(Last time this diary will be at top of page. Hope all who can will attend. Looking a person in the eye can really improve our ability to communicate. See you all there. - promoted by piggieheart)
We're having a PARTY!!!
As you may have noticed, piggieheart and countrycat have been busily planning a holiday party, slated for late afternoon Saturday, shading into evening, in Montgomery, AL.
If you expressed interest in attending on the previous party threads youshould have received an email within the last few minutes with (practically) final details. One or two folks who didn't express any interest may have received one too, possibly because we think your conversation is fascinating and are dying to meet you ... We'd love to see everyone there, but totally understand some folks have other committments on a Saturday afternoon in December.
Anyway, if you missed the previous party threads, this is your chance to sign up. Leave a comment below or email me at mooncat at leftinalabama dot com.
I just had to ban a long list of IP addresses associated with advertising spam. It's unlikely, but not impossible that some of our legitimate users may have been inadvertently caught. If your user account no longer works, please email me -- mooncat at leftinalabama dot com.
As a reminder, this is a political blog, it is not a forum to sell iPod speakers, plus size tops or bottoms, mobile homes, websites, bail bonds or anything else except possibly political candidates and causes! And if you paid someone for a "how to boost your page rank" list that told you to come to Left in Alabama, sign up for an account and put a link in your profile, I'm sorry but you were swindled and hornswoggled. Total waste of money for you, big headache for us. Please take it up with the snake oil salesman who sold you the list.
However, if you're here for great conversation about Alabama politics, please do sign up for a user account and let us hear from you. And if you have any problem with registration, drop me a line at mooncat at leftinalabama dot com and I'm sure we can work it out.
LiA is about to undergo some remodeling. Dardango has created a new, truly kickass, logo for us and the rest of the blog needs some sprucing up to go with it. You know how new curtains make the carpet look tired and if you replace the carpet that old sofa just looks ratty ... and pretty soon you've redone the whole place? That's where we are.
Major changes are in order for the sidebars too. Some things will go away, never to reappear. Others will move. What sidebar items do you like/use and what would you love to kick to the curb? Speak soon, or it will be too late. Blogroll suggestions are welcome, too.
Bear with us over the next day or two -- hopefully the mess will be entirely cleared away and we'll have a shiny new place to blog by Monday.
Congrats to all the fine Alabama bloggers who made the list and many thanks to all y'all who voted for LiA ... especially those of you who did so without being asked. And yeah, there are some equally fine bloggers in this state who didn't make it, probably because their readers don't read The Fix. It's not on my daily must read list either but I'll happily accept the publicity.
Consider this fair warning. We're being upgraded tonight so if you're hanging out here between 2 am and 5 am Tuesday you may notice some strangeness. They tell us everything should be invisible to users -- LiA will just go to sleep on servers in a Red State and wake up on servers in a Blue State. Sounds like heaven.
Anyway, if things look funky try and leave a descriptive comment. If it's so funky you can't leave a comment please email me -- mooncat at leftinalabama dot com. I probably can't do anything but it will give me a nice early morning blood pressure spike -- who needs caffeine?
PS: Look for a nice diary about grocery tax hypocrisy in the morning -- originally planned for tonight but I'm not risking the weirdness.
I try not to obsess over blog traffic -- you have to write about topics you believe are important whether it brings in a lot of eyeballs or not -- but the Alabama prepaid tuition (PACT) mess is a happy example of an important topic that also has tremendous online interest. LiA saw a significant increase in daily traffic almost as soon as Kay Ivey's March 6 letter started making news (see graphic below) and the continuing story has generated significant interest even outside Alabama. As geno very properly noted earlier, our PACT coverage received a prominent link from Eschaton (to one of countrycat's PACT meeting reports) and also one from The Sideshow. Many thanks to Avedon for those links which are responsible for the big traffic spike last weekend -- we averaged 3 hits per minute for the entire 24 hour period Sunday. Many thanks also to the folks at Corrente for putting several of geno's excellent PACT posts on their front page to bring this story to a wider audience. And of course, a big shout out to Alabamians Ken Gamble and havealittletalk for digging deep into the PACT documents and making sure nothing stays buried for long.
