The World Around You

The Birmingham News finally turns the spotlight on the three undecided superdelegates in Alabama: Nancy Worley, Joe Turnham and Rep. Bud Cramer. They will help decide not so much who wins the Democratic candidacy, but how quickly he locks it up.

It’s time for Worley, Turnham and Cramer to stand with Senator Obama and help end this marathon of a primary election season.

Alabama’s 8 superdelegates split over Clinton vs. Obama - three have yet to decide- al.com

…and in the light of day I hope Senator Clinton recognizes that. A narrow victory in Indiana and getting trounced in North Carolina does not make for a formula to stay in the race. She fought long and hard to keep her slim chances alive and slim has turned to none.

I hope her advisors are able to recognize that the money flow is stopping and that they will not gain a single superdelegate following the results yesterday. Obama will see a flood of new commitments this week…but he has already ended any doubt.

If she’s in beyond the end of this week, I would be surprised…

I’m a little surprised that Swing State Project still has Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District as likely Republican. It’s looking like Senator Harri-Anne Smith is going to end up in a runoff in the Republican primary against either David Woods or Jay Love. And on the Democratic side, you have a very strong candidate in Bobby Bright, especially against Love or Woods.

At best this is a Lean R, and depending on who the candidate ends up being it could become a toss-up.

Swing State Project:: SSP’s Competitive House Race Ratings (5/06/08)

Obama is moving in the right direction at the right time…Zogby has Obama by two in Indiana and by 14 in North Carolina.

All eyes on Indiana tonight…my prediction: Obama wins and the long, long primary season will finally be over.

Pollster.com: POLL: Zogby IN, NC (5/4-5; Final)

The constitutional reform bill died in the Alabama House yesterday. Why we go through this same heartbreak every year, I cannot understand.

The citizens of Alabama have demanded a new constitution and our legislature won’t give us the opportunity to craft one. It’s absolutely outrageous.

On Thursday, the House voted 46-44 for the measure, short of the three-fifths vote needed to bring it up for consideration.

The bill would have also allowed voters to approve the final version of the new constitution.

Newton said he doesn’t understand why legislators are not willing to let voters decide the issue.

“Those people who had the wisdom to elect you to this body ought to have the wisdom to decide on a new constitution,” Newton said.

House turns down effort to rewrite Alabama constitution - NewsFlash - al.com

The grace period is over for red light runners at the intersections with cameras in Montgomery,

As of mid-afternoon Wednesday, the cameras had captured 1,620 possible vio­lations, and a week-by-week breakdown shows the number of offenses have in­creased significantly since the first week.

The first week 233 warnings were mailed out. Those warnings averaged 429 a week during the past two weeks.

“I’m kind of surprised that they are this high and also not that surprised,” said mayoral assistant Michael Briddell, who has overseen the project.

Briddell said a survey was done about four years ago at the intersection of East Boulevard and Vaughn Road — one of the busiest intersections in the city — and it was determined that on average, 105 peo­ple ran the red light each day.

“To see that they were this high at oth­er intersections is pretty disturbing,” Briddell said, adding that the numbers underline the extent of the problem of red-light running in Montgomery.

Mayor Bobby Bright attributes the high numbers to the fact April was highly publicized as being the grace period. He believes those numbers will drop now that warnings are no longer being issued.

“When they get a ticket that says they owe $50, that will have an effect on their behavior, I’m sure,” Bright said recently.

I certainly agree…that number will decline, but the public will also start getting much more vocal about this policy.

montgomeryadvertiser.com | Red-light camera fines start today

Not a big surprise on either front in this poll, but still good to have numbers to put with the belief that more Alabamians believe that it is time to bring the troops home.

Alabamians overwhelmingly are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country - 67.6 percent to 21.8 percent - but satisfied - 53.5 percent to 39.7 percent - with the ways things are going in Alabama, the polling data shows.

“There is a little disconnect going on here, for sure,” said Gerald Johnson, director of the poll. “We’re seeing almost half of respondents now saying the war was a mistake, but the one candidate out of the three who is saying the war is not a mistake is easily ahead.”

That’s not a disconnect, that’s LOGIC (at least in Alabama). We continually vote for candidates who run exactly opposite to what we say we believe…now try and explain to me why.

Alabamians overwhelmingly back McCain, but 45% want to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq- al.com

…has the potential to destroy the Obama candidacy. Why he chose now to come out and publicly stand by some of his more incendiary statements is beyond me. Even if Senator Obama manages to get the nomination of the Democratic Party, surrogates for his opponent in the general election will pummel him to death with Rev. Wright’s statements.

As much as it may pain Senator Obama and his family, they have to distance themselves even further from Rev. Wright, or he will be Dukakis Part 2…

The ten point threshold was a fair standard to put out there, and yes Obama overcame a much larger lead, but the campaign pumped lots of resources into Pennsylvania and weren’t able to come any closer. It doesn’t mean Obama won’t win the nomination, it does mean he once again could not close the deal.

Indiana becomes all important now. We lost Ohio. We lost Pennsylvania. If we can’t win Indiana…the doubts will linger… I encourage all Obama supporters to do everything they can to ensure that Indiana delivers a victory to Obama, and that paired with a big win in North Carolina, we can close the book on this primary season.

Alright, the headline made me laugh…but the explanation had me rolling on the floor…

Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute.

He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials, according to the treasurer of his Sao Cristovao parish, Denise Gallas.

Gallas said by telephone that the priest wanted to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons to raise money for a spiritual rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil’s second-largest port for agricultural products.

