Different Day, Same Shit.

More and more haters are climbing out of the woodpile for our esteemed president. Just ask Rudy Giuliani, would-be/could-be/shouldn't-be contender for the 2016 presidential elections, who recently expressed doubts over POTUS's love of country and all it stands for, for better or worse. Meanwhile...

- The Great State of Alabama officially apologizes for mistaking an elderly Indian man for a really skinny black guy. You know how these things are and, well...they all look alike sometimes. Fortunately for Sureshbhai Patel and family, the Indian government has brought to bear tremendous pressure upon the state on their behalf, resulting in the offending officer's swift dismissal and arrest. Meanwhile, the black community looks on in envy.

- Police shootings are kinda getting out of hand. You shouldn't be shot 16 times in your own bed for grabbing your wallet. At least the victim got a $3 million settlement out of it.

- As it turns out, the conservative PACs that benefited most from Citizens United have been lining their own pockets by fleecing their donors:

Let’s say Ronald Reagan is still alive and someone starts the Re-Elect Ronald Reagan To A Third Term PAC. Because people love Reagan, let’s suppose that conservative donors pony up $500,000 to help the organization. However, the donors don’t know that Ronald Reagan has nothing to do with the PAC. Furthermore, the real goal of the PAC is to line the pockets of its owner, not to help Ronald Reagan. So, the PAC sets up two vendors, both controlled by the PAC owner: Scam Vendor #1 and Scam Vendor #2. Let’s assume it costs $50,000 to raise the half million the PAC takes in. Then, the PAC sends $100,000 to the first company and $100,000 to the second company to “promote Ronald Reagan for President.” Each of the companies then goes out and spends $1,000 on fliers. The “independent expenditures” that show up on the FEC report? They’re at 40%. That’s because the FEC doesn’t require vendors to disclose how much of the money they receive is eaten up as overhead. The dubious net benefit that Ronald Reagan receives from an organization that raised $500,000 on his name? It’s $2,000. On the other hand, the net profit for the PAC owner is $448,000. Is that legal? The short answer is, “It’s a bit of a grey area, but, yes, it is legal.”

I'm not surprised. This is what happens when you open the floodgates to every grifter and con artist on the block.

- Dinesh D'Souza continues to fight for America's freedoms using the power of Twitter. Shine on, you crazy diamond.

And remember folks, a little rioting is healthy for the soul. Unless you happen to be black, then it's a mug's game for thugs or, as buyers of commemorative "I Am Darren Wilson" sweatshirts would say, "a good day for a good shoot."

Just about anyone who followed the Electronic Bingo Boogaloo series or read Legal Schnauzer's numerous posts on bingo and corruption already know one thing: that the pols in Alabama have been bought, paid for and giftwrapped by the Poarch Creek Indians and out-of-state gambling interests. So it didn't surprise me to read about state attorney general Luther Strange bringing the pain to Southern Star Entertainment in White Hall two years after receiving $100,000 in campaign contributions from the Poarch Creek Indian Tribe. Just as the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians expected Bob Riley to deliver on their $13 million investment, the Poarch Creek tribe wants Strange to deliver, as well.

I thought we were done with this, especially after current Governor Robert Bentley declared the era of the Electronic Bingo Boogaloo to be over and done with and certainly after Bob Riley rode off into the sunset on his Harley Davidson for parts unknown. But in the Great State of Alabama, nothing's ever really "done." This is the place where the same "quid pro quo" can land Democrat politicians in the poke until they grow too old (Don Siegelman) or too dead (Larry Langford) to be politically effective.

So the beat goes on. And it will go on until the financial and political costs of buying and selling key politicians to maintain virtual business monopolies becomes too painful to bear. I don't see that happening any time soon, sadly.

After working hard to pin a non-existent voter fraud scandal on the Democrats, which led to a wave of voter ID laws in several states, the GOP is now caught knee-deep with its pants down in a voter fraud scandal of epic proportions. Since then, the GOP has scuttled early voter registration in Colorado, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina and Virginia, all five being crucial swing states.

 And BTW, it looks like you won't be needing photo ID to vote in Pennsylvania this election:

In response to a recent state Supreme Court remand, unanimously voiding his previous August ruling, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson, a Republican, issued his new ruling [PDF] today on the state GOP's polling place Photo ID restriction law. o He enjoined just a part of the law, but it effectively strikes down the most onerous provision of it --- but only for this November's Presidential election. There were also a number of troubling caveats with what he left in place, rather than striking down the entire statute as the petitioners had sought.

As there has been some confused and confusing reporting on the ruling today, here is where --- barring any additional court challenges --- the law stands at this moment, just over one month from Election Day...

Voters will NOT have to show a state-issued Photo ID at the polling place in order to cast a normal ballot. Poll workers MAY ask voters for Photo ID, but they may NOT keep them from voting if they do not have one. Voters will NOT have to cast a provisional ballot if they do not have state-issued Photo ID. Hopefully that clarifies the key points of today's ruling, which is being misreported in some quarters. o Also of note, the court refused to enjoin the Commonwealth's tax-payer funded $5 million ad campaign, as written into the statute for the purposes of "educating" the public about the polling place Photo ID requirement (even though it no longer practicably applies for this election.)

Not what everyone wanted or expected, but it's a start.

Meanwhile, yours truly awaits tonight's presidential debate. You can check 2012 Election Central for the latest details, including live streaming. As much as it pains me to do so, I'll refrain from mocking him until he starts actually making gaffes on live television. :)

A few days ago, former Alabama governor Don Siegelman was re-sentenced on bribery charges and sent back to prison. Siegelman has to serve 78 months in addition to the time he's already served, plus spend the preceding 36 months on probation and pay restitution of approximately $50,000.

Siegelman's re-sentencing caps off the systemic destruction of the Alabama Democrat party, namely by removing many of the most powerful progressive politicians from the picture. The epic Electronic Bingo Boogaloo saga brushed away many of these figures, with the side benefit of securing the interests of Mississippi gambling concerns and those of the casinos located on Native American lands throughout the state. Today, the state of Alabama is, for all intents and purposes, a one-party state led solely by the Republicans.

This is also a hard-hitting lesson on why it's important for new administrations to clean house. Without Bush-era holdovers like Leura Canary and hubby Bill Canary, this entire investigation would have fallen apart before it grew legs. Mentioning Karl Rove's name in this mess will surely draw cries of conspiratorial thinking from conservatives, but his involvement in positioning former GOP governor Bob Riley's ascension is recorded, noted and undeniable:

According to the Alabama RNC source, Rove met regularly with operatives for the Riley campaign. The source’s allegations are confirmed in part by campaign disclosure forms, which show that Windom paid Canary as a consultant between 1999 and early 2001 and later received large contributions from Canary’s business partner, a pattern that is duplicated with Riley and Canary.

According to public records, Windom paid Canary’s firm $38,022 for consulting and polling between 1999 and 2001. At the same time, PACs associated with Canary’s business partner, Patrick McWhorter, donated heavily to Windom’s campaign, contributing $149,000 in 2001 and another $75,000 in 2002.

