Problems with the Republican Party
by Jesse J. Lewis, Sr.

The Republican Party have campaigned to recruit Blacks, minorities and women into the political system. Many, many years ago Blacks people were all Republicans because it was a the party of Abraham Lincoln who was a responsible for freeing the slaves. The Blacks who voted in the early years, voted with the Republican Party.
It’s one thing to say our door is open, yet you can only come in under their policies. There is no way in the world the average Black person can be recruited unless they change their policies.
In the Republican Party there are the Tea Party group and the Brother group. Their main goal is to erase Obama’s place in history. There are people like Ted Nugent, who called the president a ‘sub-human mongol’ and also made the statement that if Obama had a second term one of them will be dead. Here’s a man who campaigned with the Republican Governor of Texas, who openly admits he’s had sex with underage young ladies and used illegal drugs, who is still being accepted by the party leadership.
This is the same party who will not even consider raising the minimum wage, who cut the food stamps budget, who believes that Obama is not an American; a party who will not permit passing an immigration bill, who is working to keep American citizens from voting. This is the same party who gerrymandered across the United States to make sure their people returned to office. When party leaders like Rush Limbaugh, Tom Cruise, Ron Paul, Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly arouse animal instincts in their constituents sprouting hate on their TV station (FOX News), they can’t hope to be successful recruits on the big stage.

In defense of Nick Saban
Nick Saban is being crucified in the media, especially by Paul Finebaum, for no apparent reason. He is saying that Nick Saban has lost the PR battle and is on the wrong side of history at the wrong time. The
only thing that Nick Saban has said, according to reliable sources, is he just brought up the issue for conversational purposes and it should be voted on immediately, if not sooner. When all is said and done, Nick Saban will be the hero.
The other thing they have done, not intentionally, is to make a Mercedes dealership that Nick Saban will own part of successful before the property is purchased and before the building is bought. Some conversations have gone so far as to cut commercials, what they will sound like, etc. All they are doing is making a rich man richer. Nick Saban will own 20-30 percent of the dealership and never put in a penny.
Poor Nick Saban – these people are just jealous and envious.

Hot topic of the week
A local newspaper criticized the City Councillors for playing politics with a building that is to come before the Council whether they want to lease it for several years. The controversy comes because the owner of the building, The Franklin L. Haney Company, gave contributions to most of the Councillors’ political campaigns.
There is nothing wrong with the articles that John Archibald wrote regarding the company, but there is something wrong with this publication passing out the names and emails of the Councilors. There’s nothing illegal about this but the next step is passing out home phone numbers and next passing out home addresses.

Who should be sued for the 10-year-old’s death?
It would seem that Monumental Construction Company should be dismissed from the civil lawsuit brought by the family of the 10-year-old boy who was killed by a flight information display falling on him.  According to the evidence, Monumental produced emails noticing the company who was to finish the project that the display was unsafe. Monumental refused to install it.
No now knows how the courts will rule on this, but it should be very clear the case against Monumental should be thrown out.

 I am appalled and shocked to hear allegations in the media that Rev. Robert Paul Hollman “deceived” the two women of JCCEO who stole approximately $500,000 from the poor. These statements are wrong, false, untrue, incorrect, erroneous – downright lies! He was nowhere around them and had no communication with them – not by telephone, text, facebook, email, twitter or facsimile. How could he be the impetus behind this when he had no contact with them? Shouldn’t the independent internal audit at JCCEO lead to the two women at JCCEO without any connection to Rev. Hollman? The tragic and ironic nature of this story is that – as we recognize Black History Month – two Black women are being used to destroy and damage the reputation of one of the most successful Black pastors and leaders in our community.
Rev. Hollman did not steal money from the poor; in fact, like the Prophet Isaiah and Jesus of Nazareth he is anointed to preach the Gospel to the poor, he is sent to heal the brokenhearted, and to preach deliverance to the captives.  Therefore, Paul has dedicated his life and ministry to serving the poor. To be sure, Paul is a compassionate pastor, prophetic leader, courageous preacher, and a creative businessman. As his friend and colleague, we don’t need him behind bars serving time unjustly; we need him in the community fighting for justice for the poor and working poor.
It is time for the friends, family, and supporters of Rev. Robert Paul Hollman to stand with him and denounce these false accusations. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was correct:
“It is not malicious acts that will do us in but the appalling silence and
indifference of good people. All that is needed for evil to run rampant
is for good women and men to do nothing.”
Somebody needs to say something!

