Barry Spear, a spokesman for Alabama’s Department of Human Services, said in an email to Yahoo News that it is not the agency’s policy to demand proof of citizenship from the guardians of Americans who need food stamps. “We are unaware of any violations of the policy,” Spear said.

[...]

Illegal immigrants are prohibited from accessing most welfare benefits, including food stamps, non-emergency Medicaid and cash welfare programs. Their children, if born in America, can access welfare programs as citizens. (The Pew Hispanic Center estimates that about 4.5 million American citizens under 18 years old have at least one undocumented parent.)

Enough excuses already — there are no unintended consequences to HB 56. The law is evil, cruel, stupid, overly-broad, and more than a little bit fascist. There is no “fixing” it. Alabama’s Republican legislators should do the right thing and just repeal this legislation. When kids are going hungry, all of their rhetoric about Christian family values is revealed as just so much wind.

Perry County Commissioner Albert Turner was at the Alabama Community Leaders Institute at the campus of Alabama A&M in Huntsville on August 26th. He graciously spoke on camera about his county’s coal ash controversy in the context of economic development challenges. Perhaps surprisingly, coal ash is not the biggest source of toxic pollution in Perry County.

The controversial immigration law, the strictest in the country, is being challenged in federal court and has met with disapproval from Republican Attorney General Luther Strange. A study published last week by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Alabama estimates the bill will cost the state billions of dollars in lost income from illegal immigrants, lost tax income and related costs. Provisions of the bill have wreaked confusion in courthouses across the state, and raised the ire of farmers who depend on immigrants to harvest crops.

Senator Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, said portions of the bill likely will be rewritten this year.

House Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, said the most important lesson of the 2011 session was to more carefully vet bills.

“We want to make sure we are more in tune with some of the consequences that happen in some bills that are unintended,” he said.

This year, budgets will be the key issue. The General Fund could have a deficit of more than $400 million with no visible means of filling the gap without raising taxes, which is unlikely. (Emphasis mine)

I recorded Senate Republicans rushing into the chamber from a committee meeting to reconsider an amendment to SB256, the Senate version of the immigration bill, by a small-government Republican. Churches across the state lobbied for an amendment to soften some of the more onerous provisions, and I watched it pass in the Senate — only to have HB56 fly through the House untouched, and then pass the Senate because Republican leadership wanted the strongest bill possible.

There are no unintended consequences to HB56. The problems with it cannot be fixed because they are in the very purposes of the bill. Remember, HB56 came to the legislature from FAIR, the Owellian-named organization behind Arizona’s SB1070 — and FAIR makes no distinction between legal and illegal immigrants. Self-deportation of foreign manufacturers from Alabama is a feature of HB56, not a bug.

“Teachers need to make the money that they need to make. There needs to be a balance there. If you double what you’re paying education, you know what’s going to happen? I’ve heard the comment many times, ‘Well, the quality of education’s going to go up.’ That’s never proven to happen, guys.

“It’s a Biblical principle. If you double a teacher’s pay scale, you’ll attract people who aren’t called to teach.

“To go in and raise someone’s child for eight hours a day, or many people’s children for eight hours a day, requires a calling. It better be a calling in your life. I know I wouldn’t want to do it, OK?

Of course he didn’t want to be a teacher in Alabama. Who would want the God-mandated crummy pay and benefits of a teacher’s salary when you can be a legislator instead and vote yourself a pay raise? Of course, I’m sure McGill felt “called” to run for office for altruistic reasons. He’s all about altruism, especially when it comes from teachers:

“And these teachers that are called to teach, regardless of the pay scale, they would teach. It’s just in them to do. It’s the ability that God give ‘em. And there are also some teachers, it wouldn’t matter how much you would pay them, they would still perform to the same capacity.

“If you don’t keep that in balance, you’re going to attract people who are not called, who don’t need to be teaching our children. So, everything has a balance.”