After Windom lost the primary, PACs associated with McWhorter and Canary switched their donations to Bob Riley, giving him $85,000 in the days immediately preceding the November election. After the election victory, Windom emerged immediately as a close confidant of Riley’s, advising him on the appointment of a new Insurance Commissioner, Walter A. Bell, and other matters. Canary also emerged as a key Riley advisor.

Public records also show that at the same time Canary was consulting for Bob Riley’s campaign, his lobbying group, the Business Council for Alabama, donated $678,000 to the campaign of his client. This was the third largest donation the campaign received, exceeded only by those from the Republican National State Elections Committee, for $2,475,000, and from Bob Riley himself, who contributed $1,070,000 to his own campaign.

Fellow blogger Legal Schnauzer has been on this case for quite a while, with a volume of detailed and in-depth blog posts to boot. You can follow the "Don Siegelman" tag and read to your heart's content, but here are a few posts that stand out IMHO:

Judge In Siegelman Case Displays Monumental Arrogance and a Seriously Faulty Memory

Siegelman Resentencing Serves as a Grim Reminder That His Prosecution Was Bogus from the Outset

Justice Department Lawyer Has Conflict of Interest In SCOTUS Review of Siegelman Convictions

The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, as amended, 15 U.S.C. §§ 78dd-1, et seq. ("FCPA"), was enacted for the purpose of making it unlawful for certain classes of persons and entities to make payments to foreign government officials to assist in obtaining or retaining business. Specifically, the anti-bribery provisions of the FCPA prohibit the willful use of the mails or any means of instrumentality of interstate commerce corruptly in furtherance of any offer, payment, promise to pay, or authorization of the payment of money or anything of value to any person, while knowing that all or a portion of such money or thing of value will be offered, given or promised, directly or indirectly, to a foreign official to influence the foreign official in his or her official capacity, induce the foreign official to do or omit to do an act in violation of his or her lawful duty, or to secure any improper advantage in order to assist in obtaining or retaining business for or with, or directing business to, any person.

Source: USDOJ

Previously, yours truly detailed Sheldon Adelson's role in the Romney campaign as a sugar-daddy in the shadows, feeding Romney's Super PACs plenty of vitamin M. Today, it seems Adelson has a few problems of his own.

A decade ago gambling magnate and leading Republican donor Sheldon Adelson looked at a desolate spit of land in Macau and imagined a glittering strip of casinos, hotels and malls.

Where competitors saw obstacles, including Macau’s hostility to outsiders and historic links to Chinese organized crime, Adelson envisaged a chance to make billions.

Adelson pushed his chips to the center of the table, keeping his nerve even as his company teetered on the brink of bankruptcy in late 2008.

The Macau bet paid off, propelling Adelson into the ranks of the mega-rich and underwriting his role as the largest Republican donor in the 2012 campaign, providing tens of millions of dollars to Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and other GOP causes.

Now, some of the methods Adelson used in Macau to save his company and help build a personal fortune estimated at $25 billion have come under expanding scrutiny by federal and Nevada investigators, according to people familiar with both inquiries.

Internal email and company documents, disclosed here for the first time, show that Adelson instructed a top executive to pay about $700,000 in legal fees to Leonel Alves, a Macau legislator whose firm was serving as an outside counsel to Las Vegas Sands.

The company’s general counsel and an outside law firm warned that the arrangement could violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It is unknown whether Adelson was aware of these warnings. The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act bars American companies from paying foreign officials to “affect or influence any act or decision” for business gain.

If this all sounds familiar to you, all you have to do is look back to the end of the first term of the Clinton administration, when "Chinagate" hit full stride. Conservatives attempted to use the charging and eventual conviction of businessman and Democrat donor Johnny Chung on fraud charges as proof positive of the Chinese getting their recently capitalist-yet-residually-commie meathooks into the 42nd president.

When a conservative high-roller is found in bed with Chinese politicians and businessmen with possible gang ties, you won't even hear crickets, just silence.

Federal investigators are looking at whether the payments violate the statute because of Alves’ government and political roles in Macau, people familiar with the inquiry said. Investigators were also said to be separately examining whether the company made any other payments to officials. An email by Alves to a senior company official, disclosed by The Wall Street Journal, quotes him as saying “someone high ranking in Beijing” had offered to resolve two vexing issues — a lawsuit by a Taiwanese businessman and Las Vegas Sands’ request for permission to sell luxury apartments in Macau. Another email from Alves said the problems could be solved for a payment of $300 million. There is no evidence the offer was accepted. Both issues remain unresolved[...]

[...]Alves holds three public positions. He sits on the local legislature. He belongs to a 10-member council that advises Macau’s chief executive, the most powerful local administrator. And he’s a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a group that advises China’s central government.

Nevada officials are now poring over records of transactions between junkets, Las Vegas Sands and other casinos licensed by the state, people familiar with the inquiry say. Among the junket companies under scrutiny is a concern that records show was financed by Cheung Chi Tai, a Hong Kong businessman.

Cheung was named in a 1992 U.S. Senate report as a leader of a Chinese organized crime gang, or triad. A casino in Macau owned by Las Vegas Sands granted tens of millions of dollars in credit to a junket backed by Cheung, documents show.

Cheung did not respond to requests for comment.

Cheung isn't the only reported gangster with tangible ties to Adelson's empire. Chinese-Mexican businessman and alleged drug trafficker Zhenli Ye Gon also happened to be one of Adelson's biggest whales:

It has since risen to $350 million and a lot of his fortune found its way to Las Vegas. On the Strip, he was known as Mr. Ye, the highest of high rollers. He stayed primarily at the The Venetian (Las Vegas) where he regularly wagered $200,000 per hand in the baccarat salon. He lost big. The original estimate by DEA was $40 million in losses. They now think it was closer to $126 million — an astonishing sum. When authorities raided his home in Mexico they found $200 million in cold hard cash[...]

There's a lot of dirt under Sheldon Adelson's rug, but chances are it'll all be left under the carpet in the end.

"This is my sworn testimony. White Plains officers are coming in here to kill me."

And moments later, 68-year-old Kenneth Chamberlain, Sr., a U.S. Marine veteran, was proven correct. Tasered and shot dead by officers from the White Plains, NY police department. Given how police officers across the country treat black Americans, whether suspects or innocents, he had good reason to fear for his life. Abagond reveals how the police department attempted to justify his murder, only for said justification to fall apart in the face of video and audio evidence.

That's the important difference between this era and the 1940s and 1950s. Had this crime happened in the latter, the police department's word would be taken at full value and Chamberlain dismissed as "just another crazy nigger who got what he got." Today, you have video and audio surveillance that constantly disproves such assumptions and sheds genuine light on the events that transpired. No wonder officers hate being videotaped or recorded (unless for an episode of "COPS").

