World-Class Jack

Cordova Mayor Jack Scott has single-handedly done for Cordova what no one else has managed in the 152 years of the city's existence--he's brought world-class attention to the town and it's nothing to be proud of. Unless you're Jack Scott.

We have often wondered why Alabama politicians have been so fond of the phrase "world- class." They throw it around in describing just about everything--bridges, budgets, ethics reform, mathematics programs, each other and the future of Alabama. It is almost like code speak for ' I pulled that off ' and when they use it, good intentions don't figure into any part of it.

Former Governor Riley was especially fond of saying this: "Ladies and gentlemen, the future is going to be exciting to watch, what will happen in Alabama is going to be a world-class movement of exciting changes."

Governor Riley doesn't know Jack Scott.

Cordova's Mayor Scott probably never thought, in his wildest dreams, that "world-class" and Cordova would have appeared together in anything, even on a hedged bet. He does seem to fancy gambling in some way because his obstinate, bull-headed, stuck in the 1950s way of viewing the world didn't go away with the initial outrage to his decision in banning FEMA trailers. Instead, he responded by doubling down, called the opposition and went out in public and showed the iron fist of who he really is to the world.

It was a bad bet.

Eyes all around the globe have watched the news clips of a town hall meeting in little Cordova. They got an up close view of the hard as nails Scott, a man seemingly devoid of the basic human capacity to feel empathy and one measly ounce of compassion for those he is charged with leading--his twice over tornado ravaged citizens.

The world does not like what it sees and Jack didn't count on all of this attention.

But he isn't moved one bit. He's dug in and hunkered down in his grand house of shame--proud of the I don't give a damn what anybody thinks walls that surround him.

And he's done talking about the whole thing.

Joe Johns Show CNN Newsroom May 30th:

We would love to talk to you, Mr. Mayor. Mayor Scott, we have been calling you a number of times the past couple of days. You have not yet returned our phone calls, but I invite you live here on national television to pick up a phone and call me, Brooke Baldwin here at CNN.

It seems to us that a man who claims he "wants to make Cordova better" would jump at the chance to have national and global media attention for what he claims is his excuse in disallowing the FEMA trailers--"We want young professional people to move in here to Cordova and better our town. We don't want to be a town full of run-down trailers, we want to move Cordova forward!"

He has the perfect chance to hawk little Cordova on a world stage and make himself a big deal Daddy in the process by changing his mind about the city ordinance. He just won't take that opportunity no matter who's calling.

Instead, he uses his supporters to defend him on social network pages with scripted responses that no one is reading. The main page folded in less than 72 hours of internet existence. Ol' Jack did stick his head up briefly enough to claim "Everybody has got it all wrong...they don't know both sides of the story."

That's what he said--when he was talking.

Tell us what we have wrong Jack.

But Jack has nothing else to say and he's still at the table of I'll take my odds.

And the reason he isn't showing is because he's got a side bet with big coal.

Everyone has to make sacrifices, even Jack. And he's going to make sure Jack comes out ahead even if it causes him embarrassment far and wide.

What does he have to gain if he gives in and does the right thing? What's the payoff for him in his view of the situation?

Not a single lump of coal or one ill-gotten dollar.


*Update--'Talk' is starting to reach a 'compromise'   Or maybe not.
*July 5, 2011--Reed Materials files for coal mining permit on land owned by the Cordova Industrial Board. 20 jobs predicted.
*Please link to this article if using content

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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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Stories That Have Us Scratching Our Heads and Wondering WTH?

"I think I am seeing the monkey business going on, yes?"" 

Hope Coal Co. was recently fined  $50,000 (further reduced by $16,500) for 174 environmental violations by the Alabama Department of Environmental (mis) Management (ADEM.) That’s roughly $190.00 per violation and the company paid less in corporate fines than an individual would pay for a speeding ticket. The price of doing business in Alabama comes cheap when you screw up. And screwing up is definitely encouraged.

The bastion of (almost) exclusively white brotherly love, the City of Vestavia Hills, is caught showing their religious intolerance and unabashed snobbishness when the faith-based Jimmie Hale Missions tried to become the latest new tenant in the city. Their full of the love of Christ attitude is quite pious as long as "undesirables" stay on their side of town and don’t mingle with the privileged ones in the occupied territory of VH. 
(MP3 file podcast local talker Matt Murphy on WAPI. More podcasts on their webpage)

One Shelby County Preacher makes his case for what Alabama really needs: God, not real ethics reforms. Never mind that we’re 49th in corruption and the state house is brimming over with “good, upright Christian men,” we just need to all get closer to God and the rest will take care of itself. 
We wonder if this Vincent preacher counseled Vincent Mayor Ray McAllister against any private meetings with the town citizens who don’t want their town swallowed up by the notorious Vecellio Group's White Rock Quarries, their mining subsidiary from Florida. The Mayor and Council had meetings a plenty in another county out of sight of their citizens with quarry reps Rob Fowler and Stephen Bradley. Something we've always wondered about is why a Florida rock mining outfit, instead of Martin Marietta or Vulcan, who operate all the other eight quarries in Shelby County? Controversial location for a company well-versed in controversy perhaps?  
Makes sense to us--does it to you?

