Main
A line of severe thunderstorms continued making its way across the South into Tuesday night as the New Hampshire primary votes were coming in, causing some power and Internet outages. Experts say it's best to shut down high speed broadband modems when lightening passes overhead.
Earlier in the day, the same storms fed by warm weather continued spinning off unusual January tornadoes, killing a man in Arkansas and carrying a cow close to a mile, according to the Associated Press.
More Tornadoes Interrupt A Warm January
Meanwhile in science, scientists have discovered genetic information that helps explain how monarch butterflies find their way from Canada to winter nesting grounds in the mountains of Mexico in a study published online Tuesday in the PLoS Biology Journal and the Public Library of Science, which found that the butterflies' biological clocks help them use the sun as a compass.
Inner Clock May Lead Monarch Butterflies
PloS Biology Journal
Benazir Bhutto is the latest victim of the deadly mix of George W. Bush's wishful thinking and his obsession with Iraq.
U.S. officials encouraged the former Pakistani prime minister to return to her homeland to help counter Islamic extremists when there was no way the over-stretched U.S. intelligence agencies could give her much protection.
To read the full story, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com
Disgraced former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales may be the choice of the American Bar Association for top news maker lawyer of 2007, but watch out for Alabama's Jill Simpson in 2008.
Alberto Gonzales
"The most talked-about attorney this past year by a mile, according to the ABA Journal, "was Gonzales, 52, who rose from being the grandson of illegal immigrants to the first Hispanic attorney general of the United States.
"George W. Bush appeared to be grooming the man he affectionately calls “Fredo” for the U.S. Supreme Court. But after Gonzales appeared veracity-challenged when testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee, he resigned in August.
"Gonzales went from 'Latino Lawyer of the Year' in 1999 to become the subject of several investigations involving use of the Justice Department as a political tool.
"Before becoming attorney general, Gonzales authored - or at least authorized as White House general counsel - a memo describing the Geneva Conventions as “quaint” and presided, at least nominally (see David Addington), over what now appears to have been a stealth campaign to reinstate pre-Watergate presidential authority.
"His determination to do so is epitomized in a now-infamous hospital-room meeting with an incapacitated John Ashcroft in an unsuccessful effort to gain approval for a secret wiretapping program. The highlight: Ashcroft’s wife sticking her tongue out at Gonzales and his entourage as they retreated from Ashcroft’s bedside."
New Attorney General Michael Mukasey also made the list for 2008, but here's what the journal says about our own...
Dana Jill Simpson
"As a Republican party activist and attorney, Simpson worked on Alabama Gov. Bob Riley’s gubernatorial campaign, but later shocked her GOP friends by accusing Karl Rove, President Bush’s former top political adviser, of instigating and influencing the prosecution of Riley’s chief Democratic adversary.
"Simpson’s claim, made under oath, has thus far stayed out of the national media spotlight. But that could well change if Democrats pursue, as threatened, hearings about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Simpson’s allegation links the White House to the corruption case against former Democratic Gov. Don Siegelman, who is now serving an 88-month sentence.
"In a 143-page sworn statement to the House Judiciary Committee, Simpson says she learned of Rove’s involvement during a campaign conference call, and also alleges that Riley helped stack the deck against the former governor by assigning a hanging judge to oversee Siegelman’s case. Riley has denied her allegations, telling Time magazine last fall: “Ms. Simpson’s statements have gone from being not only untrue to absurd and ridiculous.” Whatever the case, Simpson could be telling her story before the white hot lights of a congressional hearing.
"She will be talked about, whether or not she is believed," the journal editors conclude.
But of course they also honor Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
ABA Journal: Lawyers of the Year 2007 and 2008
 | | Photo by Clay Ragsdale | | The old Birmingham News building on Fourth Avenue North is being demolished to make way for a p-p-parking lot... |
 | | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | The Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth at Don Siegelman's sentencing |
The Reverend Fred L. Shuttlesworth, 85, a major civil rights pioneer from Birmingham, Alabama, was hospitalized Wednesday after suffering a mild stroke, according to a hospital spokesman in Cincinnati.
He was in intensive care and listed in fair condition.
"He's improving, he's responding," Ruby Bester, one of Shuttlesworth's four children, told the Associated Press Friday. "God has been good to him."
The length of his hospital stay has not been determined, his daughter said, but he canceled a planned weekend trip to Birmingham, where he was a leader in the fight against racial segregation in the 1950s and worked with the late Martin Luther King Jr. in the cause of civil rights.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Shuttlesworth was beaten by a mob and had his house bombed, although he walked out of the flame-charred house alive and ready to continue the fght.
