Thursday, September 25, 2014

Mark Lester on special interest money

On September 10th, Mark Lester, the Democratic candidate in the AL 6th Congressional district, posted the below video of highlights from a press conference he held the day before about special interest money.

Please note Professor Lester's opening statement that, "The most important issue in this campaign is that Congress is broken, and one of the great reasons that Congress is broken is that it is awash with special interest money."

Highlights from Mark Lester's press conference on special interest money


r
WWW.YOUTUBE.COM


I agree with Professor Lester that "The most important issue in this campaign is that Congress is broken."

I have been trying to talk about this "most important issue" since February.

I encountered steadfast unwillingness to talk about it from all of the following: (i) Senators Sessions and Shelby and Representative Bachus (as well as the rest of the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington DC); (ii) the other six candidates in the Republican primary; (iii) the sponsors of and questioners in numerous 6th Congressional candidate forums; and (iv) local media and political commentators.

Currently, I am trying to get a local Symposium about the subject before Nov. 4th, having the suggested title "The Condition of Our Federal Government, Campaign Finance, and Freedom of Speech". See Extension of Solicitation of Symposium before Nov. 4th.

If there is anything you can do to help me get such a Symposium, please contact me.

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Just answer the question, Gary Palmer

Gary Palmer, is Congress broke?

Or is it not broke?

Can't you give the voters in the Alabama 6th Congressional district an answer on that question?

How can you go to Washington to serve the district if you can't tell the voters whether you think Congress is broke, or not broke?

So, Gary Palmer, just answer the question.

Is Congress broke, or not?


BACKGROUND FOR READERS

Gary Palmer knows what this is about. Many readers won't know so much, so let me fill them in.

I ran in the Republican primary election starting in February and ending on June 3rd.

Throughout my campaign I tried to ask these questions: 

1. Is Congress "broke"? How "broke" is Congress? (The word "broke" comes from Dale Jackson. I variously used the adjectives "broken","dysfunctional", "failed", and "kaput" to describe our Congress.)

2. If one's answer to the first question is "very" broke (or dysfunctional, or failed, or kaput), is there a diagnosis that can be made about reasons for the same?

3. If there is such a diagnosis, is there anything that can be done to fix (or significantly improve) the situation?

In my campaign in the primary election, I could not get any meaningful discussion by the other candidates about question 1.

The unwillingness to talk about question 1 also extended to: (i) Senators Sessions and Shelby and Representative Bachus (and the rest of the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington DC); (ii) the sponsors of and questioners in numerous 6th Congressional district candidate forums; and (iii) local media and political commentators.

With no answer being given by the other candidates or others to question 1, I could get no consideration of questions 2 or 3.

(Dale Jackson was an exception. Dale emphatically said Congress was broke, and he further said everyone agrees Congress is broke. Dale also gave a diagnosis that, "the electoral process lends itself to the stupidest people being played to , and that has failed us, money or not, and they will always pander to the rubes." See Dale Jackson says and listen to the podcast link.)

This campaign website documents fulsomely the foregoing. Here are a few key links:

So, reader, let me leave it to you to figure this out about why Gary Palmer probably won't answer the question.

Here's something, however, I consider worthy for you to consider.

Senator Shelby and Representative Bachus at least gave me a non-response response to the above referenced "open letter." Senator Sessions did not deign to give me even a non-response response.

If you go to Gary Palmer's Facebook campaign page https://www.facebook.com/PalmerforAlabama, you can check out Gary Palmer's September 18th timeline entry reporting the endorsement of Gary Palmer by Senator Sessions. My guess is that I have been entirely unspoken about between Senator Sessions and Gary Palmer, and Gary Palmer knows he need not bring up to the voters in the Alabama 6th Congressional district any idea about whether Congress is broke or not broke.

What do you think?

EDIT: Gary Palmer is going to be on Matt Murphy tomorrow morning. Please call in to Matt to make sure he gets Gary Palmer to answer the question I have posed.

UPDATE 9/25: Matt Murphy did not ask Gary Palmer the question this morning. I believe I have greater reason today (compared to yesterday) to think Gary Palmer will not answer the question. I think Matt has made a conscious decision that he will not ask Gary Palmer the question. I think the same is true for Dale Jackson and Richard Dixon. I have sent an email to a WAPI contact to confirm this about Matt, Dale and Richard, and that a fair inference is that Matt, Dale and Richard do not believe that an answer to the question from Gary Palmer is or could be of material interest to voters in the 6th Congressional district.


