Ok. I get it.

I won't waste your time with my bullshit opinion any further. Heck, 75% of the people of Alabama disagree with me, after all.

Oh, the irony. Usually whatever 75% of the people of Alabama believe on any given issue or candidate or political figure is automatically the subject of much scorn and derision here at DU. All of a sudden, the majority view down here in Dixie - as reported to us by the political pundits and pollsters who stay as far away from the Mason-Dixon line as possible - is gospel.

And all of a sudden disagreeing with 75% of the people in Alabama - which I have always been appluaded for here at DU - is ammo for spitting on the opinion of a long-time fellow DU member from Alabama who dares to have a view that is contrary to that of the rest of you.

Like I said, I won't waste your time or my breath trying to point out the truth about Don Siegelman. I've posted dozens of times about Siegelman in the past several years at DU, unlike most here who haven't ever given a shit about Alabama or the people who live here until the opportunity to use someone like Siegelman for your own blindly partisan agenda presented itself.

Enjoy your pyrrhic ticker tape parade, all you Alabama political system experts out there.


Sincerely,

Asshole in Alabama

If we are this divided and - more importantly - this disrespectful and flat out ugly towards one another on the same side of the aisle, what does that say about us as mature adults, much less a group of people who ostensibly want to work together to defeat a common enemy in a few short months?

Our collective anger, while justified on many counts, has not served us nor this country well at all the past eight years.

And it is doing nothing to move us forward today.

Wake up, my friends. No matter who you support in the presidential race this year, don't forget that none of us knows it all.

Shut up and listen to one another every now and then. We don't have to agree on everything, but how the hell do we know exactly what others think if we busy ourselves with pigeonholing, stereotyping and e-yelling at them 24/7?




Don't recommend this thread. Just read it and think about it. Reply to it, if it interests you. Ignore it, if not. Or smack me down if you feel I'm out of line. Just say something other than some nasty and generally unoriginal shot at someone else's candidate here. If nothing else, do that.

Please.

Many are talking about this case "falling down the memory hole". I guess what folks don't realize is that this case has been ignored for several years now, so the "memory hole" has been home for news on Don Siegelman. Until now.

Not one single national media outlet was interested in the misdeeds of Siegelman - real or imagined - in all the years he was under scrutiny for financial misdeeds and corruption. Not one single national Democratic Party leader spoke up for Siegelman in all that time.

But all of a sudden this is some sort of conspiracy?



I am a proud and politically active liberal born and raised in Alabama, and yet I find myself in the minority here on this issue. I'm surprised that I might actually be in the minority here among Alabama DU'ers, given the facts of the case, but I can live with that and I trust my long-time Alabama DU friends can, too. We can agree to disagree.

Don Seigelman is a crook. He was not good for Alabama. To be fair, neither were any of the governors - Democrat OR Republican - who served before him for decades prior. We have a long and embarrassing history of cronyism in this state that transcends party lines. I challenge any Alabama DUer to present evidence to the contrary.

It just seems obvious to me. A Bush Administration judge enters a case at the 11th hour and makes the same ruling any other judge should have made given the evidence and the long history here, and all of a sudden this is a travesty and an injustice?

It's bait. That's what it is. And far too many people are falling for it. They've picked a Democratic public official who was going down on his own, publicized their involvement in the final nail in his coffin and are sitting back and savoring our knee-jerk outrage.

You think I'm wrong? Do some research. Siegelman made very derogatory comments about women in office when he ran against Lucy Baxley last time around - don't you guys here in Alabama remember that? Doesn't anyone remember when he was convicted - CONVICTED - of rigging public bids on medicaid contracts in 2004? Where was the outrage then?



Please research this case in depth before you pass judgement. I think that defending Siegelman is EXACTLY what the powers that be WANT us to do.

I'm not falling for it.

No matter how bad the crimes of Bush, Cheney, Rove and others in this abysmal administration may be, we do ourselves a disservice to defend crooks like Siegelman with the argument that their criminals are worse than ours. Surely we are above that.