He moved to Cincinnati in 1961 and retired as pastor of the Greater New Light Baptist Church in 2006.
He was last seen in Alabama in June lending moral support to former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman during the sentencing phase of his case in Montgomery.
Alberto Gonzales, the nation's first Hispanic attorney general and perhaps one of the most incompetent and corrupt, announced his resignation Monday in a terse statement, ending a wrenching standoff with congressional critics over his honesty and competence at the helm of the Bush Justice Department.
Republicans and Democrats alike had demanded his resignation over the botched handling of FBI terror investigations and the firings of U.S. attorneys, among other things, but President Bush had defiantly stood by his Texas friend until accepting his resignation last Friday.
Gonzales, whom Bush once considered for appointment to the Supreme Court, is the fourth top-ranking administration official to leave since November 2006.
Donald H. Rumsfeld, an architect of the Iraq war, resigned as defense secretary one day after the November elections.
Paul Wolfowitz agreed in May to step down as president of the World Bank after an ethics inquiry.
Bush's top political and policy adviser, Karl Rove, announced earlier this month that he was stepping down.
Reacting to Gonzales' resignation,Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that the Justice Department had "suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence."
As attorney general and earlier as White House counsel, Gonzales pushed for expanded presidential powers, including the eavesdropping authority. He drafted controversial rules for military war tribunals and sought to limit the legal rights of detainees at Guantanamo Bay - prompting lawsuits by civil libertarians who said the government was violating the Constitution in its pursuit of terrorists.
One matter still under investigation is the 2006 dismissal of several federal prosecutors, who serve at the president's pleasure. Lawmakers said the action appeared to be politically motivated, and some of the fired U.S. attorneys said they felt pressured to investigate Democrats before elections.
"Better late than never," said Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, summing up the response of many to the resignation, according to the Associated Press.
US Attorney General Gonzales Resigns
Analysis: The Gonzometer Moves to 'Gone'
 | | Paris Hilton smokes a joint |
Just as poor, skinny Paris Hilton is on the verge of doing a little jail time for driving while here license was suspended and failure to appear in court for DUI, pictures have surfaced of her smoking pot backstage at last month's Coachella music festival, according to the London Daily Mail.
Paris attended the festival with a group of friends weeks before her court hearing, but clearly wasn't concerned about keeping out of trouble in advance of the case.
Hilton now faces a 45-day jail term for for driving while her licence was suspended, although it is doubtful that with her money, she will actually have to do the time.
Hilton has appealed to California Gov. Arnold Schwartzenegger for a pardon in an online petition. The online Free Paris Hilton petition has gathered more than 25,000 signatures.
But unfortunately for the reality TV bimbo, a rival campaign, Jail Paris Hilton, is twice as popular, with more than 60,000 supporters.
As I have written in the past, I interviewed Paris Hilton and partied with her at the Girl's Gone Wild Mardi Gras party on a Bourbon Street balcony in New Orleans while working for People magazine in 2003. She wasn't quite so famous then, just a few months before her reality show "A Simple Life" went on the air.
And as far as I was concerned, she didn't seem particularly bright either.
As I'm drinking my coffee this morning and posting this, I'm wondering why I bother to write anything about her at all. She's just another rich bimbo who is famous for being famous. Who cares, really?
But hey, part of the job of a blog is to spoof the tabloid press. When there's a photo, run with it, right?
Outgoing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was honored with a standing ovation and marching bands as if he were leaving office a hero today, not a disgrace.
Rumsfeld Honored at Pentagon Ceremony
At least President George W. Bush didn't award him the Medal of Freedom as he did former CIA Director George Tenet.
Bush Gives Medal of Freedom to 10 People
But the key question ahead is: What will Bush "the decider" do about Iraq?
The speculation in Washington is that he will stay the course, but not call it "staying the course," and he will propose sending more troops to Iraq and throw more money into the quagmire - only delaying the inevitable end to the debacle into the 2008 presidential election season and beyond.
Bush Weighing Options for Iraq
Anyone who still thinks Bush is some kind of a Christian needs to re-read the Book of Revelations. Remember, "he who has an ear let him hear?"
Bush can't hear anything but the voices echoing in his head that make him say, over and over, that he "believes" this and he "believes" that. He "believes" we can "win" in Iraq. He "believes" he is doing the right thing.
