From the Star Tribune:

Three small-town eighth-graders in Minnesota were suspended by their principal for not standing Thursday morning for the Pledge of Allegiance, violating a district policy that the principal now says may soon be reworded to protect free speech rights.

As an arm of the government, schools cheapen the pledge by requiring pupils to recite it or stand during it.  Any government that forces its subjects to pledge loyalty doesn’t deserve any loyalty.  One thing that makes our country great is that people have fought and died to protect our right to speak freely without government recourse.

For some reason this article made me feel like a relic.  I disagree with Brooks’ assertion that fiscally responsible, limited government conservatism that is based on personal responsibility has gone the way of the dodo.  I think what has hurt the conservative movement, typically associated with the Republican party, in America has been many of the party’s members not living up to the rhetoric they spout.  They say limited government, but then grow it.  It disillusions people and brings about unfortunate outcomes that could have been avoided by sticking with principles.  That’s just the tip of the iceberg.  Turning around the party will take the right leaders and time to convince voters that they mean what they say.

So maybe I’m a dying breed, a dinosaur.  But at least I can be content with the knowledge that I’m right and years later when big government policies fail to work as they always do I can bitterly say I told you so.  Because we are bitter, after all.

In that vein I thought my favorite Hank Williams, Jr. song, Dinosaur, would be very fitting.

From the Montgomery Advertiser:

The State Board of Education voted unanimously Thursday to strengthen requirements for Alabama high school diplomas, but also passed an emergency amendment to potentially allow hundreds of lower-scoring seniors to graduate this year.

The emergency rule amendment covers graduations over the next 35 days and allows students who haven’t passed all five sections of the state’s high school exit exam to graduate if they passed three, including English and math.

I wonder if this will become an annual spectacle.  I’m sure more kids won’t pass all five sections next year and I’m sure moms and dads will haul their precious little offspring before the State Board of Education and demand a variance because their children put in twelve years of effort.  And the board will yield.

The “strengthening” of the diplomas comes in the form of forcing each student into the “advanced diploma” option by default.  Parents will have to choose to downgrade their kids to the basic option.  I don’t really have a problem with making the default curriculum more rigorous.  I don’t think all kids can handle it and graduation rates are already abysmal, but give it a shot.  What I find ridiculous is calling the default option advanced.  No, the default is the new basic.

According to the Huntsville Times the local Democrat party in Madison County have purged another person from the ranks of those seeking to oust incumbent District 6 County Commissioner Bob Harrison.  Their executive committee unanimously voted to remove Chasidy Privett from the ballot for not meeting residency requirements.  They earlier removed Bobby R. Sledge for the same reason.

Now only Judy King Scales will be challenging Harrison in the Democrat primary.  The winner will not face Republican opposition.

The spokesman for Huntsville’s government schools told the Huntsville Times that the system is contemplating purchasing laptops for students.  Remember, this is the same school system that thinks our taxes need to be raised because they don’t have enough money.

Giving kids government issued laptops is a bad idea for any number of reasons.  Laptops aren’t rugged enough to stand up to a year (or more) of rough treatment from adolescents.  People tend to treat “free” things with less regard than something that they own.  Laptops also make an attractive target for thieves or for kids to sell themselves.  There are no such concerns with regular textbooks.  I wonder how long it would take for the kids to master using their government furnished wireless devices to cheat on a grand scale - much more so than with cell phones.  And just think of the costs of expanding the IT department to deal with copious technical problems, repairing/refurbishing the laptops regularly, and training personnel to properly manage and utilize the devices.

And back to the issue of Huntsville’s schools needing more of our hard earned money.  The latest data I could find placed total enrollment at approximately 23,000 students.  Their FY2008 budget shows that they will spend $341.3 million.  That equates to about $14,800 of spending per student.  The total revenue per student was slightly lower since the budget indicates a deficit.  To put that number into perspective, annual tuition at the area’s premier private school, Randolph School, ranges from $10,675 per year for K-3 to $13,185 per year for high school.  Now, to be fair the tuition at Randolph is augmented by an endowment and there are some additional fees that students may not have to pay at a government school.  Also, the government schools have to operate (and pay for) a bus network that the private school does not.  Still, how can the government schools credibly argue that they need more from taxpayers when their per pupil spending is already comparable to the best private school in the area?

As was first speculated here about two weeks ago, the Huntsville Times is reporting that the Saturn V has made the cut as one of the “7 Wonders of America” according to a panel of experts assembled by Good Morning America.

ABC’s Huntsville affiliate, WAAY-TV, said Wednesday that “Good Morning America” will broadcast live segments Monday [12 May] from the Davidson Center for Space Exploration.

The Saturn V is certainly worthy of the list.  It is one of those creations that leaves you in awe when you stand beside it.  There’s something captivating about staring up at a huge rocket knowing that way up on the top men once sat in a small module that took them all the way to the moon.  It really puts mankind’s capability for accomplishing great things into perspective.  I try not to take for granted that I drive past it nearly every day.

This will be great publicity for Huntsville and the Space and Rocket Center.  Congratulations!

From the Tuscaloosa News:

The Alabama House has approved a bill to add crimes against people because of their sexual orientation to the state’s hate crimes law.

