The World Around You

Matt Drudge notes a Wall Street Journal report that Roy Disney has resigned and is calling for Michael Eisner to step down,

Disney, nephew to the late Walt Disney, sent Eisner a three-page letter severely criticizing his leadership during the past seven years:

‘It is my sincere belief that it is you who should be leaving and not me,… Accordingly, I once again call for your resignation or retirement.’

WSJ reporter Bruce Orwall writes that in his letter Disney said that Eisner deserved credit for a successful first decade after taking the helm at Disney in 1984. But he then detailed seven areas in which he said Mr. Eisner has failed the company in the past seven years.

The list of complaints included everything from the performance of the struggling ABC broadcast networks and Disney theme parks to Mr. Eisner’s reputation for “micro-management of everyone around you.”

The resignation comes in advance of a Disney board meeting this week. Mr. Disney’s letter seems to indicate that the Disney board’s nominating committee had decided to leave his name off the slate of directors to be elected for the coming year. Mr. Disney also indicated that he would also resign from his position as chairman of Disney feature animation.

A Disney spokeswoman initially declined to comment.

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Kevin has announced the 2003 Weblog Awards. Look for the nomination post on Monday December 1st.

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Can the legislature stand up to Paul Hubbert and the Alabama Educational Association? Can they stand up to Mac Macarthur and the Alabama State Employees’ Association? Their main source of power is political influence and if some of the ideas published in today’s Birmingham Newsever come to fruition, it could mean the end of that political influence has come as well.

Alabama could raise $130 million a year if it taxed all pensions, according to the Legislative Fiscal Office.

Most states with income taxes do tax public employees’ pensions, partially or fully, according to a 2000 survey by the Wisconsin Legislative Council.

The state could save $204 million a year by stopping payment of cost-of-living pension increases given over the years to teachers and other state retirees. Such increases are not guaranteed by law.

Alabama cannot lower the pension amount promised a person upon retirement, but legally it could stop paying cost-of-living pension increases awarded since that person retired.

Alabama could save $52.64 million a year by requiring public employees to contribute 1 percent more of their salaries toward retirement.

Most of Alabama’s teachers and state agency employees contribute 5 percent of their pay, which is in line with other public pension plans, according to a survey by the National Association of State Retirement Administrators.

The state could save from $45.6 million to $79.2 million a year by adopting rules some states use for when people can qualify for a normal pension.

Before the mid-1970s, a teacher or state worker in Alabama had to be at least 60 to get a normal pension, with no penalty for early retirement. Lawmakers in 1975 changed the requirement to 30 years’ service, regardless of age. They changed it to 25 years’ service, regardless of age, in 1988.

Members of Riley’s commission asked Reynolds to figure the savings if Alabama switched to a rule-of-80 or rule-of-90 system.

Under such systems, a person can qualify for a normal pension if his or her age plus years of service equals a target number; 80 and 85 are common.

My family would be hurt doubly if any of these changes went into effect, but I am the first to acknowledge that everything should be on the table. What the Governor’s Commission needs to remember as well is that many cost-of-living increases were deferred in exchange for keeping benefits where they are. If salaries are brought into line with the regional or national average, then I have no problem with bringing every thing else into line as well. This would not save as much money in the short term, but would put the state on much firmer financial ground for the long haul.

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I had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend, but I have had serious blogging withdrawl. Back to the grind on Monday morning. I hope you had a wonderful holiday as well.

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A new blog dedicated to the 2004 election as seen in the blogosphere has done an informal count of the number of times presidential candidates are being mentioned on blogs. The results are not surprising.

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This is obviously a response to media pressure, but a needed step nonetheless,

Senate President Pro Tem Lowell Barron on Tuesday appointed a committee to review pay for Senate staff, according to a memo from his office.

Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, will chair the bipartisan five-member committee. It is charged with “address(ing) issues related to compensation of Senate staff.”

