Border States vs. the Deep South

I want to remind folks that the Tar Heel State, along with fellow border states - Arkansas and Tennessee, plus Florida, which was unsuited for large, export crop plantations - had FAR fewer slaves. And by border, I'm referring to the Confederacy. The legacy of slavery continues to shape southern politics TODAY, much like it did in 1860s.


But the deep south - Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina - is different and much more conservative, closed minded, and racist.


In Louisiana, prostitute client David Vitter is basing his reelection on opposing Obama. The foundation of that opposition is race, plain and simple.


In Mississippi, a statewide referendum to remove the Confederate flag from the state flag's design failed overwhelmingly, with the vote totals mirroring the racial profile of registered voters.


Of course, in South Carolina the Confederate flag flies on the state house grounds in Columbia. The NAACP continues a travel boycott of South Carolina over the flag issue.


In 2002, Georgia voters did not reelect a Democratic governor and Senator Max Cleland. The number one issue for voters, according to exit polls, was the decision by the previous Democratic governor to remove the Confederate flag motif from the state flag.


Only 14 percent of white Louisianans voted for Obama last year. In Alabama, Obama picked up even fewer white votes, only 10 percent. For Mississippi, 11 percent.


In fairness (and obviously painting with such a broad brush - especially on a topic like this - is not accurate but it IS ranty) more than 20 percent of white voters in Georgia and South Carolina (26% and 23%, respectively) voted for Obama.


But in the historically more moderate border states Obama picked up more than 30% of the white vote: North Carolina 35%; Arkansas 30%; Tennessee 34%.


As William Faulkner said, a man who you have to give the benefit of the doubt, 'The past is not dead. In fact, it's not even past' is sadly still true when it comes to politics in the deep south.

Road games

For the second Saturday in a row, a Carolina Hellenic blue football team goes on the road for a big game.

Last Saturday, Greece played well but lost 0-2 to Switzerland, in Basel, in a make or break 2010 World Cup qualifying game. Greece extended their bad week on Wednesday when they only came away with a tie in Moldova. So hoping for a tie and a win, they only came away with 1 point and are now tied with Latvia for second place in their qualifying group.

The Hellenes need to win their final two home games and hope that the Swiss end with a tie and a loss in their last two games.

Carolina's game today at UConn is a similar 'make or break' style game. Since it's not an ACC game it's not technically make or break, but a road win over a quality Huskies team would be huge. It would give the Heels proof that the hype is real, that this is a quality and substantive team. And two, it would give the team loads of confidence. It's easy to forget that until last season's win at Rutgers, the Heels had not won a game outside the state of North Carolina in years.

GO HEELS!

CAROLINA AND HELLENIC HOOP NOTES

• I've always loved, and always will love, Michael Jordan. Despite the Nike branding, the failure to help Harvey Gantt, etc. etc. he's MICHAEL JORDAN. As a North Carolinian I thought it was pretty cool and eloquent to have N.C. State's David Thompson present him (how silly is that idea though?; it seemed awkward as a device to have one other Hall of Famer on the stage with you). But I was not crazy about his speech. It was all over the place, and was a little short in the grace department.
• The baseball hall of fame ceremony is much cooler. I think that owes to two things. One, the players on the stage, literally behind and welcoming the new inductees. But most of all, the fans in jerseys and caps in the audience. Just having it outside reenforces baseball's pastoralness, but also makes it a more welcoming ceremony. Leaving aside Jordan's speech, the entire ceremony was underwhelming and not impressive.
• Finally, the Greek basketball team is cruising through the first and second rounds of the European basketball championships in Poland. Greece is 4-0 after defeating a Dirk-less German squad yesterday.

Joe Wilson

For me the Joe Wilson story, and you knew his constituents in South Carolina would defend him, is the punctuation mark on the sentence: "The far right is simply a bunch of morons and hypocrites."

Simply stated, you can't call someone who won more than 300 electoral votes a tyrant.

You can't claim the government will take your guns away when you are allowed to carry one to a town hall meeting with your member of Congress.

You can't say you don't like big government or paying taxes AND support our troops at the same time.

And of course, you can't say a public option is socialism when you are on, or about to use/collect, Medicare and Social Security.

If you do any of the above, you are stupid. And a conservative Republican.

Hopefully, this far right hysteria will back fire - both on the Hill when it's time to vote on health care and energy legislation this fall, but more importantly with the average American vote.

A few more rants:

• You can't yell 'You Lie' to someone who is NOT lying (that makes YOU a liar);
• Did anyone ever yell 'You Lie' to the recent president who DID lie, about going to war?;
• The last time a South Carolinian got this mad - with a pent up rage sparked by losing an election - was 1861. But I guess this is progress. Then residents of the Palmetto State fired upon Fort Sumter and the American flag, this time they 'only' heckled the President.
• You can never - ever - give a white southerner (and by that I mean Protestant, not Catholic, Jewish and of course Greek) from the deep south - SC, GA, MS, AL, LA - the benefit of the doubt. At best, they are stupid, at worst they are racist.
• One last blast at Wilson and his home state. To me, you can draw a straight line from slavery to Fort Sumter, through Jim Crow to Strom 'Raped My Colored Help and Fathered a Child" Thurmond, around to the Hiking Adulterer Hypocrite Governor and finally end up at Rep. Joe Wilson. Quite a state.