Second Permit Filed for Coal Mine Near Mulberry Fork--Cordova, Alabama

The Mayor who feels no shame in the wreckage of the 'church of secrets'

Reed Minerals, Inc. has filed a permit with the Alabama Surface Mining Commission dated July 5, 2011 for a second mine to be located near the contested Sheperd's Bend Mine along the eighth most threatened river in the US, the Black Warrior River. The land for the Reed Mine belongs to the Cordova Industrial Board and Reed claims it will "bring twenty jobs and have a payroll of $1.5 million."

Read more here

In an article we wrote on June 1, 2011 entitled "World Class Jack" a reference to Cordova Mayor Jack Scott, we surmised that his refusal to allow FEMA trailers for victims of the April 27th tornado devastation had everything to do with coal. Mayor Scott had to have another reason for his stubbornness that garnered world wide attention and heaped huge embarrassment on him and the city leaders of Cordova.

Scott has heard all the complaints, and he isn't apologizing. He said he doesn't want run-down mobile homes parked all over town years from now.

"I don't feel guilty," he said. "I can look anyone in the eye."

And whatever that reason was it had to be a good one, in his mind at least, but he did very little eye to eye looking at anyone and refused repeated requests for interviews by national media outlets. 

We are not pleased to report we were correct in our suspicions of why Jack Scott was acting like a typical 'Big Mule' about the whole thing--payday was coming for him.

The Cordova Industrial Board (CIB) owns the land the Reed mine will be sited on and they'll make a bundle off the mineral rights. Earlier this year, the CIB acquired a 47 acre tract of land that will allow the transport of materials by river and rail, a site well-suited for coal transport and it's no surprise coal connoisseur Alabama Power approves:

The property is valued at $350,000. It was obtained at no cost by the Cordova Water and Gas Board through negotiations in exchange for services rendered in the past to Warrior River Steel, the land’s previous owner.
The Cordova Industrial Development Board will be responsible for marketing it.
Jack Drummond, chairman of both the Water and Gas Board and CIDB, said city officials have been trying to obtain the site for approximately two years.
Drummond said the area was called prime property during a meeting with Alabama Power representatives last year. Mayor Jack Scott added that the city has the option of buying some adjoining acres, which would bring the site’s total to 150.“It gives us the potential to bring jobs into the city. We need jobs in Walker County and Alabama,” he said. 

Walker County owes its soul to coal and to the Drummond family. In a 2009 Walker County Annual Report, it's clear who wants a piece of Walker County's 'black gold' from the generous contributions rolling into the county coffers. 

Mayor Scott isn't going to be left in the coal dust he had to endure when he worked the mines, he's moving up and on his way to easy money street with the Reed Minerals deal.

Scott claimed that jobs and having young people move into the area were part of his reasoning for disallowing Cordovians access to FEMA trailers within the city limits. He called FEMA trailers an "eyesore" and an impediment to a "young, professional class" of potential residents wanting to move Cordova and "put down roots" translating to new folks will mean jobs coming closely behind.

The mine will bring twenty jobs. Hardly an employment boom by any logical measure.

Mines aren't normally a draw for "young professionals" to pour into an area. Who wants to raise a family in an area with a loud, filthy and destructive coal mine as their next door neighbor? Not many we can think of would see that as idyllic portrait of family living.

But in the world of Jack Scott, a former coal miner himself, it's a winner. 

All the way to the bank.
*photocredit: Gawker.com 
Facebook page--"Cordova-The Truth"
*Update--Public Meeting Notice 7/12/2011 on Reed Mine posted on Cordova-TheTruth 

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Rewriting Alabama's State Motto One Legislative Session at a Time

If it looks like a tombstone...

Alabama's official state motto adopted in 1939, "Audemus Jura Nostra Defendere" (We dare defend our rights) will be soon be changed again by our current legislature to "Audemus Jura Cape" (We dare to take your rights) at the rate our lawmakers are moving in furthering empowerment to the state and corporations and away from the citizens.

There's nothing great about the state of Alabama if you're not in the loop, a political player, a generously political corporation or one of the many bottom feeders known as lawyers for the state's interests.

Don't be from the wrong side of the tracks, exhibit any complexion hue other than lily white (or the occasional golden lily color during Redneck Rivera months) and above all else make sure you attend the white right church.

And have your politics straight, as in tunnel vision like--capable of focusing only on one narrow view of the world and everyone around you.

We've become a state of the privileged few unable to shake off our racist past. We've gotten more PC about it and hidden the more overt racism into the now accepted classicism the religious right is so fond of, but what was ugly then is still hideous now.

