Thomason Tracts

Legislative session adjourns without education budget - Breaking News from The Birmingham News - al.com

That’s how much of the education budget was in question, as the AEA and the state universities were fighting over $25 million of a $6.3 billion budget. They’ve managed to screw up the entire state educational system over that. Moreover, a number of other bills were blocked because of the filibuster over the education budget. People are going to get fired. I’m glad I work for a private school.

Birmingham Councilwoman Carole Smitherman questions timing, bankers involved in a proposed bond refinancing sought by the Birmingham Water Works- al.com

Oh, yes. Some of the same bankers and lawyers who were involved in the Jefferson County mess have been hired by the Birmingham Water Works to refinance its bonds. But there’s no reason to be concerned, right?

McCain criticizes Obama over Iran comments - NewsFlash - al.com

How in the world can he stand there and argue that Obama is “inexperienced” or “reckless” for simply pointing out the very obvious point that Iran isn’t close to the threat which the Soviet Union posed? He is either stupid, or lying, or he is stupid and lying. These are the only options.

At least two people shot in another violent Birmingham weekend - Breaking News from The Birmingham News - al.com

“At least” two people, because it’s only 3:20 on Sunday and there’s a good chance that “at least” one more person will get shot. But Larry’s praying that it doesn’t happen.

UPDATE: Four shot in Birmingham over weekend- al.com

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford’s first city budget to be revealed Tuesday- al.com

Yes, he’s spent all this money already, and yet he hasn’t even done a budget yet. Particularly amusing is how he tries to talk all fiscally conservative.

Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex to begin soliciting architectural bids for domed stadium- al.com

They’re going to have the Birmingdome designed before they build it. Wow, with this crew, I figured that they’d wing it. Anyway, they’re soliciting bids. I am going to throw my hat into the ring here. I have no skills whatsoever, but for just $45,000 I am willing to take on the task. Here is a preliminary sketch:

There’s lots more where that came from. As for BMLL:

Langford, who has jump-started the stalled dome project by pledging city money, said Friday he is not going to let his legal troubles distract him from big-ticket projects such as the dome and a revitalization plan for the Alabama State Fairgrounds.

There may be no stopping him at this point. He’s a force of nature.

Syphilis ads yanked from buses after Mayor Langford says they project a bad image- al.com

Do you have something to hide?

Ads on buses identifying Jefferson County as the nation’s leader in syphilis will come down after Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford complained they present a bad image of the area and hurt efforts to recruit new businesses.

Langford asked the Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority director Friday to remove banners from 10 buses that show the county’s national ranking.

“It’s hard enough to compete for business without having people to walk in and have that shock value added to it,” Langford said. “We have a lot of issues, but you don’t destroy your city. You find other ways to address those problems.”

For instance, recall elections.

Anyway, the most important thing is that Jefferson County doesn’t let anyone know that everyone there has syphillis. It is a horrible, shameful, dirty secret and everyone should be quiet about it and go about their business of having unprotected sex in darkened rooms.

Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby adds millions in domestic spending to war funding bill- al.com

Alabama’s senior senator, the Porkmeister:

“If we’re dealing with terrorists in the world then we’ve got to deal with child predators here,” Shelby said after he persuaded the committee to add $50 million to help track unregistered sex offenders.

Dick, the two don’t really have anything to do with each other. Not anything.

Federal grand jury looking into Jefferson County bond deals, Larry Langford’s financial dealings- al.com

They’re going to indict. They always indict. What you want is for them to indict quickly. If they indict soon, you’ll get prosecuted by Alice Martin, who is terrible. If they take their time, Bush will be out of office and she’ll be replaced by a competent USA, and you’re going to go down.

Oklahoma company acquires Alabama Adventure - Business News from The Birmingham News - al.com

So, let’s check in on a past Wacky Scheme, the Wacky Scheme that made Larry Langford, “Visionland”, the peculiar idea he had as mayor of Fairfield that what western Jefferson County really needed was an amusement park built at public expense.

So, how’s that going? Well, the name’s been changed to “Alabama Adventure”, which is a bad name but probably better than “Visionland”. The municipalities which paid for Visionland wound up dumping the park on a private company in 2003, which now has dumped the park on some Oklahomans who used to work for Six Flags. They kept land around the park, however, which is probably what they were interested in all along.

So, it’s going about as well as possibly could be expected. The cities took a huge bath on the fiasco, but Crazy Larry escaped unharmed, off to Do Something first for Jefferson County and now Birmingham.