Alabama's rumored to be outgoing Governor Riley was in New York this morning hawking his culled together post recovery commission to allegedly help the Gulf Coast rebound from the BP Oil Spill to any media outlet that would have him. He always has a friendly ear in Morning Joe's Joe Scarborough, one of his biggest cheerleaders ad nausea. Joe did not disappoint predictably.
Riley then skipped on over to Fox News and Steve Doocy who introduced him as the "honorable Governor Riley" to offer meaningless explanations for why the City of Prichard's Pension Fund has gone bankrupt after "ignoring years of red flags and warnings." And of course, he discussed the "Roadmap to Resilience" plan.
He's so proud of it he carries a copy around with him to show on camera, but cannot give you the exact website to go to for a copy. "It's on the Alabama website." That clears it up for everyone and narrows the possibles governor because they probably all have the "Alabama website" bookmarked on their computers. What a buffoon.
He couldn't resist another opportunity for explaining why Alabama needed to get their hands on more of the oil and gas drilling royalties either.
"We receive a disproportionate amount of royalties from the oil and gas drilling in the Gulf to help us prepare for a disaster like this, that has to change."
Ummm...Governor, it did change, remember that Congress gave you more of a percentage of the royalties in 2007 with the caveat that states would have to set aside more of the increased royalties for disasters? And what did most of the southern states do? Spend it on road building and other pet projects. Why the press will not call him on this and the appointing of Matthews after what he did in Mississippi heading Barbour's commission is beyond us, but it is another example of the cover-for-them-press that is our state media.
Riley then skipped on over to Fox News and Steve Doocy who introduced him as the "honorable Governor Riley" to offer meaningless explanations for why the City of Prichard's Pension Fund has gone bankrupt after "ignoring years of red flags and warnings." And of course, he discussed the "Roadmap to Resilience" plan.
He's so proud of it he carries a copy around with him to show on camera, but cannot give you the exact website to go to for a copy. "It's on the Alabama website." That clears it up for everyone and narrows the possibles governor because they probably all have the "Alabama website" bookmarked on their computers. What a buffoon.
He couldn't resist another opportunity for explaining why Alabama needed to get their hands on more of the oil and gas drilling royalties either.
"We receive a disproportionate amount of royalties from the oil and gas drilling in the Gulf to help us prepare for a disaster like this, that has to change."
Ummm...Governor, it did change, remember that Congress gave you more of a percentage of the royalties in 2007 with the caveat that states would have to set aside more of the increased royalties for disasters? And what did most of the southern states do? Spend it on road building and other pet projects. Why the press will not call him on this and the appointing of Matthews after what he did in Mississippi heading Barbour's commission is beyond us, but it is another example of the cover-for-them-press that is our state media.
We just love this first name basis Riley uses so casually when referring to (Ken) Feinberg, (Ricky) Matthews and (Haley) Barbour--it implies a friendliness and coziness that is sickening. Speaking of Barbour and Matthews, a previous post of ours describes the crookery that resulted from the last commission put together by a big republican governor after a disaster struck.
Barbour's commission on recovery after Hurricane Katrina was recovery alright for the insiders who were not affected by the hurricane, like Barbour and his son and the wife of one his nephews. He took a lot of heat for the steering of post Katrina federal funds to his own special projects.
Watch for similar shenanigans to happen in Riley's scheme of a recovery plan with the recycling of Barbour's slick Ricky Matthews at the helm of it and Riley himself intimately involved.
Barbour's commission on recovery after Hurricane Katrina was recovery alright for the insiders who were not affected by the hurricane, like Barbour and his son and the wife of one his nephews. He took a lot of heat for the steering of post Katrina federal funds to his own special projects.
Watch for similar shenanigans to happen in Riley's scheme of a recovery plan with the recycling of Barbour's slick Ricky Matthews at the helm of it and Riley himself intimately involved.
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Will he ever go away????
ReplyDeleteThe self appointed spokesperson for Alabama and his over inflated ego just cannot resist the lure of the cameras can he?
ReplyDeleteSomebody is laying the groundwork for a presidential run....spring motorcycle run to Alaska (Palin's home state)...I can just see it now, the right wingers fawning over Palin and her gun toting Mama image and Riley on his motorcycle playing a pseudo Reagan.
ReplyDeleteMax, you are onto something with that, check your email for a little something.
Interesting correspondence BarT, thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteMAX
Can anyone just ask him some real questions or is there a hands off issued on Riley? I mean come on media WAKE UP! Who has been in power for eight years while the retirement fund has been careening into the ditch? And the Congress passing the law on increased royalty profits says a lot that you just refuse to ask about! How many outlets wrote about Barbour's commission? Enough that someone should ask some probing questions! Ask him where the money has been going, this isn't rocket science folks!
ReplyDeleteDO YOUR DAMN JOBS!
What makes this guy so interesting to northern news outlets?
ReplyDelete