Barry Moore cosigns letter to boot Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger out of GOP conference
Congressman Barry Moore signed a letter to Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy requesting a reconsideration of a GOP Conference Rule change that would remove members who accept committee assignments or serve on a committee without a recommendation from the Republican Steering Committee or the Republican Leader. The letter, written by Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs, comes in response to the select committee investigating the January 6th attack on the Capitol. McCarthy was given five picks to serve on the committee. However Nancy Pelosi rejected two, and McCarthy pulled his other three as well. Pelosi, in an effort to maintain a bipartisan committee, asked Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger to serve on the committee, and they accepted. Congressman Moore stated, “It is absurd that a formal rule prohibiting this behavior is necessary, but Republicans must be united to defeat Nancy Pelosi’s socialist takeover of America, and the Republican conference should swiftly make this rule change to expel anyone who has chosen to take marching orders from her.” “Accepting committee assignments from Speaker Pelosi and ignoring the long-standing practice and rule of being nominated by designated GOP members is a betrayal to our party’s efforts against Pelosi and the Far Left’s attacks,” stated Biggs. “As Republican Members of Congress, it is our duty to strategize effective measures that protect America’s foundational values. We cannot allow our party, which stands as a bulwark against the socialist agenda of the Democrats, to be infiltrated by individuals who are coordinating with members of the opposition. Our party’s integrity, and the voice of conservative Americans who voted for us, must be protected and upheld.” Removal from the conference requires a two-thirds vote of all its members. Only the party leader can bring such a motion to a vote. Kinzinger’s spokesperson Maura Gillespie said in a statement that the congressman is looking for answers about the January 6 attack. “When a Member makes repeated calls to remove Representatives Kinzinger and Cheney from the Conference, it certainly calls into question their true motives,” Gillespie said. “Especially when that Member pushes conspiracy theories to their constituents and outright lies for their own personal gain.” The letter to McCarthy states, “Congresswoman Cheney and Congressman Kinzinger are two spies for the Democrats that we currently invite to the meetings, despite our inability to trust them.” On Twitter, Kinzinger responded, “I think this is interesting. Just coming off a member declaring bloodshed will happen, many pushing Covid denialism and Jan 6 trutherism….The GOP has a choice. I am even more committed to getting the truth now.” In July, Cheney posted on Twitter, “We cannot leave the violence of January 6th – and its causes – uninvestigated. We must know what happened at the Capitol and the White House on the day.” Matt Gaetz, one of the 16 cosigners commented, “Instead of investigating the Jihad Squad’s connections to groups that foment political violence like BLM and Antifa, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have taken on Pelosi appointments to target the Republican Firebrands in Congress. Kevin McCarthy should remove them from their committees immediately.” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stated, “Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger knew all along the Jan. 6 committee was Witch Hunt 2.0, just like the one Democrats launched against President Trump. They’ve sold out Republicans and they must be thrown out of the GOP conference!” Additional cosigners of the letter are Reps. Jody Hice, Matt Gaetz, Andrew Clyde, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, Dan Bishop, Randy Weber, Ralph Norman, Andy Harris, Scott Perry, Bill Posey, Madison Cawthorn, Mary Miller, Louie Gohmert, and Bob Good.
Jim Zeigler: Enjoy the fruits of the labor of working Americans
Labor Day, celebrated the first Monday in September, is dedicated to the achievements of American workers. The yearly national tribute recognizes the contributions workers have made to the strength and prosperity ok America. Labor Day was first celebrated in 1882 in New York City, and in 1894, President Grover Cleveland signed into law the national holiday. Considered the unofficial end of summer, Labor Day is when stores have big sales, families take their last vacation of the summer season, and many workers have a day off. Typically, people gather at a nearby lake or beach or have backyard barbecues. Of course, COVID-19 somewhat changed those plans this year and last. As we celebrate American workers this year, we recognize their contributions to the fabric of our nation. During COVID-19, we have certainly realized the importance of medical personnel and numerous other front-line workers. Many employees have adjusted to working from home, and we have seen remarkable adaptability and ingenuity in our nation’s people since the world changed in March. Labor Day is a time to reflect on the value Americans place on good old-fashioned hard work. As we look toward the future of our great country, reflect on the words of the poet Maya Angelou: “Nothing will work unless you do.” Enjoy your Labor Day weekend. Enjoy the fruits of the labor of working Americans. Jim Zeigler has been the state auditor for Alabama since 2015.