Get that? If Alabama raised teacher salaries, educated and successful people might be tempted to teach instead of running for office. And if there’s one thing Alabama is good at, it’s removing temptation. If there’s another thing our state excels at, it’s destroying public education. Remember, one of the first things Republicans did with their new power was to destroy a pension program that kept veteran teachers in the classroom. And hilariously, they blamed greedy teachers for the program shortfall:

Via Alabama’s 13 news:

Census data released Thursday shows Birmingham’s population fell to 212,237 between 2000 and 2010, continuing a trend of decline. That’s a decrease of 12.6 percent over the decade, but it’s still the most in the state.

Anti-urbanism has a long history in this state, especially when directed towards Jefferson County and Birmingham. The state’s premier city has been allowed to sprawl out and die.

This is much better than prison labor bills and HB 56 “fixes.” Rep. K.L. Brown, R-Jacksonville, will try to make medical marijuana legal in Alabama:

Brown’s sister used medicinal marijuana to control her pain before she died of breast cancer 25 years ago, and he sees the measure as a way to help many suffering Alabamians in a similar manner.

However, he has emphasized that the bill was in no way part of a larger effort to decriminalize marijuana completely in the state.

“This is not a recreational marijuana legalizing bill at all,” Brown said previously.

“It’s strictly for medicinal purposes and will be closely monitored by the Health Department and law enforcement.”

The old Vulcan aphorism about Nixon being the only president who could go to China applies here. In years past, if anyone in the Democratic majority had moved to legalize medical marijuana, they would have been assailed by prohibitionists. Ron Crumpton, executive director of the citizen lobbying group that created the bill, says there will be plenty of support for it:

“I’ve talked to a lot of legislators who, quite honestly, in the past have not been for us but who are backing us now,” said Crumpton. “I think it has a lot to do with the fact that K.L. Brown is sponsoring it. He’s well-liked.”

No matter what anyone tells you, however, legalizing medicinal use is the first step to making marijuana a regulated product instead of a criminalized plant. The entire rationale for marijuana laws is that it cannot be considered medicinal (see “Schedule 1“). This news also gives me hope that an industrial hemp bill is possible in Alabama — and if that can be done here, it can happen everywhere.

I’ll be covering this story in Montgomery next month, so stay tuned.

At a meeting of the Marengo County Republican Executive Committee, as reported by the Marengo Democrat-Reporter, Reynolds told gathered Republicans that there is “no doubt President Barack Obama is a Muslim, and he is working to put America in a Reichstag Moment situation.” As the Democrat-Reporter helpfully explains, the “Reichstag moment,” refers to the suspension of the German constitution by Parliament to enable Adolph Hitler’s rise to power.

[...]

Reynolds went on to blame former RNC Chairman Michael Steele for the financial difficulties the national Republican Party faced in recent years.

It’s the black guy’s fault — of course! That’s how Reynolds makes his pitch to tea party groups. Among Reynolds’ greatest hits are his response to the “magic negro” Limbaugh nastiness: “Didn’t bother me one bit. … This is just people looking for something to make an issue of.” Mind you, this is a member of the Republican National Committee, a man who purportedly speaks for his party.

Governor Bentley and friends will try to fix our “papers please” immigration law:

Bentley, House Speaker Mike Hubbard and Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, said in a statement they do not plan to repeal or weaken the law, widely considered to be the toughest of its kind in the nation.

“We recognize that changes are needed to ensure that Alabama has not only the nation’s most effective law, but one that is fair and just, promotes economic growth, preserves jobs for those in Alabama legally, and can be enforced effectively and without prejudice,” Bentley said in the statement. (Emphasis mine)

HB56 cannot possibly be enforced both effectively and without prejudice. No modification will render it fair or just, and its passage was never about preserving jobs or growing the economy. The problems with HB56 are not bugs, they are features of a horrible piece of legislation that should never have been enacted in the first place. Aside from repeal, there is no “fixing” it.

Yes, it’s that time again. The Morning Awful will be dominated by fundraiser appeals until the inkwell is full. These blogotubes are getting set to take it to another level in the new year, and rather than hold separate fundraisers for Osborne Ink and the Goat Hill Project I’ll just post the PayPal button below and get started on one omnibus fund drive. If you’ve got a few bucks to spare, please drop ‘em in the kitty and help support this website!

Everybody have a great weekend.