Filed under: Blogs, Economy, Politics, Progressive | Tags: Alabama PACT, PACT
PACT was marketed as a way to pay for a contract. Intentionally and systematically. There are still official descriptions out there that say it’s a way to prepay college tuition. Exhibit A. I ‘m proud of that one. Normally, I would cross-post it, but I’m out of steam.
I have enough additional evidence for at least two more posts on the marketing. It just piled up on me while I was trying to get a grip on the organization and finance and politics. Important to get all this evidence where we can see it, and it’s something to do while I am working on pulling the timeline together.
Hoping I’ll be able to catch up with e-mail and Facebook and pay a visit to Save Alabama PACT soon.
Also hoping to get to the point that I can pay more attention to what friends and bloggers who are on my regular reading list are up to.
Filed under: Blogs, Economy, Politics, Progressive | Tags: Alabama, Alabama PACT, Alabama Prepaid Affordable Tuition Fund
No way to know how many people will make it, but I’m staying tuned to Left in Alabama.
A few quick links to get you through the day. Included:
Talking accountability and AIG with Dean Baker at FDL
Tammy Bruce Calls the Obamas “trash.”
Even more things that are sure to enlighten and enrage you at The Sideshow.
Bonus Youtube – ends abruptly, but oh-so-sweet while it lasts:
Filed under: Blogs, Community, Politics, Progressive, Suggested Reading | Tags: Alabama, gratitude
The happiest moment of my checkered blogging career so far.
Just discovered it last night. Still recovering from the happiness.
I am forever grateful.
Just found this one, too. So multiply what I just said by 1000.
Filed under: Blogs, Community, Politics, Progressive, Suggested Reading | Tags: Alabama
. . . and we intend to keep it.
So, Blue Girl stopped by and told me about They Gave Us A Republic, a soapbox community where she’s doing a lot of her work now. And silly me for not paying more attention to the “Blogaround” feature on her sidebar.
Check it out! I did. I decided to move Blue Girl, Red State down to the Big Blogroll and make They Gave Us A Republic to a Recommended blog.
I like this group of bloggers for a lot of reasons. Not the least of which is that they save me tons of time with things like the Nightowl Newswrap and thoughful posts on international issues that I would be writing about myself if I weren’t so busy with some things a little closer to home.
Still covering that Alabama college saving fund debacle. That means I’m gonna have to post most of my good stuff at Left in Alabama and Correntewire at least through early next week. Looking for more info about this money, and especially old documents. If you have either of those, do let me know.
One of my favorite bloggers. And I know it hasn’t been all that long since she last posted. But she stopped right when I came back. It is a little disconcerting to see the place so empty. Right before I last fell off the face of the earth, several people were posting over there.
Best wishes to you all. Hope everything’s A-OK.
I’ll be making a few changes to the blogroll here soon. The most obvious (and I hope, useful) will be the addition of a separate categories for blogs and orgs that cover hate groups — especially white supremacists — full time.
In the meantime I’ve added Folo, which features a Mississippi blogger; The Snake Pit, an Alabama blog with activist aspirations, and vibinc, a Tennessee blog I discovered through Cotton Mouth, to “Southern Voices.”
Since my old friends at Cotton Mouth have closed up shop 
I’ve given their place in the “Recommended” category to the very deserving Birmingham Blues.
I’ve also added Mississippi Political to the Hubroll. Though it isn’t specifcally devoted to the Hub City, I find it valuable for keeping an eye on Mississippi politics, and it is a very inviting site. It has a page devoted to Mississippi politicians who have associated with the Council of Conservative Citizens.
Filed under: Blogs, Personal | Tags: baseball, Manny Ramirez, Red Sox, sports
Conversations like this one make me think of my childhood. They also make me think of summer, my favorite season.
My birthday is near the end of the dog days. Once it comes and goes, sunlight grows scarce, and the obligations of the holiday season begin to weigh upon me. I spend a fair amount of my time from that point until the middle of March wishing for spring to hurry up and arrive. Because once spring arrives, summer is just around the corner.
Lots of good things happen in the spring, of course, but one of my favorite springtime events is the beginning of baseball. I long for the day when the times we live in are so uninteresting that I have nothing better to do than write a book about baseball (I have it all planned out; just no time to do actually do the research and the writing).
So here’s a little slice of spring-to-summertime: Manny Ramirez’ 500th home run, which he hit last May at Camden Yards. Think what you will about Manny. He is one fearsome slugger, and I miss having him on my favorite team.
Hope all you baseball fans have a great season, no matter who you root for. The way things are going, we could certainly use one. There are many, many, great baseball blogs out there. If you’re into Boston, Survivng Grady and Joy of Sox are awesome places to lurk.
Soxlosophy is incomparable. Jonah is a baseball blogger after my own heart, and baseball really wouldn’t be the same without his contribution. So I am hoping he intends to have another go this season.
Filed under: Blogs, Depression, Economy, music, Politics, Progressive, Suggested Reading
Looks like that excellent bartender, Billmon, is back (and, thankfully, doing his best to help us understand our economic problems).
Filed under: Blogs, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Iraq, Politics | Tags: Bush/McCain, Republican war on human decency, torture, war crimes
There’s been some discussion lately about how to get people outside the blogosphere to engage the torture issue. The NYT had an editorial on torture recently, and Tristero is wondering what sort of laws we might pass to prevent this from happening again. I don’t have an answer to that, because we already have laws to prevent it from happening. Seems to me that the trick is to elect people who will interpret the laws we have according to the standard meanings of words, and severely punish government officials who break the law.
Here’s a way we might bring the issue to the attention of a large audience, though. Make this song by the thoroughly talented Max and the Marginalized a hit:
H/T Melissa
Edit by Buelahman, who has a YouTube Channel.
Max and the Marginalized have 28 more songs.
Filed under: Blogs, Economy, Iraq, Mississippi, Politics, war | Tags: Alabama
Glynn Wilson plants a revolutionary garden.
Mooncat has several excellentlinks in the morning roundup at Left in Alabama, including a short film by an Iraq veteran at the Haze Filter.
The Clarion Ledger reports five tornadoes hit central Mississippi on Friday.
Here’s a quick roundup of blog posts I’ve been able to locate on the event.
Kathy Rhodes writes about the experience of her son, who lives near Jackson.
The Acropolis has more detailed information from the Jackson area and some helpful phone numbers.
Folo says Arkansas and the Vicksburg area also took a lot of damage.
Shadowscope has video.
That’s about all I can find at the moment.
Bloggers: Is it just me, or is Google’s blog search becoming more useless by the day?
John Emerson has a few excellent questions about this week’s Basra attack.
Every time I go over to Seeing the Forest I leave with the feeling that I don’t read it nearly enough.
Filed under: Blogs, Civil Liberties, Iraq, Mississippi, Politics, Religion, Surveillance State, war
I discovered two new Mississippi blogs today.
Left-handed Leftist was at the protest today. If you want to see a genuine pic of me, head over there and give me a look. I’m the goateed guy in the last two pics, in the blue shirt and the jaunty hat.
Vjack from Mississippi Atheists stopped by early this morning and left a comment. Hooray, Freethinking!
I’ll have a post on government surveillance at Left in Alabama and my own protest pics up later tonight.
For you readers in or near the Hub City, the next protest will be the first Wednesday of May, and Drinking Liberally! will be at Keg and Barrel beginning at 5:30 on April 10.
