The Legislature has been lobbied hard in recent weeks. We simply want this bill to come up for a vote, whereas the Legislature seems intent on letting it quietly die.
A press conference was held yesterday, one that was organized by Scott Beason and attracted some 350-400 supporters. I have a statement from one of the grass-roots organizers named Pam. She is also one of those lobbying Legislators over the past few weeks, and has a pretty good idea of where the bill stands. I now turn this blog over to her.
It was a LONG day today, but we have been making progress. Short summation for those not wanting the play-by-play: SB233 was allowed on the floor and is in the process towards a straight up or down vote. Also, the democrats had a meeting within their party, and the black caucus vowed to not let the bill pass. The white caucus told them to do what they needed to, but they were going to vote in favor of the bill. If this is true, we have the votes to pass it, which would make Alabamians the deciding factor.
Before I get into the specifics of the day, here is what is absolutely needed. Call in to your local talk radio shows and tell people about the success we had at the state house today. The democrats had NO idea how important this is and how we would respond. I cannot put into words how much of a difference your presence, phone calls and emails have made. I personally believe we would have had no success in this, but realize we had Lowell Barron vote in favor of putting the bill on the floor for a vote today, and even said that We The People need to have our say in how we choose our health care. Pleasepleasepleaseplease continue to call the statehouse and keep the pressure on. If you live in the Montgomery area and are able, come to the statehouse on Thursday and visit all the senators' offices, encouraging them to vote in favor of putting this on the ballot. Ask why this has not been taken care of yet, since they found a way to get bingo on the ballot. If you need phone numbers, let me know and I'll get them to you asap.
Now, for the juicy stuff.
News flash: Jim Folson, in my humble opinion, is an idiot. Kay Ivey stepped down from her campaign today for governor, and will instead run for Lt. Gov. If we have to put up with the men (and women) in the senate until a later date, we need someone in there who can a:) understand parliamentary procedure, b:) adhere to parliamentary procedure, c:) be fair to BOTH parties in their adherence to parliamentary procedure, and d:) hold our senate to a higher standard than is currently being done.
Bobby Denton (D), Dean of the Senate, of District 1 (Lauderdale and part of Colbert County) brought whatever is the diametric opposite of dignity to himself. When several members of one of the teaparty groups approached him in his office to discuss the health care bill, he ran from them and first, hid behind his secretary who told them to step back because they were scaring her, and then ran into his office, whereupon he peeked from behind his door to see if they were still there. Then, when the senate convened, he sang a song from the floor (he was inducted into the Music Hall of Fame, wow), and bragged/smirked about how he had hidden from the group, and then apologized about it. His disclaimer is that he has had a shunt put in his brain recently, and that he drove a long distance to come to Montgomery. Um, no, that won't work for me. This man has his profession listed as an educator. What??? If you are in his district, his address is 2206 Lisa Ave, Muscle Shoals, AL 35661, phone is 256-7449. His office phone is 334-242-7888. Share some love with him. Often. Just remember that his secretary was assigned to him.
Because some "key" senators were not at the state house when the session convened, shortly after Denton did his little routine, they adjourned for an hour. These key senators were necessary to force the bingo vote. Actually, what they did was to link this bill and SB233 together. So, of course this time our bill was able to see the light of day. Sort of. It took 2.5-3 hours before they voted on the bingo bill. The democrats filibustered for 1.5 hours so the republicans couldn't put any amendments on it. Then, when one of the repubs was talking about his concerns about the issue, a dem popped up on the other microphone and called for cloture in 35 minutes. The first gentleman in my discourse, Foghorn Leghorn Folsom, had no problems hearing over all the noise and set cloture for 6:15. The bill passed 21 for, 13 against. (I must mention that when Sen. Beason was discussing his opposition to the bill, he yielded the mike to another sen stating that he did not yield his time, meaning that he would get the floor back after that senator was done with what he needed to bring up. Folsom "did not hear" Beason, but it's all on tape. I would not like to be at the receiving end of a debate with Beason, I tell you what!)
Another really "special" person in the senate is Roger Bedford. He actually refers to himself as Roger Bedford, as in "when Gov. Riley would bring up tax increases, I just want to remind you that Roger Bedford voted against these raises every time", and in discussing the bingo bill, would comment that Roger Bedford was doing such and so. Highly curious, funny, and very ego-driven, at least to me. The first two times he called himself by his own name, I just shook my head. Then decided it would be worth going to every legislative day from now until he's no longer the senator from Russellville, just to keep a scorecard of how often Roger Bedford talks about Roger Bedford.
Anyhow, when the bingo bill passed, the dems (some of them, anyway) called to adjourn for the night. Foghorn Folsom tried to do so, but was challenged loud enough so even he heard. Roll call was 11 for, one pass and 20 against adjourning, so our bill was brought up. (Remember, you need 18 votes in favor to pass something.) Sen. Smitherman is really proud to show exactly how ignorant and racist he is, because he did so with great fervor, at great length. He took issue with the lack of respect being afforded to Mr. Obama, with how we're taking away health care from 1 million Alabamians in voting for the bill, and more. The best thing about his discourse is he made my brain shut down. Tonight's session was adjourned with the bill on the floor, so it's the first order of business on Thursday. I'm not sure if he could have misrepresented our bill any more than he did tonight. Regardless, it should pass--Beason is pretty sure he has the votes for it. Even Harri-Ann Smith (R in name only), who was in-your-face rude to one of our people when she found out we weren't there to support the bingo bill, told another one of us that she realizes voting for it is the right thing to do. We plan to be at the statehouse again on Thursday, so I will send out another update at that time.
We met a guy tonight who is running against Lowell Barron. His name is Shadrack McGill. I plan on going up there (Scottsboro?) during his campaign and helping all I can to get him elected. I hope your groups will also consider this. There are actually several candidates up against deeply entrenched Dems that we might consider spreading the word for. Because of possible issues, I will be doing this on my own, not as a member of Big Stick Patriots, so there is no suggestion of an endorsement.
It was a pretty stellar day today. We had between 350-400 people mobilize on short notice, in the middle of the day in a work week. Thank you for your actions, not only today, but for the past year. I spoke with the head of security for the state house, and he has only words of praise for the whole movement. You rock, you know! I'm honored to be one of this group.
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