Share Your Ideas for Alabama

Please help (4.00 / 3)

I hope you'll take a minute to share your ideas with me here:

http://arturdavis2010.ideascale.com

Thanks for your help!

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by: Artur Davis @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 14:46:15 PM CDT

Welcome to LiA Congressman (4.00 / 1)

There is an issue in which I agree and disagree with you about on your issues page regarding education.  I agree the mandatory school attendence age should be raised to 18, however I disagree that our current policy of suspending the drivers's licenses for drop-outs needs a no ex-ception, no excuses standard for the very realistic reason that it won't stop anyone from dropping out of school, it will only increase the number of persons driving on our streets and highways without a license and clog up the courts/jails.  Students usually have a reason for dropping out of school. It may be to take care of an ailing family member.  It may be  because they are ill or because they have no chance of graduating because they can't pass the exit exam. No excuses seems like an unrealistic, hard line to me. I would also like to see more vocational training done in the public schools so those students who aren't college bound can aquire a skill or trade.

In addition to the issues countrycat named I would like to see justice for all restored in Alabama and an investigation into political prosecutions in Alabama, especially as they relate to former Governor Don Siegelman, and other democratic lawmaker.  For the past 8 years democrats have been under siege.  Judege U.W. Clemons has asked Attorney General Eric Holder to investigate the matter and I urge you to exert any influence you have with AG Holder and President Obama regarding this matter also. 

You stated previously, the citizens of Alabama didn't elect you to Congress to be a member of the  house judiciary committee and that is correct, we elected you to represent us in the United States Congress.  We were proud and pleased you were appointed to the judiciary committee because of your legal background and your stated committment to justice for all. 

This not only made us proud Congressman, but it gave us hope that justice would eventually prevail in Alabama.  Alabama needs hope and justice.

 

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 18:19:40 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thoughts on change (0.00 / 0)

1. Tenure issues with teachers

2. More restrictions on home builders that are frauding both creditors and consumers on a large scale.

3. Regulate Government workers and use more "pay for performance guidelines". Ensuring that when those of us walk into the Deparment of Motor Vehicles or many other such facilities we don't wait in line while someone finishes a personal cell phone call.

4. STOP blantant misuse of hard earned tax money by imposing strict penalties on those caught with fraudlent bidding procedures or guilty of "nepotism".

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by: ridinforacause @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 09:20:52 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Ding! Ding! New member alert! (4.00 / 1)

Welcome to LIA ridinforacause!

Please feel free to join in the conversation and contribute a diary or two!

I'm not short.  I'm fun size!!

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by: countrycat @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 10:10:02 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Welcome to Left in Alabama! (4.00 / 2)

From several previous interviews, you know my concerns and priorities already, but I'm happy to share them again:  ;-)

1. A stronger Public Service Commission that protect consumers even as it promotes better telecom infrastructure in the state.

2. Making the PACT program financially sound.

3. Ethics and campaign reform in the Legislature and Executive branches.

4. A less dysfunctional state government.

5. More economic development in rural areas so they aren't as dependent on low-paying service jobs, landfills, prisons, etc.

And again, welcome to Left in Alabama and congrats on taking the blogging plunge!

Note: all candidates are welcome to join in the conversation.  We'd love to have your comments and diaries!

I'm not short.  I'm fun size!!

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by: countrycat @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 15:09:14 PM CDT

Thanks (4.00 / 2)

I hope you'll swing by and share these on my ideas page too, so other folks can comment on them too:

http://arturdavis2010.ideascale.com/

Thanks!

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by: Artur Davis @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 15:46:48 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I would have asked for a pony too (0.00 / 0)

but we already have one.  ;-)

I'm not short.  I'm fun size!!

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by: countrycat @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 15:51:54 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yes, I stole some ideas from SICKO (4.00 / 2)

My post was on healthcare. It is under quigonjinn, yes I am a star wars nerd!

 

Yeah I was JudsonCrow then I lost that email that belonged to that account.

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by: southerndem86 @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 15:40:10 PM CDT

I second cc's welcome to LiA (4.00 / 2)

And the IdeaScale tool is really neat.  It's very nice to see Constitution Reform/New Constitution getting some thumbs up votes.  Also rail transportation, both North/South and East/West corridors.  I found it very easy to vote for the ideas of others and also to submit ideas of my own.

Thanks for soliciting input from this community.

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 16:06:33 PM CDT

Anything you can do just to clean up the mess. (4.00 / 4)

Eliminate PAC to PAC transfers. Establish firm and enforceable ethics rules. Call a Constitutional Convention. Put a stste lottery on the ballot for voters to decide.. Eliminate the state sales tax on groceries and medicines.

Do all that and you will be the hero of all who want to join the 21st century.

