Football-Time In Alabama
Aug 29, 2010 Football, alabama
It is time to admit the drums and brass carried from down the street weren’t lying, that the crackle-and-grunt rhythm of the season punctuated by the screaming cicada is not your imagination. A goddess named Victory will soon bring a mighty roar of exhortation to our weekends; all shall pledge their fealty.
Giants whose first lick knocks the young hope of Texas out of the game: they all begin as schoolboys amid buzzing creeks and clicking cotton. Corn-fed kids scrapping over yards of dirt have dreams of destiny: to be stuffed with homework and protein at training-tables, to stand with legends, to raise a trophy.
Whistles and horns organize the boys. Some are burned black from work all summer in fields of endless soybeans. Nothing builds character like an August two-a-day; the wind-sprint after five hours of practice makes a young man tougher than he conceived.
Some declare it a crime against nature and reason, but in truth they are jealous. Denounced as a kind of violent committee meeting, divided into two rival denominations and many lesser-known, this postmodern pagan ritual is our War Dance, a song of blood and sweat and tears.
Tags: paul bear bryant, roll tide
Herding Cats
Aug 16, 2010 Alabama politics, alabama, alabama constitutional reform
From Steven Noles via Facebook:
I wanted to say that yesterday’s SDEC meeting was the worst I have ever attended. Contentiousness; misguided decisions; constant worry that someone was going to succumb to heatstroke … then I remembered. My least favorite Democratic politician has more on the ball than my most favorite Republican. The willingness to air differing viewpoints, and to oppose predetermined outcomes, is what makes us better than them.
At Left In Alabama, Mooncat says:
The Alabama State Democratic Executive Committee met yesterday in Montgomery in a meeting room with no air conditioning, no wifi and precious little cell phone signal. Uncomfortable and isolated — it may be an appropriate metaphor for the party this year.
Contrary to Noles’ sentiment, Artur Davis told the Montgomery Avertiser:
The usual ritual at these events is that the runner-up in the primary embraces the winner and pledges full-throated support for the nominee in the fall.
In a break with tradition, I did not attend that event and will not be campaigning for the Democratic gubernatorial nominee. I want Democrats and independent-minded voters to know just why not.
One of the reasons I entered elective politics as a Democrat is because I worried that the Republican administrations of Guy Hunt and Fob James had set the state back in fundamental ways. The emerging Republican Party in the state offered little in the way of new approaches to revive the economy or modernize our schools. A few narrow interest groups held unusual influence in the GOP, and those interests appeared uninterested in any public purpose beyond maintaining their own power.
After almost two years of navigating the Alabama Democratic terrain as a gubernatorial candidate, I fear that the forces that dominate my party have turned into the same conservative anti-reform elements that I went into politics to oppose.
Thus does Davis — doubtless about to start his own think-tank and issue-advocacy group — eschew the state party and become a progressive.
Ah, the fissiparous left and its strange career arcs! I expect to one day receive an appeal for money to pursue Artur’s vision of a better Alabama; and while I will certainly consider it, the idea of finding a “third way” to improve Alabama before this November is just ludicrous.
Sparks is what we have now because Davis ran a poor campaign. For that, I blame him — and hope he’ll do better next time:
Tags: Artur Davis, Democratic Party, state
Don’t Tax Me, Bro
Jul 4, 2010 Alabama politics, Authoritarianism, alabama, right-wing violence, tax policy, taxes
California has a budget problem. So does Alabama. I wish Trevor Stokes, writer at my local newspaper, could use boldface in print:
Frustrated residents, about 40 strong, gathered Thursday to protest a proposed property tax increase that education officials hope will float the underfunded school system.
The residents’ message: Find money within schools’ pockets, not ours.
The meeting, headed by Muscle Shoals businessman Joe McKinney, was a rally against a 6-mill tax increase meant to help bridge the gap in an education budget deflated by state proration.
City officials have said the tax increase would mean an additional $90 in property tax annually on a home valued at $150,000, which is the median home value in the city.
“I am not against the Muscle Shoals school system,” McKinney said. “I helped raise money for the schools.
“This is not a negative against the school system, our school board or our administration.”
McKinney’s main criticism was that federal, state and local pools of tax revenues gave the false impression of need and that redistribution of the funds could close budgetary gaps.
McKinney was joined by at least one teacher.
“We’re not happy; the superintendent and administrators got raises just the last five years and I won’t get a raise until I retire,” said Sherry Isbell, a Muscle Shoals High School math teacher.
What was that I said about the south being the epicenter of all wingnutery? In the universe these people inhabit, getting state, local, and federal revenue to line up (with magic?) solves all problems. They are like the mythical taxi driver who knows how to fix the world.
There is a word for these people…what word am I looking for? Oh, yeah. They are examples of the right-wing authoritarian (RWA) personality. They always try to take control; occasionally, they do. The results are always a spectacular failure marked by destructive negligence and failed, aggressive policy.
They are defensive. They are greedy. They are stupid. They are the idiocracy, and their priorities are always out of balance: I deserve a raise, but shouldn’t pay $90 to educate other people’s children.
They do it in public buildings staffed, maintained, operated, and governed by the products of public education. They drive on streets paved and patrolled by former high school students (and many former college students). They rely on fire fighters and EMTs to save their lives with a public education. They assume all of the most critical matters of res publica will just take care of themselves, so there’s no need for me to kick out for the kitty…but by God, I had better start prospering soon or there will be hell to pay.
They surround me.
