Posts Tagged → Shana Kluck
Rocket City Brewfest draws thousands
ALRLC members were busy working to Free the Hops over the weekend. While AL-RLC Secretary Shana Kluck and member Austin Wilkes were working the Free The Hops booth, media director Stephen Gordon was tweeting event updates to the cell phones of event participants and others around the state who couldn’t attend the event. He was also interviewed by Huntsville’s WAFF 48 News. Video on the news coverage is located here and at the sidebar.
ALRLC Secretary to hear eminent domain testimony with US Civil Rights Commission on Wednesday in Montgomery
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Stephen Gordon
stephen@forwardfocusmedia.com
(256) 874-2985
(BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – April 27, 2009) On Wednesday, April 29, the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will be conducting a panel entitled “Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Policies and Practices in Alabama.”
“The Commission’s current focus on the ramifications of eminent domain abuse regarding minorities and other protected classes touches on an issue that effects most residents in Alabama,” said ALRLC Secretary and Alabama Advisory Committee member Shana Kluck. “Property rights are a bulwark of a free society and it saddens me that these rights are often ignored or even threatened by the very government that was created to protect them. Considering this is the state where the Civil Rights movement began, it’s time for Alabama to eradicate one of the last bastions of racial inequality and at the same time ensure the protection of property rights for all Alabamians.”
In addition to serving as a member of the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and as Secretary of the Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus, Shana Kluck also serves on the state GOP executive committee and is president of the Alabama Republican Assembly. She recently served as the Alabama Field Director and the national Homeschooling Coordinator for Ron Paul’s presidential campaign.
Confirmed speakers include State Senator Scott Beason, Birmingham community activist and City Council candidate Kim Rafferty, Rev. John E. Smith of the Evergreen Missionary Baptist Church, representatives of the Alabaster Alabama community, Montgomery business owner Jim Peera, Montgomery business owner Jimmy McCall, Montgomery attorney Norman Hurst, ADECA Compliance Officer Paula Murphy and Jefferson County Land Development Department representative Michael Morrison. Members of the community negatively impacted by Alabama’s eminent domain policies will be providing testimony to the panel.
The panel will be conducted from 9AM to 5PM on April 29 at the Montgomery Campus of Troy University in the Gold Room of the Whitley Conference Hall. The street address is 231 Montgomery Street, Montgomery, AL 36104.
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A new approach to an ignored civil liberties issue in Alabama
Racial minorities and the socio-economically disadvantaged are the people most likely to be taken advantage of during eminent domain issues.
ALRLC Secretary Shana Kluck is also a member of the State Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. They will be conducting a panel in Montgomery on Wednesday to investigate the “Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Policies and Practices in Alabama.” The event is open to the public. If you may be interested in attending, additional information is available here.
University of Alabama history professor David Beito chairs the committee. His op-ed in the Tuscaloosa News highlights how serious the problem truly is. Here’s but one of the cases which will be reviewed by the upcoming U.S. Commission of Civil Rights panel:
For almost five years, [Jim Peera] has fought a pitched battle with City Hall over his plan to renovate a strategic parcel of 121 apartments in the heart of the Rosa Parks Community and rent them to low-income senior citizens. Montgomery has a multimillion dollar development plan for his 8-acre site and is using ‘blight’ to condemn and demolish it.
Peera has withstood multiple setbacks on his investment, including unfounded criminal charges by the city and mysterious fires on his solid block structures. He has repeatedly tried to sell to or partner with the city for a much needed affordable housing development, but it has rebuffed him.
‘They’re used to forcing black folks to give their properties up via imposing hefty demolition liens, as opposed to buying land at fair market value’ he said.
Most recently, the city tried to further devalue Peera’s property by reducing the density from ‘multifamily’ to single family, thus making it impossible to provide affordable low-income housing. Though Peera won in two courts, local bureaucrats, much like they are doing with McCall, meet his legal victories with appeals and other delays.
