by Glynn Wilson

Updated Wednesday below…

A bidder going by the individual name of Todd Palmer submitted the highest bid of $3,750,000 Tuesday for 3,200 acres of land along the Locust Fork of the Black Warrior River that had been set aside for a dam in the early 1990s.

The property became available this summer when the Birmingham Water Works Board, held at bay on the dam idea by stringent opposition, voted to permanently remove it as an option as a source of drinking water for Alabama’s largest city.

Water board personnel refused to reveal more information about the bidder. As soon as the bid opening concluded, two men representing the mystery company ducked into a back room and refused to comment on their plans for the land. Their attorney simply said it was “investment property,” and left the building when asked if he thought the public had a right to know what their plans were.

The same duo had contacted the water board after bids were submitted legally by the end of the day on Friday and indicated they were willing to go higher. Water board General manager Mac Underwood opened the meeting by offering to give other bidders an hour to also amend their bids and submit higher offers, but the amended bid from the mysterious duo was never submitted after two other representatives for other companies objected to changes after the legal deadline set for Friday.

Underwood and another gentleman who said his name was Mark Parnell sort of stumbled around trying to explain the bidding process, indicating that the board would have to consider the “highest and best offer” as well as the “terms of the contract” before voting to accept a bid, but they indicated they will start with the highest bid and work down from that.

When asked if the environment in the watershed was a concern as well as cash, Underwood said the board did not own enough property or have a mandate to worry about protecting the watershed, which should come as great comfort to the people who depend on the board for quality drinking water.

Nelson Brooke, the executive director of the Black Warrior Riverkeeper non-profit group, which had tried to set up a deal for the state Forever Wild program to purchase the land to preserve it, said he is still hoping the water board will change its mind and decide to let Forever Wild buy it.

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Could news about the Iraq War really get even worse?

The owner of U.S. contractor Blackwater was a Christian zealot hell-bent on wiping Muslims from the earth. When facing an investigation, he ordered the murder of witnesses.

That’s corporate America and the military industrial complex for you. Yea, we are such a moral country and an example to the world. No wonder the entire world loved George W. Bush so much…

Do you think they were fun to sit down and have a beer with?

Blackwater Founder Implicated in Murder

Controversies or Conflicts of Interest?

by Glynn Wilson

White House counsel Greg Craig may soon step down from his post, sources say.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting he may resign due to a “rocky tenure” for his handling of certain national-security issues that have now become “political liabilities,” including the rocky discussions over the closing of the Gitmo prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the controversies over whether to release Bush-era national security documents and how to handle the detainees held there.

Washington attorney Greg Craig

The administration is still considering closing the controversial prison and bringing some of the alleged terrorists to be housed and tried in the U.S., according to the AP.

But is it possible that the conflicts of interest are finally getting the best of Craig, the consummate Ivy League Washington insider who is an old friend of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman and who has also represented the Bushes and Karl Rove in the past?

We broke the story about Craig’s conflicts of interest back in March under the headline:

White House Counsel Greg Craig Asked to ‘Step Down’

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, according the paper’s sources, “the final decision hasn’t been made” on whether Craig will step down or not. Perhaps it depends on whether this article grows legs or not, and whether the activist public picks up on it and demands once again that he resign.

According to Alabama attorney and whistle-blower Jill Simpson, who first demanded that Craig resign in a letter from her Montgomery attorney Priscilla Duncan, the question of whether Craig should resign should rest on whether he “is doing a good job for the Democrats.”

“I think the answer would be no,” Ms. Simpson said. “President Obama was elected by Democrats and independents in this country who sought change in the direction our country was headed. However, Mr. Craig as legal counsel to the president has provided us with no change.”

She pointed out that we still have a Department of Justice that is “riddled with problems,” detention centers both here and abroad “filled with folks who don’t need to be there,” and a White House legal counsel’s office filed with attorneys who “just don’t get it.”

“The voters were seeking a country that respects the rule of law and wants it upheld by thier government officials,” she said. “In fact, it may be the very actions of Greg Craig that cause the Democrats to lose many seats in the 2010 elections because he just does not get it or is bought out by the establishment.”

Through his law firm, Williams and Connolly, Craig has ties to Republicans going all the way back to Watergate. He has represented George Bush Sr., George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld and former CIA director George Tenet.

“It is time for the Democrats to demand an office of legal counsel ran by Democrats,” Ms. Simpson said. “That is the only way we are ever going to see change in America.”