Eideard

To arrest one foreign car-making executive under Alabama’s new tough immigration laws may be regarded as a misfortune; to arrest a second looks like carelessness.

A judge has acted to put a Japanese employee of Honda Motor Company out of his misery by dismissing immigration charges against him, three days after he was booked under Alabama’s new immigration laws that have been billed as the most swingeing in America. Ichiro Yada is one of about 100 Japanese managers of the company on assignment in southern state.

Yada was stopped in Leeds, Alabama, at a checkpoint set up by police to catch unlicenced drivers. He was ticketed on the spot, despite the fact that he showed an international driver’s licence, a valid passport and a US work permit.

Bamalama coppers probably think an international driver’s license is just for driving outside Dixie.

Key parts of the new immigration law, HB56, came into effect in late September, including the driving provisions. Under them, the police are required to check up on the immigration status of anyone they stop who they suspect of being in the country illegally…

Yada is the second foreign car executive to fall foul of the new law. Last month police officers arrested a German director of Mercedes-Benz for failing to carry a valid driver’s licence. The move exposed Alabama to widespread criticism and ridicule…

The St Louis-based Post-Dispatch newspaper revelled in Alabama’s embarrassment by publishing an open letter to foreign car companies encouraging them to pack their bags and move to the rival car-producing state of Missouri.

“We are the Show Me State, not the Show Me Your Papers State,” it wrote, telling auto bosses: “You’ve got two choices. Either ask your executives to carry their immigration papers at all times, or move to a state that understands gemüchlichkeit…”

Between redneck idiots, Tea Party idiots and the new Republikan Party idiots, freedom to travel in a free country is only a memory in the Confederate States of America. That includes all the old boundaries plus the states outside of Dixie run by the latest clan of fools dedicated to voodoo economics and ethnic hatreds to match.

The owner of a large southwest Alabama car dealership derided as “Taliban Toyota” by a competitor has been awarded $7.5 million in damages after a jury trial for his slander claim.

Iranian-born Shawn Esfahani, owner of Eastern Shore Toyota in Daphne, Alabama, sought $28 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Bob Tyler Toyota, claiming employees at that Pensacola, Florida-based dealership falsely portrayed him as an Islamist militant to customers.

“The feeling I received in the courtroom for the truth to come out was worth a lot more than any money anybody can give me,” Esfahani told Reuters…

Esfahani’s lawsuit said that Bob Tyler sales manager Fred Kenner told at least one couple considering buying from Eastern Shore Toyota in 2009 that Esfahani was of Middle Eastern descent and was “helping fund the insurgents there and is also laundering money for them…”

A Bob Tyler salesman was accused of telling the same couple that Esfahani was from Iraq and calling him a “terrorist” who put soldiers including the salesman’s brother in harm’s way…

The jury deliberated for three hours before awarding Esfahani $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages on Monday evening…

Esfahani said the dollar amount awarded by the jury was irrelevant unless the case sets a precedent by which other business owners can seek recourse against tactics he considers “un-American.”

Slimeballs who perpetuate slander and discrimination against minorities – whether for business or demented pleasure – represent the sickest form of bigotry. They are so preoccupied with their Limbaugh-like hatred they pay no heed to ordinary standards of civility or public conduct.

A judgement like this one warm the cockles of my heart. Hitting these creeps where it hurts them most – in the wallet – is especially just.

Thanks to Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL), taxpayers are footing a $500 million bill for a NASA rocket that the agency has no plans or desire to continue developing. The Orlando Sentinel reports that pork legislation inserted into a spending bill by Shelby earlier this year [2010] is requiring NASA to spend millions on the canceled Ares I rocket program through March, even while the agency can’t find funds to begin a much-needed modernization of the famed Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida:

At the root of the problem is a 70-word sentence inserted into the 2010 budget — by lawmakers seeking to protect Ares I jobs in their home states — that bars NASA from shutting down the program until Congress passed a new budget a year later. [...]

But Congress never passed a 2011 budget and instead voted this month to extend the 2010 budget until March — so NASA still must abide by the 2010 language.[...]

The language that keeps Constellation going was inserted into the 2010 budget last year by U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby, an Alabama Republican who sought to protect the program and Ares jobs at Marshall Space Flight Center in his home state.

His office confirmed that the language was still in effect but did not respond to e-mails seeking details.

Nearly all of the money for the program will go to two defense contractors building the Ares rocket, Alliant Techsystems (ATK) and Lockheed Martin, with ATK receiving the bulk. Defense contractors have been a consistent source of financial support for Shelby’s campaigns, contributing to him at higher rates than to other politicians in his state. In particular, Shelby’s 2010 reelection campaign was the top recipient of funds from ATK’s PAC, receiving the maximum $10,000. And the company’s employees appear to have given more to Shelby than to any other politician in the 2010 election cycle.