I see that some in the national media who haven't given a rat's ass about the case against Siegelman and Scrushy the past several years are all of a sudden waxing poetic about the horrible injustice done to poor Don at the hands of the evil Republican regime. Well, fuck that. The Republican regime is the same one we've endured the past six years. Siegelman has been up to his eyeballs in legal trouble for years without a peep from a single enterprising reporter on the national scene. Until now.

What about Siegelman's indictment in 2004 for conspiring to rig bids on state medicaid contracts that was thrown out by a federal judge? A federal judge serving under the same Bush administration in office at the time. Where was the media then? Covering the once popular war, that's where. Opportunistic bastards. They smell blood in the water in Washington, DC, and the news from Alabama is nothing more than convenient fodder for people who never have and never will respect our state and those who care about it. I suggest we do not play right into their hands on this one.

Siegelman is guilty of far more than his conviction illustrates. And this Alabama liberal is happy with the verdict. Our state government has for far too long been dominated by self-serving politicos that differ little - if at all - regardless of political party. Siegelman was no shining star for Alabama during his time in office. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know.

Of all the issues at hand, the lottery business runs far deeper than the mainstream media is prepared to report, and there are many more conservative darlings caught up in it than have made the headlines. Think Abramoff and DeLay. And let go of Siegelman. Just because he has a "D" beside his name doesn't mean he is an ally of true progressives in our state. He's not.

Two pennies, if that.

To my friends here, who I drink beer - or Jack and coke - and watch college football with, take our kids to the county fair with, have girls' night out at the local Mexican joint with.... I'm a proud redneck woman, just like they are.

Play Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" when we're around, and we'll stand and sing along. Insult the South, and we'll get redneck on your ass. We love our silly daisy duke shorts and Bud Light in a bottle all summer long. I've seen Jimmy Buffet in concert nine times, and know all the words to way more of his songs than just those on his "Songs You Know by Heart" album.

That's me. That's who I am, my friend.

But I am also a tenacious fighter for and believer in justice. I don't fuck around when it comes to issues of right and wrong, especially in my hometown. The problem is, many of us feel we are fighting the well-established demons at home, while having to simultaneously defend ourselves against stereotype-fueled attacks from folks elsewhere who ought to be in our corner.

Someone stop me now, before my drawl gets going so hard it is no longer intelligible!

But I have no problem being called a redneck, and I have no doubts about my progressive politics. My family has deep roots in Alabama, where I was born and raised. My grandfather and all three of his brothers were county agents, men who worked for the extension service, finding ways to support rural farmers and, in the process, build stronger communities in our state and improve relations between blacks and whites. I am intensely proud of my family history in that regard, and the origins of the word "redneck" that are rooted in the sunburned necks of poor white farmers in the Deep South are nothing to be ashamed of for me.

Are there ignorant and racist rednecks around? There always have been and always will be, I'm afraid. But the same could be said about any random sample of residents of any state or region in this country.

But there were and still are many, many honest and decent "rednecks" about the South, and I see no reason for me to buy into a stereotype created by the Hollywood machine which has little use for me, my vote, or my efforts on behalf of peace and justice and a democratic United States. That stuff, you see, just doesn't sell as well as two good ol' boys, a chick in miniscule shorts, and an overblown buffoon of a small town sheriff in the Deep South.

But oh, how I wish it did.

And I hope that means every last one of you will click on this sometime today!




I wanted to tell you about something that absolutely warmed my heart yesterday. I took my daughter and my nephew to my small town's annual Christmas parade. Truth? I didn't want to go. I rarely have a Saturday when I don't have something I HAVE to do (work, soccer, etc...), and this struck me as optional.

I am so glad I went.