The gambling trial going on in Montgomery has opened up a view to an unseemly and intolerant attitude that pervades our State House like a skunk shot. We've learned that our lawmakers are not only prejudiced to great faults, but we've also found out just how corruptly they operate right out in the open, with unabashed shamelessness.

For the most part, it appears we are short on how many hides ought to be on the stand and under indictment.

We have one republican that's an I-go-to-church-but-play-me-a-little-poker-on-Friday-nights hypocrite who's taking thousands of dollars from a lobbyist for admittedly doing absolutely 'nothing' annually. Other republicans who gather in groups and denigrate minority citizens and the counties they live in like they were at a Saturday night Klan meeting. Political snakes lying in the tall grass of morality and lying in wait (courtesy of hidden recording devices) for one of their own to stroll by so they can strike and deliver a fatal political bite.

Montgomery rightfully earns its nickname of Goat Hill--it's a literal animal farm of bad behavior from top to bottom.What makes the whole sordid bunch even worse is their attitude of us first, you citizens last.

No grocery tax relief passed the legislature this year, while corporate friendly tax abatement and incentives sailed through. Alabama taxes its people at the lowest rate of  income seizure in the nation--$4,500. If you make $4,500 per year, by God you are going to pull your weight and pay the state its share, but if you're a giant corporation like Thyssen Krupp, the state of Alabama will allow you millions in goodies from state coffers, and a generous reduction in tax revenues, to come to Alabama for "the good of the people."

Former Governor Riley stormed through the Alabama Senate in 2007 demanding lawmakers step-up the handouts through big business legislation by telling them if they didn't, he would defy them to "go back home and say I'm doing the right thing for the people of this state."

It's always about corporate coddling and never about giving "the people of this state" one whit of relief for their families.

An issue came up towards the end of the legislative session about Public Adjusters. PA's act as insurance policy advocates who are hired by policy holders to even the tilted playing field of the claims process. They're consumer advocates who know every in and out of the meant to confuse complicated lingo in insurance policies. And they're under attack in Alabama:

In at least 44 states, insurance policyholders can hire their own adjusters, called public adjusters, to help settle claims after a loss. But the legal status of public adjusters is cloudy at best in Alabama.

Following April’s savage tornadoes, the Alabama State Bar warned that public adjusters are illegal in Alabama, saying that they are practicing law without a license and could face criminal prosecution.

We have our fair share of natural disasters in Alabama--hurricanes, tornadoes and severe droughts that wreck not only our communities, but our chances as average citizens to be made whole after a tragedy of Mother Nature. We need the power to hire representatives who will fight on our side when one of the state's big insurers refuses to honor protection we have faithfully paid for in the form of premiums.

When someone files a claim with an insurer, the company sends an adjuster to examine the damage and determine how much repairs will cost.

A public adjuster, however, represents the policyholder, working up a separate damage estimate and bargaining with the insurer. The policyholder pays for the service, *giving a public adjuster 10-25% of a settlement depending on the state and type of claim. *(Avg. fees are 10-15%)

Insurance companies are huge players in Alabama's political process gifting millions to candidates that are raised by premiums payments from policyholders. One large insurer ALFA, has had its dirty hands in legislative sessions bills for years, directing lawmakers to favor their own corporate interests with increased campaign donations. They've bought their way into the statehouse and pay for laws designed for their sole agenda--decrease policy holder rights and increase our immunity and profits.

The right of citizens to hire PA's is an issue that will have a huge effect on everyday citizens in ways they don't fully comprehend. This July 3rd story from the Mobile Press-Register entitled "Public Insurers Called Illegal in Alabama" lit a fire under commenters who roundly thrashed the state's stance of no rights for you John & Jane Q. Public, and if you try, we'll make it actionable:

 "Alabama does not license claims adjusters so any claims settled by such third-party recovery firms are considered to be the unauthorized practice of law, which is subject to criminal prosecution," the statement said. "Anyone assisting third-party adjusters attempting to settle claims on behalf of claimants could also be charged with aiding and abetting in this illegal activity."

Alabama insurance Commission Head Jim Ridling sent a letter to Alabama AG Luther Strange for an opinion on the legality of PA's in Alabama. Shortly after, Ridling pulled the request back and said through his spokesman that he would seek a "legislative solution instead." He knows what agreeable minds he'll find in the insurance friendly legislature.

Predictably the insurance industry wants to deride PA's, but when we are entertaining the idea of making it illegal for citizens to hire advocates on their side of things, we are going way too far. Taking it a step further and suggesting that even the citizens who seek these advocates may also be charged with a crime moves it into Gestapo territory.