Shelby certainly has a flair for the dramatic when it comes to extracting pork money for defense contractors in his state. In a “nearly unprecedented” move in February, Shelby placed a blanket hold on every single presidential nominees being considered by the Senate — more than 70 in total, including “top Intelligence officers at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security as well as the number three civilian at the Pentagon” — in order to pressure to Obama administration to do the bidding of Northrop Grumman on a $40 billion contract for which they were being considered.

One of the hilarious aspects of KoolAid Party derring-do will be butting head-to-head with the Republican establishment over serious money. That is, after all, what it’s about for Republicans and most Democrats.

True Believers will continue to funnel their dollars and beliefs to cynical politicians who will take every penny, add it to the larger pile coming from corporate treasuries and carry on as they feel they are so ordained from on high. The seat of political power ain’t moving from Wall Street to Main Street. Not yet.

You’ll have to click on the pic, then click on the link.

What he said: “”If you’re a Christian and if you’re saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister.

“Now I will have to say that, if we don’t have the same daddy, we’re not brothers and sisters. So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, I’m telling you, you’re not my brother and you’re not my sister, and I want to be your brother.”

As a southerner with a number of decades behind me, I have sat through many a speech and sermon where this tactic is employed. The listener is left to feel that, no matter how nice a person he may be, he is very much an outsider until he follows a few simple steps, which, of course, the speaker will be happy to provide him. The best part of all is that it is “free”. Of course, if, after the instruction, the Lord lays it upon your heart to cough up some of your money, that would be all right. We won’t stop you.

How sad that we have come so far and yet are still debating who is whose brother.

If you believe in brotherhood, you have a choice. You can accept the narrow world view reflected in the Governor’s words above, or the wider view. But whatever you do, please keep your money to buy your groceries, pay your bills, or help a brother or sister in need.

Kristallnacht returns as a right-wing tactic

Democratic offices in at least three states have reported instances of vandalism that party members say possibly were tied to Sunday’s historic vote on health care reform.

Early Monday morning, a glass panel at the Tucson office of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Arizona, was shattered, spokesman C.J. Karamargin said. It wasn’t clear how the window was shattered, but visitors have to go through a gated courtyard to enter the office, and staffers suspect someone may have shot a pellet gun at the glass, he said…

In upstate New York, two similar incidents were reported before Sunday night’s vote, according to CNN affiliate WHEC. A brick was thrown through the window of the Monroe County Democratic Committee headquarters in Rochester, and another was tossed through a window of Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter’s office in Niagara Falls early Friday…

Another incident was reported earlier in the weekend by the Sedgwick County Democratic Party in Kansas. Party Executive Director Lyndsey Stauble told CNN that a brick with anti-Obama and anti-health care messages was thrown at the headquarters sometime late Friday or early Saturday. Nothing was taken, and no one was injured, she said, adding that a bakery next door called police…

An Alabama-based blog…says it has launched a “window war” against Democrats and has kept a tally of the recent incidents of damage, including the ones in New York and Kansas.

Michael B. Vanderboegh of Pinson, Alabama, told CNN…he called for people to break windows at Democratic headquarters at the city and county level. He said he didn’t call for the damages to congressional offices because, “I didn’t want to be responsible for anybody breaking a federal law…”

“My answer is violence, by getting their attention,” he said, adding, “If we can get across to the other side, that they are within inches of provoking a civil war in this country, then that’s a good thing.”

The most corrupt political vermin gravitate to their own kind. Threats of violence escalate to overt acts of violence – and those who excuse such behavior are as corrupt as the dimwits they encourage.

Because that won’t stop the idiots who repudiate democracy, who would deny people’s right to vote and speak out.

BTW – It took Boehner and McConnell 3 days to stand up on their hind legs and denounce the vandals. Update: 25th March.

Court officials in Alabama said a female potential juror’s name — Jesus Christ — raised eyebrows when she showed up for duty.

Jefferson County Circuit Court Judge Scott Vowell said the 59-year-old Birmingham woman… presented officials with a name change form with “Jesus Christ” on it when she arrived for jury duty this week, the Birmingham (Ala.) News reported Wednesday.

Christ was excused from the criminal case in Judge Clyde Jones’s courtroom for being disruptive, officials said. They said she kept asking questions rather than answer those posed to her by officials.

You mean like, “Who do men say that I am?”

A woman from Boaz was arrested over the weekend, and charged with child endangerment after her teenaged daughter was seen riding down the road in a cardboard box – on top of the family mini-van!

Officers say they were able to stop the van on Hwy 431 near Tyson Foods and discovered a 13 year old female inside the box. Officers say when [Jackie Denise] Knott was questioned about why the child was inside the box her reply was that “the box was too big to go inside the van and she would be able to hold it down if she was inside the box.”

