Alabama Slamma: there's no Comfort in the Southern today...
to balance things a bit, after my previously (somewhat) optimistic post about good things that happened on election day... in Alabama, voters appear to have defeated Amendment 2, the deceptively named "Schools and Poll Tax" amendment to the Alabama state constitution.

in short, Amendment 2 would have removed language from the Alabama constitution which demands that children of different races attend different schools. Amendment 2 would also have removed language from the Alabama constitution stating that Alabama's children have no right to a public education in the state. disgustingly, Amendment 2 appears to have FAILED:

http://www.al.com/election/coverage/?amendments
Amendment 2: Schools and Poll Tax
2,573 of 2,577 Precincts Reporting
Yes 687,747 49.91%
No 690,241 50.09%

the bigots who opposed the changes insisted that it was unnecessary: i.e., that it's okay to have such language in the state constitution, since it's moot, and not enforced, as a result of federal law, including Brown v. Board of Education. they primarily campaigned against it with the red herring argument that removing language stating that Alabama children have no right to a public education could be used by courts to order massive tax increases for education.

ummmm, yeah: the idea that the Alabama court system would order such a thing, when just in this election the Alabama Supreme Court was made a 9-0, exclusively republican body, is just silly. and get this: one new member of the state's high court is a bigot named Tom Parker, who won by about 55% to 44%. According to an article by an Alabama television station, on msnbc.com, the Southern Poverty Law Center, splc.org, has detailed Parker's sympathies for, and ties to, racist, modern-day confederates:
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=491

from the MSNBC article:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6332857/

"The [Southern Poverty Law C]enter is an organization that promotes racial equality, tolerance and is known for its legal victories against white supremacists and tracking of hate groups. They accuse Parker of praising slave traders and associating with hate group leaders; specifically the Council of Conservative Citizens and League of the South.

The G-O-P candidate was asked for his reaction to the website article. "Oh, it's not surprising. The Southern Poverty Law Center is one of the worst hate groups in the entire country. They hate any people of faith. They hate people who oppose abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage or pornography. They hate people who support the original intent and interpretation of the constitution. They hate anybody to the right of Ted Kennedy."

that quote from Parker is so unbelievably asinine that i won't even bother responding to it.

however, i will provide one more tidbit about Parker, from the same MSNBC article: "Tom Parker worked very closely with former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore as Moore's spokesman during the battle to keep Moore's Ten Commandments Monument in the State Judicial Building in Montgomery."

as i explained to a group of activist students at UCSD a few nights before the election, voting in San Diego County just isn't the same as voting in places like Alabama...