Figures could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

The Mobile Register reported Nov. 9 that some state senators had doled out more than $200,000 in extra pay to certain Senate employees during the last two years. Amid a state financial crisis, payments had ranged from supplements of a few hundred dollars per paycheck to one-time bonuses of several thousand dollars, state payroll records showed.

According to several Senate officials, the extra money is well-deserved by secretaries and clerks with added responsibilities. The officials noted that legislative employees do not qualify for overtime pay despite their long and often unpredictable hours during legislative sessions.

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I hope Alabamians remember those who are suffering because of the lack of state funds this holiday season.

Amanda Rickman will put in her last day today as a state-salaried law clerk to Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Caryl Privett. Then she’ll be working without pay.

She’s one of about 400 employees of Alabama trial courts who were notified a few days ago that they’ll have to be laid off as of Nov. 28 because the state can’t pay them.

“What I’m going to do is, I’ll probably keep volunteering here at least through the holidays with no pay, just so I don’t leave my judge and her judicial assistant with no one in the office to help them,” said Rickman.

“It’s going to be hard. I’m fortunate to have caring parents that are going to help me out as much as they can in terms of getting my bills paid,” she said.

Rickman got her law degree in May at Cumberland Law School, passed her bar exam in August and has worked for Privett since then. Now she’s job-hunting, and the prospects don’t look particularly bright.

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If I did not live in Alabama this story would surprise me, but it doesn’t,

Former Auburn cheerleader Christopher Bailey said “War Eagle” one time too many.

Bailey, who became a University of Alabama cheerleader after transfering this year, gave the Auburn cheer on national television Saturday night while wearing the uniform of the Crimson Tide — and promptly got booted off the UA cheerleading squad.

Bailey, 23, was cut after Tide athletic officials received e-mail complaints concerning the interview Bailey did on ESPN during the televised Iron Bowl. A cheerleader for Auburn for three years, Bailey said he still has strong feelings for Auburn and during the interview with ESPN’s Adrian Karsten he complied with her request to say “War Eagle” and “Roll Tide.”

The decision was made at a meeting Monday between UA athletic director Mal Moore, cheerleading coordinator Debbie Greenwell and Bailey.

As a first-year member of the cheerleading unit, Bailey would not have been eligible to travel to Hawaii for Saturday’s Alabama football game against the Rainbow Warriors. But now he will not be allowed to cheer for Tide athletics during the spring semester either.

At the same time, someone who was the head cheerleader at Auburn should know his audience much better than this. The reaction was immediate and vocal and the action that followed was just as immediate.

UPDATE: Steven files this story under Alabama Politics as well.

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Kevin at Wizbang is interested in selling two slightly used two year olds.

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James posts on the difference between the two parties. He is absolutely correct that governing from the middle is necessary and that most policy is made between the 40 yard lines.

An additional point is that the parties can help shape what the middle is. The parties take on the task of bringing an issue like civil unions for homosexuals into the mainstream. Candidates continue to talk about these ideals and their importance to America, even though they know from a policy standpoint it is not achievable right now, in the hopes that it will be possible in the future.

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I saw a particularly good letter to the editor in this morning’s Birmingham News,

There has been much displeasure lately over the removal of religious content from public displays, buildings or text. Those who object to the removal fear the infringement of religious expression. Those who support the removal wish for public property not to become the province of a single religious viewpoint.

The following questions, I think, put the controversy over the removal of religious content from public domains into important context:

1.) Before 2001, the Alabama Supreme Court had no two-ton block with the Ten Commandments engraved on it. Was that wrong?

2.) Before 1954, the Pledge of Allegiance did not have the phrase “under God.” Was there something wrong with the original pledge?

3.) Before 1956, our national motto was not “In God we trust,” but rather “E pluribus unum,” which is Latin for “Out of the many, one.” Was there something wrong with that?

4.) Neither the American flag, nor our national anthem (the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner), nor the U.S. Constitution mentions God. Is that wrong?

5.) Finally, many other government objects do not mention God, including postage stamps, public mailboxes and federal income tax forms. There is no outcry. So why object when government properties that were originally secular, but later acquired religious content, are asked to be returned to their original secular conditions?