The Alabama PACT mess directly affects about 50,000 enrollees, most with 2 parents and at least 2 grandparents, so figure it's an important issue for a minimum of 200,000 voters. As some political experts noted recently, these PACT family members will be voting in the 2010 election:
Jess Brown, a political scientist at Athens State University, said the more than 48,000 families participating in the prepaid tuition program are the kind of people who plan ahead, value education and likely vote regularly. For politicians, that’s a group not to be ignored.
“I think they underestimate how much wrath you can get out of those households,“ he said Monday.
Brown and David Lanoue, chairman of the political science department at the University of Alabama, said the tuition plan’s participants would be significant in a primary election.
Could that be the reason Alabama legislators and 2010 hopefuls are finally starting to talk about the state's "moral obligation" and formulate plans to make sure the PACT enrollees have their opportunity for a higher education? Yes, it could. That explains high interest within the state of Alabama, but why are people from across the country clicking through to LiA to read PACT stories?
The Alabama Republican Party recently voted, by a narrow margin, not to kick Jefferson County Commissioner Bettye Fine Collins out of the party. Were they being open minded or mindful of her connections? John Archibald's column is a great read.
And while friends are great, a fearsome family is better.
For if Bettye Fine Collins' name sends shivers down some backs, the name of her brother can make politicians full-on sweat.
Want higher wages for Alabama workers? Surprise, surprise, surprise! Some don't.
A locally owned business wanted to offer their Workers significantly more than the minimum wage, but a major factory owned by an out of state company caught wind of it and the local chamber of commerce was instructed to strongly discourage that employer from paing the higher wage because it would cause financial problems for the big factory which was in the same sector of the economy
This is what the front page of the Huntsville Times looked like yesterday. Plenty of outrage that the Economic Stimulus plan passed with only 11 hours notice. Of course, members of Congress had been debating the darned thing in some form for a couple of weeks. Do you suppose they expressed the same degree of outrage the morning after the Patriot Act was rushed through Congress?
We made it through another Friday the 13th (first of 3 this year) so go ahead, celebrate and do something nice for yourself or someone you love. The blog will still be here on February 15th!
Isn't it nice of Hershey's to wrap their kisses in Left in Alabama purple foil this year? Dark chocolate inside, too. YUM.
Do you enjoy this blog? Want to keep it? Soapblox is the software that runs Left in Alabama -- it enables us to have promotable user diaries, nested comments, all the neat features you see and some you don't. We almost lost Soapblox Wednesday, which would have meant the end of this blog and of many, many other progressive political blogs like Pam's House Blend, Swing State Project, Open Left and most of the 50 State Blog network.
LiA never went down (purely the luck of the server draw) but countrycat used up her entire month's download allowance (satellite internet service, you know) snagging a backup of our files. Even that wouldn't have done much good if Soapblox had gone under under since I don't have the technical smarts to build a website to read and display all that stuff. Which is the beauty of Soapblox; somebody else takes care of the technical details so bloggers like us can spend our time on producing content. It puts the power of the internet in the hands of anyone with something to say. For instance, I had a couple of interesting blog posts planned for Wednesday, but the Soapblox is toast event changed my priorities pretty quick -- save the blog first and write next week, you know. Antiacid and painkiller time for sure!
Clearly, Soapblox is a key piece of progressive infrastructure that is just too important to fail. Government bailout? Not bloody likely since bloggers tend to be a thorn in the side of politicians of both stripes. No, we need to bail out Soapblox ourselves, in the true progressive fashion: small donations and lots of them. Paul Preston, who developed Soapblox and has been running it in his spare time, has submitted a plan to correct the problems hackers exploited on Wednesday and get Soapblox on a firm, sustainable footing. Chris Bowers and BlogPAC have stepped up to the plate with a fundraising drive to raise the $17,400 for immediate improvements and to find long term funding so this can be Paul's full-time job, as it should be. He's built something very useful and ought to be able to make a modest living off it.
