Heads Up

by: felicia531

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 21:10:21 PM CDT

Tomorrow is Sunday and the guests on Face the Nation this week are Sen. John Kerry (Obama supporter) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (McCain supporter).

Let's hope that this week we Democrats can do a better job of reframing/redirecting the conversation when (not if) the GOP revs up their attack machine and takes Sen. Kerry's comments out of context or just plain fabricates something else from them altogether.

Last week, they managed to monopolize an entire week's news cycle with two bogus focal points: General Clark's comments on Face the Nation last week and then Sen. Obama's comments about Iraq towards weeks end. And now the GOP has boosted up to the A team by shoving McCain's old crew aside and bringing the 2004 Bush/Cheney team (check also this commentary by Frank Rich).

Somehow we must learn how to redirect these false constructs so that we can stay on point with the Obama/Democratic message.

My Dad and I had conversations about Obama's speech late last week. Dad thought it was a good idea for Obama to clarify his position again. However, I was more concerned that the GOP won that round of "made you blink." Once these GOP campaign advisers realize how to take Obama off the message he wants to give for that day, they'll have him and the Dems making news conferences 3 times a day, 5 times a week to "re-explain" our positions. That just can't happen. I'm so frustrated with the Obama advisers who have him do this, because it just plays into the GOPs hands.

Is anyone else similarly frustrated by this? Looking forward to your comments.

Happily, poll numbers (?) don't seem to indicate change in support for Senator Obama.

McCain's Campaign; Is It Just Me?; Boyd's -eye View

by: normboyd40

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 20:29:05 PM CDT

Okay, this is going to short and to the point. I am an old white man.  According to some studies I've read, white men in general are supporting John McCain, but as the samples get older, his support dwindles.  Why would that be?  I have a theory about that. At a certain age, we get really good at recognizing senility.

I know this presidential race has been about sexism, racism and ageism right from the start, and no one hates the -isms more than I do, but I'm not advocating opposing McCain because he is even older than me.  I'm opposed to him because I see frightening signs of senility in every appearance he makes. 

Alabama Obama Bumper Stickers

by: mooncat

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 15:00:00 PM CDT

Y'all seen any good ones?  There's a make-your-own site called Bumperactive.com that's doing 50 Ways To Vote Obama, with a sticker for each state.  Here's the one they ginned up for Alabama:

It doesn't do a lot for me -- I really like this one from the primary:

Or this one that a friend suggested a while back:

I might upload that design.  Anyway, y'all share your good sticker ideas -- and 22% of the proceeds from each "50 Ways to Vote Obama" sale benefits the Obama Campaign. They are offering six-packs of mini "laptop stickers." as well as full-size bumper-stickers.  I still have the John Edwards sticker on my laptop, but it's probably time to add an Obama one.

Bush Tours Disaster Area

by: mooncat

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 12:38:57 PM CDT

In the wake of his disastrous leadership, George W. Bush tours America to survey the damage.  Joe at Bessemer Opinions notes that this is definitely an unnatural disaster.

    $9 trillion in debt.

    Thousands dead.

    The sheer destructive force caught people off guard. 

The non-news genre brilliantly lampooned by the folks at The Onion.

Homophobia: Hate Is Not A Family Value

by: plainsmanpolitico

Sat Jul 05, 2008 at 02:39:10 AM CDT

Homophobia irks me. Being gay and being born and raised in the Deep South, there’s a deep divide over how people think, based on what they’re taught, and what they’ve actually experienced. I can assure you my extended family, who despite my pleasure, occasionally use the N-word, and repulse from news about “the gays,” continue to do so because they don’t have friends or acquaintances who are African-American, or who are LGBT, or Jewish… or Muslim… pretty much anything not really shouting out its existence in Dixie… and don’t fundamentally understand why their views are so offensive to me.

Now, I can’t blame my 88 year-old grandmother for her archaic use of language. She’s of a different generation that I am, and all I can do is gently educate her about how the world actually works. There are, in fact, gay people in America, and they tie their shoes just like you do. And that you ABSOLUTELY do not use slurs or slanders, ever. I only this week managed to get her to remove her lawn jockey from her front yard, and that thing has made me queasy since I realized what it stood for. When I was 12.

