Congrats to Al Gore

The winner of the popular vote in 2000 is not only an Academy Award winner, but is also now the recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

The prize is shared with the UN's climate change panel for spreading awareness of man-made climate change.

If only the person with the most votes had actually become president in 2000.....

'08 Democratic presidential preview

If you're wondering about the candidates on the Democratic presidential candidates and what they stand for, I've got a brief preview of the main ones (at least the ones who have participated in debates.)

It's at the Capital City Free Press. Click here to read it.

An oil deal, in Iraq, with no national oil law, during a war....surely you jest!

Iraq + War + Oil + Texas oil company + "W" fundraiser = "war for oil" / (Greenspan comments + JC Watts comments)

Well there's a quaint little equation. Uh oh, it must be one of those conspiracy theories, huh?

Here's a headline from CBS News: "Texas Co. Signs Iraq Oil Deal With Kurds" and directly underneath it: "With No National Iraq Oil Law Passed, Kurdistan Region Makes Its Own Rules."

Hunt Oil Company, from Texas, is hunting for Oil in Iraq's Kurdish region, despite the fact that most "major international companies have sat on the sidelines, not only for security reasons but because of the absence of legislation governing the industry and offering protection for investments."

Oh, and look at this paragraph:

"Hunt, who is also on the board of Halliburton, has been a key fundraiser
for President George W. Bush, who named him to the President's Foreign
Intelligence Advisory Board."

But what's been going on with the national oil law in Iraq? Oh, this paragraph explains it:

"A draft oil law for all of Iraq has been bogged down for months, in part
because of disputes over who will control the proceeds."

So what does the central government in Baghdad think of this oil exploration? Let's see:

"In August, however, the Kurdish self-governing region in northern Iraq
enacted its own law governing foreign oil investments. The move angered the
central government in Baghdad, but the Kurds are determined to push ahead with
oil exploration."

Angry? Iraq's central government? Say it ain't so.

Of course, they could all just take another month off work, I suppose.

Look who just jumped in the race for president...

He's back.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
If you've been wanting to return to the theocracy that we never had, you now have a candidate to vote for:

Alan Keyes is running for president.

What? I thought the whole "War for Oil" thing was supposed to be a left-wing talking point?

So you still think that the whole "War for Oil" is some left-wing slogan or just some anti-war rhetoric? You think it's a talking point of moveon.org or alternet?

Well let's see what conservative Republican J.C. Watts thinks. He often appears as the conservative voice on various news shows, and he just happened to be on CNN's "The Situation Room" yesterday, September 17, 2007.

They were discussing former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan's new book, in which Greenspan says, "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil."

And what did J.C. Watts have to say about that statement? This:

"Well, and I read today where the chairman was trying to explain himself,
and he said that he said to the White House that this would affect the global
economy because the price of oil obviously would go up, and people at home would
be paying $5, $6 a gallon for fuel, and, Wolf, I think we're kidding ourselves
and naive to think that oil didn't have, didn't play a role in it. I don't think
the President made a decision to say we're going to go fight for oil, but I
think, you know, that was kind of a subtext or kind of something that you had to
factor into it because of what it would do to the world economy."

So can other conservatives finally join with Mr. Watts and admit what Greenspan says "everyone knows"? Please?
----------------------------------

Also, I found the link at NewsBusters.org (click here), a site that claims to be "exposing and combating liberal media bias." What's ironic about them talking about this is that instead of being shocked that these conservatives were basically saying that the Iraq war has been about oil, the headline is "CNN's Begala: Michael Moore & MoveOn 'In the Center,' Bush 'Betrayal'."

They seem more concerned that someone would actually say that Micheal Moore and Moveon.org were in the center, rather than far-left, on this issue, than the fact that conservatives were basically backing up what the "far left" (or "center") has been saying.

If you don't like the facts, just change them. Isn't that right, Mr. President?

FactCheck.org has a new article on Bush's recent speech to the nation, in which he tried to convince us all that the surge was working, and that Iraq was more stable.

Of course, cherry-picking intelligence seems to be the M.O. of the Bush Administration, so the fact that Mr. Bush "played loose with the facts" should come as no surprise.

Click here to read the FactCheck.org article, "Operation Iraqi Gloss-Over."

If you haven't seen this, you should.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be0uIjz68KA

Post-election coverage at the Capital City Free Press

With the election being over, Editor and Publisher Joseph Patton and I combined our post-election coverage into a new rendition of "All over but the shoutin'" - 2007 municipal edition.

Click here for the article.

The bathroom antics of Sen. Larry Craig (R- Ida'HO')

Well looky what we've got here - another "family-values" Republican caught in a men's bathroom scandal.

