The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age
    Richard Day's picture

    SWEET HOME ALABAMA

    By Richard Day on Sat, 01/30/2010 - 4:58pm |

    File:Confederate Navy Jack.svg



    Now we turn to another state located in the deep, deep South; Sweet Home Alabama.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHsDa9_HSlA

     

    Prior to the civilized Europeans who eventually brought cotton and football and the testaments of the lord to this god forsaken place, Alabama was home to several Native American Tribes including the Alabama, the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Creek, the Koasati and the Mobile.

    Alabama was admitted to the Union in 1868.  Previous history is irrelevant to the discussion. Alabama had to swear full and unfettered allegiance to the Constitution of the United States of America and enter it as a state with no slaves; promising equal opportunity for all.

    After the Civil War, the state was still chiefly rural and tied to cotton. Planters resisted working with free labor and sought to re-establish controls over African Americans. Whites used paramilitary groups, Jim Crow laws and segregation to reduce freedoms of African Americans and restore their own dominance.

    In its new constitution of 1901, the legislature effectively disfranchised African Americans through voting restrictions. While the planter class had engaged poor whites in supporting these efforts, the new restrictions resulted in disfranchising poor whites as well. By 1941, a total of more whites than blacks had been disfranchised: 600,000 whites to 520,000 blacks. This was due mostly to effects of the cumulative poll tax.[25]

    The damage to the African-American community was pervasive, as nearly all its citizens lost the ability to vote. In 1900, fourteen Black Belt counties (which were primarily African American) had more than 79,000 voters on the rolls. By June 1, 1903, the number of registered voters had dropped to 1,081. In 1900, Alabama had more than 181,000 African Americans eligible to vote. By 1903, only 2,980 had managed to "qualify" to register, although at least 74,000 black voters were literate. The shut out was long-lasting.[25] The disfranchisement was ended only by African Americans leading the Civil Rights Movement and gaining Federal legislation in the mid-1960s to protect their voting and civil rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 also protected the suffrage of poor whites.


    I did find it interesting that Alabama had a clear caste system going. I mean more whites could not vote because of restrictions against the poor than Blacks. There were sociological reasons for this.  But of course, proportionately the Blacks were far more disenfranchised than the White population in Alabama.

    Alabama currently has about four and a half million residents; 27%  of that population is African American and coupled with a small Hispanic aspect 72% of Alabamans refer to themselves as white.

    The state's two U.S. senators are Jefferson B. Sessions III and Richard C. Shelby, both Republicans.

    In the U.S. House of Representatives, the state is represented by seven members, five of whom are Republicans: (Jo Bonner, Mike D. Rogers, Robert Aderholt, Parker Griffith,and Spencer Bachus) and two are Democrats: (Bobby Bright and Artur Davis).

    I have written at length about Jeff Sessions but I must include some wonderful quotes here:

    I certainly believe that improving our intelligence is of important national interest.

    Too bad he was not referring to our educational system because Alabama's rate of illiteracy sucks big time.  illiteracy is 15%  http://www.chacha.com/question/what-is-the-literacy-rate-in-alabama

    After the Katrina disaster, Sessions noted:

    In retrospect there were failures enough to go around. There were failures before the storm and failures after the storm.

    Of course the repubs had been in control of everything in government for four years prior to this debacle but Sessions thinks the blame should to Clinton as well. Oh, and of course, we are to assume that Sessions continually voted for appropriations to work on our infra structure like the Levees in New Orleans. NOT!!

    And in case anyone is wondering, Sessions has one great aim for our country; to rule the entire world:

    The goal of this Nation, I so strongly believe, is to be a preeminent world power. We have to understand what comes with that: The responsibility to be strong.

    And Sessions has his own view about the good ole US of A and its role as the greatest jailer of all time world wide:

    You pay a price when you have an objective sentencing system. That is, nothing is perfect.

    Aaaaaah, we are bound to kill an innocent from time to time but its all in the cards.

    www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/j/jeff_sessions.html

    During a committee hearing, this sterling representative of the old Confederacy once said:

     "The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation's security."

    I am sure he realized how dumb he sounded because he stuttered as he made the statement. He made no apologies for the remark, however, and continued right along with his unique brand of ultra patriotism. If he really wants a true example of American patriotism, he only need look across the aisle at Senator Chris Dodd who stood up for our freedom this afternoon.

    If you recall, Senator Sessions used to be a judge and he was denied a Federal Appellate Court seat by the Senate back in 1986:

    During the 1986 confirmation process, Sessions was accused of unfairly targeting black civil rights workers for election fraud charges as a federal prosecutor. A black lawyer under Sessions in the U.S. attorney's office accused him of saying he thought the Ku Klux Klan was "OK" until he found out some of its members were "pot smokers."  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0509/22165.html

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaV-6qerkqI

     

    ALABAMA PRISONS


    The Alabama Dept. of Corrections managed 29,421 inmates as of 2007. The agency operates 20 facilities with a staff of approximately 3,100.  The Board of Pardons & Paroles (Executive Branch) supervises 51,745 probationers and 7,790 parolees through 53 field offices throughout the state. 54% are  black.

