August 08, 2007
Our Senior U.S. Senator, Richard Shelby, is Alabama’s most premier and powerful politician. Shelby has enjoyed a stellar political career and taken a textbook path to stardom. He served eight years in the Alabama State Senate and eight more years as a U.S. Congressman. In 1986 Shelby took a leap of faith as a democratic congressman from Tuscaloosa and narrowly defeated the republican incumbent, Jeremiah Denton. He coasted to reelection in 1992 as a Democrat. In 1993, in perfect timing he switched to the Republican Party just in time to reap the rewards of being in the majority party in the Senate when the GOP took control of Congress.
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August 01, 2007
The dynamics of the 2008 Presidential Race have changed dramatically over the past six months due to the avalanche of large and more populous states changing their presidential preference primaries to February 5th. This historic altering means that in about six months from now you will probably know who the Republican and Democratic nominees will be for the November 2008 Presidential Election.
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July 25, 2007
The avalanche of states moving their presidential primary to February 5th next year has made a tremendous impact on the 2008 Presidential Race. This cavalcade, which includes Alabama, will change the dynamics dramatically. It has diminished the role that New Hampshire and Iowa have traditionally played as early states in the nominating process, making them somewhat irrelevant.
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July 18, 2007
It seems like the saying, “thank God for Mississippi,” has been around most of my life. This adage referred to our perennial status on most economic barometers and rankings as 49th but Mississippi was always last or 50th. We have progressed significantly economically over the past decade. Most charts put us around 40th. We are no longer next to the bottom and are likely in the middle of the pack in comparison to our sister southern states.
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July 11, 2007
As the year 2007 began the biggest story brewing was the unraveling and evolution of the gigantic junior college system corruption saga. It is still evolving and the mounting evidence portends that it is a tempest in a teapot ready to explode. The obvious pilfering and abuse are brazen. It is astonishing to comprehend the widespread cavalier scandalous behavior in this day and time. A day seldom passes when there is not another revelation of nepotism, waste, malfeasance and reckless spending of taxpayers’ money.
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July 04, 2007
Otto Whittaker wrote the following essay, “I am the Nation,” in 1955 as a public relations advertisement for the Norfolk and Western Railway. The message found in Mr. Whittaker’s essay is still appropriate for this Independence Day so I have chosen to include it below in lieu of my weekly political column.
June 27, 2007
As we approach mid-year 2007 allow me to offer to you a glimpse of events and happenings in Alabama politics in potpourri fashion.
A lot has happened, the continuing unraveling of the Jr. College System corruption, the standoff in the Alabama Senate, the Presidential candidates’ forays into the State. However, the biggest story would have to be a positive one. Our landing the German steel plant, ThyssenKrupp, to the Mobile area is the biggest and best news.
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June 20, 2007
The presidency of George W. Bush will be viewed by history in two different lights. His Iraq blunder has devastated our nation. Besides the thousands of American lives lost, our respect and admiration has been destroyed worldwide, and he has incurred the largest financial deficit in our lifetimes with his hapless invasion. It will take years, maybe decades, to recover from the Bush Iraq debacle. Historians will be no kinder to Bush than the 72% of Americans who abysmally disapprove of his policy.
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June 13, 2007
The Alabama Constitution calls for the Legislature to meet every year. The session is to last for 105 days, about three and a half months. It commences the first Tuesday in February of each year, except in the first year of the quadrennium when it meets later. An organizational session precedes the regular session that year. It occurs in January and it is important because the President Pro Tem of the Senate and other leadership positions are selected and the rules are set for the four years ahead.
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May 23, 2007
There is an old saying that when spring is in the air a young man’s interest turns to love, but in Alabama politics a good many people’s interests turn to politics. It is like a sport in Alabama to start speculating on and handicapping the potential candidates for the next Governor’s race. Although it is almost four years away, the guessing has begun.