This was a tweet from Bethany Danielle that came out over the twitter waves in regards to the five-year old boy being held hostage in a bunker in Alabama. More…
Tag Archives: Alabama
How to Mow a Lawn – Alabama-Style 12
You have got to admit, this is pretty clever.
Redneck Lawnmower
Tornadoes Tear Through the Midwest | Footage and Photos 17
I am sure you have all heard by now that a powerful severe storm system moved across the United States on Friday, with a slew of tornadoes from Alabama to Indiana contributing to at least five deaths and threatening even more destruction as the day wore on.
Alabama Farmers Look to Replace Migrants With Prisoners 12
The United States is one of the most modern countries in the world, yet we have the largest prison population which is growing rapidly every year. One would think that our country would have the lowest population (per capita) for several reasons, which really do not need to be listed. Sadly, the greed and corruption of our private corporations have taken over, and their main concern is passing laws which are designed to increase the prison population. Should the passing of an illegal immigrant law back fire due to a large percentage of illegals leaving the state, which is what is happening in Alabama, then there are other ways in which to profit…. More…
Alabama Law Makes It A Felony For Undocumented Immigrants To Have Water At Their Homes Reply
At least one utility company in Alabama posted a sign informing its customers that a section of Alabama’s extreme anti-immigrant law prohibits them from providing water service to undocumented immigrants. According to the sign at Allgood Water Works in Blount County, Alabama, customers must have “an Alabama driver’s license or an Alabama picture ID card on file” by the date that the immigration law went into effect; otherwise, they risked losing their water service.
Alabama Gov Bentley signs the nations most restrictive immigration law today Reply
Alabama state Governor Robert Bentley just signed and passed what is considered the harshest immigration law yet. It is due to take effect in September of this year.
A few examples of what has been passed:
- Police can stop anyone and ask for papers based upon “reasonable suspicion”
- Illegal immigrants are blocked from public colleges after high school
- Public schools required to check and publish the immigration status of all students
- It is a crime to rent housing to any illegal immigrants
I will admit that our country is suffering from a horrible immigration problem. But I do not agree with these tactics imposed in Alabama to bring this under control. My first reaction when I saw the news was that Alabama was passing this law for reasons similar to why Arizona’s Governor Brewer passed SB1070. Brewer has lobbyists with direct ties to CCA (Corrections Corp of America), which is a private prison industry. In passing this law in Arizona, there are more legal reasons to arrest and to lock up more people, and in this case – illegals; sentence them to prison, with an end result in more profits for CCA. Private prisons bring in more profit per inmate housed. Thankfully, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking this bill.
After I read up on this law and learned who the actual targets are, it became obvious that private prisons are not behind this bill. From 1998 to 2000, I lived in Birmingham AL, having moved there from a northern state. It was a much different culture than I realized, nearly feeling as though I had gone back in time to the Civil War. That having been said, my opinion here is to point out those people that will be directly affected by this law in a variety of ways.
First of all, the children. The vast majority of illegal children are here only because of their parents. By restricting their ability to attend a public college, we are only hurting ourselves. These are young adults who wish to earn a higher level of education resulting in becoming productive members of society. In doing so, their chances of applying and gaining legal citizenship would increase as well. By denying them an advanced education, then the state is only attributing to the lower level and poverty income numbers.
Hand in hand with this is the requirement for public schools to check and publish the papers of all the children. First of all, is this not some form of violation of rights of those who are legal citizens? Secondly, although this is not stating that the children will be denied an education, the parents, frightened the state may take their children away without having proper papers, will simply keep them home. This results in holding the children back from gaining an education. Again, adding numbers to the lower and poverty level income classes. What does the governor expect the of the younger children? Does he expect to see them all lined up along the highway with their thumbs out trying to hitch a ride back to their original country in order to seek an education?
Indirectly, this law is affecting the legal citizens of this country. It is forcing them to become the immigration police. Landlords must check the citizenship on possible tenants. This should not be their job – but rather left to those who actually work for immigration control. If the landlord does not check the paperwork and ends up renting to an illegal immigrant, then is there a fine and criminal charge imposed upon the landlord? This is not stated, but rather implied.
The state’s argument is that by enforcing this law as such, illegal immigrants will be unable to find work resulting in lowering the unemployment rate in Alabama as jobs will open begin to open up.
Realistically, this will simply cause more cash to flow under the table as illegals will accept lower than minimum wage pay. More cash under the table, less taxes paid. Children will grow up uneducated, also being forced to earn pay under the table as an adult. And who’s to say this will not attribute to an increase in crime in order to survive? Life in the United States, even after having passed this law, is better than life from where they came – immigrants will not return to their home country because of this law. If anything, they will move to another state, then to another, and another, forever shifting the problem rather than solving it.
In a side comment here… I do not see our unemployed fighting for some of the jobs that the immigrants have. Why should they? Many prefer sitting at home while receiving welfare checks. Those that truly lost their jobs from legitimate reasons (i.e. our economy thanks to Bush) are excluded from this category – this is directed at those who do leech off the system.
In a nutshell, this law stinks. There must be other ways to help control the illegal immigration problem. Or is it so far out of control that fighting it is now useless? I most certainly do not have the answers, but I do have many questions and concerns – which is my right as a citizen of this country.
Several amazing footages of killer tornado in Tuscaloosa AL 04/27/11 1
Video footage by Clay Hasenfuss | Tuscaloosa AL
Governor Robert Bentley of Alabama declared a state of emergency after 25 were killed by storms on Wednesday alone. That was before the tornado hit Tuscaloosa, where 100 were said to have been injured. Another 11 people were killed in Mississippi, two in Georgia and one in Tennessee.
