Huge news regarding the alleged corruption in the legislature on the gambling issue. Milton McGregor, above, was arrested along with others. Click the link below to read the news release from the Department of Justice.

What is it that sets America apart and above other nations? Dennis Prager explains. If you haven’t discovered Rightnetwork, watch this video and then go check it out.
http://www.rightnetwork.com/flash/RIGHT_VideoPlayer.swf?videoID=860061536&contentType=Episode

Excellent article on Fox News’ website regarding establishment Republicans and how they have been just as vulnerable in this primary season as Democrats will be in a few weeks in the general election. We have to keep the momentum!!!

Memo to the GOP Establishment–Shut Up and Get to Work!

Why is our city being overrun by weeds? Especially kudzu? Anytime my wife and I go out for a run or walk through town lately, we notice that weeds and grass are sprouting up everywhere. Up until about a week or so ago one could barely navigate the riverwalk where it passes underneath Bibb Graves bridge because the walkway was practically covered in kudzu. In fact, there are several places along the riverwalk where weeds and very high grass not only obscure the view of our beautiful river but provide a perfect place for snakes and other critters to hang out. I don’t know about you but I’m not fond of having a haven for these slithery ne’er-do-wells so close to where lots of people, namely me, walk, run, ride bikes, and push strollers. It’s not only on the riverwalk but other places around town, too. Drive around a little and you’ll likely see what I’m talking about. I do realize that the kudzu in the bridge area was just cut back, but if you are familiar with kudzu you know that it grows at a rate of about 17 feet a day(that’s only a slight exaggeration) and it won’t be any time before the bridge is covered in fuzzy, itchy leaves again.

I know that several city council meetings back, there was some discussion about spraying these areas so that they aren’t such an eyesore and overall nuisance and, make no mistake, they are an eyesore. What I have heard second-hand is that at least two city council members were vehemently opposed to spraying these areas to kill the weeds. I’m not sure what their reasoning is but unless it’s going to cause the river to dry up or kill any living thing that may come into contact with whatever chemical kills the weeds then my vote goes to spraying it. Maybe some of you who were at the meeting in question can fill the rest of us in on why The City of Natural Beauty is becoming a little bit too natural. I think it was Councilman Greg Jones who brought up the need for getting rid of these weeds. Let me know if you can provide more details.

Which reminds me, I need to trim my shrubs Saturday. Anyone who wants to help can come on over at your leisure.

On an unrelated note: If you haven’t checked out The Wetumpka Herald’s new website, you really need to. It has a ton more content than it did before and has now become a daily destination for me. Kudos to everybody at the Herald for making the changes!

Lots of people have expressed a desire to help start planning the inaugural Coosa River Jazz and Blues Festival. If you are one of those people or want to be one of those people, plan on coming to San Marcos in Wetumpka on Monday, September 6, at 7:00 p.m. for an organizational meeting to share your thoughts and ideas. I promise we won’t keep you out too late unless you just want to be out late! I know it’s Labor Day but hopefully you’ll be done with your Labor Day partying by then. Spread the word and mark your calendars and we’ll see you then!

Barry Mask, Executive Director of the Elmore County Economic Development Authority, recently wrote a letter to the educators of Elmore County regarding some comments made by WSFA and The Montgomery Advertiser about the quality of education our public schools offer. We should all be glad that we have someone in Mr. Mask’s position who is not only an advocate of Elmore County’s schools, but a defender of them when necessary as well. If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, I have included it below in its entirety:

I’m not much of a fisherman. About the only thing I have ever had any luck catching is what my brother-in-law called a “blind eel.” Commonly referred to by the general population as a stick. I have occasionally landed a catfish but who hasn’t, really? Put something really gross on a hook and stick it in the water and a catfish will usually go for it. Then there’s the whole getting them off the hook thing which I won’t get into.

Well, the guys that will be here in just a little over a week have forgotten more about fishing than I’ll ever know. Even with my lack of knowledge of the finer points of fishing, I had a blast at the weigh-ins here in Wetumpka last year. These guys are truly like rock stars but incredibly friendly and approachable. I have heard story after story about how great they were with the kids and all their other fans by posing for pictures and signing autographs until everybody had a chance to get one. Great guys by all accounts.