Like the bad model of Arizona's anti-immigration law that Alabama picked up and ran with, charging straight into a you-should-have-seen-it-coming legal wall of trouble soon after, Florida is serving as the model for Alabama's war on Public Adjusters:

Several bills are floating around the Florida legislature which deregulate the insurance industry in Florida or strip away vital rights held by insureds in disputes with their insurance carriers. The legislative session launched earlier this month with bills which allowed Citizens to raise its rates by as much as 25% each year, prohibited Citizens insureds from retaining a public adjuster to assist in the handling of their claim, and rewording the consumer protections contained within the bad faith statute. 

Following Florida's anti-citizen rights governor's lead is an idea that makes as much sense as, well, what Alabama does all the time! Name one meaningful bill that has come out of Montgomery in the last 50 years that gave any power to the people. Next, see if you can name how many have come out of Montgomery that have ensured power remains centralized in Montgomery. You should have one blank piece of paper and a stack of page after page with the latter.

We are at the bottom of the pile on so many other issues what's this one more going to hurt?

This one will, a lot. 

We hope that citizens will begin to pay more attention to what Montgomery is doing to their rights before they wake up one day and realize they have very few left. Bit by bit the legislative goats continue to gnaw away at the tree of citizen's rights. How much more are we, as a collective people, willing to allow them to take away from us?

SI NOS NON CAPIEMUS

*if you let us we will take it

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The Rachel Maddow Show on the ExxonMobil Spill in Montana and Pipeline Safety

Once again the feisty Ms. Maddow breaks down the facts and fiction of big oil in this recent segment of the TRMS, including an interview with Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer-D.

Schweitzer is also a soil scientist and he's signaled a zero tolerance for any shenanigans from ExxonMobil. Something to keep in mind about him though is that he is a big proponent of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline.

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Notable statistics on pipelines in the US:

The energy and transportation network of the United States consists of more than 2.5 million miles of pipelines. These pipelines are operated by more than 3.000 private, small and large companies. According to the federal DOT this network includes approximately:

• 168,900 miles of liquid petroleum pipelines

• 320,500 miles of gasoline transmission pipelines

• 2,200,000 miles of natural gas pipelines

Most of the pipeline system in the US in antiquated, forty years plus for some major lines running from Texas to the northeast, and buried only to depths of 3-6 feet in many areas.

The PIPES Act of 2006 was enacted to strengthen regulations and improve safety while protecting our nation's energy supply. Still, the amount of federal inspectors remains low, around 100 employed with positions for 135. That doesn't solve the additional problem of a decrease in state budgets, resulting in less available money for their own programs and inspectors. Less money equals less inspectors and more infrequent inspections.

If you look at recent stats, states are responsible for pipeline safety covering over 92% of 1.9 million miles of gas distribution piping in the nation, 29% of 300,000 miles of gas transmission and 32% of 166,000 miles of hazardous liquid pipelines. If you figure that into budget cuts, furloughs of some workers and a dismal state economic outlook, it can become a real challenge.

Couple that with compliance issues and violations resulting in frequently non-existent civil penalties on a state level (Alabama is linked) and there's a recipe for disaster in the making by not using available civil penalty compensation to help the state programs remain solvent. ADEM uses this tactic as a means to keep their state agency funded, why doesn't the Alabama PSC also do the same with in-state pipeline violations?

Perhaps the most troubling aspect of pipeline safety was discovered by investigative reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle revealing that 2/3 of the safety studies used by federal agencies were funded by pipeline operators:

Industry's access guaranteed influence. The studies launched by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration helped mold national and state safety rules and inspection procedures for 2.3 million miles of pipelines that carry natural gas and hazardous liquids, some underneath neighborhoods.

Three deadly accidents in the past three years involved decades-old pipelines that might have been replaced - saving lives - had the outcomes of the federal agency's research, and the policies they influenced, been different.

The Chronicle's reporting shows who's really in charge of the hen house--the foxes and their corporate lobbyists influencing Capitol Hill to go along with their own biased information and studies  Corporate interests and public interests are rarely aligned in their purposes, and the issue of our aging pipeline infrastructure should be a wake up call to all of us.

Handing responsibility for safety over to the same entities you are supposed to be regulating for the public good is not only foolish, it's ripe for corruption and a deliberate misinformation campaign that ends with proven deadly consequences. 

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Betting the Farm: Vanity Fair Magazine

SOW LONG? The White family, clockwise from bottom left: patriarch John C. White, Jeffery, Johnnie, Thomas, and Barbara, on the front porch of the main house on their potato farm, in Sagaponack, New York.

