Heads and tales: The straight dope
By Wade Kwon
Stand by your man: What does Birmingham have in common with Utah, northwest Georgia, Idaho, the Florida Panhandle and Wyoming? It’s all Bush country, as far as the eye can see. Even with presidential approval ratings in the low 30s nationally, these six areas still show an above-50 percent approval rating. Said one Provo, Utah, Mormon, “I’m against the war in Iraq — and what happened with Hurricane Katrina, well, it was a failure by everybody. I tend to judge a person by their character. And President Bush reminds me of President Reagan. He’s a man of principle.” The muck stops here.
• All Polls Aside, Utah Is Keeping Faith in Bush [New York Times]
Power to the people: New voting machines in Jefferson County are enabling voters with disabilities to cast their ballots today. Before, they had to rely on assistants, sacrificing their privacy, but machines equipped with headphones, braille readouts and touch screens allow for unassisted voting. Now, if someone would help us decide between “money-saturated tool” and “bigoted crazy zealot” …
Also, ballot problems affected at least one Jefferson County precinct this morning.
• 14 handicapped-accessible voting machines to be tested [Birmingham News]
Mething around: Public organizations in Marshall County have banded together to film public service announcements about the dangers of meth. The filming included blowing up a house to show the risk of explosion in residential drug labs. We smell Oscar! Not an Academy Award — Oscar, our neighbor who runs a crummy meth lab in his tool shed.
• Meth film to make citizens more aware [Sand Mountain Reporter]
Also:
- It’s too beautiful a day to stay inside and vote
- AmSouth downtown headquarters to be turned into low-rent condos, homeless shelter
- Bar scene seems so trashy lately
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