(since January 08, 2009)
BlogPAC has a history of supporting state bloggers -- they've been generous enough to pay LiA's hosting fees for 2007 and 2008. I went into this enterprise intending to pay that $15 per month out of my own pocket so I am now making a recurring contribution of $15 per month to the Save Soapblox ActBlue account. I urge anyone else who can afford it to please give either a onetime contribution or a small recurring contribution today. Send in a contribution to save Soapblox now!.
On the right side of the political spectrum there are millionaires and wealthy foundations who support their infrastructure. For a variety of reasons the left does not have that luxury so we have to do this the old fashioned way, $5 or $10 bucks at a time. I think we're stronger for it.
Thanks to all of you for reading and joining in the conversation here at Left in Alabama. We hope the holiday season (any holiday you choose to celebrate) is filled with joy and hope for a bright future.
Aside: The tiny aluminum tree in the photo has been part of my Christmas celebration almost as long as I can remember. My mother bought it in December, 1963 at the Ben Franklin store on Choctaw Avenue in McAlester, Oklahoma. Chances are our family couldn't really afford it, even though it is quite small, but I was a sickly kid and I probably cried. The blue glass ornaments were purchased at the same time and are all intact. Amazingly, the angel at the top is still servicable even though she is only made of small gauge pipe-cleaners and paper. No planned obsolescence for those nineteen-sixties ornament makers! I'm relating this as a reminder to make memories with the people you love whenever the chance arises. -- mooncat
We don't ask much from our readers but once a year we -- I use the term loosely since it's really the BlogAds folks -- do a survey of prove to advertisers the kind of top notch, well educated, hot demographic people who read this blog. It's easy and only takes about 10 minutes of your time (5 if you hurry) and it really helps us convince advertisers that we have an audience worth paying (a very reasonable rate!) to reach. We know we're the crème de la crème of online readers, but these demographics folks are picky and want everyone to actually click on the link and take the survey once a year. If you've already taken the blog reader survey at another participating blog you won't have to answer all the questions again; the survey will end right away after you click through because it remembers your answers from the other blog.
Thanks a bunch. We appreciate your help with blogads -- the money isn't much but it pays the blog-rent. BTW, if you ever find yourself in need of a blogad, please contact me and I'll make sure you get the special local rate -- even better than what we charge Yankees and furringers.
Just for fun, GenderAnalyzer will analyze any website and make an "educated guess" as to whether it's written by a man or a woman. I guess it's tough with a community blog -- multiple authors and so forth -- but I still think their LiA guess diverges considerably from reality. Maybe it's all the guys writing comments.
We think http://www.leftinalabama.com is written by a man (81%).
I find it pretty hard to guess the gender of bloggers -- was convinced Digby was a guy right up until I saw her photograph.
After begging for months, WVNN talk show host DaleJackson has at last been banned from Left in Alabama. The magic words were "Kill them!" Yesterday BenGoshi, a valued member of the Left in Alabama community, wrote and posted a diary alerting this site to the Skinhead/Neo-Nazi plot hatched to mass-murder African-American children and assassinate Senator Barack Obama.
Regular members of this community know that we invite readers to add their 2 cents in the comments under each diary. Implicit in the unwritten rules of blogging is that when commenting in someone else's diary, a person is bound by a certain code -- again, unwritten and usually laxly enforced -- which strongly suggests "Thou shalt not throw-up (in all senses of the word) comment after comment for the purpose of derailing the flow of virtual conversation or taking said conversation down a rabbit trail away from the gist of the diary proper." DaleJackson has repeatedly violated this (unwritten) rule -- in other words he is a serial hijacker of comment threads. Which is annoying, but isn't necessarily a bannable offense, IMHO.