By Michael Shnayerson•

Photograph by John Huba

John White’s family has been working its 57—acre oceanfront farm in Sagaponack since 1695, the last holdouts against a tide of Wall Streeter mansions. But in an effort to save his children's inheritance—by selling 10 of those acres to a Houston oil mogul—White may have lost it all.

Read more here

Michael Shnayerson's story chronicles the battle between the White family and Anthony Petrello, an enormously wealthy and determined man who does not like being told "no." It's a tale of the predatory nature of men like Petrello, who in another article by the Hamptonscurbed.com had offered to "assist John White in estate planning and subdividing other parts of his land." Petrello knew what he was doing by making that offer--stacking the proverbial deck squarely in his future favor.

Land values in that area were sure to skyrocket soon, especially ones with a beachfront like the White farm has.

Petrello also knew that White's intention was to leave the bulk of his remaining 57 acres (minus the 9.6 sold to Petrello) to his descendants after his demise, but White was no match for the savvy and manipulative Petrello who made sure any future land sales had his "first right of refusal" attached to it.

This wasn't the only battle Petrello got into over property he was determined to have by any means necessary. His 900.00/hr lawyer, David Berg, stays quite busy on Petrello's behalf.

In Houston's upscale gated community of Shadyside, Petrello sued his neighbor over a property adjoining his own after being denied purchase of the house on a verbal offer. Petrello stooped down low, despite never signing a contract on the home, and brought suit citing discrimination on disability and fair housing grounds to force his neighbor into selling him the property. Petrello had never mentioned anything about wanting the property for his daughter's medical team (she suffers from CP) until the case saw its day in court.

One pull quote, courtesy of a Houston builder who had a legal dispute with the Petrellos about their historic mansion in Shadyside, describes Petrello as "a modern-day Satan." The photo of a dapper Tony and Cynthia on the grounds of their Houston estate is captioned "Texas Crude."

Petrello eventually lost that legal challenge and had to pay a substantial amount to his neighbors, the Prukas, for "unmeritorious and conspiratorial" claims against them:

Based on the Court's estimate that 70% of the time expended in the case was expended on the conspiracy and housing discrimination claims, the Court awards an attorney's fee to the Pruckas on 1,120 hours at the rate of $400 per hour or $448,000. In the event of an appeal by the plaintiff, and the Pruckas prevail, an appellate fee of $60,000 is awarded.

Like most obscenely wealthy men, Petrello is dubbed a philanthropist and uses his money to garner points with the society set and the press. Of course we all know that the enormous 'giving' that men like this do serves their own interests first and foremost--they receive glowing press coverage at upscale events and deduct huge tax write-offs for appearing so 'charitable and humanitarian oriented.'

Anthony and Cynthia Petrello. Photo credit: Jenny Antill

Powerful men are used to getting what they want. John White has learned that lesson the hard way in his decades-plus fight with Petrello over the White family potato farm that's now worth millions more than it was when the deal was first struck between White and Petrello.

For a simple man who was just trying to keep his farm together, John White bit off Texas sized trouble the day he unknowingly put any stock in the likes of Anthony Petrello, but John White was only doing what he thought was best for his family and his legacy. He's not to blame for being horribly wronged by a petulant and overbearing big oil mogul who did not reveal his true intentions until after the fact.

Still, it's a sad story that didn't have to go the way it did if it weren't for the greed of a man with too much vs a man of gentle spirit and good intentions.

Men like Petrello thrive on outwitting and out-lawyering the average person for a living. They make a sport of getting one over on the other guy in their incessant appetite for more of more. If there's such thing as mercy in the epilogue of the saga of Sagaponack farm, hopefully John White will go to his maker before he lives to see what"'betting the farm" has finally cost him in the end.

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"The Onion" Spoofs the Big Coal Lobby

Filed under: too damn funny

The Onion video spoof also reveals a new documentary called "Terminal Gust," that captures one small town's plight as they suffer from wind whistling into their water supply. 

"Oh my god, kids could drink that water and get wind in their brains," one panelist cries. 

"Unlike coal, we don't know what wind is. We don't even know where it comes from," another panelist exclaims. 

Video link:

In The Know: Coal Lobby Warns Wind Farms May Blow Earth Off Orbit

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Straight Talk From Former Senator Alan Simpson on "The Last Word"

Lawrence O'Donnell's nightly show on MSNBC "The Last Word" opened Wednesday evening with his first guest the former senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson.

