More Bad Behaivor From Coal Ash Cad Greg Jones of Jones Group LLC

Updated October 27
This ABC news story from the 2010 National Legislators Convention in Kentucky was hot news on many blogs and various news sites late yesterday evening that focused primarily on decadent bad behavior by the attendees from the ethics standpoint, but it's on our radar for additional reasons: We know a thing or two about lobbyist Greg Jones who was hosting a golf outing for four Alabama legislators who thought it was more important to play with their balls instead of attending ethics seminars that were going on while these bad boys were enjoying their recreating.

"Par fore the course" because you know what they say about birds of a feather..." Vultures is more like it, read on.

Mr. Jones' lobbying firm represented the Perry Uniontown Ventures Group who were responsible for establishing dump sites in the Perry and Marengo black belt counties that accepted the toxic coal ash sludge removal wastes from the Kingston TVA spill in 2008. The sites were specifically chosen to be placed in minority areas and have caused great misery to those residents, some of whom have filed lawsuits, and it is the subject of ongoing debate that stretches from Alabama to Washington, DC.

According to the permit granted to the landfill by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the landfill owners and managers are bound to bury the coal ash separately from household garbage, which is also dumped into the ground there in Perry County very near people’s homes. This angle clearly shows that coal ash is being mixed with household garbage, which can contain dangerous substances by itself. According to expert sources, it may be unprecedented for a landfill to combine these elements in one place, and there is no sound science showing the cumulative effects. Add that to the problems the landfill has had getting rid of the liquid waste that drains out of the coal ash, and you have the makings of a massive environmental justice disaster on a scale no government agency has even begun to come to terms with. (Photo credit: Locust Fork Journal/Glynnis Wilson Southwings)

As we have written about before, the Jones Group holds itself up as a champion for minority causes and touts solidarity with "their own" in addition to being one of the vanguards of Alabama's minority children, but we do notice that some of their stellar causes have been removed from the website since we last reported on them.

But this is still there;

Services: "Lobbying - Educating legislators and using our knowledge of the legislative process to affect legislation."

"In lobbying legislation on behalf our clients, we make every attempt to affect the outcome of legislation by coordinating planned and well-executed efforts to either have legislation passed or conversely, keep it from being passed."

They have the added distinction of lobbying for Stephen Bradley & Associates (BARD) who is himself a lobbyist and "governmental affairs consultant." Mr. Bradley, who is pasty white in color only, carries on the fine tradition of the Black Belt Big Mule Coalition that specifically targeted minorities and took advantage of them every chance they got during the Industrial Age of Alabama and into the Civil Rights Era.

*(Neither client is listed on the Jones website under clients, but they are on page 45 of 83 of the 2010 lobbyists form submitted to the Alabama Ethics Board.)

Ethics in either of these men seems non-existent based on their documented histories. The contrast between the Jones Group's causes and the history of the Big Mule Coalition is striking and the images that portray them are in direct conflict with each other. But not in Alabama the veritable definition of contradiction and corruption.

If we didn't have enough of a reason to dislike Mr. Jones before, this story does little to change our opinion towards this cad. We have to wonder if the minority people of Alabama knew what he is really made of,  if there wouldn't be a little reverse Big Mule justice applied to him and these minority legislators that choose to associate with this fiend.

The most compelling aspect of this is that minorities, in a state that fought hard to overcome racism and crimes against them from the Big Mules among others, are now experiencing similar crimes from within their own race. If you're black, poor and live in Alabama you're still viewed as an expendable commodity and the poverty pimps in their own race have made an unholy alliance with the remnants of the Big Mules to keep them further enslaved from the toxic effects of big business and the elected representative corruption in their communities.

The ABC news story describes this state legislature convention as "one big party on the taxpayer dime" that's nothing more than a four-day party. We can go them one better than that--we hear that for the 90 days each year that the Alabama legislature meets in Montgomery that the hi-jinks and debauchery going on while the state's business is supposed to be conducted would rival the National Lampoon film Animal House.

ABC Video

The Alabama group is composed of:

Artis McCampbell (D-Demopolis, Perry County)

Oliver Robinson (D-Birmingham)

Harry Shiver (R- Bay Minette)

Bobby Singleton (D-Greensboro)

A story in today's Montgomery Advertiser has these arrogant jerks defending themselves with claims of "they weren't doing anything wrong."  Even if that non-plausible excuse flies, we need only to look at the past actions of some of these thug-like villains to see what they do and bear witness to the bad behavior of certain Alabama politicians.