YOU TWEET TOO!

If you want Gary Palmer to answer the question, you should help me out.

I have sent a couple hundred tweets (such as the one you probably received), giving a link to this page. My page view counter says that (as of 9/27) I have had more than a 150 page views of this page, most of which have resulted from recipients of my tweets clicking on the link to this page.

I will keep on tweeting.

I alone cannot get Gary Palmer to answer the question. If others will tweet as well, possibly the number of page views will mount into the thousands, and Gary Palmer will be forced to answer the question.

It is quick and easy to send tweets, and you can probably send 50 tweets in 15 minutes.

Find a follower list for sending to followers on the list individually. There are many, many follower lists which can be used to send tweets.

Then, put the tweet message on your clipboard.   Start going through the follower list you have chosen.. Right click on a follower's twitter account, click the "tweet to _______" button, paste your tweet message in the box which pops up, click "send tweet" button, and close that follower's page. Go on to the next follower on the followers list you have selected.

For your tweet message, I suggest the message I am using, which is
Just answer the question, Gary Palmer.  http://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2014/09/just-answer-question-gary-palmer.html 
There are hundreds of follower lists you can choose from. Perhaps you want a follower list which will have some followers whom you know, such as the follower list for a school or church twitter account.

If you want some suggestions for follower lists to use, consider the following (approximate numbers of followers shown in parentheses).:

Kyle Whitmire:    https://twitter.com/WarOnDumb (6051)
John Archibald:   https://twitter.com/JohnArchibald (7848)
Joey Kennedy:   https://twitter.com/joeykennedy (4184)
Matt Murphy:   https://twitter.com/mattmurphyshow (4581)
Jeff Co. GOP   https://twitter.com/JeffCo_GOP/ (545)
Shelby Co. GOP https://twitter.com/ShelbyCountyGOP/ (8934)
Chilton County HS: https://twitter.com/ChiltonCountyHS/ (295) (a lot of students but they can pass info on)
Blount County Sports https://twitter.com/BlountSports (1593)
Run Gardendale https://twitter.com/RunGardendale/ (126)
Homewood Chamber of Commerce https://twitter.com/HomewoodChamber (2099)
Shelby County Sheriffs Office https://twitter.com/ShelbyCountySO (1692)
City of Fultondale https://twitter.com/fultondale (169)
Shelby County Reporter https://twitter.com/shelbycreporter (4987)
Over The Mountain Journal https://twitter.com/OTMJnews (924)
Village Living https://twitter.com/village_living (600)
Vestavia Voice https://twitter.com/VestaviaVoice (112)
Weld For Birmingham https://twitter.com/WeldBham (6296)
Birmingham Business https://twitter.com/business_bham ((7425) (most of B'ham not in 6th district)
Trussville Tribune https://twitter.com/TrussTribune (3272)
Vestavia Hils https://twitter.com/VestaviaHillsAL (1184)
Hoover Library https://twitter.com/hooverlibrary (739)
Mountain Brook Chamber https://twitter.com/shopmtnbrook/ (4461)

Suggestions: If a follower does not show tweet activity within the past couple of wees, I would skip that follower. I would not worry about precise geography. If location is Birmingham, I would say send a tweet. (The 6th district includes Blount County, Shelby County, Chilton County, and Bibb County. For Jefferson County, it includes, among other suburbs, Gardendale on the north, picks up Trussville, Irondale and Leeds on the east, and then the "over the mountain" Homewood, Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills, Hoover , etc.)  (Here is Map of the 6th Congressional District.)

Start sending your tweets, and I will keep you updated here on total page view of this page. Let's the voters send Gary Palmer a message he cannot ignore!

Saturday, September 13, 2014

What does the AL 6th Congressional district think?

[On Thursday, the U.S. Senate voted 54-42 to advance a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United case. This was a cloture vote, the needed 60 votes was not obtained, and there was filibuster.]



The Senate Tried to Overturn ‘Citizens United’ Today. Guess What Stopped Them?