Then there's the sad case of Rekia Boyd, an innocent bystander who was killed for "disturbing" an off-duty cop. Here too, did the police attempt to spin a story to justify the officer's actions. Too bad there were several eyewitnesses who saw things differently. There was even a lie thrown in that one of the people with Rekia had a gun. There was no gun found.

The common thread between the killings of Chamberlain, Boyd, Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant and countless others? All were minorities who were assumed to be an automatic threat by overzealous and color-aroused cops. Yes, Trayvon was killed by a "neighborhood watch captain," but he had aspirations of being a cop, too. These were human beings who were deemed "threats" and declared fit for disposal, as though their lives and those of their families and friends meant nothing. To wonder why would mean ignoring nearly two centuries of America's racial history and the constant indoctrination and social reinforcement that causes white Americans to see their black American counterparts as their lesser, whether they realize it or not.

This is why black Americans automatically view police officers and other law enforcement officials, on-duty or not, with the utmost suspicion. Not doing so could mean a swift and tragic death. This is something most white Americans have the luxury of not dealing with.

The election of a person of color to the highest office in the U.S. has set off a genuine psychosis among those who view black Americans as threats to their own interests. Conservative politicians played off voters on this very issue. Militias have seen their recruitment numbers skyrocket because of it. Ordinary citizens lost their minds and revealed what they thought about their black American counterparts. Even presidential nomination hopeful Rick Santorum came perilously close to revealing his true colors.

Add up the above and you don't have to wonder if it isn't open season on black Americans.

It's been 18 days and counting since Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman. Zimmerman has yet to be charged and jailed for his role in killing Martin, nor has the Sanford Police Department seen fit to do anything other than give excuses, intimidate and tamper witnesses and pray this whole thing somehow blows over or disappears.

There have been a few developments. For one, the case was turned over to the Florida state district attorney's office for further investigation. Hopefully the state D.A. can find that same probable cause that seemed to elude the Sanford P.D. for the past two-and-a-half weeks. The family of Trayvon Martin is pushing for the FBI to intervene in the case.

Another development is the release of the 911 tapes, the first featuring the call made by George Zimmerman himself and the second made by a nearby resident. The second tape has Martin screaming "Help me," essentially begging for his life before you hear Zimmerman pull the trigger. Unfortunately, I can't embed those videos, so they're in the links below.

You might not want to listen to the second 911 tape. To say it's unsettling is a major understatement.

First video (audio only): Zimmerman calls 911.
Second video (audio only): Resident calls 911, Trayvon in background, shot fired.

In the second video, you can hear two shots fired: one shot near the beginning of the call and a second, louder shot towards the end. That pretty much blows Zimmerman's self-defense claims to shit. This child was murdered.

So now we need the murder weapon and the shell cases from said weapon to bring it all home, right? A commentator over at the Atlantic asked a very important question in regards to that:

I want to know if they bothered to collect shell casings, or even keep his gun, since he was released. This recording is the first reporting of two shots fired.

It's something myself and others want to know. If they didn't, it shows the Sanford P.D. didn't just do a extraordinarily sloppy job of locating and securing evidence -- they completely abrogated their duties as sworn law enforcement officers. And it is something that will make any case brought against Zimmerman that much harder to prosecute.

The entire police department deserves a federal foot shoved up its ass, but chances are the GOP will use any moves made by the DOJ on Eric Holder's watch to bitch about government somehow "overstepping its bounds" or claim Holder's involvement somehow equals racial solidarity. You know, because he's black, Trayvon's black and you know how those darkies black people love sticking up for one another.

Meanwhile, it seems like gunning down young black men is no big deal for police and other persons of authority in Sanford, Florida:

In 2005, two white security guards shot and killed Travares McGill, one of them was the son of a Sanford Police officer. The shooting drove city race relations to a modern low, according to some black residents.

Security guards Patrick Swofford and Bryan Ansley saw Travares dropping off friends in the parking lot of the apartment complex they were hired to guard, according to published reports.

The two claimed Travares tried to run them down and both fired their weapons at him, they later would claim self-defense.

Travares was pronounced dead at the scene. Swofford was a police department volunteer and Ansley is the son of a former veteran of the force.

The pair were arrested and charged, Swofford with manslaughter and Ansley with firing into an occupied vehicle. But a judge later cited lack of evidence and dismissed both cases.

According to autopsy reports, Travares suffered fatal gunshot wounds to the back, and it was unclear if the pair was in danger.

Suffice to say, some people are worried that Trayvon's death and Zimmerman's non-prosecution will wind up setting off something ugly in this turmoil-stricken town.  That "something ugly" might just be right around the corner:

The New Black Liberation Militia, a self-styled black survival group, has announced that it plans to make a citizens arrest of Zimmerman next week, the Associated Press reported.

It quoted Najee Muhammad, a group leader, saying, "We'll find him. We've got his mug shot and everything."

Natalie Jackson, a lawyer for the Martin family, said she does not support the threat, but also cannot control them.

"There are people out there with their own agendas," Jackson said. "It's nothing we condone."

Zimmerman has moved out of his Sanford home because of death threats, according to his father, Robert Zimmerman.

If these people get a hold of Zimmerman, there is no guarantee he'll live through the experience. If Zimmerman turns up dead by another man's hand at this point...

This case has some similarities to that of Easton "DJ" Henry, a young college student who was shot and killed by a Pleasantville, N.Y. police officer who claimed Henry tried to run him over with his vehicle. Henry's family and friends maintain he was moving out of a fire lane when he was murdered:

A passenger inside “DJ” Henry’s vehicle told New York authorities he thought a police officer wanted Henry to move the car he was driving by tapping the driver’s side window with a flashlight seconds before Henry was fatally shot by police in October 2010.

Desmond Hinds, 21, a Pace University football player, told police in Mount Pleasant, N.Y., that Henry, the driver, then pulled around the bend “going at a decent speed.”

Hinds said he looked down briefly, and when he looked up, he saw a person in front of the car “with his hands up together.”

“And then I saw two to three holes in the windshield,” Hinds told police.

Trigger-happy cops and young black males who are perceived as "threats," no matter how they look. Trayvon Martin was not the dark, hulking, physically superior but mentally challenged "Supernigger" that exists in the minds of FReepers and the unreconstructed among us. He was a harmless high school student who was just walking from the store with a pack of Skittles and a Arizona Ice Tea in hand.

Speaking of trigger-happy, a critical component in this entire case is Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law, passed in 2005. This provision eliminates the "duty to retreat" clause that is included in most self-defense statutes. It's also how Zimmerman managed to walk away a free man shortly after killing Martin:

A person who is not engaged in an unlawful activity and who is attacked in any other place where he or she has a right to be has no duty to retreat and has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.

Given how certain segments of the population feel about other particular segments, this results in cases where one person could perceive as a threat someone who comes from a group that is perceived as a threat as a whole and given such, act in a manner that leads to the death of said person under the guise of the other acting in "self-defense." A person's perception of what constitutes a "threat" can be tainted by racism or personal prejudices. What appears to be an innocent young man can be perceived by someone indoctrinated to view that young man and others like him in a entirely negative manner as a "threat." I doubt a white teenager in a hoodie would have solicited the same sort of reaction that seeing Trayvon Martin had on George Zimmerman.