What he didn't learn in school while he was cheating his way through was that what he "believes" is not what matters. What matters is what the EVIDENCE shows.
That's the difference between the "reality-based" community and the "faith-based" community.
Either this is a nation of laws where justice rules based on the facts, or it is not. The evidence leads me to believe and have hope and faith that the American people believe that "justice" should be done and that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld deserve to be punished for their crimes against nature and humanity - not awarded medals and cheered with marching bands.
Capitol Hill pages kept quiet about Rep. Mark Foley's suggestive e-mails for years out of fear that they would be blacklisted from future political jobs in the Republican-controlled U.S. government. This fear of retaliation was one of the lessons that the pages learned from watching how the adults behaved in today's Washington.
For the full story of what one-party-controlled government is teaching the younger generation, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.
British authorities say they disrupted a well-advanced "major terrorist plot" to blow up passenger flights between the United Kingdom and the United States using liquid explosives, prompting a full-scale security clampdown at U.S. and British airports and a cascade of delays in transatlantic flights.
Britain Claims To Thwart Airline Terror Plot, Raising Security Alerts
Not to suggest a conspiracy theory, but the busts changed the news agenda overnight away from the major crisis with the oil pipeline in the United States that will most likely result in gas shortages and prices at the pump over $3 a gallon, and the new multi-million dollar FEMA awards to big Katrina contracters.
BP oil was told by employees and contractors in a February 2004 survey that its pipeline network probably was not being adequately monitored for corrosion, according to a company report.
BP Oil Warned of Pipelines Corrosion in 2004
The four giant construction firms that received controversial no-bid contracts to house Hurricane Katrina evacuees last September will be earning up to $250 million apiece to do similar work after future disasters, according to a new FEMA policy.
Katrina Contractors Win FEMA Work
Not to mention it's a red hot August in much of the U.S. due to global warming - and we are on the verge of the mid-term election season and the Republicans are worried.
ConocoPhillips is withdrawing its permit application to build an open-looped liquefied natural gas terminal off the Alabama Gulf Coast, in part due to negotiations with the administration of Gob. Bob Riley, according to the Associated Press.
The proposed terminal would have used technology that could have caused all kinds of damage to Gulf fisheries and marine life, according to critics.
Riley made the announcement Friday that the Texas-based company was withdrawing its application in a letter to the federal Maritime Administration.
Iran's nuclear chief said Wednesday that Iran has enriched uranium up to 4.8 percent - the upper end of the range needed to make fuel for reactors - as it continues to defy U.S. and European demands to stop enrichment. Enriched to more than 90 percent, it becomes suitable for use in nuclear weapons, according to the Associated Press.
Iran's first target would be Israel in any response to a U.S. attack, a Revolutionary Guards commander said Tuesday, reinforcing the Iranian president's past call for Israel to be "wiped off the map," also according to the AP.
A few days ago, a Reuters story floated a Bush administration trial balloon threatening to use nuclear weapons against Iran to stop them from developing a nuclear capability.
This is insane and an indication that crazed religious fanatics have siezed power on both sides of the world and are on the verge of a massive miscalculation that a nuclear war is somehow winnable.
In the absence of ANY corporate news organization in America connecting the dots and standing up to this idiocy, the public must turn to the Internet to find out what can be done to stop this madness.
A coalition of activist groups is now circulating a petition drive to tell Congress to send a clear message to President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney NOT to attack Iran and continue this escalation to World War III.
"Such an attack would be illegal and disastrous," according to David Swanson of Democrats.Com. "Congress can prevent it, but only if Congress asserts its Constitutional right to decide whether or not the United States goes to war."
Congressman Peter DeFazio's H. Con. Res. 391 expresses "the sense of Congress that the President should not initiate military action against Iran with respect to its nuclear program without first obtaining authorization from Congress."
This bill is rapidly picking up cosponsors, he says, but needs more.
Democrats.Com is asking the public to contact their Representatives and Senators to help stop the madness.
And they are urging people to contact the news media to cover this story critically in a way they did not in the run-up to war in Iraq.
Contact the media
Conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh turned himself in to Florida authorities about 4 p.m. Friday on a warrant for fraud to conceal information to obtain a prescription, in what prosecutors call "doctor shopping," according to the Associated Press.
Limbaugh entered a plea of not guilty in court Friday. He was released an hour later on $3,000 bail. Under a settlement deal, Limbaugh would eventually see the charge dismissed in 18 months if he continues treatment for drug addiction.
