Filed under: Community, Economy, Politics, Progressive | Tags: activism, Alabama, Alabama PACT, Alabama Prepaid College Tuition Program, PACT
Much better and more complete contact information than I’ve got, including phone numbers for most board members, is here.
And check out this phone list, too. Looks like state legislators to me.
You’ve got one day — TODAY! to call or e-mail these people and tell them to to hold up their end of the deal.
So. If you’re concerned about what’s going to happen on Tuesday, better get it done.
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.
Filed under: Community, Economy, Media, Mississippi, Politics, Progressive, wake up | Tags: Alabama, Alabama PACT, PACT, Torches and Pitchforks
Countrycat has an eyewitness account and her first video from yesterday’s hearing on the Alabama college saving program. Pure dynamite. She does a beautiful job capturing the fear and loathing that the citizens who are on the receiving end of this fiasco have for their government. And the unmitigated contempt that the few board members who bothered to show up have for the unwashed masses.
The citizens of Alabama really showed their quality yesterday.
They are connecting the dots:
More than once, I heard the meeting referred to as “just for show” or, more entertainingly, “just like a meeting in North Korea.”
They are anxious to attend the board meeting, and they see right through the pseudo-democracy:
So, as we were getting hustled out of the place, parents were shouting questions to the moderator about where the March 24th board meeting would be, what time it would start, etc. etc. He said that hadn’t been decided yet, but it would be posted on the Web site.
Some of the older people protested that they didn’t have Internet access, so how would they find out? Watch TV or read the papers. NOTE: the Huntsville Times announced the event yesterday morning and it was buried in the middle of a page in the Local section.
They agree with my irresponsibly speculative analysis, too:
They don’t trust the board, the Legislature, or the Governor to do anything to fix this mess and many people said openly that they thought this was just a show trial to shut people up long enough for the board to shut down the program.
I cannot do this justice. You must read the whole thing.
We are not done with this.
Cross-posted at The Mighty Corrente Building.
Filed under: Community, Politics, Progressive | Tags: Alabama, Alabama PACT, PACT
I’ve got this in a diary over at LiA, and I’ve been e-mailing and dropping links to it all nite. May as well post it here. The reason I’m doing this is that the meeting tomorrow is the one chance people who are affected by this are going to have to get connected enough to address this issue as an organized group, should that become necessary.
Time to step back and hope enough networking gets done at that meeting to do some good.
If we decide next week that we’re going to need further action to get the answers on this, we need two things:
- The best contact list of PACT participants we can get. If anyone is able to do this is, do not post it online under any circumstances. It just needs to be in the hands of trustworthy people so that they can send messages. It will need to be used very judiciously.
- As many people as possible to know that there are a few people here at leftinalabama.com (just google it!) covering this.
The meeting is our only opportunity to get this done. It will not take very many people to make a credible effort.
If I were going to this meeting. If I thought further action on this were warranted. If I were angry about the way this is being handled, and had questions that weren’t being answered.
Here is what I would do.
I would go prepared to exchange contact information with people.
I would go prepared to give them a web address where they could go to make contact with people who are working on this.
I would do my best to chat afterward with people who believe further action is warranted.
The auditorium will clear out at 4. No idea what the area around the church looks like, but there must be a parking lot.
Do not forget about your right to assemble peaceably.Your freedom of speech is not much good without it.
Do not fixate on the decision makers and speakers to the point that you forget about the other people in the room.
Board meeting on the 24th. That’s a window of opportunity to reach out to people who are affected. To get more information from the documents. To work the media.To schedule time off.
The people who set up this meeting would like everyone to agree that it is adequate. They don’t get to make that call, unless the People allow them to.
Doing my best to keep us in a position to attract attention if a big story develops from this.
(If I could manage it, I would try to arrive early and locate a few citizens who might be willing to spread the word during the meeting. Sometimes you get lucky. And I have a LOT of free time coming next week.)
Filed under: Community, Economy, Politics, Progressive | Tags: activism, Alabama
Just an update on the Alabama college saving program fiasco I wrote about yesterday.
The details of the public meeting on this are being released on short notice. It’s on Thursday, and the location still hadn’t been announced as of this morning. Honestly, this is looking like there’s going to be a railroad-job decision, and everyone who put money in “just made a poor investment decision,” and “had their chance to have their say at the public hearing.”
No time to get to the bottom of the finance fiasco – trying to do some political work with a limited window of opportunity.
Working to motivate some folks to go to the meeting, get some cameras there, and ask some questions. We do hope to get to the bottom of this eventually, and political consequences are important.