The bill by Rep. Alvin Holmes, a Montgomery Democrat, generated heated criticism last year and did not get enough votes to come up for passage. The bill passed Tuesday by a close 46-44 vote with no discussion.

The bill now goes to the Senate where passage is doubtful with only two days remaining in the regular session.

Holmes said the state’s current hate crimes law, passed in 1994, includes crimes against people for race, color, religion and national origin, but left out sexual orientation because of a technical mistake.

I wasn’t even aware that Alabama had its own “hate crimes” laws.  I’ll state up front that I fundamentally disagree with laws that punish people for thoughts.  At least federal hate crimes serve an ostensibly more virtuous purpose as they enable federal prosecution in cases that would otherwise be purely within the state’s jurisdiction.  I suppose the thought is that some locales might be reluctant to prosecute crimes committed against certain minority groups and that the federal government should be able to sweep in and right the situation.

The Alabama law, however, doesn’t serve such a purpose.  It merely lumps on additional punishment because of your thoughts or beliefs.  That is asinine.  If someone burns down my house for fun they should be eligible for the exact same punishment as someone who might burn down someone else’s house who might belong to a state sanctioned protected group.  In either case the criminal is prosecuted for the actual crime, but due to “hate crimes” laws the “hateful” person gets punished further because the state didn’t approve of their thoughts.

Here is Alabama’s hate crime law as it is currently written:

Section 13A-5-13

Crimes motivated by victim’s race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity or physical or mental disability.

(a) The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(1) It is the right of every person, regardless of race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability, to be secure and protected from threats of reasonable fear, intimidation, harassment, and physical harm caused by activities of groups and individuals.

(2) It is not the intent, by enactment of this section, to interfere with the exercise of rights protected by the Constitution of the State of Alabama or the United States.

(3) The intentional advocacy of unlawful acts by groups or individuals against other persons or groups and bodily injury or death to persons is not constitutionally protected when violence or civil disorder is imminent, and poses a threat to public order and safety, and such conduct should be subjected to criminal sanctions.

(b) The purpose of this section is to impose additional penalties where it is shown that a perpetrator committing the underlying offense was motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability.

(c) A person who has been found guilty of a crime, the commission of which was shown beyond a reasonable doubt to have been motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability, shall be punished as follows:

(1) Felonies:

a. On conviction of a Class A felony that was found to have been motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability, the sentence shall not be less than 15 years.

b. On conviction of a Class B felony that was found to have been motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability, the sentence shall not be less than 10 years.

c. On conviction of a Class C felony that was found to have been motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability, the sentence shall not be less than two years.

d. For purposes of this subdivision, a criminal defendant who has been previously convicted of any felony and receives an enhanced sentence pursuant to this section is also subject to enhanced punishment under the Alabama Habitual Felony Offender Act, Section 13A-5-9.

(2) Misdemeanors:

On conviction of a misdemeanor which was found beyond a reasonable doubt to have been motivated by the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability, the defendant shall be sentenced for a Class A misdemeanor, except that the defendant shall be sentenced to a minimum of three months.

If I read that correctly any misdemeanor, regardless of how trivial it may be, that was deemed to be committed based on “the victim’s actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, or physical or mental disability” will guarantee the offender no less than three months behind bars.

Holmes’ proposed modifications would add “sexual orientation” to the list of protected characteristics, with “sexual orientation” defined as “heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.”  I’m only half surprised they didn’t include transgenders.

The bottom line is that in Alabama you should be punished for committing a crime against anyone.  Period.  Additional punishment for your state of mind is unnecessary and, quite frankly, unfair to victims whose assailants receive less punishment because their assailants didn’t single them out for some state approved reason.  The legislature should not waste time with this particular bill and should instead take efforts to repeal Alabama’s existing hate crimes law.  Alternatively, they could just go ahead and make everyone a protected group and therefore amplify the punishment for all criminals.

From AL.com:

The Alabama Legislature sent to Gov. Bob Riley a $2.01 billion general fund budget Tuesday that depends, in part, on an appeals court’s restoring $63 million to the fund and an uptick in the state’s economy.

The House voted 78-26 to concur with the Senate version of the budget, which passed the upper chamber earlier in the day on a 29-4 vote.

Also of note from the article:

In an April ruling, a Montgomery judge agreed with Tuscaloosa businessman Stan Pate, who argued that Riley improperly transferred $63 million to the general fund.

Circuit Judge William Shashy issued a preliminary injunction against the transfer and ordered the money restored to a state savings account known as the Alabama Trust Fund.

The litigation is part of Alabama’s long-running lawsuit against Exxon Mobil Corp. over royalties due from natural gas wells the company drilled in gulf waters off the Alabama coast. The state won a $3.6 billion verdict in 2003, but the Supreme Court tossed out most of that in November 2007.

“We lost billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains that the jury had penalized Exxon for that could have really helped our children in this state,” said [Sen. Roger] Bedford.

