In an article regarding President Bush’s nomination of two whites to fill open Federal Judgeships in Alabama, the Birmingham News Washington reporter gives some misleading statistics in this article from today’s newspaper, according to the Rev. Jack Zylman.

Bush Names 2 for Judicial Posts

“In response to criticism of Bush’s consistent failure to nominate African-American to the bench, Mary Ornsdorff wrote, ‘Nationally, 74 of the 678 active district court judges are black, or 11 percent. In Alabama, 2 of 12 are black, or 16 percent.’ Apparently she thinks that Alabama has a sufficient number of African-American judges,” Zylman said.

“Since African-Americans make up about 12% of Americans, the national numbers show we have made progress. However, Alabama is about 28% African-American, with only 16% of federal judges coming from that population. That is gross under representation.”

We have and have had only two, U.W. Clemens and Myron Thompson, both nominated by President Jimmy Carter, who left office in 1980, he said.

“Alabama has many African-American attorneys who would make excellent judges,” he said. “The racism of the Bush administration is unmistakable.”

The Senate confirmed John Glover Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the United States, replacing the late William H. Rehnquist, the mentor for whom he clerked, according to this Washington Post story.

Shelby County State Senator Hank Erwin has pronounced that the storms Katrina and Rita are God’s punishment for our sins.

Birmingham News story

“He somehow doesn’t believe in the loving, forgiving, redeeming God of Christianity. I hope his voters investigate and find out what religion he actually practices,” said the Rev. Jack Zylman.

“Maybe his unChristian statement has something to do with his past. The (Birmingham) News says he was a “conservative talk show host.” If this qualifies him to be a State Senator and a theologian, then Rush Limbaugh should be the next President and Pope.

“The Alabama Republican Party plans to nominate next year: Roy “Kill a Gay for God” Moore for Governor; George Wallace, Jr. for Lt. Governor (he keynoted the last convention of the Kouncil of Konservative Citizens, the new KKK); and Hank “Sic ‘em, God” Erwin for State Senate.

“Growing up, I never knew clowns could be this evil,” Zylman said. “Alabama, love it or grieve it.”

Artur Davis, Congressman for Birmingham and the Black Belt, is a cosponsor of a bill to gut the Endangered Species Act.

The bill really gives private owners the right do do whatever they want on their land, regardless of the danger to the species which are endangered. It is a “private property over all” bill.

“This is a deeply destructive bill,” said the Rev. Jack Zylman. “Davis should be ashamed.”

Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005 Amends the Endangered Species Act
H.R. 3824: Mr. Brady of Texas, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Cunningham, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Duncan, Mrs. Emerson, Mr. Flake, Mr. Fortuno, Mr. Hayworth, Mr. Hunter, Mr. Issa, Mr. King of Iowa, Mr. Lucas, Mr. Daniel E. Lungren of California, Mr. McKeon, Mrs. Musgrave, Mr. Neugebauer, Mr. Nunes, Mr. Pearce, Mr. Renzi, Mr. Shadegg, Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Tancredo, Mr. Thomas, Mr. Thornberry, Mr. Weldon of Florida, Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Rohrabacher, Mr. Herger, Mr. Scott of Georgia, Mr. Kline, Mr. Faleomavaega, Mr. Kennedy of Minnesota, Mr. McCaul of Texas, Mr. Melancon, Mr. Gary G. Miller of California, Mr. Simpson, Mr. Shuster, Mr. Kingston, Mr. Souder, Mr. Norwood, Mr. Jenkins, Mr. Sherwood, Mr. Franks of Arizona, Mr. Boozman, Mr. Cole of Oklahoma, Mr. Barton of Texas, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Ortiz, Mr. Bachus, Mr. Edwards, Mr. Everett, Mr. Bonner, Mr. Gingrey, Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Davis of Alabama, Mr. Ryun of Kansas, Mr. Baker, Mr. Rogers –> of Alabama, Mr. Smith of Texas, Mr. McIntyre, Mr. Cramer, Mr. Hinojosa, Mr. Osborne, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, Ms. Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, and Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas.

To read the bill, go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c109:2:./temp/~c109qjq0dW::

A C-SPAN UPDATE: If you get a chance to hear Dan Rather answer Marvin Kalb’s questions on the Future of Journalism, check it out.

Rather made some interesting points about what makes a journalist, whether blogging is journalism and in fact who qualifies as a journalist.

For starters, anyone who wants to claim they are a journalist attaches their name to their report. Anonymous cheap one-shotters should not be listened to and certainly not trusted.

He said courage is his favorite word, and anyone who claims to be a journalist should have the courage to speak truth to power and be prepared to make enemies. If everyone likes you, you are not much of a journalist.

If a blogger makes an honest attempt to report the facts in front of them, it is a new form of journalism. Not so with anything anonymous.

So watch out for anonymous e-mail and anonymous comments on blogs. It is the modern equivalent of the late night, hate-filled threatening phone call from the Ku Klux Klan.

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested today in front of the White House today. Here’s the AP story:

Sheehan Arrested During Anti-War Protest at White House

David Swanson has a story with photos here:

Civil Resistance at the White House

CrooksandLiars.com has the video here:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/26.html#a5112

The Brad Blog has other footage of the D.C. anti-war protests, including footage of Cindy Sheehan and Jesse Jackson in the march.

URL: http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001869.htm

Thousands and of citizens are speaking out to oppose the nomination of John Roberts as chief justice of the Supreme Court, according to this announcement and action alert.

They are telling our senators that they don’t want a justice who won’t let us see any of his memos for the last 20 years. They are telling them they don’t want a justice who tried to hide his leadership role in the extremely reactionary Federalist Society. They are telling them the most unpopular second term president in history does NOT have any mandate to appoint his own personal crony to such a position of absolute power. And they need to hear from you too.

The question we must ask ourselves is this: If YOU had the power to cast the deciding vote on John Roberts, would you vote your conscience on principle or not? That is how you need to tell your senator they must vote as well, because you DO have that power. We are the American people, and our representatives we elected are there to listen to us and want we really want

Especially if you are from Vermont or Wisconsin you must immediately contact Leahy, Feingold and Kohl and tell them they got it WRONG on Roberts in the judiciary committee and they need to correct their error. We already have a president who is incapable of ever admitting or correcting any mistake. We don’t need that from our senators too. But whatever state you are from it is important for you to use the action form below to send a personal message to both your senators at one time, plus you can send a letter to the editor of your nearest daily newspaper, all with one click.

Who were the self-appointed media pundits who dared to tell us Roberts was a done deal before the hearing even started? Who co-ordinated the corporate media campaign that poisoned our minds with the words of defeatism and submission? Indeed, who has unwittingly collaborated with the right wing talking points merchants by speaking those words of betrayal and resignation out of their own mouths?

Why NOT demand what we really want? We are the people of the United States. We don’t have to settle for less than we really deserve, a true mainstream justice who will rule fairly for all the people, not just on behalf of a minority of corporate crony friends. How dare anyone tell us Roberts is the best we can hope for. The best we can hope for is what we are BRAVE enough to demand as is our RIGHT by the mandate of our numbers speaking out.