The bad news: the legislative day today was squandered by filibuster.
The good news: the people in the know are confident FTH will get its shot at a vote on the Gourmet Beer Bill.
That said, let me speak to the post below. In the comments section there is a lot of anger directed at Phil Poole based on our outline of what is going on with his filibuster. The long and short of it all that is that he’s someone who is stopping business from getting done in the Senate and when you’re waiting on a bill to come up for a vote, that’s really, really frustrating. Thus the anger.
But let me remind everyone that politics is a very complicated, multi-faceted matter. It’s not uncommon for things to not be what they seem, and you can bet there’s always more to the story than you know.
All of that segues to my observation that today’s filibustering was not solely the work of Poole; it was perpetrated by several different people working together. In other words, even if Poole’s issue had been resolved yesterday, we still would have seen a filibuster today. Lots of people have lots of beefs.
I disapprove of the use of the filibuster tactic in this manner so I’m definitely not defending anyone. But I do want to make it clear that we as citizens can’t solve the problems of our Senate by directing ire at one member. The problems I’ve come to recognize are deeply rooted, systemic issues that might require some sort of divine intervention to fix. What we as Free The Hops supporters need to do is focus on working within the broken system as it exists to get what we want. That’s the only option we have at this time.
So let’s please back off the rhetoric directed at one or another Senator, recognize that the system itself is broken, and just do what needs to get done to pass our bill. I’m told we’ll have a chance to do just that. Let’s be ready for it.
14 Comments
For some reason, I have flashbacks to Porky’s 2 while reading this.
Danner, thanks for the update. It’s easy to see just our side of things.
Question: it seems as though the bill that is going to come before the Senate is SB132. If that’s the case, it still has to go before the House T&T committee, then the House, then the Gov. Is there any chance HB373 will get a shot? Obviously, it only has to pass the Senate and then go to the Gov.
No, the bill that comes to the floor for a vote in the Senate will not be the SB. It was on the SO calendar a few times to reserve our place in line, but not with serious intention of bringing it up.
On whatever day the Senate leadership is ready to get us a vote, it will be the HB on the SO calendar.
so, all we are waiting on is for the senate to do some serious voting on bills, like the Gourmet Beer bill? I just started listening in today. They seemed to be wasting plenty of time. Do they usually buckle down towards the end and get some progress done? Because if so I’m also fairly hopefull.
It is typical for the Senate to waste most of the session and then get busy in the final few days passing lots of bills.
They still have to pass some budgets. That alone could take up the rest of the session.
So was Mr. Poole inundated with angry emails from FTH supporters? If so, he sounds like the type that would kill our bill just out of spite. Any thoughts on this?
I don’t know about others, but I never mentioned the beer bill or any other ties to FTH in my email.
I just hate when time is wasted.
I emailed Mr. Poole & expressed my displeasure. I sent a “letter to the editor” to the B’ham News asking why they were not reporting on Poole’s behavior more prominently. I posted a comment online at the Tuscaloosa News website under the story about the filibuster begging the locals to call & email these Foole & Singleton. I never mentioned anything about the beer bill in any of my correspondence. I am mad about the beer bill but also mad that we are paying our idiotic legislature to do nothing & I do not understand why this is being kept so hush-hush.
Sorry danner – I checked a couple times figuring someone would have asked or that you would have elaborated. But maybe I was the only one who felt teased by your blog post. So I’ll bite…
“the people in the know are confident FTH will get its shot at a vote on the Gourmet Beer Bill”…
Specifically WHO said specifically WHAT? –What is the new information that suddenly changed your optimism, who did it come from and how reliable to you feel it is?
Every organizations deserves it’s trade secrets, don’t they. Maybe if you were at the Statewide Membership meeting Saturday, more info would have been disseminated.
hahahaha touche, salesman.
I’m hoping your response was meant lightheartedly as I took it & that you didn’t take my question as criticism of the effort you clearly put forth. I’ll assume with optimism. I was only curious for the ‘rest’ of the story.
Of course – trade secrets and privileged information is legitimate.
Still – there’s alot to be said for generous sharing at storytime.
I must’ve forgotten my smiley face
. I didn’t take it as criticism, and it’s no effort of mine. I don’t even know what Danner’s talking about.
I just wanted to say that there are some uber-secret pieces of information that won’t be broadcast on the blog. Like the FTH handshake or the gold… I’ve said too much.
This was no big secret. “People in the know” when it comes to the Senate are pretty much limited to Senate leadership. The people who set the agenda and determine what bills get voted on. Those people are determined to get the FTH bill a vote this year.
That said, let me add my constant caveat that there are no guarantees in politics. No one is omnipotent. But people are working on resolutions to the filibuster issues and we’ll see what happens.