However, DaleJackson's first comment on BenGoshi's post about the plot to assassinate Senator Obama and murder dozens of children was "Kill them!" Did he mean the would-be terrorists or Sen. Obama and the schoolchildren? I don't know and I don't care. That kind of violent rhetoric may play well on the radio but it's definitely beyond the pale in this community. Over the course of the evening I polled the other editors and administrators of this blog. They were evenly divided with some adament that DaleJackson's abhorrent and despicable contributions were excessively disruptive and others just as adament that his comments here provide an illustrative window on the intolerance and divisiveness that consumes too much of talk radio programming. No one felt that he was what the Hopi call a "valuable man" or made any positive contribution to the progressive conversation. At best, DaleJackson is a model of what we do not want to become.
So the deciding vote rested with me and I've long felt that DaleJackson's contribution to this community was entirely negative. He might have made 3 or 4 amusing comments early on, but the essence of his activity has been to attack other members of this community who are valuable contributors. He has repeatedly called the rest of us "morons," "idiots" and "liars" and has treated us to the worst display of foul language ever exhibited here. Don't click that link if you have tender sensibilities or if you hope for well reasoned argument. He regularly distorts the words of other bloggers, apparently just for the sake of argument. DaleJackson claims to attack everyone equally and that's one claim he seems to live up to -- I suspect he just enjoys a fight, any fight and is happy to start one if he can't find one. The only tool in his box is a wedge for splitting people apart. Hammer, nails, screws, glue and other fasteners are far more valuable tools for getting things done. Folks here are no longer interested in Dale's brand of divisive political discussion which borders on pure entertainment. We are hungry to exchange ideas and information, understand different points of view and find common ground. That is how we will make progress, which is what progressives are interested in after all.
DaleJackson's contribution(?) here has been to distract us from the truly important things we ought to be working on and discussing. He hasn't been a valuable member of the community, but as he hijacked thread after thread he's had a disproportionate influence in directing the discussion and he made sure to direct it in unproductive ways. I don't like to ban users and I've been very patient in this case, but I'm sure DaleJackson can find plenty of people to attack elsewhere and we'll make much more progress without him.
We haven't done one of these for a while, but what do y'all say to a get together this weekend? Ben Goshi has reminded me that it's tons of fun and valuable to make our connections in-person as well as online. I know it would be great to get together for some face-to-face conversation before the election, but Sunday afternoon is about the only time that works for me.
I'm thinking maybe around 2 o'clock, somewhere in the Huntsville vicinity. Drop me an email (mooncat at leftinalabama dot com) if you'd like to join us and I'll keep you informed of the particulars. Location suggestions are appreciated.
It consisted of a press release from the Greg Shaw campaign, posted in it's entirety, without commentary. In a nutshell, it was free media for Shaw. (Here's the URL, for those who are curious: http://www.judgegregshaw.com/go.cfm?do=inform.news)
You seem to misunderstand the nature of this blog. We are not an open message board -- we are a blog for progressive politics. The name LEFT in Alabama should give you a hint that we are a partisan, Democratic leaning site. I'll give you another hint -- there's a blog called Right in Alabama. You should take your campaign propaganda for Greg Shaw and post it there.
Sincerely,
The Management
PS: Please pass this message on to your soulmate, Alex so that he too will take his propaganda where it might be welcome, because it isn't welcome here.
Last week WHNT Channel 19 in Huntsville interviewed Countrycat about this blog and her upcoming trip to Denver for the Democratic Convention. She's a great representative for LiA and the progressive community in Alabama.
Left In Alabama touts itself as a community blog for progressive politics. However, Thomason say they don't always skew left. She says her bloggers are quick to question elected leaders in all parties.
"When we say we're a progressive Democratic blog, that doesn't mean that we march in lockstep with either the state or the national party," Thomason said. "We kick candidates around and elected officials if we don't like the work that we're doing, so we're kind of more watchdogs than the national media is, than the national media is allowed to be."
