The World Around You

This sounds like a great initiative,

An unlikely collection of liberal and conservative groups are working together on “The People Speak” — which is aiming to spur a nationwide, town-by-town debate on foreign policy and the United Nations. The groups have helped organize more than 1,000 debates in 49 states starting Monday and playing out over the next several weeks.

The world is changing rapidly, organizers say, and people need to talk without sound bites or slogans.

“We’ve got everyone from the right wing to the left wing. Everyone is agreeing it’s time to discuss and debate these issues,” said Tim Averill, a Massachusetts high school teacher whose students are taking part. “One thing that’s clear, as I was telling my class this morning, is that America has embarked on a significant shift in its foreign policy.”

His students will hold a weekend debate tournament focused on foreign policy, with their top two champions to debate in late October with the best from Brooksby Village, a senior center in Peabody, Mass.

Elsewhere, there will be noon debates at the skywalk in downtown Des Moines, Iowa on Oct. 30; ex-governors and an arms control analyst arguing in New Mexico on Oct. 6; and a living room showdown in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., by month’s end.

For more information visit Jointhedebate.org.

The Indianapolis Star reports that Edgerrin James should be back for the MNF match-up with Tampa Bay this week,

Running back Edgerrin James, who missed Sunday’s game at New Orleans with a sore back, was at practice Thursday and should take his normal place in the backfield against the Bucs.

“Edge is doing well,” coach Tony Dungy said. “It looks like he’s going to be able to play if he doesn’t have any setbacks. He moved around and did fine. Now we’ll see how it is (today) after having some activity.”

The Colts utilized the varied talents of Ricky Williams, Dominic Rhodes and James Mungro with James out of the lineup. James is the complete package.

“He can do a lot of things,” Dungy said. “We can flank him out of the backfield. We can run inside, run outside. He’s a good pass protector.”

In other news, Peyton Manning was named AFC Offensive Player of the Week and AFC Offensive Player of the Month for September. Boy, did he ever deserve it. His stats so far this season? 82-of-122 passing (67.2 percent) for 914 yards with nine touchdowns and three interceptions

I knew this was coming. I was present at the Prattville City Council meeting where the mayor stated he was proposing to eliminate four of the city employees’s holidays to save money. I knew at that moment that it would only be a matter of time before someone would call for the state government to do the same. Well, the Birmingham News stepped up to the plate today,

Officials in the state capital who are searching for ways to tighten their belts should look to the north for inspiration.

City officials in Prattville this week eliminated four paid holidays for city workers - a move they say will save $200,000.

Officials cut Columbus Day, President’s Day, Jefferson Davis’ birthday and Confederate Memorial Day - and city workers will still be left with nine paid holidays. Although the employees may not be thrilled with the change, they should understand the rationale behind the City Council’s actions.

Taxpayers certainly will. The number of paid holidays in government has long been an irritant to many in the private sector who get far fewer days. Government workers get so many holidays that the list includes some pretty obscure holidays.

That’s why others in government should consider following Prattville’s example.

Start with state government.

In addition to their annual leave, state workers have at least 12 paid holidays (and historically, 13, when the Friday after Thanksgiving is added). While some state offices can just shut down for these days, others must stay open to run prisons, mental health facilities and so on, and they must pay time-and-a-half for workers. Either way, taxpayers are getting shortchanged - they’re not getting services, or they’re having to pay extra to get them.

I agree that state holidays should be reduced. I see no reason for workers to be off on Confederate Memorial Day or Jefferson Davis’s Birthday to start.

My only criticism is that at some point the reduction in benefits to state employees is going to have a negative impact on productivity. With the elimination of jobs, proposed increases in payments for health insurance, reduction in the amount the state will reimburse for travel, suspension of merit raises (instituted over a year ago) and other proposals you may reach a point where few people want to take a job with the state. The state has many dedicated employees who work hard for the citizens of this state. Reasonable reforms are necessary, punishment is not.

This headline, running on ABCNews.com is just too priceless not to copy.

Law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to The Associated Press that Limbaugh is being investigated by the Palm Beach County state attorney’s office.

The drug allegations were first reported by the National Enquirer. CNN reported Thursday that sources close to the investigation said Limbaugh had turned up as a buyer of powerful painkillers but that he was not the target of the investigation.

Premiere Radio Networks, which syndicates the politically focused “Rush Limbaugh Show” to more than 650 markets, issued a statement from Limbaugh on Thursday saying: “I am unaware of any investigation by any authority involving me. No government representative has contacted me directly or indirectly. If my assistance is required, I will, of course, cooperate fully.”

Check out the Friday Fan Fest at SportsBlog.

