It’s nice to know a week of sitting on a beach in Mexico didn’t make things around here seem any more sane.

I returned from six days of vegging out in Cancun to find out the bowtied-but-still-wild world that surrounds former Circuit Court Judge Herman Thomas hasn’t been lazing about in my absence. In fact, it seems like somebody’s been into the tequila.

First was a story that broke in The Mobile Beacon’s June 10 – June 16 issue, stating that the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus has issued a resolution asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Mobile District Attorney John Tyson in particular and Alabama in general for the prosecution of prominent black politicians like Herman Thomas and former Prichard Mayor Jesse Norwood.

The Press-Register followed with an article about the resolution this past Sunday. According to the P-R article, at least two local members of the Legislative Black Caucus say they didn’t know about the resolution prior to its signing. Rep. Joseph Mitchell, D-Mobile, and Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile both said they weren’t told about this resolution that purports to “put John Tyson Jr. and the entire state of Alabama on notice.”

In Figures’ case it’s especially sensitive since her son Akil is one of Thomas’ alleged victims. Akil Figures is currently serving a drug sentence in a federal prison.

Now I understand we have a representative form of government and that from time to time the idiots in society need representation too, but this even pushes that concept a bit far. Since most members of the Black Caucus seem to have been smart enough not to put their names on this blithely stupid resolution, we can at this time only pin it to Chairman Rogers, who I’m sure has a fantastic handle on exactly what’s happening in Mobile County, seeing as he hails from Birmingham.

We tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with Rep. Kennedy, but Buskey did own up to knowing about the resolution, though he kept the smelly thing at arm’s length when it came to ownership. In fact, from what Figures told Lagniappe’s reporter, it seems many members of the Black Caucus weren’t even aware of this ridiculous resolution.

Let’s face it folks, Alabama’s just chock full of corrupt public officials right now – white, black, Democrat and Republican. Hell, there may even be some who are Native American, Hispanic and Pacific Islander. Don’t know about that yet. The only thing I’m sure of is there is plenty of corruption and it knows no ethnic bounds.

For anyone in the Legislative Black Caucus to essentially take the position that all prominent black folks are prosecuted in Mobile County in particular and Alabama in general because of the color of their skin is only believable if you think black people never commit crime. I’m sure Chairman Rogers and company would love to believe that, but it’s a tale akin to believing if your tooth falls out you should put it under your pillow and a fairy will come along and leave you a fancy new iPhone on your nightstand in the middle of the night. It also comfortably indemnifies them from any future legal problems, should any arise.

If it weren’t so completely tiring to hear these predictable cries of racism over and over, they’d be hilarious because they’re so illogical. One can only suppose Rogers thinks that with an African-American president in the White House, the Justice Department might look more favorably upon such resolutions. Somehow I imagine they’ve got better things to do. The fact that they already passed over Herman Thomas crony Vicki Davis for the local U.S. Attorney’s position, even after she was placed at the head of a short list for selection, suggests this Justice Department is going to do its homework. (I can’t help wondering if her involvement as a prosecutor in the Akil Figures drug case even though she’d accepted campaign contributions from Vivian Figures while running for judge helped scotch her nomination? We may never know.)

Maybe Chairman Rogers and his friends on the Black Caucus think this is what their constituents want, but I can’t imagine the average black voter wants black corrupt officials to get away with bad behavior any more than white voters want corrupt white officials to get way with bad behavior. Stop the race-baiting Rogers and worry about upholding the law.

The second bit of Hermie-based silliness to confront me when I came back north of the border was a P-R story about anonymous fliers being put on people’s cars outside of churches. I’d known the story was coming for several weeks, but it finally landed on the front page last Sunday seeming to offer the impression this is a rather new phenomenon, even though the fliers have been making the rounds for at least the past two or three months.

(It was interesting in the P-R story that Herman’s attorney “Cowboy” Bob Clark said he’d never heard of them. I was handed one at least two months ago. Cowboy needs to get out of the pasture more often.) In general they are single sheets stuck under windshield wipers that purport to tell the truth about Herman Thomas and the conspiracy to put him in jail. Quite frankly, as they contain so much obviously inaccurate information and were anonymous, we never thought the fliers were worth a story, especially since it seems their basic goal is probably to taint the jury pool anyway.

Perhaps the most notable thing about these fliers is that whomever is jamming them under people’s windshields apparently didn’t have the common sense or decency to stay away from the recent funeral of Mobile Police Officer Brandon Sigler, whose service took place at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in midtown Mobile recently. Officer Sigler was tragically shot while working security at Tyler Ridge Apartments June 2. From what I understand a number of people were not too thrilled to get the pro-Hermie fliers at Officer Sigler’s funeral.

It is awfully disrespectful to this young man that people trying to think about him and the good things he did in his life have to be distracted by Herman’s alleged spanking and sexcapades with prisoners. Well done anonymous leafleteers.

It’s enough to make one want to go back to a beach somewhere South of the Border….