I have had some very fine role models, mentors, and teachers in my life, especially including my father. Some of them are not around anymore, I’m sorry to say. I hope the people like that in your life know how much they are appreciated.
Happy Father’s Day.
I hope the moms in your life are being appropriately and fondly remembered. I’m grateful for the ones I know.
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| Michael Scanlon | Hayden Christensen |
Hayden Christensen has been cast to play Michael Scanlon in Casino Jack, a movie about Scanlon’s partner-in-crime, lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
Scanlon served a stint as Bob Riley’s press secretary when Riley was a Congressman. Scanlon went on to serve as chief of staff for Congressman Tom Delay and became a close associate of Abramoff’s. The corruption investigation that led to guilty pleas from Abramoff and Scanlon also led to guilty pleas or convictions of Congressman Bob Ney (R - Ohio), White House officials Steven Griles and David Safavian, and others.
Scanlon, you may remember, worked to protect the gambling interests of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, and it was his campaign contributions to organizations that later donated to Bob Riley’s gubernatorial campaign that led to accusations that Riley had accepted out-of-state gambling money to keep gambling out of Alabama.
Hayden Christensen played Anakin Skywalker in Episodes II & III of the Star Wars movies. I don’t know about you, but I look at the picture of Scanlon, and I see Dennis Quaid, especially a young Dennis Quaid.
Kevin Spacey has signed on to play Abramoff and has even visited Abramoff in prison.
There is also a documentary expected to be released later this year to be called Casino Jack: The United States of Money. And oddly enough, Abramoff himself has his own Hollywood ties; he produced the 1989 Dolph Lundgren action movie Red Scorpion and its sequel, Red Scorpion 2.
I have been remiss in not thanking you who recommended this blog to Chris Cillizza (of The Fix at the Washington Post) who last week named this site one of the best state political blogs. The list was based entirely on recommendations by his readers, and so I thank very much those of you who were kind enough to take it upon yourselves to recommend the Parlor to him.
On his list of best state political blogs, Cillizza also singles out Alabama blogs South Union Street (Montgomery Advertiser), Left In Alabama, and The World Around You.
I also got a kick out of him naming this site one of the blogs with the best names:
The best named blogs on the list: Doc’s Political Parlor & Lawn Mower Repair (Ala.), Rum, Romanism, Rebellion (Ariz.), My Left Nutmeg (Conn.), The Old River Road (La.), Writes Like She Talks (Ohio), Not Larry Sabato (Va.) and Horses Ass (Wash.)
For most Alabama political bloggers, blogging is a labor of love, and it’s nice when anyone appreciates and takes notice of what you are doing.
As I say, keep reading. You’ll find some things that you’ll like, others that you won’t, some things that you will find here first, and others that you won’t find anywhere else.
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Happy Easter!
Easter is a big day at our house. I hope today is a good day for your family.
There’s mixed news out there in the newspaper business. The papers can make money, and of course we need the papers. But profit margins are not enough to satisfy some of the corporate owners with leveraged debt.
Glad to see the Florence TimesDaily find a home with the Decatur Daily publisher who is buying it from from the New York Times.
[Publisher Barrett Shelton Jr.] said the future for newspapers is secure and scoffed at the idea of people who only get their news from “Yahoo.”
“Does Yahoo have someone down at Florence City Hall?” he said. “Does Yahoo have someone at the … courthouse? We need to be here. I’d hate to think of a world without newspapers.”
The Tuscaloosa News and the Gadsden Times will continue to be owned by the New York Times.
Looks like the Orange County Register did not choose the ideal picture to accompany the AP story about Alabama snow “covering Civil War statues” on Sunday.
Thanks to reader A!
Former Samford University head and 2-year college chancellor dies today at 67 of a heart attack. Another great loss for our state. Everything I knew about him suggested he belonged in the “good guys” column.
Billy Powell, keyboard player for southern rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd, died last night. Powell was one of the survivors that of the plane crash that killed three members of the band in 1977, and he continued to play with the re-formed band.
Most Alabamians have a soft spot for the “Sweet Home Alabama,” the band’s retort to Neil Young; the phrase itself is on our license plates starting this month. The song apparently resonates with non-Alabamians; it was the group’s highest charting hit (so take that, David Spade, who once said that Lynyrd Skynyrd should call every song they do either “Free Bird” or “Not Free Bird”) and was once covered by, among others, the Leningrad Cowboys performing with the Red Army Choir. A minister once told me how much his son enjoyed coming upon a busker performing the song on a street corner in England.
Here is “Sweet Home Alabama” performed by Lynyrd Skynyrd on YouTube. And here is the song as performed by Finland’s Leningrad Cowboys with the Red Army Choir.
The guys had some hooks. For no apparent reason, from time to time I find “Gimme Three Steps” running through my head…
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What do you know? Bernie Madoff, perpetrator of “one of the largest securities frauds in history” to the tune of $50 billion, attended the University of Alabama as a freshman. He is remembered - barely - by his fraternity brothers there.