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead  

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by: piggieheart @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 18:24:52 PM CDT

what he said (4.00 / 2)

2nd all that :)

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

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by: julie @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 13:42:46 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thanks for stopping by Congressman (4.00 / 2)

Great to have you here with us.  Welcome to the blogosphere sort of. We know you have been lurking and watching and learning for some time.  There are very few elected officials in this state who have connected with the bloggers who are not just activists on the net but a number of us are very active in real grassroots politics.

 

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by: gradyw @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 19:39:20 PM CDT

My thanks as well (4.00 / 3)

As a voter it is good to see a candidate reach past the same tired "ole mules" for ideas and to try to get a pulse on the people he hopes to represent .

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
Edmund Burke

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by: Old Prosecutor @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 19:44:11 PM CDT

Can Alabama be "Race Neutral"? (4.00 / 2)

Barack Obama's "Race Neutral" strategy worked well just about everywhere, except in Alabama.  What can Artur Davis supporters do in counties like Marshall, Cullman and Etowah where exceptional Democrats were defeated in 2008 because of the Obama factor or, more accurately, racism?  Marshall County had two life-long Democrats switch parties this year due to Republican pressure that their re-election would be impossible with Davis as the nominee due to down-ticket backlash.  Of course these now former Dems don't publicly admit their race fears, instead they use the standard excuse that "the Democratic Party had left them".  True Democrats have commented that if these elected officials feel that they have to have an "R" behind their name on the ballot for a job security then good riddance.  It's time, though, that the Republican party is exposed for fanning the flames of racism.  Is their a campaign strategy in the works for this effort?   

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by: CommonSense @ Wed Jun 17, 2009 at 22:48:55 PM CDT

These whisper campaigns are a real problem (4.00 / 1)

Obviously, the Republican scare tactic succeeded with a couple of officials in Marshall County and I think similar tactics were successful in Madison County against Laura Hall.  Now, the Hall campaign didn't have an effective public pushback for the accusations of racism, but that pushback needs to be there in the future. 

Work harder and work smarter!

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by: mooncat @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 09:27:35 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's not just racism... (4.00 / 2)

James Fields, a black Democrat, won a landslide victory in a special election to the state house from a 97% white district in Cullman County the week before the presidential primary.  However, Obama exotic background and Muslim-sounding last name made him a very effective target of whisper campaigns.  People in places like Cullman and Marshall county know black people, but very few know anyone with a name like Barack Obama and his partially foreign upbringing just frightened a lot of people whose only contact with Muslims might be the ones who were shooting at their son or nephew or grandson or daughter in Iraq.  I think Obama has done a lot to allay the fears of many of those folks, especially the old time yellow dogs who finally broke down and voted for Republican for the first time in their lives because they did not trust Obama.

James Fields himself said many times that if Obama's name had been John Smith and if he had spent his whole life in the United States, he would have won in a landslide.  We have come a long way in this country and it is a credit to his incredible campaign that they were able to make voters in the Rust Belt comfortable with electing someone named Barack Obama in as short a time as they did; if they had focused as much time and money on Alabama as they did Pennsylvania, I think it's possible you could have seen a similar result.  But I cannot blame them for allocating their resources to the state with more electoral votes. 

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by: bluebearcat @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 12:03:29 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thanks for your interest! (4.00 / 2)

One thing I'd like to see that I think would benefit ALL Alabamians, rich and poor, is an environmental agency with some real teeth. We have some Superfund sites here that rival any in the country, and very lax laws, which are enforced anemically.

I second the motion to restore Vocational Training in (or perhaps alongside) the schools. In my day, it was understood that not everyone was headed for college, and the high schools provided Auto Shop, Woodworking Shop, Cosmetology, Typing, Home Economics, etc. Skilled tradesmen make a good living without a college degree, and it's one of the few labor sectors that can't be shipped off to New Delhi or Beijing.

Lower taxes on food. It's a tax on the poor.

Support a Public Health Care option, and see that Alabama gets on board sooner rather than later.

I would like to see a Department of Green Energy, which could perhaps advise and visit farmers thinking about green fuel crops, land owners considering wind farms or solar collectors, and home owners interested in making their homes more energy efficient. Right now, all those people have to explore their options by talking to someone with a profit motive.   That's another vocational area that might take shape in the future as well. We will need people versed in all the ways and means to achieve the highest efficiency standards, and knowledgable about which methods best serve individuals at the lowest cost.

 

 

When in doubt tell the truth. It will confound your enemies and astound your friends.---Mark Twain

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by: julie @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 13:22:01 PM CDT

I used the link Artur Davis provided (4.00 / 1)

and went to his idea page and submitted my idea, Idea #48, I believe, which read as follows:

Representative and gubernatorial candidate Davis,

This isn’t a new idea. According to http://www.iandrinstitute.org/Alabama.htm Governor Fob James had this idea years ago, but nothing ever came of it.

