FY 2008-2009 Annual Report Alabama Ethics Commission

There's no waste like government waste.

The Alabama Ethics Commission's own report shows this agency of 16 employees to be a wasteful use of Alabama's money and more of a over-bloated, taxpayer funded, figurehead entity than it is money well spent to protect the citizens of this state from elected officials who do as they please, rather than follow the written laws.

And yes, Mr. Evans, there were laws on the books already to go after Senator Pittman.

Compare the appropriation amounts with the expenditures and ask yourself why this agency is spending 78.29% of its $1,607,898.00 FY 2009 Appropriation Funds on personnel services and employee benefits, and then compare that with what they take in from investigations and penalties: (which is supposed to be their main function)

                                                                                                            FY 2008                     FY 2009

Complaints Filed with Ethics Commission                                     223                           263
Complaints Closed After Preliminary Inquiry                                *196                         *264
Cases Presented to Commissioners                                                   13                             25
Cases Closed by Ruling of Commissioners                                       1                               2
Cases Forwarded to District Attorney or Attorney General             4                               6
Administrative Penalties Assessed by Ethics Commission            5                             16

Fines Collected by Ethics Commission                                 $2,600.00                $6,435.64
Restitution Collected                                                                      $280.00              $32,439.25

(*Includes complaints/cases that were received prior to October 1, but closed during the
current fiscal year.)

If anyone knows of a private business that can successfully operate and remain profitable under the same manner that this bean counter of a glorified lobbyist fees collection agency does we'd like to hear about it.
 

While we're in the realm of the surreal, how about an explanation for why a candidate for a local Sheriff's race who puts a campaign sign on a four-wheeler ATV, finds himself the object of an EC investigation and is found guilty of two counts of "using his office for personal gain," but a sitting state senator (and his Baldwin County Commissioner business partner) who are enjoying over half a million dollars in profits because of their elected positions, do not even warrant an investigation by the EC?

Ethics Commission Annual

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The Arrogance of Hugh Evans III and the Alabama Ethics Commission in the Senator Pittman Ethics Complaint

*Update Feb.10th-- Mr. Ripp responds
                             Baldwin Watchdog and Lagniappe sound off
*2nd Update Feb 11th--Pittman and Evans refuse to talk won't return phone calls to the Press-Register
        
This letter will speak for itself about the unmitigated gall and complete ineffectiveness of the Alabama Ethics Commission, Chief Counsel Hugh Evans III and their unfathomable refusal to go after Senator Pittman.

Reprinted here with permission from Mr. Ripp.

Ethics Commission Evans III

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You Can't Fix Stupid

A few stories that are testing the strength of our craniums in their absurdity.

Alabama State Senator Scott 'the Judas' Beason-R is just another recent example of an Alabama republican who just can't seem to shut the hell up. His dunderhead comment about "emptying the clip" to a like-minded audience at a republican breakfast meeting in Cullman County, Alabama has put the state back into the *national media spotlight of shame.
*(the "no news" story is up over 1000 comments in response)

Beason and his senate republican buddies remind us of the rich jock types in high school who were given a pass on anything they do, encouraged to behave badly and who wore their badges of misdeeds with pompous pride. Like the equally appalling and highly arrogant tractor on the loose, Senator Trip Pittman, Beason declares the story is "not news," and it's all being "whipped up by the liberals." Here's his response to anyone who took offense to the comment:

"It was a metaphor and anyone who thinks that advocates violence, their sanity probably needs to be tested.” 

These clowns just don't seem to understand that there are 49 other states past Alabama's state lines with IQ's larger than their own egos. Make that 48, Mississippi is exempt for obvious reasons.

Goodwater, Alabama--A man on cruthches was shot not once, but twice in a Goodwater courtroom last week after he allegedly waved his crutches at the judge and "tried to get the Judge's gun away from him." It's important to note that the accused was on crutches after a double hip fracture and after the first shot, as he was falling to the floor, he was shot again by a local policeman. Like most courtrooms, Goodwater has a camera in the courtroom and we would like to know why the recording has not been released to give validity to the authorities account of the event.