I’ll post updates as I have them in case anyone is following along, or is interested in things like this. This is real political life in the Deep South, and on the small blogs. We do not get opportunities to work on issues that have such an immediate effect in peoples’ lives every day.
Thanks to all who took the time to check this out.
Cross-posted at Correntewire
Filed under: Civil Liberties, Community, Human Rights, Iraq, Progressive, war | Tags: activism, peace, solidarity, unions
The longshore workers are shutting down all the ports on the West Coast for 8 hours on May 1. I’ll have a longer post about this tonight, I hope. Please pass this on!
Filed under: Community, Politics | Tags: collapse, emergency preparedness, survival
I have a post at Left in Alabama with lots of links to disaster preparation resources. The centerpiece is a guide to emergency preparedness that’s the equivalent of a 55-page handbook on preparedness.
If you’re not a member over at LiA, leave links to any websites or the titles of any books you have that might be useful in a long-term disaster situation in comments.
Filed under: Community, Mississippi, Politics, Progressive | Tags: activism, events, weather
Protest the War in Hattiesburg – First Wednesday of every month, Noon – 1 p.m. at the corner of Hardy Street and Highway 49. More information is listed on the United for Peace calendar. Even if you aren’t liberal or progressive, but you want the war to end or you think it should be a bigger issue in the Presidential campaign, here’s your chance to encourage a little unity on this issue. The next protest is Wednesday, May 7.
Drinking Liberally in Hattiesburg – Second Thursday of each month, 5:30-7:30 at Keg and Barrel, 1315 Hardy Street. I don’t know how many people attend this event, but I will be at the next meeting. More information is listed on the Drinking Liberally calendar. We also have Drinking Liberally chapters in Jackson and Natchez. The next meeting is Thursday, April 10.
Posting here will be light this weekend. I have to catch up on all the comments threads I’m trying to keep up with here and there. I’ll try and track down some info on the latest round of tornadoes as quickly as possible.
Filed under: Community, Elections, Iraq, Mississippi, Politics, Progressive | Tags: Alabama
I have further thoughts on getting it done at Left in Alabama.
And Mooncat has awesome McCaniac video.
Filed under: Community, Mississippi, Politics, Progressive, Strategy | Tags: activism, Alabama, New Media
Thanks to everyone who’s read what I’ve been saying here and at Left in Alabama over the past week.
You Left in Alabama folks ought to read the comments here if you want a little encouragement. We got a reader who makes phone calls!
I don’t think we have the support we need to go forward with the plan I had in mind in my last post. But, I’ll be sharing more with those of you who agreed to support it, and making a detailed plan for it. Once we have to people we need to do it, we’ll go forward. So be patient and keep the conversation going. I have to slow my pace a bit and start encouraging the relationships to form that we need to go forward. I’m proposing that everyone who’s in favor of forming a close relationship between Left in Alabama, Cotton Mouth, WriteChic Press, and Pine Belt Progressive to be sure and visit these sites and link to one another as often as you can. As we do this, we also need to bring other Mississippi and Alabama blogs into our coalition.
I also propose that everyone from these four blogs support three blogs which are not part of our community. I’m choosing these blogs for specific reasons. They do good work, and they don’t get massive comments. So if they pick up even four or five regular commenters who are coming from our community, they will notice. So comment there when you have time. Give them feedback on their work, and link to them when you can. If you don’t have time to support all three, become a regular commenter at the one you like best. It’s important to add value to their blogs and give them feedback. Once they get to know us and we get to know them, perhaps they’ll have things to share with us that might help us encourage the growth of our community. Here’s a list:
I’m also proposing that we do simple things to help one another out. Here’s a very simple thing: If you see a post with no comments on any of our four sites, leave one. It doesn’t have to be long. Posting a question is a good way to encourage a discussion to develop. Remember, it’s easier to join a discussion than to start one, and we want causal readers to get engaged. Use this thread to continue the discussion we’re having.
Update – See my diary on this at Left in Alabama, and my comment extending the invitation to the bloggers and readers of Cotton Mouth.
I’ll be around to catch up on comments on Sunday afternoon.
Filed under: Blogs, Civil Liberties, Community, Economy, Elections, Environment, Human Rights, Iran, Katrina, Media, Mississippi, Politics, Pro-Choice, Progressive, Strategy, war | Tags: activism, Alabama, New Media
If you want to be the New Media voice of the New Southern Left in Mississippi and Alabama you can be.
