The people's voice of reason
The people's voice of reason
Sorted by date Results 51 - 75 of 122
Just as the Republocrats $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 the Hubbard/Riley full court press) on a GENERAL election ballot, we now have the next iteration of an Amendment One boondoggle before us on the March 3rd primary. Pray we have better “2020” vision on why this is placed on primary ballots looking in the rear view mirror of...
Two Lee county officials were bound by law and contract documents to procure bid proposals before spending taxpayer money. Records show one manager was not protected for her actions; the other was protected and lauded for his admitted wrongdoing. This familiar “tale of two bureaucrats” in a county believing in Mike Hubbard is as follows… One county manager was placed on administrative leave with pay, brought before a County Commission executive session, tendered a resignation and received sever...
Most Gazette readers require no reminder of the ‘unplanned’ (in this world) birth we venerate each Christmas. Some may recall a similarly titled 2015 Christmas column years ago. After accusation of over-emphasis upon the ‘tax-terror kings’ part of the story - i.e., the cruel tax Caesar Augustus levied coercing Mary and Joseph’s travail to Bethlehem -- I’ll focus on the righteous example of this brave union in God’s love who brought Jesus into this world some two thousand years ago. I nonetheless...
This month is the ten year anniversary of submitting my first Alabama Gazette column. It addressed eminent domain abuse; the infamous Kelo decision in the US Supreme Court and more specifically making a case for reparations to those like Mr. Williams (oft black landowners with insurmountable impediments to defend themselves in corrupt courts) who suffered wrongful takings in Alabama. Reflecting back it has been a ‘roller-coaster’ of highs/lows at our federal, local and State governments thi...
Recent ‘rocky’ times at Auburn University display a cult horror picture show on how ‘warped’ private interests extract wealth from students and taxpayers. No surprise to frequent readers of this column how AU gave rise to felon Mike Hubbard, who perfected ‘The Art of the Steal’ of using governments for personal gain in Alabama. Bobby Lowder mentored Felon Hubbard in the dark arts when Hubbard began in AU Athletics having just ‘grifted’ in from the Georgia jock adulation scene. The ‘plot sicke...
There, I've said it. Perhaps I’m a little giddy penning my first column in retirement. More likely as the so-called ‘Cold Civil War’ gets hotter, I recall those of Antonin Scalia’s Spirit, intellect and understanding on issues of supremacy, sovereignty, power and authority. Witnessing Justice Scalia’s courage to be a more explicit fool for Christ helps, given his station and “originalist” reasoning. Long time, regular readers of my column will not find this opening surprising. A decade ago, w...
I painfully witnessed ‘unonimous’ [sic] installation of Leath as AU’s 19th President at the University Ballroom March 20th 2017; it was a sound forecast he would “crash and burn” if/when sabotaging the gains of President Gogue’s stewardship. AU’s Board of Trustees [BoT] unanimously selected Steven ‘Crash’ Leath after a six-month national ‘search’ which provided little on how it was conducted. Eerily similar to our Lee County Commission Chair who correctly misspoke affirming something p...
Dixie lost a great patriot of Southern heritage and longtime champion of our Southern way of life. Many in the Sons of Confederate Veterans [SCV] Alabama Division and small government activists at large likened it to losing a modern Stonewall Jackson, similarly difficult to replace as the 1863 General. William George “Bill” Anthony, a Kentucky boy whose roots harken back to the Commonwealth of Virginia and shores of Greece, has crossed over the river, no longer among the living on the attenuatin...
Another horrific crash at this infamous “T” of US 280 & AL 147 has many decent folks angry again and our corrupt county commissioners running for cover. It broke my heart to once again see a medical helicopter taking off from the intersection to rush another terribly injured member of the Auburn Family to the trauma centers in Columbus. The course of this deadly result was set over two decades ago. Long before land (used as a rest area until widening) was wisely acquired by more economically eff...
Kudos to Sen. Cam Ward [R-Alabaster] head of the Senate Judiciary Committee blocking the ethics bill proposed by Marsh and Albritton. Reported dead in Ward’s committee by Bill Britt [APR 4/18/19] who wrote, “However, since then, the pair have continued to lobby Republican caucus members to climb on board with the measure. Albritton is even suggesting that he and Marsh go around the Judiciary Committee to get the bill to the Senate floor” to circumvent the usual process. Amazing to watch polit...
Gov. Ivey and our Goat Hill legislators ‘passed the gas’ tax to fuel a more over-built/unsustainable road system in Alabama. Pray for our posterity and those of limited means weathering the next contraction after our current bubble pops. No doubt our low class, high end political prostitutes will prosper as usual. Montgomery has not generated such loud, foul flatulence since all the Republocrat rhetoric following the 14% special election turnout result (49 days before a general election) to rob...
As designed, the $80,000 rigged special election on February 19 tax votes in Lee County proffered low (3.6%) turnout results similar to convicted felon Hubbard’s $3 million wasted on our 2012 Statewide special election sham result (14% turnout 49 days before a general election) to rob the ETF back in 2012 and 4.5% turnout to get the last Lee County sales tax to pass after failing twice on a general election. I’m confident most of my readers are familiar with Mark 8:36-38 (KJV) scripture the tit...
