Ignorance abounds in Alabama… but, there are signs of hope & change!

I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own two eyes.

Alabama State Senator Bryan Taylor’s (R) response to a query on McCarthyism.

In a recent news report, it was mentioned that Alabama State Senator Bryan Taylor – whose Twitter presence and moniker is @SenBryanTaylor – recently Tweeted in response to a query mentioning late former United States Senator Joe McCarthy, that “Never heard of the guy, so I guess I’ll have to get the book, study up on him, and see if its credible.”

Medgar Evers, Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift & Scott Beason walk into a voting booth…

Medgar Wiley Evers (July 2, 1925 – June 12, 1963) was an African-American civil rights activist from Mississippi involved in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi. After returning from overseas military service in World War II and completing his secondary education, he became active in the civil rights movement. He became a field secretary for the NAACP. Evers was assassinated by Byron De La Beckwith, a member of the White Citizens’ Council. As a veteran, Evers was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. His murder and the resulting trials inspired civil rights protests, as well as numerous works of art, music, and film.

June 12, 2013, marked the 50th anniversary of Medgar Evers’ death in Jackson, Mississippi.

Bob Dylan’s music on Medgar Evers was recently featured on NPR’ afternoon news program, All Things Considered.

As the guest spoke, it occurred to me that the primary difference between this era, and the era of the late Civil Rights leader is that the exceeding majority of today’s youthful musicians are out for the almighty dollar, rather than speaking their hearts and minds for the causes of truth, justice, and the American way.

It’s all about the money.

And according to some, there is perhaps no better representative of the “me” generation than Taylor Swift.

Historical Racist Promotional Image – Citizen’s Council of Greater New Orleans, Inc.

Not being familiar with the body of Miss Swift’s work, I must rely upon interviews with her, and from remarks by those whom are familiar with her work. And it seems that there are many who utterly despise her work, for no other reason than that “practically every song she sings is about herself.”

And in defense of Miss Swift, regarding her work, she has said, “I’ve been very selfish about my songs. I’ve

The only thing that sucks harder than Alabama’s economy, is Governor Bentley.

Let’s be absolutely certain about a few things.

Number One: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is – as a politician – a liar, thief and utter incompetent who is shitting on the people of Alabama and wiping his dirty ass with the United States Constitution.

Number Two: Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is – as a politician – a racist.

Number Three: The majority of the state’s Republican leaders are also incompetent boobs, liars and racists.

Number Four: I have utterly NO respect for the man Robert Bentley. Not as a politician, not as a human being. NONE whatsoever.

I predict Alabama will only be better off only AFTER he leaves… the dirty rotten scumbag.

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Alabama has the worst economy in the Southeast. Wonder why? (Joey Kennedy)

Published: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 11:30 AM     Updated: Thursday, October 25, 2012, 12:17 PM

By Joey Kennedy | jkennedy@al.com

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley-R, with HB 56 sponsors Sen. Scott Beason-R, left, and Rep. Micky Hammon-R, right, still defends the state’s terrible immigration law, despite the clear damage it has caused to Alabama’s economy. (AP)

Remember when the Legislature was steamrolling through that overreaching, harsh, toughest-in-the-nation immigration law in 2011? The sponsors said not only would be be mean enough to make individuals and families so miserable they’d self-deport, but also would boost Alabama’s economy and put good ol’ red-blooded, U.S. citizen Alabamians back to work.

Odd report this week, then, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, which said Alabama has the worst economy in the Southeast. Worse than Louisiana. Worse than South Carolina. Heck, worse than, my goodness, ThankGodforMississippi

Makes us proud, doesn’t it?

There is a saving grace. While Alabama’s economy sucks more than any other in the Southeast, it’s only the fourth worst economy in the United States. Yea us! We’re No. 47!

The outlook for Alabama isn’t that sunny, either, the report says. Unemployment is down to about 8.3 percent, from last October’s 8.8 percent, but economists attribute that to jobs that have simply disappeared, not to jobs having been created.

That, too, can be traced to the immigration law, which left farmers, construction companies, restaurants and other labor-intensive industries looking for workers, then settling for fewer of them when Alabamians failed to fill the jobs.

A University of Alabama economist was ridiculed by state officials and others when he said

Alabama State Senator Scott “aborigines” Beason: “When their children grow up and get the chance to vote, they vote for Democrats.”

