The Progressive Electorate - Front Page

Trumka: Boehner's Idea of Job Creation is to Hire a Second Caddy.

Curtis Abbey — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:40:38 GMT

Labor is getting behind John Boehner's opponent Justin Coussoule. From the AFL-CIO blog today.

Be sure to visit BeatBoehner.com, and click here to find out more about Justin Coussoule who is running with labor's support to unseat Boehner in Ohio's 8th Congressional District. He is a West Point graduate, a former Army captain, a lawyer and a small business owner.
Boehner's so-called job creation strategy is to return to the Bush policies of tax cuts for the wealthy and Big Business and free rein on Wall Street. Tuesday in St. Louis, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka summed up Boehner's jobs program.
His idea of job creation is to hire a second caddy.

Blue America PAC has been doing a great job with their support of Justin Coussoule. Labor is joining their campaign and backing this ad, which is up on at least one billboard in his district.

We had Justin Coussoule on my facebook group Progress For a More Perfect Union last week for a Q+A and I was pretty impressed with his answers, especially to my question :) If you missed it here's another go.

Question 1 - Grassroots Support Nationally
Spandan Chakrabarti Thank you for challenging John Boehner. What kind of grassroots as well as national Democratic support are you getting, and how can we get you more?

Answer
We're all grassroots. No national party support. We need vols, $ and votes. Anything people can do to help spread the word! A little help from a lot of people will help get us there.

Question 2 - Net Neutrality
Martin: 1. What do you think about the debate over net neutrality?

Answer
@ Martin: Support net neutrality. One more place we need to prevent big business from crowding out the people's right to be heard.

Question 3 - Polling
Brad: How are you faring in the polls, Justin? I haven't seen any numbers so far.

Answer
Brad: No one has ever bothered to poll here. Boehner hasn't faced a real challenge in the 20 years he's been in the House. A good District poll is about $20k.

Question 4 - R+14 District
Chris McGann Hey, Justin. Great to have you here. My question: Your opponent seems more interested in becoming Speaker of the House than working for the people. I like that strategy, but how do you convince the people of an R +14 district to support a Democrat?
Answer
This District is 55% Ind. The rest is split evenly D and R. The D's have chosen never to compete here against Boehner. That's why the R+14. Boehner has taken his constituents for granted once again and is actively running for Speaker. The people here are tired of his arrogance. We need a voice in the House, not a Speaker. Someone who is in touch with the people of the District. That's what the majority of the voters here want. We hear it every day.

Question 5 - Boehner Not Representing His District
Anastasia Pantsios Does it seem to you that voters are becoming more aware of Boehner's lack of concern for regular people's lives? What are they saying to you about his failure to campaign in the district, if anything?

Answer
We know that Boehner's strategy will be to ignore us for as long as he can. As soon as he acknowledges us or reacts to us then he gives us credibility. So we'll keep on talking to voters 3 and 4 at a time and building our campaign up one day at a time as we have for the last 7 months. It's a case of turning an opponent's strength into a weakness. He needs to act like he's got nothing to worry about in his home district, and we'll keep exploiting that.

Question 6 - Health Care
Jeff Reed
What are your thoughts on the Health Care bill? What improvements could be made? Thoughts on the Public Option? My state of Missouri just voted overwhelmingly against the mandates, something I did not support without the presence of a public option.
Thank you Justin, and best of luck from MO-9.

Answer
The health care bill was a good start. We need a public option. We need more effective reform. Our goal should be affordability and accessibility. The current reality (1/6 of our economy spent on health care and we're not even close to the most healthy country in the world) is just not sustainable. It's consuming our economy and us, and many of our citizens are suffering from lack of care.

Question 7 What Can We Do To Help?
Jacqueline Jacqrat Propps Hi Justin, so excited and proud of your campaign against the evil that is Boehner. What can people do, either in OH-08 our outside your district to help your campaign gain ground? What do you need for us to do to help you #BeatBoehner.com?

Answer
Great question. We need dollars and volunteers to help us win votes. It's that simple. People in district can help us knock doors and make calls. People outside the district can help make calls. Everyone can help spread the word by forwarding our website, FB, Twitter. Tell everyone you know about our campaign and ask them to follow us and tell their friends. And of course, everyone can donate. Every dollar counts. Radio and cable TV spots are as cheap as $50-$100 each. Yard signs are $1 each. We're an all volunteer, grassroots campaign, so every dollar helps advance this worthy fight, not pay consultants.

Questions 8+9 Jobs and the Economy
Rory Michael: Justin, nobody can deny that there is still a major problem with foreclosures across the nation, and that our economy is still not where it needs to be. When you make it to DC, what do you plan to do to address the crisis we continue to face?

Maria Suhr: Hi Justin...what are your thoughts on how to create jobs in OH-8 and the nation? I think that is what people are really focused on right now.

Answer
I don't have a magic bullet on the economy. No one does. If they did, they would have used it by now. It took decades to get in this hole. It will take years to climb back out. People like Boehner who offer quick fixes and easy answers just want a vote. He has no ideas, except more of what got us in this mess. We need to make things in this country again. We need real jobs for working middle-class people. Green jobs are one possibility. Whatever the next big industry is, we need to get in on it, innovate, be the world leader. We need to make products and provide services right here in the US again. Fair trade, not free trade.

Question 10 - Lake Communities
Anastasia Pantsios Have you talked to people around Grand Lake St. Mary's? What are they thinking and telling you? What do you think needs to be done to restore the lake to acceptable condition for recreational use?

Answer
The Lake communities need money, now. They know what the problem is and how to fix it. We need to help the businesses and the communities survive in the short-term, kill the algae in the lake and then address the upstream sources of contamination with the farm practices that we know will reduce the impact on the lake. All of this takes money and a little leadership and support from the state, local and federal government. The people of GLSM don't need hand-holding, but they do need a little help from their Rep. Sadly, they're not getting it. Boehner has chosen to ignore them. Essentially telling them that they are on their own.

Question 11 - Lobbyists and Change
Hi Justin, I would like to know how lobbyist's are allowed to practice? I feel they buy our politicians and cause any real change from happening. Would love a yard sign here in Hamilton.. TY

Answer
Agreed. That's exactly what we're fighting in this race. Boehner is the most coin-operated career politician in Washington. Want to know where his priorities lie - follow the money. They ain't with the middle class, I'll tell you that. If you send us a note through our campaign website asking for a yard sign, we'll get you one! And thank you! Spread the good word!

Question 12 - Guantanamo Bay
Spandan Chakrabarti Since you are a military person, I am wondering how - or if - you plan to add your voice to closing Guantanamo Bay, if you are elected.

Answer
Gitmo should be closed ASAP. I'd like to see the President follow through on this commitment.

Question 13 - West Point Experience and Military Contracting
Curtis here. What lessons could you bring to the Congress from West Point?
In the military is there much of a debate about how private contractors should be used? Do you think we have a healthy mix now or should there be changes to our procedures for military contracting?

Answer
Most important West Point lessons: always put the needs of those you serve ahead of your own - public service is synonymous with selfless service; leaders of character choose the harder right over the easier wrong, they do the right thing even when no on is watching. The most important lesson is that leaders of character never compromise their honor or integrity. Stay true to that core principle and that is all anyone can ask of you. As far as contractors, in some instances they are OK. But we need a self-contained fighting force that is highly trained and cohesive. We can't hire out our nation's defenses. That just doesn't work. Ask the Romans. And the waste, fraud abuse and fleecing of the US taxpayer that seems common place in military contracting should make us all very suspicious.

Question 14 - Female Candidates
Rory Michael Justin, an AP article was released today (the 90th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment) stating that we still have a huge gap in how many female candidates are elected to office, what are your thoughts on this?

Answer
Women are slightly more than half of the US population. We need more women in elected office at every level and in the judiciary. Our institutions of government should reflect the people they serve.

Question 15 - Accessability
Laura Thomas Justin, Are you going to be a hands on congressman? If I have a concern, can I call your office?

Answer

Absolutely. I live in this district with my wife and young children. I have no intention of spending any more time away from SW Ohio than I have to. That is exactly the problem we have now - an out of touch, absentee politician. We need to get back to basics - accessible and accountable representation.

Question 16 - Republicans Taking Over House and Senate
Linda Morris Justin are you fearful that we Dems will lose the majority in both houses as was reported today. When you win how will that affect the things you want to do?

Answer
As Dems, we need to get up off the mats and fight. The R's are trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they say they will win majorities over and over, then people and the media start to parrot their mantra. They are not offering anything of substance as an alternative. In this race, Boehner is doing the same thing, hoping that if he repeats that he's the next Speaker enough then everyone will just assume that's reality. Don't believe it. Get energized and fight for the government that we deserve.

Question 17 - Golf courses
Anastasia Pantsios Do you think the 8th district needs more golf courses?

Answer
I think the Gov. is on the right track with GLSM. But I think his plan doesn't fully go into effect for 2 years. The lake and its communities can't wait that long. And no, we don't need more golf course in OH-8! We need more jobs after 20-years of failed representation by Boehner. Where are the jobs Mr. Boehner! Let's put Boehner on his home course permanently, so he can play golf even more than his current 100+ times per year.

Closing Remarks from Justin Coussoule
Thanks to all for the great questions and the words of support. Please help us spread the word and keep an eye on our campaign. With a little help from a lot of people, we can fight for and win real change for OH-8 and our country!

Justin Coussoule's facebook page
Justin's campaign page
If you can give any amount is appreciated, no matter how small. Even $1 sends a message. Thanks to your support so far we're nearly at our goal for this cycle!

No more META, no more handwringing, time to kick @$$

MinistryOfTruth — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 20:34:15 GMT

Elections are only 2 months away people.

2 short months . . .

And all that is standing between Speaker John Boehner and the impeachment of Barack Obama for his birth certificate or some other nonsense is YOU!

Since time is short I am making a commitment to write solely about elections from here on until Election day, and I am asking all of you to read, recommend and support articles that are election based, because we simply do not have the time or resources to waste. It is election season, boys and girls. It is time to kick @$$ (in a political way, with brains!)

Today I would like to ask you to support a REAL Democrat for congress . . .

Meet Lance Enderle!

Lance is a working class guy who is challenging a special interest owned Republican incumbent who has advocated for Drilling for Oil in the Great Lakes, the Bush tax cuts for the rich, and all of the failed policies of the Bush/Cheney Administration that we are still cleaning up today.

More below the fold . . .
If you are serious about electing MORE and BETTER Democrats, you couldn't start with a better candidate in 2010 than Lance Enderle.

Our own fellow Kossack Brainwrap has done an excellent job in covering this race in the 8th House district of Michigan, and I have had the pleasure of speaking to Lance over the phone. Lance strikes me as a no holds barred, fighting Democrat, with shades of Ed Shultz and Alan Grayson mixed in, but to learn more about the man himself, read his own words . . .