    There are also 12000 people in jail at any one time in Alabama.http://www.nicic.org/Features/StateStats/?State=AL

     

    Minnesota, by way of contrast has some 8,000 people in its prisons, with a million more residents than Alabama.http://www.doc.state.mn.us/documents/ProjectionsReport-FY06.pdf

    Now I am being criticized for attacking some of the political and social processes in the South, but I feel I have good reason.

    Thousands of people, largely but not exclusively black, behind. Unlike even the rest of the South, vast swaths of the Deep South-including Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, along with parts of Texas, South Carolina, Georgia, and Arkansas-are still mired in the sort of poverty documented over 60 years ago by James Agee and Walker Evans in the Depression-era classic ''Let Us Now Praise Famous Men."

    ''The Deep South has for a long time been poorer than the rest of the country, and the region has not benefited from growth elsewhere," said historian John Barry, a visiting scholar at Tulane University's Center for Bioenvironmental Research and the author of 1998's ''Rising Tide," a history of the 1927 Mississippi flood. ''In that sense [the aftermath of Katrina] is uniquely Southern.

    http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/09/18/southern_exposure/

    And Alabama is having a terrible problem with poverty.

    On the national scale, Alabama has the 7th highest poverty rate at 16.1% of its population. It only has one county in which the poverty rate is in single-digits, and that is Shelby County with a poverty rate of seven percent.

    Alabama's poverty rate is just slightly better than the poverty rates of Texas and West Virginia, and just slightly higher than the poverty rate of Arkansas.

    This prairie region of Alabama is a highly rural area, where it usually takes more than a minute or two to go say hi to your next-door neighbor.  http://poverty.suite101.com/article.cfm/poverty_in_alabama

    Read more at Suite101: Poverty Rates in Alabama: In a Failing Economy Poor Families are Hit Harder http://poverty.suite101.com/article.cfm/poverty_in_alabama#ixzz0e5GH5RfY

     

    Richard Shelby is another stunning example of a repub and a southerner gone amok:

    Saddam Hussein has been tenacious in his pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and, unless he is removed from power, he will eventually harm our nation and our allies. Every moment we delay allows him to grow stronger.

    We cannot cut and run. If we are to ensure freedom and democracy, it is essential that we follow through on our obligation to bring about stability in Iraq.

    We have got to be a hell of a lot more aggressive.

    http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/richard_shelby.html

     

    Here is just a taste of Shelby's voting record:

    • Voted YES on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
    • Voted YES on constitutional ban of same-sex marriage. (Jun 2006)
    • Voted NO on adding sexual orientation to definition of hate crimes. (Jun 2002)
    • Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. (Oct 2001)
    • Voted NO on expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation. (Jun 2000)
    • Voted NO on setting aside 10% of highway funds for minorities & women. (Mar 1998)
    • Voted YES on ending special funding for minority & women-owned business. (Oct 1997)
    • Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
    • Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation. (Sep 1996)
    • Voted YES on Amendment to prohibit flag burning. (Dec 1995)
    • Voted YES on banning affirmative action hiring with federal funds. (Jul 1995)
    • Supports anti-flag desecration amendment. (Mar 2001)
    • Rated 20% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
    • Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
    • Rated 14% by the NAACP, indicating an anti-affirmative-action stance. (Dec 2006)
    • Amend Constitution to define traditional marriage. (Jun 2008)
    • Constitutionally prohibit flag desecration. (May 2009)

     

    http://www.ontheissues.org/Senate/Richard_Shelby.htm

     

    • Voted NO on repealing tax subsidy for companies which move US jobs offshore. (Mar 2005)
    • Voted YES on reforming bankruptcy to include means-testing & restrictions. (Mar 2005)
    • Voted YES on restricting rules on personal bankruptcy. (Jul 2001)
    • Rated 82% by the US COC, indicating a pro-business voting record. (Dec 2003)

     
    • Voted YES on increasing penalties for drug offenses. (Nov 1999)
    • Voted YES on spending international development funds on drug control. (Jul 1996)

     


