National Guard troops may be needed in Alabama county

Some of you might remember the troubles of Jefferson County, and how they are going bankrupt because of a sewer system and tax cuts.
Now the 3rd-world price may about to be paid - machine gun carrying troops on the streets.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The sheriff in Alabama's most populous county may call for the National Guard to help maintain order, a spokesman said Tuesday, after a judge cleared the way for cuts in the sheriff's budget and hopes dimmed for a quick end to a budget crisis.

Circuit Judge Joseph L. Boohaker ruled that leaders in Jefferson County — now trying to head off a municipal bankruptcy filing of historic proportions — could go ahead with plans to slash $4.1 million from the budget of Sheriff Mike Hale, who had filed a lawsuit that temporarily blocked spending cuts for his office.

About 1,000 county workers already are on unpaid leave because courts threw out a key county tax, and Hale has warned that reductions to his budget would mean fewer patrols by deputies and decreased courthouse security.

A spokesman for Hale, Randy Christian, said the sheriff told Gov. Bob Riley after the ruling that state assistance may be needed to perform basic law enforcement tasks once the department's current funding is exhausted in early September.

"We will certainly be looking at calling in the National Guard," said Christian.

Hale may have to cut as many as 188 deputies and almost 300 civilian workers out of more than 700 employees total because of Boohaker's ruling, Christian said. That would leave just enough workers to staff the county's two jails, which hold about 1,000 prisoners on average.

Christian said the department couldn't close either jail or release inmates, but it would send as many prisoners as possible to the state prison system, which already is badly overcrowded.

Riley previously refused to declare a state of emergency in Jefferson County, which has about 640,000 residents and includes the state's largest city, Birmingham. But he hasn't ruled out sending in Guard members or state troopers if needed.

We aren't turning Japanese. We are turning Mexico.

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oh yeah

and there isn't a crisis going on here where Americans plain need jobs...

nope, move along, nothing to see.

One would think, considering this is in "red state country" some of these people would stop drinking the corporate kool-aid, disguised as "conservatism" (there are reports that the disruption in town halls on health care is corporate lobbyist funded), and start demanding some real change...

I mean it's beyond ridiculous, we have the battle of the corporate talking points painted red vs. the corporate talking points painted blue.

How do you find these things midtowng? This is yet another post where I, as site admin, see it and think some spammer or CT person "got through" the site security...only to discover the outrageous post is actually true!

If conservativism is a lack of change

Then I'd say that conservatives failed in the current economy, because things are changing mighty quickly.

Change for the sake of change does us no good. Progress for the sake of Progress will only lead to a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, and more Americans out of work.

Only changing the definition of progress will do the trick.
-------------------------------------
Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.

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Maximum jobs, not maximum profits.

The very conservative Bob Riley

wanted to increase the tax rate on the rich to pay for improving education and put it to a referendum. The people of Alabama said NO! in no uncertain terms, which oddly took him aback (he actually thought he had a chance) and he's gone vox populi vox dei. Train wreck time.

Let them rot

If they voted for McCain let them rot in hell and let them fend for themselves. The National Guard? that would cost us people in California tax money we need.

Let Alabama Rot????

I've got news for you, Anonymous Drive-By from California...

Did the post say the whole state of Alabama was calling in the National Guard? No, it said Jefferson Co., which is where the city of Birmingham is located. Do you know why the people of this city are having to scrimp and scrape for money? Because it's run by blacks who don't know how to do anything but pocket the money for themselves. The mayor was recently on trial, and so were many other elected officials. I would say our state is in the same predicament as the rest of the country because our President is black and he isn't doing any better a job at running the country.

So...I think the people who are gonna 'rot in hell', as you put it, are the ones who voted for the dumbasses running our country and our cities in the ground.

Whoa

I understand the anger at telling Alabama to go rot, but.....

seriously blaming it on black folks. Seriously...

This has nothing to do with race. It has to do with fiscal issues and an economic crisis.

You might want to consider taking the sheets off.

It is the 21st century.

oops

my bad, I didn't read the entire comment in the moderation queue.

Time to test the "hide comment" feature on EP then.

Somehow I thought that might have

happened, hence jumping directly to the nuclear option.

crap

still can see it, new bug (or this is why I haven't upgraded.....so much of the code I have to do myself....open source ain't all it's cracked up to be otherwise known as - what do you want trying to pay people 3k for 3 months of work, Google "summer of code" cheap asses?)