I'm a 41 year-old single parent and grandfather. I'm also a laid-off educator who understands the hardships facing most Americans today firsthand.
I was born and raised in Lansing and graduated from Lansing Eastern High School in 1987. My father was a combat-wounded WWII Veteran, Lansing Police Officer and Small Business owner; my mother taught in the Waverly schools for 37 years. Both of them provided the strong foundation for my belief in public service.
I've been active in Democratic politics for many years, running for state office 12 years ago. I'm running to be your Congressman because I believe in the Democratic process; the words "can't" and "impossible" do not exist in my vocabulary-this is America; anything is possible!
I originally ran as write-in candidate because the Democratic candidate who was running dropped out, leaving the Democratic Party without a REAL candidate or choice on the ballot, thus giving Mr. Rogers a free ride in the November election. I could not allow Mr. Rogers to go without opposition in the fall, so I made the decision to be part of the solution instead of the problem.
So, here I am, hoping to lead by example on what is wrong with our political process. I want to be a voice of the People and not special interests. I want to eliminate the need for money to run campaigns and get back to the root of our great American experiment called Democracy. I am a free thinker who believes in doing the right thing, because it's harder to do the right thing and be honest and forthright. If given the privilege and honor to serve the People of Michigan and this great country of ours, it is my goal to bring integrity back to the office and do what is in the best interest of ALL people.
I am an individual who lives and breathes for the people. I want to bring integrity back to the game, one House seat at a time!
This is why I ask you for your support and more importantly your vote!
This November 2nd, please vote for Lance Enderle for Congress to give Michigan's 8th District true representation.

lanceenderleforcongress.com

This is your choice, and the time is short.

You can either support good, working class people like Lance Enderle to represent us in Congress, or we will get stuck with more out of touch, bought off people like Mike Rogers, who thinks only of the special interests who donate to his re-election, and will be a certain vote for John Boehner for Speaker of the House and the impeachment of President Obama, whenever the GOP figures out what baloney scandal they will concoct to impeach him over.

So act now, before it is too late.

And get ready to kick @$$, because the time is now, and we are the ones we've been waiting for!

Check out Lance Enderle's website to learn more about him and his campaign at lanceenderleforcongress

And if you can, please donate to the Lance Enderle campaign with ActBlue

Also, you can follow Lance on Twitter here

Or go to Facebook and show your support for a fighting, working class Representative of the people, not the corporations

You want to beat the wingnuts? Do you want to support this President and continue to fight for jobs, progress and all the kind of things that make Glenn Beck and David Koch cry? I know I do.

So what are you waiting for? We've got work to do, and time is running short.

Peace

Don't Evict The Phantom of the Historic Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:34:13 GMT

I've only been inside the Fox Theatre one time in my life and I had a feeling then that it was a magical place. My cousin and I went to see Jeff Foxworthy tell some You Might Be a Redneck Jokes sometime around 1994 when we were in high school. Don't hold it against me please. I've always wanted to go back to the Fox at some point although I just haven't had the opportunity.

I got directed to a fascinating story this morning about a man named Joe Patten that lives in an apartment hidden in the Fox Theatre. Over the past hour, I've clicked on story after story after learning that the Fox Theatre wants Mr. Patten to sign a new lease which could terminate his stay at the Fox.

Patten, formerly the theater's technical director, has lived in a 3,640-square-foot apartment rent-free for 30 years. The lease, signed in December 1979, said he could remain there for life.
That lease could be terminated if Patten became permanently disabled for 180 days or more and a panel of three doctors said he should be hospitalized. The lease also could be terminated if Atlanta Landmarks, the nonprofit that runs the Fox, does so by a two-thirds vote.
That's what happened at a closed meeting Monday afternoon.The board issued Patten a new lease, one that says he can live there "as long as he is able."Vella said that means "when Joe needs significantly more care," such as live-in aide.

I'm not sure about the legality of forcing a new lease upon him if he had signed a lease allowing him a life long agreement. A group of folks have started a wonderful Facebook page titled Save Joe the Phantom of the Fox in support of allowing Mr. Patten to stay in the Fox under his current agreement.

theater

Elder care is a touchy subject. However, I believe that we must honor the wishes of the individual to live how they choose. As we grow older we should be able to enjoy our lives. In this case it appears the Fox would not even exist today without Mr. Patten's tender care of this facility over the past thirty years. A new lease reeks of ageism as Mr. Patten appears to be in good health and has plenty of friends and family willing to assist him. We also learned that originally that someone associated with the Fox essentially sent Patten a letter saying he needed to leave. The decision to ask Mr. Patten that seems cold and callous. Furthermore, the Fox theater seems to have created a public relations nightmare.

We will keep you posted as this story progresses. In the meantime we hope you will join the facebook page and learn more about Joe Patten.

How To do a Q+A on Facebook

Curtis Abbey — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 18:05:02 GMT

We've been hosting a lot of Q+A's with candidates and Representatives and have had an amazing time. I thought I'd take a second and write something up to show potential interviewees how a Q+A happens.

Step 1
a. Set up the time, date and duration of the meeting.
b. Exchange phone numbers and facebook names or gmail addresses between Progressive electorate staff and campaign staff. This way we can help out if you have any questions about getting to the Q+A.
c. Choose whether you want moderated or unmoderated questions.

Step 2 is promoting the event. We'd like the candidate to put out a message on his/her facebook page letting people know when and where we are meeting.

Step 3 is getting the candidate to our facebook page Progress for a More Perfect Union. Click that link or go to http://www.facebook.com/progre...

It should look like this.

The top post will start to fill up with questions. That is where you should respond. The lower posts are ones we've made over the past hours to let people know your candidate is coming. Feel free to comment there, but people will expect your comments in that top post.

Step 4 Click the View Comments / View All Comments button to see the questions that have been asked.

Your screen should then look like this.

Step 5 Answer Questions

We'll then provide you with a hardcopy of the event here at the Progressive Electorate. Previous events were:
1/27/10 with Joe Sestak
8/19/10 with Alan Grayson
8/26/10 with Justin Coussoule (D taking on John Boehner)

League of the South Praised George Wallace the Segregationist When Cecil Williamson Was a Member

admin — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 04:57:08 GMT

Related Articles
The League of the South When Cecil Williamson Was a Member Part I

League of South Writings Condemned Brown v. Board When Cecil Williamson Was a Member

The third installment from Edward Sebesta in The League of the South While Cecil Williamson Was a Member series. Cecil Williamson is the current City Council President of Selma, Alabama which is a predominantly African American city. He has refused to resign in light of revelations about his past association with the League of the South a recognized hate group.This edition focuses on the Leagues praise for George Wallace the Segregationist, an the attempt to create a new Southern Party and criticism of the 14th Amendment (equal protection). .

By no means have I exhaustively covered the extremism of the League of the South, but I merely mention highlights of some of their more outrageous and easy to explain items. In the next installment I will cover some highlights of the League of the South web page.
In Vol. 5 No. 5, Sept. - Oct. 1998, the Southern Patriot eulogized George Wallace, but not the Wallace who regretted his stand for segregation, but the George Wallace, who defiantly stood for segregation. Also, the Christian Reconstructionism of the League of the South is explicitly stated. Note, that the League of the South adopted its own spellings for words. For example it doesn't like the letter "z" and thinks British spelling is more authentically Southern.
League President Hill explains that the goal is to have a Christian republic, in an article "Christian Southerners" explaining:
To do otherwise than first seek to serve our God and Creator in the cause of a Southern Republic would place us on no higher ground than 'those people,' and would betray not only our Lord but also the memory of our Confederate ancestors. From the beginning, the League has charted a course far more ambitious (and dangerous) than the run-of-the-mill conservative organisation. Indeed, we envisioned ourselves as a movement whose end was not self-perpetuation and self-aggrandisement, but the establishment of a republic based on the Christian principles of our Confederate ancestors. Where else in all this modern, progressive world is there a movement to establish such a republic? Nowhere, of course. We are the only people labouring to do what our Christian forefathers once attempted to do. Let us not become some policy-driven conservative organisation that seeks salvation in politics, nor some emasculated spiritual lap-dog such as the Christian Coalition. Rather, let us 'play the men' the same way our forebears did when faced with overwhelming odds. Like them, we should put our trust in the Lord and His glory at the heart of our cause and then move ahead with the courage of the faithful to confront the enemy that stands before us.
There are those in the Southern independence movement who would prefer that we leave the Christian element out of our drive for independence. We might as well leave the principles of Lee, Jackson, Stuart, and Davis out of that inspiration which we derive from the Confederacy. These were men whose every action was moved by a belief in God's sovereignty and His covenantal promises.? By? pledging?ourselves to the? League's? objective? of? freeing the?South? from? an? ungodly? Jacobin regime,? we? become?parties? to? that covenant. Thus we bear a great responsibility to the generation of Southerners that will follow us.

Our Confederate ancestors, regardless of their sectarian affiliations, were uncompromising defenders of the orthodox Christian faith, and so should we be-as defenders of the last bastion of what used to be called Western Christendom. The League, in its 10-point manifesto, is pledged to 'Defend the historic Christian faith of the South.' Indeed, Trinitarian Christianity cannot be separated or removed from Southern society or culture without both ceasing to be Southern. Let us then abjure the world, the flesh, and the devil and look to the superintending Providence of the God of the Ages. Only then will we find ourselves in agreement with Lee: 'God's will ought to be our own aim, and I am quite contented that His designs should be accomplished and not mine.' This is the wisdom of true Christian liberty.

League President Hill, defends George Wallace the segregationist . Complaining about press coverage mentioning Wallace's change in view regarding race in his later years, Hill praises George Wallace the segregationist as follows:
We take issue with the media and clergy who have said that the fiery Governor could be well remembered only in light of his volte-face. George Wallace at the peak of his political career stood foursquare against the Yankee-imposed ideology of egalitarianism on the South. Like many of the South's great statesmen before him, Wallace understood that a Jacobin-inspired mechanical equality stood in contradistinction to nature and to Biblical teaching and could only be enforced by an all-powerful central government. The destruction of states rights in the South was the first necessity leading to forced policies undermining the cultural dominance of the Anglo-Celtic people and their institutions. Wallace rightly identified the enemy and fought it until the attempt on his life in 1972.

In the same issue , League member John Vinson is upset with churches which think all souls are equal and don't realize that true Christianity involves white supremacy. He states:
Recently one outspoken Southerner, who describes himself as 'unreconstructed,' expressed a favourable view of Martin Luther King, the 20th century apostle of equality. It didn't seem to register on him that King was also an arch-partisan of Big Government and socialist redistribution.

