Alabama Politics in
Doc’s Political Parlor
& Home of Lawn Mower Repair

Whew… more to post than I can keep up with… Travel is keeping me busy but I will try at least to update the 2010 House Elections Directory today.

I wanted to squeeze out a post or two on Thursday but I am headed for the Appalachian Trail and had to spend the day looking for my passport.

I hate to miss the state GOP’s Red State Summer Dinner tonight. For the parties, this period leading up to the 2010 primaries is a bit like baseball’s spring training or spring football. Come the regular season, party loyalists will all be on the same team pushing for victory, but right now some of them they are squaring off against one another and sizing each other up. The shared expressions of camaraderie (whether spontaneous or summoned) I imagine will have a slightly different undercurrent as candidates, candidates-to-be, and their coteries assess one another and the 2010 landscape. If you are part of the backslapping and gladhanding tonight and have any stories worth telling, I’d be glad to hear them.

Share This

We are all atwitter at the Political Parlor about the idea that you can now Twitter with us.

If Twitter’s your thing, join us at http://twitter.com/politicalparlor.

Share This

Related Articles:

• Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and the Like

The Top Posts page has been updated to show the Parlor’s posts that were viewed most often in May, based on the number of clicks on individual posts.

I was pleasantly surprised that Alabama’s Most Statesmanlike Legislators made the list. I thought it was an interesting post, but by the time I was able to finish putting it together, the session was ending and the big news of the day became Seth Hammett announcing that he wouldn’t run for re-election. On a Friday.

Check it out - and the whole list - on the Top Posts page, available from the sidebar.

Share This

This site is an ongoing effort to contribute to the understanding, discussion, and flow of information around Alabama politics and policy. Toward that end, early in the legislative session I thought, “It seems like a little effort could make archived recordings of the House and Senate proceedings available to interested parties.”

I figured the occasional researcher might have interest. Perhaps a legislator who didn’t get to hear the discussion of his/her bill in the other chamber. A reporter now and then. I never figured there would be a stampede to the recordings, but I figured a few folks would be really glad to find them.

I didn’t announce the effort to make it happen early in the process because I knew there were a lot of issues to work out, technical hurdles, and we just weren’t sure how it would work out. I hated to announce it to find that we could not reliably make it happen.

Well, the effort might not have been as little as imagined, and truth be told, it was Walt who makes so many things happen around the Parlor who took the idea and ran with it. It was really quite an undertaking on Walt’s part, writing scripts, experimenting with different software, dealing with the headaches of power outages, and so on. But starting from Day 9 in the House and Day 10 in the Senate (the session is 30 days), we got most of the audio in both chambers.

So if you have curiosity to satiate, insomnia to cure, iPods to fill… heck, parts are mind-numbing enough that you could might could use them to extract a confession from someone… head on over to the 2009 Legislative Audio page and check it out.^* House and Senate podcasts, if you will… no special equipment needed though.

        LINK: 2009 Legislative Audio Page

More information is good.

Share This

The Top Posts page has been updated to show the most viewed posts for the month of April. Many include news about who is running for what, others involve bad judgement, and one suits to a T.   Or… make that “tea.”

Pictured: Early, pre-internet blog post.

Share This

I have been remiss in not thanking you who recommended this blog to Chris Cillizza (of The Fix at the Washington Post) who last week named this site one of the best state political blogs. The list was based entirely on recommendations by his readers, and so I thank very much those of you who were kind enough to take it upon yourselves to recommend the Parlor to him.

On his list of best state political blogs, Cillizza also singles out Alabama blogs South Union Street (Montgomery Advertiser), Left In Alabama, and The World Around You.

I also got a kick out of him naming this site one of the blogs with the best names:

The best named blogs on the list: Doc’s Political Parlor & Lawn Mower Repair (Ala.), Rum, Romanism, Rebellion (Ariz.), My Left Nutmeg (Conn.), The Old River Road (La.), Writes Like She Talks (Ohio), Not Larry Sabato (Va.) and Horses Ass (Wash.)

For most Alabama political bloggers, blogging is a labor of love, and it’s nice when anyone appreciates and takes notice of what you are doing.

As I say, keep reading. You’ll find some things that you’ll like, others that you won’t, some things that you will find here first, and others that you won’t find anywhere else.

Share This

Related Articles:

• Noticing the Parlor

Who can figure what posts will become the most viewed in a given month? Not I.

Bonus points to any regular reader (or mystic newcomer) who can guess what post was clicked on the most times in March. You might guess that it was the post last month that received more comments than any other post ever at the Parlor, but you’d be wrong.

Here are your Possibly Fun and Definitely Useless Facts about March’s Most Viewed Posts:

• The post that received the most views for March wasn’t even on topic for the blog. (Aha, I see light bulbs going on for a few of you.)
• The most commented post was only the second most viewed.
• Two of the top 10 most viewed posts in March were posted on the same day.

You can see for yourself. The Top Posts page has been updated to show the Parlor’s posts that were viewed most often in March, based on the number of clicks on individual posts.