Victor Mark

Crestwood

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I’m thrilled to be the fifth result on this search.

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I have not yet posted on Michael Jackson’s troubles, but TalkLeft has some interesting developments, including what appears to be a non-retraction retraction of a previous report about seized love letters.

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Congratulations to James on his 200,000th hit. I hope I am around to see mine. Steven also congratulated him on the milestone.

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This news won’t be surprising to my college professor friends, but central Alabama students are having a hard time passing the new social studies section of the graduation exam.

School officials in Autauga County still were compiling graduation exam data on Thursday, and Elmore County didn’t have the results available.

Across the board, with the exception of magnet schools, the rate of failure on the social studies illustrates growing pains for juniors and seniors in the Montgomery school district. For instance:

• Robert E. Lee High School had 178 to take that test, and 97 failed.

• George Washington Carver High had 120 to take the test, with 88 not passing.

• Jefferson Davis High School had only 38 of 138 students to ace the exam.

• Sidney Lanier High School had 41 out of 131 tested to make a good showing.

Steve Roberts, a marketing teacher at George Washington Carver High School, said he’s concerned about the content of the social studies test.

“Be reminded that this test ends with World War II. Most of the kids go back to their great-grandparents to find someone that was alive during this time,” Roberts said. “This is an Alabama exam. So how is it that the Selma-to-Montgomery march, Wallace’s stand in the schoolhouse door, Vietnam and other more recent events are ignored?”

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Nancy Worley has not impressed me in her time as Secretary of State of Alabama. The latest issue is just bizarre,

Approximately 25 county voting registrars came to the state Capitol for a hearing Thursday to object to new rules that would empower Secretary of State Nancy Worley to fire them.
Objections mostly concerned two points. First, the registrars said Worley did not hire them, so she should not be able to fire them. Second, they said, the proposed work rules that set grounds for firing are insulting and vague.

“I think the feeling is that some of the rules she’s making are just ridiculous,” said Autauga County registrar Tom Parker. “I’m going to get myself in trouble with Ms. Worley, but I’m about ready to. Basically, it’s like being back in the first grade.”

Worley said part of the rules were copied from a personnel manual and she agreed some of the proposed rules should be changed.

“All I really want them to do is do their jobs and do them well,” Worley said.

Gov. Bob Riley, Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks and State Auditor Beth Chapman also objected to the rules in a letter to Worley.

By law, those three elected officials appoint the three registrars for each county. They oppose giving another elected official the power to fire their appointees.

“I am opposed to the secretary of state or anyone else firing people that I hired,” Chapman said. “And that, in essence, is what this would be doing.”

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I agree 100% with James’s take on the AWOL Mom.

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For a group that believes the federal judiciary is out of control, they certainly ask them for assistance often enough,

federal lawsuit is being filed Thursday on behalf of Alabama voters in an attempt to reverse the removal of Roy Moore as that state’s chief justice.

The suit alleges that voters’ constitutional rights were violated when the Alabama Court of the Judiciary, an unelected panel, dismissed Moore, an elected state official, over his refusal to move a Ten Commandments display from the rotunda of the state courthouse in Montgomery.

Five registered Alabama voters are the plaintiffs in the suit, which claims the panel’s Nov. 13 action violates the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

“It is deeply troubling to have an appointed, unelected commission remove an elected official from office,” Rev. Patrick Mahoney, director of the Christian Defense Coalition (CDC), said Wednesday. “The Court of the Judiciary has overturned an election and crushed the democratic process through its actions.”

Mahoney told CNSNews.com that the suit seeks a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the nine members of the judicial panel. If the court takes those actions, Moore would then be reinstated as the state’s chief justice, the post to which he was elected with more than 70 percent of the vote during the 2000 election.

“No person should be removed from elected office by an appointed commission, regardless of his political or ideological view,” Mahoney said, adding that he believes the panel “has basically overturned an election in a sovereign state.”