Prosecutors began investigating Limbaugh in 2003 after a tabloid newspaper reported that his housekeeper said he had used her to illegally buy painkillers. He soon took a five-week leave from his radio show to enter a rehabilitation program, and was painted as a hypocrite by critics and the blogosphere.
Prosecutors seized Limbaugh's records after learning that he received about 2,000 painkillers, prescribed by four doctors in six months, at a pharmacy near his Palm Beach mansion. They contended that Limbaugh engaged in "doctor shopping," or illegally deceived multiple doctors to receive overlapping prescriptions.
Limbaugh acknowledged he became addicted to pain medication, blaming it on severe back pain, but never took back all the comments he made over the years to "throw away the key" for anyone who abused drugs.
According to his attorney Roy Black, who issued this press release today, said Limbaugh also has agreed to make a $30,000 payment to the state to defray the public cost of the investigation. He must refrain from violating the law during this 18 months and pay $30 per month for the cost of supervision.
The Black Warrior Riverkeeper group is urging citizens to reject the reappointments of Sam Wainwright and Dr. John Lester to the state Environmental Management Commission and urges people to contact their state senators and lobby to keep Pat Byington on the commission and reject Laurel Gardneron.
The Alabama Senate Confirmations Committee did not vote on Governor Riley's proposed appointments to the commission Thursday, due to calls from the opposition, according to Nelson Brooke, a spokesman for the group. Senators Rodger Smitherman and Ted Little led a filibuster that helped prolong the vote, he said.
The Senate Confirmations Committee may make their decision on next Tuesday.
For more information, check out BlackWarriorRiver.Org
Read the AP story here.
Now don't get us wrong. We have a modicum of respect for Albert Brewer, especially since that dirty, racist 1970 George Wallace campaign against his run for governor was recently named Number One on the Most Negative Campaigns of All Time.
But Mr. Brewer's recent decision to recruit and hire Andrew Westmoreland away from Ouachita Baptist University in Little Rock, Arkansas - even after he admitted lying about praying about taking the job - raises all kinds of questions about religion, ethics, politics and education.
Baptist Samford U. Hires President Who Admits Lying About Praying
| | Photo by Glynn Wilson | | Speaking of connecting with nature, after a couple of springs of trying we now have blue birds breeding in the backyard. I managed to get a decent shot of one a couple of days ago after returning from the trek to New Orleans. |
Meanwhile, the breaking news this morning that the wife of a charismatic Church of Christ minister slain in Tennessee was arrested and charged with the murder when she turned up in Orange Beach, Alabama, raises even more questions about what's going on in the so-called "faith-based community."
Slain Tennessee Minister's Wife to Be Charged with Murder
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Can we please stop the religious crusades and jihads and get on with the business of saving the world and savoring life?
If you find yourself saying, "The world has gone crazy," then think about this. You don't hear a lot these days about pot smoking, beer drinking, nature loving hippies causing the world a lot of trouble.
What the world needs more of are canoes on top of vans and a reconnection with nature. Alabama native and Harvard scholar E.O. Wilson called it biophilia, and it may be more important to our mental health than any words that could ever be uttered from a pulpit.
So forget the preachers and the religious educators who lie about prayer. It's beginning to look like a beautiful spring around here, even if it is still a bit cool. Get out of the house and try to enjoy the outdoors.
And if you really feel like you must, say a "thank you" to whichever god you worship. We tend to find more value in the Gia theory, and believe when the founding fathers of our country talked about "natural rights," they were thinking more about the laws of nature than the laws of Judge Roy Moore's Old Testament Ten Commandments.
Think about it...
If prosecutors are now to be believed, the motive in the Alabama church fires case was "a joke" by three college kids.
Once again, investigators turned out to be wrong about a more sinister conspiracy by someone older involved in burning down the 10 Baptist churches in three Alabama counties.
It must be disappointing to federal and state law enforcement officials, as well as the church crowd that likes to think they are under attack by wicked liberals, that the churches were burned by kids just to watch them burn.
Three Set Church Fires as a Joke, Agents Say
We hate to say we told you so, but ... there is just more important news to think about.
Church Fires Smolder As Liberty Burns
ReadtheBill.Org called on the U.S. House of Representatives to approve by election day a resolution by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA) to require that all proposed legislation be posted on the Internet for 72 hours before it comes up for floor debate.
"It's time to stop passing bills in the dead of night that nobody has read," said Rafael DeGennaro, Founder and President of ReadtheBill.org. "We want sunshine at the Capitol by November. Any member of Congress who opposes this 72 online reform is part of the problem in Washington, D.C."