And:
Equality is indeed a religious principle today, both in and out of churches. Yet it is not a biblical principle, nor a principle of historic Christianity. The God of the Bible is 'no respector of persons' only in insisting that there is only one way for men to be saved. Yet He is partial in that he does not choose to save all men. He loved Jacob and hated Esau.
Christian love, according to the Bible, is fulfilling the law of God, as stated most concisely in the Ten Commandments (Romans 13:8-10). The Commandments affirm that the three Persons of the triune God are superior to man and require his worship. They also affirm the distinctions of property (thou shalt not steal) and kinship (honour thy father and mother). These distinctions imply inequality, a fact not missed by socialists who have always wanted to eliminate them.

And:
Leading them astray are teachers who, either because of ignorance or self-seeking, confuse Christian doctrine with the heresies bound up in the Yankee creed. Often they preach that saving souls is the only mission of the church. In the fashion of the Gnostics they seem to scorn the physical world-and not care if tyrants happen to rule it.
Similarly they preach that all souls are equal, and that distinctions of flesh and blood such as ethnicity are meaningless. Thus, they maintain, Christian peoples such as Anglo-Celtic Southerners have no right to speak out or organise on their own behalf because that would be racist or unloving.

The Vol. 5 No. 6, Nov.-Dec. issue has an article in which League President Hill is upset with the Republican Party, who he calls the "Stupid Party" for not adopting a politics of race as he explains and complains:
But Fob James (whom we supported) failed to appeal to Alabama's white, rural voters who have always been his main supporters. After being harshly criticised in the media, James apparently lost his taste for racial politics which won him the Republican primary in June. Blacks across the South, however, were drawn to the polls in November by race-based campaigns ads. Simply put, the Democrats had the guts to appeal to their constituents and the Republicans did not.

And:
There are some clear advantages in starting a party at present. The GOP likely will move further toward the political centre in hopes of avoiding charges of 'right wing extremism' (their greatest fear since the1995 Oklahoma City bombing) and of appealing to more blacks and Hispanics (a forlorn hope, indeed). The GOP's 'big tent' will then have little room for a traditional conservative agenda. Already the Republicans have abandoned a large part of their white Southern support base on issues such as immigration, gun control, lower taxes, and smaller, less intrusive government.

Hill concludes the article with proposing a political party. The League did attempt to form a Southern Party, but it fell apart due to bickering in the movement.
The same issue has part one of a two part eulogy for George Wallace by William L. Cawthorn.
Compare the feisty, self-confident, 'fightin' little judge' Wallace who in his first inaugural in 1963 spoke the noble words: 'Let us rise to the call of the freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . .' to the apologetic, timid, reconstructed, compliant post-assassination Wallace, and you have in a nutshell the catastrophic demise of the Southern spirit. The South was right to resist federal usurpations of authority during the 1960s just as it was during the 1860s. Whether any changes in Southern society should have been made, and if so, what changes, were the proper province of the Southern States and the people thereof, not of the federal government and its bureaucrats and judges. That is simply the States' Rights stance of a properly understood American federalism. National control of education and social engineering of the South were not powers given by the Constitution to the federal government.

And:
The South succumbed to what perhaps has been the most massively successful effort at social engineering in the history of the world allowing its social order to be remade in the image of a radical egalitarianism as fine tuned in Northern universities, Washington bureaucracies, and the federal courts. This second Reconstruction has been a success beyond the wildest dreams of the early reformers, so thoroughly brainwashing the Southern mind that even 'conservative' Southerners espouse perfect satisfaction with the world that egalitarian idealism and Yankee might made.

In Vol. 6 No. 1, Jan. - Feb. 1999, Cawthorn has
part II of his article about George Wallace, opening up with this commentary:
You may be aware that by 2053 the U.S. Census Bureau predicts a majority nonwhite America. But most are unaware that after 2030, according to Census Bureau projections, the non-Hispanic white population of the U.S. will begin a long annual decrease in absolute numbers -- negative population growth for whites -- while the Hispanic, Asian and black populations will grow by millions every decade. With the failure of the U.S. Congress to restrict immigration, with low white birthrates, and with the rapid rise of mixed race marriages, the white population of the United States in a hundred years could easily be no more than 10-25% of the total, and dropping every year, so that eventually few whites would be left here. The traditions of the Anglo-Celtic South would then be an alien, and to many, a hated memory. This future is not fantasy. It is the logical outcome of present policy and trends.
We are set on this course of ethnocide because we submitted to the Almighty State and the egalitarian world view during the integration crisis. Most are paralyzed, believing they are powerless to do anything about it because to even think in these terms is considered 'racist' by our society and virtually a crime against the State, a '1984' scenario if ever there was one. The forces that initiated Western decline also demanded the total, unconditional integration of the South, which has been achieved more thoroughly than ever thought possible. The social structure of the South has been so reconfigured and behavior and policy so reconstructed that a multicultural fate, which is a mere cover for an anti-white and anti-Western fate, is virtually built into our future.

In the Vol. 6 No. 5, Sept. - Oct. 1999 newsletter , the League of the South recommends Jared Taylor's notorious racist "New Century Report on Crime" which argues blacks are a criminal menace to white people.
Hill has other complaints about the 14th amendment and asserts that the 14th amendment isn't legitimate.
In the Vol. 6 No. 6, Nov. - Dec. 1999 newsletter League president Hill attacks the 14th amendment writing:
But leaving aside the intent of the framers of the 14th Amendment, let us pursue an equally important question that is left out of the history books-the fraudulent 'ratification' of that amendment in 1868. This issue looms large because most of the judicial mischief of the present century has been done under vague interpretations of the language of the amendment-'privileges and immunities,' 'due process,' and 'equal protection.' Indeed, wrong-headed liberal interpretations of the 14th Amendment have turned Abraham Lincoln's malignant egalitarianism into rights-based social policies. And the evil genie of universal 'human rights,' once loosed from its bottle, can never be restrained because 'rights'-for women, racial and ethnic minorities, homosexuals, pedophiles, etc.-can be manufactured endlessly. This produces a demand that can never be satisfied and thus an excuse for an infinite 'refashioning' of society.

To be continued.

McAdams Gets Poll Bounce from Murkowski Conceeding - Down only Six (AK-Sen)

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 23:04:55 GMT

Over the past few days, I saw comments from a number of Alaska political observers that believed Scott McAdams would immediately benefit once Joe Miller officially became the Republican nominee. They were spot on according to the most recent poling numbers.

Last night, Rasmussen polled Alaska voters after learning of the Lisa Murkowski concession speech.

The latest statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Miller attracting 50% of the vote, while McAdams earns support from 44%. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate and two percent (2%) are undecided.
This survey was conducted Tuesday night just hours after incumbent GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski conceded the Republican nomination during a recount of the August 24 primary. Miller, a lawyer and military veteran, benefited from support from the state's former governor Sarah Palin and Tea Party activists.
Ninety percent (90%) of Democrats back McAdams while 79% of Republicans throw their vote behind Miller. McAdams holds a 22-point lead among voters not affiliated with either major political party.

Rasmussen moved this race from Solidly Republican to Leans Republican which is certainly positive movement for the Democrats. The low number of undecideds are jumping out as something that concerns me at the moment. A poll from last week, performed by Public Policy Polling , showed Miller leading McAdams by 8 points (47-39 with 14 % undecided).

Now the caveat is that I haven't see the polling questions to offer an more in-depth analysis of the format. This is welcomed news for the Democrats and the McAdams camp. We love this race because of it's underdog nature and all the story lines.

Remember to donate to Scott McAdams via our Act Blue Page

Grayson: Crist Thinks Palin Would Be A Good President

Curtis Abbey — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 18:14:00 GMT

I got an e-mail this morning from Alan Grayson

"She'd do a great job." That's what Charlie Crist said about Sarah Palin as President of the United States. If that doesn't tell you where he stands, then I don't know what does.
Crist may want us to forget he's a conservative Republican, but the past keeps coming back to haunt him.
That's just one reason I'm supporting Kendrick Meek. Kendrick understands that you don't send politicians to Washington to flip flop--you send public servants there to get things done.
You know where you stand with Kendrick because he doesn't change his values and beliefs based on which way the political winds are blowing.
We can't let Crist pretend to be a "moderate," particularly after appointing George LeMieux, who's voted no on health care, no on Wall Street reform, and no on extending unemployment benefits. That's why I'm helping Kendrick raise the money he needs now so he can get on the air, reach voters and make sure they know the truth.

This is an important point. We need to leave it all on the road now. We can't afford more votes like Crist's in the Senate. Last minute donations just end up in warchests for next time, now's the time to give. Even $1 sends a message.

"Every last dividend that BP wants to give out should go towards cleaning up this Gulf and making sure that these families are made whole. To teach that in this country corporate greed will not go unpunished and individuals should go to jail, and individuals should pay the price for what they've done" -Kendrick Meek

We need that voice in the Senate.

With your help this cycle at the Progressive Electorate we've raised
Alan Grayson (FL-08) $11596 (exceeded goal $10K)
Tarryl Clark (MN-06) $1534 (goal $2500)
Scott McAdams (AK-Sen) $360 (goal $500)
Justin Coussoule (OH-08) $121 (goal $500)
Anthony Weiner (NY-09) $949 (goal $1000)
Alexi Giannoulias (IL-Sen) $836 (goal $1000)
John Waltz (KY-04) $66 (goal $250)
Jack Conway (KY-Sen) $1060 (goal $1500)
Joe Sestak (PA-Sen) $2415 (goal $2500)
Kendrick Meek (FL-Sen) $204 (goal $1000)
as well as a few thousand between our remaining candidates.

Due to our fundraising we were able to host three online Question and Answer sessions.
1/27/10 with Joe Sestak

What I learned in the Navy were the limits of military power. Militaries don't fix problems, they only stop them. It's the other elements of our power, such as diplomacy, the power of our economy, educational system, rule of law, that truly fix problems for peace and prosperity around the world -- which ultimately ensures our security. That's the lesson I took from 31 years in the Navy, serving around the world and in the White House as director for defense policy -- and serves as the underpinning for my approach to foreign policy.

8/19/10 with Alan Grayson

Question: Thank you for being here. I am wondering if you feel the Democratic chances for election victories in November are as grim as some prognosicators are reporting? Thank you.
Answer: No. I can't believe that America wants to go back to $4 a gallon gas, endless wars, and borrowing from the Chinese to give tax cuts to the rich.

8/26/10 with Justin Coussoule (D taking on John Boehner)

Questions: What lessons could you bring to the Congress from West Point? In the military is there much of a debate about how private contractors should be used? Do you think we have a healthy mix now or should there be changes to our procedures for military contracting?
Answer:
Most important West Point lessons: always put the needs of those you serve ahead of your own - public service is synonymous with selfless service; leaders of character choose the harder right over the easier wrong, they do the right thing even when no on is watching. The most important lesson is that leaders of character never compromise their honor or integrity. Stay true to that core principle and that is all anyone can ask of you. As far as contractors, in some instances they are OK. But we need a self-contained fighting force that is highly trained and cohesive. We can't hire out our nation's defenses. That just doesn't work. Ask the Romans. And the waste, fraud abuse and fleecing of the US taxpayer that seems common place in military contracting should make us all very suspicious.