Dr. Karnie C. Smith, Sr.
Birmingham, AL

by  David W. Almasi

Project 21 member John Meredith released a statement about the vandalism of the statue depicting his civil rights icon father, James Meredith, that is located on the campus of the University of Mississippi.
In the early morning hours of Sunday, February 16, a construction contractor working on the Ole Miss campus reported that he heard two men yelling out racial slurs.  Afterward, the contractor said he later found that the life-like bronze statue of James Meredith  – the first Black student at the school – had a rope noose around its neck and a pre-2003 Georgia state flag covering its face. That flag contains a version of the Confederate battle flag.
James Meredith’s integration of Ole Miss in 1962, which began with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling favoring his enrollment at the previously all-white school and ended with presidential intervention to quell deadly rioting, was a major turning point in the civil rights era. The statue of James Meredith was unveiled in 2006 and has never before been vandalized. The Ole Miss Alumni Association is offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of any perpetrators. The FBI is working with campus law enforcement as the act is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
James Meredith, now 80 and an advocate of early childhood education of basic societal tenets such as the Golden Rule, Ten Commandments and Lord’s Prayer, told the Los Angeles Times: “That just clearly shows that we’re not training our children like the Bible says. They don’t know right and wrong, good and bad and how to apply it to life.”
His son, John Meredith, a founding member of the National Center’s Project 21 Black leadership network, said about the vandalism and the response:

While this type of abhorrent vandalism is deplorable, I think the University of Mississippi is to be commended for its handling of the incident.
 The speed and determination it has moved with in pursuing justice for this act, coupled with the generous reward offered toward the apprehension of the perpetrators by the alumni association, shows the institution no longer tolerates hateful behavior on its campus or in its name.

    Today, I will begin to share with you a subject needed but much avoided by many Christian leaders. It is a known fact that religion in America is a broad subject. There are almost as many views as there are people; such views define a portion of the division among us.
Among today’s church audience, division is the root of a growing sense of apathy. Pain is the language of the natural body. If we attune ourselves to it, we will become aware of issues from within and without. “The Body of Christ” or should I say, The Church, struggles to obtain wholeness for Herself. Each joint of the Body is designed to supply a need. Every single member should have the same care one for the other; and there should be no need of permission from the other parts to function: should the hand require such from the knee in order to work?  I speak in terms of fellowship among those  who are called by the name Jesus. We are all one Body, children of God by faith in Him.
Those of us who embrace truth, also embrace the fact there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free; there is neither male or female, Black or white, rich or poor, comely or uncomely parts: we are all one in Him.
Today, this same Body has to deal with the instabilities of leadership: their isms and schisms; their control factors, insecurities, manipulations and their lack of trust in God to keep what He has placed in their hands to mold for the kingdom, the congregation. All of these human frailties are only devices used by the devil to divide and conquer.
The pulpit is one of the most influential positions our culture holds. The truth is that no one person (leader) will ever master all of God. We all have been given graces, gifts, and subject matters to bring to The House! Yet, no one person or setting will ever totally prepare any individual for kingdom living: for, though we have but one father, we all have been endowed by Papa, God the Father, with many teachers. It is a sad thing when we are challenged by leadership to choose them over fellowship among the other members of the Body. All things are given unto us!
The Blood has paid the price for the right to fellowship among ourselves. None of us, though we have letters behind our names, have mastery of any level in God. Every revelation is merely a parcel of a greater, and every experience is only a touch of one finger of God.
People should never be ruled by fear/ the fist: neither should they be forced to believe that  any one place is  greater. They are where they are because of God’s assignment for that season. We do not own God’s people any more than we own our children after they have reached maturity. If you have taught them and trained according to the grace given you, there should be no worry; but, if they have been in a place for 30 years and are still babes, this becomes an issue within itself!
We will meet here again on another day. All said for His glory.