Dubbed by the Stephanie Miller Show as "Senator Tappy McWide-Stance," Craig was caught in a police operation in an airport bathroom. Some say it's a case of "he said / he said."

Craig says that he is a "wide" guy and has a "wide stance," justifying why his foot touched the undercover police officer's foot in the next stall. And he claims the reason his hand was under the wall of the stall was because there was a piece of (imaginary) paper on the floor.

Now, what some seem to be overlooking is this: when your pants are down, how wide can your stance possibly be? Hhhmmmmm..............

Capital City Free Press mentioned on WSFA.com

Here's a link to a story on WSFA.com about election endorsements: http://www.wsfa.com/Global/story.asp?S=6976052&nav=menu33_3_6

The Capital City Free Press is mentioned when they are talking about endorsements for Mayor Bobby Bright.

"Two newspapers also endorsed Bright, The Montgomery Independent and the Capital City Free Press. "

Limbaugh makes Darfur into a race issue....

Knowing that Rush Limbaugh says stupid things should make this no surprise at all.

While talking to a caller, he actually said that Democrats want to leave Iraq and get into Darfur because Darfur's population is black.

Nothing about genocide. Nothing about the fact that Iraq was mostly stable, you know, before we invaded. Oh, but there's black people there, and black people are known to vote for Democrats, right? Huh? Strange that people in Darfur can't vote in American elections, huh?

Oh, but don't let logic or facts get in the way of your opinion, Rush. Wouldn't want to mess up your fantasy world.

You can read the exchange between Limbaugh and his indoctrinated caller here.

Dick Cheney says going into Iraq would be a quagmire....

This is just amazing.

Dick Cheney gave an interview with the American Interprise Institute on April 15, 1994, defending the US decision not to go into Baghdad in 1991 during the first Gulf War.

Here is what he had to say [I added the bold parts]:

"Because if we'd gone to Baghdad we would have been all alone. There
wouldn't have been anybody else with us. There would have been a U.S. occupation of Iraq. None of the Arab forces that were willing to fight with us in Kuwait were willing to invade Iraq.

"Once you got to Iraq and took it over, took down Saddam Hussein's
government, then what are you going to put in its place?

"That's a very volatile part of the world, and if you take down the central
government of Iraq, you could very easily end up seeing pieces of Iraq fly off:
part of it, the Syrians would like to have to the west, part of it - eastern
Iraq - the Iranians would like to claim, they fought over it for eight years.

"In the north you've got the Kurds, and if the Kurds spin loose and join
with the Kurds in Turkey, then you threaten the territorial integrity of
Turkey.

"It's a quagmire if you go that far and try to take over Iraq.

"The other thing was casualties. Everyone was impressed with the fact we
were able to do our job with as few casualties as we had. But for the 146
Americans killed in action, and for their families - it wasn't a cheap war.

"And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on
to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was
how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?

"Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right.”

So what happened to this guy? He became Vice President and completely....oh, what's the word?.....flip-flopped on Iraq. Everything that is happening in Iraq - that's wrong - was predicted by the man himself in 1994.

If only someone told the Vice President that he was right the first time.

Oh, by the way, here is a link to the YouTube video of the Cheney interview, in case you have your doubts, and here is a link to the extremely conservative Newsmax.com article that talks about it.

Interesting quote from a convicted war criminal

Hermann Goering, a Nazi who was convicted of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity, said something privately to Gustave Gilbert, a psychologist and German-speaking intelligence officer. The quote was published in the book Nuremberg Diary, and even though it was said on April 18, 1946, it is very relevant to what is currently occurring in this country.

Here is the exchange between Goering and Gilbert:

Goering: "Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."

Gilbert: "There is one difference. In a democracy the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."

Goering: "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

Are Montgomerians getting what we pay for?

New article for August - "Is the City of Montgomery getting what it pays for?" - now up at the Capital City Free Press.

The article covers subjects such as crime, police recruitment, taxes and education, and includes a breakdown of Montgomery's 10% sales tax rate, as explained to me in an email from County Commissioner Todd Strange soon after the 2006 election. (That election, if you remember, also included an amendment to raise property taxes.)

Excerpt:

"Mayor Bright recently said that murder was on the decline, and cited the
numbers from homicide statistics going back to 1977 to prove his point. However,
murder is not the only crime that concerns citizens of Montgomery. "

The race for mayor has begun in Montgomery

The four candidates vying for the opportunity to be Montgomery's newest mayor participated in a mayoral forum on July 24. Sponsored by the East Montgomery Neighborhood Alliance and held at Heritage Baptist Church in front of a standing-room only crowd, Scott Simmons, William Boyd, incumbent Mayor Bobby Bright and Jonathan Dow talked about their platforms and took questions from the audience.