Garbage like this infuriates me to no end.

What kind of garbage am I referring to?

I’m referring to the kind of racist garbage that has been HB56 – the state’s lazy attempt to “do something” about illegal immigration.

And just for the record, it is my considered opinion that Alabama State Senator Scott Beason is a lazy, incompetent, racist who is so lazy that he wouldn’t even pick up a bucket to pick vegetables when one was thrust toward him by an Alabama farmer who stood to lose millions in a crop that HB56 forbade him to hire migrant farm workers. (Alabama tomato farmer Leroy Smith, Chad Smith’s father, challenged Beason to pick a bucket full of tomatoes and experience the labor-intensive work. Beason declined but promised to see what could be done to help farmers while still trying to keep illegal immigrants out of Alabama. Smith threw down the bucket he offered Beason and said, “There, I figured it would be like that.” {There you have it. Scott Beason is a man too Goddamn lazy to put in an honest, hard day’s labor. What a worthless, shit eating, son-of-a-bitch. ed.})

Migrant farm workers have been, and continue to be an integral part of this nation’s agricultural production.

Alabama’s version of Arizona’s immigration law was written by xenophobic Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who, in his legal/political career has written laws that have consistently been struck down after judicial scrutiny & review, as well as having come under fire within his own profession by complaints of racism by University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law as far back as 2003.

To give the man his due, however, he is a very hard-working man, and was involved with honor society, debate team, forensics, student council, spirit club and intramurals while at Harvard, where he graduated in 1988. Having won a Marshall Scholarship from the British government, he attended Oxford and completed a Ph.D. in political science in 1992. He then was accepted at Yale Law School, where he taught political science to undergraduates and won a Prize Teaching Fellowship in 1994.

But then, I suppose, some might consider Adolph Hitler a hard-working man.

In 2001, he was awarded a prestigious White House fellowship, and reported for duty at the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sept. 1. Ten days later, the United States suffered the worst-ever terrorist attack on American soil. Though he was not a specialist in immigration law or policy, Kobach became Attorney General John Ashcroft’s chief advisor on immigration and border security.

Interestingly, in 2002 Kobach reduced the number of Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) judges from 19 to 11, which many believe was significantly responsible for creating a significant backlog of immigration hearings.

By 2005, so much criticism had been leveled at the DOJ’s purported “streamlining” and at what appeared to be “a pattern of biased and incoherent decisions” that DOJ started proposing to boost the number of judges and to mandate full opinions instead of one-line decisions, effectively reversing Kobach’s efforts.

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The Strange Career of Juan Crow

Opinion By DIANE McWHORTER Published: June 16, 2012

 THE depth of my alienation from home hit me last January, when Alabama shut out Louisiana State for the college football championship. Even in the familiar afterglow of ’Bama’s second title in three years, I had to ask myself,

Things Alabama ain’t got… Mega Millions Lottery

Some folks would say “common sense,” and to some extent, that’s probably true.

Well… better make that “to a great extent.”

But, a state lottery is another thing Alabama ain’t got.

And, the Republicans in the legislature in the past administration and the present administration seem to have absolutely no inclination to allow the people the opportunity to vote on it… whether to have state sponsored gammlin’, that is.

Folks’ve tried to get one for education but have failed. And, in a move called “proration,” the governor this year cut all state budgets across the board by 10.6%, excluding education, because Alabama’s state constitution, for better or for worse, forbids going into debt and requires a balanced budget. Bonds are a different matter.

But, one other thing the state’s legislature doesn’t do

Alabama’s harsh immigration law targeted in new campaign; Republicans admit mistake

For those whom follow the news, Alabama has come under national and international scrutiny for its harsh law, ostensibly aimed at curbing illegal immigration.

Revelations that the law known as HB56 was written largely in part by Kansas Republican Secretary of State Kris Kobach, and fostered in Alabama by Republican State Senator Scott Beason, approved by the overwhelming majority Republican State House and Senate, then signed into law by Republican Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, have set farmers, religious & charitable organizations and state and local government agencies into motion.

Even Missourians and their renown newspaper, the Kansas City Star, have expressed disgust with their Secretary of State, and wrote on February 9th, 2012 that,

Republican Alabama Senator Scott Beason’s recorded racist remark to play in Federal Court

Were I to call Scott Beason a derogatory name, I would be falling into the same type trap & garbage dump in which he lives & from which he operates. So I shall refrain. However, suffice it to say what he says, and what he has done – collaborating with Kansas racist GOP Secretary of State Kris W. Kobach to write a horrid experimental law in Alabama – remains proof positive of their misguided notions. In their case, it’s not “airs of superiority,” they really believe it!

