Josh Moon
Opinion | Republicans know Trump did it. They’re too cowardly to punish him
Published
2 days agoon
This impeachment is a sham!
That was the Republican tagline when this all started. You heard it all over this state. None of “that stuff” was true. Trump was innocent. The phone call with the Ukrainian president was “perfect.”
Nothing to see here. Just Democrats making stuff up and the fake news media helping them spin it.
The whistleblower was working with Rep. Adam Schiff and the Democrats to frame an innocent man, and they even managed to suck a Purple Heart recipient into the scheme — probably because that guy’s a “never-Trumper” who’s only using his military uniform and lifelong service as a disguise to push a political agenda against Trump.
It’s all fake. All phony. All lies.
The real story was that Trump was seriously investigating corruption in Ukraine before he turned over our tax dollars. There was no disputing that. No way would a guy who has been caught cheating a children’s cancer charity and running a fake university be using the investigation of a political rival as an advantage in an upcoming election.
He was taking it super serious. And we knew that to be the case because to get to the bottom of the Ukrainian corruption, he bypassed the CIA, NSA, FBI, Congress and DOJ and went straight to the best — Rudy and the two guys who broke into Kevin’s house in “Home Alone.”
Trump is a corruption fighter! Dems have gone crazy!
Remember when that was the story? All the way back like two weeks ago?
Trump had done nothing wrong. The phone call was perfect. The corruption investigation was real. Nothing to see here.
And then, poof.
John Bolton’s book excerpts landed on the front page of the New York Times. At the same time Schiff and the House managers were laying bare the basic facts and presenting an air-tight case of abuse of power and obstruction.
And overnight, the tagline changed.
From: “He didn’t do it!”
To: “OK, he did it, but is this stuff even, like, reeeallllyyyy a crime?”
But don’t take my word for it.
“If you have eight witnesses who say someone left the scene of an accident, why do you need nine? I mean, the question for me was: Do I need more evidence to conclude that the president did what he did? And I concluded no,” said Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander.
“Just because actions meet a standard of impeachment does not mean it is in the best interest of the country to remove a President from office,” said Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
“I believe that some of the president’s actions in this case – including asking a foreign country to investigate a potential political opponent and the delay of aid to Ukraine – were wrong and inappropriate. But I do not believe that the president’s actions rise to the level of removing a duly-elected president from office,” said Ohio Sen. Rob Portman.
“I don’t think anything (Bolton) says changes the facts. I think people kind of know what the fact pattern is. There’s already that evidence on the record,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune.
Months ago, before the House impeachment proceedings even began, I wrote that Republicans would soon have a choice to make: To impeach Trump for soliciting a foreign leader’s interference in an American election or deciding that you’re OK with that.
To my astonishment — and hopefully to the astonishment and outrage of most Americans — they have done the latter.
And we all know why — votes and money.
There are no other reasons. These people don’t actually believe that what Trump did isn’t worth booting a president out of office. For the love of God, the man tried to bribe a foreign leader with aid money. That’s a gots-to-go situation. Every single time.
But they wilt like flowers in the face of removal, because doing so might anger the voters they’ve spent their entire careers dumbing down to the point that they believe a billionaire from New York has the best interest of rural farmers at heart.
Plus, Trump might say mean things about them on Twitter.
And God help those poor GOP congressmen if the voters turned on them for doing what’s right for the country and they were forced to go out and get a real job.
So, here we are.
For the past few weeks, as this impeachment investigation and trial have moved along, there have been constant references to the Founding Fathers of the country. The “Republic if you can keep it” line has been used at least twice by every member of Congress. And everyone seems to know what the guys who founded this country would have thought about all this.
Well, I don’t know. Those guys had their own issues. But I do think it’s safe to say that that group of men — who had just fought and miraculously won a war against all odds, and did so simply because it was the right thing to do — had one fatal flaw, one blind spot when building our system of government and putting in place the checks and balances that make it all work.
They never factored in that a group of cowards might one day seize control of one house.
Josh Moon is an investigative reporter and featured columnist at the Alabama Political Reporter with years of political reporting experience in Alabama. You can email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter.
Education
Opinion | Alabama Charter School Commission finally did its job
Published
13 hours agoon
February 4, 2020
Finally, the Alabama Charter School Commission is doing its job.
On Monday, the Commission voted to revoke the charter for Woodland Prep, the beleaguered charter school in Washington County, and it took steps to force LEAD Academy, the steadily failing charter in Montgomery, to provide the Commission with necessary information to assure it is operating appropriately.
It’s about time.
The Charter Commission is the state’s lone line of defense ensuring that approved charter schools can and do provide a quality education that compliments the existing public school structure and makes good use of public tax dollars. And up until this point, there were plenty of questions if the Commission ever planned to take that responsibility seriously.
And then Monday happened, and a little faith was restored.