My uncle, who I wouldn’t give two cents for when it came to voting for a Democrat in the first place, and I’m sure has a USB cord attached from Fox News to his brain, has twice tried to educate me on Barack Obama. That Obama is a Muslim, that he’s a closet terrorist. He’s constantly sending out emails about Barack Obama and his craziness. I’ve just started forwarding him back snopes.com articles debunking urban legends, or direct material from all kinds of sources. When a cousin asked who I was voting for, I knew where the conversation was leading. I said, “Obama,” and looked upon his astonishment. “Why?” he asked in a condescending way. “Because I believe in the Constitution. Because I believe we need a direct change from the policy of Dubya. Because I don’t promote the politics of hate and exclusion.”

I walked out of the room, not even wanting to engage the idiot in any type of educational exercise, only because I know he is an avid hunter, was wearing camo at the time, and was probably locked and loaded, his stache from the oversized gas-guzzling SUV he drove in on. Sure enough, within 10 seconds, I hear n-word this, muslim that.

My point is… take the time to educate folks, and desensitize people. I prolly should have had a sit down, and maybe that will come one day. When I buy teflon.

I'm just disappointed that some people simply cannot see the forest for the trees. And don't have a willingness to hear the other side. Or realize, that there's a probable chance, from what we've witnessed as a family, that his own son is a flamer. 

In other news, I'm an uncle! Landon Cain, born at 7:56am, 10lbs, 2oz. 23 inches.

Benji @ Fishbowlamerica.com 

Fourth of July Holiday

by: mooncat

Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 20:21:06 PM CDT

Why is the 4th of July a holiday celebrated across the nation?  This date marks not the signing of the Declaration of Independence, but its adoption by Congress and first printing in broadsheet form.  The official signing didn't start until August 2nd but the die was cast on July 4 and the words were put into circulation.  And what beautiful words they are -- this is my favorite part:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Read those carefully and consider on what sort of men those Founding Fathers were.  No status quo conservatism there -- they were after change for the better.  Revolution, in fact.  Now go read Meteor Blades' A Patriot is A Rebel, Not a Bootlicker.

Nothing, of course, offends right-wingers more, seems more disrespectful and disloyal, than when we dissenters, our criticisms barely escaped from our lips, claim ourselves to be patriots. They go apoplectic when we say it’s not patriotism that we  disrespect but rather the pretenders who have made a fetish of it, twisted it and commodified it. These idolaters love the idea of dissent, the iconography of it, but jeer its reality. To them, patriots must be bootlickers. In extreme cases, jackboots. Proof, if more were needed, that even the word itself, "patriot," must be recaptured from those who have hijacked it.

Dissent isn't unpatriotic -- our nation was founded by men (and women) with the courage to speak truth to power and risk the consequences.  The 4th of July is a holiday for rebels, not status quo apologists, so don't just challenge authority, celebrate dissent. 

                            If you're a REBEL, this party's for you!  

Pro-Life Republicans 4 Death

by: mooncat

Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 13:38:12 PM CDT

OK, I kind of ripped that off from trailer park's Pro-Life Senators 4 Death.  From the title I figured the post would be about the uproar over the Supreme Court ruling we can't execute people for child rape.  Jeff Sessions was involved and Troy (I never met a death sentence I didn't like) King would be a natural to add to the group.  But no, this is an instance of a different conservative "pro-life" hypocrisy -- holding up money to fight the spread of AIDS.

"The bills' support would allow morally questionable activities, including advocating with host governments to change gender norms and policies and promoting activities that could include needle distribution to drug users," the senators wrote.

The senators involved are all Republicans: Sessions of Alabama, Vitter (Mr. Prostitution) of Louisiana, Coburn (death penalty for doctors) of Oklahoma, Burr of North Carolina, DeMint of South Carolina, Bunning of Kentucky, Chambliss (demonize a war hero to get elected) of Georgia and their fearless leader McConnell of Kentucky.  Like trailer park says

Apparently, for some people, preserving gender roles is more important than saving human lives. I'll never understand how these folks manage to claim the "pro-life" label, when they are clearly anything but.

Yeah, that's the part that made me think of our Attorney General, Troy King, staunchly "pro-life" except when death is involved.  But wait, how does King feel about AIDS?  Maybe he belongs with these Senators 4 Death after all.  Among other homophobic rants, Troy King wrote this in a letter to the editor of the Crimson White when he was a 3rd year law student at Alabama:

"Currently, AIDS is the most behavior-oriented disease known to mankind.  If this nation's current purveyors of perversion would refrain from committing sodomy they would unquestioningly be spared the ravages of the disease."