I have not yet weighed in on the Plame/Wilson controversy, but it has certainly been covered to the hilt across the blogosphere(here, here, and here for instance). My first reaction was disgust at the dirty tactics of the White House. My second reaction, based on reading Bob Novak’s column explaining how the leak occurred, was that this was being blown out of proportion. If it was “common knowledge”, then obviously Ms. Plame couldn’t have been an undercover operative. Then, it’s reported that she was in fact an undercover agent. As this story continues to unfold, I’m sure I’ll be turned around again, but right now I have to agree with the father of Mike Spann (CIA agent from Alabama, killed in Afghanistan),

The father of slain CIA officer Johnny “Mike” Spann of Winfield said Thursday he believes an independent counsel should investigate allegations that someone in the Bush administration exposed a CIA officer’s identity - an act he called treasonous.

Spann, the first American killed in Afghanistan, died in a prison uprising. His father, also named Johnny Spann, said he is still angry because he thinks his son’s identity and hometown were disclosed before his son’s family could be adequately protected.

Democrats in Congress, led by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., are calling for a special counsel to be appointed to investigate who exposed a CIA operative who is married to a former ambassador, Joseph C. Wilson. Wilson had accused the administration of manipulating intelligence to exaggerate the threat posed by Iraq.

“If someone in the Bush administration leaked this, they need to be punished, and they need to be made an example of, because that’s not just a leak, that’s treason,” Spann, who lives in Winfield, said. “They should appoint an independent counsel so the American people can be sure, and let the chips fall where they may.”

Go Mr. Spann!

UPDATE: Paul Krugman gives this scenario as what should have happened in this morning’s NY Times,

On July 14, Robert Novak published the now-famous column in which he identified Valerie Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, as a C.I.A. “operative on weapons of mass destruction,” and said “two senior administration officials” had told him that she was responsible for her husband’s mission to Niger. On that mission, Mr. Wilson concluded — correctly — that reports of Iraqi efforts to buy uranium were bogus.

An outraged President Bush immediately demanded the names of those responsible for exposing Ms. Plame. He repeated his father’s statement that “those who betray the trust by exposing the names of our sources” are “the most insidious of traitors.” There are limits to politics, Mr. Bush declared; Mr. Wilson’s decision to go public about his mission had embarrassed him, but that was no excuse for actions that were both felonious and unpatriotic.

Roy Moore filed his response to the Judicial Inquiry Commission, regarding his suspension yesterday. The Birmingham News reports,

Ethics charges against suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore are premature and should be dismissed, Moore’s lawyers told the state Court of the Judiciary on Thursday.

The Judicial Inquiry Commission should not have filed an ethics complaint against Moore until the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on whether it was legal for him to move a monument of the Ten Commandments into the judicial building rotunda, said Terry Butts, a former justice of the state Supreme Court who is representing Moore.

Moore goes on trial before the Court of the Judiciary on Nov. 12. He is accused of failing to heed a federal court order that he remove the monument.

“Chief Justice Moore had until Sept. 29th to file his appeal, which he did. So that’s why we’re saying that it’s all premature, that they jumped the gun,” Butts said after filing Moore’s written answer to the charges.

The attorney general’s office, which is prosecuting Moore, had no comment on Butts’ remarks, but Richard Cohen, general counsel for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which filed the complaint against Moore, said the ethics case isn’t affected by any ruling the U.S. Supreme Court might make on the monument.

“The Supreme Court has long held that litigants have to comply with a lawful order, even if the order is later held to be erroneous,” Cohen said.

That is correct, but I can’t help relishing the potential irony of Roy being removed from the bench and the Supreme Court later overturning the order to remove the monument. Would the remaining justices put the monument back? (Just a hypothetical for those who enjoy such things.)

The ramifications of the cuts in state budgets just keep coming. Now, no bailiffs in any state court room.

The state plans to lay off 450 to 500 of its 1,600 judicial employees statewide by Nov. 28, including bailiffs, law clerks and others.

News about the cuts in the jury management office, combined with word that all bailiffs will be laid off, hit Jefferson County court personnel hard Thursday.

“I am concerned with the plight of the court system. I am concerned with the uncertainty that our employees are going through,” said Jefferson County District Judge Pete Johnson. “I’m waiting to hear something definitive.”

David Williams, the AOC public information officer, said all bailiffs statewide and entire staffs in court administrator offices would be cut. A court administrator in each office will stay on the job. Such offices help manage jury trials and send out summonses. The office in Jefferson County is called the jury management office.

I’m not trying to be Mr. “I Told You So”, but this is the real impact on real people’s lives that many of us feared. We’re talking about hundreds of families around the state who will now need services that are also being cut. The spiral downward has begun.