Be careful of what you say
by Jesse J. Lewis, Sr.

Once upon a time you could make a statement in New York and 10 days later, you could hear it in Birmingham, Alabama. Today you make a statement and in 30 seconds or less it’s heard all over the world.
Here are two statements we will hear repeatedly from now to the end of the elections in 2016 everyday, all day long.
(1) If you have an insurance policy you can keep it.
(2) What difference does it make.

The first statement was made by Barack Obama when he was promoting the Affordable Care Act. The Republican Party will use this and the name Obamacare everyday, every night, 24 hours, seven days a week, average 30 days a month, 365 days. This is all they have to hang their hats on to pick up House and Senate seats in 2014. It will be called Obamacare as long as it doesn’t work. In the event  that this Affordable Care Act starts to working and people begin to benefit, they will use its correct name, Affordable Care Act.
Unquestionably, the website must be fixed and evidently some changes will have to be made in this Act. We need this program to be successful and there are a lot of Republican Tea Party people praying for it to fail.
The famous last words they would like to use is ‘I told you so.’
Hillary Clinton made the second statement when she testified before Congress on Benghazi. What the Republicans are saying, starting now, and through 2016, what she was saying was what difference does it make how many lives were lost. What she was really saying was it was unfortunate what happened and now we need to spend this time to fix it so it won’t happen again.
Will this hurt her chances in 2016? The answer is yes, it will only hurt the margin she will win by. I’m confident she will win if she decides to run. The Republican Party’s only chances to win the presidential seat is to find themselves a female candidate; for 2016 will be the year of the woman. Most women will say, “It’s about time.”
If I had to make a prediction I would say, the 2016 race will be between Chris Christie and Hillary Clinton. The Tea Party will push Christie so far to the left that it will be very difficult for him to last through Iowa, which is the first step on the way to the presidency.

Can Alabama Beat LSU?

One can make the case that Alabama has a quarterback in the top five in America; their offensive line ranks one or two in America; their defensive line ranks No.1 in America; their special team unit ranks one or two in America; their punting and kicking team ranks in the Top 2 in America.
My question now is, if this is accurate, and it is, what team do you think will win this showdown between LSU and Alabama?
According to the President of the University of Alabama and Jacqueline Washington, Nick Saban is the best investment the University of Alabama has ever made. Keep in mind he did not say ‘one of the top five best investments’ nor did he say ‘one of the best investments.’ He said THE best investment.
When Nick Saban appeared on 60 Minutes last Sunday this same person, Jackie Washington, agreed. Her husband George, according to unreliable sources, was not feeling well and she informed her husband, please do not get sick because I can’t rush you to the hospital until Nick Saban’s interview is over.
I’m not sure this is accurate, but knowing how Jackie feels about Alabama football, my guess would be that this unsubstantiated information is accurate.

e-mail: jjlewis@birminghamtimes.com

The case of Charles Walker and Joseph Jenkins

First hearing this story caused intrigue instantly for me. Not necessarily what happened, but how it happened and how the situation was getting handled. Two hardened felons, both released from prison. That’s right, not an escape but actually released. Both Charles Walker and Joseph Jenkins presented realistic but synthetic paperwork and were both freed from the Florida Department of
Corrections. Jenkins was released September 27, 2013. and Walker shortly after on October 3rd.
Now if that is not a big enough travesty – that two convicted felons were free and back within society – it would be the fact that no one was owning up to the issue. After their release Misty Cash, the department of corrections spokesman said, “It ‘s not our job to question what the court does” and also “The fault does not lie on us. No one is getting into trouble here for what happened.”
I do want to let  the public know that the felons were captured on Sunday October 13th, but I still
feel this incident requires ownership and a plan to prevent it from happening again.
Now, the requirement for eligibility of parole in Florida states that for first degree murder convictions it would have to have been prior to May 25, 1994. Joseph Jenkins’ offense and convictions (1st degree murder, attempted robbery with a deadly weapon, and armed burglary) lay clearly past that time frame occurring in 1998-2000. Charles Walker’s conviction of 2nd degree murder also did not meet the requirement of parole  which would have required his conviction to be prior to
October 1, 1983, but his crime wasn’t even committed until 1999.
So that brings up the question of what systems are being used to verify the release of these inmates.
My sources tell me it’s more like a data entry program than an approval or denial system. How is it that I am able to pull
these records of these two men to verify their crimes and prison terms but the department of corrections was not? It states clearly on their website that “The Florida Department of Correction updates this information regularly, to ensure that it is complete and accurate.” Did no one think to even look there?