Credit where credit is due, this change in competency for the Commission is mostly due to the people who screwed up the board in the first place: Gov. Kay Ivey, Senate President Del Marsh and House Speaker Mac McCutcheon.
After building an initial Commission that seemed far more interested in pushing through the applications of charter schools than adhering to rules and regulations put in place by the Legislature, Ivey, Marsh, McCutcheon and Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth blew it up last year. (It should be noted that Ainsworth didn’t have an original selection, having been elected to office in 2018.)
Facing a growing number of angry lawmakers and thousands of angry constituents, the Commission saw five new members be appointed last year. And there was a distinctly different feel to the appointments — moving away from the politically connected to former educators and nominees with experience in job training programs.
That change was brought about by the outrage generated over the Commission’s approval of LEAD and Woodland.
Those approvals followed the Commission completely disregarding regulations that required charter applicants to meet certain standards and gain the approval of a national certification organization. Neither group did.
But the Commission circumvented those regulations and ignored the recommendations of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers — a group the state paid handsomely to evaluate the applications of would-be charters.
The NACSA rejected the applications from both Woodland and LEAD and cited specific issues — mostly dealing with their incomplete plans for operating a functioning school.
The NACSA questioned LEAD’s financial projections and basically laughed at the proposed personnel figures. For Woodland, the NACSA raised questions about the school’s fundraising potential and was skeptical of the company hired to operate the school.
You’ll never believe this: Those exact shortcomings led to myriad problems for both schools, which led to Monday’s showdown between the new Commission and the leadership from LEAD and Woodland.
Honestly, it’s embarrassing that it ever got to this point. And it wouldn’t have if the Commission had simply followed the laws.
But that wasn’t the goal under former chairman Mac Buttram. Instead, placing politics over principle and forcing through inferior charter applications seemed to be the goal.
That was definitely the case in Montgomery, where local officials and some influential state leaders went to bat to get LEAD pushed through the process. The city desperately needed a charter — or really any shiny object — to take the eyes off its dreadful public school system, which city leaders and the wealthy whites have spent the last half-century destroying through systemic racism and underfunding.
It’s to the point that the school system is driving away new families and making it difficult for Montgomery to service its debt.
Charters were going to be the answer. And it didn’t matter if the charter was a good school. It just needed to be operational, so the folks in charge could point to this new school and proclaim it better simply because it wasn’t under the control of the local school board.
In reality, LEAD had no business ever opening its doors. It was unprepared and under-staffed, and the NACSA had it nailed.
Now, with barely more than half the school year gone, the overwhelming majority of LEAD’s staff has quit or been forced out. The new principal was forced out just weeks into the job, and then filed a lawsuit letting the world know that the school is unsafe and its management team shady. And the group managing the school quit, bailing on a five-year contract.
Things are even worse for Woodland, which couldn’t manage to even get its building constructed. It was back before the Commission on Monday to ask for yet another extension to get off the ground.
Woodland is not popular in Washington County, and a room full of people traveled to Montgomery to speak against the charter.
The commissioners did not hold back on officials from either school. After berating those officials for several minutes, the Commission voted to deny Woodland’s request for another extension and revoke its license; the Commission also voted to give LEAD officials 30 days to satisfactorily answer a number of questions about its operations, and to complete a number of basic steps.
It was a pleasant change.
Crime
Opinion | Sentencing of former Montgomery cop sends an important message
Published
6 days agoon
January 30, 2020
A former Montgomery police officer was sentenced on Wednesday to 14 years in prison for the killing an unarmed black man.
That is important.
Do not misconstrue what I’m saying, or what I’m going to say, into a statement of joy or satisfaction. There should be none of those feelings, because nothing that happened in this case was good or joyful. Not even the outcome, where appropriate justice was applied.
The entire thing is sad.
It was sad from the start, and it never got better. That a guilty man is rightfully going to jail for what he did doesn’t lessen that sadness in any way.
But the sentence, along with the guilty verdict, handed down to A.C. Smith on Wednesday for shooting and killing Gregory Gunn in his own neighborhood — just steps away from his own front porch — was important. Because it sends a message.
It sends a message that should have been sent a long time ago.
Laws apply to all of us. And every man, regardless of skin color, financial status or living conditions, has rights that must be respected and protected.
Those were the failings in this case.
When Smith encountered Gunn walking through his neighborhood on that February night in 2016, Smith didn’t apply the laws equally or honor Gunn’s rights the way he would have had he encountered the exact same scenario in an upscale neighborhood and a white man walking.
From the outset, Gunn was treated by Smith as a criminal.
He ordered him to stop. Ordered him to place his hands on the car for a pat-down. Smith’s own recollections of how he spoke to Gunn, his demeanor towards him, was one of cop-to-criminal, instead of cop-to-law abiding citizen.