Nation & World | Brazil priest vanishes on balloon flight | Seattle Times Newspaper

This is the kind of story that gets me upset. It’s a feel good story about money that was restored for one program because parents lobbied for it.

We shouldn’t have to lobby for every important social service in this state. If the legislators don’t understand what is being cut when you slash a program’s funding, they better get to understand it before they try to cripple it…

It’s upsetting that there are services being slashed that no one has been able to organize a lobby for…it’s sad that is the way ALL business is done in Montgomery. If you don’t have lobbyists (paid or volunteer), you don’t exist.

State’s Early Intervention program gets some late help- al.com

This had to be an inside job…

The stolen computers were delivered to the county in 2006 as part of a new comprehensive election system ordered from a Nebraska company that was supposed to include 60 electronic poll books. Instead it delivered 60 laptops, said Trey Granger, Montgomery County elections director.

“We immediately put this company on notice that they sent us the wrong equipment, refusing delivery of the laptops and told them to make the order right and pick up their property,” Granger said.

He said the company — Electronic Systems & Software (ES & S) — asked the county to store them until the company could arrange to have them picked up, promising to make the order right.

That was two years ago.

Granger said the county stored the boxed computers in a locked and secure room on the second floor of the Montgomery County Election Center at 125 Washington Avenue.

“We never paid for the laptops because they aren’t even close to what we specified in our order and we have pleaded with this company to pick up their property constantly since 2006, all to no avail,” Granger said Monday.

He said the loss of the laptops would not affect any of the upcoming elections scheduled in the county for this year.Within the last month, E S & S finally responded to the county’s request to pick up the laptops and both parties agreed the computers would be sent back to Nebraska on April 22.

Granger discovered the crime Friday after he told an intern at the elections office to move each boxed laptop to his first-floor office in preparation for E S & S to pick them up Tuesday.

“At 1:30 p.m., I inspected the boxes to make sure everything was in order before the vendor took possession of them on Tuesday,” Granger said.

“When I picked up one of the boxed-up laptops, it felt unusually light, so I cut the tape, opened the box, and it was empty with no computer in it at all,” Granger said.

He then continued to open every box.

“We tore through each and every box and while they were all perfectly sealed and taped shut, none of the boxes had its computer inside of it,” Granger said.

“The biggest irony of this crime is the laptops were stolen in a room next door to the sheriff’s criminal investigation office,” he said.

This was not just some petty thief, this was someone who knew the story on these laptops, and probably took one or two a day out of the building for two months…and who knows how long ago that was?

montgomeryadvertiser.com | Stolen Laptops Point of Dispute

All of the polls I’ve seen have Hillary up over the weekend between 6 and 10 points. Like most Obama supporters I desperately hope he can win this, because by Hillary’s own statements it’s a must win for her. However, not only is it a must win, it’s a must win by at least double digits. If Senator Obama can keep the margin closer to 5 than 10, it’s a very positive sign for him and we move on with Senator Clinton having missed another huge opportunity.

Senator Obama will be the nominee, the path to ending this is much murkier…

Most of the precious few days our legislature meets are frittered away on ridiculous nonsense…and it’s happened again this year. The Senate has done almost nothing…

No more than eight meeting days remain in this session of the Legislature, and senators say the impasse could keep them from passing state budgets for next year.

“There’s a chance that a lot of important pieces of legislation will go down the tubes,” said Sen. Jabo Waggoner, R-Vestavia Hills.

The budgets must be passed, the clean indoor air act is a deep desire of mine, and there are many other pieces of legislation waiting for consideration.

Gambling bill causing logjam in Alabama Senate- al.com

I give Senator McCain credit for bringing attention to the Black Belt of Alabama today with his visit. I don’t think it’s anything more than a PR campaign, but he may win himself some votes today…granted in a state that is very likely to vote for him regardless.

montgomeryadvertiser.com | McCain Tours Black Belt Today

I didn’t watch the debate, but I trust Marc Ambinder’s assessment…it doesn’t sound good. He’s right that it may boomerang back on Hillary and that Obama will raise significant dollars, but the timing is just horrid.

A win in Pennsylvania was going to be a slog before, it looks impossible now. I think the best he can hope for next week is a close result that does not cause any major change in the delegate count, but there is no question he needs to rebound from last night quickly and find his footing again.

Marc Ambinder (April 16, 2008) - The Score Card

…that our legislators actually cast their own votes? Apparently it is.

At least four House members who were not present Wednesday were recorded voting “yes,” including Rep. DuWayne Bridges, R-Valley, and Rep. Richard Laird, D-Roanoke, who are in Korea on an industry hunting trip. Bridges is a conservative Republican who other GOP members say they expect would have voted against the measure. Laird is a Democrat who often votes with Republicans on social and tax issues.

Also voting “yes” on the bill were Rep. Thad McClammy, D-Montgomery, who was in a hospital Tuesday, and Rep. Jeff McLaughlin, D-Guntersville, who said he was with his family on a spring break trip to the beach and had given a Democratic colleague permission to vote his machine.

House Minority Leader Rep. Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said he saw one Democrat, Rep. Randy Hinshaw of Meridianville, vote the electronic machines of Bridges and Laird, without receiving their permission.

“You can’t be courteous here anymore. They (Democrats) are going to cheat to get what they want,” Hubbard said.

Fraud might be a better word then cheating, but until we get the definitive answer from the legislators in question, we don’t know whether or not the votes on their machines were authorized or not.

GOP: Democrats cast votes for absent House members - NewsFlash - al.com