Share This

If you are interested in what our hot topics used to be, you can find them on the recently updated Top Posts page. There you will find the most viewed posts based on clicks on individual posts, and you will find the most commented posts.

Share This

Would you like to make the case for how your experience as a reader or for how the Political Parlor itself would benefit (or not) from any use of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or any other tool?

Share This

I hope you are not missing the posts we are getting here from inside the legislature from Representatives Ken Guin (D - Carbon Hill) and Cam Ward (R - Alabaster). They have been prolific since the session started, and I appreciate the opportunity we have to hear what is on their minds.

You can always find their latest posts linked in Legislative Dispatch, linked in the right sidebar. On the front page, the titles of the last two posts will also be shown in the sidebar with links to the posts themselves.

Here’s a quick recap of their posts since the session started, starting with the most recent.

Share This

I am pleased to report that House Majority Leader Ken Guin (D - Carbon Hill) and Rep. Cam Ward (R - Alabaster) will be guest-bloggers here at the Political Parlor during the 2009 legislative session. Thanks to them, we can look forward to insiders’ perspectives on the legislative session as it unfolds.

I hope you will welcome Rep. Guin warmly as he joins Rep. Ward who has filled this role for us in previous years. I very much appreciate their willingness to offer us inside-the-statehouse peeks at the goings-on.

The Parlor’s Legislative Dispatch section that will showcase their posts is one-click away from the right sidebar. Also, in the sidebar on the front page of the blog (in the purple box), the titles of the two most recent Legislative Dispatch posts appear as clickable links.

The legislative session starts tomorrow.

Share This

If the campaign and election season was your introduction to the Political Parlor, know that we have many interesting pieces planned between now and the start of the legislative session next year. You will have plenty of reasons to keep reading. For example…

• The List of the Most Influential Elected Alabamians - One of the Political Parlor’s most popular pieces has been last spring’s list of the Top 40 Most Influential Non-Elected Alabamians. Look for a companion list of those who are elected.
• The Alabama Line took a 2008 focus as last night’s election neared, but we’ll get back to handicapping the races for 2010.
• Preview of the Top Issues facing the next legislative session.
• With help from you, we’ll keep up with the 2010 Big List. Who is rumored to be running for what races?
• You’ll continue to hear legislators giving us their perspectives in our Legislative Dispatch section. (BTW, are you aware that legislative-poster-emeritus Rep. Cam Ward has been continuing to post for us, e.g., on the census, the election, and more?)
• Of course, we’ll continue to have the morning round-up of news headlines to enjoy with your coffee, lighter fare along the lines of last year’s Christmas Wish List, and those nuggets that you read here first, or frankly just don’t find anywhere else.

Stay with us!

And coming up sooner rather than later, we’ll look at who in Alabama had a good night and who had a bad night last night.

Share This

Have you had a problem connecting to this site in the last day or so, even just for a minute? Sporadically over the last two days, I try to go to the site or save a new post, and it’s as if the Political Parlor does not exist. The browser suggests that I check the spelling of the site. I can go to other sites, so it does not appear to be a connection problem. The problem tends to clear up very quickly, in minutes, so it’s hard to diagnose.

If you have had a similar problem, I would like to hear about it. I am trying to figure if the problem is with my computer and connection, or if the problem is at the other end with the site, the hosting company, and so forth, perhaps related to the change of server last Friday.

The problem for me has been so sporadic and clears up so quickly that you might not have thought much about it if it happened. Perhaps you’ll think to let me know if it happens from now forward.

Thank you.

Share This

The problems described below have been fixed.

The hosting company for the blog is updating/upgrading, but the transition apparently is leaving us without the ability to read or leave comments. Naturally this comes on one of the busiest mornings for posts in quite a while.

I am also not receiving any email. If you really must be in touch, you can leave a message for me.

If I learn something about all this before the problem is fixed, I’ll pass it on here.

Share This

Many of you have noticed that I have been in a time crunch and not posted as much as I would like in recent days.

As a practical matter, this means that I also have not yet had time to read all the comments on the board. As always, if you see a comment you believe crosses a line for civility, I am glad for you to alert me via the contact page. The contact page link is in the sidebar.

Related to that, the blog’s spam filter does a terrific job of keeping comment spam away, but occasionally it blocks legitimate comments that should be posted. If you have comments that seem to disappear into a black hole never to show up, let me know. I’ll wade into the muck and try to dig out any comments that should not have been blocked.

If you have questions about other housekeeping matters, let me know.

Share This

I was going to count how long I spent standing in line the last two days (Thursday and Friday), but gave up when I got to double digits. I was supposed to arrive back in Alabama yesterday at 1:40 or so but didn’t get home until after 11 last night.

There is a lot I’d like to catch up on… notes from the Democratic Convention, looking to the GOP Convention, the surprise pick of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican VP nominee, and more… I’ll start rolling some things out…

Share This

I think someone was drilling domestically yesterday, hit the wrong tube, and there was an internet spill. Bits were spilling everywhere, and one of the casualties was the Political Parlor which was down for about 6 hours yesterday. Either that or my hosting company had a hardware failure that took us down.