(fb)    electra.gethsemaneministries@yahoo.com

  We’ve all heard the old saying that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.” There’s a lot of wisdom in those words. Our founding fathers understood this concept and the necessity for and value of compromise. So when they created our government, they created it to operate within a system of checks and balances in order to avoid extremism. They also created it to prevent too much power from ending up in the hands of a select few.
This system has served our country well for more than 225 years. The compromises our government has made have not always been easy or fair, but they have allowed our government to survive. This has allowed our country to become the most powerful nation on Earth.
Our government works best when we have moderation and serious debate about the issues. A Supermajority is bad no matter which political party has control or who is serving in leadership. It is never good for one side to have too much power. That is why it is so dangerous that we currently have a Supermajority in the Alabama legislature.
By “Supermajority,” I mean that one side has more than two-thirds of the vote in both the state Senate and state House of Representatives. Because they have a two-thirds majority, the Republicans in the Alabama legislature have the power to do whatever they want. If the Democrats didn’t even show up, Republicans could still legally conduct business and pass laws. They have enough members to meet the requirements for the legislature to be in session. At any time, Republicans can end debate and force through any legislation they want.
Over the past four years, Republicans have invoked cloture (forcing an end to debate on a piece of legislation) more times than Democrats did in the previous 136 years!
But this problem goes much further than simply shutting off debate on legislation. The most serious violation committed by the Republican Supermajority happened when they forced through the Accountability Act.
Legislative leaders knew that the Accountability Act would be controversial and that if they tried to pass it through the normal legislative process it would never become law. So they decided to deceive the public by first passing a relatively non-controversial school flexibility bill. Once both the House and Senate passed this bill, the Republicans then switched the bill with what is now the Accountability Act. They then sent it back to the legislature where it was only debated for one hour before it was forced into law.
Because the Accountability Act was passed in this way, the press had no chance to report on it and the public had no opportunity to contact their legislators about it. Democrats in the legislature had only one hour to ask questions about a bill that no one had ever seen before, and the fiscal office had no chance to estimate how much it would cost.
After it was passed, the public outcry came. But the power had gone to the heads of our state leaders. In a March 1, 2013 article in The Birmingham News, Gov. Bentley was quoted saying, “Take away all of this (about) folks that are upset. I don’t care.”
I have never in my life heard a governor tell the voters that he doesn’t care what they think! It is a symptom of the illness that has infected our state government: one side has unlimited power and doesn’t believe they have to answer to anyone—not even the voters.
That is the other problem with the Republican Supermajority: it goes beyond shutting off debate and forcing through legislation. Too many legislators think they are untouchable. They think their elected offices are a right; they are entitled to instead of a privilege they have to earn. Instead of listening to the people back home, these legislators are taking their marching orders from their party leaders in Montgomery.
We need legislators who will be our voices in Montgomery, not politicians who will be Montgomery’s voice to us! We need leaders who put the people back home first and remember who elected them. We need moderation and serious debate before we vote on legislation in Montgomery. The only way we will get these things is if we put an end to the Supermajority and elect state representatives and senators who will be statesmen instead of politicians with a sense of entitlement.
Rep. Craig is a Democrat from Gadsden. He has served as Minority Leader in the Alabama House of Representatives since 2010.

