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Jem, here’s a rather long excerpt from the meeting held in Birmingham last night by Ultra Sonic 007: “So now, we had a grand total of 10 people. And I was digging that!

Sitting all at one table, we engaged in casual conversation, eating some appetizers and then our main course. Talking about what we ate...well, that’s not the point. It provided the vehicle for all SORTS of discussions. A brief summary follows:

The tea parties, the meeting hosted at the Madison Cracker Barrel by Southron Patriot, the media and their role in advancing liberalism, the corruption of politicians, the lack of statesmen in Washington, sports-related tales, local Alabama politics (Shelby...but a lot of it regarding potential challengers to Arthur Davis in the heavily gerrymandered 7th Congressional District), the Rick and Bubba Show, how history repeats itself, the strangeness of the withdrawal of $550 BILLION over two hours from the banking institutions late last year, our jobs and educational background, the banking and financial industry and its current state, home-schooling, the witty and sarcastic humor of FReepers, ideas for the next meetings, how to get wider visibility...and I’m sure there’s a couple of things I’ve already forgotten.

I was on one half of the table for most of the evening, talking mostly with RatRipper, LadyPilgrim, and her descendants. The other half of the table consisted of BudgieRamone, his wife, RatRipper’s brother, del4hope, and her husband (del4hope and BudgieRamone will have to fill us in on details regarding your half of the table).

All in all, I personally thought it was a blast. We got to actually meet face-to-face, got to discuss political/nonpolitical stuff with fellow conservatives, and enjoy a good meal while doing so. Even found out some interesting things (did you know Free Republic has its own Facebook Group? How neat is that?).

Of interest were the tea parties...so I bring lists!

More on Tea Party Cities (the Calera and Shelby County @ HWY 280 tea parties scheduled for today were probably canceled due to weather).

Michelle Malkin and Tea Party News

How to Organize a Tea Party

So there’s that!

Anyhow, we all put down a FINALIZED, REGULARIZED meeting time that should be more inclusive for other FReepers on the list within the Greater Birmingham Area:

A biweekly meeting.

Every Saturday at noon.

Meeting place: the Food Court of the Brookview Mall-

LadyPilgrim: BrookWOOD.

Oh yeah! *smacks forehead*

(Running joke of the evening; when talking about the next meeting, I would always say Brookview instead of Brookwood. Cue crack about Tourette’s Syndrome.)

So here’s the time for the next meeting: Saturday, March 14 at 12:00 PM. Location is the Brookwood Mall in the Food Court. It’s sandwiched between Lakeshore, I-65/HWY 31, and HWY 280; it’s right next to Sanford University.

Google Maps.

So there. We plan to talk about Tea Parties, possible methods of educating people about conservatism, and the organizing of public events (one suggestion was of a public forum to try and educate people about the economy, the history of free markets, past recessions...and the response to them. Of particular interest will be Harding’s response to the 1920-21 recession, Hoover/FDR’s response to the 1929 recession and how the Great Depression began, and Reagan’s response to the 1980-81 recession).

Well, that’s my write-up. It was a pleasure meeting you all, and I hope to see more people two weeks from now. (First 4...now 10...let’s try for at least 16. Or maybe even 25!)”

At the Decatur meeting - actually held at the Cracker Barrel in Madison because several people couldn’t get to Decatur as they didn’t get off work until 7:30 or 8:00 - we had 5 FReepers and and 3 teens. And, don’t ‘cha know the very people who couldn’t made Decatur didn’t make Madison either.

Much discussion on how to attract others to the Tea Parties and how to get the Republican Party in Decatur involved, as well as some of our local legislative representatives. We discussed when we would have a Tea Party in Decatur and decided on Saturday, March 28 from 12 noon to 1:00 in Regional Park - right on the river. We discussed ways to spread the word to and through people we know and making signs for the TP. Southron Patriot reported that meetings were being held last night in Albertville and Scottsboro, as part of the Decatur group. In fact, two of those at meeting were from Madison and Lawrence counties, so they will be working with the politicans and their contacts here.
We are scheduled to have a short meeting in 2 weeks to see where we are and exchange progress reports.

When SP posts his report, if he has more detailed info, I’ll either post it here for you or FReepmail it to you.