The idea is for Alabama to become the 25th state whose constitution gives its citizens an Initiative and Referendum procedure voters can utilize, when necessary (because the legislature continues to refuse to pass needed legislation such as real ethics reform and other reform and accountability legislation) to introduce such legislation that would bypass both the legislature and the governor and be put on a ballot for voters to accept or reject.

Representative Mike Ball has introduced a constitutional amendment in several recent sessions that would provide for that. In the most recent legislative session that bill was known as HB 279.

Would you make such legislation one of the central issues of your campaign, and if elected to be the next governor of Alabama, would you fight to have such legislation passed by our legislature?

I’d appreciate your sending your reply to me in an email to the address that I posted when signing up to this site.

 

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...."      Hosea 4:6

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by: driq @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 13:50:39 PM CDT

driq (0.00 / 0)

If you get a reply are you going to share it with us or keep it to yourself?  Enquiring minds want to know :).

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 15:29:08 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Redeye, (4.00 / 1)

I certainly would share it here. You can bet the farm on that.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...."      Hosea 4:6

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by: driq @ Fri Jun 19, 2009 at 13:40:03 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Thanks for coming by, Congressman, and don't be a stranger (4.00 / 1)

My idea is probably just this side of antigravity, as far as being possible - but here goes:

Alabama needs to consolidate all education - Alabama, Auburn, all the satellite campuses, the two year system, vocational/technical, K-12, the whole ball of wax - into a unified system governed by a State board with the power to allocate and balance funding and control spending.

It can be done, other states do this.  I understand that this is how other states make pre-paid college tuition viable - they control tuition and adjust state funding.

It's not easy, I know, but hell, if it was easy, we'd get a Republican to do it....

"The War in Iraq is not the disease. The War in Iraq is a symptom. Arrogance is the disease" - Bill Richardson

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by: herding old cats @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 at 23:22:46 PM CDT

Welcome to the blogging life in LIA! (4.00 / 1)

I have been traveling and am just now getting to see all the good stuff I missed.  Here are issues I care most about and will be looking at in determining my vote. I will also re-post these on the campaign website.

1. Healthcare for everyone with an emphasis on HEALTH. This goes hand in hand with eliminating the tax on groceries.

2. Intelligent talk on the enviornment and listening to scientific opinion on climate change. Included in this topic is the horrible problem of  hazardous waste dumping in the poorest areas of the state.This also ties into funding for public transportation.

3. Shining the light to erradicate programs that fund the good-ole-boy network such as the sheriff being able to keep leftover money from prisoner's food allowances and the opaque campaign finance laws.

4. The most important of all--bringing a sense of energy and integrity to the governor's office. I want some excitement and leadership! I want to show that what Democrats believe is the vision of a better world for everyone! I want to ACTIVELY show that what the republicans have done over the years is WRONG and that the party of no is going nowhere. I want the campaign to be such that if you are not for the democrat then you are missing being part of something exciting. I want the people of Alabama to have "change we can believe in".

 

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by: melmel @ Sat Jun 20, 2009 at 09:54:51 AM CDT

note to self.. check spelling before posting... (0.00 / 0)

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by: melmel @ Sat Jun 20, 2009 at 10:05:58 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Good luck with that melmel (4.00 / 1)

Ask piggieheart how that works out...

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Sun Jun 21, 2009 at 16:56:53 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Vote out Obama next term (0.00 / 1)

Dems get toghter and find a candidate with some smarts and vote out this idiot.Alabamas bets bet.

 If Alabama Democrats could stick together we could make a differance!

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by: hubhunts @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 14:14:52 PM CDT

Thank you for your comments (4.00 / 1)

Your comments are important to us. All of our bloggers are currently busy but you will be answered in the order you commented. Your estimated wait time is 10 years.

Thank you for your comments.

Your comments are important to us. All of our bloggers are currently busy but you will be answered in the order you commented. Your estimated wait time is 10 years.

Thank you for your comments.

Your comments are important to us. All of our bloggers are currently busy but you will be answered in the order you commented. Your estimated wait time is 10 years.

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by: Go Blue @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 14:28:33 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

ROLFMAO!!! (0.00 / 0)

The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives and the dreams shall never die.~Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D. MA)

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by: Redeye @ Tue Jun 23, 2009 at 16:31:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Redeye ROFLYAO (0.00 / 0)

Evidently that is all you do you don't think too smart our nation is in ruins.

 If Alabama Democrats could stick together we could make a differance!

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by: hubhunts @ Sat Jun 27, 2009 at 12:07:38 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

United States will not last ten years (0.00 / 0)

Under Obamas Dictatorship no way possible US could last for ten years.

 If Alabama Democrats could stick together we could make a differance!

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by: hubhunts @ Sat Jun 27, 2009 at 12:06:06 PM CDT

[ Parent ]