"One of the reasons that we founded Left In Alabama was to put the spotlight on local Alabama politics," Thomason said. We try to talk about our state judicial candidates, our county candidates, because if you think about it, within the next 20 or 25 years, the people who are going to be leaders in the state and in the nation are the people who are running for tax assessor right now in the counties. And the way you develop the party and the way you develop good progressive candidates is by getting them in office at the local level, and letting them get the seasoning they need to run for higher office. And if we can help with that, if we can help just not get more Democrats, but what we would think of as better Democrats, then we've really done our job."
WHNT has also posted the video in case you missed it last Friday. Go to the link above and click on the little video camera icon right below the headline. Vote in their Vice Presidential opinion poll while you're there, too. And if the video doesn't work, go to their Elections page and use the player on the right; the Left in Alabama video is near the top. WHNT is becoming the local go-to news organization for political coverage in the Huntsville market.
As for Countrycat, the traditional media loves her: I spoke with her about noon and she said the Wall Street Journal interviewed her this morning about Left in Alabama.
Countrycat won't tell you herself, but she was interviewed by WHNT News Channel 19 in Huntsville yesterday and the segment is set to air this evening at 5 or 6 pm. This came about because Claire Aiello, WHNT's web content manager, was interested in Left in Alabama's coverage of the upcoming Democratic Convention. We've given them permission to link to our convention posts -- they plan to link to right wing bloggers during the Republican Convention, too -- so we will probably have some new readers next week.
Countrycat is a great representative for the progressive movement in Alabama and I can't wait to watch the interview. Don't forget to set your TiVo if you're headed out this evening -- I don't have one but maybe WHNT will post the video on their website.
We have banned someone today, not something we have ever needed to do before and certainly not something any of us enjoy, but the editorial staff felt there was no other choice. Left in Alabama is not a free for all to spout whatever offensive rantings spring from your mind directly into your keyboard -- think before you post! Don't repeatedly post false information here. Don't post racist or anti-semitic rants, bad language or name-calling here. If you feel a need to write offensive screeds, get your own website.
Left in Alabama is a community blog for progressive politics. We welcome discussion of news, ideas and progressive/Democratic politics in general. If you choose to participate in the conversation, and we hope you will, please be respectful of your fellow bloggers. Finding common ground is so much more useful than dividing people.
We also had to delete a diary this morning -- another first. Left in Alabama is not an appropriate place to advertise "car loans for bad credit" or any other business. Free enterprise is wonderful but you, too need to get your own website. This one is for progressive politics, not car loans.
Now, y'all play nice, don't call each other out by name and let's try to get along and have some productive discussions.
Two weeks from today Barack Obama will accept the Democratic nomination for President before 80,000 people at INVESCO Field at Mile High in Denver, culminating 4 days of activity at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Left in Alabama will be represented by an absolute Dream Team of Alabama bloggers. You were introduced to three of these intrepid souls a couple of days ago -- Countrycat, BenGoshi and Susan in Denver -- and now the unfortunate vacancy on our team has been filled by ... drum roll please ... normboyd40! He'll be fully credentialed for both the Big Tent and the Pepsi Center too, so very little will escape the Boyd's Eye at this shindig.
There's a short bio of all four Left in Alabama Dream Teamers below, but at this point I need to mention a painful fact. Last minute travel to Denver is not cheap. In fact, all these bloggers are incurring considerable travel expenses to cover the Convention for the benefit of those of us here at home. I hope the Left in Alabama community will chip in to help normboyd40 and the others defray some of their travel expenses. Norm posts wonderful essays here just about every day -- if you appreciate his efforts and those of Countrycat, BenGoshi and Susan in Denver please chip in a few dollars if you possibly can. There's a Chip-in Widget right over there. To those who have already contributed, I want to say thank you so much. Your support and kind words make this blog possible.
Countrycat:
Countrycat, personid number 14, has been part of Left in Alabama since the very beginning. I'm proud to tell you that she will be leading LiA's Denver team. She's a 7th generation Alabama native and a die hard Democrat who even has her own donkey (George the Ass) along with 7 cats, 2 dogs and a pony. In addition to the Democratic Party, she's active in her religious community and the Alabama ACLU.