Some folks survive the holidays better than others do. I am wishing you the very best this season.
The State Ethics Commission voted 4-1 to end the case brought against Secretary of State Beth Chapman by Mark Montiel.
On this day - and every day - may the joys and blessings for which you give thanks be too numerous to count.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Once again, Charles Barkley is talking about running for Governor. The latest (with video) from ABC News Political Punch and a some Alabama reaction from the Clarion Caller blog.
If he does enter the race, at least the contest won’t feature amiable dunces trading bromides and brickbats.
This paper plans a live chat on the presidential election debate and is looking for folks to test the system. More details below.
“Opelika-Auburn News political writer Jennifer Foster will host a live chat during the presidential debate tonight. She’ll get started shortly before 8 p.m. CDT. For more details, check out her blog today.”
According to this article at TheHill Congressional mail servers are throttling connections to keep from overloading.
A tip, your email will eventually get delivered, resending it (unless the bounce message says otherwise) will only make it worse. Whoever delivers your mail will keep retrying until it delivers.
Hat tip to the Bulldada Newsblog for the steer. Don’t browse Bulldada from work, it will get you talked about.
Alabama’s Harbert family (matriarch Marguerite Harbert, son Raymond) is behind Harbinger Capital Partners, a hedge fund founded seven years ago that since January has bought over 20% of the New York Times Co.. Harbinger Capital Partners is now the largest shareholder outside the family of Arthur Ochs Sulzberger; representatives have elbowed their way onto the New York Times Co. Board of Directors.
Condé Nast’s Portfolio.com has an interesting profile of the Harbert family and the hedge fund which has people guessing about its intentions regarding a possible shareholder assault on the New York Times.
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In the Times-Daily is word that Alabama forest owners can now sell carbon credits on the Climate Exchange. While the money is not a princely sum, (5 to 10 bucks an acre), it can lead to a problem.
Alabama reformers have long set a goal of changing the tax status of forest land so its owners pay more taxes. This would be done by removing the current use provisions of the tax code and assessing the land based on its best use.
So, what is the best use of say 500 acres in Marengo County? Would the best use of those 500 acres be as a carbon sink in the fight against global warming? Should the timber stand in downtown Big City which the owner pays minimal taxes be taxed as commercial property thus ensuring its development or should the owner be encouraged to maintain as is for its carbon absorption by means of low taxes?
As always with policy and taxation, the devil is in the details
Rep. Cam Ward (R - Alabaster), Chairman of the Alabama Autism Task Force, takes issue with remarks made by popular conservative radio talk show host Michael Savage on the subject of autism. Rep. Ward blogs about it here.
Tennessee is landing the Volkswagen plant that north Alabama hoped to get, VW announced today. The Chattanooga Free Times Press issued its first special edition since 9/11 to announce a simple headline, “It’s Chattanooga!”
I wish VW could and would be forthright about what factors made the difference in the decision. Infrastructure? Quality of life issues? Was it simply that more than $200 million in incentives from Alabama was not enough?
I am sorry to hear that the mother of Bradley Byrne, chancellor of the 2-year college system, died unexpectedly. May we remember the family in prayers.
Thicket is a new and good-looking magazine “that celebrates the good of Alabama: our people, our places, our history, and most importantly, our future.” Its second issue will be on newstands next week. I mention it not only because I thoroughly enjoyed the first issue with its Bob Riley cover story and much more, but also because this new issue will be publishing the Political Parlor’s list of the 40 Most Influential Non-Elected Alabamians.
Also… This week we were mentioned on a CBS News site that picked up a story by Politico.com. The Fix on the Washington Post site named our site in its post, “Best of the State Politics Blogs” this week. (An updated list is here.) The National Journal House Race Hotline (subscription only) - “the epitome of insider DC media,” according to one Parlor friend - cited the Political Parlor in its coverage of the AL-05 race. That’s four nice mentions this week by some good company, plus Thicket magazine next week. I always appreciate when anybody takes notice of what we are doing.
Readership is going up steadily also. I see with some amazement that we get more readers in two hours today than we did in all of April 2006 when the blog had been up four months. Much of that is due to folks who contribute greatly to the site’s flow of information about Alabama politics and policy - directly in the cases of the Daily News Digest, Legislative Dispatch, and the Small Town Political Gazette, and indirectly in the case of those who generously act as sources, sounding boards, idea people, and behind-the-scenes contributors.
Stay with us. You’ll find some things that you’ll like, others that you won’t, some things that you will find here first, and others that you won’t find anywhere else.
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An 1888 photo of Tuscumbia native Helen Keller and her teacher Anne Sullivan has been discovered.
Researchers have uncovered a rare photograph of a young Helen Keller with her teacher Anne Sullivan, nearly 120 years after it was taken on Cape Cod. The photograph, shot in July 1888 in Brewster, shows an 8-year-old Helen sitting outside in a light-colored dress, holding Sullivan’s hand and cradling one of her beloved dolls.
Good article and a sharp photograph (a larger version is available at the story link).
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