Kayla Talton of Sylacauga told the Montgomery Advertiser that the man, Keith Ford, was told he would have to go to jail if he was unable to produce $800 to settle his case. Talton said Ford threw his crutches to the floor, and the judge told him to "get up against the damn wall and shut up."

Ford told the judge he wanted an attorney and he wasn't going to jail. At that point, Talton said, an officer grabbed Ford. When Ford pulled away, the officer shot him twice, first in the stomach and then "in the side or the back."

It's turning into a racially charged story and the Alabama NAACP has asked the DOJ to investigate. Are none of the officers who guard the courtroom equipped with tasers? This was a bad move by the officer who used a shotgun to swat a fly and we say that Judge Carlton Teel could use a few refresher courses on how to behave from the bench. But maybe he is just carrying on the same bad behavior of his predecessor, his brother.

Loretta Nail has some interesting thoughts on this story and she knows Goodwater:

Goodwater is a strange place as far as the legal community goes. It's like an incestuous cabal of related judges and lawyers who run the whole town. The Teel's father was at one time a State Representative. His three sons, Robert, Frank, and Carlton currently control Goodwater. Robert used to be the judge and he retired. Frank Teel is the Asst. DA who was arrested by the ABI for extortion in May of 2010. And Carlton Teel is the current municipal judge. They are white. The vast majority of Goodwater residents are black.

Alabama burning in Goodwater, Alabama.

The University of Alabama's crimson and white image is stained black by the ugly pallor of racism, again. A black student was walking by a white fraternity house last week and someone yelled out the dreaded N word to him, followed with "Hey boy, come here." President Witt has yet to fully address the issue and we've heard stories of male and female Greek society members who left their societies after being told they had to attend certain events in "blackface."

The real black face here is the systemic racism that exists on the UA campus. It even has a name-- "The Machine." 

UA is refusing to release any details of punishment for the racist student citing "privacy laws." How do you spell cover up? U-o-f-A.

Overheard--Hugh Evans III Chief counsel for the Alabama (no) Ethics Commission has penned yet another sarcastic and angry letter to a citizen who asked for justice to be applied to an elected official who definitely violated the people's test of ethics.

But, the EC's bar is so low that 10 men with guns and briefcases wouldn't be found guilty by this useless excuse of the overseers of ethics violations.

More on that next post.

But for now, lots of aspirin please...

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Rural Conecuh County, Alabama Set to Open Largest Landfill in Alabama at 5,100 Acres

Illustration credit: J. D. Crowe Press-Register

Updated Feb 14--Video interview of Mayor Terri Carter on landfill


Something really stinks about this deal and the odor originates from Goat Hill and ADEM.

Conecuh County is in their sights and the people of Repton, Alabama are worried. They should be.

Conecuh County has been embroiled in a heated battle against a proposed, massive private landfill since 2006. They've held off Conecuh Woods, LLC for a long time now, but with the help of our out-of-date state laws and ADEM's requirements being so "easy to satisfy," the renewed effort to open the landfill is as simple as inaction by the local government--they don't even have to vote and the landfill will be in business.

Alabama's laws on toxic entities setting up business are so woefully antiquated that they rival the time of the state constitution. Hard rock mining regulations are based on 43 y/o statutes, before the federal CWA and CAA rules were enacted, and the far and few between attempts to revise them are shot down where they stand. The same goes for landfills. Dirty business is profitable business for the state and the waste industry has some of the most persistent and powerful lobbyists around.

And what we have are some of the most corruptible politicians around, so it's a lose-lose for Alabamians.

EPA studies on landfills around the country reveal that no matter how they are constructed, they leak. And when they do, they unleash a nasty leachate of toxins that makes its way into the groundwater supplies that often are the only source of water for most rural residents. Nearby creeks and rivers are fouled and even the earth itself around these sites is ruined forever.

Rural Alabama is the dumping ground for the industries no one else wants: prisons, mining, heavy industry and landfills. You never find any of these industries in the overwhelmingly white and well-to-do enclaves of our cities--instead they are usually disproportionately set up in predominantly black and economically depressed areas where the folks aren't quite so sophisticated and educated and where they lack the funds to fight back.  It doesn't happen this way by accident. These communities are specifically targeted, even when they are not primarily black, because there is a large population of simple, 'country folk type' citizens.
 