I'm going to be getting my boots on the ground this fall, I've volunteered for Gavin Newsom's campaign for Lt. Governor and I'm going to be walking the busy streets with signs for Jerry Brown, Barbara Boxer and (maybe for Proposition 19, I just doubt I'll have the time).

What are you all doing to leave it on the road? Have you donated, volunteered, spread the word about candidates on social media like twitter/facebook? Any little bit helps, we know that the votes on Nov 2 will dictate the votes for the next two years.

Now's the time. I'll match $5 from each of the first 5 donations to Kendrick Meek via the Progressive Electorate Act Blue link and I'll match $5 from the first 2 donations to anyone else on our list. Every little bit helps radio/tv spots can be as little as 50-100 a piece and a yard sign is $1.

Breaking : Murkowski Concedes / We can Win With McAdams

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 05:10:27 GMT

This just in: Murkowski concedes .

"It's been a long week," Murkowski told reporters at her campaign headquarters in Anchorage. "I don't see a scenario where we could win."

Remember the latest poll from Public Policy Polling showed McAdams only trailing Miller by 8 points

Miller leads Democratic nominee Scott McAdams 47-39. McAdams benefits from a more united party, getting 81% of the Democratic vote to Miller's 73% of the Republicans. The candidates split even with independents at 42%, a good number for Democrats in a year where their candidates are largely getting blown out with that group of voters.

Rand Paul, Sharrron Angle and Joe Miller - The Gifts that Keep on Giving.

Joe Miller has never been elected to public office. The Democrat,David Guttenberg, who beat him in a run for State Representative had this to say about Miller

I beat this fool when he ran against me in 2004. Miller speaks drivel. He clearly cares nothing about the lives of Alaskans just about this constitutional double talk. If I was a Tea Party supporter, I would worry about this guy being my champion. I believe he is a career wanna-be big high mucky muck, who wants to be in charge of you life.

McAdams on the other hand has held elected office as both the Mayor of Sitka and was President of the Association of Alaska School Boards. We have a clear choice: either the Palin backed Candidate or a true underdog netroots hero.

Murkowski did not take questions and certainly did not give any indications as to whom she would be supporting in her brief statement tonight.

From Mudflats last week

Less than 48 hours after Scott McAdams was declared the winner of the democratic primary for U.S. Senate in Alaska, he is already the #5 fundraiser on ActBlue. Let's get him to number one NOW. He needs capital to get this campaign rolling into high gear. Even a small donation will buy some bumperstickers, or a yard sign. Heck, this is Alaska... $10 will buy a radio commercial!
Remember that every state gets two senate seats, regardless of its population. That means a $100 donation to Scott McAdams is the equivalent of almost $2000 to a senate candidate in Texas. So if you want your political dollars to have the most bang for their buck, and if you want a great new Democratic Senator for the state of Alaska, you know where to put them. Don't you feel influential?

We have Scott on our Progressive Electorate/ Daily Kos Act Blue Page

Rand Paul, Sharrron Angle and Joe Miller - The Gifts that Keep on Giving.

League of South Writings Condemned Brown v. Board When Cecil Williamson Was a Member

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 02:38:21 GMT

The League of the South While Cecil Williamson Was a Member Part II by Edward Sebesta

Continuation of yesterday's article about how the League of South is much more than an "academic exercise". This article discusses more controversial neo-Confederacy writings such as those where League members condemn Brown vs. Board of Education.

Vol. 2 No. 4 issue of the "Southern Patriot" is notable for including an article by Jared Taylor 'Why We Revere Our Confederate Ancestors" reprinted from his Sons of Confederate Veterans camp newsletter, and the same issue recommends reading Jared Taylor's publication American Renaissance
The League of the South tells its members:
Jared Taylor's monthly newsletter, "American Renaissance," provides hard hitting analysis of largely ignored racial issues. "American Renaissance" pulls no punches in its discussions of black-on-white crime, racial IQ differences, the ills of affirmative action, and current immigration policies. Not for the timed or faint-hearted.

I can assure you that if you go to the website for American Renaissance you will find that this description to be entirely accurate, it is a rabid racist publication that is indeed not for the timid or faint-hearted.
In Vol. 2 No. 5, Sept. - Oct. 1995, Thomas Woods', famed author, in an article denounces the abolitionists as "fanatics" with "a tendency towards extremism." Williamson stated that "and at first it seemed to be academic exercise about Southern independence, and they wrote a series of articles about Southern independence now, not about the 1860s." but the League of the South did focus on the 19th century, abolitionism, the Civil War and Reconstruction. Thomas Woods has this web page , where he, like Cecil Williamson, is trying to omit his neo-Confederate past. I have this web page to make sure his extensive neo-Confederate writings aren't forgotten.
Read the Woods article

Williamson pictured this year at a birthday celebration for KKK Founder Nathan Bedford Forrest

In Vol. 2 No. 6, Nov. - Dec. 1995, they announce that James Ronald Kennedy and Jack Kershaw are named members of the board of directors of the League of the South. James R. Kennedy has been mentioned before. Jack Kershaw was an active segregationist form the 1950s and 60s. There is also an announcement for the Michael New Defense Fund and support for his actions of refusing to take orders as part of a United Nations' effort in the Balkans.
In Vol. 3 No. 3 May-June 1996 the audio tape and study book set, "America: The First 350 Years" by Rev. Steve Wilkins, League founding board member is recommended as follows:
America: The First 350 Years, by Rev. J. Steven Wilkins, is an award winning study series of sixteen 90-minute audiotapes and a 200-page book of lectures outlines designed to interpret America's history form an orthodox Christian perspective. It should be in the home of every Southern Leaguer.

The most interesting part of the lecture series is Wilkins revisionist views of the Salem Witch trials in his defense of New England Puritanism. ["Lecture #8 The Salem Witch Trials," page 26-31, Covenant Publications, 1988, Monroe.] From page 27 of the study guide:
2. The Salem "hysteria" of 1692 did not see hundreds burned at the stake as is often imagined. Only 23 people died as a direct result of the trials. Three died in prison, one was crushed to death during questioning, and nineteen were hung (no one was burned.)
3. In all, only around 100 people were actually accused, of whom 50 (by some count confessed their guilt. To be sure, some of these confessions were coerced and others may have been motivated by self-interest, (confessors were not tried or executed). Still, the fact remains, that many were in fact guilty of occult practices. (Kirk House, "The Salem Witch Trials", Journal of Christian Reconstruction, winter, 1978-79, vol. V., no. 2).
This however, is hardly the picture in the minds of most people when you mention Salem. Anti-Puritan biases control the views of the Salem incident. There are a number of things which help give us a proper understanding of what went on in Salem.
1. There was a large amount occultic experimentation at this time. .... [Boldface and capitalization as in the original]

Only 23 people died, don't you feel so much better! Hopefully Williamson won't have Selma witch trials.
This section shows that the neo-Confederates have a radically different, alternate view of American history that goes back to early colonial times.
In Vol. 3 No. 4 is an article, "After Independence," by Clyde Wilson what a new Confederate government would be like. Some excerpts:
Think of all the terrible amendments to the U.S. Constitution that we won't have. Income tax, 18-year-old voting, repeal of the poll tax, the list goes on and on. We can be sure that the matter of who should vote will be entirely up to the states, which is where it is and properly should be according to the U.S. and Confederate constitutions. And perhaps the franchise will not change much, although it may be somewhat more restricted: to taxpayers and property holders, perhaps.

And:
In the new Confederacy, unlike the U.S., we wont have a bit of difficulty telling the difference between a citizen and an illegal alien. We can hope that the problem will be easily solved and that Smyrna, Georgia, and Siler City, North Carolina, will no longer be outposts of Mexico.

And:
We would only have such courts as we needed to establish. Imagine and dream with me, if you will, a world without a Supreme Court and federal judges, where the people can meet and deliberate and make decisions by majority rule as they are supposed to do, without having them overturned by judicial dictatorship. (That was, after all, supposed to be the idea of the Republic.) All the bad decisions that have been made will fall to the ground. ... The laws of the states that were in existence beforehand will govern, as they should. Baker v. Carr, the 'one-man, one-vote' decision, by which the Supreme Court overturned all the state constitutions and reapportioned all the state legislatures to give more power to the big cities, will fall to the ground.

And:
Imagine the flowering of higher education we will have when our institutions are no longer colonies of the Northern intellectual class. We will be teaching our own people, in our own schools, and we will not have to import doctors from the Indian sub-continent or scientists from China because our own people will be reaching their full potential.

Article online
In Vol. 3 No. 5, Sept. - Oct. 1996 League president Hill explains what the League is all about in his article, "Kith and Kin." Some excerpts:
But for the past half-century liberal socialists have been seeking to discredit the idea that a man's first temporal allegiance is to kith and kin. It is the self-appointed task of the social engineer to reshape God's creation; he is, as it were, rebuilding the Tower of Babel and, in the bargain, nullifying the Biblical concept and reality of nationhood. His cult of 'equality', according to Bradford, is the new 'opiate of the masses.' Left-liberals and neoconservatives today champion equality by advocating an 'open door' immigration policy toward the Third World. Neither sees the teeming masses of Latinos, Asians, or Africans taking up refuge on our shores as a threat to the ethnic and cultural balance of the American nation. Rather, since both hold sacred the 'rights of man', they view America as the world's first universal nation, dedicated to the proposition that all men and cultures are created equal.
If the on-going American experiment is to come to fruition, then the narrowly defined 'posterity' of our forefathers must be broadened to include the whole of Emma Lazarus's 'wretched refuse.' The Immigration and Naturalization Act of 1965 and subsequent legislation and judicial edicts have turned America's immigration policy inside out by allowing for the influx of millions of non-Europeans while largely closing the door to European immigrants. Both Third World legals and illegals are encouraged to maintain their own culture and language (i.e., to remain unassimilable) while partaking of the largesse available to them at the expense of the American taxpayer.

