EchoBooming in Birmingham

Ding ding ding…

As Birmingham Blues said, the gloves have come off. Patricia Todd held a press conference yesterday to encourage the Alabama Democratic Party to dismiss the contest of the election results (full text of her statement here).

I tried to quit talking about this subject earlier this week, but a quick glance at some local blogs got my blood boiling again.

Andre also took his gloves off in his first post this morning, a thing he does not do nearly often enough in my opinion (although I understand why he doesn’t). In the 60’s Black leaders in this city and state quickly brought about drastic changes for the civil rights of minorities for this entire country. It seems that ever since that victory, Black “leaders” have been shooting themselves in the foot. The district 54 “race” is just the latest in a long history of Birmingham area Black “leaders” and politicians attempting to bolster their race’s position in society, politics, power or whatever, but instead end up dividing the community and continuing the long running stagnation of ideas and action in our region.

I’m ready for cooperation, I’m ready for progress, I’m ready for REAL LEADERS, and I don’t care if they’re white, black, purple, male, female, gay, lesbian, christian, etc.

More items of interest:
Tapestry’s story of Spider Martin’s struggle to document the Civil Rights fight in Alabama. Link. Audio..
I listened to this on my ipod on the way to work this morning and it really shook me to my core. After I got in to work and read the blogs that I linked to above, I nearly cried because of how far we haven’t come.

Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America–and What We Can Do About It. I’m lazy when it comes to reading, but I’m buying this book…

Birmingham Blues went to Montgomery in order to witness the hearing surrounding the District 54 race (which is slowly begining to garner some national attention).

Her observations are best summed up in this paragraph:

I talk (sic) to a source who does not wish to be named who says that Joe Reed, head of the legislative black caucus, was initially appointed to serve on the subcommittee. That sounds questionable, given that he strongly supported Ms. Hendricks in the runoff. It becomes even more questionable when I hear that Ms. Hendricks’ check for the contest filing fee bounced, and Mr. Reed covered it. This presented a conflict of interest (no sh*t), so he couldn’t serve on the committee, and supposedly there wasn’t enough time to replace him.

(emphasis mine)

Sounds like typical Alabama Politics to me .

Hendricks-Todd hearing delayed
MONTGOMERY— The Democratic party today delayed a hearing that would have decided the outcome of the contested House District 54 runoff between Gaynell Hendricks and Patricia Todd.

Party officials said a mix-up over who would serve on the five-person committee presiding over the hearing forced them to postpone. Some members who had been selected chose not to participate at the last minute, they said.

Todd defeated Hendricks by 59 votes in a June 18 runoff, 1,173 to 1,114. The house district is in Birmingham.

Hendrick’ mother-in-law challenged the outcome on July 28, claiming Todd had received “illegal votes.” She also said Todd failed to file a financial disclosure report on time, thereby hiding from the public a $25,000 contribution by a national gay activist group.

No new date has been set for the hearing, though officials said they hoped to reconvene some time next week.

“I’m very patient by nature,” Hendricks said. “But I’m beginning to get impatient here.”

Jordan H. Weismann

The “mixup” seems a little fishy to me…

The election that was won via votes several weeks ago should be won via committee later on this morning (the meeting started about an hour and 15 min ago).

The local blogosphere is abuzz with tons of fresh new info on the case.

Go check it out for yourself, and I’ll hopefully have the final decision (before Hendrick’s mother in law takes it to the appeals court) in a few minutes….

Despite the fact that I could barely complete the course without taking out a cone, I did come in first place (in my class) this weekend.

The FN Wagon managed to beat two 1991 Nissan 300Z’s and a 1999 Mustang GT by 0.307, 1.223 and 2.046 seconds respectively (on an ~60 sec course).

And yes, that is a baby seat in the back…

Big thanks to haknslash for the pics!
And whoever the douche bag was in the 240SX w/ the Silvia front end (attempting to do donuts in the parking lot after the event), don’t ever come back…