South Alabama Law, Politics and Redneck Wisdom
A super game to teach constitutional rights! The game, Do I have a Right, lets you start a law firm and serve clients with constitutional issues. Remings me of the cafe game on Facebook, but with constitutional issues.
Hat tip to the ever outstanding Above the Law blog.
Covington County District Attorney Greg Gambril. Photo Credit: New York Times, (Fair use applies)
Hushed conversations in the halls at the Covington County Courthouse this morning. Dismay, concern, disbelief on the part of some while the rest are ordering popcorn to watch the big train wreck. The Andalusia Star News story outlines the D.A.’s firings of investigator Brett Holmes and secretary Brandy Smith along with the firing of the prosecutor with the most seniority in the D.A.’s office, Grace Jeter. Meanwhile WAKA, channel 8 out of Montgomery has this on their website:
From the CBS 8 South Alabama Newsroom – Three employees at the Covington Co. District Attorney’s office have been fired.
District Attorney Greg Gambril tells CBS 8 News he’s dismissed an assistant district attorney, an investigator and an administrative assistant. Gambril says the three firings are unrelated but general personnel issues are the reason behind them.
“They were reasons that were a long time in coming. The timing was right and I did what I felt was in the best interest of the future of the district attorney’s office and for the taxpayers of Covington County,” he said Tuesday.
Gambril says the assistant D.A. position will not be replaced due to lack of federal funding. He says the other two positions will be filled — he hopes by the end of September.
The most interesting debate is in the comment section to the Andalusia Star News. To quote Lily’s Purple Plastic Purse, “Wow! That’s just about all I can say, wow!”
Claudette is in town this Monday morning on her way to Tuscaloosa and North West Alabama. No big deal, Jim Cantore is not here to forecast our doom so we will likely survive. Meanwhile, here is the 5 day tracking on Ana and I am not liking the look of her.
Besides, I am going to trial next week and hoping this thing stays weak.
Got these photos via e-mail this morning! I love the Darwin Award-like effort made by these young men.
Here is the text that came with the e-mail:
What If you have some mattresses that you need to move and you don’t have a pickup truck or a van, why not use your car?
Of course, if you were going to do that, you would want to exercise caution and safety for the motoring public around you as you are traveling to your destination.
The very least that you could do is take some rope and tie the mattresses down to the top of the car and secure them in a snug and tight manner before you leave out of your drive. What if you only have your car and you don’t have any kind of rope around?
Why not place the mattresses on top of your car and then get two guys to lay on top of the mattresses to hold them down as you proceed out of the drive and down the street?
Just be really careful and don’t exceed the speed limits and also make sure you are going very slow when you turn from one street onto another.
Never mind that all of this is against the law, but what the heck, when you need some mattresses to sleep on tonight.
I just knew no one would believe this when I told them, so, I took some pictures for show and tell.
Pictures taken on Gilmer Ave. in Montgomery, Alabama, on Wednesday, July 15, 2009.
Forty years ago today I made sure to come home from the Southlawn pool to see Apollo 11 land on the moon. Sitting on the floor in front of the T.V., I watched history. At http://www.wechoosethemoon.org I get to do it all over again. (I wore the above patch on my denim jacket for years and still have it in a box at the house.)
The Tempest, Act V, Scene I:
This one pegs the weird-o-meter at a 9.8. My favorite part is this:
In denying the motion, Judge Patterson said the jury “will let us know if they feel that the atmosphere is such that there’s not communication in a rational manner.”
And this is after one juror threatens to cut off the finger of another juror and also saying: “I’ll have my husband take care of you.”
Maybe up in New York that is considered rational communication, but down here my State Court Judges would send you to the “blue-top inn” to consider alternate means of discourse.
For the non-locals, here is why we call it the “blue-top inn.”
President Obama signed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act last month but the Bill left out a key provision that would have allowed federal bankruptcy courts to modify the terms of nontraditional and subprime mortgages made on homeowners’ primary residences. In other words, a Bankruptcy Judge could have modified a ripoff mortgage. Unfortunately, the measure failed and there will be no “cramdown” provision in the law. An explanation of why this measure failed was given in the New York Times. Key Quotes:
The defeat of the bankruptcy proposal is a testament to the enduring influence of banks, even as the industry struggles financially and suffers from its role in the economic crisis.
The [banking] industry also steadfastly refused offers to negotiate over a weaker version. And it poured millions of dollars into lobbying: four of the industry’s top trade groups spent nearly as much on lobbying in the first three months of this year as they did in all of 2001.
Now here is the part in the article that gives me the gripes:
Throughout it all, the banks took advantage of the Obama administration’s seeming ambivalence. Despite its occasional populist rhetoric, the White House was conspicuously absent from weeks of pivotal negotiations this spring.
“This would have been a much different deal if Obama had pressed it,” said Camden R. Fine, head of the Independent Community Bankers of America and one of the chief lobbyists opposing the bankruptcy change. “The fact that Obama effectively sat it out helped us a great deal.”
* * *
While Mr. Obama reaffirmed his support for the proposal shortly after becoming president, administration officials barely participated in the negotiations, a factor that lobbyists said significantly strengthened their hand. Lawmakers who have discussed the issue with the administration said that the president’s senior aides had concluded that a searing fight with the industry was simply not worth the cost.
And here is the money quote, true everywhere laws are made:
There was no counterweight to that legislative muscle. Bankrupt homeowners do not have a political action committee or lobbyists.
I can understand the Obama administration wanting to fight fights it can win, but to give trillions out in bailouts to some of the financial organizations responsible for our current economic travails and then refuse to help Americans victimized by ripoff loans is unconscionable.
Does this bother anyone else or is it just me? From Officer.com, an “Online event,” eCitations: Your Ticket to Increased Revenues and Productivity.
Your Ticket to Increased Revenues and Productivity
This presentation will be available to audience members until June 10, 2010 at 02:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time.
The high cost of manual citation procedures is well documented — every year, agencies lose millions of dollars to errors and lost productivity due to the time consuming and awkward manual process. Join Officer.com editor Frank Borelli as he examines the advantages of eCitations and learn how to improve your departments productivity and increase revenue through this mobile ticketing solution.
Obvious point, but I didn’t know it was the job of the police to increase revenue.
