The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
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Alabama's senior legislators concluded their three-day session on October 22, in the old House of Representatives Chamber in the Alabama Capitol building. During their session they studied 58 resolutions submitted by the various members and selected 10 to submit to the Governor and the Legislature for their consideration and possible action. The ten resolutions that had a direct impact on the State's senior population, in order of popularity, were: Legislation to provide funding formobile...
Just as the Republicans $1.2 billion Amendment One (2003) proposal of significant increases for individual income tax payers, the sales tax, property tax, cigarette tax, corporate income tax, etc. FAILED 2 to 1 (defeating ‘Spender of House’ Mike Hubbard’s full court press) on a GENERAL election ballot... the FIRST time this recently passed Lee County sales tax increase was voted upon it also met sound defeat of over 2 to 1. The O/A News reported 68.5% against with 13,000 votes cast on the Novemb...
When Alabama's senior legislature begins its three-day session on October 20, it will have the unique opportunity to convene in the old House of Representatives Chamber in the Alabama Capitol building. Normally the ASHL meets in the House Chamber located in the State Office Building, but that venue is temporarily closed. For some of the delegates this will be like a homecoming, since a good many of them had close relationships of a variety of sorts with this venue. For you humble scribe, it...
Fifty years prior to the War of 1812, our so-called “French & Indian War” settled the trade dispute between New France and New England in North America where the European ebb and flow of empire simply had more territory in the mix. Following their newly established trade dominance in the region, England slowly increased mercantilist policies to favour specific business interests over promoting competition and the general welfare of her subjects. The stage for our First War for Independence was...
Speaking of the U.S. as being a “Nation of Laws,” is good, so long as these laws are designed for our benefit, and we know them and that we fully understand them; such is the case with the fledgling Elder Abuse Law. Barely two years old, the new piece of legislation concerns itself with the fact that there are in the neighborhood of 700,000 Alabamians age 65 and older, whose wellbeing is a major concern of the Alabama Department of Senior Services. Also, many of those covered exist on a lim...
On the third Monday of most months a group of proud Americans meet at the Crump Center in Montgomery, stand and face our nation's banner and pledge their allegiance to a nation that many of them defended, but now can hardly recognize. “I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,” they proudly proclaim, “one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” And so begins the monthly AARP meeting. As youngsters they re...
With another $3 million spent on our 2014 primary run-offs last month, I remain a steadfast advocate of abolishing further waste of our taxpayer dollars on all primary elections. Political parties can pay for their own primaries which have evolved into another money mill for the Republocrat duopoly as they continue to ‘progress’ into increasingly extremist results. Until poor jurists like Myron Thompson are finally out of the mix or we elect more legislators who support Sen. Cam Newton’s legisla...
Upon receipt of very delayed primary election numbers from Clarion Hotel voting machines providing noticeably skewed tallies (two to one margins where other boxes in the district were close) Speaker Hubbard tweeted, “I am deeply grateful that the GOP voters of my district have put their faith in me once again.” Shortly thereafter, one of my most astute colleagues (James Hines from Mobile) sent me the following, “Are a majority of Republicans in Auburn really that stupid? ...or does Hubba...
As vast as the American English language is, we hardly need to supplement it with made up words, especially proper nouns that we have metamorphed into verbs. A typical example of this is a noun that we use and hear used as a verb almost every day: Xerox. Someone is always xeroxing something on the local copy machine. But if one were to stand on propriety, even the folks at Xerox couldn’t xerox anything, any more than the people at Canon could canon a copy, or the people at Hewlett Packard w...
I remain a steadfast advocate of ABOLISHING the waste of our taxpayer dollars on all primary elections and the further waste from any absurd run-offs which may follow. Time for parties to pay for their OWN primaries instead of using them as yet another money mill for the political duopoly reaffirmed by this corrupt political process every election cycle; obviously this will not change under our current politburo result. With all the discussion of campaign finance reform (oft used for incumbency...
This year's session of the Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature will be significant to your corespondent, and some others, for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that we will meet in the old House Chamber of the Alabama State Capitol building from October 20 through 23. It served as the State's fifth capitol, having been so designated in 1846; and was also the first capitol of the Confederacy for a short time, and it was at its steps that the historic Selma to Montgomery March...
Reducing the number of elder abuse cases in the River Region area, and declaring war on abusers will be a major focus on May 9, of the yet-to-be-named Montgomery area elder abuse prevention council when it meets at Cara Vita Independent Living Community. At this time Daryl Bailey, Montgomery County's new District Attorney, will talk to the group and discuss his plans to create a local elder justice task force. So, look out wrongdoers, the old folks are on the war path; sentiments that should...
Readers like me, a little ‘long in the tooth,’ will more easily make the connection to the Jimmy Stewart film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Considered controversial when released in 1939 yet so successful at the box office, this classic is oft cited as the film which made Stewart an undisputed movie star. Similar to another Frank Capra directed movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” [1946] it would take many years to be recognized and appreciated. In 1989 the Library of Congress added Mr. Smith to the US...