Is this continued "dumping on Dixie" economic class warfare, racism or simply the 'haves' taking advantage of the 'have nots' for their own enrichment? And who enables these crimes of humanity against the less fortunate citizens of our state? And why do they do it?

Let's point the finger where it belongs for the most part--straight at the spineless politicians in the Alabama legislature who cave to these waste industry lobbyists and refuse to protect Alabama's rural citizens from continued toxic exposures. The state environmental agency, ADEM, makes a fortune from the fees for these dumps, which then go into the hard-to-follow-the-trail of the General Fund for the state.

To make matters worse, there's that sneaky provision in the Alabama law that allows landfills to set up with a no vote by local officials. We suspect that provision was inserted into the laws to give cover to local politicians and area representatives, who get to say "I didn't vote for it" to their constituents. Well, yes you did, a no vote is a yes vote in this case. The politicians know this and they are hoping their citizens don't. They do now and we hope for this community's sake some serious pressure on the local officials will stop this nasty idea.

But the law, as written by the legislature, is on the side of the landfill owner, not the citizens who have to live with the decision and the consequences.

Wildlaw has been fighting against these landfills for years and one of their fiercest advocates, Barbara Evans, knows she is up against a mountain of resistance on Goat Hill. But she climbs that mountain every year undaunted and determined.

Barbara is known as the "People's Lobbyist" and she has worked tirelessly for years on behalf of Alabama's economically depressed citizens against these Toxic Titans. She's a real modern day hero for Alabamians who are at the mercy of greedy businessmen, private corporations and landowners, and last but not least, their own local government, who more often than not, acts as a dictatorship rather than as representative government.

Here's an excerpt from one of Barbara's Newsletters through Wildlaw that spells it all out and names names of who is responsible for the ineffectiveness of reform on landfill laws and the underhanded tactics that go on in the Alabama legislature:

Legislative Roundup 2009: May 19, 2009

Senate Bill 72 and House Bill 652 were the landfill bills, introduced by Senator
Wendell Mitchell and Rep. James Thomas did not pass. 

These bills would have changed the language in the law regarding landfill applications. Currently the law says that if the county gets a landfill application and fails to act within 90 days, the application is approved. These bills would have changed “approved” to denied, and also clarified that landfills must get county approval to modify their permit to expand or change the types of waste they accept.
Senator Mitchell was able to get the bill passed in the senate committee, but Lowell Barron refused to place the bill on the special order calendar.
In the House, Rep. Thomas could not even get the bill in committee, although the committee was ready to give a favorable vote.
Rep. Bill Dukes of Decatur was the committee chair who knuckled under to the landfill lobbyists, and effectively prevented the bill from even being considered by the committee.
Rep. Seth Hammett, the speaker of the House, would not intervene.

It should be noted that the form of SB 72 passed out of committee was a
substitute bill that would have allowed language that any modification of a landfill permit had to come back before local host government, and if they failed to act on the request for modification within 90 days it would be approved.
This was a compromise which many folks did not like (including me, but I felt it was better than nothing).
The lobbyists used all their power to stop this bill. They won.
And don’t think they played fair.
They said they would help me get the landfill bills passed IF they only pertained to Lowndes County, knowing full well that you cannot get local legislation passed if there is already existing state law that conflicts.

This is what our elected politicians do when we send them to Montgomery--cut deals with their favorite lobbyists and enact legislation that is against the good of the people. Our politicians are better at this than anything else they say they're doing and it's an abominable aberration against the people of Alabama.

But, we don't pay close attention and give them more hell than they can carry for what they're doing to us, to our children, to our friends and neighbors and our environment. We keep sending them right back in there because they told us all in those slick, campaign commercials that they were going to "fight for all Alabamians" while they sat there in some idyllic country setting with their wives, children and the ever present bible staring back at us. It works every time.

It's almost pornographic when you compare those designed-to-deceive images to their real actions (and inaction) during the legislative session.  

When you follow the money trails in Alabama they will all eventually lead you back to the worst pile of stench in Alabama--Montgomery's Goat Hill.