    • Voted YES on regulating tobacco as a drug. (Jun 2009)
    • Voted NO on expanding the Children's Health Insurance Program. (Jan 2009)
    • Voted NO on overriding veto on expansion of Medicare. (Jul 2008)
    • Voted YES on means-testing to determine Medicare Part D premium. (Mar 2008)
    • Voted YES on allowing tribal Indians to opt out of federal healthcare. (Feb 2008)
    • Voted NO on adding 2 to 4 million children to SCHIP eligibility. (Nov 2007)
    • Voted NO on requiring negotiated Rx prices for Medicare part D. (Apr 2007)
    • Voted NO on limiting medical liability lawsuits to $250,000. (May 2006)
    • Voted NO on expanding enrollment period for Medicare Part D. (Feb 2006)
    • Voted NO on increasing Medicaid rebate for producing generics. (Nov 2005)
    • Voted NO on negotiating bulk purchases for Medicare prescription drug. (Mar 2005)
    • Voted YES on $40 billion per year for limited Medicare prescription drug benefit. (Jun 2003)
    • Voted YES on allowing reimportation of Rx drugs from Canada. (Jul 2002)
    • Voted NO on allowing patients to sue HMOs & collect punitive damages. (Jun 2001)
    • Voted YES on funding GOP version of Medicare prescription drug benefit. (Apr 2001)
    • Voted NO on including prescription drugs under Medicare. (Jun 2000)
    • Voted YES on limiting self-employment health deduction. (Jul 1999)
    • Voted NO on increasing tobacco restrictions. (Jun 1998)
    • Voted YES on Medicare means-testing. (Jun 1997)
    • Voted NO on blocking medical savings acounts. (Apr 1996)
    • Rated 0% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record. (Dec 2003)

    Now, just look up each and every repub Congressman in Alabama and you will find the votes of these repub gentlemen are identical with Shelby's. And of course Sessions acts no differently during his roll calls.

    I hate clichés but as time goes on, there is little that comes out of my keypad that has not been said or written a million times already. But here goes anyway.

    There are great cultural divides in this country. There are more than just two types of Americans. There are more than just red state Americans and blue state Americans. Because every single state I have come across has its people of the red persuasion and its people of the blue persuasion. And if the color scheme were expanded; well there are hundreds of different communities in this country and a great many variances as far as ethos. World views differ and I guess it is better to have hundreds of different perspectives about the universe than just one.

    I pretend that there are 'facts' that exist outside of these cultural bounds. The problem arises when these 'facts' are brought to bear on an issue. Cultural boundaries will prevent some people from recognizing certain facts as facts. I want to take one issue and demonstrate the extent of this wall of culture that keeps people from discussing the real problems facing this country right now.  I realize I just got through bashing Alabama, but I intend to bash all the states in the Union before I finish this series.

    SEX EDUCATION

    There is a consensus in Alabama that children should not have sex--please no cousin jokes just at this time--and that the best procedure to prevent such abominations is to teach children that all sex is an abomination and that the best plan in life is not to have sex until you are old enough to properly care for your children. There is also a consensus in Alabama that sex is a sin and that birth control is a sinful mechanism whereby births among teenagers might be diminished. Basically this would be against God's law.  There must be punishment for engaging in sexual activity.

    For adults and especially rich adults the rule would be: There must be punishment for getting caught engaging in sexual activity. But that is a subject for another day.

     

    Alabama's law regarding sex education has been singled out for particularly harsh criticism because it mandates, among other things, that students be taught homosexuality is illegal. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2003 that such "sodomy laws" are unconstitutional.

    Last week, President Obama jettisoned from the federal budget earmarked funding for one of the largest abstinence-only initiatives, and instead proposed $173 million in new pregnancy prevention programs. Earlier cuts eliminated millions more in funding from other abstinence initiatives.

    Williams said S.A.f.E. expects to lose federal funding on June 30 -- about $200,000 a year. S.A.f.E. has been raising about $220,000 in matching funds so the organization will continue functioning, Williamson said. "We've been doing this before there were federal funds, and we will be doing it afterward," she said. "It's just a shame that a lot of programs in our greatest need areas are going to have to go away."

    Williams said abstinence-only programs have been maligned by critics. "Abstinence only sounds like we just say no. That's not what we do."

    S.A.f.E. does not preach and teach religion and intolerance; it does provide effective, comprehensive sex education based on sound medical science, she said. And even though state law requires that sex education programs teach that homosexuality is illegal, S.A.f.E. avoids the issue.

    "We just don't go there," she said. "We teach abstinence to everyone, regardless of age or sexual orientation." In all, Alabama could lose about $4 million in federal funds for abstinence-only education, according to the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States.

    In addition to S.A.f.E., organizations receiving funding in recent years through the federal Title V abstinence program include: Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, Circle of Care Center for Families, Crittenton Youth Services, Dale County Abstinence Advocacy Council, Huntsville City Schools and Lee County Youth Development Center. http://blog.al.com/living-news/2009/05/abstineceonly_programs_in_alab.html

    Now objectively, it is easy for me to see what is going on here. Some companies are making a ton of money selling this tripe to our youngsters. The companies are most probably owned by the politicians' families and friends and so Federal Monies and State Tax Monies go to programs that do not do a damn thing to alleviate the blight of teenage pregnancies.  I must confess that growing up in the fifties and sixties in Minnesota, this was the type of curriculum I was taught. I mean we would divide our classes into male and female and each 'side' would view films demonstrating that if you have sex you will  get VD and your dick will fall off. There is truth in all of this. I mean if you do not use a rubber, that is what is most probably what is going to happen to a young boy. When you have sex, the person you are having sex with is really all the people your sexual partner ever had sex with. And with AIDS and virulent strains of other VD's, it is even scarier in this day and age.

