Birmingham Blues

Could this be the reason he stepped away from policy decisions?
Top White House aide Karl Rove arrived at the federal courthouse Wednesday for his fifth grand jury appearance in the Valerie Plame affair.
Escorted by his lawyer Robert D. Luskin, Rove went into the building for a closed-door session with the panel and Special [...]

If you’re in Birmingham this weekend, check out Birmingham SHOUT, the city’s first gay and lesbian film festival. It looks like fun, and Loretta Nall says she’ll be there.

I’ve been remiss in highlighting new members of the blogroll. Please check out (if you aren’t already:
*Alablawg: Alabama politics and snark
*Between the Links: more Alabama politics and snark
*Daffodil Lane: politics, sociology, and lots of cute kid pictures
*Earl Bockenfeld’s Radio Weblog: politics and cat blogging
*Empires Fall: politics
*Shoney’s Roundtable: a group of wild and [...]

Two of the three firms convicted of bribery in the Jefferson County sewer scandal are still working for the county, and it may be more expensive to find others to finish the work than to keep them on to finish the jobs.
F.W. Dougherty Engineering & Associates and Roland Pugh Construction are completing a [...]

Bush is waiving environmental protection rules for gasoline production in order to reduce production costs and — theoretically — the price at the pump. This waiver is supposed to be temporary, but you’ll forgive me if I have my suspicions that he will “forget” to reinstate the rules once the crisis is past. [...]

Hiring a Fox News commentator is supposed to improve Bush’s approval ratings. At least he’ll likely be smoother at the spin than poor Scottie McClellan. He’s had lots of practice.
I think it’s funny that his very occasional criticism of the Bush administration is supposed to make him more trustworthy.
Unofficially, the White House tried [...]

Well, sorta. CNN was all fired up for the next anthrax attack, but it turned out to be methyl chloride, which is apparently used to manufacture fishing lures. There is a bait shop that makes plastic worms located close to the post office.
This wasn’t as minor as it sounds, though; twenty-three people went [...]

Debbie Murphree, candidate for Place 2 on the Alabama Public Service Commission, dropped by the Blues yesterday. She also emailed me her campaign website, and I invite my Alabama readers to take a look.
Again, I’m not endorsing candidates, but I think informed voters make better choices.
Addendum: Susan Parker is also running for this [...]

Loretta Nall is the Libertarian candidate for governor in Alabama, but she doesn’t automatically get a spot on the November ballot. Alabama has extremely restrictive laws on ballot access for third-party candidates. I don’t know about y’all, but I frequently find myself faced with two mediocre, or even bad, choices when I [...]

The latest CNN poll shows only 32% of respondents approve of George W. Bush. Sixty percent disapprove, and 8% don’t know. I’d like to know where CNN dredged up that 8%. It’s hard to imagine a sentient being in the US who doesn’t have an opinion on W’s performance.
So what will he [...]