul at his naysayers attempt to "tarnish" his image.  You gotta love this because if Governor Mark Sanford is impeached for his actions including leaving the state without notifying anyone to using state vehicles to do this then Bauer is going to be Governor.  LOL

What's so funny is the rumors is a South Carolina State Legislator, and out lesbian, Linda Ketner, outed him, that queeny ass Lindsey Graham along with the SC Senator President Pro-Tem Glenn McConnell last year.  As the saying goes, one person it's a rumor, two people there's some truth, three or more it's a fact.