The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

The coffee tastes more than a little bitter this morning. It is no sweet tea to see your worst political predictions come true.

I have been railing for the past five and a half years about the need for a coalition to come together to fight the complete corporate takeover of the American political system. Many people got off the couch and fought for the election of Barack Obama in 2008. It was a great victory and there is no doubt he is a better president than George W. Bush and certainly better than anything we could have hoped for from John McCain or Sarah Palin.

But thanks in part to the tea party morons, that election looks like one step forward, two steps back. Give me the Coffee Party any day.

In order to appease the incoming Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and to show he can broker a bi-partisan deal after all, Obama caved to the GOP without a fight and backed a bill to extend the Bush tax cuts for the richest Americans for two more years, breaking yet another campaign promise to make his deal with the red state devils.

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Justice in the Heart of Dixie Has Already Been Bought by Corporate Interests

There really is only one hope for the working people of Alabama, and this is not some partisan statement like you would hear on talk radio or the Fake Fox News channel.

Since the Alabama Supreme Court is made up of a corporate Republican majority of 8-1, and since the Republicans are most likely going to once again hold the governor’s office and take control of the legislature for the first time since Reconstruction, the only hope is to elect a few Democrats to the Alabama Supreme Court. It’s doubtful it will happen. The Democrats suffer a serious financial disadvantage and the tea party Republicans are revved up to turn out Nov. 2, while the Obama administration’s inability to overcome the party of “no” has Democrats and independents so disgruntled they may not show up to vote.

There’s not much time to turn this trend around, and no one seems to be proposing a workable plan (although we understand one was put on the table back in July).

But there is one candidate for the Alabama Supreme Court who is at least trying something, and his name is Tom Edwards.

His campaign finally managed to launch a Website the other day with the theme “Is Alabama Justice for Sale?” at JusticeForSaleAlabama.Com.

“I became inspired to run for the Alabama Supreme Court when I started reading about the clouds of corruption that surround the Court,” Supreme Court candidate Tom Edwards said in a press release to launch the site.

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Guest Column
by Phil Fleming

Bob Riley must explain to the people of Alabama why he received a specific $500,000 campaign contribution from disgraced lobbyists Jack Abramoff and Michael Scanlon in his 2002 campaign for governor.

Abramoff and Scanlon sent the funds to the Republican Governor’s Association, which then added an additional $100,000 dollars. That $600,000 amount was deposited directly to Riley’s campaign account.

Let’s review the facts, all easily found posted online.

Abramoff and Scanlon received a total of $66 million dollars from six Indian tribes. Among the recipients of this money included Riley, former National Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed and Texas Congressman Tom Delay.

The Abramoff/Scanlon agenda during that election year was to block gambling in Texas and Alabama, which benefited the Louisiana Coushatta Tribe and the Mississippi Choctaw Tribe. They were successful.

Abramoff and Scanlon pleaded guilty to corruption conspiracies, Delay has been in legal limbo with pending criminal charges and a lot of hot air gets floated about who is supporting gambling and who isn’t.

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Alabama Governor’s Anti-Gambling Gambit Continues…

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson refused on Monday to issue a temporary restraining order blocking a raid by the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling on the Country Crossing bingo hall in Dothan, ruling that the issues should be dealt with in state court, according to the AP.

Meanwhile, reporters have learned that a group of people associated with marketing Mississippi casino interests met in mid January to discuss ways to fight increased gaming activity in Alabama, according to the Dothan Eagle newspaper, which has a special section on its Website to keep up with all the news on the controversy.

Roger Shuler of the Legal Schnauzer blog asked, are Mississippi casino interests influencing Alabama government?.

“Is it coincidence that Alabama Governor Bob Riley, who reportedly received campaign support from Mississippi casino groups, ordered attempted raids on two Alabama facilities roughly two weeks after the meeting?”

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Bob Riley’s war on gambling reached a bizarre climax early this morning when the Alabama Governor’s anti-gambling task force dispatched more than 100 state troopers to raid computer gaming centers at the Victoryland Dogtrack in Shorter, Alabama, and Country Crossing in Dothan near the Florida state line.

According to early morning television news reports, the line of state troopers “was more than a mile long,” but they were stopped at the gates of the country music entertainment compound in Dothan when they failed to produce a search warrant.

Today’s raid is just the latest in the gambling wars in the state that made national news recently when Alabama’s godfather of legal gambling, Milton McGregor, was accused of crossing a legal line when he hired a private detective to follow former task force leader David Barber to an Indian casino in Mississippi, where Barber was spotted winning $2,300.

When that information was disclosed in the media, Barber resigned, so Riley named Mobile County District Attorney John Tyson Jr. to lead the task force.

What has not been widely reported by the mainstream media is that Riley has received as much as $13 million in campaign donations from Indian casinos in Mississippi, and that family members and former staff have gotten work through those casinos, which would obviously raise questions about a conflict of interest on Riley’s part.

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Agricultural Commissioner Ron Sparks, the Fort Payne Democrat running for governor, came out swinging on the gambling issue this week against Gov. Bob Riley, and his opponent in the Democratic Party primary, Rep. Artur Davis.

Sparks said in a press release he recently ask governor Riley if he were going to stop the people of Alabama from crossing the state line into Mississippi to gamble. Then the Commander of the Governor’s Task Force on Illegal Gambling, David Barber, resigned, admitting he won thousands of dollars gambling at a Mississippi casino.

“This just proves the hypocrisy of those who want to kill Alabama jobs and rob our children and seniors of important revenue. We have a Governor who takes Mississippi gambling money while his anti-gambling czar gambles in Mississippi,” Sparks said. “David Barber takes his Alabama money and goes to Mississippi to help educate Mississippi children and help create jobs for Mississippi workers. That money needs to stay in Alabama and help us, not them.”

Sparks pledged if the people of the state elect him governor, he will bring an education lottery to Alabama, protect Alabama jobs, and finally make gaming pay its fair share of taxes.

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by Glynn Wilson

While most of the country and the states of Alabama and Texas were taking a break Thursday from the mundane affairs of business and government to revel in the national championship between the Crimson Tide and the Longhorns, a Tuscaloosa businessman with a vendetta against Bob Riley used the Rose Bowl as an unlikely setting to attack the Republican governor.

A banner with the words “Impeach Corrupt Alabama Governor Bob Ri­ley” was towed through the air over the Rose Bowl before the game (see photo above).

Officials with a banner-tow­ing company told the AP they were hired for about $3,000 to fly over the Rose Bowl stadium for about four hours before the game. A longtime Riley critic, Tus­caloosa businessman Stan Pate, took credit for the sign, saying he wanted everybody to see that “Bob Riley is a phony.”

Riley flew to Pasadena for the game ostensibly on an industry-re­cruiting trip to California, according to the AP, although it was not reported whether he took the state plane or flew commercial.

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