They are calling it the “March for America” this year, and emphasizing the fact that due to Alabama’s draconian anti-immigration law, the struggle for civil rights continues. Organizers say the 47th anniversary of Bloody Sunday could be the biggest civil rights march in a very long time and involve new groups of activists, especially Hispanics and unions, even women who feel the Alabama legislature is threatening their Constitutional right to privacy with an invasive new anti-abortion bill.
From March 4-9, the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee or better known as “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama, attracts thousands of people who convene to retrace history by marching across the Edmund Pettis Bridge. But this year holds special significance due to the rights of those under attack since the Republican Party took over all three branches of government in the state and appears hell-bent on creating the whitest and most religious conservative state government in the country.
As a result of the national assault on voting rights, and the clear shift from federal to state by state attacks on civil rights, a decision was made to add a re-creation of the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, according to event organizers.
“It was clear that nearly 47 years later, the attempts to silence the people are still in full assault mode,” organizers said in a press release announcing the schedule for the events. “Today, the field has expanded. Workers and their unions are under attack in nearly every state. Public education, and the basic right to a quality education for our children, is slowly being dismantled.”
ASHEVILLE, NC — Regional conservation nonprofit organization Wild South announced the finalist nominees for the 2011 Roosevelt-Ashe Society Conservation Awards on Monday and the list includes Glynn Wilson of The Locust Fork News-Journal as one of three finalists in the “Outstanding Journalist” category.
The awards recognize “conservation heroes” across the South and honor outstanding conservation work in 2011 to protect wild places.
“The nominees represent six states and exemplify dedication and passion for environmental conservation,” Tracy Davids, Wild South’s Executive Director, said in the press release announcing the finalists. “Conservation groups know that we cannot realize our vision with staff and volunteers alone. Success requires the support of each citizen who believes in the power of a South with healthy, intact ecosystems.”
The winners will be announced and awards presented at the Fourth Annual Green Oscars — the Roosevelt-Ashe Society’s Green Tie Gala — held March 23, 2012 in Asheville, North Carolina.
Alabama joins West Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee once again in Gallup’s ranking of the 10 worst states in the country in public perceptions of citizens’ Well Being, according to the latest survey on the subject.
West Virginia residents had the lowest wellbeing, with a score of 62.3, slightly improved from 61.7 in 2010, but right there with other Southern states like Alabama, which ended up with a rank of 64.6 out of a possible 100.
Hawaii residents had the highest wellbeing in the nation in 2011 with a Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index score of 70.2, maintaining that state’s No. 1 status for a third consecutive year. North Dakota, Minnesota, Utah, and Alaska rounded out the top five states.
“Let justice be done though the heavens should fall.”
- John Adams, letter to Elbridge Gerry, December 5, 1777
The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson
Here’s a question for Rick Santorum and Judge Roy Moore (or any member of the religious right or the tea party) that will never be asked in public by any news organization in the land.
“If you had been alive in 1776, do you think with your views you would have really supported the American Revolution and the political and economic split with the British Empire?”
Of course if Alabama’s famous Ten Commandments judge were asked the question, he would scoff and say “of course.” Like other tea partiers, Moore considers himself to be a great American patriot.
But if you examine their views on government from an educated perspective, it becomes obvious that they would have sided with England in that war as well as the Church of England. They would have been in the camp then called “British Loyalists.” They believe the government’s power is derived from God, not from the people themselves, which is the actual basis of the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
At the Arizona GOP debate, Rick Santorum explains the decision-making process behind his conservative transgressions, and Mitt Romney describes himself as resolute.
The Birmingham News Used the Word Vagina in the Newspaper?
The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson
Rick Santorum needs to get his religious conservative butt down to Alabama right now and save us all from this run amok “liberal media.”
That great bastion of liberal journalism, The Birmingham News, actually used the word “vagina” in a news story today — no less than twice! God save us all.
A bill facing debate in the Alabama Senate could require a woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound in which a doctor or technician inserted an ultrasound transducer, or wand, into her vagina.
Senate Bill 12 by Sen. Clay Scofield, R-Guntersville, would require a doctor or registered technician to perform an obstetric ultrasound on a woman before she could give her consent to having an abortion. A transducer either would have to be moved over the woman’s abdomen or a inserted into her vagina, “whichever would display the embryo or fetus more clearly,” the bill states.
State Senator Linda Coleman, just another liberal Democrat who should probably be in jail anyway just because she is a Democrat, told the liberal newspaper: “It’s an invasive procedure. To me, it is another form of rape, without a woman’s consent.”
Baloney. There is no such thing as rape, unless it is done by a black man against a white women. Then the only correct course of action is to hang the nigger.
President Obama said Thursday that there are no “quick fixes” for rising gasoline prices that are threatening the economic recovery. Gas prices have risen 29 cents per gallon since December, with regular-grade gas now averaging $3.64 a gallon in the Washington region at a time of year when consumers usually enjoy a respite from price hikes. The high cost at the pump could turn into an election-year issue for the president, whose approval ratings have surged recently as the economy improved. Republicans, sensing an opportunity, have blamed Obama for not giving oil companies greater freedom to drill for new U.S. supplies that might ease prices, according to the Washington Post. But the president is hitting back. Read the story or watch the video above.
It bears repeating that the states where anti-federal government, anti-tax fervor is greatest are also the states that benefit the most from federal tax money and spending policies from Washington, D.C. For example, while Alabama is one of the top five most conservative states in the country on many measures, it receives $1.61 back in federal money for every $1 it sends to Washington in tax money.
The Tax Foundation has released the latest version of the report showing that of the 32 states (and the District of Columbia) that are “winners” — receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes — 76 percent are Red States that voted for George Bush in 2000. In fact, 17 of the 20 states, or 85 percent, that receive the most federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Red States.
Here are the Top 10 states that feed at the federal trough (with Red States highlighted in bold):
1. D.C. ($6.17)
2. North Dakota ($2.03)
3. New Mexico ($1.89)
4. Mississippi ($1.84)
5. Alaska ($1.82)
6. West Virginia ($1.74)
7. Montana ($1.64)
8. Alabama ($1.61)
9. South Dakota ($1.59)
10. Arkansas ($1.53)
In contrast, of the 16 states that are “losers” — receiving less in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes — 69 percent are Blue States that voted for Al Gore in 2000. Indeed, 11 of the 14 (79%) of the states receiving the least federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Blue States.
Here are the Top 10 states that supply feed for the federal trough (with Blue States highlighted in bold):
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, a Republican from Tuscaloosa who used to be a Democrat, was recently featured in a Washington Post investigative series about how members of Congress for many years have used their public positions for personal gain.
Everybody in the sixth congressional district has most likely heard about the ongoing congressional ethics investigation of Congressman Spencer Bachus, who was exposed for “insider trading” by the CBS investigative show “60 Minutes.”
But what many people in Alabama have probably not found out about, unless they are readers of The Locust Fork News-Journal since we published the links to the stories prominently on our front page, is that the Washington Post recently did an investigative series which featured Shelby on how members of congress fund projects near their personal properties from federal tax money sent back to their home state as “earmarks.”
Here’s how the newspaper led its coverage.
A U.S. senator from Alabama directed more than $100 million in federal earmarks to renovate downtown Tuscaloosa near his own commercial office building….
During the Bush years, we specialized in covering the politicization of the U.S. justice system as much as any news organization. Our archives are about the most comprehensive for anyone researching the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, and the original case against Richard Scrushy, which Glynn Wilson covered for The New York Times.
