I've started a new blogging project called Alabama Legislative Outtakes which features audio clips from the House while it is in session.
A few weeks ago (and unfortunately before I started recording the sessions)I listened to the Senate one day.
Of course, they were all hung up on the gambling bill. During filibusters you know they can just talk about anything. It doesn't have to have anything to do with a bill.
Sen. Jabo Waggoner was talking about traveling to Smith Lake every weekend and seeing a gambling hall/strip club called "The Boobie Trap". He adamantly claimed he had never darkened the door.
Another Senator, whose name I did not catch, got up and asked Waggoner, "Is you sho you ain't never stop in? I mean if I drove by something that say "The Boobie Trap" my curiosity would get the best of me and I'd have to check it out. Maybe I have that dyslexic and thank it said "The Bobbie Trap". You sho you ain't nevuh had the dyslexic an thank it say "Bobbie" instead of "Boobie"?"
It was crazy funny! I just kind of sat here with my mouth open. After that I started recording the sessions. So, I decided to start a new blog that offers archived audio of the House in session. Citizens just really have no idea what goes on down there.
How much and how quickly do you think things would change if citizens listened to the shenanigans that are happening on their dime? Part of the problem is that while the computer literate among us know about ALISON and how to use it most people don't. Another part of the problem is that no one wants to spend hours and hours listening to legislative sessions. They don't have that kind of time. Even if they did they wouldn't want to spend it doing that.
There needed to be a website devoted to preserving the audio of the sessions so that it can be broken down into a much shorter form that will draw folks in and perhaps get them interested in the political process.
So, I give you Alabama Legislative Outtakes. This is a work in progress so please bear with me. Eventually I will have audio segments broken down by what bill is being discussed to make it easier for folks to get the information they want without having to sit through hours of some time mind-numbingly boring discussion about things they have no interest in.
For now this is a free service. However, this project will be hugely time consuming and since the files are huge I will eventually run out of server space on Blogger and will need to purchase more. There may come a time when I have to charge a small fee. Until that time I will accept contributions.
Feel free to grab any audio from Alabama Legislative Outtakes and use it as you see fit.
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That LONG Chopper ride...(about 1980)
9 hours ago
3 comments:
Loretta said: “How much and how quickly do you think things would change if citizens listened to the shenanigans that are happening on their dime?”
That’s an interesting question, but considering the apathy most Alabamians seem to display regarding the matter of the government they supposedly own and certainly pay for (if they pay state taxes) I would venture to guess that it would make very little difference, if any. I hope that I’m wrong, so go full steam ahead with this project and see if it makes a difference. I certainly hope that it will.
I would support a constitutional amendment saying that both the video and audio proceedings of both bodies of our legislature must be broadcast on Alabama Public Television and hope that at least a few people would watch them.
How would that grab you?
My lady friend and I had talked about this very same idea recently. Of course, we're all talk and no action with these kind of things. Great job..
There's that old adage about how there's two things you don't want to see being made: sausages and laws.
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