Many people have called for Zimmerman's death and I'll admit, I was in that camp, too. Now that I've sat back and cleared the unbridled anger I had over this tragedy, I'd rather see Zimmerman made to account for his actions via trial, where he can then be convicted and sentenced to spend the rest of his natural life either in an isolated jail cell or on Death Row. Killing Zimmerman will set off a horrific wave of anger, violence and ill-will the likes no one's seen. Letting Zimmerman walk will do the same thing, except it'll prove once and for all that it's Open Season on young black males and any other group the unreconstructed and Teabagging faux-patriots deem "hostile" or "undesirable" or a "threat."

The Great State of Alabama has had more of its fair share of embarrassing moments. A few days ago, one of those moments came to an abrupt end:

Jurors have found VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor and five other defendants not guilty of all charges in the retrial of a government corruption case.
Jurors announced that they had reached a decision early this morning on their seventh day of deliberations.

McGregor; lobbyist Tom Coker; former Country Crossing casino spokesman Jay Walker; Sen. Harri Anne Smith, I-Slocomb; and former state Sens. Larry Means, D-Attalla, and Jim Preuitt, R-Talladega, are on trial accused of offering or accepting bribes in connection with a 2010 gambling bill.

The legislation was aimed at sheltering bingo casinos from state efforts to shut them down by authorizing a statewide vote on gambling.

Throughout the trial prosecutors attempted to paint the six defendants as greedy criminals that resorted to bribery because of their lust for money and power. But defense lawyer Joe Espy and others countered there was a total failure of proof in the case and that the prosecution was built on the testimony of "crooks" with plea deals and people with political motivations.

The case first went to trial last summer. Jurors deliberated for seven days before returning multiple not guilty verdicts but saying they were hopelessly deadlocked on other charges.
Prosecutors presented a pared down case this time. Prosecutors put on just two weeks of evidence compared to seven weeks in the first trial.

McGregor's charges he was found not guilty of this morning included three counts of federal programs bribery and one county of conspiracy.

The case was the latest in a series of government corruption investigations in Alabama, including the conviction of former Gov. Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy on bribery charges in 2006 and a probe of Alabama's two-year college system that brought down three legislators and the system's former chancellor in 2008.

The main pattern to look for is the accused and convicted bearing either the "D" at the end of their names or being known for having liberal stances. Yep, folks, these convictions were, for the most part, politically motivated. Not only did bottling up the forces most positive towards the legalization of electronic bingo secure the financial futures of both the Mississippi casino gambling interests and Alabama's own Poarch Creek Indian gambling interests, but it also secured the political futures of countless Republicans, as well as paving the way for current governor Robert Bentley.

In the end, Alabamians fell for the long con: the big guys get all of the money and the people they want in office and the average Alabamian is too busy declaring a moral victory over gambling or lamenting McGregor's acquittal to notice. Alabama is always thankful for receiving the long end of the stick in the wrong places.

Legal Schnauzer is a bit displeased that the Obama administration didn't nip this in the bud from the get-go, allowing Bush-era appointees within the Justice Department to run wild with political corruption cases designed to tar and feather Democrats and just about anyone not affiliated with the Grand Old Party or Alabama's special circle of good ol' boys and cronies:

If any of this shines unflattering light on the Obama administration, so be it. The president has either adopted many of George W. Bush's wrong-headed notions on justice--or turned a blind eye on his predecessor's corrupt activities--so now it's time for Eric Holder and company to "enjoy" some scrutiny under a white hot light. If it costs Obama the 2012 election . . . well, tough beans. The president has repeatedly proven that he is not deserving of progressives' support anyway.

The Alabama bingo investigation/trial was a disgrace from the outset, and the public deserves answers on why millions of its dollars were wasted on a sideshow designed to help Alabama Republicans. Obama has had almost four years to do the right thing on the justice front--to return us to a nation governed by the rule of law--and he has failed at every turn. He and his "justice department" deserve to be exposed.

Apologies to Legal Schnauzer, but I have to call a time-out. I'm not about to dump a truckload of blame on the president or Holder for this entire fiasco, but I will place blame where it's due.

If anything, President Obama can be blamed for not taking time out to clean house of the Shrub's old appointees littering the Justice Dept. and federal court system. Holder may have stood by and did nothing, but it was hangers-on like Leura Canary who made it possible for a clear-cut case of political prosecution to go on largely unchecked.

However, the last thing the president should do is attempt to knock heads over this issue before November. Turning over stones this early could easily give the GOP permission to paint themselves as "victims" of a "vendetta-driven housecleaning to insure Obama's reelection," something that'll give them renewed vigor and a way to scuttle the president's reelection chances.

BTW, as of yesterday, Alabama Republicans released their collective load of Santorum all over the state, leaving Mormon robot Mitt Romney a bit miffed as his attempts to assimilate his program into the standard Southeastern U.S. lifestyle and reconcile their belief subroutines with his own resulted in a suitable lack of response from the "Southern" flesh forms.

One thing that pisses people off to no end about our judicial system is the lopsided and disproportionate punishments that happen for a variety of reasons. For those on the lower end of the economic totem pole, judicial punishments are a lot harsher than for those who are well-heeled and well-connected. Those disparities only grow larger with each passing day.

On one side of the coin, there's Anita McLemore, mother of two teens who wanted to keep them from going hungry. With prior state drug convictions, the possibility of being eligible for food stamps was slim to none, so she did what most mortgage lending companies did to keep the big bucks rolling in: lie, and hope no one paid attention to that lie.

Of course, it didn't work. And despite paying back all of the $4000+ in food stamp benefits, a federal judge decided to send a message and deliver a harsh three-year sentence. If having several drug priors didn't trim down her opportunities for financial advancement, then this federal conviction all but slammed the door on them. And of course, one would have to wonder if this woman had been a white mother of two young kids, would she have been free to go after paying only restitution, if she even had to do that.

On the other side of the coin, you have former Citigroup CFO Gary Crittenden and investor relations head Arthur Tildesley, Jr. essentially fined $100,000 and $80,000 respectively for lying about information contained in shareholder disclosures by the SEC. And then there's Campus Crest CEO Ted Rollins, who repeatedly violated court orders pertaining to his divorce from his then-wife, Sherry Carroll Rollins, and successfully manipulated child support and alimony judgments that were so paltry, his ex-wife and daughters are now on food stamps. Good thing she doesn't have drug convictions on her record.

The point is, these people are well-connected and well-funded that most, if not all crimes that don't involve pissing off someone who ranks higher on the totem pole can be made to "go away" with the right amount of legal pressure, media manipulation and favors called in. Meanwhile, those with little to no means are slammed and slammed hard by a legal system that is all too willing to keep poors locked into poverty and even exploit them during their entrapment in the legal system, shortly before curb-stomping them out of existence.