By Steve Flowers

Last week’s column expounded on the two different concepts that members of congress perceive their roles to be in Washington. Our two senators are classic but different examples. Jeff Sessions is the quintessential ideologue and Richard Shelby is the classic caretaker.
What about our seven members of congress? We have seven congress people, six Republicans and one Democrat. All seven pretty much toe the party line. All six Republicans vote straight down the party line and our lone Democrat votes with the Democratic leadership. Therefore, you would have to classify them all as ideologues.
We have no congress people with the power to be a caretaker like Richard Shelby. It remains to be seen whether any of them will become rainmakers in the future. It is not really their fault; they just have not been on the Potomac very long. The key to power in the U.S. Congress is seniority. The longer you stay the more powerful you become. It usually takes 20 years in Congress before you wield any power. It is actually closer to 30 years before you are powerful and then only if you are chairman of a committee and your committee spends money from the U.S. Treasury.
The only one of our seven-member delegation who has been in Congress 20 years is Spencer Bachus, but he is leaving. Whoever takes Bachus’ place will have to toil in obscurity for a decade before folks in Washington know their name. Bachus now chairs the Financial Services Committee. This chairmanship is very important to the banks, credit unions and insurance companies throughout the nation and on Wall Street. However, it does not translate into largesse for Alabama.
When Spencer first went to Congress in the early 1990s, three of the nation’s largest banks were domiciled in his district in Birmingham. Now there is only one. Spencer could raise a lot of campaign money as Chairman of Financial Services, but that is not bringing home the bacon to Birmingham. It rests on Richard Shelby’s shoulders to take care of the UAB Medical facility, which is now the largest employer in Birmingham.
Robert Aderholt now becomes the dean of the delegation. Robert got to Washington at a very young age. He is in his ninth term in Congress and serves on the Appropriations Committee. He followed a giant, Tom Bevill, who moved rivers and mountains from Washington to his 4th District, which stretches across North Alabama from Mississippi to Georgia just above Birmingham. Aderholt can and probably will be another Bevill.
Third district congressman, Mike Rogers, has 10 years seniority. He is in his early 50s and can easily stay another 20 years. Rogers served in the legislature before going to Congress. His district encompasses East Alabama. It includes Anniston and Auburn. He does a good job for his people.
Like Birmingham, Mobile lost their congressman this year when Jo Bonner quit to take a government relations post at the University of Alabama. His replacement, Bradley Byrne, is very able but will be in the same boat as the freshman who will be elected from Birmingham this year. By the time Bradley gets any traction on the seniority ladder, he will be 70 years old.
We have three members who have only three years in Washington. The two Republicans, Martha Roby of Montgomery and Mo Brooks of Huntsville, have staked out their turf as reactionary conservatives. They are both in the Tea Party wing of the GOP caucus. Their freshman class of 2010 is very conservative to say the least and Brooks and Roby are out to show Capitol Hill observers that they fit into their group very nicely.
Terri Sewell is our only Democrat. Ms. Sewell is a Harvard educated lawyer who was successful in her Birmingham law career before going to Congress in 2010. She represents the state’s only majority African American district. The 7th District encompasses the urban area of Birmingham and stretches throughout West Alabama and includes most of the Black Belt. She is well respected among the Democratic leadership and the Black Congressional Caucus. She has been picked by her Party to be a superstar. She is on a fast track to congressional leadership.

See you next week.

Steve Flowers is Alabama’s leading political columnist. His column appears weekly in more than 70 Alabama newspapers. Steve served 16 years in the state legislature. He may be reached at www.steveflowers.us.

 A half-century ago, a noted business journalist made some incredibly accurate predictions about the future.  W.M. Kiplinger, first editor-in-chief of the “Kiplinger Letter,” forecast future events in the form of a December 1963 letter to his grandsons.
Kiplinger predicted trends that were likely to occur during their lifetimes, outlining sweeping developments in demographics, economics, politics, and technology.  Space does not permit a full discussion of the lengthy letter.  But we can look at some of the things he got right and the few he got wrong.
First, he correctly predicted there would be no nuclear or world war in his grandsons’ lifetimes. But he cautioned there would be scattered wars in a turmoil-filled world without much stability.
He also told them they would be more prosperous than their predecessors, but their lives would not be easy. They would face new and tough challenges and problems, including the ravages of inflation.
The past five decades have witnessed several of Kiplinger’s predictions about household items come true.  Kiplinger wrote of new gadgets such as microwave ovens, plastic plumbing, large-screen TVs, irradiated foods, and telephones that can be carried in one’s pocket.
He also predicted that his grandsons would experience global television that extended throughout the world as well as mass selling via television. In addition, he foresaw automated factories with the widespread use of robotics in manufacturing.
Kiplinger predicted more women would be involved in business and other facets of life that were once the domain of men. He foresaw large numbers of married women taking jobs outside the home.
In advising his grandsons on career choices, he forecast a shift from manufacturing and production jobs to those in the services sectors.  He advised that greatest employment opportunities would occur in services.
A final bit of sage advice dealt with the need for his grandsons to develop flexibility in their thinking.  This would be necessitated by the rapid rate of change that would occur in their lifetimes.
His largest “miss” was predicting self-guiding cars and passenger jets that can span the oceans and continents in 90 minutes. The former is not quite here yet, and the latter is not expected any time soon.
Fifty years later, Kiplinger’s predictions are astonishing!

Wayne Curtis, Ph.D., is a former superintendent of Alabama banks and Troy University business school dean.  He is retired from the board of directors of First United Security Bank. Email him at wccurtis39@gmail.com.