For more info, hit the group's Web site: ReadtheBill.Org.
President George W. "Texas Soufle" Bush knew Saturday evening that Vice President Dick Cheney had accidentally shot a hunting companion, but the information wasn't made public until the next day - by a private citizen - the White House admitted Monday, according to the AP.
Reminds me of a Jimmy Breslin novel from 1971 about, you guessed it, the Nixon administration.
Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and injured a man during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, according to the AP. Boy are the Democrats and bloggers going to have fun with this.
Well, we made it through Super Bowl 40 with no terrorist attack, just a couple of bleeped song lyrics from the Rolling Stones.
NFL Edits Out Explicit Rolling Stones Lyrics
But that should not lead to complacence for long, especially with the escape of a few evil doers from a Yemon prison.
Yemen Escape Sparks Interpol Alert
Don't forget that there will be hearings starting Monday on Capitol Hill to probe Bush's NSA domestic spying program.
Sen. Specter Criticizes Rationale for Bush's Spying
And the Veep will visit Priceville, Ala., on Monday to at least a small protest.
Cheney Visits Alabama Monday for Aderholt Fundraiser
As they used to say on CB radios back in the 1970s, in the days when you had to drive to Texarkana for Coors beer, see you on the flip side.
The New York Times plays up the story of James Frey, upbraided by Oprah Winfrey Thursday for lying about his past and portraying his memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," as a truthful account of his life.
Live on 'Oprah,' a Memoirist Is Kicked Out of the Book Club
I guess it beats the Michael Jackson story, but hey, did everyone forget already that President George W. Bush actually had an honest to Dog press conference Thursday? He assured us all that his order for the NSA to spy on phone calls of Americans, including reporters, was legal. His justification?
Because he says so, and he's the president, your not...
Thursday looks like a sufficiently big news day over on the Locust Fork News page. We'll get around to blogging about some of it tonight.
For now, here's a sample.
The Washington Post led with this today:
Congressional Agency Questions Legality of Wiretaps
The Alabama Associated Press came up with this local blockbuster:
Scrushy Allegedly Paid for Sympathetic News Stories During Trial
And NASA finally got the piano-sized Pluto rocket off the ground.
NASA Launches First Mission to Pluto
FYI: Posts like this are archived under Breaking News.
Whoa, do we have our first suicide train wreck in Alabama?
According to all the local television news stations in Birmingham, THREE trains have collided near the new Honda Plant and Logan Martin Lake near Embry Crossroads along Interstate 20 between Birmingham and Atlanta, south of Oxford and Anniston. Is it really possible for three trains to collide?
Information is obviously sketchy at this point, and the local TV folks are scrambling all over themselves to get information and correct bad information. They must not have any other news, because this story has taken over ALL the newscasts. Even the weather teams are getting in on it to project the northward direction of the wind.
They are insinuating that chemicals, possibly sodium cyanide, may be on the train and say an evacuation has been ordered for a one-mile radius. The problem is, residents of a trailer park in the area are trapped on a dead-end road with no other way out and can't evacuate. They have been instructed to "shelter in place."
In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, family members were told early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners were dead - three hours after they began celebrating news that they were alive.
AP story
Twelve miners caught in an explosion in a coal mine were found alive Tuesday night, more than 41 hours after the blast, family members said. Bells at a church where relatives had been gathering rang out as family members ran out screaming in jubilation, according to the Accociated Press.
A coal mine where 13 miners were trapped after an explosion Monday was cited 208 times for alleged safety violations in 2005, up from just 68 the year before, and 96 were called "significant and substantial" by inspectors. Allegations against the Sago Mine included failure to dilute coal dust, which can lead to explosions, and failure to properly operate and maintain machinery, according to the U.S. Labor Department.
Full AP story
The news on the first work day of 2006 was riveted on the scene in Tallmansville, West Virginia, where 13 coal miners were trapped on Monday after an explosion collapsed the Sago mine shaft.
According to Reuters, rescuers drilled into a coal mine on Tuesday, but the company said it was "very discouraged" by high levels of carbon monoxide detected during the air quality tests, which showed more than three times the safe limit of carbon monoxide, according to Ben Hatfield, chief executive of Ashland, Kentucky-based International Coal Group Inc., which owns the Sago mine.
"We are very discouraged by the results of this test," Hatfield said at a news briefing.