Officers say when asked about the safety of the child her reply was “that the box was tied to the van with a clothes hanger.”…

“We were going twenty miles per hour.” Jackie Knott told WAAY 31. “We were going slow as possible. We almost were about a mile and a half from the church making it there I know don’t it was just a bad decision.”…

Haley says the incident is being blown out of proportion, and her mom doesn’t deserve to be called a bad parent. “She’s an awesome mom. I mean, everyone likes her and you ask anyone in our neigborhood. She’s a good mom and she would never do anything wrong.”

Scary is that mom did this. Scarier is that she thinks that her added details make the story look any better.

I could have posted pics of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, but this water hog was cuter.

Governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida had 19 years to reach to an agreement over how to share the water from Lake Lanier.

Now a federal judge has given Congress three years to work out the dispute….

The governors of Florida and Alabama said they’re willing to return to negotiations, but Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue seemed to sound a different note.

“I will use this opportunity not only to appeal the judge’s decision but, most importantly, to urge Congress to address the realities of modern reservoir usage,” Perdue said. “The judge’s ruling allows a three-year window for either congressional action or an agreement by the states, and we will work diligently with Georgia’s delegation and members of Congress to re-establish the proper use of federal reservoirs throughout the country.”

In his ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said it was illegal for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Lake Lanier, to draw water from the lake to meet Atlanta’s needs. The Corps has been making such withdrawals for decades….

The court said Lanier was not intended to be Atlanta’s water supply, and the Corps may not use it that way unless Congress authorizes it to do so.

If Congress fails to pass a water-sharing bill in three years, Magnuson said he would order Atlanta’s withdrawals cut to 1970s levels, a measure that the judge acknowledged would be draconian.

Given the arrogance of the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta on this and similar issues, my sympathy is limited. Whenever the subject of overdevelopment and poor planning is raised, noses are raised high in the air as if citizens are little school children incapable of comprehending adult issues. Now a federal judge has ruled that Atlanta has essentially been stealing water all of these years. Good for him. Maybe the governor and the mayor of Atlanta will negotiate more like grown-ups now.

Daylife/AP Photo by Gary Cosby Jr.

A federal judge ordered a north Alabama sheriff jailed this week, saying the lawman intentionally served jail inmates “woefully insufficient” meals in order to pocket more than $200,000.

After a Wednesday hearing, Clemon found Sheriff Bartlett in contempt of court, saying he had failed to comply with a consent decree in a 2001 lawsuit regarding conditions at the Morgan County Jail, according to documents filed in the case.

Clemon ordered Bartlett released from the federal Talladega Correctional Facility the following day after the sheriff’s attorneys pledged to provide better and healthier meals to inmates.

At issue is an Alabama law that attorneys for the inmates claim provides sheriffs with an incentive to skimp on feeding inmates. Under the law, sheriffs are permitted to keep — as personal income — money left over after purchasing food for inmates.

The state provides sheriffs with $1.75 per day per inmate for food, according to the Alabama Attorney General’s Office. However, in a March 2008 opinion, the office affirmed that sheriffs may legally keep what is left over.

What medieval creeps! The dude makes the Sheriff of Nottingham look positively benevolent.

Of course, the idiots in the state legislature – combined with slimy lawyers – constructed a system of commerce that pretty much guarantees stealing above and beyond the call of opportunity. Cripes!

The FBI has arrested the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, on federal charges including conspiracy, bribery, fraud, money laundering and filing false income tax returns.

As president of the Jefferson County Commission and head of its department of finance and general services from November 2002 until about November 2006, Larry Langford put his personal affairs ahead of those of the county, U.S. Attorney Alice Martin said.

“Our investigation has revealed, and the indictment alleges, that Langford sold his public office to his friends and political supporters,” Martin said…

Business deals financed by institutions — including J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Bank of America — “Langford used his position to make it a condition that those financial institutions include Blount Parrish in the financing deals and paid Blount Parrish a fee in order to get the county financing business,” Martin said.

She cited an October 2003 financial transaction that included Bank of America and Lehman Special Financing Corp. that required Lehman to pay an “arrangement fee” of $35,000 to Blount’s company.

In all, she said, Blount and his company received $7.1 million in fees related to Jefferson County’s financial transactions.

In turn, Blount paid lobbyist LaPierre approximately $219,000 for “consulting fees,” Martin said.

She added, “Through a web of financing agreements, Langford required many institutions to use Blount as a consultant so Blount would make fees and in turn pay off Langford. It was a classic pay-to-play scheme.”

I’d say business-as-usual for the financial institutions at the heart of the crimes.