More information--Citizens For A Clean Southwest Alabama

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The Art of Lying

Lying is universal--we all do it; we all must do it. Therefore, the wise thing is for us diligently to train ourselves to lie thoughtfully, judiciously; to lie with a good object, and not an evil one; to lie for others' advantage, and not our own...--Mark Twain

Mark Twain is right, we all do it and some better than others. But his premise is that it should not ever be based in harmful deception and we can think of a few that apparently never read Mr. Twain's masterpiece of an essay.

Senator Trip Pittman continues his nonsensical campaign of deceit about whether or not he committed any wrongdoing over his deliberate looting of $639,000.00 in BP funds. He now declares "it's no longer a news story" and the "baseless ethics complaint" against him is "an abuse of the process": (he ought to know a thing or two about abusing the process)

“This same individual has submitted the exact same letter several times now,” Pittman said in an e-mail Thursday. “At this point, it is no longer news and his desperation is becoming even more obvious. Anyone with even a basic understanding of law would understand the previous provisions govern this case. He should be ashamed for abusing the ethics process by filing the same bogus claims again in order to air his political grudges.” 

Mod Mobilian hits back at him with a big stick that's well-deserved and right on the mark. Pittman, who doesn't possess the ability of a fly in understanding what ethics are, treads on shaky ground with any comments that start out with: "Anyone with even a basic understanding..."

Hmmm....Big mouth, big arrogance, big tractors, maybe someone is overcompensating for a lack of size in other areas. One would be his brain, you pick the other one.

James Sumner the director of the (no) Ethics Commission has Pittman all wrapped up nice and warm in the protection his pick-and-chose-who-we're-going-to-go-after commission that he claims serves Alabama well at a bargain price. 

Sumner writing for the Alabama State Bar in 1999:

"Do the citizens of Alabama get their money’s worth as a result of our efforts?
Absolutely.
The Commission’s budget is less than one-tenth of one percent of the state’s General Fund Budget. The annual cost of operating the Commission for each of the 200,000 covered public officials and employees is $469.
The cost per citizen of the state is only 22 cents. What a tremendous bargain to ensure the integrity of our governments at every level throughout the state."

What's that old adage about getting what you pay for?

Former policy adviser to Riley, and newly elected Senator Bryan Taylor-R, has put himself in a questionable situation by steering $100,000.00 to his law firm and in doing so, he pushed the standards of no "double dipping" in the ethics laws to a breaking point. Sumner is giving him a break though, and passing the authority down the hall to the AG's office, but not before he had a few things to say in Taylor's defense:

Sumner said there won't be an opinion on the issue from his office because the provisions of "double dipping" in the new ethics law fall under the attorney general's office.
Because of that, Sumner said he may have given Taylor the impression Thursday the issue was moot.
"I talked to him on the telephone and I probably did say to Bryan that I didn't think an opinion was necessary," said Sumner.

Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville saw it differently and said Taylor's relationship raised a "red flag."

"Today we saw a law firm that has a sitting senator (Taylor) on it," he said. "I'm not saying anything inappropriate is done, but there is a circle of influence that comes with having a sitting senator in your firm. That senator has access to all of us on an absolute regular basis. He's in the chamber. There could be some undue pressure that a department might want to pick a  law firm that has sitting senator because a sitting senator has influence behind the curtain that nobody else has."

Bradley Byrne-R pulled a similar trick when he was a sitting state senator and steered no bid contacts to a law firm he later joined after being defeated by Mule Bentley in the republican 'goobernatorial' runoff election, and here's what Sumner had to say:

Jim Sumner, executive director of the State Ethics Commission, said he sees no ethics law problem with Byrne's new position.

Here's a few previously cast pearls of wisdom from the swine of ethics Sumner:

"The ethics commission has been wandering around in the wilderness for a long, long time, but based on everything I'm seeing and reading, I believe we are close to reaching the Promised Land."
"Life as we have known it in the past no longer exists. There’s nothing more powerful in government, than having the harsh glare of sunlight on government and money.” 

You're right about one thing Mr. Sumner, you and your commission have been wandering around in wilderness for a long time, and it's time you came in from the woods and read a few good books starting with Twain's essay.