I forgot how silly and charming and sweet these events in little towns can be. Everyone and their brother was there. And most of them were in the parade in some way. There were the usual entries, the high school marching band, the girls from all the area dance studios twirling their batons and turning cartwheels, the homecoming queen and her court riding in convertibles on loan from the local Chevy dealership and driven by young men in lettermen's jackets and with no neck.

But then there were the things that defied expectations - there was a man who looked like Keith Richards (on a bad day - eek) on roller blades, wearing a Cat in the Hat topper and circling around for no discernible reason. There was a John Deere tractor pulling a little cart with seven little old ladies on it. I have idea who they were or why they were in the parade, but they looked like they were having fun, so we shouted "Merry Christmas!" to them, too.

Who knew so many people of all shapes and sizes in my little town could ride a unicycle? Wow. The funniest was a guy who would race towards the crowd, waving his arms and yelling "woah, woah, WOAH!" as if he was out of control until the very last minute. I still laugh thinking about him.

Anyone who owns a golf cart seemed to have gotten an slot in the parade, ditto anyone with a car built before 1970. All the local radio stations drove their vans in the parade, as did a local IT company, strangely.

I totally got a lump in my throat when about 20 Marines, in their dress blues, walked by in front of the Toys for Tots truck full of new toys for kids who might not have anything under the tree otherwise. I waved and said thank you to them. It isn't their fault they have an asshole for a boss.

My absolute favorite part of the parade, though, was when the bus from an assisted living community rode by, the residents of the facility all dressed in red and green and waving and smiling out the windows. Then the bus stopped, just past where we were standing, and an Elvis impersonator who had been standing on the corner jumped on and rode away with the old folks!




I know this all may sound totally ridiculous and hokey, but being a part of that goofy community tradition yesterday really meant something to me. And because all of you mean something to me, too, I just thought I'd share!

Have a wonderful day, my friends.

I feel no guilt about slavery or any other event of the past. Unless it is an event that happened during my lifetime in which I played a direct role and in which my role involved actions that wronged another person - in which case, I have eliminated any feelings of guilt by doing whatever was in my power to make amends to those I've wronged. I still have regrets over things in my own past, but no guilt.

Feelings of responsibility, on the other hand, are a whole different ball of wax. I am white, raised in the Deep South in a family of some privilege, and I know good and well my family's station in life - and hence that into which I was born - is related directly to the status quo of the past in this country. Does that make me guilty? Hell no. Does it lay some heavy responsibility on me to do what I can to continue to fight for positive change? Hell yes.

I read the autobiography of Malcolm X my first year out of college and it completely shifted my world perspective. I was already quite active in issues of racial reconciliation at home and abroad, but had never been hit in the face with one important truth - that there is much work to be done in the white community, particularly in circles of power and influence, and no one bears responsibility for this work more than those of us who have traveled in these circles and whose voice might be heard there.

Guilt is a sympathetic emotion, but in the end, it can't hold a candle to a sense of responsibility and drive to action. I make no apologies for anyone but myself. But I hope that through my words and especially my actions, I will be able to live up to the responsibility that fate has dealt me in life and in my community.

"The people" in Oklahoma do not think, vote or act with one unilateral brain.

Just f#$^ing stop with the generalizations. STATES are neither racist nor civilized, liberal nor conservative. People are. No one is arguing that states like Oklahoma, Texas or Alabama are really liberal hot spots and that the election results are a complete anomoly. Yes, we've got more right-wing nutjobs to contend with than many other states, but that's no reason to consider entire states and populations lost causes.

You say "they intend to crush you" at the end of your post. Who is "they"? Every man, woman and child in Texas? Obviously not, since you are a voice of sanity among the nutjobs there. Are you the sole voice, or are there others like you?

Just target the enemy accurately. Painting with a broad brush is sloppy and simplistic. And we don't need any sloppiness or simplistic thinking if we are going to wrest power away from this malicious and manipulative group of facists.

I completely understand - I have many friends and family members who voted for Bush on Tuesday, and I respect them as much today as I did Monday.

