The World Around You

Well at least one group supported Governor Riley’s decision to veto the felon voting rights bill (Alabama governor thanked for veto of ex-felon voting rights bill ),

Crime victims groups voiced support for Gov. Bob Riley’s veto of a bill to restore voting rights for some ex-felons as foes of the veto, led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson and black legislators, prepared to march to the Capitol.

Crime victims and family members of victims said the bill Riley vetoed would have allowed too many violent offenders to get their rights back.

The bill would have returned voting rights to former felons who have completed their sentences and paid all fines and restitution. It would not have applied to felons convicted of some crimes, including murder, rape, sodomy, child molestation and treason.

Miriam Shehane, founder of Victims of Crime and Leniency, known as VOCAL, said that list is incomplete. She said it should be expanded to include crimes like assault and manslaughter, the charge most often associated with drunken driving fatalities.

“Since when were manslaughter and assault not considered to be violent offenses?” Shehane asked.

Shehane said VOCAL and other crime victims groups lobbied hard for Riley to veto the bill.

“He did the right thing,” Shehane said.

Jay Leno: “President Bush is fighting back. He said the intelligence I get is ‘darn good’. See, no matter how important an issue is, Bush always makes it sounds like he’s in a commercial for barbecue sauce” (”Tonight Show”).

Thanks to National Journal’s Wake-Up Call.

The vote on Alabama Attorney General Bill Pryor’s nomination was delayed again by the Senate Judiciary committee, as noted at TalkLeft.

I heard Tony Blair’s speech in its entirety yesterday and I will agree with Kathy Kinsley’s remarks. At the very least, Bush should hire Blair’s speechwriters. In the alternative the President should take weekly lessons in rhetoric from the Prime Minister. Heck, he almost had me convinced by the end of his talk to Congress. There is no doubt Mr. Blair is a skillful orator and he delivered a speech that was much superior to any of Mr. Bush’s. He also hammered some points that the President needs to hear. We are not going to get very far in the world by dictating policy, we have to use the power of persuasion. We must ensure that the United Nations becomes a working entity, not continue to marginalize it. We have to be a citizen of the world, not an isolationist dictator.

It was a powerful bit of rhetoric and the Democratic Presidential candidates should be taking notes on how to be firm about the beliefs we all share as Americans contrasted with the actions of this administration.

UPDATE: Kevin at Wizbang makes a similar point.

The Times Daily carries the story of two Liberian refugees who are students at Alabama A&M. Their perspective on the possibility of American troops coming to their homeland is particularly interesting,

The troops could help bring stability to the country so Liberians would be less afraid and be able to deal with their problems themselves, he said.

“What America needs to do is put right where right belongs,” said Rockefeller Cooper, 26. That is, use U.S. power to stop the rebels - both for and against Liberian President Charles Taylor, as well as those who have other agendas - from terrorizing and killing anyone they see as the enemy.

Taylor is Liberia’s problem, not America’s, not George Bush’s, said Jackson. Taylor is accused in international courts of war crimes of supporting terrorism in neighboring Sierra Leone and of murder and brutality in his own country.

But, so far, he hasn’t been found guilty of anything and little or no proof has been presented, said Jackson. No small matter in a nation whose constitution is modeled after the United States’.

And presidents of African nations should be treated with respect, as are leaders of other countries, the two Liberians said.

“I don’t like the guy,” Jackson said of Taylor, “but he was voted into office.”

“It is the Liberian people who are to decide,” Cooper said.

Truer words were neer spoken. This is also the reality we have to face in Iraq and Afghanistan and anywhere else we choose to intervene. We can set up all the democratic trappings, but in the end, the people must decide. What is the proper role for America when a democratic society makes the wrong choice? Should we intervene?

It looks like Larry Armistead, Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright’s right-hand man, may have defused the situation surrounding the checkpoint at Montgomery Mall. According to this morning’s Montgomery Advertiser,

Security video that shows disorderly youths, fistfights, frightened shoppers and panicked merchants at the Montgomery Mall shocked Montgomery church leaders into vowing to condemn the behavior from their pulpits.

The clergy and church leaders said Thursday they plan to tell their congregations that parents need to be more accountable for their children. The May 24 video they viewed showed in detail what prompted police to set up checkpoints at the Montgomery Mall on Saturday night.

Larry Armstead, an assistant to Mayor Bobby Bright, arranged for the community members to see and discuss the video with Montgomery Police Chief John Wilson.

After watching the tapes, the group agreed that something had to be done.

“We have to be getting in the homes and we have to be getting to the parents,” said Johnnie Carr, a longtime civil rights activist. “We have worked too hard and too long to be torn down by a situation like this.”

The Rev. Ezekiel Pettway of Maggie St. Baptist Church said churches have to do more to keep young people out of trouble. The video also prompted him to sympathize with mall shop owners.

“We need to put ourselves in the place of someone who owns a business at Montgomery Mall,” he said. “If businesses leave, what will happen to the mall?”

The video even seemed to convince the leaders that the police actions were not racially based.

The church leaders who spoke after watching the video agreed that the police action was not racially motivated.

“People say it is a racial problem but I don’t see a white kid in the video,” said the Rev. D.B. Bennett of King Hill Baptist Church.

I hope this does lead to the issue being addressed in other forums and maybe we can make Montgomery Mall a safe and enjoyable place to shop once again.