Happy Easter, Councilman Montgomery

Happy Easter everyone. Of course, Easter isn't about chocolate bunnies any more than Christmas is about reindeer, but marketing in the U. S. would have us believe otherwise. It's about Jesus' death on a cross for your sins. But it's also about rebirth, and renewal, and forgiveness.








Joel Montgomery should be thinking about forgiveness this Easter morning. This homophobe, one of the Birmingham Council Members who does not believe in inclusion, was arrested Saturday for public intoxication. His bloodied face was featured on page 13A of the Birmingham News, and on the local tv news. Take a look, this is the face of intolerance in the Magic City. I hope the people of District 1 have someone in mind to replace him. He claims innocence. The gay community (and the fair minded straights) might forgive him if he reverses his stand on the Resolution of Inclusion. (Unlike Jesus, we are human and we can put conditions on forgiveness). Hey, maybe Joel won't be attending the council meeting this week. Might be a good time to re-introduce the resolution.







Our representative Artur Davis spoke to the Downtown Democratic Club on Friday, and he said Dick Cheney was way off base when he spoke at the luncheon that raised a half million dollars for Jeff Sessions 2008 re-election campaign. Cheney was critical of the Democrats for threatening funding and calling for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Artur pointed out that during the Clinton presidency in 1998 several resolutions sought to require the president to either limit funding for the U.S. military peacekeeping efforts in Bosnia or bring the troops home. Also, congress called for troop withdrawal in 1993 from Somalia when 18 soldiers were killed there while on a peacekeeping mission. Davis also noted that in 1983 after 241 marines were killed in Beirut, Congress called for withdrawal. Davis said "When all of that happened, not one person said Newt Gingrich and the Republicans weren't supporting our troops. Nobody said if your don't agree with us on the war, you're being un-American like the Bush asminstration is saying now."
He also said he is bothered by this "mindset that the president is always right and everyone else is wrong when it comes to the war in Iraq." You tell 'em, Artur.

Readers will notice that I have added a list of links to other blogs over to the left. Sack Sessions has lots to say about the Cheney visit. Just click on those links to read others progressive opinions.