By day she is a self-employed Web content writer and search engine optimization consultant. Now you know why her posts are so easy to read and why she's the first person I call when I end up in HTML Hades.
She has volunteered for Democratic campaigns from George McMillian's run for Governor in 1982 to the present. She and her daughter went to New Hampshire during the 2004 primaries and travelled to Iowa this past January to work for John Edwards -- she blogged about that trip! Countrycat at a political event is completely without shame in her singleminded determination to make the front row, ask the question, meet the candidate, etc. and has an impressive collection of "trophies." In her own words:
That led me to pre-Presidential primary New Hampshire in 2000 (where I met Al Gore so many times, each time telling him: "I came here from Alabama to work for you!" that he remembered me at the victory party, shaking my hand, and pointing: "Alabama!" he exclaimed.) My "trophy" case includes: autographed books by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, handshakes/coat touches from: John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, Joe Lieberman (shudder), Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Wes Clark, Bill Bradley, Don Siegelman, Bill Baxley, Walter Mondale, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, John McCain (I impersonated a Republican at his Concord, NH rally in 2000 and got interviewed by an Australian TV crew as a McCain supporter), and maybe more I can't think of.... In New Hampshire in 2000, I got my picture in the paper TWICE on the same day holding signs for two different candidates at different rallies. In one, I was shaking hands with Bill Bradley and in the other, I was holding a McCain sign.
If it's possible to get in or get closer, she'll do it -- and now she has a video camera, so smile Denver, you're about to be on YouTube!
BenGoshi
BenGoshi was one of my favorite writers at DailyKos long before I realized he is a fellow Alabama resident. He's now a Contributing Writer at Left in Alabama and will be blogging and imaging the Democratic Convention for YOU, his loyal readers back home. Although he was born in Virginia, his parents have Alabama roots and moved the family back to Slocomb, Alabama when he was just a lad. Since graduating (more than once) from Alabama, he's lived in Japan (in '84 and '90-91) and still travels there several times a year on business. In recent years he has also traveled to China and India, primarily focusing on alternative energy, fuels, medical devices and high/nano-tech.
He's always been a Democrat and used to do a LOT of campaign work, but got burned-out by insider politics, pettiness and the proclivity of the "climbers" to care more about social status than electing and supporting Democrats. Grassroots/netroots activity is where he's at nowadays and this will be his first Democratic Convention.
BenGoshi is an accomplished photographer and I just know he's going to send us stunning images of the Convention and surrounding action in Denver. He's also planning to share a unique, international perspective on the Democratic nomination and the presidential contest -- he'll tell you more about that later. So get ready for photos, international flavor and the best snark in the blogosphere, because BenGoshi is in the house!
Susan in Denver:
I'm absolutely thrilled that Susan in Denver-- some call her SuperSusan --will be blogging the Democratic Convention for Left in Alabama. She hails from Marshall County, Alabama where she’s part owner of "the best-sounding small market radio station in the country", FUN 92.7. Susan comes from a long line of Democrats and is a committed Democratic activist herself. Her first big campaign was for McGovern and she hasn’t slowed down since. She started covering city council meetings for the local paper at the tender age of 15, even before she earned a journalism degree. Beginning as a commercial copy writer in radio, she moved to St. Louis and made Ray Hartmann rich at The Riverfront Times, one of the top 10 alternative newsweeklies in the country, and well-respected for investigative reporting before Hartmann sold out to the Village Voice. Still in St. Louis, Susan also worked at St. Louis Magazine and became the first female manager hired at the Post-Dispatch. She’s been in Alabama for over 10 years and is active in her local community, as well as the Democratic party.