After Bob Riley appointed him Attorney General, Troy did admit that AIDS isn't limited to a single lifestyle:

In the AP interview, he clarified that it has since been learned that AIDS spreads in other ways. He did not back down from his other statements though. He said, "If I were writing editorials about these issues today, I would probably use different words, more judicious words."

He stands by the rest of it, though. Troy hasn't changed his opinion on "purveyors of perversion" and what constitutes a "functioning family" (Hint: armadillos not allowed) so I'm going to make the call that he would fit right in with the Senators 4 Death when it comes to fighting the spread of AIDS. 

After all, as we know from his sex toy crusade, Troy King is nothing if not concerned with preserving traditional gender roles.

Happy Interdependence Day: Boyd's -eye View

by: normboyd40

Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 09:57:37 AM CDT

"Well, I woke up Friday mornin' with no way to look at America that doesn't hurt...." apologies to Johnny Cash.

Obama is backtracking on FISA and gives us pathetic, carefully nuanced reasons why. 

The media - that great defender of America's values, and provider of truth- has become Rupert Murdoch's plaything and truth is no longer available.  "Sorry, fresh out.  Check Comedy Central on the 'truthiness' aisle" 

The Bush/Cheney administration has proven long since that there truly is nothing they will not do to consolidate more and more power in the White House.  The United States Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, the laws and structures of this great nation, have never been in such peril.  Never! Not at Pearl Harbor, not at the hands of Hitler, not when planes crashed into the World Trade Center, not even when the nation was rent asunder by Civil War. 

$542,511.26

by: Go Blue

Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 09:12:36 AM CDT

On Looking Back, Or, A Jerry Springer Administration--Why Not?

by: fake consultant

Fri Jul 04, 2008 at 08:35:26 AM CDT

Marshall County Democratic Headquarters to open July 5th!

by: herding old cats

Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 22:45:14 PM CDT

Woo-hoo!

Those energetic Democrats in Marshall County, Alabama, are opening thier 2008 election headquarters on July 5th!

It wil be at 501 Blount Avenue in Guntersville.  At first, the headquarters will be open on Saturdays from 9am to 3pm, but as the campaign progresses, the hours will expand.   For more information, contact Susan McKenney at 256-302-7497.

For more county Democratic 2008 Headquarters - well, get with it!!

I think the Madison County headquarters is set to open the first week of August.

Hey Alabama - when's your 2008 Democratic Headquarters gonna open?

Guest Editorial: Exploitation Around Us

by: BamaBacker

Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 19:41:57 PM CDT

Some time back I was sitting at a stop light on my lunch break. While patiently awaiting the opportunity to quell my hunger with a fast-food offering, I began to look around, noticing the storefronts and signs that I might usually buzz by on my habitual morning commute. What caught my attention that day, while not alien to our daily lives, still managed to stun me into awareness.

Within the quarter-mile stretch visible to me at that time stood the signs and frontage of no less than four payday/title loan outlets. No kidding. Four would-be sub-prime lenders were placed within spitting distance of each other. There is apparently enough "demand" to support four of these outlets next door to each other.

Can You Afford To Travel This Weekend?

by: mooncat

Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 14:56:01 PM CDT

July 4th is one of those traditional holidays that is still tied to a date instead of a day of the week -- I like that.  This year it falls on Friday, making for a long weekend perfect for out of town trips.  Is it worth it to travel?

According to AAA's website, retail gas prices are about $1.12 higher than a year ago.  Regular unleaded is averaging $3.95 per gallon across the state, about 9 cents more than a month ago.

View Alabama Metro Areas

What would that do to the vacation budget?  Let's say your family car gets 17 mpg on average and your destination is 200 miles from home.  

You'll burn (200 x 2)/17 = 23.53 gallons of fuel.

Last year the trip cost $2.83 x 23.53 = $66.59

This year it will cost $3.95 x 23.53 = $92.94 

Will that difference be enough to keep you home this year?

