The World Around You

This is an interesting tidbit from the latest AP story the Roy Moore saga,

The monument is expected to be removed this week, though at least one company contacted about removing it declined the job. Clark Memorial, a Birmingham company that built and moved the monument into the building, declined to take it out for business and personal reasons, company vice president Charles Tourney said Monday.

You can’t move the monument if no one wants the job.

I neglected to congratulate Al Franken on his favorable ruling against Bill O’Reilly and Fox News Channel. Al responds to 10 questions from Time Magazine this week.

My first post to the brand new Sports Blog:

The Indianapolis Star gives a preview of the Colts’ match-up with Denver on Monday Night Football. Coach Dungy expects to play the starters into the third quarter, which should make for a well played first half at least.

Thus far, the defense appears to be a step ahead of the offense.

The defense has yielded only 438 total yards and 20 points to Chicago and Seattle. More encouraging has been its proclivity for registering plays that can turn a game: eight takeaways and eight sacks.

“We just want to go out there and play well and get ourselves ready for Cleveland,” defensive end Brad Scioli said, referring to the Sept. 7 regular-season opener on the road against the Browns. “We have to keep getting better.”

The same objective drives the Peyton Manning-led offense.

“We hope to go out there and put up a lot of points in the first half,” Manning said.

The No. 1 offense hasn’t exactly appeared in midseason form as the Colts have split their first two preseason games. Manning has directed eight drives that have generated only two touchdowns, both last week against the Seahawks.

The head coach is looking for consistent improvement, and that should be the fan expectation as well.

Check out the brand new Sports Blog. I will be one of the contributors. I would appreciate any news tips, especially regarding the Indianapolis Colts and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Feedback will be appreciated as this new effort gets off the ground.

I was thrilled to see an editorial in the Birmingham News this morning that focuses on the irony of the ads that are currently filling the airwaves opposing Amendment 1.

Funny, in an ironic sort of way. Alfa, the group providing the lion’s share of TAC’s contributions to fight the plan, is one of Montgomery’s most powerful special interests. And Alfa, through thousands of dollars of contributions to current lawmakers’ re-election campaigns in 2002, helped make sure many of them returned to the State House. Now, though, Gambacurta says, “our side” doesn’t trust the Legislature “to do the right thing.”

Maybe that’s because the Legislature, including many lawmakers who received campaign contributions from Alfa or Alfa-affiliated political action committees, approved Riley’s proposal to raise the nation’s lowest property taxes on large land and timber owners. Alfa, needless to say, was furious.

And the “piggy bank slush fund” is actually unearmarked dollars, which can be used where needs are greatest, instead of where they are directed by law. Unearmarking those dollars allows for more efficiency in state government, which TAC claims it wants.

Every time I see one of the ads depicting Montgomery lobbyists and legislators in back rooms, I think about the fact that the companies with the most lobbyists in Montgomery are the ones paying for these ads. I wish people would take the time to really investigate who is behind these ads and what their motives are. Unfortunately, I think most people have made up their minds and will not be swayed before we go to the polls.

I’m afraid that dark days are ahead, but we’ll have brought it on ourselves. If the vote fails, I urge everyone to direct their legislator to follow the will of the people and cut services. If the vote is no, people need to see the consequences. The days of band-aids and hiding our problems need to end.

UPDATE: Steven also wrote a piece for the Sunday edition of the Mobile Register that explains why what the plan will actually do is move us toward a budget process that is more like most states and the federal government.