WVNN will be hosting a presidential forum on Feb. 5th during Dale Jackson’s morning show.  Representatives of each candidate - of which there seem to be fewer every day - will be taking part.  Dale was gracious enough to ask me to represent Ron Paul and I accepted.  I can’t wait to paint what is an increasingly stark contrast between the fiscal and small government conservatism that Paul represents versus the decidedly non-conservative positions of the remaining candidates.

So tune in to 92.5 FM or 770 AM from 6:00 to 9:00 AM on Feb. 5th.  The WVNN website also has a “listen live” feature.

A certain local radio station in the Huntsville area is looking to hire…

Legendary News-Talk station in rapidly-growing Huntsville, Alabama is looking for its next local talk show host. Be a part of a station that has launched the careers of numerous well-known talk radio personalities including Sean Hannity. This is a perfect job for someone looking to gain experience and hone their craft. You will be expected to possess the ability to take on additional responsibilities with sales opportunities available. Candidates will be expected to verse themselves in the local community, and must be able to entertain listeners with local/regional politics and issue topics, as well as lifestyle topics.

Send resumes, bios, audio AND salary requirements (market 113 – be realistic) to dale.jackson@cumulus.com.

Well, that is partially true.  WVNN has ended Tim Knox’s afternoon show.  He has been replaced (temporarily or permanently?) with Mark Levin.

I don’t have anything personally against Tim, but his show was… not compelling.  It was kind of like Seinfeld - about nothing - except Seinfeld was funny.

I’m hoping they hire Matt Murphy, who recently parted ways with Crawford broadcasting down in the Ham.

Update: For the record, Knox left WVNN to pursue other interests.  He was not fired, as the title of this post states.

I wish I had time to comment on tonight’s GOP debate, but I’ll just make one remark based on the post debate talking head session.  CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin said that Huckabee was not a serious candidate because he suggests that we should eliminate the IRS.  He mocked Huckabee’s position by questioning how the U.S. would bring in revenue.  CNN must be paying Toobin too much because he clearly hasn’t been paying attention to the presidential campaign.

Huckabee endorses the FairTax, which would eliminate the federal income tax and replace it with a national sales tax.  As written the FairTax would be revenue neutral.  For the benefit of Mr. Toobin I’ll clarify.  Revenue neutrality means that the FairTax - remember Jeffrey that is what Huckabee endorses - would bring in the same amount of money as the income taxes it will replace.  It only changes the manner in which taxes are collected by the federal government.

Do your homework Mr. Toobin.

Courtesy of the front page of the Huntsville Times:

Which is scarier: Being posted in dangerous Baghdad or being a little girl with leukemia?

Let’s put it this way, I have never heard anyone desire to have leukemia, but I have known people who volunteered to serve with the express knowledge that they would be in Iraq.

Alabama political reporter Jim Merlini was found dead in his home on Monday.  Regular viewers of APT’s For the Record program might recall Merlini, who was a frequent guest panelist.

Yahoo! News has a summary of GOP fundraising and it seems they might have missed someone…

Here are the candidates listed along with their 3rd quarter contributions:

• Romney, $9.8 M
• Thompson, $9.3 M
• Giuliani, $11.5 M
• Huckabee, $1 M

Who did they leave off?  Ron Paul, of course.  Paul raised $5 million in the third quarter, which one might think would at least earn him a spot on the Yahoo! list before Huckabee and his modest haul.

Alabama state representative and former triple dipper Ken Guin has started his own newspaper.

Guin has started his own newspaper, The Corridor Messenger, and the first edition came off the presses Wednesday. Guin said the paper, which is being distributed free to homes across Walker County for the first month, will cover news in Walker County.

The primary newspaper operating in Walker County is The Daily Mountain Eagle in Jasper. Guin said his newspaper gets it’s name from “Corridor X,” a Birmingham-to-Memphis, Tenn., highway that runs through Walker County and has been planned and under construction for decades. 

I guess Guin got tired of all the negative press he earned in legitimate publications and decided to start his own so that he can misinform his constituents.

I’m not quite sure why this headline merited a spot on the Drudge Report:

Tales From Obama’s Bedroom: Wife calls him ’snore-y and stinky’…

What married man has not been called such things by the fairer sex?  I’d be a bit leery of any man who didn’t earn such accolades.

This one isn’t by me…

Even though I think the characterization of people as liberal and conservative is overused, I feel it is necessary to respond to Elbert H. Sanders’ Aug. 10 letter.

Sanders claimed presidential candidate, Congressman Ron Paul is a “wild-eyed liberal” and he “has no idea why he is running for president as a Republican.”

In Paul’s 10 terms in the House of Representatives, he has never voted to raise taxes, never voted for an unbalanced budget and never voted to raise congressional pay. Along with his stellar record in Congress, he has earned the nonpartisan National Taxpayers Union’s annual award as a “Taxpayers’ Friend” for the 10th consecutive year in 2006. He was one of four Republican congressmen to endorse Ronald Reagan for president against Gerald Ford in 1976.

Perhaps the more interesting and possibly more historically Republican issue on Paul’s platform is a humble foreign policy. Traditionally, Republican presidents have been elected to bring unpopular wars to an end. Eisenhower and Nixon were both elected to end the Korean and Vietnam wars.

In fact, George W. Bush ran a campaign in 2000 that was highly critical of Clinton’s policies of “policing the world.” The American people are yearning for an end to this endless war in Iraq. If any Republican candidate plans to run in the general election on a continuation of President Bush’s Iraq policy; then they are surely wasting their time.

Matt E. Delaplane,

Harvest, 35749