I have discussed the Exxon Mobil royalty issue ad nauseam here, but I couldn’t let Bedford’s absurd quote go unnoticed.  After all the legal dust from the case settled the state would up losing absolutely no “ill-gotten gains.”  Exxon Mobil paid back every cent that they were found to be liable for plus interest.  What they didn’t pay was the egregiously high multi-billion dollar punitive award that was ultimately struck down.

The author, Bob Lowery, mentions the compensatory award, but sprinkles in what I construe as an editorial comment on the situation by stating that, “Coincidentally, Exxon Mobil just recorded the highest quarterly profits in the it’s history - $11.7 billion.”  That has absolutely nothing - not one thing - to do with the matter at hand.  Lowery chose to toss that little nugget of information in not because it adds value to the story, but because it may bias the reader against the big, rich, evil oil company.  So what if Exxon Mobil is a profitable company?  Should they have to pay beyond what they legally owe simply because they have the misfortune of being large and reasonably successful?  Lowery’s injection of Exxon Mobil’s profits into an unrelated story, which I might add is something of a pastime in the journalism circuit, sounds like a faint call for “each according to his ability.”  Is Lowery advocating for income or profit based fines like the Finns issue for speeding tickets?

In order to better understand the views of each of the eight candidates vying to be their party’s nominee for the AL-05 congressional seat the authors of Flashpoint have created a candidate questionnaire. The questions were designed to generally fit within the top ten “issues of importance” in the congressional races according to Rasmussen polling data, although a few local and general questions were added.

The questionnaires were sent to each candidate with a publicly available email address last night and will be delivered to the remaining few this morning. We have asked that responses be returned no later than 16 May. They will be posted on the site for all to read.

So, here’s the list:

General

1. As a freshman legislator you may be limited in the amount of legislation you can personally champion. Please list two or three specific bills that are already pending or that you would introduce that you would personally fight for in order to secure their passage.

2. NASA’s annual budget is approximately one half of one percent of the total federal budget. Do you believe this is adequate to meet the challenges they have been issued to return to the moon and eventually send a manned vehicle to Mars? There appears to be a looming gap between launch requirements and launch asset availability - how would you address this issue? Should their mission and/or funding be altered in any way?

3. Please provide a description of what you feel would be appropriate Constitutional gun restrictions.

4. What makes you the best prepared candidate to represent the interests of Redstone Arsenal?

Economy

5. What is the role of the federal government in the Economy?

6. During campaigns candidates are eager to talk about programs they want to create or expand, but something has to give. Would you be willing to eliminate or curtail any programs and/or raise taxes to address budget problems? Please provide specifics.

7. What is your position on free trade? How would you vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement? Do you support continuing NAFTA?

Government Ethics & Corruption

8. What efforts would you make to increase the public’s trust in government?

9. Would you pledge to abstain from seeking or accepting earmarks as a member of Congress? Note: According to Citizens Against Government Waste there were five senators and ten representatives who received no earmarks in FY2008.

Social Security

10. What are your thoughts on Social Security? Is it in trouble, if so, how do you propose to fix it?

National Security/War on Terror

11. What country or group do you believe poses the greatest threat to the United States? What actions would you take to secure our safety from this particular threat?

Education

12. Does the country need more or less involvement from the federal government in educating our children? Do you support market based school choice programs such as vouchers or tax credits?

Health Care

13. What responsibility does the federal government have for health care? What are your thoughts on addressing the issue?

Iraq

14. What is your position on the Iraq War? Are we winning? When should we leave?

Taxes

15. What specific measures would you support to change our federal tax code?

Immigration

16. What should the federal government do about immigration? What impact have illegal immigrants had on Alabama?

Abortion & Other Social Issues

17. Which term best describes you: pro-life or pro-choice?

18. Would you address the issue of human trafficking and slavery in the US and worldwide?

19. Would you support an amendment to the Constitution defining marriage as being between one man and one woman?

Energy

20. What should the federal government do, if anything, to decrease fuel prices and what should the government do to develop and promote sustainable alternative energy sources?

Softball

21. Are there any questions you wish we had asked? Go ahead and answer it.

This Sunday, May 11, at 4:00 PM Central, CBS Sports (WHNT - 19) will air the Toyota Texas Bass Classic, taped April 20, at Lake Fork, Texas. This historic broadcast will be the first time a bass fishing tournament is aired to a nationally televised audience, possibly taking the sport to new levels.

You may ask yourself, why is this posted on a Huntsville political blog?

Let’s start with Huntsville’s Own Fishing Legend, Travis Rulle, FLW Pro Angler.  His team placed 10th in the tournament.

B.A.S.S. Founder Ray Scott (”We were teaching fishing and preaching anti-pollution”), of Montgomery, campaigned with Mike Huckabee here in Huntsville.

Bass Pro Shops is opening a new store at the intersection of I-65 and I-565, part of the $1.3 billion Sweetwater project.

Fishing is one of the most popular sports in the USA, with about 30 million fishing licenses sold nationwide.  Alabama is one of the nation’s premier fishing destinations.  Fishing requires clean water and good fisheries management.  And as an example of public-private partnership, Texas teamed with Budweiser to help fund fish genetics research (Budweiser ShareLunker Program). 

Conservation of our natural resources is good public policy.