Because you sir, are an ignoble liar, and fail to realize that people can fact check what you've done and said, and in the end your 'artwork' looks more like finger-painting than a masterpiece.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

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Alabama's Last Investigative Reporter Bob Martin Exposes Riley's (and Alabama's) Deep Corruption

Some stories are so good they simply stand on their own with little additional commentary required.

The fiercely independent publisher and editor of the Montgomery Independent, Bob Martin, lays it all out in compelling form and raises serious questions about Alabama's new AG Luther Strange-R, Senator Jeff Sessions-R and Representative Bobby Bright-D.

Riley stands all on his own as a serious question.

Bright, it seems, is the second extension (after George Beck) of one of the longest vetting procedures in history to replace the controversial Leura Canary US District Attorney in Alabama's Middle District. And none of this is by happenstance.

Riley called Strange to his office to lay out what he wanted from the new attorney general … and what he would do in return … a classic quid pro quo offer.

Riley told the incoming attorney general that he wanted him to “protect” his children and also direct any business he could to them. For that, Riley told Strange, he would support him for governor in 2014 and raise $2 million for his campaign.

I am told that our U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, cut a deal with the Obama Administration to keep Canary in office.

The quid pro quo in return would be no serious opposition by Sessions to Obama’s Supreme Court nominees. 

Gosh, our guy Sessions surely wouldn’t cut a deal against his own values to protect those liberal Obama appointees.

So now the White House is vetting former Montgomery Mayor and U.S. Rep. Bobby Bright for the position.

That should give Canary another year in office, long enough to indict and prosecute more Democrats courtesy of Sessions.

Read more here

Something wicked this way comes.

Mr Martin promises to release more information soon. We can't wait.

An accompanying article on this story also by Bob Martin Feb. 2, 2011

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Drake Toulouse of Disinfranchised Citizen Rips BP's Feinberg's Web of Deceit

Am I still on camera?

No Laissez Le Bon Temps Roulet in Louisiana when Feinberg is around. If you can find him.

BP pit bull Kenneth Feinberg has been exposed for the fraud that he is and Toulouse calls him out on his campaign of lies and self-righteous claims that he is an "independent arbiter" in the BP Spill claims fiasco.

Well, well, well…Hey Ken, know what that tearing sound was?
It was the sound of the self-righteous cloak you’ve wrapped yourself up in for the past five months being torn up and tossed to the floor, leaving you and your ridiculous claims of being neutral exposed…
Have a nice day. 

Read more here

St. Bernard Parish has been one of the hardest hit communities in Louisiana, and on January 28th, Feinberg met with Parish officials at an "undisclosed location in a closed meeting" that was supposed to stream live to concerned citizens in the Parish Council chamber. The live feed was a joke at best and probably deliberately technically challenged at worst.

St. Bernard Parish President Taffaro told the crowd that Feinberg had made clear when agreeing to come to St. Bernard "that he wasn't going to do a town hall format."

"He said he thought the town hall format was not creating solutions to the problems that he was hearing about," Taffaro said.

Translation:  "I don't feel like letting the little people rip me a new one again and no more on camera moments of citizens begging for help on their knees. My bosses don't like it, but just remember I am neutral, you did write that down, right?"

Feinberg pulled up in a black Chevrolet Suburban with tinted windows, got out and walked into the chambers. Once there, he immediately discovered he was in the wrong place, and quickly backtracked.

On his way, he stopped briefly to talk with the media that enveloped him -- large television cameras circled him, blocking his way.

When asked why he wasn't meeting with the St. Bernard citizens publicly, he responded, "As you all know, I would meet with people here in Louisiana every week if I could."

During the live video, Feinberg briefly explained that while he thought it would be "more substantive" to initially address questions in a smaller group, that he would "be happy in the next couple weeks to meet in a town hall."

He said he has become accustomed to "walking into the lion's den."

Bush appointed Feinberg in the aftermath of Katrina and we all know how that went. Obama should have known there would be no hope and change when he put Feinberg in charge of the post BP Spill claims program, but maybe the live feed of sense and you ought to know better was experiencing similar technical difficulties when that decision was made. 

