While the Republicans on the national level took control of the House, Alabama’s GOP captured both houses of the state Legislature for the first time in 136 years, since federal Reconstruction right after the Civil War.
Turnham called a special meeting of the State Democratic Executive Committee for January 29 to elect a new chair. No quotes have been forthcoming to accompany the release at this time to explain the decision. We will report more on this and have comments of our own at some point.
We would be interested to know how readers feel about this, especially Democrats in Alabama. Hit the word “Comment” below…
Davis served Alabama’s 7th Congressional District for four two-year terms in a seat he could have held for life. He chucked it all and will now join SNR Denton, “representing individual and corporate clients in criminal and civil fraud matters in a range of areas, including securities and financial crimes, public corruption and the Foreign and Corrupt Practice Act,” according to the news release. Although it should be pointed out that in the new private sector position, Davis will be defending individuals and corporations charged with criminal and civil fraud, not championing the vicims of his clients.
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.
Secret Corporate Campaign Cash Subverts American Democracy
When Karl Rove learned he’d be able to channel unlimited corporate money into the 2010 elections, he must have felt like a kid in a candy store. But apparently this wasn’t enough — he’s taken advantage of tax-exempt non-profit laws to funnel tens of millions of dollars into political campaigns.
Rove’s organization, American Crossroads GPS, was one of the largest sources of outside funding in this election, but because Rove is refusing to disclose his donors, this massive source of secret funds is unchecked by campaign finance laws.
Rove’s organization shouldn’t have free reign to exert enormous influence on our elections while receiving special tax status!
Senator Bernie Sanders took to the Senate floor to make a speech about the “war” being waged by the rich and corporations against working families in America. Listen and learn.
There was an explosion of corporate cash spent in the 2010 U.S. election campaigns and a disturbing amount of secrecy around the sources of that money.
The Open Society Foundation talked about this trend with an expert on the issue, Monica Youn, senior counsel of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice.
Youn broke down what Americans need to know about the dramatic increase of money in politics.
“During the 2010 election there was a real power grab by certain well-funded interests,” she notes. “The most disturbing thing about it is we don’t even know who those interests are, and we have no way to hold them accountable for the way in which they flooded hundreds of millions of dollars to influence this election.”
Watch the interview (above) to learn more about the impact of big money in elections and to find out what you can do to demand accountability and transparency in the 2012 elections.
The crumbling Alabama Democratic Party called on four members of the legislature who have decided to switch to the Republican Party in the wake of November’s election to resign and re-run for office in a special election.
In the biggest national Republican electoral sweep in well over a generation, a sweep that allowed Republicans to grab control of both houses of the Alabama Legislature for the first time since federal Reconstruction after the Civil War more than 100 years ago, some Democrats survived and won re-election.
“The gentlemen changing parties today had just won re-election as Democrats, not Republicans; and they did so with the money, time, votes and volunteerism of thousands of Democrats from across the state. Their switch today baffles the voters and upends the process of election,” outgoing Democratic Party Chairman Joe Turnham said in a press release. “These gentlemen have been my friends for a long time and I respect each of them personally, but I am saddened and hurt by their decision today.”
The Republican members of the legislature have put on a full-court press to push all white Democrats to change parties after the election, according to the release.
You will be glad to find out today that perhaps your favorite brand of toilet paper may no longer come from wood harvested out of some of the South’s more important hardwood forests. But the deal that led to that agreement raises some interesting economic and political questions that are not being explored either by the non-profit groups which forged the deal — or the mainstream media covering it. Let’s connect some dots and raise some healthy, democratic skepticism.
Three non-profit environmental organizations are basking in the glow of victory this week and heaping massive praise on the Georgia-Pacific paper company, for establishing a policy not to purchase trees from so-called “Endangered Forests” or from new pine plantations established where natural hardwood forests once stood. The policy statement was developed in consultation with the Dogwood Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Rainforest Action Network.
The NRDC press release hails the agreement as a “bold commitment to forests,” and the Dogwood Alliance praises the “iconic Southern paper giant” for “announcing bold new steps … to prevent the conversion of (more than) 90 million acres of natural hardwood forests to pine plantations and protect endangered forests in the Southern U.S. –- the largest wood and paper producing region of the world. History is in the making. Times are changing. A major economic force affecting forests has shifted.”
While the new forest policy applies to all of its operations, according to the agreement, it is just a “first step” in implementing the company’s commitment to working with environmental groups and scientists “to identify 11 Endangered Forests and Special Areas totaling 600,000 acres in the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Eco-Region, as well as 90 million acres of natural hardwood forests in the Southern region.”
“No other U.S. company has demonstrated this level of initiative in mapping unique forests across such a broad region,” said Debbie Hammel, the senior resource specialist with NRDC. “Through this process, GP has proven that — by harnessing scientific advances and seeking conservation guidance — corporations can help protect unique places without sacrificing profitability.”
Welcome back to our nation’s capital for your one final session of the 111th Congress. Come January, the Republicans will take over the House while the Democrats will retain control of the Senate.
But Dems — here’s something I don’t understand: Why do you look all sullen and depressed? Clearly you’re not aware of one very important fact: YOU ARE STILL COMPLETELY, TOTALLY, LEGALLY IN CHARGE! When (and if, mostly if) you wake up to the reality that you can do whatever you want for the next seven weeks, you will realize that you have two clear options:
1. You can continue your “Sit Quietly and Hope No One Hits Me” strategy and thus lay the groundwork for an even bigger ass-kicking two years from now;
Or…
2. You can actually use the power you hold for the next seven weeks and have the Senate pass the legislation that the House has already passed!
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