Senator Bernie Sanders
Senator Bernie Sanders and Congressional Democrats calling for a Constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. (AP/J. Scott Applewhite)
A majority of the United States Senate has voted to advance a constitutional amendment to restore the ability of Congress and the states to establish campaign fundraising and spending rules with an eye toward preventing billionaires and corporations from buying elections.
“Today was a historic day for campaign finance reform, with more than half of the Senate voting on a constitutional amendment to make it clear that the American people have the right to regulate campaign finance,” declared Senator Tom Udall, the New Mexico Democrat who in June proposed his amendment to address some of the worst results of the Supreme Court’s interventions in with the recent Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission andMcCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decisions, as well as the 1976 decision inBuckley v. Valeo.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is that it’s going to take more than a majority to renew democracy.
Fifty-four senators, all Democrats and independents who caucus with the Democrats, voted Thursday for the amendment to clarify in the Constitution that Congress and the states have the authority to do what they did for a century before activist judges began intervening on behalf of wealthy donors and corporations: enact meaningful campaign finance rules and regulations.
But forty-two senators, all Republicans, voted no. As a result, Udall noted, the Republican minority was able to “filibuster this measure and instead choose to support a broken system that prioritizes corporations and billionaires over regular voters.”
The Republican opposition effectively blocked further consideration of the amendment proposal, since sixty votes were needed to end debate and force a vote. And, even if the Republicans had not filibustered the initiative, actual passage of an amendment would have required a two-thirds vote.
Though the Republican move was anticipated, Senator Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who has been one of the Senate’s most ardent advocates for reform, expressed frustration with the result. “I am extremely disappointed that not one Republican voted today to stop billionaires from buying elections and undermining American democracy,” said the senator, who has advocated for a more sweeping amendment to address the influence and power of corporate cash on American elections and governance. “While the Senate vote was a victory for Republicans, it was a defeat for American democracy. The Koch brothers and other billionaires should not be allowed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars electing candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful.“
Now, said Sanders, “the fight to overturn Citizens United must continue at the grassroots level in every state in this country.”
Sanders is right to reference the role of grassroots movements.
Four years ago, when the US Supreme Court removed barriers to corporate spending to buy elections, serious reformers said a constitutional amendment would be necessary to reverse the Court’s Citizens United ruling. Most pundits and politicians, even those who recognized the threat posed to democracy by the opening of the floodgates for big money, dismissed a constitutional fix as too bold and too difficult to achieve.
But the people embraced the constitutional route to reform. Grassroots organizing succeeded in getting sixteen states and close to 600 communities to formally demand that Congress act.
At the same time, the money poured in, with campaigning spending breaking records in the 2012 presidential and congressional elections—and heading toward breaking the record for midterm elections in 2014.
That was enough to shake up even the most cautious Senate Democrats, who began moving earlier this year to advance the Udall amendment. Though activists wanted a stronger amendment, the Senate deliberations confirmed that there is broad support for a constitutional response to the money-in-politics mess—and that a substantial number of senators now see that constitutional response as right and necessary.
“Less than five years after the Citizens United decision sparked national outrage, we have seen the movement to get big money out of politics go from local, grassroots organizing to a vote in the United States Senate,” explained People for the American Way Executive Vice President Marge Baker, who worked with activists from Public CitizenCommon CauseFree Speech for People and other groups to collect and deliver 3.2 million signatures on petitions supporting an amendment. “Today’s historic majority vote is a remarkable milestone for this movement and a platform for taking the fight to the next level. The debate in the Senate this week is a debate that Americans across the country who are passionate about fixing our broken democracy have wanted to see.”
With the DC debate done, for now, the fight goes back to the grassroots. Activists with groups such as Move to Amend, Public Citizen’s “Democracy is for People” campaign and Free Speech for People will continue to organize and agitate, not just for an amendment but for an amendment that makes it absolutely clear that money is not speech, that corporations are not people and that citizens have a right to organize elections where votes matter more than dollars.
“We have amended the US Constitution before in our nation’s history. Twenty-seven times before. Seven of those times to overturn egregious Supreme Court rulings. For the promise of American democracy, we can and we will do it again,” declared John Bonifaz, the president ofFree Speech for People, said Thursday. “The pressing question before the nation today is whether it is ‘we the people’ or ‘we the corporations and big money interests.’ This not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. This is a deeply American issue. Whatever our political differences may be, we all share the common vision of government of, for, and by the people. Today’s US Senate vote is just the beginning. While this amendment bill did not receive this time the required two-thirds support in order to pass the Senate, we will be back again and again until we win. History is on our side.’