Judge says defense can play aborigine tape in bingo trial

Published: Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 4:23 PM     Updated: Tuesday, February 14, 2012, 4:27 PM

By Kim Chandler — The Birmingham News

Republican Alabama state senator Scott Beason

MONTGOMERY, Alabama — The federal judge in the State House vote-buying trial said he will let defense lawyers play recordings in which a wire-wearing legislator says disparaging things about black voters, if they become relevant during the trial.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson told prosecutors that it’s not his job to “sanitize” the motives of Sen. Scott Beason, R-Gardendale, who recorded State House conversations for investigators.

“These are obviously explosive, explosive recordings,” prosecutor Edward T. Kang told Thompson.

“I agree it’s explosive, but it’s only explosive because Mr. Beason made the comments,” Thompson responded.

Thompson said jurors should have the full picture of Beason’s possible motives when

Kansas Republican Lawyer Kris Kobach Advances Political Aspirations with Alabama Experiment

May God have mercy on your wretched soul, Kris Kobach. I hope you are relegated to a life wherein you can work out your penance by serving the immigrant and poor.

“The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 19:34

His Southern Poverty Law Center profile describes him as a “nativist.” In addition, most all of the laws he wrote or helped write have been overturned on Constitutional grounds. While advising former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, the program he crafted around his ideals also similarly failed amidst federal scrutiny and loss of federal cases brought on the basis of discrimination. His 2004 bid for U.S. Congress failed after his opponent accused him of having ties to White Supremacists. In 2007, fliers were circulated on the campus of University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law accusing him of inflating his credentials and crafting bad law. Mr. Kobach endorses Mitt Romney for President, and he was the 2008 Romney campaign’s illegal immigration policy advisor.

Mr. Kobach also “works for the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI). IRLI is the legal arm of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), recently listed as a nativist hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.”

Even the Kansas City Star noted the Mobile Press-Register editorial (below), and on February 9th, 2012 concluded that, “In place after place, laws drafted by Kobach have either been declared unconstitutional or proven disastrous. Yet he happily forges ahead, representing the state of Kansas as an elected official and acting as an adviser to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. How many editorials will it take before people figure this guy out?”

If you would like to contact Mr. Kobach, his email address is: SOS@SOS.KS.gov

Location, mailing address and phone number are:

Kris W. Kobach
Kansas Secretary of State
Memorial Hall, 1st Floor
120 SW 10th Avenue
Topeka, KS 66612-1594
(785) 296-4564

Media contact is:
V. Kay Curtis
(785) 296-4580
fax(785) 296-8577
email: media@sos.ks.gov

 

Alabama paying for failed ‘experiment’

(editorial)
Published: Tuesday, February 07, 2012, 5:12 AM

By Press-Register Editorial Board

ALABAMA ALLOWED itself to be used as a guinea pig on illegal immigration so that a Kansas lawyer could build his political career.

How Alabama lost $10.8 BILLION dollars with the stroke of a pen.

It’s official!

Alabama‘s anti “immigration” law has or will cost the state:

a) 70,000-140,000 jobs with $1.2-5.8 billion in earnings, (ii) $2.3-10.8 billion in Alabama Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or 1.3-6.2 percent of the state’s $172.6 billion GDP in 2010, (iii) $56.7-264.5 million in state income and sales tax collections, and (iv) $20.0-93.1 million in local sales tax collections.

That is a direct quote from the research done by Dr. Samuel Addy, Ph.D., with the Center for Business and Economic Research, of the Culverhouse College of Commerce and Business Administration at The University of Alabama.

Naturally, the Republican Governor Robert Bentley, MD and Republican legislature – including Scott Beason – will, or have already

AL Lawmaker tells Republicans to “empty the clip” on illegal immigrants

A Republican Alabama State Senator, referring to illegal immigrants, recently encouraged a Cullman County Republican Party audience to “empty the clip, and do what has to be done.”

Scott Beason spoke Saturday, February 5 to a breakfast meeting of the CCRP and focused his remarks on illegal immigration.

Alabama State Senator Scott Beason, R-17th District

Beason represents