MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Comes Through, Again…

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

What this shows is that the Republican Party has very little support outside the white vote in the old Deep South states of Dixie. You can’t win national elections that way.

Anyone who kowtows to the Tea Party movement will be shamed on the blogs and on national TV. Their day is almost done…

President Barack Obama mocked Republicans’ campaign to repeal his new health care law, saying they should “Go for it,” and see how well they fare with voters, according to the Associated Press.

“If they want to have that fight we can have it,” the president said. “Because I don’t think that the American people are going to put the insurance industry back in the driver’s seat. We’ve already been there. We’re not going back. This country’s moving forward.”

As President Obama signed the historic health-care reform bill into law on Monday, he said, “The bill I’m signing will set in motion reforms that generations of Americans have fought for and marched for and hungered to see.”

The New York Times compared the signing of the bill to the passage of Social Security by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the passage of Medicare by Lyndon Johnson.

The next day, back home in Tuscaloosa speaking to student Democrats, Rep. Artur Davis, who is running to try to be the first black governor of Alabama from a safe seat in Congress, tried to claim he didn’t vote against health-care reform.

“I didn’t vote against health care — I voted against the bill in Washington,” Davis said.

“What?” asked Ron Sparks, the Agricultural Commissioner from Fort Payne, Davis’s sole opponent in the Democratic primary.

“Is it more troubling that Artur Davis claims his vote wasn’t against health-care or that he called the most sweeping reform of a generation, reform that has been building for a century, just a ‘bill?’”

Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s face it, it’s a slow news day, so time for a little word sport…

My friend Melissa King over at the WriteChick Press is giving up the F-Bomb for Lent. I figure people just need to get over their problem with a few little words, which we all learned as kids can’t hurt you like sticks and stones.

A collection of photos and paintings depicting Sherman’s March to the Sea, set to “Oyster River Hornpipe” preformed by the 125th Ohio’s “Tiger Band.”

I was going to do some journalism today, but decided a little symbolic nostalgia for the Civil War was called for instead. It figures that no one will read this far down anyway, or even hit the Facebook link, so it is safe to say without reprisal that I am sitting on the dirt pile of all dirt piles on everybody that is anybody. But what does a poor dirt farmer do? What else? Sit around and drink beer and figure out which dirt pile has more value…

Glynn Wilson

The Swann-Joy covered bridge in Blount County, Alabama, is closed for repairs, but you can park and walk over it from either side, off Highways 79 or 160. Built in 1933, the 324-foot bridge is the longest existing covered bridge in Alabama and one of the longest in the United States. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on August 20, 1981.

This is the view from the Highway 79 side Sunday, Oct. 25. The peak autumn foliage color should be be peaking in the next week, or two. Click on the image for a larger view, or click here to see more images on Glynn Wilson’s Facebook page…

HealthyGulf.Org

The Gulf Restoration Network just rolled out a new report grading the states in the Deep South on compliance with the Clean Water Act, and Alabama came in with a D+, along with Florida and Mississippi. Louisiana faired even worse with an F.

Unbelievably, Bush’s home state of Texas scored highest with a C-.

The report takes a hard look at how each of the 5 Gulf States incorporate important sections of the Clean Water Act into their rules for protecting state waters.

“The bottom line is that each state scored poorly, and there is a lot of room for improvement,” the authors of the report conclude.

Given the overall “D+” that Alabama received, there are several areas where the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) needs to “clean up its act,” according to the report.

One action the report recommends is the establishment of long-overdue limits on the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution allowed in state waters. This pollution; flowing from sewage treatment plants, failing septic systems, lawns, and fields; can cause harmful algae blooms, deplete the oxygen in the water, and cause fish kills.

“Years ago, EPA told Alabama, along with all of the other states to develop numeric limits on nitrogen and phosphorus, and it is time that they do this to comply with the Clean Water Act,” the report concludes.

Some environmental groups in Alabama recommend writing letters to ADEM.

The Birmingham News editorial board, in their typical ninth grade level tone in their obviously failed attempt to get elementary school kids to read their newspaper, advises the agency to “whine less about the report card and work harder to pull up that grade.”

We say nothing is going to improve on the environmental regulatory front here until one of two things happen. One, the Obama Environmental Protection Agency could simply take over and nationalize the state’s agency for environmental regulation.

Or two, the people of Alabama could stop electing anti-environmental corporate Republican greed heads for higher office.

Oh, but wait. There’s not one single truly progressive public official in Alabama, and in fact, there’s not even one running for any elected office in the state in the races for 2010.

What would Hunter S. Thompson say? Can you say doomed?

For more info on the report, check out this PDF document: Gulf States Clean Up Your Act! Report Card

Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

There’s way more to this story, but we ran across this on Facebook today thanks to Mick Benedict…

What a gaffe…

Sorry, but this is kind of funny, don’t you think?