Monday, September 8, 2014

Extension of Solicitation of Symposium before Nov. 4th

As described in the preceding entry Trying to get local Symposium before Nov. 4th, I initiated an effort to get a local symposium (having the suggested title  "The Condition of Our Federal Government, Campaign Finance, and Freedom of Speech"), by first proposing the same to Birmingham-Southern College. This was because the Democratic candidate in the Alabama 6th Congressional district is Birmingham-Southern Professor Mark Lester.

Whether anything happens with Birmingham-Southern remains to be seen. 

There is no reason not to extend this effort to Samford, UAB, University of Montevallo, and even the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Also, there are other organizations and persons which should be interested and be willing to participate and take this up.

I will accordingly make extension of my solicitation about this.

How important is this to justify the holding of a Symposium

I have endeavored to argue the importance of this for the past six months, and it is appropriate to review briefly this history.

I have said the chief questions are:

1. Just how "broken" or "dysfunctional" or "failed" or "kaput" is our Congress?

2. If your answer to the first question is "very" broken (or dysfunctional, or failed, or kaput), is there a diagnosis that can be made about reasons for the same?

3. If there is such a diagnosis, is there anything that can be done to fix (or significantly improve) the situation?

In my campaign in the primary election, I was unable to get past question 1 and basically could not get any thoughtful discussion about question 1.

The unwillingness to talk about question 1 extended to all of the following: (i) Senators Sessions and Shelby and Representative Bachus (as well as the rest of the Alabama legislative delegation in Washington DC); (ii) the other six candidates in the Republican primary; (iii) the sponsors of and questioners in numerous 6th Congressional candidate forums; and (iv) local media and political commentators.

With no answer being given by any of the foregoing persons or entities to question 1, no consideration of questions 2 or 3 was given.

Alternatively, some of the foregoing persons and entities may say that the answer to question 1 is obvious, everyone knows that Congress is very  broken, dysfunctional, failed, and kaput, and no time need be spent by anyone asking or answering question 1, and further questions 2 and 3 are pointless areas of inquiry. In this alternative, do you consider it satisfactory to say "everyone knows Congress is broke" and nothing more? I think that is highly unsatisfactory. What do you think?

This campaign website documents fulsomely the foregoing statements. Here are a few key links:

What do you think?

Besides what I have been saying and arguing, you have your own sources of information and political opinion.

What does your national news tell you? You hear about the abysmal approval ratings of Congress. You hear how fed up the public is with their Congress, the gridlock, the dysfunctinality, etc.

Listening to that, do you think it is satisfactory what I describe above about the past six months in the 6th Congressional district?

Consider POLITICO's recently released. "list of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction," and that Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, the primary mover behind MAYDAY, is number 33 on the list. See The POLITICO 50. 

Doesn't someone owe the voters in the 6th Congressional district more than they have gotten thus far?

[Update 9/9:  The Senate has agreed that a vote may take place on a constitutional amendment to overturn the Citizens United case. Do you 6th Congressional district voters think should receive some discussion about this by Gary Palmer and Mark Lester? Do you think Senators Sessions and Shelby and outgoing Representative Bachus should offer to you the benefit of their views on this?]

Steps I am going to take

I am going to take steps to extend this solicitation for a Symposium as indicated above. I will update this entry to report the steps I take or have taken.

Update 9/11

I have sent solicitations for the holding of a Symposium before November 4th to the Provosts of Samford University, the University of Montevallo, UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham), and the University of Alabama.


Update 9/17

Here's how they do it at M.I.T.



Update 9/22

On September 9th, a link to this entry was emailed to those listed below. They are variously representatives of the local news and media, political commentators, sponsors of candidate forums during the Republican 6th Congressional district election from February to June 3rd, entities which sent out questionnaires to the candidates, the Republican candidates themselves, the Democratic and Libertarian candidates in the 6th Congressional district general election, and Representative Sewell. All of these persons know who I am. None of them have made any response to me.