Governor Mule Bentley (AKA "Dunkey" a cross between a dunce and donkey) shows his true colors to the republican faithful and appoints his "goobernatorial" democratic challenger to head the Alabama Economic Rural Development office, and frankly, we’re shocked they’re shocked. A YouTube clip from Sean Hannity’s FOX show has guest Dick Morris (former Clinton man turned republican shill) pinning the tail on the "Dunkey" on what the good "Badtist" Dr. Dr. really is. Caveat Emptor. We sure do hope Sparks doesn't do for any other rural Alabama community what he did to North Alabama as Ag Commissioner. That would be a real stinker of a move.

Speaking of Bentley, he’s carrying on Riley era economic deals and has announced the entry of a biofuels plant into the Greene County area, the same county that former Governor Riley sent over one hundred state troopers into and immediately put scores of residents out of work and out of luck when he closed down the gambling joint. The biofuels plant, *Coskata, is brainchild of billionaire financier Vinod Khosla, who partnered up with bailout baby GM in 2008. 
The most obvious question to us is this: Why would an enterprising successful entrepreneur partner with a CEO who oversaw the largest corporation in the world to within a hairs width of bankruptcy? GM invested an “undisclosed amount of money” into Coskata in 2008 and then received millions in TARP money the following year. Looks like we paid twice, all of us. Cellulosic Ethanol plants require large swaths of land and maybe an over hyped bio-engineered crop or two, which Monsanto is poised to be an integral part of. 
The word "sustainable" is being thrown about and AlterNet asks if corporations have hijacked "sustainable." The answer is yes, and they are redefining the word to their advantage, hoping the rest of us don't notice. We do.
A sure bet on this is that certain Alabama business men, select politicians and lobbyists will get rich off of this deal whether it pans out or not. The USDA has cleared a $250 million dollar loan for the project that's been in the works for two years. More federal handouts will go to "farmers" who agree to grow crops for biomass use. We're really concerned that the normally environmentally conscientious dems are on board with this. Expect construction to be drawn out through Bentley's term to help him save face on his campaign promises of jobs, jobs, jobs.

On a national level, why did the Obama administration hold over the controversial former EPA head Carole Browner for so long before finally showing her the door?

And finally, how to rack up 557 violations and still be in business. Amazingly, it isn’t an Alabama coal company, it's Massey Energy, who else?

*Coskata is privately held, and to date has been funded entirely by its equity investors, including Khosla Ventures, Blackstone Cleantech Ventures and the Blackstone Group, Advanced Technology Ventures, GreatPoint Ventures, Total Energy Ventures International (part of Total, one of the world’s major Oil and Gas groups, and a top tier player in chemicals), Coghill Capital Management, General Motors, and Globespan Capital Partners.

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Some States Still Value Their Farmland Despite Financial Hard Times--NPR Reports

With the recent reports coming out on the *predicted coming food shortages we think this is a very prudent idea whose time has come to be seriously considered and placed higher on the priority list than hard rock mining is in real benefits to many. Not just the uber rich mining corporations and road builders.

* (This one FOX got right, no pun intended, but they are very late out of the gate.)

With limestone mining in particular, we lose hundred of thousands of acres of prime farmland every year and the promises of reclamation never seem to effectively materialize. You cannot replace prime farmland with a suitable substitute for agriculture once it has been rendered devoid of what made it so fertile to begin with--the underlying minerals.
From a recent NPR report:

Despite tough financial times following the worst recession in decades, some states continue to spend millions of dollars to preserve American farmland and stem its rapid loss to development and suburban sprawl.

Advocates say the preservation efforts are needed to ensure food is available locally if the national distribution system is ever disrupted. They also say it helps maintain a way of life important to many Americans.

Twenty-five states have farmland preservation programs, and nearly half of them are in the densely populated Northeast, where the loss of fields to housing developments and shopping malls has been rapid and pressing. After losing 21 percent of its farmland in less than two decades, Connecticut increased spending on preservation efforts.

In the northeast, they're on the right path and may be ahead of the curve if the food shortages become widespread. At least we hope they will, and are not squeezed out by Big Ag with the recent passage of SB 510 that basically handed over control of the food supplies to Monsanto and ConAg among others.

In our opinion, there could not have been worse timing for that bill with the dire reports of globalists warning of "food riots" and skyrocketing wholesale food prices.

From the Telegraph UK:

The cause of such alarm? On Wednesday, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that global food prices had hit a record high and were likely to go on rising, entering what Abdolreza Abbassian, its senior grains economist, called “danger territory”.

Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank, warns that the rising prices are “a threat to global growth and social stability”, and Nicolas Sarkozy has identified them as a priority for the G20, which he chairs this year.

That is bad enough for Britain, adding to the inflationary pressures from the soaring cost of oil and other commodities, not to mention the VAT increase. But for the world’s poor, who have to spend 80 per cent of their income on food, it could be catastrophic.

Are we coming to a crossroads of sorts where we need to re-examine what's more important right now? Mining or farmland? We believe it's worthy of discussion since most of the materials extracted from the US wind up in foreign markets, and what we give up to support those markets might be the very thing we really need in the near future to sustain us here at home.

*Another side issue of how perilous it is to be a black farmer in Georgia.

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