I'm not friends with raving right-wing idiots, and have already disowned anyone in my extended family who fits that category. So I know we are kidding ourselves if we try to label every one of the majority of voters in this country who voted to keep Bush in office as idiots, rednecks, blind Bible-thumpers or any other creative, derogatory name in the book.

My father voted for Bush. My father, who is more responsible for my dedication to social justice, peace and equality for all than any other human on this earth. My father is not stupid and he is not a bigot. He had his reasons. Maybe they were misguided, maybe they were as valid as mine were for supporting Kerry. I don't know. What I do know is that he is a man who doesn't do anything blindly, and he thought long and hard about his choice here.

If the far right wing is now pulling the strings in the Republican party (and I think they are), is the best response we've got to drive our party to the other extreme? Fill ourselves with hate for "them", adopt strategies based on dirty tricks because we think that is the only way to "win"? Insist on fighting these traitors on their own terms by refusing to budge an inch on issues (call them what you want - moral, cultural, social...) on which it has become obvious we do not hold the majority view (like abortion and gay marriage) in this country?

I still have hope we can pull together to get America back on track. I am sick to death of the drama and the hate. Count me in on whatever team emerges from all this with the goal of restoring the vital power and influence of truly progressive leaders who have the best interest of ALL Americans at heard (including both right-wing nutcases AND flaming liberal freaks!).

My anger at this EXACT point has kept me up nights for a long time (about four years, I'd guess).

Stealing the election is an atrocity worth everyone's outrage.

But the complete and total lack of corresponding outrage at the underlying issue of marginalizing minority voters as a political strategy is inexcusable.

This was allowed to pass in 2000, and looking back (quite vividly, thanks to the now-famous video footage of the CBC's attempts to raise this issue in congress), it is heartbreaking. Because it led to Bush in the White House? Yes. But even more so because, even those who give the most lip service to fighting for equality and justice, did little or nothing to challenge the dismissive treatment of so many good citizens of this country.

I white and I am from the Deep South. But I swear that I will be good and @#%damned if I stay silent about this issue in this election year. Not because I want Bush to lose or Kerry to win - but because what is happening to fellow Americans is reprehensible and the antithesis of the principles upon which our country was founded. And if it can happen to "them," believe me, fellow caucasions, it can - and will - happen to you and me one day if we don't speak up now.

And all the majority talk about "The Black Vote" and how "they" should "wake up" and vote for the party "with their best interest in mind" needs to stop. If folks like me and many of you here aren't willing to do whatever it takes to insure that all men and women are TRULY equal in America, we ought to all go back and live in our glass houses very, very carefully and stay away from the ever-tempting stones!

Didn't mean to go off on anyone in particular, or on DU friends in general. Thanks for allowing me to vent for a moment tonight!

Because if we are honest, we must admit that Joanne's points are dead on with how angry we ourselves feel when we see self-righteous fundamentalist right-wingers in our towns use 9/11 as a rallying cry for Bush's war.

In my small Alabama town there are many more intelligent and thinking people than the stereotypes suggest. That said, I'm not going to waste time trying to convince anyone that they outnumber blind Bush supporters - because they don't.

I cringed while reading part of Joanne's post. It is uncomfortable to hear angry words aimed in your general direction. I was tempted to post a defense of the good people of Dirtsville. But that would just be a diversion from the truth - that there are still far too many among us in Dirtsville who are following Bush's example of exploiting a terrible tragedy for personal gain.

There is such a strong human defense mechanism that tells us it is ok to criticize "our own" but that we should fight to the death should some "outsider" attack us. We in the South (or the Democratic Party, or the U.S., or any other group) need to be brave and truthful enough to admit our shortcomings as well as our strengths.

I know I am not alone among others in rural areas and small towns (in the South or elsewhere) who bitch to one another all the time about the ignorance we see every day here. Let's be big enough to admit that when someone from the "outside" points it out as well. I think it can be done without turning into self-hating wimps.