START THE NEW YEAR WITH THE OTMDEMS: ALABAMA DEMS START ON A NEW DIRECTION Is there hope for the Alabama Democratic Party? Hear the experts talk about what happened and what could happen featuring Judge Mark Kennedy slated to be chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, chair of the Jefferson Country Democratic Party, Alabama head of Organizing for America and Representative Merika Coleman. Its a new year and time to start creating a new direction for Democrats in Alabama. Since the November election, there has been a lot of hand wringing and questions….where did it all go wrong??? Could we have done anything differently??? Who is to blame??? Most importantly, how do we go forward from here to revitalize, reshape and most importantly, re-connect with the voters??? This month, the OTMDems will start asking those questions of those who may hold the answers. Mark you calendars for January 18, 2011 at 6:30PM at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens as we start to ask the hard questions and look to Democratic leaders….and to you our members for answers and pathways to progressive leadership and thought in Alabama government.

ACTOR/IMPRESSIONIST REGGIE BROWN AS PRES. BARACK OBAMA IMPRESSIONIST AND FORMER BUSINESSWOMAN PATTI LYONS AS GOV. SARAH PALIN TIM WATTERS AS FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON Click here for details: Alabama Democrats Have some Fun on May 20

Watch: John Boehner Can't

I am grateful for the updates you send each week. I am responding on another issue and I hope you can forward my email to Congressman Davis and other staff in the office as you see fit. My comment is on the pending Health Care Reform bill that will likely come up for a vote this weekend. I am aware Congressman Davis voted against the House Bill that passed in 2009. I can understand why. It was not a perfect Bill. That said, as a physician who works in Birmingham taking care of patients at University Hospital and in the AIDS Clinic at UAB, I can tell you the current Health Care system is a mess...and getting worse. A vote against the Bill this weekend has the net effect of maintaining the status quo for several more years. We can’t afford that...either financially or morally. I could regale you with first hand stories ... Tragedies ...I witness daily among the patients I see. But suffice it to say, as I wrote in a published paper 5 years ago: “The safety net that catches the patients who fall through the cracks of our diseased health care delivery system is made up solely of the fabric of providers who give a damn” If providers didn’t care...if we didn’t go the extra mile, every day...the full brunt of the system would be in everyone’s face. It would be very, very ugly.And these folks, these healthcare heroes, are wearing out...I see it ...and it worries me. Worries me a lot. I don’t think the health care providers can keep this up much longer. The Bill likely to come before Rep Davis this weekend is not perfect. Far from it. But it is a start...something we all can build upon. It gives us a foothold. It gives us hope that things, one day, will be better. I know the politics of this is particularly difficult for Rep Davis. He is about to run for Governor of our State. I support him fully! And I know his opponents in that race will take shots at him for voting in favor of this Bill. But I figure, Rep Davis is going to be saddled with being affiliated with the ‘liberal agenda’ of the Democratic Congress no matter how he votes. If not in favor of this issue, there are others with which he will be labeled. And my sense is that once this Bill passes, and the public learns of the true benefits it provides (not the hateful false rhetoric in the media and elsewhere)...the public will become overwhelmingly in favor of this groundbreaking law. Much like the public is in favor of Social Security today. What concerns me for him is that the more progressive voters...who would support him 1000% ...will lose faith in him. OR at least fail to give him their full support...or worse...fail to be motivated to even turn up to vote for him. This is what I think happened, at least in part, in Massachusetts this past winter. Sure she was a bad candidate...but she did not inspire the core to even show up. Please forward this message to Rep Davis. I recall with great fondness the times I have had to share thoughts with him; most notably on a delayed plane ride from Atlanta to Birmingham a few years ago. We talked Constitutional Law. I learned a lot from him. He is a great man. Our State needs him. I am proud to support him. I hope he will find the courage to vote in favor of this Bill. Many, many people depend on it...not the least of which are the health care providers whose will is fraying as they try to catch all of the patients who the current system ignores so blatantly. Thanks for all you and Rep Davis do for all of us every day. Respectfully, MSS Michael S. Saag, MD Jim Straley Chair in AIDS Research Director, Center for AIDS Research