Americans are fortunate to have perhaps the richest language in existence. In many languages there's one way to articulate something, and that's it. The number of pseudonyms, homonyms, figures of speech, or whatever, are limited. There's one way to describe something, and that's it. In English, especially American English, there are a host of ways to say or describe something, which gives us the luxury of being extremely specific in our word usage. Yet we frequently assume that a word has only...
A group of private citizens from all corners of our State who remain concerned and continue to fight attempts to rewrite the Alabama Constitution may have found an ‘Achilles Heel’ in the current Legislature's plan for piecemeal revision. The goal of the document (misused at times) as the foundation of our State laws is to safeguard liberties for all Alabamians; citizens empower the State as the sovereign geopolitical unit in the republican form of government guaranteed in our Constitutions. The...
About forty years ago the Alabama Legislature passed an ethics reform act, established an Ethics Commission, and hired Prattville's Melvin Cooper as the State's first Ethics Commissioner. Over the years Mr. Cooper did a masterful job of infusing the ethics concept into State government, but politics, government service, and ethics don't always mix well. Fast forward to the present day, and we find Mr. Cooper, as a member of the Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature, writing a resolution for that...
As we enter into the 2014th year on the Christian calendar, we might want to give some thought to the Ten Commandments that emerged in that faith; and especially to the fifth one, the one that relates to honoring one's elders, more specifically “thy father and mother;” the reward for which tended to be a long life. But with the advent of Obamacare, long life is beginning to look more like a curse than a blessing. All of which is a roundabout way of broaching the subject of elder abuse, and the...
The Ft. Worth Texas AP recently reported a teen from an affluent family was only sentenced to probation for killing four people after he lost control of his father's company F-350 truck while speeding and driving drunk. This absurd 'punishment' in relation to his crime outraged the victims' families and left prosecutors disappointed. The 16-year-old offender was sentenced in juvenile court (for this very adult crime) to only 10 years of probation; he confessed to intoxication manslaughter in...
A tragic tale is unfolding in the U.S. that is painfully similar to Meredith Wilson's award winning stage musical and film adaptation: The Music Man. The fictional plot involves a con-man, Harold Hill, who presents himself to the citizens of an early-American Midwestern town as a band organizer. His intent is to sell musical instruments and uniforms to the local yokels with the promise that he will train their youngsters to become members of a high school marching band. As is always the case of...
My first Gazette Christmas column contemplated how many are still haunted by Miss Greer Garson’s voice in the opening narration of the 1958 animated version of “The Little Drummer Boy,” one of the few indelible memories which remain from Christmases of my youth. The King James Version of Luke 2:1 reads: “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.” Her narration continued with, “To disobey the Roman Emperor mea...
When the Lord selected Moses to lead his people He set down some rules. The first four dealt with ecclesiastical matters about who was the leader of the team, and the rules related thereto. He then got down to laying down temporal rules, and the first of which concerned honoring fathers and mothers. In Exodus 20:12, He told Moses that he and his followers should honor their fathers and their mothers; respect one’s elders. In short: When you’re young do what they say; when you’re older, take...
No column I’ve penned generated more mail than this July’s Sesquicentennial of the carnage at Gettysburg - one of the bloodiest (tangibly dysfunctional) results in reforming the federal government into the forced coalition observed today. Some mail offered words from another Ohioan, Edwin M. Stanton, which simply asserted the attempted February 1861 Force Bill allowed federal and/or State armies/troops to levy war (in clear violation of Art. 3, Sec. 3) upon another State(s) without approval of t...
The dust has settled on another session of the Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature, and a good bit was accomplished during its three-day session in Montgomery that ended Oct. 23. In the absence of House Speaker Melvin Cooper of Prattville, who is convalescing, Speaker Pro-tem Winston Griggs of Headland, presided over a vigorous three-day session. Ten of the 60 resolutions submitted for consideration by the legislators were selected for submission to the governor for his action; five of direct...
It's October once again, and time for the annual migration of old timers to Montgomery for the annual session of the Alabama Silver-Haired Legislature. On October 21, representatives of Alabama's 67 counties will converge on the Capitol City to study, comment on, and eventually approve resolutions, which will be passed along to the Governor for his study, and possibly on to the Legislature for consideration and, perhaps, enactment into law. Some of the more recent of which have been resolutions...
I’ve always been amazed and delighted at how many compatriots in the liberty movement volunteer (e.g., donate to cancer patients, food banks, housing, relief to disaster victims, etc.) via PRIVATE efforts like churches, HealthSouth, missions, Red Cross, et al in Alabama. Our State continues to place around the top five in the nation in this regard in spite of how increasingly more is taken from Alabamians at the local, State and federal level. Of course, the statistics are in real terms and w...
