Letters

Old Shell eatery among best

To the editor:

Love the paper, every time I’m in town I scoop one up quickly and indulge myself with its contents!

I noticed recently that you were asking to be told where to eat. Well, let me say that I travel extensively for business and have been to fine dining restaurants and dives from New York City to San Francisco, Waco, Texas, Atlanta Ga., Nashville -you get the point – and to me the best kept “secret” if you’d even call it that any more in Mobile has got to be by far a place on Old Shell Road known as Queen G’s Café.

Excellent – the very best seafood in Mobile, really kind and attentive servers and the best sweet tea and cornbread – just like my grandmother used to make us on Sundays for dinner. If you don’t get there and quick to enjoy some of that fantastic cuisine you are really missing out on something special. I’ve had homemade chicken and dumplings and the shrimp Creole they have on Fridays, well it’s dream material. Get down there and check it out, hopefully I’ll be reading about it in your paper soon!

Sincerely

A fan and lover of great food

S. Fitzinger

Memphis,TN

Kudos on King

To the editor:

I loved your piece on Troy King. Very well researched and written. I learned a lot. Thanks.

One thing to also know is that just about every criminal defense lawyer in Alabama despises him because he ordered overhead payments taken away, which hurt a lot of solo attorneys that have families to support.

Thanks again.

Perry G. Jackson

Birmingham

A Toland fan

To the editor:

I really enjoyed your article about Tim at the city council meeting (Toland, Aug. 29-Sept. 11).

I’m sorry to hear that your mother is in so much pain but you really made your point on that issue about feelings and needing to express oneself through music.

I’m a fan of yours and just in case you didn’t know it: you make one guy out here smile every time he reads your column.

Brad T. Johnson

Fairhope

Iraq comments rankle candidate

To the editor:

Excuse me? Did Congressman Jo Bonner actually say those “dadgum reporters” at Associated Press took him out of context when he was quoted saying, the “patience of the American people has worn thin” on the Iraq war? OK. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, he was taken out of context – whatever that context may have been. Then what was the context when he told Lagniappe, “I think the American people have grown very frustrated with the lack of overall progress” in Iraq? Sounds like the same thing to me.

Even so, the real question is, “Has Jo Bonner grown impatient or frustrated with the lack of progress in Iraq?” I have. And what’s more I’ll tell you the context of that statement. Quite apart from the nominal progress on the President’s troop surge that General Petraeus reported to Congress last week, what the American people-Democrats and Republicans alike in the First District-want to hear from the President and his man in Mobile, Jo Bonner, is: “Where do we go from here in Iraq?” What’s the exit strategy? More than 3,700 Americans have already come home in body bags and as many as ten times that number have been maimed or otherwise wounded in Iraq. When does the blood letting of American troops end and the drain on our military capability and national treasury stop?

The frustrating fact is that the Iraq war has been going on longer than World War II, and we are no closer to an exit strategy today than when it started four and a half years ago. The fact is, as General James Jones, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, indicated in an Independent Commission Report to Congress two weeks ago, the President’s surge strategy will not work nor will U.S. military efforts to secure and stabilize the Iraqi people be successful unless and until there is political reconciliation in the national government in Iraq. And that situation seems to worsen by the day.

Even if by some act of God political reconciliation were to happen, according to General Jones, it would take at least another three years before the Iraqi military would be ready to begin to stand up and allow our troops to stand down.

I pray daily for their safe return and support the troops wholeheartedly, BUT, if sectarian reconciliation doesn’t happen soon – certainly by the end of the year – then the minimal troop withdrawals recommended by General Petraeus should be just the start of the kind of phased, organized troop withdrawal many military experts have been saying is in the best interests of our country.

But then again maybe Jo Bonner is finally sensing America’s discontent with the lack of real progress in Iraq. That is, if he wasn’t misquoted or taken out of context when he told Lagniappe, “I think that where the country’s frustrations are showing is with the political leadership in Iraq and, in fairness, it’s probably showing with the political leadership in America, as well.”

Well, in fairness, Joe Bonner, in or out of context, can bet his congressional seat in the next election that’s how the vast majority of Americans feel about the leadership failure in the White House and in Jo Bonner.

Benjamin Lodmell

Candidate for Congress from Alabama’s First District

Indigent defense stat corrected

To: The Editor

Thank you for your time in responding to my questions regarding your recent article, and allowing for me to clarify and correct information that was sent to you in May. As we discussed, the court in which a case is heard is routinely reflected by the initials of the judge or specific court. In this regard, and to correct our error, please be advised that the initials “MDC” represent cases heard in the Mobile Drug Court, not by Circuit Judge Rosemary D. Chambers.

With this correction, please understand that Circuit Judge Rosemary Chambers primarily hears domestic relations cases not requiring the appointment of indigent defense counsel; and that Attorney Deborah McGowin represents a number of indigent defendants in the Mobile Drug Court “MDC” pursuant to contract.

Accordingly, I ask that you make any necessary corrections in relation to your recent article addressing indigent defense in the Mobile circuit and district courts.

K. David Sawyer

Alabama Office of Courts

Montgomery

Editor’s note: AOC records provided to Lagniappe incorrectly stated that cases listed under the heading MDC were heard by Circuit Judge Rosemary Chambers. That mistake caused us to print that Judge Chambers assigned a large percentage of her indigent cases to McGowin when, in fact, those assignments came from Mobile Drug Court. Unfortunately the error was unavoidable as it was improperly listed by AOC. We hope this clarifies our July 4 story on indigent defense appointments.

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