Ken Guin Talks Progressive

by: mooncat

Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 14:16:21 PM CDT

I'm not a big fan of the DLC, but totally agree that Alabama needs initiatives like these:

State Rep. Ken Guin checked in from the Democratic Leadership Council's national meeting earlier this week and said he's planning to bring back to Montgomery ideas on tax incentives for solar technology and spreading broadband internet access into the state's more rural areas.

Everyone in Alabama should have affordable high speed internet access -- it's the only way to keep small towns from becoming ghost towns in the face of soaring transportation costs.  As for tax incentives for solar and other alternative energy technologies, that's just a no-brainer.  Alabama's rural communities would see a big benefit from these initiatives -- dare we hope they will have bipartisan support in the Alabama Legislature?

AL-03: One Step Closer To Blue

by: mooncat

Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 14:00:47 PM CDT

House Editor David Wasserman of the Cook Politial Report (subscription) has released a new batch of race rating changes, including an upgrade for Alabama's 3rd District.

The poor national climate for the GOP and the DCCC's unprecedented financial edge makes even very difficult districts for Democrats worth keeping tabs on. ...

AL-03    Mike Rogers    Solid Republican to Likely Republican

Democrat Josh Segall has been raising money on a par with the incumbent Rogers and this upgrade should excite his supporters even more.  It might even be the boost he needs to make it onto the DCCC's Red to Blue list.

I'm telling you, Segall is a solid progressive candidate running in a district with favorable demographics.  And a weak incumbent.  In a terrible climate for Republicans and incumbents.  This one is doable.

Help Josh Segall turn Alabama's 3rd Blue in 2008!

Total Lack of Justice

by: mooncat

Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 10:37:32 AM CDT

Cottonmouth quotes Alex Alston on the total lack of justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court:

During the past 4 1/2 years, according to my research, an astonishing 88 percent of all jury verdicts in favor of the wronged victims have been reversed by the state Supreme Court.

But what about the jury trials won by defendants, in which the victim takes an appeal to correct an error? Here, again, the numbers are staggering.

Over the same 4 1/2-year-period, a plaintiff's success rate in reversing a jury verdict for the defendant is an astonishing zero.

The defendant corporation, hospital, or insurance company prevailed in 100 percent of these cases. It is difficult to imagine victims of negligence and fraud losing 100 percent of the time, but that is the way it is in the state Supreme Court in a plaintiff's appeal.

Their high court has been bought and paid for by business and corporate interests.  The Alabama Supreme Court is in much the same shape since the BCA brought in Rove and Co. to pack the state courts with business friendly Republican justices.  At present Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb is the only Democrat on any of Alabama's appellate courts, although that could very well change this fall -- see Deborah Bell Paseur. 

I'm not aware of research like Alston's into decisions of the Alabama Supreme Court, but there is a strong impression they have a business-friendly tilt.  Not too long ago they overturned not one, but two jury verdicts in a dispute between the State of Alabama and Exxon/Mobile and cost state taxpayers literally billions of dollars.

On Alabama Accents

by: villagernyc

Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 22:21:50 PM CDT

From a guest columnist, Jack Bray, that appeared in The St Petersburg Times:

I've been here in Cullman, Ala., since last October, and I have no idea what some of the folks are sayin'.

LINK TO FULL STORY AT ST PETERSBURG TIMES 

I still have my Alabama accent...even after 16 years in New York City. It had been pointed out, by those constant, "where are you from's" at bars, classes and other person to person encounters. So, one day, as part of an assignment at Columbia University's J-School, I thought to myself, why not do a little research and write a piece that takes a closer look at why some of us talk the way we do.  Here's that story:

LINK TO SOUTHERN ACCENTS STILL COME ON STRONG 

AL-02: Now They've Dragged Bob Riley Into the Mud Pit

by: mooncat

Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 15:43:47 PM CDT

Don't ya love Republican runoff fights ?

Things are quiet up here in the 5th district, but Jay Love and Harri Anne Smith are mixing it up pretty good down in the 2nd.  First it was the dueling tax ads, now Harri Anne's media advisors have dragged Gov. Riley into the mud -- or at least video of him.

The ad, which began airing over the weekend, accuses Love of catering to oil companies when he helped vote down Riley's proposal earlier this year to sharply raise taxes on offshore natural gas wells.

It uses footage from a video news release Riley produced in March and blends it with other material to suggest that Riley is personally criticizing Love.