If you want a revolution in media affairs, right here where we live, you can have one.
Are you ready to show the nationwide progressive movement that we are just as committed to taking our country back as people in Philly and New York and L.A.?
I’ve got you’re compelling new media narrative, neatly framed and ready to roll. I’ve got your target audience. I know where to bring the traffic. I cannot release the story until I’m sure a few people are willing to trust me enough to say what I ask them to say and say it to the people I ask them to say it to. If enough people are willing to help, it shouldn’t cost anyone much of time or energy.
This moment is ours. If you want to join with me and seize it, leave a me a comment here and let me know you’re in. If you’re a registered Left in Alabama member, read this proposal, take the poll, and leave a comment.
I’m giving until it hurts here. I’m begging for support.
Left in Alabama? Cotton Mouth? WriteChic Press?
Alert Readers click links. They also leave comments and thank outstanding bloggers like MEC when they spotlight the issues we care about.
Filed under: Civil Liberties, Community, Mississippi, Politics, Progressive, Strategy, Surveillance State | Tags: Alabama
(there’s a nice song there)
Happy Friday!
Filed under: Blogs, Civil Liberties, Community, Human Rights, Mississippi, Politics, Progressive, Strategy | Tags: activism, Alabama
Welcome, Left in Alabama readers and other progressives! By now you’ve probably read what I have to say about getting organized to fight tooth and nail against movement conservatism in the south. I want you to think about this: Every dollar the GOP spends in Mississippi or Alabama is a dollar they can’t use in Florida or Ohio. So If we make them spend one more dollar in our states than they would if we weren’t here, we’re making a positive contribution.
Think of Left in Alabama as a progressive village struggling to survive in the heart of Red Nation. We want it to grow into a thriving town as quickly as possible. Think of Pine Belt Progressive as a tiny base camp from which to survey the landscape just beyond the horizon of the LiA village and choose the site for our next one. Right now they are connected by a tiny path. We need to widen that path into a road. Here is something easy we can do to widen the path, and what we all get out of it.
Lots of people are uncomfortable setting up accounts at internet sites, for a lot of reasons. I think Left in Alabama may have some readers who would comment if they could use a pseudonym in an open forum. Pine Belt Progressive can be a place for these readers to go and communicate with the writers in the LiA community.
Comments give a blog legitimacy. Blogs with empty comments threads look vacant, no matter how useful or well-designed they are. Casual readers are much more likely to comment on a post if they see a conversation already under way. They are much more likely to come back a second time if they get the idea that someone lives here and people are paying attention to what this blog says.
So, if you’ll come and comment on my work here to help me bring more Mississippians into the conversation, I will make a habit of featuring your best diary entries and discussions here in posts that also link to other blogs. That will get them out on the massive WordPress category indexes, and will allow people to find them with trackbacks. I will also use my diary from time to time to call LiA’s attention to useful conversations from the PBP discussion threads.
This is the first step toward developing a network of Alert Readers all across these two states who will help us find-tune our messaging and make the most of opportunities to take concrete, local action for positive change.
So here is my proposal: Drop a comment on this thread. Say nice things about Left in Alabama readers. Welcome Mississippians our larger community. Talk about how utterly cool Monkeyfister is. Or how insane John McCain is. Ask a question. Or say whatever clever thing is on your mind. Everyone has something to contribute. Your first comment will be moderated. After you have one comment approved, you’ll be free to post at will. I have to work this afternoon, so your initial comments won’t appear until this evening. Please drop a comment, and then check back tonight or tomorrow to see what sort of discussion might develop.
I cannot express how happy it would make me if one of you enterprising Left in Alabama bloggers published a response to me in your diary discussing the ideas I’m offering. It’s a good idea to train ourselves to have those sorts of exchanges. The more we write about this, the more likely people are to join the conversation.
Small steps, folks. It’s all about small steps. If we want the Constitution and the Republic to survive, we have to try and take a baby step every day.
____________________________________________________________
Suggested reading: Orwell’s Politics and the English Language is classic which speaks directly to the issues we’re struggling with today. It will teach you how to argue against conservative talking points more effectively and show you some things that will help you be more wise to the sorcery of the mainstream media. Forget what you learned about him in high school and read this essay in light of the conversation we’re having. If you’re familiar with it already, I suggest reading it again. If you’ve never heard of it, I suggest reading it, thinking about it for a few days, and reading it again. It has immediate practical application. It’s good fuel for comments. If you enjoy literature a much as you enjoy politics, you might even find a good topic for a blog post.