And:
The Southern League supports a return to a political and social system based on allegiance to kith and kin rather than to an impersonal state wedded to the idea of the universal rights of man. From the beginning, the leaders of our organisation have been hardliners who insist that quite apart from political ideals, we are taking our stand in the historic South and for the historic South. The South is not a universal ideal any more than is Scotland, France, or Serbia. Instead, the present-day South is the remnant of a nation built on the realities of place and kin that we must revitalise to the best of our abilities. At its core is a European population, especially Anglo-Celts, that must be preserved as the dominant majority.

read the full article
In the Vol. 4 No. 2, March-April 1997 issue, League president Hill is enraged by an article by DeWayne Wickham about the Confederacy and writes:
Why do the left-liberals rage against the 'traitorous' South and its traditional culture and symbols? The stock answer has been because all that the South stands for -- orthodox Christianity, honour, hierarchy, loyalty to place and kin, patriarchy, respect for the rule of law --represents an obstacle to the left-liberals' power. This is a correct assessment, but only one side of the coin. Then there is the obverse. Left-liberals (and not a few neo-conservatives) for very long have attempted to cover up the fact that their ideology, regnant since the War for Southern Independence and the subsequent Reconstruction, has been a rebellion against the Constitution and the Bill of Rights which has wrecked, not just the South, but the rest of the country as well. It is they who are the traitors.
The treason of the left involves such unconstitutional (and immoral) enormities as globalism --the selling-out of American national sovereignty to international agencies; radical egalitarianism; feminism; homosexual rights; abortion-on-demand; Third World immigration; gun control; 'hate' crime and speech legislation (almost always white-on-black or -Hispanic);judicial tyranny; burdensome taxation; multiculturalism; the universal rights of man; and other manifestations of a new brand of 'politically correct' totalitarianism.

"Radical egalitarianism" includes most, if not all civil rights legislation. read the entire article
In the Vol. 4 No. 3 May-June 1997 issue League President Hill defines the League of the South as a right wing religious movement.
Again, a full description of the involvement of the neo-Confederate movement, and the League of the South in Christian Reconstructionism can be found in this online article published in the "Canadian Review of American Studies."
In Vol. 4 No. 6 the League of the South newsletter explains why Thanksgiving and the Pledge of Allegiance is a bad thing. If and when Williamson makes the Pledge of Allegiance, is it sincere?
In an editorial the reader is informed:
On Thursday, 27 November, as we Southerners savoured our Thanksgiving turkey over conversation with family and friends, how many of us knew that we were observing a feast fixed in 1863 by none other than Abraham Lincoln?
Alas. Lincoln indeed proclaimed the last Thursday in November as the official 'national' holiday, even as he rained terror on the civilian South, women and children, both black and white.

The Pledge of Allegiance is held to be a socialist plot as explained in another article in the same issue. It is supposedly socialistic because the author had a brother who was socialistic and when the brother died, he edited his deceased brother's papers. The read complaint is that the pledge says "one nation indivisible."
One thing that the League of the South finds sinister is a quote by the author of the Pledge of Allegiance
A 1988 article in Rochester Review cites an interview with Francis Bellamy's widow in which she recalls her husband's desire to conclude the Pledge with the phrase 'with liberty, equality, and fraternity for all' -- invoking the Jacobin slogan of the French Revolution! She recalled that he decided against it, commenting, 'We're about a thousand years away from that.'

In a Vol. 5 No. 3, June 1998 article , the League president is upset with Southerners who support civil rights and don't support neo-Confederacy writing:
To which does he give his loyalty, a nation indivisible or local self-government? Consciously or not, he has bought into the Jacobin heresy of egalitarianism, universal human rights and democracy. He does everything in his power to avoid being branded an 'extremist,' lest his business, career or social life suffer accordingly. He is engaged in nothing more than a pastime. Beware of this 'New South Patriot', and better beware than be one.

And:
What he refuses to see is that the myriad pathologies that plague Dixie and the rest of America are the result of the 1865 triumph of a Jacobin worldview. That worldview stemmed from the 18th century Enlightenment and its result, the French Revolution. Even the most tradition-minded Southerner has not been immune to some of these subtile and pernicious influences. Take the social theory of equality, for example. While the teachings of Holy Scripture speak of a civil society composed of superiors, equals, and inferiors, each protected in their legal privileges, Jacobin social theory posits that no adult can be justly denied any privilege due another, except perhaps as punishment for the commission of a crime. Sadly, a majority of 'conservative' Christian Southerners hold this position as the basis for our 'democratic' form of government. This, however, is not what our Southern ancestors thought, and it is, in the words of Rev. R.L.Dabney, 'a fatal heresy...which uproots every possible foundation of just freedom, and grounds only the most ruthless despotism.'

In the same issue the National Rifle Association is attacked, for among other things, it was founded by Union veterans after the Civil War.
Vol. 5 No. 4 has an article by League member John W. Altman condemning the Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Brown which started the integration of schools. An excerpt is as follows:
The remedy for this violation of our Constitution was initially suggested two years after the infamous Brown v. the Board of Education decision, when, in March 1956, nineteen senators from the former Confederate states drew up a statement called the Southern Manifesto. Charging the Supreme Court with 'a clear abuse of judicial power,' substituting its 'personal political and social ideas for the established law of the land,' and pledging themselves 'to use all lawful means to bring about a reversal of this decision . . . and to prevent . . . its implementation,' the statement was a sharp denunciation of the Court's attempt to impose a detested social (Marxist) revolution on the South and the rest of the nation.

The article discusses a proposal to curb the power of the Supreme Court to end what Altman considers abuses like Brown vs. Brown.
To be continued

Democratic Judge Under the Influence of Faux News Switches to Republican Party

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 22:19:26 GMT

The gun wielding Jefferson County Domestic Relations Judge Suzanne Childers announced today she is joining the Republican party. Faux News made her do it apparently.

Childers said Tuesday that she started watching the conservative-oriented Fox News Channel and increasingly found herself agreeing with what its commentators said.

Childers continues

"It's been a gradual progression," Childers said. "I have become more and more aware that my values, principles and ideas are more parallel with the Republican Party."
In a statement, Childers said the switch was "in the people's" best interest.
"It's in the people's best interest if I remain a judge," she said when asked to explain her statement.

Seriously, we do not need Judges that do not know when to turn off the Faux News. Not only does this one not turn it off, she is influenced by the commentary. If you can call it that anyways. I think it is better described as right wing extremist propaganda. I'm sure some of our readers can be much more descriptive in their assessment.

How is this in the best interest of the people?

I believe that Judges should be non-Partisan although Alabama Judges are unfortunately still elected with a party tag. To admit you are under the influence of Faux News is to admit that you are influenced by absolute garbage. Turn the Faux Noise off now!!!!

What do you think?

Breaking! Secret EXCEPTION discovered in Freedom of Religion!

MinistryOfTruth — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 20:26:39 GMT

A friend tipped me off to this, from a few weeks ago, before the recent arsonist burning of a religious holy place in Tennessee, from Republican House Candidate Diane Black (TN-06). You may remember Diane Black as the candidate whose staffer released this racist photo and wasn't fired for it.

I guess in the world of Diane Black, there is an exception for this. I guess every staffer gets one free racist email as a mulligan, and it Only Counts If You Are Republican, but I digress . . .

Thus, when I found THIS, I was SHOCKED!!!! I didn't know Diane Black discovered a secret exception to freedom of religion in the Constitution! Just look below the fold.
I never thought it would be the Ultra-Orthodox Christian Right that would try to dismantle Freedom Of Religion . . . .

The Truth:
Senator Black Issued A Statement Regarding This Issue On June 25, 2010. "I will always follow the wisdom of our forefathers as laid down in the constitution and that means I believe that all Americans must be free to practice their faith as long it does not threaten other Americans or our national security.

Italics added by the diarist . . .
Diane Black's official campaign website

You see, the amazing exception, as our founding fathers put it via Republican logic ala Diane Black, is that there is an exception to religious freedom, and that is as long as your religion doesn't threaten other Americans or our national security, you have the right to it!

Further clarifying, she added . . .

I'm very concerned that violent jihadism is becoming the norm, not the exception in too much of Islam today and American communities have a right to be vigilant in ensuring that Islamic institutions in this country do not aid the jihadist viewpoint."

(Diane Black, "Diane Black Statement On The Murfreesboro Mosque," 6/25/10)

Key word . . . violent!

So, lets see what the Founding Fathers said about the exceptions to religious freedom, according to the constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
religioustolerance.org

Wow, it almost looks like Diane Black totally pulled this "exception" out of her ass! Let's add that to the pile of "Exceptions" to the Republican philosophy that have been discovered.

- Keep the Government out of my life! (Except if you are gay or have a uterus or if we have to spy on your phone calls to make sure you're not a terrorist)

- Deficits don't matter (Except when the GOP is out of power)

- We must support the President at a time of war (Except if he is a Democrat)

- The Republican party is the party of family values (Except John Ensign, David Vitter, Newt Gingrich, etc, etc)

- The Republican party is the party of personal responsibility (Except if your company spills lots of oil, or if your company collapses the world economy, or if your economic ideas lead to the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, or if your staffer sends out a racist email like this and you don't fire them for it, etc, etc)

(anyone else who can think of an "Exception" to Conservative ideas is welcome to include it in the comments below)

And look at that! Since less than 1% of the world's Muslims are violent towards America, they don't get to have religious freedom, and the majority gets to dictate if they can have places of worship, and where.

Just like the nation our founding fathers ~~ran away from~~ envisioned!

Now, I would never accuse Diane Black of fanning the flames of violence against Islam and giving a kind of state sanction to those who might commit arson and burn down a mosque, because I don't believe every Christian is potentially violent against people of a different faith. That would be discriminatory.

But I WILL question the kind of politicians who would rather waste time on the campaign trail debating the SETTLED ISSUE of religious freedom FOR EVERYONE, including non christians, instead of discussing how to create jobs or fix our broken economy. Of course, if the only ideas those politicians have are the same ones that cost us our jobs and broke the economy in the first place, I can see why politicians like Diane Black, the entire Republican party of Tennessee, all of the talking heads at the media arm of the GOP/Fox News conglomerate, and the conservative movement in America at large would. They don't WANT to discuss their FAILED ideas. They don't want to talk about their dogmatic adherence to tax cuts for the rich, war profiteering and Shock Doctrine politics. They would rather talk about anything else, and there need be no consistency in their rhetoric, there is always an exception.

Now for the good news.

Diane Black has a great Democrat for an opponent in Brett Carter. He is a National guardsman who served in Iraq and is now looking to continue serving his country in DC. You can show him some netroots love here- don't forget the extra penny so he knows it came from the netroots. You can find Brett hanging out on Facebook and on Twitter.

You can follow me on Twitter @JesseLaGreca

Peace and love to all

New Left Media Goes To Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" Rally

Curtis Abbey — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:54:30 GMT

New Left Media goes to Glenn Beck's rally

On 8.28.2010, Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The purpose of the rally, which Beck claimed to be "non-political" despite featuring Tea Party-favorite Sarah Palin as a speaker and its being attended entirely by conservatives, was unclear. The participants spoke abstractly about the need to restore "honor" and "pride" to a country that had lost it. When pressed for when our country had lost its honor, most cited the election of Barack Obama.

After watching this video I'm conflicted. Does this video prove that the conservative agenda is easily absorbed and that will lead to a strong showing in the fall elections? Or does it show that these people are so uninformed that they might be persuadable?
continued below..

