An Arresting Story

My run for a delegate position fell short, but I feel good about it under the circumstances. Obama performed so well in the 7th congressional district that Clinton will get just 2 delegates from the district. That means only the two top Clinton vote getters overall or the top male and top female, depending on the particulars of how the delegates are choosen, out of about 20 who ran, will be selected. People with name recognition throughout the district, who have been politically connected, had the most votes.

After writing the other day that Republicans don't go to prison I will provide evidence that the justice department and Alice Martin are overzealous in bringing down democrats. The recent arrest of Sue Schmitz (D - Toney), was characterized in Bob Martin's column, The Alabama Scene, as follows (emphasis is mine):

Here's how the arrest in the small Huntsville suburb of Toney went down as described in one editorial account: "The morning calm in the small town of Toney, located near Huntsville, was broken at 6:15 a.m. yesterday morning. A team of five FBI agents, accompanied by a prison matron, pounded on the door. When the man of the house answered, he was forced into the yard, shirtless in the early morning cold. The team had come for his wife, Sue Schmitz. She was dragged out of her bathroom, where she was taking a shower, handcuffed, breaking her flesh and scraping her wrists, and hustled off to prison.

"Who was this threat to the community? Sue Schmitz is a diminutive, 63-year-old retired social studies teacher who has lived in the same house in Toney for 38 years, roughly 20 of them as a civics teacher. She is loved in the community and among her students is legendary for her passion for civics and her outreach to the disadvantaged."

Schmitz's Hunstville lawyer Buck Watson described the arrest as "very, very unusual." Suspecting that something like this might happen Watson had informed the U. S. Attorney's office that if they wanted Rep. Schmitz she would voluntarily surrender herself. But that obviously wasn't dramatic enough for Martin. "I can't see where she has committed any crime, but even if it was it was a non-violent matter involving a woman who has never been arrested in her life," Watson said.

Of course Martin herself might learn what it feels like to be led away in handcuffs...well, if the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility was not "slow walking" the investigation of Martin's perjury charge. There are accusations Martin gave false evidence in proceedings in a 2003 depostion filed in an EEOC case. Bob Martin (no relation to Alice, I assume) says the facts are clear, "Martin gave false evidence in the proceedings, and the trial officer concluded her statements are not credible." He echoes the question of many: "How can someone stay on as a U. S. attorney when they've been caught in a serious misrepresentation, under oath, in a legal proceeding?"

Now I admit I have called on Alice Martin to come in to Bessemer and clean up, but I will be happy with any investigator. Especially one who tells the truth and treats people fairly. I wish the people who left comments the other day about other prosecutors being brought in would provide some more inforation.

I really enjoy reading Martin's columns in the Hartselle Enquirer (Martin is the editor of the Alabama Independent in Montgomery). I wish The Western Tribune would pick up this column and do away with Gary Palmer's column.

Is Gary Palmer a plagiarist?

A recent column by Palmer, of the Alabama Policy Institute, appears to be plagiarized. The column was about the Alabama Certificate of Need program which in short requires hospitals and certain other health care facilities to gain state approval before being allowed to operate. The editorial recommends the state legislature do away with the Certificate of Need program.

When I read the column I noticed a familiarity with an email I had received months ago which contained an editorial written by Michael Morrisey and Michael Ciamarra. Michael Morrisey is a professor of Health Economics at UAB's School of Public Health. He and Ciamarra were the original authors, but it appeared under Palmer's name in the paper. If anyone is interested, I will forward the editorial (email) to you.


When I retrieved the email I found word for word similarity. Something's not right. Palmer, what's up?