FTR filling up

The list of topics for this week's FTR is filling up quickly. The Montgomery Advertiser's Markeshia Ricks will be back from covering the Inauguration of President Barack Obama, and that will be a major topic (of course)...there's a new poll out on gambling; Democratic State Senator E.B. McClain was convicted late Wednesday in a kickback scheme, and on MLK day, the Alabama GOP issued a news release* that brags about the party's civil rights record. This FTR is one of the last...airtime 9:00pm on Friday. * ALGOP Honors Dr. Martin Luther King, Renews Diversity Committment Birmingham, AL -As we pause Monday to reflect on the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the Alabama Republican Party renews its commitment to diversity within our Party, and reflects on the noted fight that Republicans. Noted for his support for the 1954 Brown v Board of Education decision, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower pushed to pass the Civil Rights Acts of 1957, sending troops to Arkansas to desegregate schools - a measure opposed by many Democrats. Republicans were also more than instrumental in drafting key legislation that forever changed our nation, as Republican Senator Everett Dirksen wrote the language for the bill extending the 1965 Voting Rights Act, as well as the 1968 Civil Rights Act which prohibited discrimination in housing. Rep. Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn), Chairman of the Alabama Republican Party released the following statement regarding Dr. King and the Republican Party: "Dr. King's courage to be the voice of a people when it was not very popular shows just how strong he was a man, as a Christian and that he was willing to pay the ultimate price in the name of equality and fairness. His impact on our country will forever be felt, and while his platform was more about people than politics, I am proud that our Party stood with him time and time again as champions of civil rights. Today, I renew the Alabama Republican Party's commitment to diversity, both within our Party and our State, and commit that our Party is not one made of like individuals, but rather a group of individuals from all walks of life, bound together by our core values and common belief in small government, lower taxes, strong military, bringing an end to class warfare, the sanctity of marriage and equality of life at conception, birth and beyond." ### Paid for by the Alabama Republican Party * P.O. Box 55628 * Birmingham, AL * 35255