Peera, who had to flee from his native East Africa after Idi Amin expelled its Asian population, does not easily intimidate and is extremely determined to fight property abuse in Alabama. He is trying to mobilize other Montgomery property owners who face the same plight. Through the state’s freedom of information act, he has obtained the names of over several hundred individuals, mostly from minority neighborhoods, who have had their homes summarily demolished under the blight law.
The former owners have related to him a litany of arbitrary mistreatment, but most were too poor or lacked the necessary information to fight back against the city. ‘What this City Hall is doing is criminal towards blacks and property owners, and it must be stopped’ Peera said.
Conservative stewardship outperforms partisan sniping
As there has been a lot of conversation about the framing of conservative messaging and how to deal with with race issues on this site, I thought I’d bring up two articles I wrote for another website today.
The first article deals directly with the first issue I’d like to raise. A host of elected Republican officials are rightfully calling for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to submit her letter of resignation. While I’m sure someone has, I’ve yet to see someone provide a politically viable suggestion to replace the DHS Secretary, though.
It’s one thing to take political swipes at the opposition. It takes leadership to find a solution which might be acceptable to the Obama administration, Republicans and a general public that is generally more concerned with good government than with the latest political barbs.
My solution to this situation may not be the best one, but at least I’ve offered a host of reasons as to why Judge Andrew Napolitano could be a very suitable replacement for Janet Napolitano. The American public has been crying for solutions, not partisan bickering. The GOP could have easily stepped up to the plate on this one, but didn’t.
The other issue I’d like to cover is race. On rare occasions, there is an element of truth to cries from the left about racism on the right. Most of the time these allegations couldn’t be farther from the truth.
However, assuaging one’s conscience by casting a vote for Michael Steele and then disregarding the black community for the next several years will not win Republicans votes from the African-American community. Like any other votes, these have to be earned.
In Alabama, two Republicans are making a difference in the African-American community on a solidly conservative issue: property rights. If you aren’t aware, in the land of Rosa Parks, black people are frequently taken advantage of when it comes to eminent domain abuse. A few years back, nationally syndicated talk show host Neal Boortz heavily publicized one such case in nearby Alabaster, Alabama.
I’d like to quickly highlight these two Republicans who aren’t afraid to step out of their own comfortable communities to help those with fewer political or financial resources. The first is Alabama State Senator Scott Beason, who will sit on a panel next week at an Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights panel entitled “Civil Rights Implications of Eminent Domain Policies and Practices in Alabama.” Senator Beason is highly respected throughout the state, and it’s easy to see why.
A key driving force behind this panel is Shana Kluck. Shana is not only a member of the Alabama Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, but she also serves on her state GOP executive committee, is president of the Alabama Republican Assemby and serves as Secretary of the Alabama Republican Liberty Caucus. When she’s not busy homeshcooling her four children, consulting on Web 2.0 projects, engaged in Eagle Forum activities, attending various political meetings around the state and working behind the scenes on a variety of conservative and libertarian causes, she is busy helping me on campaigns.
Considering Shana’s schedule, very few of us have grounds to offer the excuse that we are too busy to become more involved in the African-American community.
Instead of sitting around complaining about how black people voted in previous election cycles, Senator Beason and Ms. Kluck are taking leadership roles in providing justice for members of the African-American community.
If I may be so bold as to provide two solutions for the conservative movement, they are:
- Instead of merely attacking the opposition with nuisance fire (appropriately called sniping) to exploit a weak spot in their battle line, maximize your attack by actually providing a viable politcal solution.
- If you aren’t active in your local African-American community, you’ve no right to complain if you receive very few of their votes on Election Day.
Personal responsibility is a key component of conservativism and just stewardship should be a part of conservative leadership. Hopefully, Republican Party leaders will take these sorts of messages to heart. Otherwise, one can expect the GOP to walk through the wilderness for another 38 years.
Cross-posted from The Next Right
Press Release: National Media Spotlight Focuses on Alabama RLC Members
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Shana Kluck
shanajk@gmail.com
(205) 586-5751
National Media Spotlight Focuses on Alabama RLC Members
Members of new Alabama organization send Homeland Security Report viral, participate in Tea Party activities across state, interviewed on national television
(BIRMINGHAM, ALA. – April 20, 2009) For an organization which has been operational for less than two weeks, members of the Alabama Chapter of the Republican Liberty Caucus have received significant national and state attention over the past few days.