Susan is a longtime lurker and sometime commenter at Left in Alabama and has been helping out behind the scenes for several months as a researcher and political consultant. She’ll be putting her radio skills to good use in Denver, broadcasting her morning show live from the Big Tent!! Even if you aren't in the FUN 92.7 listening area, you can listen live online as Susan broadcasts from the convention. She'll also be blogging about what it’s like to attend a Democratic Convention for the first time. That’s right boys and girls, in spite of a lifetime of Democratic activism, this is Susan’s first convention. I'm pretty sure she’s excited about it and I know she has some great interviews lined up and will be sharing highlights of those with the Left in Alabama community every day.
Normboyd40:
Our 4th Convention Blogger is Contributing Writer normboyd40 -- famous for his witty, progressive posts taking malefactors to task under the Boyd's -eye View banner. Now living deep in the heart of Jo Bonner's Congressional District, his passion to make Alabama a better place to live and work belies the fact he's only lived here 4 years. Norm loves to blog -- his son introduced him to it -- but claims to be a struggling beginner when it comes to anything computer-related. I'm a bit skeptical of that beginner claim because he embeds hyperlinks like a pro and keeps asking me if I have something called Skype -- isn't there a vaccine for that?
In case you haven't noticed, normboyd40 is a rabid Progressive Democrat and he brings a bit of empathy to dealings with those who don't see things just exactly his way. Those of you who were here for the primary season will remember his early support for Hillary and the doubts and misgivings he shared with this community as he edged toward Barack as Hillary began touting John McCain's experience. And who can forget his great posts castigating Republican Jo Bonner and introducing us to his prospective opponent, Ben Lodmell, or his heroic efforts to drag someone, anyone into the AL-01 race after Lodmell dropped out? That's a grassroots, activist Democrat, folks.
When normboyd40 isn't blogging, he spends his free time acting and directing plays, and growing a phenomenal cucumber crop. In the true love thy neighbor as thyself spirit he has shared the fruits (vegetables?) of his labor with all his neighbors in Atmore, where retail pickle sales are down over 50% this summer.
All you folks better behave yourself in Denver, because the Boyd's Eye will be watching you -- and blogging about it, too!
The Democratic Convention will be in full swing in less than 2 weeks and Left in Alabama bloggers will bring you all the action, live from Denver, Colorado. We received press credentials as part of the general blogger pool and we also have credentials for the blogger's Big Tent facility, just outside the Pepsi Center. Today I want to formally introduce y'all to our Denver team.
Countrycat:
Countrycat, personid number 14, has been part of Left in Alabama since the very beginning. I'm proud to tell you that she will be leading LiA's Denver team. She's a 7th generation Alabama native and a die hard Democrat who even has her own donkey (George the Ass) along with 7 cats, 2 dogs and a pony. In addition to the Democratic Party, she's active in her religious community and the Alabama ACLU.
By day she is a self-employed Web content writer and search engine optimization consultant. Now you know why her posts are so easy to read and why she's the first person I call when I end up in HTML Hades.
She has volunteered for Democratic campaigns from George McMillian's run for Governor in 1982 to the present. She and her daughter went to New Hampshire during the 2004 primaries and travelled to Iowa this past January to work for John Edwards -- she blogged about that trip! Countrycat at a political event is completely without shame in her singleminded determination to make the front row, ask the question, meet the candidate, etc. and has an impressive collection of "trophies." In her own words:
That led me to pre-Presidential primary New Hampshire in 2000 (where I met Al Gore so many times, each time telling him: "I came here from Alabama to work for you!" that he remembered me at the victory party, shaking my hand, and pointing: "Alabama!" he exclaimed.) My "trophy" case includes: autographed books by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, handshakes/coat touches from: John Edwards, Elizabeth Edwards, Joe Lieberman (shudder), Howard Dean, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Wes Clark, Bill Bradley, Don Siegelman, Bill Baxley, Walter Mondale, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, John McCain (I impersonated a Republican at his Concord, NH rally in 2000 and got interviewed by an Australian TV crew as a McCain supporter), and maybe more I can't think of.... In New Hampshire in 2000, I got my picture in the paper TWICE on the same day holding signs for two different candidates at different rallies. In one, I was shaking hands with Bill Bradley and in the other, I was holding a McCain sign.