Last year the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the nation’s largest private prison company, received $74 million of taxpayers’ money to run immigration detention centers. Their largest facility in Lumpkin, Georgia, receives $200 a night for each of the 2,000 detainees it holds, and rakes in yearly profits between $35 million and $50 million.

Prisoners held in this remote facility depend on the prison’s phones to communicate with their lawyers and loved ones. Exploiting inmates’ need, CCA charges detainees here $5 per minute to make phone calls. Yet the prison only pays inmates who work at the facility $1 a day. At that rate, it would take five days to pay for just one minute.

I'd have to wonder if you're in debt to these people when your sentence is up, do you still remain incarcerated until you've paid off that debt? If I didn't know any better, I'd say what we have here is a new form of debt peonage that's far more insidious than any credit card or title loan trap. It's no wonder some judges are eager to enact harsher sentences for lesser crimes -- it makes them look like they're tough on crime while receiving kickbacks from the private prisons.

Conservative Law-and-Order Troll: Or maybe they're just doing their jobs.

The job of the judiciary is to interpret the laws of the land, not to act as a pipeline that leads directly into privatized prisons and debt peonage.

In late September, the SEC ended its case for disgorgement against former Birmingham mayor, former Jefferson County commission president and former Fairfield mayor Larry Langford, after the SEC discovered the only asset they could get as part of restitution was a 1/2-interest in his home. It's the only thing he has left, aside from a mess of debts stemming from criminal and civil penalties.

Langford is currently serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison, after being convicted of over 60 counts of bribery and corruption. Given his age (65) and how he won't be eligible to walk out of prison until at least 2023, it's a possibility that this man will die in prison. On the other hand, the two men convicted alongside him, investment banker Bill Blount and former lobbyist Al LaPierre, earned much lighter sentences. True, they plead guilty and Langford didn't, but the disparity in sentencing only raises the usual conclusions about racially-motivated "justice" in this country.

Most AL.com commentators have been chomping at the bit for Langford's demise and rolling around in his family's misery like happy pigs in slop. Blount and LaPierre never got this much bile thrown at them.

Larry Langford's story meshes neatly with the story of Jefferson County's staggering debt and how it was finally forced to declare Chapter 9 bankruptcy. Rolling Stone magazine has a staggeringly comprehensive backstory on the entire saga, including what led Jefferson County to build a high-tech sewer system in the first place and how $250 million ballooned into over $4 billion in debt thanks to J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and its three-card credit swap monte.

Langford, Blount, LaPierre and J.P. Morgan Chase banker Charles LeCroy were instrumental in driving Jefferson County further into debt. To summarize, LeCroy would pay Blount millions of dollars to help grease the lending skids with whoever was in charge of signing off those deals. Blount then feted then-county commissioner Langford (with LaPierre as a go-between) with what would eventually total over $240,000 in clothing and other gifts. Langford would then effectively steer business back towards Blount's investment firm when he signed off on the deals that would eventually land the county in the financial shithouse. This happened quite a lot.

And it kept happening until those bills came due.

For Jefferson County, the deal blew up in early 2008, when a dizzying array of penalties and other fine-print poison worked into the swap contracts started to kick in. The trouble began with the housing crash, which took down the insurance companies that had underwritten the county's bonds. That rendered the county's insurance worthless, triggering clauses in its swap contracts that required it to pay off more than $800 million of its debt in only four years, rather than 40. That, in turn, scared off private lenders, who were no longer ­interested in bidding on the county's bonds. The banks were forced to make up the difference — a service for which they charged enormous penalties. It was as if the county had missed a payment on its credit card and woke up the next morning to find its annual percentage rate jacked up to a million percent. Between 2008 and 2009, the annual payment on Jefferson County's debt jumped from $53 million to a whopping $636 million.

It gets worse. Remember the swap deal that Jefferson County did with JP Morgan, how the variable rates it got from the bank were supposed to match those it owed its bondholders? Well, they didn't. Most of the payments the county was receiving from JP Morgan were based on one set of interest rates (the London Interbank Exchange Rate), while the payments it owed to its bondholders followed a different set of rates (a municipal-bond index). Jefferson County was suddenly getting far less from JP Morgan, and owing tons more to bondholders. In other words, the bank and Bill Blount made tens of millions of dollars selling deals to local politicians that were not only completely defective, but blew the entire county to smithereens.

And here's the kicker. Last year, when Jefferson County, staggered by the weight of its penalties, was unable to make its swap payments to JP Morgan, the bank canceled the deal. That triggered one-time "termination fees" of — yes, you read this right — $647 million. That was money the county would owe no matter what happened with the rest of its debt, even if bondholders decided to forgive and forget every dime the county had borrowed. It was like the herpes simplex of loans — debt that does not go away, ever, for as long as you live. On a sewer project that was originally supposed to cost $250 million, the county now owed a total of $1.28 billion just in interest and fees on the debt. Imagine paying $250,000 a year on a car you purchased for $50,000, and that's roughly where Jefferson County stood at the end of last year.

Last November, the SEC charged JP Morgan with fraud and canceled the $647 million in termination fees. The bank agreed to pay a $25 million fine and fork over $50 million to assist displaced workers in Jefferson County. So far, the county has managed to avoid bankruptcy, but the sewer fiasco had downgraded its credit rating, triggering payments on other outstanding loans and pushing Birmingham toward the status of an African debtor state. For the next generation, the county will be in a constant fight to collect enough taxes just to pay off its debt, which now totals $4,800 per resident.

And to think this all started with a consent decree.

In 1996, the EPA ordered Jefferson County to revamp its aging sewer system after a lawsuit involving the Cahaba River Society. Something about keeping waste out of the rather fragile Cahaba River, which also served as a source of the city's drinking water. Instead of ordering the city to repair that particular problem, the EPA issued a mandate to eliminate all sewer outflows. That would require a damn-near brand-new sewer system designed to be as environmentally friendly as possible. So the city of Birmingham set out to build the new sewer system, to the tune of $250 million.

A $250 million estimate, turned into a $4 billion clusterfuck of epic proportions.

Meanwhile, whatever chance JeffCo had of paying that debt off ended when its occupation tax did, started in 2005, the 1-cent tax was the county's attempt to recoup some income from the hordes of suburban commuters from outside of the county who still worked in the Birmingham/Jefferson County area. After a fair bit of whining from the usual anti-tax forces, the occupation tax was rendered unconstitutional and struck down, leaving Jefferson County with little to no options for paying down its debt.

At some point, the sewer system fell under receivership and under control of John Young, state court-appointed and given the power to raise sewer rates as necessary. Second Front talks about how he endeared himself to the citizens of Jefferson County:

Since appointed, Young has become one of the least popular public figures in the sewer debacle, mostly because he has been paid $500 per hour for his services, even when giving interviews to the media or speaking to civic groups. Last week, the receiver’s total compensation exceeded $1 million. Also, Young has told the state court that a sewer rate increase of 25 percent would be appropriate for the creditors and affordable for most ratepayers.