UPDATE:

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Much hay is going to be made over an AP report that two members of the Court of the Judiciary in Alabama gave campaign contributions to Roy Moore’s opponent. However, in the 16th paragraph, this interesting piece of information is revealed,

The campaign finance report for Yates showed she received contributions from many of the state’s best known attorneys before the 2000 election. One of those donations was for $1,000 from Butts, who gave the money from funds left in his campaign fund from an unsuccessful 1998 campaign for attorney general.

UPDATE: Mac takes the irony here even further.

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It’s time for all of those people who have ideas for how the state can save money to speak up. There are people available to listen,

Members of a subcommittee, including Jefferson County Probate Judge Mike Bolin, are focusing on public safety agencies and want to hear about ways the state can save money and become more efficient with its state troopers, prisons, National Guard units, emergency management agencies, courts, district attorneys and other public safety branches and departments.

They plan to hold a public hearing starting at 9 a.m. Friday in room 727 of the State House, at 11 S. Union St., just east of the Capitol.

Anyone who wants to talk to that group must make a reservation by calling Karen Portera in Montgomery at 334-353-1540 or calling 866-468-2323. Each person will be asked to speak no more than five minutes.

Anyone who can’t make it to the hearing still may share money-saving ideas on public safety agencies or any other area of state government by calling the same phone numbers or writing a letter or e-mail to the commission.

The commission’s e-mail address is cecf@governor.state.al.us. Its postal address is CECF, 401 Adams Ave. Suite 480, Montgomery, AL 36130.

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I agree with Kevin Drum on the Energy bill and I know John McCain will make plenty of hay about this in the Senate.

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Mac has the appropriate assessment of Bill Pryor’s statement yesterday on gay marriage. If Massachusetts says they are married, Alabama does not have a choice in whether they recognize that or not. (That’s different from a “civil union”, like Vermont has)

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Dr. Harvey H. (”Hardy”) Jackson has some advice for Governor-elect Haley Barbour of Mississippi,

Now I am not rightly sure that an Alabamian should be giving advice to someone from Mississippi, especially if that someone is the governor-elect. But since he, like me, has spent most of his career outside that state, I think my take on Mississippi might at least give Haley Barbour something to consider as he prepares to assume the highest office they’ve got over there. ’Course, having just come through a campaign where a candidate for Lt. Gov. dared her opponent to sign an affidavit swearing she had never had an abortion and where the incumbent’s ex-wife showed up at the gubernatorial debate and plopped herself down on the front row – just to remind everyone of the scandal that made her “the former first lady” — Mr. Barbour must have an inkling of what he has gotten himself into.
And as he considers this, he should keep in mind the words of my Mississippi cousin Benny who, when asked his opinion of the field of candidates, replied “we ain’t voting for none of ‘em, but we’re voting against a few.”

The ones Benny and his buddies vote against are the ones they figure to fiddle, to mess with things. So Mr. Barbour better not do that. And if the urge to do it anyway becomes so great that he feels like he might, he should remember the story of the Mississippi Black Market Tax.

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Acting Chief Justice Gorman Houston held a press conference yesterday to officially announce the replacement of the top two men at the Administrative Office of the Courts. He also intimated that Roy Moore owes the state money,

Acting Supreme Court Chief Justice Gorman Houston said Moore will be hit with the $7,000 tab for special handling of the 5,280-pound block of granite.

During a Tuesday morning news conference, Houston said Moore has not yet paid the amount it cost to remove the monument.

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Abraham Lincoln delivered the following address on November 19, 1863,

THE GETTYSBURG ADDRESS:

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this
continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the
proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in
a great civil war, testing whether that nation or any nation so
conceived and so dedicated can long endure. We are met on a great
battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of
that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their
lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and
proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot
dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground.
The brave men, living and dead who struggled here have consecrated
it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will
little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather to be
dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us–that from these
honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which
they gave the last full measure of devotion–that we here highly
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this
nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that
government of the people, by the people, for the people shall
not perish from the earth.