Joe Biden says Ida, wildfires show ‘climate crisis’ has struck
President Joe Biden on Thursday pledged robust federal help for the Northeastern and Gulf states battered by Hurricane Ida and for Western states beset by wildfires — with the catastrophes serving as deadly reminders that the “climate crisis” has arrived. “These extreme storms, and the climate crisis, are here,” Biden said in a White House speech. “We must be better prepared. We need to act.” The president said he will further press Congress to pass his nearly $1 trillion infrastructure bill to improve roads, bridges, the electric grid, and sewer systems. The proposal intends to ensure that the vital networks connecting cities and states and the country as a whole can withstand the flooding, whirlwinds, and damage caused by increasingly dangerous weather. Biden stressed that the challenge transcends the politics of a deeply divided nation because of the threats posed by the storms and fires. “It’s a matter of life and death, and we’re all in this together,” the president said. Scientists say climate change increases the frequency of extreme weather events — such as large tropical storms and the droughts and heatwaves that create conditions for vast wildfires. U.S. weather officials recently reported that July 2021 was the hottest month ever recorded in 142 years of record-keeping. Ida was the fifth-most powerful storm to strike the U.S. when it hit Louisiana on Sunday with maximum winds of 150 mph (240 kph), likely causing tens of billions of dollars in flood, wind, and other damage, including to the electrical grid. The storm’s remnants dropped devastating rainfall across parts of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey on Wednesday, causing significant disruption to major population centers. The storm has killed at least 13 in the Gulf Coast region and at least 46 in the Northeastern U.S. More than 1 million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi remained without power after Ida toppled a major transmission tower and knocked out thousands of miles of lines and hundreds of substations. New Orleans was plunged into total darkness; power began returning to parts of the city Wednesday. Biden is set to visit Louisiana on Friday to survey some of the damage and meet with government officials there. Biden said the flooding in Louisiana was less than the region experienced 16 years ago during Hurricane Katrina, crediting federal investments in the area’s levee system. “We know that there is much to be done in this response on our part,” Biden added. “We need to get power restored. We need to get more food, fuel, and water deployed.” He said he was receiving hourly updates on the disaster response and outlined efforts by the federal government to ease recovery efforts, including by making satellite imagery available to utility companies and waiving some regulatory requirements. At Biden’s request, the Energy Department said it was releasing 1.5 million barrels of oil from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to ensure a steady fuel supply in the Gulf region, where sunken vessels are blocking key supply lines along the Mississippi River. The oil will be used by ExxonMobil at its Baton Rouge refinery. The company has agreed to replenish the strategic reserve, which is used as an emergency stockpile, within three months. The president also scolded insurers who are declining to pay for the costs of damage or hotel stays for people who had to evacuate their homes. “Don’t hide behind the fine print and technicalities,” Biden warned the insurers. “Do the right thing and pay your policyholders what you owe them.” Biden said separately that the Pentagon was assisting with ongoing firefighting operations in California against the Caldor fire. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards suggested Biden’s Friday visit would be crucial for the president to understand the destruction by seeing the widespread damage for himself. “There’s nothing quite like visiting in person,” Edwards told reporters Wednesday following a briefing with local elected officials in Jefferson Parish, which took direct blows from Ida. “When you see it for yourself, it is just so much more compelling.” Asked what type of assistance he planned to request from Biden, Edwards said, “Quite frankly, the list is going to be very, very long.” But he said a priority would be for a housing program to help people rebuild. The White House says Biden has held several conference calls with governors and local officials to discuss preparations and needs after the storm and has received briefings from Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Deanne Criswell. FEMA had sent tons of supplies, including generators, tarps, and other materials to the region before the storm, and federal response teams are working on search and rescue. Biden’s trip Friday to the Gulf region will cap a difficult stretch for the president, who oversaw the chaotic exit of the U.S. military from Afghanistan after a 20-year engagement. That included the deaths of 13 U.S. service members helping evacuate more than 120,000 Americans, Afghan allies, and others fleeing life under Taliban rule. As Ida bore down on the Gulf Coast on Sunday, Biden was at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to witness the return of the remains of the 13 U.S. servicemen and women who were killed in a suicide bombing last week at Afghanistan’s airport in Kabul, where the evacuations were taking place. Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
Alabama turns to college football to boost vaccinations
Alabama is trying to harness the state’s love of college football to boost COVID-19 vaccinations with a new initiative that will offer shots at college gamedays and give away $75 gift cards for university bookstores to the newly vaccinated. On Thursday, the Alabama Department of Public Health announced the KICK COVID campaign that will include vaccination and testing sites at select games, player appearances in promotions, and the gift card giveaway to promote the importance of getting vaccinated against COVID-19. “We all know about our love of football here in the state of Alabama,” said Gene Hallman, president, and co-owner of the Bruno Event Team, a sports event management company partnering on the program. “We view the central aspect of this program as being college football and the players themselves — speaking in their own authentic, sincere voices — asking their fans and fellow students to please go and get that vaccine.” State Health Officer Scott Harris said he is hopeful it can boost vaccination uptake in a state where college football games are a major event in people’s weekends. Alabama has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, ranking at the bottom among states for the percentage of people fully vaccinated and in the bottom ten for the percentage of people who are partially vaccinated. “I think this is something that probably might not work in every state in the union, but in the South, particularly in Alabama where college football is such an important part of everyone’s life… I think we have a really good opportunity to make this a very successful program.” Hallman said the $75 gift card to campus bookstores is a way of saying “thank you” to the newly vaccinated. The program is the state’s first monetary reward for vaccinations, although local areas and universities have already offered such freebies. The KICK COVID vaccination sites and giveaways will be held during select college gamedays during September and October. The program will be at both the University of Alabama and Auburn University games on Sept. 25. People can get the $75 gift card to the campus bookstore by getting vaccinated at the KICK COVID vaccination site at their team’s selected gameday or by getting the first dose two weeks ahead of the game and uploading their vaccine card to the KICK COVID site. Only vaccinations started within 14 days of the select gameday are eligible. Harris said the Alabama Department of Public Health is using revenue streams from several sources to fund the program. This is not the first time football has been harnessed as a tool to urge vaccinations. Alabama football coach Nick Saban and other sports figures taped a public service announcement earlier this year encouraging Alabamians to get the COVID-19 vaccine. “College football fans and players both want full stadiums this fall. Let’s make sure we can safely make this happen by getting vaccinated. Please get your COVID-19 vaccine,” Saban says in the spot. “We want Bryant-Denny Stadium loud again this coming season and Roll Tide!” Republished with the permission of the Associated Press.