Darrius Samuel
Birmingham, Ala.

By Steve Flowers
 

Alabama is without a doubt one of the most heavily laden military employee states in the union. In fact, if you took the federal military employment and automobile manufacturing employment out of Alabama we would be decimated.
When the federal furloughs occurred recently it had a profound effect on Alabama. When the furloughs hit more than 20,000 Alabama workers, mostly civilians, were affected.
We have tremendously important and significant federal bases in strategic parts of the state. These military bases are the heart and soul of their regions. These bases are vitally important to Alabama.
Huntsville’s Redstone Arsenal, Dothan’s Fort Rucker and Montgomery’s Maxwell Air Force Base are the most important economic engines of these areas of the state. When you throw in Mobile’s Corp of Engineers, you are talking about a lot of good paying jobs.
Recently, while visiting with Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange, I asked him about the most important and largest employer in his city. I assumed that with Montgomery being the capital, state government and state employees was number one. My second assumption was that the tremendous Hyundai plant located in Montgomery was number two. He said neither is number one. The number one economic impetus and largest employer in the River Region is the Maxwell-Gunter Air Force facility. I was amazed.
Strange further elaborated that there are additional benefits to his city that do not show up in statistics. Thousands of military retirees have chosen Montgomery as their retirement home. These Air Force officers, who retire in Montgomery and throughout the state, are extremely important to Alabama’s economy. They may have been born in Minnesota but decide they like the climate in the South and do not want to pay the high property taxes on the Florida Gulf Coast. Strange said if you throw in the ramifications of military retirees, the importance of Maxwell/Gunter becomes even more significant.
If you think Maxwell is important to Montgomery, then you ain’t seen nothing when you compare how important the Redstone Arsenal is to Huntsville or Fort Rucker is to the Wiregrass. These two bases are the premier economic centers of their regions. Redstone Arsenal and NASA built Huntsville. Like Montgomery, most of these high paid NASA engineers choose to retire in the beautiful Tennessee Valley area of our state.
Folks, there are over 400,000 military retirees living in Alabama. We are and have always been a very pro military state. Our state merit system is even designed to give preferences to military veterans. We also have 12,000 Alabamians on current active military duty. In addition, we have 22,000 in Reserves and in the National Guard.
You can thank a congressional delegation of bygone years for these vital federal facilities located in our state. We had a tandem in the U.S. Senate for close to 30 years that spanned the 1940s through 1960s that were instrumental in securing and nurturing these important bases. Senators Lister Hill and John Sparkman spearheaded the efforts to locate Redstone Arsenal, and other bases to their state. We are reaping the benefits today of these two distinguished gentlemen’s efforts.
Lister Hill was from Montgomery. He worked diligently to sustain Maxwell and Gunter in his hometown. John Sparkman was born in Hartselle and moved to Huntsville as an adult to practice law. Both men were SGA presidents at the University of Alabama. Both men graduated from Alabama Law School and practiced law a short time before going to Congress at an early age. They both served about 10 years in the U.S. Congress before garnering their U.S. Senate seats before they were 40 years old. Hill was the scion of a prominent Montgomery family. Sparkman was the ultimate Horatio Alger story.
Both left an indelible mark on the state. We are reaping the harvest from their labors today. As mentioned, Redstone Arsenal and NASA are what built Huntsville. Therefore, John Sparkman’s being the father of that base leaves quite a legacy. They probably should change the city’s name from Huntsville to Sparkmanville.
Our Senior Senator Richard Shelby has done a yeoman’s job of protecting and sustaining these facilities over the last 20 years. He has been especially instrumental in the funding of Redstone Arsenal.
We have had some outstanding U.S. Senators from our state. However, history will record that our three greatest senators have been Lister Hill, John Sparkman and Richard Shelby.

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.