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The Measure of a Man

*Updated--see comment #5
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy-- MLK

We did some thinking on Senator Trip Pittman's weak offering of explanations about why he was not to blame for what he did when he personally gained from the BP Oil Spill money allotted to Baldwin County.

"I probably should have recused myself and tasked someone else with that responsibility," Pittman, R-Montrose, told members of the Press-Register Editorial Board. 

Pittman said he had not received ethics training until recently, and in hindsight, would have acted differently, although he said "no laws were broken." 

If we go with the meaning of Martin Luther's quote there's really no defense for what Pittman did. He has shown his measure of integrity to be set so low that he is, self admittedly, incapable of doing the right thing unless he has mandated training in how to behave ethically.

It is the position of a fool who admits no conceptual understanding of right and wrong, but what is even more troubling is that a man, so devoid of self governing principles, is elected to the position of an Alabama State Senator, and is charged with making consequential decisions on the behalf of thousands of constituents and even more Alabamians during the legislative session.

Somewhere along the way, in the political process, this tractor ran off the road and so far into the ditch that it's become unrecoverable. And it appears that real justice for Pittman went right along with it.

The voters who elected Pittman to office bear some responsibility in this wreck, but it was ultimately Pittman who sank to new lows (some may say the same lows we have always had in Alabama politics) and betrayed each and every one of his constituents.

And now that he is caught, he refuses to 'man up' and take responsibility for what he's done and is hiding in the hole of the rats in charge of the Alabama Ethics Commission. In fact, he's going right ahead with another Pittman pit job in the controversial Foley Beach Express.

He said he supported the Beach Express project as the county’s priority, but did not want the other projects abandoned if state funding could be found.
He said his investment property and possible personal gain was never his motivation and "not relevant in the decision" to push for those projects. 

Press-Register Editor Mike Marshall told Pittman that it is "our job to point out potential conflicts of interest" and suggested that Pittman could "recuse yourself from advocating projects that benefit you personally." 

What will Pittman do, take his advice? Probably not, but what will his excuse be for jumping from the fire (oil boom contract) and into the frying pan known as the Foley Beach Express?

You cannot claim that you don't know better Senator because of a lack of learning proper ethics training when your constituents have given you a crash course (ethics complaint and growing outrage) in what they will and will not accept from their senator.

In the measure of a man test you have failed miserably Senator Pittman and we suggest that it's time for you to take your tractor and go home.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential

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"New Day in Alabama" Ethics Reforms Keeps Sunshine Off of Senator Trip Pittman's BP Fleece Job

Illustration credit:J.D.Crowe Press-Register

We knew the newly anointed 'I'm for ethics reform' republicans would find a way to protect their own, but this is beyond infuriating and a slap in the face to all Alabamians.

Alabama Ethics Commission director James Sumner just announced that the new ethics laws recently passing the Alabama legislature cannot be used retroactively against Senator Trip Pittman. Pittman is facing an ethics complaint after his company received the lion's share of the $1.2 million allotted to Baldwin County by BP. 

From the story:

Fairhope resident Paul Ripp filed an initial complaint against Pittman on Sept. 27.

The complaint stems from a contract awarded last June by the Fairhope City Council to Pittman’s company, Pittman Tractor, for oil spill response work after Pittman had been chosen by former Gov. Bob Riley to help oversee the division of BP funding awarded to Baldwin County, according to published reports.

Ripp sent a separate 130-page document with additional allegations Jan. 16, but Sumner said that filing would be considered a supplement to the initial complaint and not treated as a new complaint filed after the new provisions were enacted.

Sumner claims that only cases filed after the new laws were enacted would be subject to the "toughest ethics reforms in the nation." Let's listen to a bit from Mr. Sumner about ethics: (-1.23 mark in the clip)

"..we will take this state a quantum step further than that to a platinum level of ethics reform." Too bad he didn't add, "But our buddy Trip Pittman will be exempt from scrutiny."

And this from a NY Times article December 2010:
“I think it’s just been institutional resistance,” said James L. Sumner, the director of the Alabama Ethics Commission. “You could never actually single out a person or a group that was opposed to ethics reform. It was essentially death by a thousand cuts.”