Madison Underwood <MUnderwood@al.com>,
Thomas Allen <TAllenJr@wvtm.com>,
news <news@insideuab.com>,
news <news@theplainsman.com>,
newsdesk <newsdesk@cw.ua.edu>,
Ron Gholson <rong@otelco.net>,
ccrawford@bizjournals.com,
newstip@wbrc.com,
"robert.thuston" <Robert.Thuston@energen.com>,
Kirk Mancer <Kirk@shelbychamber.org>,
chamber <chamber@vestaviahills.org>,
Alison Howell <ahowell@birminghambusinessalliance.com>,
Cheryl Mathews <cherylamathews@gmail.com>,
Nathan Lindsay <nathanl@bcatoday.org>,
Jim & Dolores Fort <jimanddolores@gmail.com>,
Brandon Moseley <bmoseley@alreporter.com>,
mark <mark@weldbham.com>,
info.rwsc@gmail.com,
Apryl Marie Fogel <amfogel@60plus.org>,
mayers <mayers@babc.com>,
Edward Bowser <EBowser@al.com>,
ndavis <ndavis@bsc.edu>,
kwhitmire@al.com,
jarchibald@al.com,
Phillip Ohnemus <phillip.ohnemus@wiat.com>,
Jim Stinson <JStinson@al.com>,
"Powers, Wade" <wpowers@uschamber.com>,
"chad@drmathisforcongress.com" <chad@drmathisforcongress.com>,
"will@votewillforcongress.com" <will@votewillforcongress.com>,
"tomv@tomisforyou.com" <tomv@tomisforyou.com>,
"pdemarco@pljpc.com" <pdemarco@pljpc.com>,
Scott Beason <senatorsbeason@gmail.com>,
"jon@palmerforalabama.com" <jon@palmerforalabama.com>,
campaign@lesterforcongress.com,
Aimee.Love@lpalabama.org,
emma <emma@terrisewellforcongress.com>


Update 9/25

On September 10th, Mark Lester, the Democratic candidate in the AL 6th Congressional district, posted the below video of highlights from a press conference he held about special interest money. Please note Professor Lester's opening statement that, "The most important issue in this campaign is that Congress is broken, and one of the great reasons that Congress is broken is that it is awash with special interest money."

Highlights from Mark Lester's press conference on special interest money

Friday, September 5, 2014

Trying to get local Symposium before Nov. 4th

I am working on trying to get a symposium in Birmingham before November 4th. My suggested symposium title is "The Condition of Our Federal Government, Campaign Finance, and Freedom of Speech." The Democratic candidate in the Alabama 6th Congressional district is Birmingham-Southern Professor Mark Lester, and I have started with the below proposal to Birmingham-Southern.


From: Rob Shattuck <rdshattuck@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 4, 2014 at 9:33 AM
Subject: Proposal to Birmingham-Southern for Symposium before Nov. 4th
To: Generalemail@bsc.edu

Office of Communications
Birmingham-Southern College
900 Arkadelphia Road
Birmingham, AL 

Dear Sir:

I ran in the Republican primary in the Alabama 6th Congressional district earlier this year and am continuing as a write in candidate. 

I am a supporter of MAYDAY.US, and my political goal is in line with MAYDAY's goals.

Recently Birmingham-Southern Professor Mark Lester replaced Avery Vise as the Democratic candidate in the Alabama 6th Congressional district general election on November 4th. I promptly wrote Professor Lester this Open letter to Professor Mark Lester. I do not know of any reaction or response of Professor Lester to my letter.

I think the subject matter in question is of great importance for our country, and the Birmingham metropolitan community should have interest in the subject and want to learn more about it.

I propose to Birmingham-Southern College that it hold a symposium on the subject. Such a symposium would probably attract greater interest if it was held before November 4th.

I think a good framing for such a Symposium would be a title such as "The Condition of Our Federal Government, Campaign Finance, and Freedom of Speech."

In your judging of the significance of this subject, I would point out that Harvard Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, the primary mover behind MAYDAY, has been listed as number 33 on POLITICO's "list of thinkers, doers, and dreamers who really matter in this age of gridlock and dysfunction".  See The POLITICO 50. (This list came out just today.)

I would be willing to help with the organization of any such symposium. I would be interested in being a participant, but I would be willing to help even if I was not a participant.

Thank you for your attention to this proposal to Birmingham-Southern College.

Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
Mountain Brook, AL


[For further developments on this, go to Extension of Solicitation of Symposium before Nov. 4th.]