In the midst of that accusatory interaction, Gunn freaked out. He ran. (Which absolutely is NOT a crime.)
Smith chased him. Tackled him. Tasered him. Hit him with a baton. And ultimately shot him five times in the front yard of Gunn’s nextdoor neighbor.
There wasn’t a single reason for any of it.
Gunn was walking home from a poker game at neighbor’s house. And he was wearing dark clothing.
Those were his sins.
Well, those things along with being black and living in a predominantly black neighborhood.
From the very moment the shooting happened, you could tell that MPD knew that Smith had crossed the line. You could tell by the response. You could tell by their actions. You could tell by the demeanor of the top brass.
They started holding press conferences before the sun came up that morning. Before I arrived at the scene that morning at 9 a.m. — I was working for the Montgomery newspaper at the time — the chief had already been there. And they had more press briefings scheduled for later in the day.
It was bad. And they knew it.
But that didn’t stop any of the MPD’s top brass — and most of the rank and file officers — from backing Smith.
When Montgomery District Attorney Daryl Bailey and State Bureau of Investigations officials announced the arrest of Smith on murder charges, there was a widespread threat by Montgomery cops to walk off the job in protest. Former Montgomery Mayor Todd Strange, in a private meeting with cops, agreed to a private, city-lead investigation into the matter — to determine if Smith followed department guidelines — as a means of placating the cops and avoiding a mass walkout.
Strange also agreed to leave Smith on the MPD payroll long after he was formally indicted by a grand jury, and after a judge ruled there was more than enough evidence for a trial. And after several other court hearings clearly demonstrated that Smith had acted improperly.
Strange wasn’t the only elected official to go to bat for the indicted cop.
All of the circuit court judges, except one, in Montgomery recused from the case. And the Alabama Supreme Court removed the judge who wouldn’t recuse.
Then the ALSC, in a move that trashed 100-plus years of precedent, ordered the case moved to a majority-white county, well away from the citizens Smith swore an oath to protect and serve.
By the time the case went to trial, the black community in Montgomery was convinced there would be no justice. That Smith would be back on the police force by now.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, he’ll be going to prison for 14 years (pending a likely appeal).
And that’s important because it sends a message: That even with all of the benefits and advantages that will be offered an indicted cop, there are still good citizens and a system that will, at least on occasion, hold everyone accountable, at least to some degree, for their illegal behavior. And police officers don’t get immunity.
For some 99 percent of cops in this state, and in Montgomery, that message won’t make the least bit of difference in terms of the way they do the job every day. Because they’re already good men and women who are trying their best to do a hard job, and they’ll never sniff the inside of a courtroom because of their improper actions.
But for that 1 percent, hopefully, this outcome for Smith will be a wake-up call — or the shove they need into a different line of work. And maybe it will help change the way other cops view and treat the bad actors within their ranks.
For all the rest of us, it’s a little glimpse of fairness from a system that is far too often very unfair.
House
Opinion | Among the prefiled GOP garbage, there is one good bill
Published
1 week agoon
January 27, 2020
Thank you, Randy Wood.
Given the current race to the bottom that is occurring within the Republican primary for Alabama’s U.S. Senate seat, and given the various pandering bills that have been prefiled and those that are still to come, I was starting to wonder if there was a single GOP lawmaker left in this state who might be the slightest bit concerned with participating in a government that actually helps regular people.
Wood, R-Anniston, has restored my faith that there is at least one.
While his colleagues are filing bills to let everyone have a gun all the time everywhere or trying to force school principals to play the National Anthem every day or probably figuring out some way to make public assistance recipients run laps, Wood filed a bill that could do some good.
Actually, let me rephrase: It could prevent absolute heartbreak.
Wood’s bill would require daycares to call parents or guardians if a child enrolled at that daycare hasn’t arrived by 9:30 and no previous notification of an absence was given.
The bill’s goal is to prevent children from dying from being left in hot cars by frazzled parents who simply forget that their young one is in the backseat. It is dubbed the Cash Edwin Jordan Act, named for the 11-month-old who died last year.
That might seem like an unimaginable thing — a parent simply forgetting a child is in the backseat.
Unfortunately, it is not.
Every year, it happens several times across the country. There are heartbreaking tales of parents, after long days at work, returning to their cars to discover what they’ve done.
Most often, it’s a change in routine that causes it.
Mom has an appointment and can’t make the usual drop-off, so dad is taking the little one to daycare on the way to work. The everyday routine is the same, except for that change. The car seat is facing to the rear, just as it every day. The baby is asleep in the back, not making a sound. It’s early, the day’s work tasks are running through the sleep-deprived brain.
And the car just drives itself right to work. Like always.
If Wood’s bill passes, now, instead of a parent getting to their car in the evening — or their spouse getting to the daycare only to find out the baby was never dropped off — there will be a phone call from the daycare to the parents.
