Alabama Politics:
SOUTH UNION STREET – Judge sentences Gilley, Massey, Spicer
Country Crossing developer Ronnie Gilley, his chief lobbyist Jarrod Massey and former state Rep. Terry Spicer have six more weeks of freedom after being sentenced to prison on Monday after pleading guilty to their roles in government corruption.
All three men, who pleaded guilty to offering or accepting bribes, must voluntarily surrender to the federal prison they are assigned to by 2 p.m. on Aug. 27, but were released on Monday because they were not considered flight risks.
Gilley, who pleaded guilty to attempting to bribe seven public officials, was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison and ordered to forfeit $200,000. Massey was sentenced to five years and five months in prison and fined $20,000. Spicer was sentenced to four years and nine months and fined $40,000. Read More…
National and International Politics
WEEKLY STANDARD – Man with a Plan: How Paul Ryan became the intellectual leader of the Republican party
Excerpt: Ryan says he gave serious thought to quitting politics. Pelosi had introduced a new five-day work week for the House, which meant Ryan would have perhaps 36 hours a week with his family when Congress was in session: “I considered leaving. I was young, and I don’t want to be a lifetime politician. And I was thinking at the time: Is this worth it?”
After four days of hunting, and thinking, Ryan decided that if he stayed in Congress he would make a strong push for entitlement reform. He couldn’t do that unless he took a larger leadership role. When he returned to Washington, Ryan pushed John Boehner, the lame-duck House majority leader, to make him the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. Ryan’s pitch to Boehner and the others on the selection panel was simple: “We’ve wandered off the path of fiscal responsibility, and we’ve got to get serious about getting back on it.” With Boehner’s backing, the panel of two dozen Republicans made Ryan its top Republican, passing over 12 others with more seniority. Read More…
THE DAILY CALLER – Campaign Strategist for Cantor’s Opponent: “We’re going to attack his patriotism.”
Excerpt: “You know, he’s an unpatriotic guy,” Democratic political strategist Dave “Mudcat” Saunders said of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in an interview in The Daily Caller’s offices. ”We’re going to attack his patriotism.”
The “we” Saunders is referring to is he and his “horse” to take on Cantor for his Virginia congressional seat, lawyer and retired Army Colonel Wayne Powell. Asked to defend his dramatic charge against Cantor, Saunders — who served as a campaign strategist for Southern Democrats like Jim Webb, Mark Warner and John Edwards — threw out all sorts of allegations. Read More and watch the video…
NATIONAL REVIEW: Farewell, Welfare Reform
Excerpt: Rarely in the hurly-burly of politics and policy do both sides get an opportunity to test their ideas in the laboratory of reality and compare results, but that is exactly what happened with welfare reform. Defenders of the New Deal/Great Society legacy were forced to put their record up against a new approach that focused on strong families and personal responsibility. And they lost. What emerged was something close to a consensus, with opponents of TANF and its adjuncts either won over or silenced.
Which is what makes this president’s displayed preference for the Old Time Religion of the dole so astonishing. After spending years expanding the food-stamp rolls to unprecedented levels, he appears to have turned his sights on TANF, and is poised to fritter away 15 years of gains in the fight against poverty and dependency. Signing welfare reform was Bill Clinton’s greatest act of apostasy from the vantage point of the anti-reform liberal Democrats — it led to multiple resignations in his Department of Health and Human Services. Obama’s move, then, shows once again that he is well to Clinton’s left. Republicans should make a major issue of this latest evidence of the president’s unreconstructed liberalism. Read More…
NATIONAL REVIEW – Like Charter Schools, Britain’s Academies Aim High
Individual schools, local school authorities, businesses, universities, charities, and religious organizations can petition to start academies. But they have to meet certain standards to be approved.
Like many American charter schools, the academies can set their own pay and devise their own curriculum and schedules; they receive the same per-pupil funding as state schools. The idea is to liberate education from domination by the Blob, and the results so far seem encouraging. Read More…
POLITICO – Pollsters: Anthony Weiner ‘has a chance’
Anthony Weiner reportedly wants to returns to politics — perhaps even as Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s successor — and some pollsters believe the disgraced former congressman has a shot.
“Sure, he’s got a chance… there are pluses and minuses, and the pluses are in the bank,” said Mickey Carroll, director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute, referring to Weiner’s $4.5 million campaign war chest. “Among politicians, I don’t think they have ever cared that much.”
“You’ve got to give this guy credit. He’s a demon of a campaigner. He’ll be out there ringing doorbells and stuff. So you’ve got to give him a shot,” Carroll added.
FOX NEWS: Business groups criticize Obama over remarks about government’s role in success
Prominent business groups are joining conservatives and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in calling out President Obama for his recent comments about the relationship between government and business.
The president made the comments Friday during a speech to supporters in Roanoke, Va. Arguing that successful business owners got help from others along the way and suggesting they should pay more in taxes in return, he noted how government often provides the infrastructure needed for success. “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that,” Obama said. “Somebody else made that happen.”
David Chavern, chief operating officer of the Chamber of Commerce, accused Obama of slighting the remarkable achievements of extraordinary individuals.
“We should applaud the risk-takers and the dreamers who are willing to stand out from the crowd,” Chavern said in a Chamber blog. “Rather than denigrate what these people have done, we need to encourage more people to be like them.”
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