David Rae Morris

Hoarse, hungover and happy, New Orleans woke up Monday wondering if that first ever Super Bowl victory really happened. In the French Quarter, stragglers — decked out in Saints jerseys and team colors — remaining from the all-night party turned to coffee and beignets as dawn broke, according to the Associated Press.

Overnight, the Saints became America’s team after marching over Peyton Manning’s Colts, 31-17.

There was hope the Saints winning season would help revitalize New Orleans, still not fully recovered from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Under the Microscope
by Glynn Wilson

A conservative professor of politics at the University of Virginia has written a column in Sunday’s Washington Post asking the question: Why are liberals so condescending?

In the setup, he writes, “Every political community includes some members who insist that their side has all the answers and that their adversaries are idiots. But American liberals, to a degree far surpassing conservatives, appear committed to the proposition that their views are correct, self-evident, and based on fact and reason, while conservative positions are not just wrong but illegitimate, ideological and unworthy of serious consideration. Indeed, all the appeals to bipartisanship notwithstanding, President Obama and other leading liberal voices have joined in a chorus of intellectual condescension.”

Later on, he adds, “This condescension is part of a liberal tradition that for generations has impoverished American debates over the economy, society and the functions of government — and threatens to do so again today, when dialogue would be more valuable than ever.”

Rather than posting a comment on the Post’s Website to point out how the professor has it so wrong, let’s take his argument apart here.

First of all, he starts out with an obvious bit of false spin, just like the conservative commentators on TV he seems to try to defend.

“…even with Democratic fortunes on the wane, leading liberals insist that they have almost nothing to learn from conservatives.”

On the wane? President Barack Obama’s personal popularity is the same as Ronald Reagan’s after one year in office, and the Democrats still have a majority in both houses of Congress. Just because TV pundits are saying the Democrats may lose a few seats in the mid-term election in 2010 doesn’t mean their fortunes are totally “on the wane.”

In fact, it has been pointed out over and over again that the Republican Party is all but dead, except among white males mostly in the South. Just because one Republican won a Congressional race in Massachusetts doesn’t mean the Republicans are about to take back the country tomorrow. The election is still 10 months away. Anything can happen and probably will.

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An Unreleased Elvis Song for a Rainy Day

Elvis recorded this song July 11, 1955 at Sun Records but no take was deemed acceptable for release. Drummer Johnny Bernero joined Elvis, Scott Moore, and Bill Black for the session.

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The Tennessee Valley Authority’s massive cleanup of a coal ash spill from last Christmas at the coal-fired power plant in Kingston, Tennessee, “has hit a snag 500 miles away, just before the treated wastewater reaches Mobile Bay,” according to the Associated Press.

A wastewater processing company in Mobile, Alabama, called Liquid Environmental Solutions, said Friday it would stop accepting shipments of wastewater runoff from the Perry County landfill that is accepting the coal ash, which is laced with arsenic, mercury, lead, uranium and other heavy metals and toxic substances.

In a statement, the Dallas-based Liquid Environmental Solution’s senior vice president, Dana King, said the shipments have been stopped “due to local concerns” because “some people are up in arms” even though the company has “properly accepted, tested and treated the non-hazardous Perry County landfill wastewater.”

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Approval of Congress Hits New Low, Down There With Lawyers

The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

In a continuation of our series on public opinion in America, we find it quite interesting that in the latest surveys, the public approval rating of Congress has fallen to a new low — down there on the scale with lawyers.

The job approval rating of Congress fell six points in the past month, from 24 percent to 18 percent — the lowest reading in more than a year. Nearly 8 in 10 Americans, 78 percent, now disapprove of the job Congress is doing, according to Gallup.

This decline in congressional approval is largely explained by a sharp drop in approval among rank-and-file Democrats, from 45 percent in January to 30 percent today. The slight changes in approval among Republicans and independents are not statistically significant.

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Environmental groups from across Alabama and will gather in the state capital for the 12th annual Watershed Leadership Conference hosted by the Alabama Rivers Alliance Feb. 27-March 2.

This year’s conference will feature the first ever Alabama (Clean) Water Rally, a four-day event geared toward informing citizens about key water issues affecting the state and ways that citizens can become involved in protecting their waters, according to a press release.

With environmental issues playing such a key role on the national stage, concerned citizens from all backgrounds have much to gain from attending this rally, according to Elizabeth Salter, who attended the annual event five years ago as a concerned citizen, and now is the conference organizer.

“I’d always been a lover of nature and the environment, and I wanted to know what I could do to get involved in protecting it,” Salter said. “I first heard about the conference in 2004 and decided to go see what it was about. Five years later, I am now a staff member with the Alabama Rivers Alliance and I’m in charge of organizing the conference for other people who want to learn about Alabama’s environment.”

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State Rep. Patricia Todd, a Birmingham Democrat and the first openly gay legislator in Alabama, is one of more than 1,000 state legislators from across the country calling on the U.S. Senate for action on clean energy jobs legislation.

A letter signed by the legislators from states in every corner of the country was sent to Congress and President Obama last week, accordin to a press release. Lawmakers from coal states, representing urban and rural economies, from the East Coast, the West Coast, and the plains states, raised one collective voice urging swift, decisive action from the United States Senate.

“Alabama is moving forward to grow jobs and increase our energy security, but we also need the federal government to be our partner. It’s time for Congress to act to increase job growth, strengthen national security, and make America a leader again in the global economy,” Todd said. “Alabama must begin to invest in renewable energy and decrease our dependency on foreign oil. As a state representative, my priority is to secure state funding for public transportation and clean energy.”

The Coalition of Legislators for Energy Action (CLEAN) is a national group of bipartisan legislators working to pass federal clean energy jobs legislation. Lawmakers say action is necessary for the future of America and the recovery of our economy.

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Alabama’s labor union community will have a press conference on the steps of the Madison County Courthouse on Monday Feb. 15 at 11 a.m. to officially request a refund of their political contributions for the 2008 election cycle from Congressman Parker Griffith.

“In our opinion the change from the Democratic party to the Republican party has little or no effect on our request,” Al Henley, Secretary-Treasurer of the Alabama AFL-CIO, said in a press release. “We just simply believe he misled us in the campaign to get elected, and used our money to create a positive name recognition situation then immediately aligned himself with America’s biggest corporations and industries including the Insurance, Pharma and Medical industries, then proceeded to vote against our best interests.”

The press in North Alabama recently reported that the Congressman’s office said no requests had been made for refunds, but is not the case, according to the discussion on key e-mail lists around the state.

“We find it necessary to clear up the confusion on the issue of refunds of political contributions,” Henley said. He said the press and the general public are welcome.

Meanwhile, the Alabama Democratic Party blasted newly-minted Republican Representative Parker Griffith for his lack of leadership in defending critical jobs in Alabama’s fifth Congressional district.

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