Good posts to catch up on and in the meantime there are new pictures going up from the convention.

Share This

Cam Ward has a new post in the Parlor’s Legislative Dispatch - and ruminates on the idea that “politics is not personal”.

Share This

In the sidebar I have added a button and a link to the 2010 Big List.

Text links to the AL-02 Big List and the AL-05 Big List are still under the heading “Parlor Resources.” I have removed the buttons for those pages that were in the sidebar since those pages no longer serve their original purposes of sorting through the potential candidates for those Congressional seats. They still get traffic, especially the AL-02 Big List, and I am not trying to discourage that, but was just trying to straighten up a little bit. If someone believes their quality of life is diminished by the removal of the buttons, let me know.

New additions to the 2010 Big List today, too.

Share This

Related Articles:

• Who's Running in 2010?

The Top Posts page has been updated to show the Parlor’s posts that were viewed most often in July, based on the number of clicks on individual posts. Many are quite predictable, one made it on the list even though it was posted on the next to last day of the month, but one on the list is now over six months old. I have no idea why it became popular last month.

Share This

I am happy to report that H, the formerly fully automated process that created the Daily Headline posts for almost three weeks for us, has undergone a makeover.

H is now new and improved with a little daily human help. The experiment in automation was a good one and, from my perspective, fun to a point, but I was unhappy with the results. The posts were too long for my taste and often had irrelevant links.

With the new H, I think we may see a marked improvement in the relevance of the headlines to Alabama politics and policy.

Working on a few other tweaks… comments and feedback always welcome.

Share This

The Daily Headlines should be hitting on all cylinders now. We will know in a few minutes if there are hitches.

I envision a post like the Daily Headlines to be a good spot to talk about the news of the day. One limit to the blog form is that the discussion is usually centered around the topics posted on the blog. A post like the Daily Headlines gives room for readers to comment on whatever is topical that may not be mentioned elsewhere. It won’t have the personal touch that G gave the Daily News Digest, so those odd pieces (like Lotto numbers and who knows what else), will show up, but it should be a fresh rundown of the daily news. (BTW, the Daily News Digest is now available here.) The parameters of the postings will no doubt evolve a bit and be tweaked as we go. As always, your suggestions about the Daily Headlines in particular or the blog in general are welcome.

G’s successor here I’ve dubbed, what else, H. I hope that H’s Daily Headlines each morning will create a place to bring your coffee and discuss the morning news around Alabama.

Share This

The Top Posts page has been updated to show the Parlor’s posts that were viewed most often in June, based on the number of clicks on individual posts.

Share This

After two and a half years and over 800 daily entries, G’s Daily News Digest will no longer be part of the Political Parlor. G has been quite faithful with his morning news roundups, and I have enjoyed and appreciated having the Daily News Digest here at the Parlor. I know many readers have as well.

My intention is to roll out later this week a morning post of headlines from around the state in a daily automated process. It certainly won’t be any match for what we have enjoyed by having the discerning eye of a human being who culls the news and writes a brief summary, but I hope a quick scan of the morning headlines will be useful on its own.

Share This

I expected the week of the 4th of July to be a little slower than it has been. Regardless, I am mostly out of pocket, you’d be amused to know what I am doing right now to get internet access, and many of the posts this week are not nearly as robust as I would like.

C’est la vie.

Share This

I am pleased to tell readers of a summer addition to the Parlor. Turns out that the new guy working on the mowers in the back room is willing to come up front and blog for us at least occasionally also. From now into August, Lucius will offer an end-of-the-week look at stories that are overlooked or that might deserve a little extra consideration.

Get far enough off the interstate, and you’ll find Alabamians on front porches interested in talking about whatever comes to mind. In honor of the folks we know like that, Lucius will call his segment the “Dirt Road Dispatch.”

Share This

In a post this week, a Massachusetts blog, Beyond Red & Blue, notes the blogging legislators we have here at the Political Parlor, particularly Cam Ward. I probably don’t say often enough how much I appreciate the blogging legislators who take a little extra time to share their perspectives here on what is happening in the session for interested Alabamians.

Beyond Red & Blue found our crew from stateline.org’s list of state legislators who blog.

Share This

The Top Posts page has been updated to show the Parlor’s posts that were viewed most often in May, based on the number of clicks on individual posts.

Share This

A quick note… lots of posts in the pipeline and I want to be timely about them, but I am busy enough with life matters that they are not getting out quickly… I’ll squeeze out what I can when I can… more to come!

Share This

The Democratic National Convention in Denver will have a “State Blogger Corps,” one per state, that will be credentialed and seated alongside the state delegations at the Convention in Denver. When I applied for the Political Parlor to represent Alabama there, I thought the Clinton-Obama drama might create a convention even more exciting than most, but that part of the story now looks to be finished by convention time. Regardless, I am glad to learn that the Parlor has been accepted as Alabama’s credentialed blog at the Democratic National Convention.

Share This