Simpson gives us a good dose of straight talk on the debt ceiling, taxes, political posturing and the nonsense of Grover Norquist--the would be republican kingmaker and far too powerful GOP enforcer. His idea of dealing with the debt is to cut spending while maintaining huge federal subsidies and unfair corporate loopholes to the wealthiest of special interests--an agenda we've seen play out in almost every state in the union that went red in 2010:

Norquist has long been critical of Republicans who have focused attention on the deficit, arguing instead that the target should be spending. Norquist knows there are only two ways to close the deficit -- hiking taxes and cutting spending -- and worries that the American people will gravitate toward higher taxes once they are confronted with the reality of spending reductions.

The former Wyoming senator disagrees with Norquist on "no tax increases ever" and accuses Norquist of "smoking more than I ever dreamed they produced in the trees and weeds" in reference to his so-called "pledges" he demands republicans sign if they want to be 2012 contenders. Simpson nails Norquist for what he is: an ideologue backed by special interests who have everything but the good of the people and the country in mind.

If you want the real deal on taxes and the debt this segment makes it elementary.

Bravo Mr. Simpson and Mr. O'Donnell for a brilliant exchange!

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How "Voodoo Economics" wrecks the economy.

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CASE STUDY: Dr. Willie Soon, a Career Fueled by Big Oil and Coal (and the Southern Company)

Story excerpt by Kert Davies for GreenPeace USA June 28, 2011

Of all the climate deniers, one scientist has been particularly closely involved in the campaign against the climate science consensus for the majority of his career: Dr. Willie Soon. 

Since 2001, Willie Soon has received direct funding for his research of $1.033 million from Big Coal and Big Oil interests. In contrast, he received $842,079 from conventional government or university funders in the same period. The last grant he received from a funder with no ties to dirty energy interests was in 2002 (a grant that carried through to 2006). Since then, he has been entirely funded by the fossil fuel industry.

The Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation gave two grants to Dr. Soon totaling $175,000. The 2005-6 grant for $110,000 from the “Koch Foundation” is titled  "Koch/Mobile [sic] Charitable foundation." This two year grant came from the Charles G. Koch Foundation according to Media Matters Transperancy.

Beginning in 2002, Soon's funding mostly came from oil companies, including Southern Co., one of the largest coal burners in the United States, and the American Petroleum Institute, according to documents uncovered in a Freedom of Information Act request by Greenpeace and seen by Reuters.

"A campaign of climate change denial has been waged for over twenty years by Big Oil and Big Coal," said Kert Davies, a research director at Greenpeace US.

"Scientists like Dr. Soon who take fossil fuel money and pretend to be independent scientists are pawns."

Read more here 

 

FOIA requests revealed a "previously unknown" money source and the presence of a 'Southern player' in the investigation: The Southern Company (SOCO). This should come as no surprise to informed watchers of the company, and it's something to keep in mind whenever you hear SOCO's and Alabama Power hired guns propagandizing climate change to suit their end of the equation.

Sometimes they rely on elected 'pawns' like Ms. Cavanaugh for assistance.

In an editorial from the Anniston Star earlier this year, Alabama Public Service Commissioner, Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh railed against increased environmental regulations on APCO and other heavy polluters with a gusto. She referred to global warming as "medicine show tonic" and carried the water for Alabama Power Company (APCO) by claiming "more stringent regulations would increase power bills by 30-40%."

BamaFactCheck.com dismantled her claims one by one and revealed that Ms. Cavanaugh made these claims based on information from APCO:

Public Service Commissioner Twinkle Cavanaugh says she attended a December presentation by Alabama Power at the PSC’s Montgomery offices. The power company outlined its costs for compliance with EPA regulations.
Cavanaugh, whose job is to regulate Alabama Power and other electrical suppliers, was upset by what she heard.
“I literally got so incensed by what was going on, I wrote something that was maybe 10 or 12 pages handwritten,” she said. Cavanaugh said she later whittled the piece down to the op-ed that ran in The Star and other papers. 

Clearly, Ms. Cavanaugh is a malleable sort who blindly accepts one-sided propaganda as fact to rant about publicly, and we no longer wonder why she became a member of the Alabama PSC. She's a perfect fit in this industry apologist agency. Maybe the next time she decides to attend presentations by industries her agency is charged with regulating, she will think first and become "incensed" second instead of the other way around.

In the meantime, it might be helpful for the PSC to be aware of what the Southern Company has been paying for. This might assist them in making more thoughtful decisions about serious issues under their authority, and hopefully dissuade any other members from taking to the editorial pages and coming off like industry shills rather than informed, non-biased and responsible regulators.

Big polluters know that if they buy 'experts' to prop up their claims of 'no harm from our industry' who give false credence to their scare tactics of 'jobs will be lost, costs will rise' they'll gain ground with the uninformed. It's one of their oldest and most frequently used tricks because it works. So does the money that pours into the expert's pockets.

