Letter to Birmingham Business Journal

Birmingham Business Journal
2140 11th Avenue S., Suite 205
Birmingham, AL 35205

Dear Sir,

I am continuing to write in follow up to my July 18, 2014 email to you, which email can be found online here.

In that email, I quoted your editorial "Congressional Inaction Could Derail Recovery" from the "Viewpoint" page in the Business Journal's June 20, 2014 issue (page 19). In the editorial, you said, among other things:

Even the ongoing recovery is threatened by the fierce political divide that has taken hold in our nation....
As has often been the case lately, the primary culprit is Congress . . ..
The petty disputes in Washington must stop. Business leaders need to take an active role by supporting candidates who won't fall into the red vs. blue and Democrat vs. Republican debates.

That was six months ago. 

I am interested in what the Business Journal's thinking is currently, 

The 2014 elections have come and gone, and the Republicans have taken over the Senate and increased their majority in the House of Representatives. 

Have the concerns you expressed in June evaporated? Are you in a "wait and see" mode to determine whether you should continue to have your concerns?

I am continuing my campaign that Congress is broken and cannot do its job properly for the American people. My contention is that the broken condition is connected to our system of campaign finance. (If you have not read it, you should read Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig's short book Lesterland: The Corruption of Congress And How To End It.)

I have no information about whether the Birmingham Business Alliance has given any consideration to my communications to them (including most recently this November 26, 2014 email and this January 9, 2015 letter).

Congressman Palmer remains steadfastly silent to my knowledge. 

He has choices of things he could say, such as "there is nothing wrong with our system of campaign finance that warrants my attention and there is nothing my constituents should concern themselves about" or "there are things which call for my attentions as the Representative of the 6th district, and here is what I am urging (Congressman Palmer is supporting term limits I believe, and he could say, for example, that action about term limits is all that is needed)".

But Congressman Palmer won't say anything, to my knowledge.

Retired Congressman Bachus spent twenty years in Washington, and one would think he would have some informed views on this matter. I have no idea whether retired Congressman Bachus is willing to share his thoughts with the Business Journal, but you could ask him.

In all events, I am interested in what the Birmingham Business Journal thinks.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Rob Shattuck