My other thought is that there's a segment of the population that wants a deep emotional connection with their leader. Glenn Beck's crying was funny to some of us but maybe it worked. It connected with the part of them that's; afraid of change, nostalgic for past times, in need of acceptance and reassurance. They want to know America is #1 and will never change.

On that note let's discuss some ways that we could quiet the less partisan in these crowds (and non-political people in general). How do we provide American Exceptionalism and increase the pace of progress?

World class infrastructure.
We need to step it up on the high speed rail. LA to Denver, Denver to St. Louis, St. Louis to Chicago, we should set an ambitious goal for being able to go coast to coast on high speed rail in 10 years. And as my friend Jay said the other day, local public transportation could use some major upgrades as well.

New museums, monuments and parks; American History museums. 5 in every state, one for every century. New/retrofitted parks with Olympic training centers. You want to try and be an Olympian? Go for it, America needs you, and your parents need you out of the house for a while and getting some exercise.

The country would certainly be more exceptional if we could swim in, drink and eat out of our rivers and streams again. How about some kind of program where the federal government works with polluters and farmers to control their harmful outputs?

How do we get these people to support programs that their representatives oppose? There are only two ways to get these types of things done; electing enough Democrats to pass the bills or getting the electorate of Republicans to demand constructive action. Neither is an easy path but we need one of them if we want progress at a faster pace.

We Offer you Internet and Tacos

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 12:20:07 GMT

Bachmann's latest Ad : Don't Tax My Corn Dog and Beer

admin — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 04:17:38 GMT

Again Featuring "Jim" - another #Bachmannfail

Monday Quick Links

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 23:48:16 GMT

1. A fire destroys all voting machines in Harris County (Houston, Texas). A right wing voter suppression group emerges. Read about it at DogCanyon.Org .

In other details, the suppression campaigns follow a familiar pattern: raise suspicions of widespread voter fraud. Accuse "others" of stealing elections from us (read: white people). Threaten would-be voters with criminal charges. Limit polling locations in poor and minority precincts. Distribute spurious "felon lists" that disenfranchise legal voters who happen to share a name with a felon. Staff phone banks that make election calls to minority and poor voters giving incorrect polling locations and dates. Dress up vigilantes in cop clothes to intimidate would-be voters.
Regular Huffington Post contributor Greg Mitchell wrote one of the best accounts of such a suppression and intimidation campaign in his book about the 1934 California governor's race, The Campaign of the Century. At least since then, voter suppression has been a part of nearly every election cycle.
There are simply no machines available to replace the loss of Houston's machines. That means either a return to paper ballots (there may be very few scanners to count them) or a greatly reduced number of polling locations. The latter would require the emergency suspension of state law and run afoul of the Voting Rights Act. In any case, confusion will reign, and confusion reduces turnout.

2. Sen. Orrin Hatch supports the rights of those wanting to build the Park51 project. Better than that he actually takes the most honorable position here.

HATCH: Let's be honest about it, in the First Amendment, religious freedom, religious expression, that really express matters to the Constitution. So, if the Muslims own that property, that private property, and they want to build a mosque there, they should have the right to do so. The only question is are they being insensitive to those who suffered the loss of loved ones? We know there are Muslims killed on 9/11 too and we know it's a great religion. ... But as far as their right to build that mosque, they have that right.
I just think what's made this country great is we have religious freedom. That's not the only thing, but it's one of the most important things in the Constitution. [...]
There's a question of whether it's too close to the 9/11 area, but it's a few blocks away, it isn't right there. ... And there's a huge, I think, lack of support throughout the country for Islam to build that mosque there, but that should not make a difference if they decide to do it. I'd be the first to stand up for their rights.

Good on you Orrin Hatch, Shame on you Harry Reid.

The League of the South When Cecil Williamson Was a member

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 16:26:06 GMT

Another installment from Edward Sebesta

Recently, in an August 1, 2010 article in the "Selma Times-Journal" it was reported that
Williamson made this claim about his former membership in the League of the South.

"Williamson said he was a member when the group organized about two decades ago."
"It was organized more as an academic exercise by people who were professors, primarily," Williamson said. "They were men who taught at The University of Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, and at first it seemed to be academic exercise about Southern independence, and they wrote a series of articles about Southern independence now, not about the 1860s. I was a member of the League of the South for about eight years, and then when I started law school in 2001, ..." "I have not belonged to the League of the South since 2001. And, of course, there was a split in the League of the South between those who wanted to make it more political, those who seemed to want to make it more radical, certainly more than I wanted it to be."

From these statements Williamson was involved from the time the League of the South organized in 1994, the beginning, to the time he quit in 2001, which would be about eight years.
Williamson's statements and claims about the League of the South are greatly at variance with the facts about the League of the South and he misrepresents what the League of the South was. The only thing that is true in his statement was that the League of the South had a lot of professors involved, which should warn African Americans about what they might run into at the universities.
I emailed Leesha Faulkner about the League of the South as a subject matter expert in the field. I am one of the editors of "Neo-Confederacy: A Critical Introduction," pub. Univ. of Texas Press, 2008, excerpts , and "The Confederate and Neo-Confederate Reader: The 'Great Truth' about the 'Lost Cause,'" I told them that I was going to inform people about the true record of the League of the South and what Williamson had said was not true. However, the "Selma Times-Journal" doesn't seem to be interested.
The League of the South was a racist organization from the beginning dedicated to a program of secession and rolling back the civil rights movement and establishing a hierarchal society where people would be subordinated to where the League of the South thought they should be. It had academic support, but was by no means merely a theoretical exploration of an issue, but was an organization with a plan to change society in the former Confederate states.
I think the best way to give the reader an understanding of what the League of the South was about, would be to quote members of the League of the South themselves. Also, I am going to give examples at length. The reason for this is that if I don't give numerous and different examples, I think Williamson will come up with new excuses to evade responsibility for his actions.
If I give just a few examples, Williamson will say that they were a few rogue articles that slipped in the newsletter or website, or that he missed them. If I refer to web pages, Williamson might say he just read the newsletter and vice versa. I won't bother with material from the year 2000, since Williamson will say that is why he quit. I am going to document a lot of material so that no one can reasonably think that Williamson didn't know what the group was about.
The League of the South published the "Southern Patriot," a newsletter when they first started out till 2006 at least. The first issue was Vol. 1 No.1, dated Sept.-Oct. 1994 and is fairly indicative of what type of organization is. The League of the South used to have some of the contents, but not all, of the "Southern Patriot," online, but some of them are still online at the internet archive. Vol. 1 No. 1, online version, is at the internet archive at this URL
Note: Sometimes the Internet Archives servers face heavy demand and struggle, so wait or go back later.
DixieNet archives
The first article in the issue is the president's message, and the first paragraph is the following:
When Attorney-General Janet Reno dispatched "negotiators" from the Justice Department to the sleepy hamlet of Ovett, Mississippi, last year, she sent a message to traditional Southerners; you have no right to protect your community from unwanted intrusions by federally protected "victim" groups. In this case the victim group was the cadre of Camp Sister Spirit, a pig farm cum lesbian retreat in the rural southeastern portion of the state.? Big Sister Reno informed the good citizens of Jones County that further resistance to the deviants would bring forth the federal hordes.? Unfortunately, this is not the first message sent Southerners by Reno's thugs; an earlier one came at Waco and decreed that we may not voluntarily separate ourselves from society and hold unorthodox religious (or social or political) beliefs.? To drive home their point, the BATF and FBI murdered almost a hundred men, women, and children in this invasion of Southern soil. Will the good people of Wedowee in Randolph County, Alabama, who wish merely to educate their children without interference from the justice or education departments, be the next target of the Reno storm troopers?? It would appear that after more than a century since the First Reconstruction the South is still occupied territory held within the Union by brute force, impoverishment, and bribery.

For those who don't remember the controversy of Camp Sister Spirit was, it was reported that the camp was the subject of violent physical attacks. Regardless of what one might think of Camp Sister Spirit, most people, except extremists, don't endorse violence as a means of expressing dislike. However, Dr. Michael Hill does in this article, the attackers are "traditional southerners" "protecting their community." Also, this paragraph is hardly a discussion of academic discussion of secession, rather than a rant of a militia or extremist group.
Hill does bring up the issue of secession in his article, but it is offered as a solution to Hill's lengthy complaint about the government, the "New World Order," and secular society. Secession is offered, from the beginning in the League of the South, as a means to establish an extreme right-wing regime that "would better reflect the natural conservatism and God-fearing world-view of the South," with for example, "church-state relations would without question be different." In short, as you read the entire article, you realize that Hill would like to make the whole south a right wing compound of some sort.
Hill's article makes it quite clear that the purpose of the League of the South is not some theoretical, hypothetical discussion of secession but the program of a extreme right wing group wanting to break up the United States to form their right wing nation.
The
third article by Jeffrey Tucker, of Auburn, Alabama, is a defense of Hulon Humphries, the Randolph County High School principal who was reported as saying that a mixed race student was a mistake, and the article is an attack on anyone who opposed Hulon Humphries racism complaining about outsiders and the media.
Some quotes where Tucker complains about the Federal government
But why is the FBI involved in the first place? ?Probably not a day passes in America where an arsonist somewhere does not burn a building.? And if you are searching for racial conflict, any Northern city provides more than most Southerners could imagine in their worst nightmares. ?A Wedowee citizen penned a sign that summarizes the lop-sided attention his community was receiving: "Clinton and Reno dictate Wedowee media coverage."

And:
The U.S. Justice Department, which has taken to "investigating" every minor social disturbance in the South, demanded that Mr. Humphries be fired. ?Clint Bolick of the Institute of Justice agreed, calling Mr. Humphries "fair game." ?Under duress, the school board complied. ?But surely, even "South Haters" can agree that allowing the central state to tell a tiny community whom it can hire as its high school principal stretches statism too far.

The Vol. Nol. 1 lists the organization of the founding members into five working committees. The names are worth reviewing.
For the Political Action team there is Ron Kennedy and Donnie Kennedy, the neo-Confederate twins who have written a series of neo-Confederate books, like "The South Was Right!" in which the Voting Rights Act is denounced as a fraud. They have a Website and Walter Donald Kennedy is an author that has proposed that the Republican Party of Lincoln was some type of communist conspiracy.
For the Correspondence Committee is Michael Andrew Grissom, author of "Southern by the Grace of God," a book that praises the KKK of both Reconstruction and the 1920s, and portrays a lynching in Oklahoma as a heroic act. Thomas Fleming is also a member of this committee, you can read Fleming's writing at Chronicles Magazine
On the Finance Committee is J. Steven Wilkens, co-author of a book, "Southern Slavery As It Was," which defends slavery.
In Vol. 1 No. 2 J. Steven Wilkens' explains how the Civil War was really a religious war, in his article, "Theology of the South." Wilkens' quotes R. L. Dabney to explain the real meaning of the Civil War as follows:
The theological disagreement lay at the bottom of the political conflict. To many Southerners, the defence of the Southern Cause became equivalent to a defense of Christendom itself. The Southern preacher, professor, and theologian James H. Thornwell gave this analysis of the controversy in his Fast Day Sermon of 1860: "The parties in this conflict are not merely Abolitionists and slave holders, they are Atheists, Socialists, Communists, Red Republicans, Jacobins on the one side and the friends of order and regulated freedom on the other. In one word, the world is the battle ground, Christianity and Atheism the combatants, and the progress of humanity the stake."