In these economic times, seeing a guy get paid $500/hr to putz around with people's future sewer rates is a bit much to bear.

Two county commissions spent three years coming to an amicable agreement on how to repay the debt, but it fell through at the last minute:

Three of the commissioners interviewed by Reuters said the turning point came last Monday when creditors who include JPMorgan sent a document to commissioners outlining new settlement terms.

They said the new terms weren't what they thought they had negotiated and they spent two days combing through the document with lawyers before deciding that bankruptcy was a better alternative to accepting a revised deal.

Among the concerns, the creditors were insisting on being paid back $2.19 billion of the $3.14 billion debt, rather than the $2.05 billion the commissioners had expected. And the commissioners claim that the revisions meant an assistance program to help those on a low income pay higher sewerage rates would have to be shouldered by the county for 10 years.

"When I read the document that came back Monday my blood pressure shot up. I felt like everything was in favor of the creditors and nothing was in favor of the county," said Republican Commissioner Joe Knight.

The Commission President David Carrington, also a Republican, said he had been optimistic up until last Monday night. "When I left here (the commission offices) Monday night I thought we had an agreement. I felt good. But I got a call from one of our attorneys. It was about nine o'clock, saying there was these new revisions," he said.

"They had these conditions and those conditions are unacceptable. I knew it wasn't going to happen," he said.

In a last ditch effort, creditors urged governor Robert Bentley to call the state legislature to a special session:

In the wake of the tentative deal, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley promised to call a special session of the state legislature to consider a bill to allow the county to raise fresh funds to address a shortfall in its general fund that could, in itself, have led to bankruptcy.

Already, it has forced the county to cut jobs and services so that, to give one example, a long line snaked outside the courthouse early on Thursday morning of residents waiting to pay for their car tag renewal.

No session was called, however, and there appeared to be little appetite in the Republican-controlled legislature for any increase in taxes. The source said the county voted for bankruptcy mainly because that special session looked increasingly unlikely to happen.

When that didn't happen, Commission President David Carrington filed bankruptcy on behalf of the county and subsequently lost over $1 billion in concessions from creditors.

The fallout's been horrific. Langford, LaPierre and Blount were convicted and sentenced. The old county commission was seen as a bunch of corrupt assholes. The Jefferson County government had to furlough employees, shut down courthouse satellites and even stop county sheriffs deputies from responding to traffic accidents. Sewer customers will most likely see their rates rise by 25% and even higher in subsequent years. This municipal bankruptcy is the largest in recent history, after Orange County's $1.5 billion bankruptcy.

Now that the county's officially declared bankruptcy, the federal courts have stepped in to resolve the matter, first to determine if the county is actually eligible for bankruptcy and second to determine the best financial settlement terms possible for the county and its creditors. A bit of side drama is whether the sewer system remains under control of John Young or whether it defaults back under control of the county itself.

Lots of lives and livelihoods were devastated by the willingness of several entities to engage in greed, and it seems the only people who aren't paying for it are those under employ of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., although it was one of the institutions instrumental in causing the county's fiscal collapse.

When Alabama state senator Scott Beason and former representative Benjamin Lewis testified in the federal bingo corruption trial, they weren't doing so out of a sense of justice or the kindness of their own hearts. Instead, it turned out to be something a bit more insidious:

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson in an order today lambasted two key prosecution witnesses in the State House vote-buying case as being motivated by political ambition and racial prejudice.

Thomson said Republicans Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale and former Rep. Benjamin Lewis of Dothan had ulterior motives when they assisted investigators in the case. Beason and Lewis were key prosecution witnesses in the case, in which VictoryLand owner Milton McGregor and others were charged with offering and taking bribes to try to get a gambling bill approved in the Alabama Legislature. The two Republicans said they approached FBI agents after they felt gambling interests made improper offers to try to secure their votes on the bill.

"The evidence introduced at trial contradicts the self-serving portrait of Beason and Lewis as untouchable opponents of corruption. In reality, Beason and Lewis had ulterior motives rooted in naked political ambition and pure racial bias," Thompson wrote.

"The court finds that Beason and Lewis lack credibility for two reasons. First, their motive for cooperating with F.B.I. investigators was not to clean up corruption but to increase Republican political fortunes by reducing African-American voter turnout. Second, they lack credibility because the record establishes their purposeful, racist intent," Thompson wrote.

Ouch. But that's not all:

Beason wore a wire for the FBI, and the recordings picked up a conversation among Republicans talking about the effect a gambling referendum would have on voter turn-out during an election.
They talked about how "every black, every illiterate," would be taken to the polls on "HUD-financed buses."

In another conversation, Beason used the word "aborigines" to refer to people at Greenetrack, a casino in predominately black Greene County.
Thompson said such statements "demonstrate a deep-seated racial animus and a desire to suppress black votes."

Want more? Here ya go:

Beason, Lewis, and their political allies sought to defeat SB380 partly because they believed the absence of the referendum on the ballot would lower African-American voter turnout during the 2010 elections. One of the government’s recordings captured Beason and Lewis discussing political strategy with other influential Republican legislative allies. A confederate warned: “Just keep in mind if [a pro-gambling] bill passes and we have a referendum in November, every black in this state will be bused to the polls. And that ain’t gonna help.”

Keep in mind this is the same Scott Beason who is one of the chief supporters of H.R. 56, the immigration bill currently being struck down in parts by federal courts

Let's be honest: the GOP has had a field day this past decade and the last using the courts and these corruption cases to tar, feather and remove Democrats, their supporters and possibly voters who lean Democrat, out of play and out of pocket. It's part and parcel of a movement to make Alabama a one-party state for Republicans, as well as obscure GOP-facilitated corruption that goes on in the background.

So I'm not surprised to see a guy who thinks of himself as the next Jeff Sessions attempt to tilt the playing field in his party's favor by discouraging staunch Democrat voters from voting. This, on top of efforts nationwide to suppress Democrat votes.

Meanwhile, a suit was filed in federal court alleging the systematic exclusion of blacks from criminal case juries, specifically ones that involved the death penalty.

Alabama, don't you ever change.

Hat tips to Redeye and Legal Schnauzer.

Over the past year or so, Huntsville City Schools was busy sawing an anchor off the rickety S.S. School System. That anchor turned out to be former superintendent Dr. Ann Roy Moore, who just so happens to be on the wrong side of America's preferred color aisle, not that it seems to matter much. And the school board didn't let Moore's contract deter them from working over that anchor with a blow torch and an angle grinder -- they paid her an extra $100k to stay on as an advisor of sorts, so they wouldn't get smacked in the face with a lawyer's most favorite words: BREACH OF CONTRACT.

And after a lengthy search, the school board found a guy by the name of Dr. Casey Wardynski. At first I wasn't too interested in blogging something like this because it seemed so...small potatoes. But then I kept hearing some interesting stories about where he came from, and more importantly, what he was doing and who he brought along with him.