If it's possible to get in or get closer, she'll do it -- and now she has a video camera, so smile Denver, you're about to be on YouTube!
BenGoshi
BenGoshi was one of my favorite writers at DailyKos long before I realized he is a fellow Alabama resident. He's now a Contributing Writer at Left in Alabama and will be blogging and imaging the Democratic Convention for YOU, his loyal readers back home. Although he was born in Virginia, his parents have Alabama roots and moved the family back to Slocomb, Alabama when he was just a lad. Since graduating (more than once) from Alabama, he's lived in Japan (in '84 and '90-91) and still travels there several times a year on business. In recent years he has also traveled to China and India, primarily focusing on alternative energy, fuels, medical devices and high/nano-tech.
He's always been a Democrat and used to do a LOT of campaign work, but got burned-out by insider politics, pettiness and the proclivity of the "climbers" to care more about social status than electing and supporting Democrats. Grassroots/netroots activity is where he's at nowadays and this will be his first Democratic Convention.
BenGoshi is an accomplished photographer and I just know he's going to send us stunning images of the Convention and surrounding action in Denver. He's also planning to share a unique, international perspective on the Democratic nomination and the presidential contest -- he'll tell you more about that later. So get ready for photos, international flavor and the best snark in the blogosphere, because BenGoshi is in the house!
Susan in Denver:
I'm absolutely thrilled that Susan in Denver-- some call her SuperSusan --will be blogging the Democratic Convention for Left in Alabama. She hails from Marshall County, Alabama where she’s part owner of "the best-sounding small market radio station in the country", FUN 92.7. Susan comes from a long line of Democrats and is a committed Democratic activist herself. Her first big campaign was for McGovern and she hasn’t slowed down since. She started covering city council meetings for the local paper at the tender age of 15, even before she earned a journalism degree. Beginning as a commercial copy writer in radio, she moved to St. Louis and made Ray Hartmann rich at The Riverfront Times, one of the top 10 alternative newsweeklies in the country, and well-respected for investigative reporting before Hartmann sold out to the Village Voice. Still in St. Louis, Susan also worked at St. Louis Magazine and became the first female manager hired at the Post-Dispatch. She’s been in Alabama for over 10 years and is active in her local community, as well as the Democratic party.
Susan is a longtime lurker and sometime commenter at Left in Alabama and has been helping out behind the scenes for several months as a researcher and political consultant. She’ll be putting her radio skills to good use in Denver, broadcasting her morning show live from the Big Tent!! Even if you aren't in the FUN 92.7 listening area, you can listen live online as Susan broadcasts from the convention. She'll also be blogging about what it’s like to attend a Democratic Convention for the first time. That’s right boys and girls, in spite of a lifetime of Democratic activism, this is Susan’s first convention. I'm pretty sure she’s excited about it and I know she has some great interviews lined up and will be sharing highlights of those with the Left in Alabama community every day.
Opportunity:
Our 4th Convention Blogger was going to be Melissa of WriteChic, also a frequent contributor here. Unfortunately, life has stepped in and the chance of Melissa getting off work long enough to go to Denver is now vanishingly small.
But, Melissa's bad luck can be your opportunity. We have paid the (nonrefundable) fee for 4 Big Tent credentials, which include free food, wifi, air conditioning and beverages for the whole week. Are you (or someone you know) already planning to be in Denver and willing to do a little blogging for us? Send me a short message explaining why you would be the perfect person for our 4th Convention blogger -- mooncat at leftinalabam dot com.
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As you may have noticed, 
After begging for months, WVNN talk show host 
We haven't done one of these for a while, but what do y'all say to a get together this weekend? Ben Goshi has reminded me that it's tons of fun and valuable to make our connections in-person as well as online. I know it would be great to get together for some face-to-face conversation before the election, but Sunday afternoon is about the only time that works for me. 
Last week 
Countrycat:
BenGoshi 
Our 4th Convention Blogger is Contributing Writer 
Our 4th Convention Blogger was going to be 