Dr. Soon does not deny that he received the money from these industry groups, but he claims it had "no influence on his research and findings"-- the standard defense when the dirty tricks get exposed. Soon can claim his results are unbiased, but it's difficult to escape the traceable money trail of a career fueled by big coal and oil.

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CBS 42 "Deadly Deception" Series Continues

CBS 42 continues to be the leader in following and reporting on the North Birmingham Walter Energy toxic contamination story. 

Monthly meetings are being held with the affected residents in conjunction with the EPA, Jefferson County Dept. of Health (JCDH) and Walter Energy in an attempt to better inform the community. Indicators are that attempt is failing miserably on all levels--mistrust is now running higher than ever and frustration seems to be increasing among the residents with each successive meeting.

It's a notable and ominous statistic that 7-8 additional funerals have occurred since the last monthly meeting. 

Walter Energy continues to maintain its innocence and claim they have no part in the contamination, despite being ordered by the EPA to remediate the contaminated areas in these neighborhoods. Walter's version of it is that they are cleaning up out of the goodness of their big business hearts.

What's happening to this area of North Birmingham is an environmental crime of serious proportions that appears to have no good end in sight. Adding fuel to the fire is a spokesman with the JCDH who speaks to these frightened and worried residents in technical and departmental jargon that they cannot understand. Our opinion is that this is not a miscommunication as much as it is a by design attempt to buffalo these people with technical verbal confusion.

Part of the problem is that some of the answers are not simple, as when the Jefferson County Department of Health tried to explain the process by which it measures contamination. The residents say the explanations are too complex.

“As far as I’m concerned, you have just wasted 30 minutes of my time. I have no earthly idea what you're talking about," says Jimmie Smith, who lives in Collegeville.

The confusion has led to mistrust.

Some feel the company is just putting them off, while contamination continues and they fear the resulting disease is killing them.

“It's where, well, we'll tell these black people we'll do it next month and the next month and by then they'll probably be dead," says a resident of North Birmingham.

That kind of talking over your audience sleight of tongue should end with this last meeting and not be repeated again. It's disingenuous and insulting at best and a blatant attempt to distract and deflect at worst. These are real human beings with real lives who are dying in alarming numbers from elevated cancer incidents in this area. They deserve a lot more respect than they are getting from the authority and corporate figures involved in this preventable tragedy.

CBS 42, Sherri Jackson and Ken Lass should be roundly applauded for staying on this story.

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Show Us The Money Boys--Lawmakers and Their Side Deals Hidden From the Public

How much do our legislators and top republicans really earn from their elected offices and where is the line of ridiculous in the sand?

It raises the question of why we are paying lawmakers a taxpayer based salary, with all the extra income and benefits they receive on the side from lobbyists, business interests, PR firms and state and national political party’s handing out credit cards to top republicans. 

How much extra is enough?

Being elected to office is no longer public service on a modest, civic pay scale. Holding office leads to all types of enormous monetary benefits, and our politicians have become very adept at gaming the system. Their desire to affect change for the public good lands dead last behind their own financial interests. 

Is this what we vote for? Is this the type of party representation we envision?

Former RNC head Michael Steele came under a barrage of fire when it was revealed that donor money was being spent on lavish dinners, strip clubs and a whole host of personal enrichment monetary favors. The firestorm ended in his stepping aside as RNC head after public outcry became too loud for the RNC to ignore.

Why don’t we get this angry when it goes on at state levels?

Both sides of the aisle play the blame game over money—republicans point the finger at democrats on federal spending, and the democrats turn around and blame republicans for being far too lenient with big business in tax breaks and loopholes. But there is a big difference in our opinions—federally spent money is much more open and traceable than hidden money doled out by political party organizations.

How many voters are aware of the credit cards being handed out to select lawmakers?

The GOP has been doing this in all 50 states and until they get caught by a media source that is savvy enough to catch on to the game, they’ll keep doing it. No lessons were learned from the fairly recent scandal to the national GOP party that brought down Steele and others in shame.

It’s incumbent on our media sources to unearth these schemes and expose them to the public at large. We have a right to know the financial behavior of our elected politicians that we entrust with the power to handle our state affairs. If politicians will waste donor money on lavish dinners and expensive haircuts, then that tells us a lot, which we should know, about their fiscal attitudes in general.

The way we learn of these back room deals is through our media informing us and keeping an eye out for these types of charades. That will not happen unless they are willing to set aside their political leanings and act as a public watchdog rather than a political lapdog. Who do they really serve, us or their advertisers?