    I therefore understand Alabama's argument, but Alabama does not even want their children to know about rubbers. They are more interested in making sure their children know about God's wrath.

    Here is a little squib from a Planned Parenthood site in Minnesota that I found today:


    The 4NOW program offers:

    • Annual Exams
    • Testing and treatment of STIs identified during a birth control visit
    • Birth control methods
    • Family planning education

    You can enroll in 4NOW if you're:

      • Between ages 15-50
      • A Minnesota resident
      • A U.S. citizen (or non-citizen eligible for federally funded programs)
      • Not pregnant
      • Not enrolled in Medical Assistance, MinnesotaCare, General Assistance Medical Care, or another state-funded program

    http://www.plannedparenthood.org/mn-nd-sd/free-birth-control-4now-15607.htm

     

    Here is a little squib a found for a SOBRA program in Alabama:

    SOBRA Medicaid provides health care coverage for pregnant women and children under age 19 who fall within certain income guidelines. These children may be living in one or two parent families. You may also apply for unrelated children as long as they are living in the home. Family planning (birth control) services are available for women between the ages of 19 and 44.

    To qualify, you must be an Alabama resident and U.S. citizen or eligible immigrant and show proof of your status. Applicants must also meet income level and age requirements.

    http://healthinsurance.alabama.gov/unins_children.htm

     

    I found this today from a site concerning teenage births in Minnesota:

     

    Minnesota's teen pregnancy rate declined steadily in the 1990s, from 33.6 per 1,000 in 1990 to 21.9 per 1,000 in 2000. The number of teen pregnancies for girls age 15-17 is calculated by combining the reported number of births, abortions and fetal deaths to mothers in this age group. Children born to teenage mothers are at higher risk for poor neonatal care, low birth weight and infant mortality. Teenage mothers can find it difficult to support a child. Only about half complete high school, limiting future job prospects. There is a high rate of welfare participation among the group.

    http://www.mnplan.state.mn.us/mm/indicator.html?Id=6&G=23

     

    And I found this today from a site concerning teenage births in Alabama:

     

    The number and rate of births and pregnancies among teenage girls in Alabama rose in the past two years, reversing a downward trend in the teen pregnancy rate that had held steady for almost a decade.

    According to the Center for Health Statistics of the Alabama Department of Public Health, there were an estimated 12,398 pregnancies in Alabama to females ages 10 to 19 for a pregnancy rate of 39.7 in 2007, a rate which is virtually unchanged from the 2006 rate of 39.6. During the years 1996 through 2005 the teen pregnancy rate decreased steadily from 57.1 to 37.5.  http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/127399.php

     

    Now we have trends going on here. Teen pregnancies have fallen for decades in Minnesota as well as Alabama. And the last couple years there has been a little rise.

    BUT LOOK AT THE FRICKIN NUMBERS. Damn. Almost 38 teenage births in Alabama for every thousand females and 21 in Minnesota.

    We are becoming more of a nation. There is no doubt about this. Kids in Alabama are not stupid. They are tweeting and emailing and looking things up on the web. The information is there whether or not it is taught in schools.

    Yet the politicians in Alabama, not only wish to secure their own cultural boundaries but export their 19th century views of the universe to other countries. It is the bible belt in conjunction with George W. Bush's Administration that cut off all aid to other nations that involved birth control. Alabama not only wishes to lie in its own excrement but wishes to draw the entire world into that same excrement.

    Alabama's cultural boundaries hurt people. Now Alabama would contend that we in Minnesota have fewer teenage births because we kill all the fetuses before they have a chance to be born. Statistics do not bear this out at all. There is no proof to back up such a wild accusation.

    And if I extrapolate as much as I can in these few pages, I would apply such an analysis to other issues of the day. The gap between the rich and the poor in Alabama is unconscionable. The gap between the wages of Black workers and White workers is unconscionable. Access to educational institutions in Alabama is severely curtailed for the lower classes whatever the color or cultural origin.

    As compared to what? Well, how about Minnesota. How about Iowa? How about Wisconsin.

    And it is not bad enough that Alabama's cultural walls cause its citizens such pain and suffering. Alabama's representatives would export their theories of government to other states and even other countries.

    AND THAT IS A DAMNABLE SHAME.

     

     

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJwS38YH1iw