The article is archived
here
This view of the Civil War is widely held by neo-Confederates. Professor Euan Hague and I had and article published on the topic at the University of Toronto, which you can read online here
The book, "The South Was Right," which complains about Reconstruction and denounces the Voting Rights Act is promoted on page 15. This book by the way has sold over 100,000 copies and is still widely sold in mainstream bookstores today.
In the same issue President Hill lauds southerners who refuse "to genuflect each January to the memory of "Dr." King. In another article Clyde Wilson in discussing the south states that southerners didn't make a "fetish" of democracy and equality. Hostility to civil rights isn't just in articles that directly address the topic, but exist in numerous small comments in the "Southern Patriot."
Vol. 2 No. 1 issue has more on civil rights. Michael Hill explains how civil rights is used to attack the South.
... the New Deal began six decades of tyranny by federal judges and other social meddlers who ransacked the Constitution in the name of civil rights.

And:
The next step, once sufficient numbers were dependent upon the federal government, was for Washington to demand compliance with its dictates. The "Second Reconstruction" began with the use of civil rights to emasculate the states through the Fourteenth Amendment's doctrine of incorporation.

Michael Hill, further explains to the readers that civil rights is a destruction of the Federal system of government explaining.
The latest stage in the nationalization of government and the destruction of our original confederal system occurred in the 1950's and 1960's. During these decades the government moved into the South under judicial decree and destroyed the social fabric of communities in the name of civil rights. By taking control of school and voting districts and by making private property (lunch counters and other so-called "public accommodations") subject to federal regulation, Washington forced the retreat of many Southerners from their public duties and responsibilities. These "old Southerners" took shelter in the safety of family, church, and other privatea ssociations. having lost control and influence in the public sphere, they dedicated themselves to the private one, a sphere that was only to shrink further, in scope as the latest stage of tyranny played itself out in the following decades. We now have witnessed government encroachment into strictly private associations--families, churches, privates chools, clubs, etc. The consequent immoral and unlawful meddling by federal judges and the atrocities committed by renegade law enforcement agencies serve to emphasize the fact that no inner sanctum remains.

More ominously Hill sees the future as filled with racial conflict explaining:
Competition among cultural groups seeking the resources to survive and prosper is natural and proper. To deny this by asserting the silly slogan, "the brotherhood of man," is cultural suicide; it will not eliminate the competition, but will lull us into acquiescing in our own destruction. Our forefathers would be appalled at our hesitation to defend our birthright.

Archived here
In the same issue Thomas Woods, the now famous author, denounces the 14th amendment and its use to support civil rights. This same issue in the section, "Noteworthy publication," promotes Michael Andrew Grissom's books, "Southern by the Grace of God," "The Last Rebel Yell," and "When the South Was Southern." The first book as I have stated before praises the KKK and endorses lynching as a heroic act of Ada, Oklahoma. The Black Commentator, an online publication, has an article detailing the contents of "Southern by the Grace of God"
The "Last Rebel Yell" attacks civil rights and defends slavery. One section of the book claims that African American slaves,when their children were sold away with the breakup of a plantation, really weren't all that upset by their children being sold, and instead were mostly upset at the breakup of the plantation. Also, promoted is Sprinkle Publications, the publishers of books of pro-slavery theologians.
archived here
to be continued.

The History of The League of the South: Not Just an Academic Exercise

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 05:17:43 GMT

This is an installment of a series that will discuss the League of the South and explore their teachings and public writings. The League of the South has been described by members as an "academic exercise." We believe that it is much more and that it should properly be labeled a hate group.

We have been discussing the League of the South as Selma City Council President Cecil Williamson has been noted as a former member. Williamson was criticized for attending a birthday celebration for KKK founder Nathan Bedford Forrest. This past week, a resolution presented to the Selma City Council asked for Williamson to be removed as City Council President due to his associations with a racist hate group. The resolution failed and only received two votes from members of the City Council.

The following article is written by Edward Sebesta , a leading national researcher on the Neo-Confederacy movement. The article highlights attacks on Martin Luther King, beliefs in secession and the "treason of the Left". Sebesta also notes that the League opposes pubic schools. The article is written in academic form with footnotes as sources which points us to a wide assortment of public writings. These writings prove that the League of the South was always an extremist organization and that Williamson is being dishonest when he says otherwise.
League of the South History and Description

According to the League of the South it was founded on June 25, 1994 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama at a meeting of 40 people called by Michael Hill in a hotel room. By the unanimous consent of those present at the meeting, provisional committees were formed. It was incorporated as a non-profit in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama on July 14, 1994. 1 Its first national convention was held in Charleston, South Carolina on October 29-30, 1994. 2 According to the League of the South, its website was launched July 1, 1995. 3 Initially, prior to its website, it grew to 1200 members and 10 chapters, after the creation of the website, its membership expanded to 3,000 in a few months and 26 chapters. 4 Other reported membership figure in 1996 was 2,500 and 4,000. The League of the South would not release documented numbers. 5 In 1997 their membership was reported to be between 5,000 and 6,000. 6 In 1998 its membership was reported as being 6,000 and later 7,000. 7 However, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that its membership was 4,000 in 1998, and had grown to 9,000 by 2000 with 96 chapters. 8 However, these numbers have been questioned, in an article in the Roanoke Times & World News, in which a member of the League of the South estimates that the Virginia chapter has between 100 and 200 members. 9 However, Virginia is not likely to be a representative state. A League of the South organized rally for their "Declaration of Cultural Independence" in Montgomery, Alabama had a crowd estimated as having between 1,500 and 2,500, the Montgomery police estimating the latter number.10 Currently (July 2001) the League of the South's website lists 15 state or regional chapters, with 13 of them maintaining their own websites. The national website also lists 40 local chapters. The national website is not necessarily up-to-date. For example, one chapter is listed for South Carolina on the national web site and the South Carolina web site lists four local active chapters. 11 In addition there are the League of the South political action websites, Free Alabama and FreeMississippi.org websites. 12
The membership includes a great many professors and persons with advanced degrees. Its President, Michael Hill, was a professor of history at historically black Stillman, a Presbyterian school. The founding directors were: Thomas Fleming, the head of the Rockford Institute in Rockford, Illinois, and editor of Chronicles magazine; Grady McWhiney, historian and professor emeritus of Texas Christian University; Rev. J. Steven Wilkins, of a Presbyterian church, Auburn Avenue Church in Monroe, Louisiana; and Clyde N. Wilson, history professor at the University of South Carolina. 13 Jack Kershaw is added to the listing as a board member in the Nov.-Dec. 1994 Southern Patriot. In 1955, at age forty-two, Jack Kershaw became the vice-president, of the Tennessee Federation for Constitutional Government, an organization formed to fight school integration, with Southern Agrarian Donald Davidson as president. The Mary Noel Kershaw Foundation of the League of the South is named after his wife and fellow segregationist activist.14 James R. Kennedy is added to the listing as a board member in the Nov. - Dec. 1995, Southern Patriot. James R. Kennedy, along with his brother Walter D. Kennedy, are the authors of a series of neo-Confederate books published by neo-Confederate publisher Pelican Books in Gretna, Louisiana, a suburb of New Orleans. 15
Prominent journalists are also or have been members. Bill Murchison columnist for the Dallas Morning News claims to be no longer be a member. Charley Reese, nationally syndicated columnist, recently retired from the Orlando Sentinel is a member and active in League affairs. Robert Stacy McCain, is a member and writes for the Washington Times, often on issues involving race. Several members are the heads of other organizations. Llewellyn (Lew) Rockwell, a charter and founding member, is the head of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama and the lewrockwell.com web site. The late Murray N. Rothbard was a founding member. 16 Larry Pratt, a member, is the head of Gun Owners of America. 17 John Vinson a founding member is the president of the American Immigration Control Foundation. 18
Besides the Southern Patriot that they have published from the beginning, the League of the South has several other ongoing activities in which they promote their historical, cultural, and political ideas. They have lectures at their annual conventions. They hold conferences at which they give lectures. They have the League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern Culture. This institute holds summer schools. The lectures are made available as audio and video tapes. In addition a 44 video set has been released to instruct members. The League of the South also publishes a series of pamphlets sold both in its publications and on its website. All these materials are sold by the League of the South through the Southern Patriot and on their website. 19
The Institute also has a "Hedge School" program named after 18th century underground movement in Ireland to transmit Irish culture in covert schools meeting in abandoned buildings and in hedges. It is seen as an alternative to universities and colleges in the South which are seen as destroying its culture. Its officers and faculty are almost all professors from universities in the South. 20 It held its first classes October 1999. 21
The League of the South promotes a Celtic identity theory of Southerners based on the historical writings of Grady McWhiney and others who argued that the culture of the South was Celtic.22 League of the South President Hill concisely summarizes most of the organization's beliefs in two Press Releases.
From "Worshiping at the Altar of St. Martin the Immaculate," an attack on Martin Luther King:
The canonized King has become the leftist icon (much like Lincoln) against whom criticism and truth-telling must not be permitted. Every leftists perversity - hate crimes legislation, legalized infanticide, feminist and sodomite rights, gun control, unchecked Third World immigration, radical environmentalism, racial quotas, forced busing, reparations for slavery, etc. - finds its nexus in the idolization of this liberal patron saint. 23
From "The Treason of the Elites":
Why do the left-liberals rage against the 'traitorous' South and its traditional culture and symbols? The stock answer has been because all that the South stands for - orthodox Christianity, honour, hierarchy, loyalty to place and kin, patriarchy, and respect for the rule of law - represents an obstacle to the left-liberals' lust for power. This is a correct assessment, but it is only one side of the coin. ...
The treason of the Left involves such unconstitutional and immoral enormities as globalism - the selling-out of American national sovereignty to international agencies and interests; radical egalitarianism; feminism; sodomite rights; abortion; Third-World immigration; gun control; hate crime legislation (always meant to be used against whites); judicial tyranny; burdensome taxation; multiculturalism and diversity (code words for anti-white, anti-Christian bigotry); the universal rights of man; and other manifestations of a new brand of politically-correct totalitarianism.24