The media was paying attention in Florida

In 2010, controversy swirled around the use of state GOP issued credit cards to high ranking lawmakers who used them for anything but party related expenses—the intent behind handing out the cards. When demands from the media for access to the statements from the FLGOP on the credit card activity grew louder, the party responded in predictable fashion and circled the wagons around the transgressors. Lawmakers refused to grant access to the statements. What were they trying to hide from their voters?

The fountains of free flowing money aren’t confined to GOP issued credit cards

Last week’s testimony in the bingo gambling trial opened up a can of worms when it was revealed that Representative Barry Mask-R Elmore County has been receiving $10-50K per year for a single client referral to lobbyist Steve Windom. Windom, a former Alabama legislator and party switcher from democrat to republican, gained notoriety for using the senate floor as his personal men’s room in 1999 when he urinated in a jug behind his desk while presiding over the senate fearing if he left the floor he would be stripped of his powers by the democratic majority. 

Windom is one of those politically bendable characters that wouldn’t necessarily be a boost to any lawmaker’s good association list, but Mask, a self-professed upright Christian and would be good steward of the people’s money, sees nothing wrong with his arrangement with Windom. He admitted in testimony this past week that what he is doing is “perfectly legal” even though does basically nothing of consequence for the tens of thousands in yearly ‘thank you’ money from Windom.

The Alabama Ethics Commission seems to be in agreement with this cozy deal. 

How many other Alabama lawmakers have a Representative Mask style deal or party issued credit cards? Why isn’t the state press asking the questions and demanding that the state party admit this is going on in Alabama?  

It's time to put an end to these on the side deals and name the names of who is doing it. If what they are doing is legal as written in Alabama Code, but it's considered very distasteful to the public, then maybe it's time to end the legality of it.

Our ‘new day republicans’ refer to themselves as ‘morally upright and fiscally responsible’ so let’s take them at their word and ask them to release the statements and records to the public view. 

Representative Mask can go first by naming what high value client he referred to Steve Windom that is netting him tens of thousands of dollars per year in addition to his taxpayer based legislative pay. Perhaps he also has a handy explanation for the amounts increasing by ten fold once he took elected office. And maybe Mr. Windom can tell us, during his tenure of public service, if he was approached by a big money bag source who promised a Beason style PR position once he left office for a favorable vote during his career. 

At the very least Windom is a prime example of the reprehensible revolving door practice, so what else did legislative office afford him? We don't send representatives to Montgomery to get rich on the side, we send them to represent us, the people. They all seem to have forgotten what their real purpose is and made political office-holding a career move that pays off better and faster than any private sector job ever would.

If you are going to talk the talk, then walk the walk.

The Alabama republicans stated more than once during their campaigns that “Alabama’s government should have more transparency and accountability.” We think there’s no better place for them to begin than with themselves.

So Say We The Opinion Board Of The Vincent Alabama Confidential 

*NPR Truth in Media

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Reanimating a "Zombie Nuclear Reactor" in Hollywood, Alabama--TVA's Bellefonte 1

The TVA recently announced plans to revive it's half century old reactor the Bellefonte 1 to the tune of almost $9 billion dollars--$4 billion has already been invested and another $4-5 billion is required to get it up and running. Skeptics say the reactor is "too expensive and too antiquated, and it lies in an earthquake zone." 

They're right about all three. 

But it's moving forward anyway despite known problems with all of the TVA'S nuclear facilities.

Excerpt from a June 15, 2011 NY Times story on Bellefonte:

Thomas Kilgore, the authority’s president and chief executive, said finishing it now would make more sense later. “Why nuclear?” he said. “Once you get the unit built, you’ve got inflation locked out.”Mr. Beaumont, the industry analyst, said that “based on cost, I absolutely think you can say it’s crazy.” But that assessment might change over time, he allowed.

The Environmental Protection Agency could force additional coal-generated power plants to close as it polices greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the demand for cleaner sources of energy, he said. The price of natural gas will eventually rise, making nuclear energy more competitive, he added, and at some point, existing nuclear plants will wear out.

T.V.A. executives have another troublesome variable to deal with, unpredictable changes in demand, which is what they say caused them to shut down construction in 1988.

“I can’t forecast out 8 or 10 years,” Mr. Kilgore said, but “we just know when we get there, Bellefonte 1 is a good economic proposition."

The TVA has a long track record of problems with its nuclear facilities. Brown's Ferry is notorious for safety issues, and the Watts Bar 1 facility was shut down in 1985 after employees came forward with safety and operating concerns that kept the plant closed for eleven years. That eleven year down time has been described as a "lax period" where "proper construction procedures were not followed, and documentation was poorly maintained." During this same time of troubling ineffectiveness, construction of the Bellefonte site was completed.