He said a camera dropped into a part of the mine about 250 feet below ground and almost 2 miles into the mine showed no survivors, but also no sign of substantial damage from the explosion.
Air Tests Discouraging for West Virginia Coal Miners
Her'e holding out hope they are safe and will be rescued, although it does not look promising at this point.
New York Times reporter James Risen illustrates in his new book how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of mass destruction, according to the Associated Press.
State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration describes secret operations of the Bush administration's war on terrorism. The major revelation in the book, according to the AP, has already been the subject of SOME reporting by the New York Times: The so-called revelation that the National Security Agency eavesdropped on Americans' conversations without obtaining warrants from a special court - at the behest of President George W. Bush.
In October 2002, the U.S intelligence community issued a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program, according to the book. Quoting extensively from anonymous sources, Risen says the NSA spying program was launched in 2002 after the CIA began to capture high-ranking al-Qaida operatives overseas and took their computers, cell phones and personal phone directories.
Full AP story
But the relevant story doesn't stop there.
Byron Calame, the New York Times public editor, a recruit from the conservative Wall Street Journal, wrote a column on Sunday taking issue with the stony silence on the issue by Times Executive Editor Bill Keller and Publisher Arthur "Punch" Sulzberger Jr.
"For the first time since I became public editor, the executive editor and the publisher have declined to respond to my requests for information about news-related decision-making," Calame wrote.
Behind the Eavesdropping Story, a Loud Silence
As we have reported here before, as a free-lance reporter for the New York Times national desk out of New Orleans in 2002, I personally tried to tell the New York Times their reporting leading up to the war in Iraq was on the wrong track. They listened to Judith Miller instead, and now the paper's reputation has suffered yet another blow.
One of the things I learned about journalism in the first of four communications programs I have participated in over the past 25 years is that a reputation for accuracy is very important. These days, critics on the right and the left are attacking the credibility of the press like never before.
Of course it seems to be a fact about the world we live in today that everyone is a critic - whether or not they have any qualifications or facts to back up their attacks.
But it seems to me that the managers of major newspapers especially should seek out experienced help on stories such as these rather than hiding behind their office walls in New York and attacking bloggers.
Someone will eventually unearth and publish the truth, whether it is on newsprint or book paper or a Weblog online.
But as George Orwell once said, "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
The revolution has already begun . . . whether or not they like it or admit it in New York or Washington.
Our apologies for the temporary server outage, and especially to the readers of the Sunday Huntsville Times.
Apparently the NSA knocked out our server in Knoxville, Tennessee, overnight last night after midnight < : (
It did not come back up until about 2 p.m. Sunday after being manually restarted by a techie with Xxpansion Networks.
But we are appreciative of Taylor Bright, the Montgomery bureau reporter for the Huntsville Times, for the interesting article in the paper today. You may remember Mr. Bright's byline in the now defunct Birmingham Post-Herald from that story back during the 2004 presidential campaign, which pointed out that it was Karl Rove, President George W. Bush's political adviser, who started this whole business of bashing liberal "activist judges" to help Republicans get elected.
And Rove did it right here in little ole Alabama back in the early 1990s when he ran the campaign of Perry Hooper for the Alabama Supreme Court.
In any event, here's part of what was reported in the Huntsville Times today in a story about political blogs in Alabama.
They're irreverent, sometimes funny and under nobody's control but their creators'. The Alabama political scene has made it to the big time: blogs. In the past year, several blogs devoted to Alabama politics have begun offering a new way for political junkies to get their fix.
... others sites, such as www.locustfork.net, feature a broad offering of opinion from the site's operator and a grouping of headlines from other news sources he thinks are important.
Locustfork operator Glynn Wilson calls blogs "the new printing press." And many of the blogs cover politics.
"A lot of people who get in this blogging business are interested in politics," Wilson said. "That tends to be a lot of the audience - your news junkies and your political junkies; they tend to go online and look for stuff like this."
Read the full story from this link.
Web sites report news, give opinions on issues, candidates in races
Notice how fast you get to the print version of this article without having to wade through the entire al.com interface to find it. That is one of the major benefits of using sites like LocustFork.Net on a regular basis.
As the big mainstream media and legacy press continue to fatten up their Web sites with more slow ads and pesky popup ads, not to mention those things called "cookies" made famous by the AP NSA story this week, more online readers will turn to a site like the Locust Fork News to negotiate the Web.
Whether you agree with every point of view published here or not, you should admit that this site provides an incredibly fast and efficient set of links. If you think we are missing a critical link you like to go to on a daily or weekly basis, let us know and we will try to find room for it.
