Hey Y’all,

I know it may sound strange to some that there is a such thing as a political left in Alabama, but there’s a fairly new blog you should check out called Left in Alabama. It lays claim to the task of “connecting progressive voices in Alabama.”

And they are now blogging about who might run to unseat that little right-wing scoundrel Jeff Sessions in the U.S. Senate.

Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks is on the list, as is state Senator Vivian Figures, although she seems to be in no hurry to make a decision.

Supposedly Rep. Artur Davis of Birmingham is off the list, since he would have to give up his House seat to run, although what the heck? Can he beat Sessions?

What about Joe Turnham, the party chair, or why not draft Charles Barkley? Maybe he could be convinced to go to the U.S. Senate BEFORE running for governor in 2014.

It might just take celebrity power to beat corrupt money these days, which is why we’ve already bet the Yuenglings on a Thompson v. Gore race for president in 2008. Not many people have taken that bet yet, btw, so it’s still open : )

And see, even our evil Repub state Attorney General Troy King had to deny he was for Thompson today in Mountain Brook - at a successful fund raiser for Thompson.

Thompson Draws Crowd in Alabama

He is committed to McCain, but everybody who is anybody knows McCain is dead in this race - and that Karl Rove and the Bush family are already lining up behind Tompson. It won’t take King long to follow…

It may take Al Gore’s celebrity power to trump the other candidate from Tennessee in ‘08. I know, I hate to see an all Tennessee race too - considering what I learned about that state’s politics while living in Knoxville for four years.

But that’s what it still looks like from Locust Forkland, where the river runs cold and true, the great blue herons dance like elvis and the people like to shoot the breeze (and they are usually right).

Before Election 2006, many Democrats saw Congressman John Conyers as the old lion who finally would hold George W. Bush and Dick Cheney accountable, through impeachment if necessary.

Instead, Conyers has shied away from that challenge and even had pro-impeachment demonstrators arrested at his office.

In this guest essay, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern describes how Conyers has failed to live up to the heroic standards of Martin Luther King Jr.

For the full story of the confrontation between pro-impeachment activists and Congressman Conyers, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

The Battle of the Blues Bands in Birmingham will be held Sunday, July 29, beginning at Zydeco at 2 p.m.

Competing this year in the Solo/Duo category will be 2BLU, Troy Bland, Sam Pointer, Lenny Trawick, Leonard Watkins. In the full band cetegory: Blue Light Specials, Dan and the Dusters, Legal Aliens, Michael Carpenter Experience, Midnight Train, Todd Simpson and Mojo Child and the Lance Almon Smith Band.

For more information, contact the Magic City Blues Society.

Editor’s Note: Locust Fork Journal editor and publisher Glynn Wilson is on vacation. Cindy Sheehan’s columns are reprinted with permission.

by Cindy Sheehan

Day 11 of our Journey for Humanity and Accountability found our caravan group at the Charlottesville, Virginia, home of David Swanson, director of AfterDowningStreet.Org.

I got to know David after my group Gold Star Families for Peace became one of thefirst organizations to sign on to ADS when the memoswere exposed on May 1, 2005. That collaboration led towhat I thought was going to be the downfall of BushCo: the fact that on July 23, 2001, there was a secret meeting at 10 Downing Street that pretty much said that the invasion of Iraq was a foregone conclusion and the intelligence was going to have to be “fixed” around the policy of pre-emptive invasion.
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