And there’s this today about my governor, Bob Riley, wanting Alabama to get a larger share in offshore drilling revenue:
“In the state with the lowest property taxes in the country, Alabama depends on offshore drilling in state waters for revenue to help balance state budgets each year. The governor said he is not advocating an end to drilling, just reasonable compensation to help the state minimize future risk.”
Our property taxes are the lowest in the nation (so low we’d have to triple them to become #49). We have a gigantic gap in the education budget. We take $1.69 from Washington DC for every $1 we send. I live in the heart of teabagistan, a welfare state. The failure of government here is complete.
All my life, the excuse for our regressive state system of revenue has been that we are a poor state; and that is true, but only true because we keep choosing to ensure our poverty. To quote an infamous person:
Here we have a system that is, by far, too complicated for the brightest of the master scholars to understand. Yet, it mercilessly “holds accountable” its victims, claiming that they’re responsible for fully complying with laws not even the experts understand. The law “requires” a signature at the bottom of a tax filing; yet no one can say truthfully that they understand what they are signing; if that’s not “duress” than what is. (sic) If this is not the measure of a totalitarian regime, nothing is.
Joe Stack fell for one of those tax shelter charlatans, got caught, and decided to burn his family alive before flying his $30,000 airplane into a building. The above paragraph was in his suicide note, and by “duress” Stack referred to Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution.
Collecting taxes is one of the original functions of government; there has never been a government in human history that didn’t collect taxes. Indeed, where there are no taxes there is no government — hence, no law and no order as well as no airport or school system.
And then…there’s the Austin American-Statesman, which reports on a July 4 tea party rally at Georgetown Municipal Airport:
Marsha Farney, who is running for a State Board of Education seat, was not as reserved about where she stood. “I’d rather be here than with those America-bashing Democrats,” she said.
Georgetown Municipal Airport is public infrastructure operated with federal money. It is also the same airport where Joe Stack took off in his $30,000 airplane before flying it into a building (!).
They would like to run the country, and will gladly sabotage it to have their way; they think they are the stalwart individuals, but in fact they’re just greedy pigs.
H/t to Texas Betsy
Tags: joe stack
Where Americans are moving
Jun 16, 2010 alabama
This map shows how many people are moving in and out of every county in the US. Here’s Lauderdale County, AL, hometown of Matt and myself. More people moving in than out, so that’s good.
Map: Where Americans Are Moving – Forbes.com.
Tags: demographics, map, population
POLITICO Slips The Surly Bonds Of Earth
Jun 4, 2010 2010 Elections, Alabama politics, Artur Davis, Drudge-Trolling, O'Neil's Law, alabama, press failures
The website-that-shall-not-be-linked found a way for the defeat of Artur Davis to be a defeat for Obama. With the headline “Short Obama coattails for black pol,” POLITICO opined:
The stunning defeat suffered by Rep. Artur Davis — one of the brightest stars in a new generation of talented black pols — in Tuesday’s Alabama Democratic gubernatorial primary marked the latest setback in an election year that is proving no better, and perhaps even worse, for African-American candidates who are attempting to ascend to high office.
Their link between Obama and Davis?
In Alabama and Georgia, in addition to historic racial voting patterns, Obama himself is part of the problem. Though his campaign amped up Georgia minority turnout in 2008 and held John McCain to a surprisingly close 52 percent to 47 percent victory, his weak approval ratings there — and in Alabama — are no asset to any Democrat running statewide in 2010.
Writer Charles Mahtesian is trolling for Drudge and Yahoo with Teh Stupid™. Artur Davis ran away from Obama; he voted against health care; he spoke well, but ran away from his base. Unions and community organizations and civil rights organizations all gave their endorsements to his opponent.
The result? Democrats picked another candidate. Wouldn’t you kind of expect that?
In the Beltway universe, all of politics is not local.
How Artur Davis Messed Up
Jun 2, 2010 Artur Davis, alabama
According to my sources, the Davis campaign turned down several opportunities for personal appearances in key microtargeted communities. He failed to excite because he failed to show. The Democratic voters of 2006 and 2008 stayed home because he was anything but an Obama candidate.
When it came to understanding the structural problems of Alabama, Davis was the only candidate to “get it” and say so; but he forgot to tell enough of us. OTOH, his errors have decisively disproven the idea that black voters won’t choose a white candidate.
Alabama Advertiser
May 19, 2010 Alabama Republicans, Alabama politics, Political parodies, alabama, political marketing
Alabama is garnering the wrong kind of attention this spring with political ads that just beg for parody. Here’s the latest:
Artur Davis On Grocery Taxes
Apr 28, 2010 Artur Davis, alabama, alabama constitutional reform
Artur Davis is the first Alabama gubernatorial candidate I can remember talking about the state’s unfair tax burden. For that reason alone I am eager to see him win. It always irks me to hear people try to excuse Alabama’s low-property-tax scheme because “we’re a poor state ” – our tax code keeps us that way. Millionaires pay a lower effective rate of tax than indigent wage-earners because we tax the costs of living rather than taxing wealth. That’s your 1901 state constitution at work, and it needs to change.
Why Tim James Keeps Looking Down In His Ads
Apr 27, 2010 Tim James, alabama
We finally know what he’s doing with those pregnant pauses:
Cognitive Dissonance In Action
Apr 6, 2010 Teabaggers, The Teabagger Fail, alabama
Apologies for the smudged lens; it was impossible to tell on an LCD screen in afternoon sunlight.