Cheers and enjoy the rest of your New Year's Day.
If you must read more about Alabama politics today, we also recommend Taylor Bright's piece in the Huntsville Times.
Alabama Election Year Expected to Draw a Crowd
Former state Chief Justice Roy Moore, because of his stand on displaying the Ten Commandments on public property, is already bringing national attention to the state as he tries to defeat Gov. Bob Riley for the Republican nomination for governor.
Then, here's a rare Sports Update: Catch Alabama v. Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl
We don't tend to cover a lot of sports on this site, but if you are not too hung over to turn on the TV or the radio at 10 a.m. CDT Monday, Jan. 2, 2006, turn to the local Fox affiliate or check your local or online radio listings and see how the Alabama Crimson Tide fares against Texas Tech in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas.
I will bet one six pack of Yuengling Black and Tan right now that the Tide will win this one to make up for the disappointing losses to LSU and Auburn that destroyed what otherwise could have been a great comeback season for the UA football program.
Cotton Bowl: Alabama vs. Texas Tech - Tide seniors look back on four seasons of turmoil at Alabama
Roll !@#$%^& Tide!
In an extraordinary radio address from the White House Roosevelt Room Saturday morning, President George W. Bush admitted that he has authorized a secret eavesdropping program in the U.S. more than 30 times since the Sept. 11 attacks.
The president was on the defensive and obviously angry after a week of being hammered by the news that his administration has violated our civil liberties and run roughshod over the law and the Constitution.
One observer of the radio address told me Saturday morning it is obvious the president is losing it.
"He has a loose bolt," the observer said. "Bush admitted he did it, then said he was going to keep doing it. He doesn't get it, does he?"
The Associated Press ran an interesting analysis piece today which leads with this.
Given a free hand after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush followed the uncertain footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, John Adams and other past presidents who made civil liberties the first casualty of war.
Eavesdropping without warrants, redefining torture, building loopholes into the Geneva Conventions and the USA Patriot Act will be parts of Bush's legacy - and a cautionary tale for the next president who struggles with the balance between safety and civil liberties
AP: Civil Liberties Become a Casualty of War
Here's the story on the radio address:
AP: Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping
Watching the Bush meltdown is more fun than playing with a barrel full of monkeys. Remember that game? And now Google is running an ad offering a free laptop to anyone who will answer the question: "Should Bush step down as president?"
So much for a Merry Christmas in the White House. Or should we say so much for Happy Holidays? Bush has been a very bad boy and deserves a big bad bag of thorn-pronged switches under the White House Christmas tree. Whip him, Laura. Whip him hard. Where is Jeff Gannon when he is needed the most?
Speaking of funny, watch the latest JibJab.Com video on Bush and laugh.
Bush Hopes 2006 Will Be Better Than 2005
The end of the year budget battle in Congress was an important lesson in democracy that any American with a TV and C-SPAN and basic cable could watch, as lawmakers fought to go home for the holidays with red meat for the folks back home - something we objectively refer to around here as pork.
Only the Democrats were on the offensive for a change and actually managed to make a difference, with Tom Delay on the legal ropes and the president mired in scandal and weakened by plummeting poll numbers.
The Senate passed a $60 billion bill early Friday that would extend expiring tax cuts and prevent roughly 14 million families from paying higher taxes through the alternative minimum tax. It drew a presidential veto threat for raising taxes on oil companies, the Associated Press reported, but we doubt he will do it and potentially shut down the government.
Much of the bill, passed 64-33 after midnight in the Senate chamber, preserves tax cuts approved in previous years that are set to expire unless lawmakers keep them alive. The president has been trying to make them permanent.
Instead, the Democrats pushed through an elimination of a $4.3 billion tax incentive for the largest oil companies, which executives testified before the Senate last week that they didn't need or want anyway. They accomplished this legislative stroke of statecraft by changing the accounting methods for crude. That provision drew a veto threat from the White House and upset some Western Republicans, who deemed it an unfair and political attack on the energy industry, according to the AP.
The Democratic minority leadership kept the Republicans busy all day voting down amendments trying to change the priorities in Washington - away from tax cuts for millionaires and tax incentives for oil companies, rather than cuts in help for Katrina victims, school lunches and Medicare.