And it could be death from one great big hatchet wielded by Sumner himself in the Pittman case. If you have the head of the EC delivering a fatal blow to a serious complaint based on a technicality that may suit him, but doesn't pass the smell test with the public, what do you think will happen to any others that come before this figurehead entity?

Perhaps this tractor of a technicality explains the flippant attitude of Senator Pittman, Baldwin County Manger Bob James and the latest bloviator to enter the fray, Fairhope Mayor Tim 'the rant' Kant. All three men have shown nothing but indifferent arrogance towards their detractors, which are steadily growing in number, and have recently resorted to verbally attacking anyone who questions their previous dubious activities. 

Pittman is in full force gloat with this announcement:

“I look forward to working with the ethics commission so they can investigate and dismiss this baseless complaint, and we can all turn our attention to solving the serious problems and challenges that face Alabama,” Pittman said Monday.

The Alabama legislature knew what they were doing when they passed these new laws, the complaint against Pittman was already filed, and it's a downright shame that no one thought to ask for a retroactive provision or at least raised the question: what about the Pittman complaint? But then again, did anyone really think this would happen and the complaint would be tossed on a time technicality of a mere two months?

Looking at it in hindsight, we should have. But this new republican controlled legislature doesn't get off the hook that easy, and if they were serious about real reform (which they ALL campaigned on) this case is an excellent chance for them to step out of yesterday's mud pit of corruption and show Alabamians that they are willing to clean up their act.

So far it seems all they are capable of is business as usual, selective scrutiny (reserved for the bad ol' democrats) and empty promises. And if they have their way, Pittman will walk away from justice unscathed and almost $700,000.00 richer courtesy of the pillars of righteousness in charge of the new legislature and Ethics Commission.

The next time someone proclaims that "New Day in Alabama Politics" phrase to you in the same breath as ethics and accountability make sure you ask them: WHEN?
*January 23, 2011 Op-Ed from James L. Sumner Huntsville Times

*Legal Schnauzer offers an excellent article on another angle of Alabama profiteering and Alabama AG Strange's connections to Transocean in the wake of the BP Oil Spill.

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Monsato Goon USDA Head Tom Vilsack Slapped With Lawsuit for Alfalfa Deregulation

The Center for Food Safety fights back against the corporatism of Monsanto.

The Center for Food Safety has announced an immediate challenge to the USDA’s unregulated approval of Monsanto’s genetically-modified (GMO) alfalfa.

“All farmers should be on notice that we will be suing again, so before they make their seed buying decisions, I would certainly caution them that we will be in court,” CFS’s Andrew Kimbrell told Agri-Pulse.com. “And I think that anybody who looks at our past record over the last five years will realize that we haven’t lost yet.”

Press Release

Washington, D.C. – January 27, 2011 –

ROGUE AGENCY CHOOSES “BUSINESS AS USUAL” OVER SOUND SCIENCE
CENTER ANNOUNCES IMMEDIATE LEGAL CHALLENGE TO USDA’S FLAWED ASSESSMENT

 The Center for Food Safety criticized the announcement today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that it will once again allow unlimited, nation-wide commercial planting of Monsanto’s genetically-engineered (GE) Roundup Ready alfalfa, despite the many risks to organic and conventional farmers USDA acknowledged in its Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS).  

On a call today with stakeholders, Secretary Vilsack reiterated the concerns surrounding purity and access to non-GE seed, yet the Agency’s decision still places the entire burden for preventing contamination on non-GE farmers, with no protections for food producers, consumers and exporters.

“We’re disappointed with USDA’s decision and we will be back in court representing the interest of farmers, preservation of the environment, and consumer choice” said Andrew Kimbrell, Executive Director for the Center for Food Safety. “USDA has become a rogue agency in its regulation of biotech crops and its decision to appease the few companies who seek to benefit from this technology comes despite increasing evidence that GE alfalfa will threaten the rights of farmers and consumers, as well as damage the environment.”

On Monday, the Center sent an open letter to Secretary Vilsack calling on USDA to base its decision on sound science and the interests of farmers, and to avoid rushing the process to meet the marketing timelines or sales targets of Monsanto, Forage Genetics or other entities.