I still can't quite grasp why the school board and others love the guy. Maybe it was his military credentials -- after all, he is a retired Army colonel, and this city loves itself some military folk. Perhaps HCS figured they'd get a hard-nosed, no-nonsense leader who'd apply some of that military leadership magic on a school system that seems to be unable to get its collective shit together.

Wardynski's previous job was being the superintendent of Aurora Public Schools. More importantly, he's the alumnus of the Broad Foundation's Superintendents Academy, a program that, to quote Balloon Juice's E.D. Kain, "shapes new corporate reformers to go out and bring school choice and privatization to the masses." Nice, bland buzzwords. The "masses" is a nice touch, too -- gotta patronize the lesser peoples when getting your message across.

I checked up on the batting record of the "star players" that were churned out by this outfit, and it's not looking good:

• Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of Washington D.C. schools and Broad alumnus.
• Marla Goodloe-Johnson, former superintendent of Seattle, WA. public schools and Broad alumnus.
• Brad Bernatek, Director of Research, Evaluation and Assessment for Seattle Public Schools and Broad alumnus.
• Beverly Hall, former superintendent of Atlanta, GA. public schools. Although not a Broad alumnus, several members of the school board were reportedly trained by the Broad Foundation sometime in 2006.
• Robert Bobb, current emergency financial manager of Detroit, MI and recent BFSA graduate. The Broad Foundation, along with the Kellogg Foundation, paid Bobb $145,000 a year on top of his $280,000 government salary. Fair bit of change there.
• Kimberly Olson, former finalist for superintendent of the Dallas, TX. independent school district and Broad alumnus.
• Arne Duncan, former superintendent of Chicago, IL. public schools, current U.S. Secretary of Education and Broad alumnus.

When you've got shit stacked this high, no amount of window opening or air freshener is gonna make the stench go away. And what of Dr. Wardynski? Well, he did leave Aurora Public Schools with a $25 million deficit.

In other words, it appears to be an outfit that trains present and future administrative staff in how to aggressively run a school system in the corporate sense, with the ultimate long-term goal of discrediting public schools as they are now in favor of charter schools largely run by corporate interests.

And now that he's settled into his new job, he's brought a few friends along:

Wardynski recruited his second-in-command, Dr. Barbara Cooper, from the school system in Aurora, Colo., just as he did with the new CFO, Frank Spinelli. Wardynski joked at last week's school board meeting that John Barry, the Aurora superintendent, is "pretty unhappy" with him.
Wardynski worked alongside both during his own nine-month stint as chief financial officer of the Aurora system.

And in Huntsville, he is paying both better than their predecessors. Cooper will make $141,600 a year as deputy superintendent - about $7,000 more than the maximum salary advertised for the job. The salary range on the posting, which ended Aug. 29, was $84,217 to $134,545.

And while the administrative staff get thousands over the maximum for their jobs, teachers, principals and faculty are being forced to abide by the absolute minimum. Keep in mind this the same school system that doubled up on bus routes and consolidated schools to save money. And also keep in mind this is in the same state where a teacher coming out of her own pockets for things like tissue and pencils is considered a perfectly normal event.

Methinks the fact that the school system is throwing extra money at hiring and keeping administrative staff around while at the same time turning teachers into minimum-wage slaves pisses a lot of folks off. Showering upper management and executives with money while drawing blood from entry-level turnips is an epidemic that's swept the entire nation. I understand you want to attract and keep your best and brightest, just not at the expense of the folks at the ground floor. You know, the people who actually run most of this shit.

Personally speaking, the jury's still out on this guy, although I'm not liking what I'm seeing this early in the game. And now for some commentary from the peanut gallery over at AL.com:

These salaries are not excessive. Good leadership comes at a cost. If you want cheap leadership, I understand that members of the previous school administration are available.

Don't you just hate it when people attempt to justify waste and cronyism when it works in their favor?

BTW, Geek Palaver, Redeye's Front Page and Merts Center Monitor has much, much more on this and other crap involving HCS.

- Everyone's keeping an eye on Libya. So far, the rebels have stormed Tripoli, taken over control of the media apparatii and have three of Moammar Gadhafi's sons in custody, all while squaring off against the dictator's forces. The next time you see that rather colorful individual, he may be in chains. Or dead.

- And if everyone's not keeping an eye on that, then perhaps they were too busy dealing with the 5.8 magnitude earthquake that struck not far from Washington D.C. Freepers and Teabaggers expecting D.C. to split into two and be swallowed into the earth like a bad natural disaster flick were sorely disappointed.

- Rep. Maxine Waters went ham on the Tea Party and told them they could all go one-way to a nice and toasty place. Good on her. Tea Party supporters lost their monocles in shock over the news. Maybe they should pack up a few of those sugar-coated Satan sandwiches for a nice snack along the way.

- “Bank of America. We’ll help you out.” From James Mahoney's lips to Rick Perry's ears. So I guess Ricky Goodhair doesn't have to worry about having insufficient funds during his presidential campaign or at any other point afterwards.

- Ohio Gov. John Kasich thinks applying for $176 million in unemployment insurance funds courtesy of the 2009 Recovery Act makes no sense. His unemployed constituents may think otherwise.  Too bad they aren't corporations.

- The Hoyas managed to patch things up after their on-court brawl with the Bayi Rockets. Good on them.

- Dominique Strauss-Kahn is officially off the hook, after New York State Supreme Court Justice Michael Obus threw out the sexual assault charges brought against him back in May for his alleged sexual assault of a 33-year-old immigrant maid from Guinea. Given Strauss-Kahn's status, wealth and connections, you could have bet your entire life's savings on him being let go. Rumor has it this isn't the first time he's been accused of this.

Remember, folks, a well-respected national representative trying to get President Obama to focus on the black community's issues is being "hate filled and racist." Witness the color-arousal caused by a "hateful racist" disturbing the sanctity of Obama's racial neutrality. Notice the rhetoric from the so-called "Libertarians" -- these guys wish they could be conservative, but want all of the perks of being mistaken for liberals and can't bear to accept the stigma of being conservative or associate with the loonier Teabagger wing of conservative ideology. These guys can go eat dicks.

The Birmingham Water Works has a drinking water intake on Mulberry Fork along the Shepard Bend, located in southeastern Walker County, AL, just southeast of the town of Cordoba. This intakes provides drinking water to 200,000 customers.

Drummond Company, Inc. plans to open a 1,773 acre coal mine that's approximately 1,000 feet from this intake. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management, an organization that one would think would pull the plug on such things, gave the company the go-ahead after its decision was upheld by the Environmental Management Commission.

This being the great state of Alabama and all, there's no telling how much grease was put on those skids. Or if the decision was designed as a "fuck you" of sorts to the city by a well-connected Good Ol' Boy network.