In the years between then and now, it was scavenged for parts to other facilities to within a shadow of its former self. Tearing it down and starting over would make more prudent sense, but TVA has firmly demonstrated by their own actions they are not known for sense and prudence. Or safety.

Another one of TVA's facilities in Tennessee, Watts Bar, is scheduled to have a second reactor online by October 2012 and it too is swirled in controversy and questions.

In a meeting on June 20, 2011 in Athens, Tennessee between the NRC and TVA Watts Bar representatives, questions were raised "about the TVA's nuclear track record and the NRC's oversight" in addition to the safety of nuclear energy after the Fukushima disaster in Japan. The NRC is still reviewing a backlog of 500 whistle-blowing complaints about the TVA's Watts Bar facility. Robert Haag, NRC construction chief reported that "the agency has reviewed and closed 79 of those allegations."

James Moorman, director of the NRC's Southeast division construction projects, is markedly more optimistic about allowing the TVA to expand Watts Bar than some in the audience:

From the mid-1970s when construction began at Watts Bar to Unit 1’s startup in 1996, whistle-blower allegations raised concerns about everything from quality control to fire protection. When work stopped on Unit 2, the whistle-blower allegations pertaining to that reactor were shelved by NRC.

“We think we’re on schedule with what we have [in that new look],” Moorman said after the meeting.

But several listeners at the meeting were full of questions and concerns.

Ann Harris, one of the whistle-blowers and former Watts Bar employees, took TVA and NRC officials to task for not checking what she said were far more than 500 allegations long ago.

“This is snake oil you’re spinning,” she told the officials.

Brian Paddock, an attorney working with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, asked NRC how the recent evaluations of failures at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant might affect the scheduled October 2012 Watts Bar startup.

“I haven’t heard anything about that,” he said.

He also questioned whether NRC’s recent re-evaluations of seismic risks to the plant are being applied at Watts Bar.

NRC officials told him they would get back to him with answers.

Sometimes dead is better when it comes the TVA's archaic nuclear facilities--they continually exhibit a morbid pattern of pouring millions of federal dollars into antiquated ideas that one day we may all pay for in deadly consequences.

Stephen Smith writing for the Institute of Southern Studies made a convincing argument against "zombie reactor" resurrection in a 2009 article:

If TVA decides to go forward with Bellefonte despite serious questions about financial and safety issues, the plant would likely not be completed until 2020 or beyond. Given that initial construction began back in 1974 and a standard operating life is 40 years, the reactor at Bellefonte could be operating at a ripe old age of nearly 90. A potential NRC-granted 20-year license extension down the road could make for an almost 110-year-old operating reactor. If in 2080 someone asks whether anyone still uses nuclear reactor technology from the Nixon era, hopefully that will be a laughable question. Yet it is deadly serious.

Mr Smith concluded his article with the hope that the TVA would "make a better and safer decision" regarding the Bellafonte reactor. Sadly, his words and hope have fallen on the usual deaf ears of most quasi-governmental agencies like the TVA.

In our opinions, all that stands between us and disaster is the NRC, and so far they have signaled a frightening unwillingness to act in the best interests of the public with nuclear energy oversight. It's almost as if Fukushima was a fluke, an anomaly that gets obligatory lip service of 'we have learned from that disaster' but we are not really going to make any big changes.

That's flirting with disaster on epic levels.

Just how safe are the US nuclear plants anyway? 

According to a recent investigative report from the Associated Press "radioactive tritium has leaked from 3/4 of all US commercial nuclear plants into groundwater from corroded buried piping." The NRC continues to "extend the licenses of more and more reactors across the nation" despite the occurrence and severity of the leaks increasing.

Tritium leaks have also been documented at The Southern Company's (SOCO) nuclear plants in Georgia and Alabama: Vogtle (Ga.) & Farley (Ala.) SOCO's Farley plant requires massive amounts of water to keep their reactors cooled and they aren't going to allow a decrease in available water supplies without putting up some huge resistance. The long-standing water wars between Georgia and Alabama figures into nuclear and the utility plants of Alabama Power. This link sheds some light on what's driving the issue and it's not all about over-development-- it's mainly about "Power and Water Colliding" 

Governor Bentley, inheriting the water wars battle from the previous administration of Bob Riley, signaled his readiness earlier this year to put an end to the twenty-year fight.

Lastly, it is worth considering the role extreme changes in weather will have on our nuclear facilities. What's happening in Fort Calhoun, Nebraska right now might give us a big clue and another cautionary warning we would be wise to heed:

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