From Al.com: “U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile, announced Thursday that, effective Aug. 15, he was resigning the congressional seat he’s held since 2003 for a new job at the University of Alabama System.”

Former gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne is among those considering running for the soon-to-be open seat.  At the time of this writing, Governor Bentley hasn’t yet set a date for a special election.  Stay tuned.

So reads the title of a recent op-ed at a Left wing website, truth-out.org.  The piece takes us back to the halcyon days of the Johnson administration, when public broadcasting was heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

“When public broadcasting in America was first established, the intent was that Congress would provide funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which would in turn divide that funding up among the various public television and radio stations across the country.

“This worked great for years.

“The Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio brought educational programming, and independent news and political analysis to millions of Americans.”

But then along came Reagan, who slashed funding for PBS and NPR, leaving them beholden to corporate donors like (gasp!) the Koch brothers.  “Independent news and political analysis” is now, bemoans the editorial, a thing of the past.  PBS, for instance, yanked a story about money in politics entitled “Citizen Koch,” because the story was unfavorable to the Koch brothers, and, PBS feared, might cause the Kochs to stop donating to public broadcasting (they’ve given $23 million to public television over the years).

It’s worth noting that, according to Matt Lewis at Politics Daily, over the last ten years, the Kochs, in addition to giving money to libertarian causes, have given more than $600 million to charity, the arts, and education, including:

“New York-Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell: $15 million

M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: $25 million

The Hospital for Special Surgery: $26 million

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center: $30 million

Prostate Cancer Foundation: $41 million

Deerfield Academy: $68 million

Lincoln Center’s NY State Theater: $100 million

Massachusetts Institute of Technology: $139 million.”

But, you see, those are private dollars, and, thinks the editorial board at truth-out.org, necessarily bad.  The piece concludes by saying that “It’s time to take back our public airwaves, and cut-off the corporate and billionaire control over them, so that David Koch and his buddies don’t get to choose what you watch on TV.

“And the only way to do that is to fully fund public radio and television.”

Funding Big Bird or not won’t make or break the bank, but the notion that government spending is necessarily good and free of corruption explains perpetual trillion-dollar deficits.

…this gem from Joe Davidson, writing in The Washington Post: “It’s not fair, but it is inevitable — and understandable — that Lerner’s refusal to answer questions gives the impression that she has something to hide about her involvement in the targeting.”

Poor, poor, Ms. Lerner.

It’s his story and he’s sticking to it.  The relevant part of the clip starts at 1:38.

During his take-the-nation’s-mind-off-of-scandal foreign policy speech today, the President resurrected his pledge to close Guantanamo Bay.  At least one member of Code Pink wasn’t buying it:

Charles Krauthammer said as much on Special Report tonight:

The story is from ABC News.

So Obama HAS killed Americans, says the New York Times: “President Obama plans to open a new phase in the nation’s long struggle with terrorism on Thursday by restricting the use of unmanned drone strikes that have been at the heart of his national security strategy and shifting control of them away from the C.I.A. to the military.

“In his first major speech on counterterrorism of his second term, Mr. Obama hopes to refocus the epic conflict that has defined American priorities since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and even foresees an unspecified day when the so-called war on terror might all but end, according to people briefed on White House plans.

“As part of the shift in approach, the administration on Wednesday formally acknowledged for the first time that it had killed four American citizens in drone strikes outside the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, arguing that its actions were justified by the danger to the United States. Mr. Obama approved providing new information to Congress and the public about the rules governing his attacks on Al Qaeda and its allies.”

Our own Jeff Sessions was recently called a racist by kook columnist Dana Milbank in The Washington Post.  His offense?  Opposing amnesty.

“Not since George Wallace,” Milbank begins, “has an Alabamian taken as passionate a stand for a lost cause as the one Jeff Sessions is taking now.”

The column is offensive to Senator Sessions and to Alabamians in general.  The good news is that our star Senator is undeterred.

When The Huffington Post continues to frown upon the administration’s scandals, things are awry.

This is worth reading.

The Huffington Post isn’t happy about the administration’s decision to pick on Fox News.

Yes, The Huffington Post.  This is the scandal (the media one) guaranteed to bring the administration down.

CNN reports that the Tea Party’s favorable rating is up nine points since CNN’s March poll.  Read all the details here.

You be the judge:

The Huffington Post may even be outraged.

Senator Tom Coburn might sound heartless, but his focus on eradicating profligate spending has passed the crucible of credibility on this.

From Roll Call: “The tornado damage near Oklahoma City is still being assessed and the death toll is expected to rise, but already Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., says he will insist that any federal disaster aid be paid for with cuts elsewhere.”

State Senator Arthur Orr will be calling into the show tomorrow night with a wrap up of the legislative session.  In the meantime, you can follow any breaking developments here.

The column is from The Albany Tribune.  The book on the subject to read is Mark Stein’s America Alone.

Granted, it took blatant hard-to-ignore examples for Piers to figure it out, but we welcome him aboard the trolley of self-evident truth:

From Al.com: “Gov. Robert Bentley today cautioned that legislators ‘had better be listening to the people’ regarding private school tax credits saying most people do not favor public money going to private schools…

“’I would like to encourage the House members, as well as the senators, to reach out to their constituents and just ask them one simple question. Are you in favor of tax dollars going to support private education and being taken away from public schools? And just ask them that question. I know what the answer is,’ Bentley said during an interview in his office.”

The premise of the question is flawed.  Who would be taking away tax dollars from public schools?  The answer is, any parent who isn’t satisfied that her local public school isn’t educating her child.

School choice tax credits are part of the Alabama Accountability Act, which Bentley signed into law in March.  Now he wants the tax credits deferred for two years.  According to the story, “He said that will give schools time to improve under a policy ‘flexibility’ provision of the law and possibly avoid the ‘failing’ label.”

Competition, not tax dollars, will help failing public schools improve.  The Governor ought to know that.  He sounds as though the AEA has gotten to him.