"When you put the interests of big oil over the people of Alabama..." Riley says in the ad before a narrator interrupts and says: "Who did? Jay Love did. With big oil reporting billions of dollars in profits and continuing to increase the price of gasoline, Jay Love voted against making big oil pay their fair share."

"What they did is unconscionable," Riley continues before the narrator ends with, "Jay Love: higher taxes and gas prices for you, tax breaks for big oil."

It looks enough like the governor is taking Love to task that Bob Riley felt the need to reiterate that he is not officially endorsing either Love or Smith in the runoff. 

The bill discussed in the ad concerned a natural gas surtax that would have hit Exxon/Mobil hard.  Love voted to kill it in committee - big surprise.  Although her ad criticises Love for that vote, Smith has declined to state how she would have voted if the bill had made it to the Senate floor.  That makes the contrast less effective, but I guess it keeps the door open for some Big Oil money if she makes it to the general election -- or for some Big Oil money to her state Senate campaign if she doesn't.

Rove Crowd Takes Over McCain Campaign

by: mooncat

Thu Jul 03, 2008 at 00:05:34 AM CDT

If you still doubted it, here's fresh evidence that John McCain is running for Bush's third term.  The McCain campaign underwent a major overhaul today and Karl Rove's crowd ended up running the show. 

McCain, who's in Latin America, gave increased authority over his campaign's daily workings to operative Steve Schmidt, a veteran of the Bush 2004 campaign who likely learned a thing or two from Karl Rove back then.

From Adam Nagourney in the NYT:

Mr. Schmidt’s elevation is the latest sign of increasing influence of veterans of Mr. Rove’s shop in the McCain operation. Nicolle Wallace, who was communications director for Mr. Bush in the 2004 campaign (and in his White House) has joined the campaign as a senior adviser, and will travel with Mr. McCain every other week. Greg Jenkins, another veteran of Mr. Rove’s operation who is a former Fox News producer and director of the presidential advance team in the Bush White House, was hired by Mr. Schmidt last week after a series of what Mr. McCain’s advisers acknowledged were poorly executed campaign events.

Mr. Rove, who was Mr. Bush’s senior political adviser until he left the White House last year, was said by Mr. McCain’s advisers to have offered advice in recent days to Mr. Schmidt and others on how to get Mr. McCain’s campaign on track, but has stayed mostly on the periphery. Mr. Rove is aware, his associates said, that his own legacy could be helped should Mr. McCain succeed in winning the presidency.

Frank James sums it up:

The ascendance of more Rovians in the McCain people reminds me of something I once heard Wayne Slater, a Dallas Morning News reporter who co-wrote a book on Rove called "Bush's Brain" say. Slater said that Rove had trained so many Republican operatives in his strategies and methods that if he were to get hit by a bus, it would have little effect, the next generation of Rovians were ready to take over. And so they are.

Rovian "strategies and methods:" dirty tricks, personal destruction of opponents, push polls-- will they accuse Obama of having a white baby? --  anything to get elected and no idea how to govern.  In short, four more years of everything voters are sick of now.  Bush's third term, that's the promise of John McCain and Karl Rove.   

Wednesday Evening Roundup

by: Redeye

Wed Jul 02, 2008 at 19:59:22 PM CDT

New Voters are fired up and ready to go!  According to Facing South 300,000 (yes you read it right) new voters have been added to the rolls in Georgia since Janurary.  North Carolina added just over 203,000 (yes you read it right) new voters to their rolls. Maybe that is why the GOP is crying "voter fraud". Emphasis mine: 

  When asked who these oversized claims of voter fraud were targeting, Minnite said it was likely people who did not pay attention to facts in campaigns.

    "Probably the same people who think Obama is a Muslim," she said. "What I mean is that "voter fraud" is a form of racial coding for 'we must stop at least some black people (also known as Democrats in polite company) from voting or we are going to lose this election.' Commentators on the growing power of the internet to facilitate the spread of propaganda also like to talk about 'viral' messages. I would say this is one."

Guess which Alabama State Senator was the keynote speaker at the Council For Conservative Citizens.

Bush joins the "Terrist"?  Don't tell Fox News.

Discussion Post:

Why Whites are Blind to their Racism

Take the Racism Vision Test (This is deep).

Color Blind Racism?