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The Birmingham News applauds the latest tactics of Moore as a proper means to rein in the judiciary,

As part of the Constitution’s famed “checks and balances,” Article III notes that the federal courts shall have either original or appellate jurisdiction of “all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution” — but only “with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.”

The point is that Congress does have the power to reign in abusive courts. One reason courts have become so powerful is that Congress has almost never exercised this important power.

If Mr. Moore wants to bring the courts to heel, this is the proper way to go about it.

The question is, though, why should Mr. Moore, while serving as chief justice, dishonor the very legal system he was sworn to uphold, when he had other options such as the one he now proposes?

While the case was still ongoing, Mr. Moore could have filed appeals in a timely fashion — but he didn’t. He could have complied with the court order under protest, while vowing to overturn it either by constitutional amendment or by this little-used method of limiting the courts’ jurisdiction.

Instead, he made himself a martyr and obnoxiously compared his treatment to that of the victims of Nazi Germany.

The very fact that other, lawful means remain available for him to carry on his fight shows just how wrongly he went about the fight in the first place.

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Dean Esmay uses a post about Christian poll data to explain why he has rejected evangelical, Bible-literalist Christianity. I actually think the poll data leads to a much more interesting argument. That is, most evangelical Christians don’t believe what many assume they do. So does that mean the Church is out of step, or the followers?

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James notes a report that a plan will be put forward by the EU to establish a single market between the US and the European Union.

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Steven headlines his post on this story “Not Good”. I prefer my headline, but the point is the same. Accidents will happen, but we still have to take responsibility when incidents like this happen.

A U.S. patrol opened fire Monday on a group of people in Baghdad’s gun market, killing three, after the soldiers apparently mistook the gunfire of customers testing weapons for an attack, a witness and an Iraqi police officer said.

Four people also were wounded, hospital and police officials said. The dead included an 11-year-old boy.

In Iraq, it is legal for a family to own one gun for self-defense. That weapon is usually an AK-47 assault rifle. The gun market, however, is illegal and has been raided repeatedly by U.S. soldiers, who have tried to close it down.

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Not surprisingly, according to AP, Governor Riley’s approval rating is at 25%. Not a surprising number because of the events of the first 11 months of his term. As I have said from day one, the only way to truly change things in this state is to forget about re-election. Governor Riley’s team did not come in expecting two terms.

However, it will be difficult to provide leadership when people don’t approve of the direction you are taking. Governor Riley must continue to make the case to the people of Alabama that he is trying to bring substantive change that will put this state on a solid footing into the future. He has obviously not made that case.

The Mobile Register-University of South Alabama poll also showed Governor Riley losing to former Governor Siegelman and former Chief Justice Roy Moore in hypothetical races. In addition, six out of 10 Alabamians believe we’re on the wrong track. What would be the right track?

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I want to offer my appreciation to the Birmingham News for its series on Alabama’s obesity epidemic. They focus today on our super-sized culture.

Whether it be drinks, muffins, hamburgers or pasta, parents and children have lost sight of proper portions.

“Clearly we have some issues with portion distortion in the U.S.,” said Marianne Murdock, a registered dietitian and director of the Children’s Center for Weight Management at Children’s Hospital and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Larger portions are one factor among many. The reliance on fast-food restaurants, the abundance of processed, fatty foods, inactivity and lack of knowledge about nutrition all add up to a nation of fat kids.

“Everybody blames McDonald’s and everybody blames Coca-Cola, but it’s not just that,” said Dr. Carden Johnston, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics and a Birmingham pediatrician. “It’s all factors combined.”

Today’s paper also contains a story about a healthy school lunch program in Opelika.

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The Montgomery Biscuits unveiled their uniforms for the inaugural season yesterday. The event was held at Eastdale Mall.

I’m very happy with the look. I’m especially fond of the home uniforms. They will look exceptional on the field. Now, if the team just plays as good as it looks, we’ll be in good shape.

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