CFS also addressed several key points that were not properly assessed in the FEIS, among them were:
Liability, Implementation and Oversight — Citing over 200 past contamination episodes that have cost farmers hundreds of millions of dollars in lost sales, CFS demands that liability for financial losses incurred by farmers due to transgenic contamination be assigned to the crop developers.  CFS also calls on USDA to take a more active oversight role to ensure that any stewardship plans are properly implemented and enforced.

Roundup Ready alfalfa will substantially increase herbicide use – USDA’s assessment misrepresented conventional alfalfa as utilizing more herbicides than it does, which in turn provided a false rationale for introducing herbicide-promoting Roundup Ready alfalfa.  In fact, USDA’s own data shows that just 7% of alfalfa hay acres are treated with herbicides.  

USDA’s projections in the FEIS show that substantial adoption of Roundup Ready alfalfa would trigger large increases in herbicide use of up to 23 million lbs. per year.

Harms from glyphosate-resistant weeds – USDA’s sloppy and unscientific treatment of glyphosate-resistant (GR) weeds ignored the significant contribution that RR alfalfa could make to their rapid evolution.  USDA failed to analyze how GR weeds fostered by currently grown RR crops are increasing herbicide use; spurring more use of soil-eroding tillage; and reducing farmer income through increased weed control costs, an essential baseline analysis.

“We in the farm sector are dissatisfied but not surprised at the lack of courage from USDA to stop Roundup Ready alfalfa and defend family farmers,” said Pat Trask, conventional alfalfa grower and plaintiff in the alfalfa litigation.

The FEIS comes in response to a 2007 lawsuit brought by CFS, in which a federal court ruled that the USDA’s approval of GE alfalfa violated environmental laws by failing to analyze risks such as the contamination of conventional and organic alfalfa, the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weeds, and increased use of glyphosate herbicide, sold by Monsanto as Roundup. 

The Court banned new plantings of GE alfalfa until USDA completed a more comprehensive assessment of these impacts. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals twice affirmed the national ban on GE alfalfa planting.  In June 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the ban on Monsanto’s Roundup Ready Alfalfa until and unless future deregulation occurs.

“Last spring more than 200,000 people submitted comments to the USDA highly critical of the substance and conclusions of its Draft EIS on GE Alfalfa,” said Kimbrell.  “Clearly the USDA was not listening to the public or farmers but rather to just a handful of corporations.”
                                                        
The Center for Food Safety is a national, non-profit, membership organization founded in 1997 to protect human health and the environment by curbing the use of harmful food production technologies and by promoting organic and other forms of sustainable agriculture. CFS currently represents over 175,000 members across the nation. 

One of the 'intended consequences' of the war in Iraq was to allow the country, which is considered the cradle of the beginnings of all agriculture, to be taken over by US corporate giants, Cargill and Monsanto through Order 81. 

You never heard any of this in the mainstream press and that is because.....? Maybe they were too busy telling us that all Iraq was good for was growing Poppys for narcotics. They did not tell anyone the truth about that, because the US government didn't want them too. Why tell on yourself, right? And besides Monsanto wouldn't like the information being on the evening news, better to just distract the lefties with body bags and dead civilians.

And it worked like a charm.

It has caused the ruin of thousands of acres of some of the world's most fertile land and a way of life that goes back ten thousand years. (video link)

For the first time in history, Iraq can no longer feed itself.

America, through the USDA, is handing over the country to Monsanto so that they will have free rein over our agriculture, farming and seed supplies.They have the big farmers on board with their scheme because they're saving money on diesel costs with herbicide embedded crops. We understand that, the saving money part that is, but at what final cost to these farmers? (Read the soil analysis from GMO crops and the irreversible damage to the land to get the point.)

Time to pay attention people and raise some hell with your representatives (who all voted for SB 510) and the USDA. Monsanto is all about profit and control no matter how they spin their message, and the American public does itself a huge disservice by thinking this is an issue isolated to fringe groups and tree-huggers.

This is YOUR issue and it will be YOUR problem if you don't wake up and speak up!

Posted by Winger

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