POLITICAL CORRUPTION IS A NATIONWIDE ISSUE AFFECTING ALL OF US. ALABAMA RANKS #5 AS THE MOST CORRUPT STATE. *DOJ 2007 stats
Something is very wrong in the Land of Cotton


PERTINENT ENVIRONMENTAL AND CORRUPTION ISSUES IN OTHER STATES ARE ALSO DISCUSSED


NO OTHER COMMUNITY, RICH OR POOR, URBAN OR SUBURBAN,BLACK, BROWN,RED, YELLOW OR WHITE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO BECOME AN "ENVIRONMENTAL SACRIFICE ZONE."

Dr. Robert Bullard
Environmental Justice Movement Founder

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Long-time Alabama Lobbyist Massey Admits "I Am A Criminal"

Tweet from BingoTrial coverage Kyle Whitmire/Second Front

Lobbyists call their profession "honorable and responsible" despite what the public overwhelmingly thinks about the industry. Alabama lobbying is a cottage industry of huge monetary proportions and undue influence on an epic scale. No one trusts these paid mouthpieces and suspect they play fast and loose with the law as a rule, not the exception.

Jarrod Massey admits what he is and what he has been doing as a lobbyist.

Massey's revelation on the stand in the gambling trial may only apply to his actions involving bingo corruption, but since he has other clients and he admits acting "corruptly" on behalf of one client, was he doing the same with all the others? It's a fair question.

Whether or not the indicted Jarrod Massey can be considered a credible witness is open for debate, but what he admits to confirms the impression of Alabama lobbyists by most of the general public--they're probably closer to being paid crooks and liars than they are honorable representatives who operate above board in their endeavors.

Many of them have been paid with state dollars i.e. taxpayer funds, which is all the more reason they deserve much harsher scrutiny than the legislature is willing to implement on their activities. 

The same old brand new goats on the hill had a chance to rein in the monetary persuading by passing a reporting requirement on lobbyists funds and expenditures when they enacted the "toughest ethics laws in the nation" last December. Predictably, and likely at the urging of the lobbyists, that requirement was removed from the final version of the ethics laws.

This sounds like a perfect opportunity to take a closer look at Jarrod Massey and his clients for at least the last decade. In fact, let's go one step further and examine the entire system of Alabama lobbyists while we're at it and see how just deep the criminality runs.

Our guess is any honest examination of the system would overload the courts with cases in subsequent indictments. It would be money and time well spent considering the potential benefit on our political process. Isn't "rooting out corruption" one of the grand promises our lawmakers told us they went to Montgomery for?

If they cannot or will not do this, then as far as we are concerned the "Handshake with Alabama" is not "a promise kept" it's a promise denied.

So Say We The Opinion Board of The Vincent Alabama Confidential
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16 comments:

  1. "Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it."
    In the zeal to exterminate democrats, the republicans are getting a lot more than they bargained for from the testimony in this trial.
    Slowly but surely as the trial proceeds we are all finding out where the bodies are buried.
    Many secrets are now seeing the light of day and what was once an exclusive club is showing itself to be a tree house of stupidity.
    I could not be more pleased if I ordered it.

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  2. I'm sure it's just an isolated incident, involving just one lobbyist acting corruptly.
    (barely contains howls of laughter...)

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  3. Segall: "Perjury has never been a problem for you, has it?" Massey: "I have never been found guilty of perjury."

    How many times have we heard that excuse of "it's not illegal" or "I have never been found guilty" etc. Isn't that kind of like "It depends on what you define as sex?"--Bill Clinton

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  4. I don't know how much more fun I can stand coming from that courtroom!
    More popcorn please garcon.

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  5. LOBBYIST---Lowest form of life known to exist thus far and can be seen fighting with corporate lawyers regularly in the depths of hell.

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  6. i'myourhuckleberryJuly 12, 2011 at 3:03 PM

    Something sounds familiar to me skinny about the republicans who made a big campaign issue out of the pay raise:

    "We never promised we would repeal it" said House Speaker Mike Hubbard (R – Auburn).

    "Hubbard explained however that he disagreed with the pay-increase in principle when the Democratic controlled legislature passed five years ago."

    It's all in the slither of the tongue.

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  7. Segall: You've been a dishonest man for a long time? Massey: I would agree. Segall: Why should anyone on the jury believe a word you say?
    12 minutes ago via web

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  8. You got that slither part right pardner.

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  9. I feel shook alright. Down.

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  10. Well at least he chose the correct career path suited to his nature and proclivities.

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  11. You're dead on accurate BarT.
    These yahoos think they are such brilliant thinkers and can outsmart everybody.
    What they really are is a bunch of redneck good ol' boys in suits who probably spend way too much time at the holy water cabinet in Jabo Wagoneer's office!

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  12. LOLOLOLOL J!
    Or maybe frolicking in the Joe Run Room on the 5th floor of the statehouse!
    No liquor allowed unless it's the JRR or Jabo's inner sanctum.

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  13. Alabama politics AKA Crime, Inc.

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  14. And he pulled a Boehner to boot by crying on the stand.

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  15. misskitty said....Wow,there must be loads of information that I have been unaware of,although I don't doubt one bit of what I read in this post or the comments attached to it. misskitty, you really have me salivating for more. Please, do tell whatever else...

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  16. SERAFINA---

    Kitty is referring to this:
    Eddie Curran "The Governor of Goat Hill"
    For giggles, reporters called him State Senator Jabo Waggoner-R-"Senator HealthSouth" a play on his day job as Richard Scrushy’s vice president for public relations.
    In any event, Waggoner was a conservative Republican from the Birmingham area who as I learned upon entering his suite maintains an impressive stock of spirits and mixers.


    And the "wide-open secret in Montgomery" the notorious Joe Run Room, a frolicking enclave located in the Alabama state house, which by the way, does not allow liquor. Much.

    Scroll to "Night on the Town" entry:
    ModMobilian tags Eddie Curran

    WINGER

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