The Tuscaloosa tornado was one of several that hit Alabama. It tore through the city after 5pm, sweeping past a major medical centre, the University of Alabama campus and a high school.
Many parts of the state had been on a tornado watch throughout the day, prompting schools, government offices and businesses to close early or shut down. One of the Mississippi dead was a father trying to shelter his daughter at a campsite when he was killed.
Mayor Walter Maddox of Tuscaloosa said that sections of the city had been destroyed. News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened home, with many other buildings in the city of more than 83,000 people also reduced to rubble.
“The city experienced widespread damage from a tornado that cut a path of destruction deep into the heart of the city,” Mr Maddox said in a statement.
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4/28/11 UPDATE:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of the killer tornadoes that ripped across the South may have been among the largest and most powerful ever recorded, experts suggested, leaving a death toll that is approaching that of a tragic “super outbreak” of storms almost 40 years ago.
“There’s a pretty good chance some of these were a mile wide, on the ground for tens of miles and had wind speeds over 200 mph,” said Harold Brooks of the National Severe Storms Laboratory in Norman, Okla.
Full story, please click here.
Good Morning America: Tuscaloosa, Alabama Terrorized by Tornadoes, Hundreds Dead video | April 28, 2011
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PERSONAL NOTE: I grew up in tornado alley, but have never witnessed anything like this…. There are no words to describe what these people have gone through, and will go through….
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Video footage by Clay Hasenfuss | Tuscaloosa AL
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After 67 years, lawmakers apologize to rape victim Reply
_ In this Oct. 7, 2010 file photo, Recy Taylor is seen her home in Winter Haven, Fla. The Alabama Legislature has officially apologized to an Taylor, who was raped nearly seven decades ago by a gang of white men as she walked home from church. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)_
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama Legislature has officially apologized to an elderly black woman who was raped nearly seven decades ago by a gang of white men as she walked home from church.
The Senate gave final approval Thursday on a voice vote to a resolution that expresses “deepest sympathy and deepest regrets” to Recy Taylor, now 91 and living in Florida. She told The Associated Press last year that she believes the men who attacked her in 1944 are dead but that she still wanted an apology from the state of Alabama.
The House approved the resolution last month. It now goes to Gov. Robert Bentley, who said Thursday he’s not personally familiar with details of the case, but sees no reason why he wouldn’t sign it.
Reached by phone Thursday by the AP, Taylor said she welcomed the Legislature’s action.
“I think that’s nice,” she said. “It’s been a long time. I’m satisfied.”
The resolution by Democratic state Rep. Dexter Grimsley of Newville says the failure to prosecute the men was “morally abhorrent and repugnant.” He has said police bungled the investigation and harassed Taylor, and local leaders recently acknowledged that her attackers escaped prosecution in part because of racism.
The AP does not typically identify victims of sexual assault but is using her name because she has publicly identified herself.
Taylor was 24 when she was confronted by seven men who forced her into their car at knife- and gun- point and drove her to a deserted grove of trees where six of the men raped her in Abbeville in southeastern Alabama. She was then left on the side of the road in an isolated area.
Two all-white, all-male grand juries refused to indict the suspects after the attack. Recy Taylor’s brother, 74-year-old Robert Corbitt, said law enforcement authorities tried to blame the attack on his sister. He said his family was threatened after the attack, his sister’s house was firebombed and his father had to guard the house.
“I’m so glad they (the Legislature) decided to do the right thing,” Corbitt said.
Corbitt said Taylor is in poor health, but he hopes she will come back to Abbeville by Mother’s Day in May. Grimsley said he hopes to present her with a copy of the resolution at that time.
Taylor said officials in Abbeville expressed regret that she was not present earlier this year when her hometown issued an apology in the case.
“Since I wasn’t there, they said they should’ve had somebody on the phone to let me know that they were sorry about the length of time that it’s been,” she said. “I don’t even know what they said. They said they did the wrong thing.”
Taylor has returned to Abbeville frequently since moving to Florida more than 30 years ago and said she expects to visit her brother there next month. She is not sure she will feel differently now that the town has apologized.
“A lot of people have gone on,” she said. “There’s nobody to fear there now.”
There was no opposition to the resolution in the Legislature and no debate in the Senate before Thursday’s vote.
“The family deserves someone to say that was a tragedy and the lady was done wrong,” said Republican Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale, chairman of the Rules Committee that asked the Senate to approve the resolution.
Democratic Sen. Billy Beasley, whose district includes Abbeville, said Taylor wanted an apology and the Senate wanted to provide one.
“The state of Alabama apologizes for the incident that occurred to Mrs. Taylor many years ago, and we wish God’s speed for her and continued best wishes,” Beasley said.
Grimsley said the apology shows Alabama officials were able to do the right thing on a racial matter.
“I think it’s going to take things like this for the state to move forward” from the racial turmoil of the past, he said.
Grimsley said he pushed the apology through the Legislature for Taylor.
“I just knew I had to do something for her while she’s still here,” he said.
Taylor’s story, along with those of other black women attacked by white men during the civil rights era, is told in “At the Dark End of the Street,” a book by Danielle McGuire, a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. Activists including Rosa Parks took up the causes of Taylor and others, but their efforts were later overshadowed by other civil rights battles.
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BOB JOHNSON,Associated Press
Associated Press writer Errin Haines contributed to this report from Atlanta
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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