Just to make sure. Just to avoid a tragedy.
This is how government is supposed to work — finding a reasonable solution to a devastating problem. No frills, no pandering. No press releases or campaign statements.
Just a guy who spotted a problem, discussed it with a few people and came up with a reasonable solution.
Why is this so hard?
Actually, the better question is probably: Why is it so hard for us to elect people who do this? Who simply go to Montgomery, do the will of the people, introduce and vote for legislation that isn’t flashy but serves the people?
Now, I’m not saying that Wood is that person. Looking back through his long history in the House, he’s backed some really dumb bills and toed the party line on other bills that he likely knew were unconstitutional or just plain stupid.
But Wood — and all the rest of them — could be that sort of service-only lawmaker … if the voters demanded it.
If the majority of this state rewarded lawmakers more for bills like the Cash Edwin Jordan Act and less for pandering absurdities like the toughest abortion bill or the toughest immigration bill or the dumbest gun bills. If we rewarded them for balancing the budget, properly funding public education, fixing the broken health care system and addressing the actual needs and issues facing real people in Alabama.
Wouldn’t it be nice?
Just imagine an entire legislative session in which grown people acted like grown people — in which they didn’t make up things to be outraged over or to get voters outraged over. They could get business handled in a couple of weeks.
But I know that’s all a dream. I know this rare glimpse into how our government could operate is a fleeting moment of sanity in what will ultimately become the usual clown show.
But it’s nice to dream.
Josh Moon
Opinion | We should hold the appropriate people responsible for bullying
Published
3 weeks agoon
January 16, 2020
Madison County seems to have a problem with homophobia.
Over the weekend, a gay couple who live in Madison recorded a car load of James Clemens High baseball players riding by and shouting slurs at the couple’s home. The video, which was recorded on an outside security camera, was uploaded to social media and a flood of additional complaints about gay slurs and the bullying of gay students at Madison County and Huntsville City schools were posted in comments on several posts.
That all follows the suicide of 15-year-old Nigel Shelby last year. Shelby’s story and allegations from his mother that school officials ignored repeated complaints that Shelby, who was openly gay, was being bullied became national news. In the aftermath of his suicide, several other Huntsville-area students spoke of their experiences being bullied because of their sexual orientation.
And so, here we are. In arguably Alabama’s most progressive area, where we’re still struggling with a 1980s problem.
Seriously, how is homophobia an issue for high school kids in 2020? Anywhere?
And it is a problem.
How else do you explain a car load of baseball players — presumably popular kids around school — driving around on a Friday night shouting slurs and curse words at a house?
The owners of the home, Colin Tomblin and his partner Jason, stated in their original post of the video that they didn’t know the kids, had never had an interaction with them and were completely dumbfounded by the incident.
Because, again, it’s 2020.
But more than the two major incidents, the reports of daily bullying and slurs directed at other students indicate a serious, systemic issue among area students. One that doesn’t appear to be getting better.
And that is a serious, serious issue.
“We figure if these students are out in the community acting like this, they’re definitely acting like that to their fellow classmates in school,” Tomblin told al.com. “You see it all the time with LGBT kids committing suicide and turning to drugs.”
In response, Madison City Schools superintendent Robby Parker offered an apology to Tomblin and his partner, and James Clemens principal Brian Clayton took up the issue with the students involved and with other students at the school.
Tomblin said he was pleased with the school’s response and felt like the conversation could be beneficial.
Which is fortunate, since apparently these kids aren’t getting such guidance at home.
Yes, school officials have a responsibility to monitor and react whenever bullying is spotted or reported. But it is not the responsibility of the school systems to teach kids decency, respect and morals.
That should happen at home.
It’s a shame that every time one of these awful incidents occur, the first place we look to place blame is on teachers and school administrators. The people we ask for statements are tied to schools. The way we identify the kids is by the name of their school.
That’s not right.
This incident happened on a weekend and well away from school property. But even if it had happened at school, it shouldn’t be a principal or superintendent answering questions about these kids saying these repulsive things.
It should be their parents or guardians. Who are clearly failing at raising them.
And yes, “failing” is exactly the right word. I don’t care if the kids in that car were honor roll all-Americans who take soup to shut-ins every afternoon. If they’re belittling and demeaning others in such a vile and ugly manner, whomever is raising them is failing.
Of course, that’s assuming that someone at home isn’t condoning such atrocious behavior and uttering similarly vile comments around their kids. After the decency transgression the country has endured over the last several years, that’s a big assumption.
Schools aren’t equipped to handle failures in character building at home. They can drill into the students that they’ll be punished if their abhorrent behavior is spotted or reported and they can offer lessons in acceptance and respect.
But they can’t outweigh the expectations of home.
And it’s time we all started holding the right people accountable for these deplorable incidents.
Authors
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