The Birmingham Water Works Board is in thorough opposition to the mine, for obvious reasons. Mine effluent dumped into the river and into the intake requires more thorough filtering, translating into higher costs for BWW and its customers. A number of other groups, including the Black Warrior Riverkeeper, is also in firm opposition against the mine.

The decision for Drummond to get cracking on building the mine rests on leasing or purchasing land currently held by the University of Alabama. Without that land, chances of the mine being built become slim to none. Hopefully, this adventure in environmental disaster can grind to a halt before any serious damage is done.

The above comes from former Massachusetts governor and current GOP nomination candidate Mitt Romney, as he was being heckled during one of his campaign stops in Iowa. Beautiful bean footage found below, for your viewing pleasure:

Remember when Milton McGregor and 10 other legislators and lobbyists were put in the clink for their roles in the electronic bingo scandal?

Jurors have found all defendants in the bingo trial either not guilty on each charge, or they were unable to decide a verdict. The judge has said he will declare a mistrial on any undecided charges.

After days of deliberation, the jury couldn't come up with a verdict on some of the charges and gave "Not Guilty" verdicts on others. Legal Schnauzer has much, much more on the goings on in the trial at his blog, including this rather interesting tid-bit:

* By far, the most important witness in the trial figured to be former Republican Governor Bob Riley. After all, it was Riley's crusade to stamp out gaming in Alabama that led to the bingo prosecution. It was Riley's documented ties to GOP felons Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon that sullied the Alabama political landscape in recent years. In fact, Riley's apparent desire to protect the market share of his Mississippi Choctaw backers was the overarching story behind the bingo case. Attorneys for defendant and gambling magnate Milton McGregor made quite a show of their intentions to call Riley as a witness. And sources tell Legal Schnauzer that McGregor's lawyers conducted pre-trial discovery with Mississippi Choctaw officials that shed significant light on Riley's actions. The defense, however, barely voiced a whimper before closing up shop without calling Riley. What gives? Has some sort of agreement--a fix, in other words--been reached by all parties involved?

Riley was slated to be a star witness in the trial, until his motorcycle accident in Alaska gave him an out from doing just that. Speaking of that guy, it seems he's been a bit preoccupied with ventures of his own.


What happens when the former governor of Alabama gives a company a $5 million dollar "economic development" grant during his term in office? Well, probably nothing except some "economic development" from that corporate entity.

Now, what if the former governor decides to register as a lobbyist and lands a job representing that very same company and others he had tangible ties to? No, that odor you're smelling isn't the local fish market.

Riley reported on his Ethics Commission lobbyist registration statement that he represented two clients starting in June and three more starting in July. He said his clients include Austal USA, which is building warships for the Navy at its shipyard in Mobile...

...Riley on his lobbyist registration statement also listed EADS North America as a client. EADS in February lost a competition with Boeing to build new refueling tanker aircraft for the Air Force. EADS had planned to assemble its tanker in Mobile if it had won.

Riley also reported that he represented Gulf Coast Asphalt Co., based in Houston; Brett Real Estate, Robinson Development Co. in Saraland; and VT Systems Inc. in Alexandria, Va., parent of a company that operates an aircraft maintenance facility in Mobile.

Looks as though it's a case of yet another politician sticking his snout back in the trough for seconds. And thirds. You'd figure that this would stink just a wee bit of conflict-of-interest:

Sen. Roger Bedford, D-Russellville, minority leader in the state Senate, questioned the appropriateness of Riley getting paid to lobby for a company that received state incentives when he was governor. "It could be a conflict of interest," Bedford said.

You'd be surprised and possibly shocked at the amount of corruption that goes on in this lil' ol' state:

Two days after Monica Cooper personally donated $100,000 to a Republican political action committee, five party officials received bonuses from the PAC of $38,000 each.


A second Republican PAC reimbursed Cooper, prompting state Democratic Party Chair Mark Kennedy to complain last week that the transaction and several other smaller ones violated the state's new law banning PAC-to-PAC transfers.

Before Cooper's contribution, there wasn't enough money in the 136 Years PAC to make those payments, according to campaign finance reports filed by the PAC...

...Two days later, the $38,000 checks were issued to John Ross, the party's executive director and the chair of the 136 Years PAC; Philip Bryan, party communications director; Kate Anderson and Sidney Rue, finance co-directors for the party; and Michael Joffrion, the party's political director.

"None of the money paid us was taken from the party or taxpayers," he said. "It was from people who appreciated the work we did."


Byran, who said his party salary was $50,000, said the five were promised bonuses in 2009 of $1,200 each for every Democratic legislative seat the Republicans were able to "flip" in the 2010 elections. He said Ross told him and his co-workers on election night they would receive the bonuses.

This doesn't seem the slightest bit unusual if you're used to PACs disappearing shortly after handing out large sums of money.

NOTE: The comments are working again, at least on my end. I suppose some ad-blocker setting on my browser got crossed up.

Yeah, I probably should get on with figuring out how the city of Birmingham can cure itself of "civic anemia". Or blogging about how Jefferson County is slowly headed down the road to Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy. Instead, yours truly will attempt to figure out what the hell is up with the state of Alabama and its never-ending quest to embarrass and impoverish itself further by playing hopscotch with whether or not bingo (or more importantly, electronic bingo) should be allowed in the state.

To start things off, here's a salient fact about the great state of Alabama: it's surrounded on all four sides by states that have some legalized form of gambling. Tennessee, Georgia and Florida have state lotteries, while Mississippi has full-on casinos, with slots, poker, blackjack, etc, etc. And every day, Alabamians leave their great state to visit these seething dens of vice and corruption, thus contributing to the bottom lines of these states, to the detriment of the great state of Alabama.

Now, you'd figure that the citizens of this great state would want to enact some sort of enterprise that can generate the kind of revenue that these forms of gambling create. After all, gambling is probably the only enterprise outside of exotic dancing where people are literally throwing money at you. Not so for this state, on both religious and legal grounds. Except on Native American reservations within the state -- more on that later.

In order to work around the legal and religious objections, a number of enterprising groups and companies have instead introduced "charity bingo" as way for people to satiate their desire to gamble while staying on the good side of the law. It's similar to regular bingo, only that instead of the right to shout "BINGO" after you won and possibly a few cheap trinkets as compensation, you receive a cash prize or an equivalent that can be redeemed for cash. According to the charitable gaming laws in the state, it's all legal, and many counties have their own constitutional amendments authorizing bingo for charitable purposes. If the sheriff of your county says it's OK, then for all intents and purposes, it's legal.

The problem comes with electronic bingo. Instead of paper bingo cards, you have electronic touchscreen machines, some of which may look too much like slot machines for their own good (check the pictures here for an example). Which is a problem, since Alabama does not condone this sort of gambling (check Section 13A-12-20 through 92), nor the possession of such devices used to facilitate gambling. The end result is a constant game of "is it or is it not", where state troopers drop by to close up your place of business and confiscate your machines, while you do battle in court, hoping the judge will determine that your machines are kosher and hopefully give them back so you can set up shop, again.
(More after the break)