John Merrill: Voting Rights Advancement Act is an unjustifiable power grab
Earlier this month, H.R.4 was introduced by Representative Terri Sewell, who represents Alabama’s 7th Congressional District. H.R.4 is the latest attempt by Washington Democrats to nationalize our federal electoral system. In reality, H.R.4 is a solution in search of a problem. H.R.4’s advocates refuse to acknowledge the substantial progress our nation has made since the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The legislation extends the practice of preclearance, the federal approval of any state’s election administration changes, to every state in the union and threatens to overturn many popular election integrity laws, such as Voter ID laws. What justifies this federal takeover of elections? The answer is nothing. It has never been easier to vote in America than it is today. Washington Democrats are attempting to manufacture a crisis in order to justify their unconstitutional power grab. At the Constitutional Convention, the framers were careful to ensure that each state retained its right to administer its own elections. However, today’s congressional Democrats assert that the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution grants them the authority to enact H.R.4, but many disagree with that assertion. The Elections Clause is a constitutional fail-safe, which is only applicable if a state is unwilling or unable to conduct their own federal elections. Many Federalists, like Alexander Hamilton, worried that the federal government could not survive if a portion of the states either refused to hold elections or were unable to hold elections due to war. In Arizona v Inter-Tribal Council of Arizona Inc., the Supreme Court confirmed that the Elections Clause was “the Framer’s insurance against the possibility that a state would refuse to provide for the election of representatives to the Federal Congress.” It is important to note that the Voting Rights Act has historically been justified by the 14th and 15th Amendments, but after a string of unfavorable court decisions, congressional Democrats have resorted to this approach. H.R.4 not only lacks proper legal standing, but current conditions do not justify the extraordinary measures that H.R.4 would implement nationwide. When examining the VRA’s coverage formula in their landmark decision, Shelby County, Alabama v. Holder, the Supreme Court stated, “The question is whether the Act’s extraordinary measures…continue to satisfy constitutional requirements. As we put it a short time ago, ‘the Act imposes current burdens and must be justified by current needs.” In Shelby, SCOTUS ruled that Section 4 of the VRA was unconstitutional because its “extraordinary” measures were no longer justified by current needs, and similarly, the burdensome measures proposed by H.R.4 are not justified by the conditions of 2021. It has never been easier to vote than it is today in Alabama and the rest of the nation. Since the beginning of my term as Secretary of State in 2015, we have registered 1,902,057 new voters, and we have a total of 3,602,266 registered voters. Since 2016, we have set records for voter participation in every primary and general election. In Alabama, 96% of African-Americans, 91% of White-Americans, and 94% of all eligible residents are registered to vote. Our office works hard each and every day to ensure that every Alabamian is able to register to vote and has access to some form of government-issued photo ID. It is beyond foolish to pretend as if we still live in the Alabama of 1965. I completely agree with Chief Justice John Robert’s observation that “no one can fairly say (the record] shows anything approaching the ‘pervasive,’ ‘flagrant,’ ‘widespread,’ and ‘rampant discrimination that clearly distinguished the covered jurisdictions from the rest of the nation in 1965.” If H.R.4 is enacted, then every state in the Union will be treated as if they were the “covered jurisdictions” of 1965 and placed under the authority of unelected federal bureaucrats. In fact, H.R.4 goes beyond the requirements of the original preclearance regime by requiring that all states seek approval from the Justice Department for certain voting practices regardless of whether they are discriminatory or if the state has met any other criteria for preclearance coverage. The goal of “practice-based preclearance” is obvious. Congressional Democrats want to cater to their far-left base by overturning current state election laws and stop any state from enacting future election integrity legislation in the future. H.R.4 is an attempt to outlaw Voter ID laws and other similar election security measures. Despite the fact that ID laws maintain widespread public support, the Democrats continue to claim that ID laws are discriminatory against minorities. However, the public disagrees. According to Rasmussen, 69% of African Americans support voter ID laws, and the Atlanta Journal Constitution also found that two-thirds of Georgia voters support voter ID laws. As John Adams famously said, “Facts are stubborn things,” but it does not appear that any amount of factual evidence will stop the congressional Democrats’ attempt to manufacture a crisis for their partisan agenda. Democrats continued to push this narrative despite the fact that Alabama increased participation in every primary and general election since 2016. The disparities of 1965 are not the realities of 2021, and congressional Democrats should stop refusing to acknowledge that fact. I encourage every concerned Alabamian to reach out to Senator Richard Shelby and Senator Tommy Tuberville and ask them to stop this unconstitutional federal takeover of our electoral system by congressional Democrats. If you would like to make your voice heard, please call Senator Shelby’s Office at (202) 224-5744 or Senator Tuberville’s Office at (202) 224.4124. John Merrill is currently serving as Alabama’s 53rd secretary of state.
