Ricky Thomason of the Huntsville Times hits all the right heads in this excellent editorial.
Montgomery Doesn't Really Need Reforms
HUNTSVILLE, Ala.
Is there corruption in Alabama politics?
Did the little piggy cry "wee - wee - wee" all the way home? I have to love Geico for that one because I'm tired of that cockney gecko with Cal Lightman's voice from TV's "Lie To Me."
This is a case of lie to everyone. Montgomery doesn't need ethics reform; it needs ethics - period. If it weren't for Huey Long and the boil of corruption that is Louisiana, Alabama would be number one in something besides football and bigotry with flag-wrapped crosses, yet unlit, thinly disguised as political movements.
Were the truth to somehow make a break for it, jump the fence and miraculously escape Goat Hill, Ryder doesn't have enough trucks or Greyhound enough buses to deliver the needed indictments and haul away the guilty.
What inquiring minds want to know is when the black helicopters are going to land with federal indictments and arrest warrants for the PAC bagmen and legislator cash-stashing trash who took Mississippi Indian Casino wampum for their opposition to the Alabama gambling issue.
Sorry, that won't happen: there's not enough manpower because half the feds are still tied up screwing with Karl Rove's Don Siegelman torment, and the others are making plans for the next Ruby Ridge / Waco debacle.
Lack of trust in government is at an all-time high and every incident like Alabama's gambling meltdown reveals just tips of the icebergs of who, what, when, where and why, which, unfortunately, news organizations are afraid to tackle in any serious manner: might offend an advertiser if the news disagrees with his politics. It's a shameful but small wonder that this week's issue of Time magazine front cover feature is "Locked and Loaded: The Secret World of Extreme Militias."
A revolution is needed, but a surge in the herds of gun totin' nuts may not be the best answer. According to the Time article, in 2008 antigovernment militia groups were estimated at 42. By the end of 2009, the number had surged to 127. Hmm, reckon what changed? Worse, the government fears "the lone wolf," the extremist individual who can plot, plan and act alone.
No one, and I mean no one, has enough faith left in the politicians that run this state to get off the couch and run if one of them told us our house was on fire. It makes me mad every time I see one of the jokers on TV claiming to be Jesus's BFF and pleading "Send me down there, or up there, to restore trust and honesty and clean the place up."
If it doesn't make you mad, it should, because they are taking us all for the fools we have repeatedly proven we are. They keep lying. We keep electing them and every promise is forgotten at the victory party. The new guy / gal can't wait to "clean up" like the rest of the good ol' boys, their head in the trough, hand in our pockets.
What are you going to do? Join up with a group of ding dongs you wouldn't trust alone with your dog? Identify with a movement run by people with IQ's below room temperature and mouths like alligators used to simply tell the simple what they want to hear - again. It's business as usual with even lower common denominators.
I have to go. Robert Bentley is on TV promising to work for free if he's governor. One has to pay attention to a politician who is willing to work for what he's worth. It's a joke, really. The salary is a pittance compared to the filthy lucre available to politicians from a thousand other sources.
Ricky Thomason's e-mail: Rickythomason@aol.com