We'll have more on this later Friday, but for now, here's the first story online about it:
Democrats Push Senate to Repeal $5 Billion in Oil Tax Breaks
Meawhile in the House, in the mad rush for the politicians to get home for the holidays with good news for voters, nearly two dozen renegade Republicans teamed up with the Democrats to shoot down a giant health and education spending bill for the coming year - dealing an unusual defeat to a GOP leadership that has been struggling to keep control of the budget. It sends the Republicans home instead looking like spendthrifts on one hand and willing to raise taxes on the other - much fodder for the 2006 Congressional races.
By 224 to 209, the House rejected the $142.5 billion appropriations bill, which contained spending cuts in many health care and education programs that are strongly supported by moderate Republicans and by Democrats. Many rank-and-file lawmakers were unhappy with the bill as well because it did not contain special programs and projects (pork) they had sought for their congressional districts.
Stunned Republican leaders then scrambled to avert a second setback on fiscal policy by rounding up votes for a much broader budget bill for the next five years that would target many programs for the poor, college lenders and farmers. To win over moderates, GOP leaders had to scale back their projected savings in food stamps, school lunch subsidies and Medicaid.
By late evening, the omnibus budget plan that was supposed to save $54 billion over five years offered less than $50 billion in savings - compared with $35 billion of reductions previously approved by the Senate.
Spending Bill Fails Amid Stunning GOP Discord
The House was still voting after midnight, so there will be more debate on Friday and more to talk about here before they can head home to be off until next year. Don't you wish you had such a long vacation every year? With all their perks?
A tractor-trailer rig driven by Jeremy Smith, 27, of Locust Fork, Ala., collided with a pickup truck near Pensacola, Fla., when it pulled into his path. He escaped injury, according to the Pensacola News Journal.
Three people were transported to area hospitals Sunday evening after a two-truck accident involving a tractor-trailer rig in North Escambia County.
A pickup driven by Thomas W. Neal, 74, of Walnut Hill was stopped at the intersection of County Road 95A and State Road 97 near the Molino Crossroads about 5:45 p.m., the Florida Highway Patrol said.
Molino residents Steve Heathcock, 51, and Voncile Neal, 67, were passengers in Neal's vehicle.
A tractor-trailer rig driven by Jeremy Smith, 27, of Locust Fork, Ala., was traveling south on 95A when Neal pulled into his path, the FHP's accident report stated. The front of Smith's semi collided with the driver-side door of Neal's truck.
Neal was transported to Baptist Hospital by LifeFlight with critical injuries, a hospital spokesperson said. His passengers were taken to West Florida Hospital and were listed in fair condition.
Smith was not injured in the collision.
Lead suicide highjacker Mohamed Atta was protected from official scrutiny and allowed into the United States as part of an officially-protected cocaine and heroin trafficking network with ties to top GOP officials, including Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and former Attorney General Katherine Harris, according to this report from the Mad Cow Morning News. It was this fact, the online publication claims, and not the "terrible lapses" of "weak on terror" Clinton administration officials cited by Republican Congressman Curt Weldon - which shielded him from being apprehended before the 9/11 attack.
While here at The Locust Fork News and Journal have no way of independently verifying the claims made in this story, it would not surprise us one bit - based on our own previous experience with similar stories about the involvement of Republican Gov. Guy Hunt, his son and former press secretary with cocaine dealers and smugglers in Alabama.
A strong odor of sulphur hung over parts of Meraux and Chalmette Monday just after noon when sulphur dioxide was burned off from the Murphy Oil refinery, a company spokesman said. Several residents complained about feeling nauseous, but no evacuations were ordered by the St. Bernard Fire Department, according to this report from WWLTV Channel 4 in New Orleans.
Murphy spokesman Carl Zornes said one of two sulfur units went down, causing sulfur dioxide to be burned off through the refinery's flare system. The unit was back in operation in about two hours, Zornes said, and the cause of the problem is under investigation. The refinery remained open.
CNN reported the story early in the day but never returned to it and never provided a link on its Web site.
Back in May, another chemical release led to the evacuation of Thibodaux, La., after chlorine escaped from a tank at the city's water plant, authorities said at the time. Officials forced the people in a nearly 30-square-block area of the city to leave.
Here's the original story from The Daily Comet, the local NYT-owned newspaper.
Much of downtown Thibodaux was evacuated after chlorine escaped from a tank at the city's water plant, authorities said. Officials forced the people in a nearly 30-square-block area of the city to leave.
According to the original TV news report from WWL Ch. 4 in New Orleans indicated that members of the Lafourche Parish Rapid Assessment Team contained a chlorine leak at the Thibodaux municipal water plant.
|
|