I was in attendance and my reporting on the event can be found at the Capital City Free Press. Here is the link.

Further proof that ignorance isn't exclusively Southern....

Look at this headline from Yahoo! Sports:

"Fiesta Bowl star Ian Johnson says he's hired wedding security because of racist threats."

Boise State running back Ian Johnson, who is black, proposed to his girlfriend Chrissy Popadics, who is white, and now they have hired security for their wedding because they've been receiving phone calls, letters and personal threats by some backwoods, racist pieces of sh*t.

It's a shame that there are still people in this world who are so fixated on skin color. Cue the "Deliverance" music.

Is this even a real poll question?

WSFA currently has a poll on their web site.

The question they are asking is: "To date there have been 22 murders in the Capital City this year. Do you think the media is blowing the crime problem in Montgomery out of proportion?"

And your answer choices are:

1. Yes, the reports are out of proportion
2. No, the reports are not out of proportion
3. Neutral

So, let me get this straight - a medium is asking whether the media is blowing a crime problem out of proportion.....by what? - reporting the news!?!?!?

Blaming the media for Montgomery's crime problem is kind of like blaming The Weather Channel for Hurricane Katrina.

At least, as of 8:54 am today, 87% of respondents have voted "No."

Is justice blind....or blind, deaf and dumb?

"Scooter" was never really the wisest nickname for someone who was headed for prison, but now, because of an unpopular decision by an unpopular president, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, formerly an employee of Vice President Darth Vader...I mean Dick Cheney's office, will see no jail time.

That's right. Bush has continued to live up to the cronyism allegations that have been status quo in his administration by commuting Scooter's prison sentence. He wouldn't give an official 'pardon,' so Scooter still has to pay the fines, but when a person convicted of obstructing justice spends less time in jail that Paris Hilton, there's a problem.

And of course, like clockwork, I've already heard the name "Marc Rich" come up - the unpopular pardon that was given by Bill Clinton. I guess the difference is that I haven't heard any prominent democrats defend the Marc Rich pardon, while Republican presidential candidates (Rudy Giuliani) and potential presidential candidates (Fred Thompson) have defended what Bush did for Scooter. Even Paul Begala, a former Clinton advisor, said that Clinton was wrong in giving Marc Rich a pardon.

And this is just another example to add to the list - which already includes Alberto Gonzales and the U.S. attorney firing scandal - that shows this president putting politics and cronyism above justice and competence.

The outrage over the Scooter situation is growing, and the internet is helping. Presidential candidate (and current Senator) Joe Biden has put a picture of Scooter on his campaign web site with the text, "No one's above the law. Call the White House. 202-456-1414."

Someone called in The Stephanie Miller Show this morning saying that the White House main switchboard was either jammed or shut off because of the influx of phone calls. Many bloggers, however, have gotten phone numbers from the White House Phone Directory, and posted multiple numbers online, in case the main number is still jammed. CorrenteWire.com has a list of numbers if you need them.

So what's the lesson here? Cronyism, money and power can make you above the law....and apparently being Vice President can also, if you actually disregard the Constitution by claiming that your office is not part of the Executive Branch.

Where is bin Laden, you ask?

The July issue of the Capital City Free Press is online, and my new column is titled, "Where is Osama bin Laden."

The conservative organization Judial Watch filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act, if you were wondering) to get some FBI documents. Those documents state that a plane flew out of the U.S. on 9/19/01, just a few days after 9/11, and might possibly have been chartered by bin Laden himself.

And another interesting fact is that, according to the information from the FBI's most-wanted list, bin Laden is not wanted for anything having to do with 9/11......why is that?

You can read the article here.

There's irony in the Axis of Evil, and by 'Axis of Evil', I mean O'Reilly, Coulter and Fox "News"

Well, here's some quick irony for the day.

This is from a transcript of the Bill O'Reilly interview with Ann Coulter on Fox "News" The O'Reilly Factor on 6/28/07.

Irony #1: How many times has O'Reilly claimed that he doesn't participate in personal attacks? Usually, it's just before he calls someone esle a "bomb-thrower" or some such nonsense. Anyway, here's Bil-O talking about Al Franken:

"Right. They called in advance. We're going to do this because we're
getting a little — look, it's just like me and Stuart Smalley, Franken, that idiot. I played right into his hands when he had his book
out. You know, they want to get in a fight with you."

So Bil-O calls Franked an idiot, but is not a "bomb-thrower."

Irony #2: Ann's adam's apple gets mentioned often, and then she had to go and say this:

"...But still I am more of a man than any liberal is. So you know, I don't
care."

There's just something funny about a woman sporting a huge adam's apple saying she's more of a man than someone.