ALRLC Media Director Stephen Gordon received considerable media attention for exposing the Department of Homeland Security report “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Environment Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment,” which went viral on the Internet.
“Considering that several of our RLC members provide Web 2.0 services for a living, we felt it was our civic responsibility to ensure that the story went immediately viral on the Internet,” said ALRLC Media Coordinator Stephen Gordon. “It’s critically important that believers in small government are made aware that they are being targeted by the current administration.”
“The Bush administration’s creation of the new DHS was not simply another instance of poor administration and leadership,” wrote ALRLC Chairman Scott Boykin on the organization’s website. “Rather, it established a new tool for political leaders seeking to demonize their opponents. Bush’s intentions in creating DHS don’t matter now, because it’s no longer his department. The more power government has, the greater is its potential threat to our freedom. The DHS report is a startling reminder that big government is dangerous.”
Members of the Alabama Liberty Caucus also assisted with the coordination of three Tax Day Tea Parties held in Alabama. ALRLC Secretary Shana Kluck and Gordon helped secure speakers, provide professional advice and assisted with other logistical concerns for the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham Tea Parties, respectively. RLC supporter Matthew Givens was a coordinator for the Montgomery event. While crowd estimates vary, approximately ten thousand people attended these three events. The Birmingham event received national television attention on Fox News.
On Thursday, Gordon spent an hour as an in-studio guest along with national political journalist Robert Stacy McCain on WYDE’s Lee Davis Show. Discussing the topic of recent Alabama Tea Parties, McCain stressed a point which Gordon had made to him during Ron Paul’s recent presidential bid: “The Ron Paul movement wasn’t about Ron Paul. It was about a movement.”
Additionally, Gordon appeared on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show on Tuesday. According to HotAir.com’s Green Room, Gordon took “hard shots at Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee and Alan Keyes” which “should suffice to dispel any notion that the Tea Party movement is a ‘neocon/Republican/Fox News’ conspiracy.”
Gordon also discussed the role of FreedomWorks/CSE during the campaign to defeat Governor Riley’s tax increase proposal in 2003.
The ALRLC’s organizational mission is to recruit and endorse candidates who support the RLC’s agenda, elect small-government Republicans to political office, and change the direction of the Republican Party to reflect our vision of peace and prosperity.
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Birmingham and Tuscaloosa Tax Day Tea Party reports
Two Ron Paul supporters at the Tuscaloosa Tea Party (photo credit: Forward Focus Media)
In both the Tuscaloosa and the Shelby County/Birmingham Tea Parties held on April 15th, Alabama RLC members played vital roles in the successes of these events. In Tuscaloosa, 500 to 600 people were reported in attendance. Crowd estimates ranged between 5,000 and 10,000 for the Birmingham event. Because of extreme event-related traffic congestion, it is very difficult to determine the actual total amount of people who showed at this event.
One contribution to Tea Party success provided by our RLC members led to certainly the funniest and perhaps one of the best speeches delivered at any Tea Party event across the country.
In Tuscaloosa, ALRLC Secretary Shana Kluck secured a speaking spot for former Washington Times assistant national editor and current freelance journalist Robert Stacy McCain. In Birmingham, ALRLC Media Director Stephen Gordon did the same. Poking fun at the Department of Homeland Security report we helped make available to the public, McCain wowed the crowd with his Jeff Foxworthy-like rendition of “You might be a right-wing extremist, if…”
Here’s the video of the speech McCain delivered in Hoover:
Shana Kluck, Robert Stacy McCain and Stephen Gordon have all provided reports from both the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham Tea Parties. Additional reports and photographs come from Ken Pritchett, Cathy Reisenwitz, Rhoda, Ed, and WYDE. Birmingham News coverage is here and dominant front page Tuscaloosa News coverage is here. For a special treat, here’s a YouTube of Rick and Bubba on Sean Hannity’s nationally televised feed from Birmingham.