“I don't like the looks of it,' said the King: 'however, it may kiss my hand, if it likes.' 'I'd rather not,' the Cat remarked.” The King and the Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Forgive the length of my last column, much to write about in retrospect and on the continuing malice ‘public servant’ Hubbard put in place and orchestrates in our State. First, many thanks for all the comments - as usual ‘nastygrams’ tend to be more entertaining than the kudos. Second, I had absolutel...
“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." Alice and The Cheshire Cat, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. During this Thanksgiving/Christmas I donned the best mask I could muster to hide thoughts on this 20th Anniversary of being made homeless by our federal government in symphony with some of our most corrupt State politburo members. The M-14 episode twenty years ago provided more evidence of the calculated m...
Eminent Domain is defined as the power of government to condemn private property for public use—provided that “just compensation” is provided to the owners as payment for suitable and fair replacements. In our nation’s history, seizures were often done for needed public projects. Compensation normally covered more than a property’s market value; it also had to include all other expenses suffered by the owners. An owner’s losses must be fully compensated and restored before a settlement can be co...
Straight-ticket voting enables a voter to cast all their votes for one party with a single mark at the top of the ballot. This duopoly party enhancing practice finally died in most States. Little surprise it remains in uncompetitive/ballot access blocked Alabama which will be among the last of seven States still suffering this practice when Texas (increasingly more a ‘battleground’ State) abolishes it for the 2020 election cycle. Texas will become the 15th State since 1994 to end this scourge, r...
How do you make $14 million as the first Gig City in Alabama? Spend about $60 million... Some readers may recall last November's piece entitled, "Giggin' for Dollars in Opelika: Scent of a Birmingham Sewer?" Few columns have generated more nastygrams from politburo types and other lotharios of leviathan in Alabama. The Hubbard 'spin machine' is in overdrive with the 'fire sale' of Fuller's Folly as one of our most notable local corruption fighters dubbed the endeavour. Inveigled as a tremendous...
Empty screen before me once again, hands at the keyboard [see Mark 9:43-47 below] contemplating what to address for this month’s column... • The ray of hope for corrupt politicians upon reversal of Felon Hubbard’s 5th count of the twelve jury convictions? • The adulation of McCain? Boycott gubernatorial race voting to reduce signature requirements in our ballot access restricted State? • The Anita Hill DC flashback? • Explain the deleterious history of Nazis to those who are too blind/ignor...
Prof. Thornton's recent book, The Skyscraper Curse offers sound perspective on booms and busts in our economy making business cycle theory accessible to the current, 21st-century audience. Long time readers will appreciate how this higher stationed colleague (I'm only an Instructor) is a kindred Spirit in efforts to educate up and coming generations. Seems most of the math/quant jocks on Wall Street, at the Fed, etc. barely remember the 2008 Crash and what triggered it, much less the 1987 Crash...
The primary runoff is in the record books with over 87% percent of registered voters not participating in party elections they funded, some saying in fear of making an error for actual or accused ‘crossover voting.’ This may be the duopoly’s desired result fueling the irony of claiming to want increased voter participation at the same enacting more impediments toward this end. The obvious answer is to prohibit taxpayers from paying for these party politics. If a party wants to use our publi...
Bill Britt (4/18/18 Alabama Political Reporter) stated current and former BCA members thought the board’s vote to demand Canary’s resignation was good news for the State’s future and those close to the process were angry Chairman Hand wanted to keep Canary until the fall. APR’s sources said this was an attempt for the BCA to further influence election outcomes. The plan was to control campaign donations and win enough races to stage a comeback. Hand seemed willing to risk everything protect...
Recent political Kabuki theatre has some contemplating Gov. Ivey’s dating preferences and Judge Sue Bell Cobb’s campaign hiring practices. How candidates deal with these may be revealing. I also wonder why Cobb did not quickly and simply apologize, then remove the convicted sex offender from her campaign team. I’m similarly at a loss on the dearth of political discussion on Ivey’s inaction w.r.t. the Alabama PACT program during our last economic meltdown and forecasts of her abilities to addr...
Much ink has been spilled these past months to highlight outrageous observed results from our Alabama law enabling sheriffs to transfer ‘inmate food provision’ monies in their favour. These monies are deposited into county Sheriff ‘personal’ accounts, not into any specific government account(s). Most noteworthy is Etowah County Sheriff Todd Entrekin’s four-bedroom house with an in-ground pool and canal access in Orange Beach for $740,000; one of several properties (total assessed value of...
New Orleans Mayor (wannabe actor) Mitch Landrieu has made many appearances recently from 60 Minutes to the usual 'talking head' TV morning circuit displaying removed statues stashed in secret locations and extoling his recent book entitled: In the Shadow of Statues: A White Southerner Confronts History. The removals were prompted by efforts to rebuild the city after devastating hurricanes. I'm not foolish enough to think champions of leviathan like Messrs. Christie, Landrieu, et al will ever...
Every year another batch of young souls descend upon Auburn University embarking upon a four year (oft a five or six year) mission to better themselves in hopes of one day being heralded as “an Auburn man.” Better still, they might someday achieve the status recently bestowed upon Jay Jacobs as being “an Auburn man through and through.” They’re told to believe being an Auburn man is encapsulated by the Auburn Creed, penned nearly seventy-five years ago by *George Petrie. Some may recall the Alab...