So, whether you’re an avid angler or, like me, a specialist in hooking vision impaired water dwelling creatures, you’ll find something to enjoy. I promise.

Several months ago I wrote a piece on this blog regarding the interest in and possibility of Wetumpka hosting some sort of music festival. In fact I wrote about it three different times. There seemed to be a lot of interest but, as this type of thing often does, it sort of got shuffled to the back burner and has remained there…until now! I had someone approach me a couple of weeks ago about organizing just such an event. Someone who is no stranger to coming up with a new and fresh idea and seeing it through to fruition which is something I personally don’t always excel at. He had the idea of putting together what we’ll call for now the Coosa River Jazz and Blues Festival. I mentioned in my previous piece how much I used to enjoy going to Montgomery’s Jubilee City Fest but that I haven’t been in several years because the quality and type of music I enjoyed seeing there wasn’t being offered anymore. I think many others who used to frequent Jubilee don’t attend any longer for this reason and various others as well..

I know very little about soccer. My son played when he was six but that foray into the so-called “beautiful game” didn’t give me much insight into the rules or intricacies of the game. That experience taught me that if you put a bunch of five and six year old kids on a patch of grass(and a fair amount of dirt) along with a soccer ball that the result will look a lot like your typical t-ball game. A mass of short human-beings running around somewhat aimlessly, occasionally fighting over the ball, with some intermittent crying thrown in for good measure. In a word, chaotic. Outside of that, my most memorable experience with soccer was the time there were about fifty of us playing on the football field in high school. I got to see up close what it looks like when someone is hit in the side of the head with the ball because they were too busy talking instead of paying attention to the game. The ball, which was traveling somewhere in the vicinity of 211 mph, hit the guy so hard that he was actually in the air for a couple of seconds before he hit the ground with a thud. Memorable, to say the least. I know you can’t touch the ball with your hands unless you’re the goalie and you have to kick it into the net to score. That, in a nutshell, is the full breadth of my knowledge of soccer.

That is why it is so strange that I continue to find myself watching the FIFA World Cup matches taking place in South Africa over the next few weeks. I’m as patriotic as anyone and watched most of the USA vs. England match last Saturday which, judging from news reports, the USA won by a score of 1-1.  Nothing unusual about wanting to see how the Americans stack up against the rest of the world in the rest of the world’s version of football. Yes, I know, I’m an arrogant American who thinks that American football is superior to the older, more widely played and watched soccer or futbol or whatever it is you want to call it. It is unusual, for me at least, to find myself firmly planted on the couch in my living room watching a match between Algeria and Slovenia, two countries I’m not sure I could easily locate on a map. Then, this morning as I walked into work, I picked up the remote and went straight to ESPN2 which was airing a match between Cameroon and Japan. Have I somehow been secretly brainwashed into becoming a fan of soccer? Does it have something to do with the constant drone present at every match that sounds like a giant swarm of killer bees has set up shop in the stadium? Hey guys, can we put the plastic horns away for just a minute? Dang.

I will admit that soccer does look like it would be a lot of fun to play. I get incredibly anxious when one team gets the ball close to the goal, inside that big box, and then kicks it around to each other looking for a shot. If I were the goalie I guess I’d probably pass out from the stress of wondering when the shot is coming and from which direction. The action appears to be almost non-stop though it does tend to be a bit boring when the action stays in the middle of the field. Speaking of the field. Is it just me or does a soccer field seem to be roughly the same size as Rhode Island? I’d like to give the sport a try but to my knowledge there isn’t a local over-40-never-played-the-game-before-in-my-life church league for soccer. I’m not even sure it would be okay for a church to have a soccer team. There may be something in Levitical law regarding a sport in which you can’t touch the ball with your hands. I’d have to check the rulebook on that. Considering the fact that church softball exists, though, it would probably be okay. I can’t think of anything that’s tougher on someone’s Christian witness than playing church softball. Even a handless, politically correct, “beautiful” sport.

I have a lot more I’d like to say on this topic but it will have to wait until later. Italy just scored in the sixty-third minute to pull into a tie with Paraguay and yet another player is pretending to be badly injured. Gotta go…oh, and GO USA!!!