These two lengthy lists of League positions omit a major one, their total opposition to public schools and support for home schooling. The title for an anti-public school article in a recent issue of the Southern Patriot was: "Save the Children (and the South): Dont Send Them to Marx's Schools (Theft funded, God-hating, South-hating, Leviathan/New-World-Order-promoting, government schools are our enemies' greatest weapon against us." 25
1 Southern League News, Vol. 1 No. 1, Sept.-Oct. 1994, page 7, Southern Patriot; Hodges, Sam, Southern Heritage: Cultural genocide?; Secession seen as remedy, page 1R, April 21, 1996, Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
2 Southern League News, Vol. 1 No. 2, Nov.-Dec. 1994, page 6, Southern Patriot.
3 Hill, Michael, President's Welcome, Dixienet.org , 6/26/2001.
4 Keeble, John, The Rise of the Southern League: Waving the Confederate Battle Flag, a Growing Group of Deep South Academics Argues for a White Nationalism They Call Cracker Culture, Page 31, June 11, 1996, Village Voice.
5 Hodges, Sam, Southern Heritage: Cultural genocide?; Secession seen as remedy, page 1R, April 21, 1996, Atlanta Journal and Constitution. (2,500 membership report); Roberts, Diane, Real Lives: Ghosts of the Gallant South, page T14, July 22, 1996, The Guardian. Diane Roberts did have opportunity to talk to Michael Hill at the University of Alabama.
6 Reeves, Jay, 'Southern League' avoids a lawsuit, page E3, August 13, 1997, Chattanooga Times, Associated Press Story; Swanson, Doug J., If at first you don't secede ... League of the South leaders say they want to try it again, page 1A, August 31, 1997, Dallas Morning News.
7 Stivender, Knight, Group Fights Old Fight: To Secede From Union, page 1A, July 26, 1998, The Tennessean, (6,000 figure); Auchmutey, Jim, The New Secessionists, page 1M, August 16, 1998, The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, (7,000 figure); Sewell, Dan, If at first you don't secceed, secede again, some Southerners say, September 19, 1998, Associated Press. (7,000 figure);
8 Rebels With A Cause, page 8; Map of Neo-Confederate Hate Groups page 26-27; Summer 2000, Intelligence Report, Southern Poverty Law Center.
9 Thornton, Tim, If At First You Don't Secede: Group Will Hold State Meeting in Salem Next Weekend, Page A1, April 21, 2001, Roanoke Times & World News.
10 Hall, Andria, Roston, Aram, Marchers Rally at Alabama's Capital to Demand Respect for Cultural Rights, March 4, 2000, CNN Transcript #00030406V18 ; Reevers, Jay, Confederate Flag Rally Held in Ala., March 4, 2000, Associated Press. (2,500)
11 State Chapters of the League of the South Local Chapters of the League of the South June 29, 2001. Palmetto June 29, 2001.
12 Free Alabama and Free Mississippi , June 29, 2001.
13 Masthead, page 2, Vol. 1 No. 1, Sept.-Oct. 1994, Southern Patriot.
14 Winchell, Mark Royden, Where No Flag Flies: Donald Davidson and the Southern Resistance, page 290-291, 352, University of Missouri Press, 2000, Columbia, Missouri.
15 The Kennedy brothers have had published, The South Was Right!, Land and Land edition 1991, Baton Rouge, Pelican Edition, 1994, Why Not Freedom!. 1995, and Was Jefferson Davis Right?, 1998, Pelican Publishing, Gretna, Louisiana; Adler, Constance, The House that Dr. Calhoun Built, Feb. 27, 2001, The Gambit Weekly, New Orleans. (About Pelican Publishing).
16 Noteworthy Publications, Vol. 2 No.2 March-April 1995, page 16, Southern Patriot.
17 Noteworthy Publications, Vol. 2 No. 3, May - June 1995, page 24, Southern Patriot.
18 Around the League,, Vol. 6 No. 5 Sept. - Oct. 1999, page 7, Southern Patriot.
19 League of the South 6/30/01
20 League of the South Institute for the Study of Southern Culture and History 6/30/01; From the LSI Director ..., page 8-10, Vol. 6 No. 5, Sept. -Oct. 1999, Southern Patriot.
21 President's message ..., page 1, Vol. 6 No. 6, Nov. - Dec. 1999, Southern Patriot.
22 Sebesta, Edward, The Confederate Memorial Tartan: Officially Approved by the Scottish Tartan Authority, pp. 55-84, No. 31 Spring 2000, Scottish Affairs, Unit for the Study of Government in Scotland, University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
23 ,Hill, Michael, RE: Worshiping at the Altar of St. Martin the Immaculate 6/30/01
24 ,Hill, Michael, The Treason of the Elites 6/30/01
25 Riley, Leslie, Save the Children (and the South): Dont Send Them to Marx's Schools (Theft funded, God-hating, South-hating, Leviathan/New-World-Order-promoting, government schools are our enemies' greatest weapon against us. Vol. 8 No. 1, page 14-15, Jan. - Feb. 2001, Southern Patriot.

Alabama Political Update

admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 02:16:13 GMT

I get a lot of requests to produce Alabama centric material. Although we are primarily a national interests and elections blog we do try and aim to please our readers. You are welcome to write updates about what is going on in any state.

1. Here's a funny ad from a State House Challenger - Joe Hubbard which a lot of Dems running in tough districts might want to take a page from.

2. Yesterday somewhere between 1,500 to 2,000 attended a Jobs and Justice rally in Montgomery. While the rally was billed by some as a voter registration drive, it featured elected officials and other leaders who were critical of Gov. Bob Riley closing electronic bingo operations in Alabama. The rally also featured music by John Anderson and The Commodores sans Lionel Ritchie.

3. Meanwhile we saw a sign of life in the lethargic Gubernatorial race as Dr. Robert Bentley (R) and Ron Sparks (D) debated for 90 minutes in the thriving metropolis of Arab, Alabama. I'm sure Arab is a lovely place, but just not expected to be the place where the Gubernatorial candidates wake up the electorate.

Sounds like a nice exchange between Dr. Bentley and Sparks on the Governor's salary which Bentley has pledged to forgo until people are put back to work.

Bentley called the state's pressing economic crisis, in which more than 200,000 Alabamians are unemployed, his top priority as governor and pledged again not to take a salary until the state puts most of those people back to work.
Sparks shook his head at Bentley and told the crowd: "I want it understood. I'm going to take the salary. I'm a working man. I have a house payment to make and grandchildren to help put through college."
That was a shot at Bentley, who is a physician and who was able to loan his campaign for governor $2 million.

Faith=No Muslims. Charity=No Government Spending. Hope=No Obama.

SumofChange — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 16:52:39 GMT

cross-posted from Sum of Change and check out Pam Spaulding's post at PHB for more thoughts and discussion.

Yesterday we sent cameras to Glenn Beck's 828 rally and Al Sharpton's rally and march. We posted a handfull of videos from each. But first, a personal comment, if you don't mind. My parents and grandparents were civil rights activists (not to mention anti-war activists and labor organizers). On the same grass where we stood yesterday, my mother stood 47 years ago to watch Martin Luther King Jr. declare his dream for the world. I highly doubt anyone will remember yesterday the way my mother remembers 47 years ago.

We will begin with Beck's event::

Sumofchange - Marcy and John from Ohio - Interview at Beck's 828 Rally

As everyone knows by now, the crowd at Beck's event was pretty big. As bernardpliers points out, it was no 500,000, but it was still pretty big. I talked to a bunch of folks, had some good, and some not-so-good, conversations. I am not going to ty to sum up everything I heard other than to say this: for a non-political event, we heard little but talk of politics. And the reason we heard little but politics is because the statement "restoring honor," is being used as a political statement. Faith=No Muslims. Charity=No Government Spending. Hope=No Obama.

Sumofchange - Dave from Florida - Interview at Beck's 828 Rally

Sumofchange - Debate in the Crowd at Beck's 828 Rally

Sumofchange - Sights of the Crowd at Beck's 828 Rally

Another observation about Beck's rally, I have never, ever, ever, heard so many people worried that we are going to take their words out of context. We assured folks we would not, but it became such an issue that for the first time we told folks, "Anyone in our videos, if you feel we took your words out of context, you can send me an email and we will run a explanation from you, unedited. I can't guarantee we won't respond, but we will run the quote." Frankly, I think they are completely justified to have that concern (See: Sherrod), I have just never witnessed it on such extreme levels. That being said, we posted raw footage. No one can claim we took their words out of context. I believe I gave everyone I talked to a fair opportunity to make their voice heard.

Last observation, for a group of people who were, supposedly, reclaiming the civil rights movement, they sure did a good job avoiding the subject. Not one person we spoke with brought it up.

Meanwhile, in another part of town...

Sumofchange - Rev Frederick Haynes - Pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church

Sumofchange - Rita Lassiter - President of The Thursday Network at Sharpton's

A little reminder of how the original teabaggers got away with it...

Sumofchange - Original Tea Partiers Turned on Native Americans

Sumofchange - Melanie Campbell - Exec Dir and CEO National Coalition on Black Civic Participation

Sumofchange - Benjamin Jealous - President and CEO of th NAACP on 8/28

Last, but certainly not least, a message about REAL taxation without representation:

Sumofchange - Ilir Zherka - Exec Dir of DC Vote at 8/28

McAdams only Trailing Miller by 8 (AK-Sen)

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 18:44:50 GMT

Good news out of Alaska via Swing State Project . Really encouraging that in a two way race right now Joe Miller only leads Scott McAdams by 8 points 47-39 with 14 % percent undecided.

Murkowski, as expected, would trounce McAdams but in all likelihood Miller will be the Republican nominee. Now if Murkowski runs as a Libertarian it's a much different ballgame and anybody's guess.

From the Public Policy Polling memo

Joe Miller's surprising victory in Tuesday's Republican Senate primary has given Democrats at least a glimmer of hope in Alaska, although that would fade if the defeated Lisa Murkowski ends up running in the general election as the Libertarian candidate.
Miller leads Democratic nominee Scott McAdams 47-39. McAdams benefits from a more united party, getting 81% of the Democratic vote to Miller's 73% of the Republicans. The candidates split even with independents at 42%, a good number for Democrats in a year where their candidates are largely getting blown out with that group of voters.
In a three way race with Murkowski running as a Libertarian Miller would still lead but with only 38% to 34% for Murkowski and 22% for McAdams. The folks who go for Murkowski favor McAdams 47-23 in a two way contest so somewhat counterintuitively she would actually hurt Democratic chances even though she'd de facto make it a race with 2 Republicans and a Democrat.
Murkowski's 50/43 approval spread still makes her one of the more popular Senators in the country in PPP's polling but her 52% support from Democrats is actually better than her 47% with Republicans, speaking to the trouble she had in Tuesday's primary. Miller is unpopular with 36% of voters seeing him favorably and 52% negatively. McAdams is still largely anonymous with 53% of voters offering no opinion about him.

So while we definitely don't want Miller as a U.S. Senator, by winning this primary he opened the door for Scott McAdams. The Republican Party will be forced to spend much more money in Alaska
than anticipated.

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