Recount to start on Alabama amendment

[quaoar]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Alabama%20Amendment

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Election officials will begin recounting votes Monday on a narrowly rejected ballot measure that would have removed segregation-era language from the state Constitution.

The amendment was defeated by 1,850, or .13 percent, according to the final vote tally. Alabama law requires an automatic recount if the margin is within a half percent.

The amendment would have removed un-enforced language mandating racial segregation from the state Constitution, which was written in 1901.

Secretary of State Nancy Worley said she doesn't expect the recount to change the final election results, "if all the correct procedures are followed." She said most counties will finish the recount in one day.

[Demrock6]

1. Why would anyone want to keep that stuff in the Constitution?

[Divine Discontent]

2. gosh, I don't know, weird huh?

perhaps it's because they're homophobic, racist, misogynist, xenophobic, red-necked, hate mongering, war mongering, fundamentalists, hypocritical, fascist loving pigs?


That, or it could be that they're just stupid.


God bless

[Mz Pip]

3. Could be both

Yeah, it's both.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[quaoar]

4. Or

Perhaps it's just a tad more complicated than that, ya think?

[joeybee12]

5. No, I don't...I've read about it, and the Christian Coalition decided

to try and muddle the issue by saying this would mean all kids might be entitled to an education in the satte of Alabama, and we can't have that!

So--either they're racist, or idiots, or both.

[Ian David]

6. You left out "in-bred"

[quaoar]

8. That's not what the CC said

The CC said the amendment might open the door to have federal judges mandate tax increases to pay for education. They framed it as a tax issue and there was no one campaigning for the amendment to counter that distortion.

[struggle4progress]

20. They really are opposed to public financing of education, ...

... and we really will see wingnuts begin another round of attacks on public education soon.

But a vote against this amendment was simply a vote for racism: "You can go ahead and vote as a racist by telling yourself blah blah blah."

[YellowRubberDuckie]

14. They also told them that Federal Judges would be able to tell them...

to raise taxes for educational improvements, despite the fact that the governor raised taxes last year for that very purpose. I guess when the Christian Coalition leader tells you something from the pulpit, it's God-Breathed. :shrug:
Duckie

[LizW]

15. Think?

Sorry, we're south-bashing here. Thinking is somewhere in another thread. :eyes:

Seriously, as you kindly pointed out, it is more complicated. This is one of those issues that can be enlightening about why Republicans vote the way they do. Roy Moore and his cronies made this debate about taxes, not about segregation. They stressed that the courts had already overturned segregation and claimed that this amendment was a back-door effort to raise taxes. Many did argue otherwise, Democratic Congressman Artur Davis and the very conservative Birmingham News for instance.

But you had on the one side a well-financed loony group led by a cult figure (Moore) who is willing to lie to win, and on the other people who just said, hey, this is the right thing to do.

[Flammable Materials]

16. Gotta hold on to those old Southern traditions. n/t

[FreeStateDemocrat]

13. You also left out they are members of the racist Republican Party and

usually ignorant rightwing religious conservatives. The well know dirty little secret that nobody in the media every talks about. If it wasn’t for the racist the repukes would not have carried the south and they are shrewdly pandered to by the repuke leadership.

[Charon]

17. Why would anyone

Are you surprised that this would happen in Alabamastan.

[KittyWampus]

7. Democrats Should Use This As A Wedge.

[Kellis]

19. Good Point

Jesse is using the disenfranchisement of black people in Ohio to get voter Fraud out in the open-We could also very easily use rascism as one of our "moral" values.

[OutsourceBush]

9. Republicans can't be racists, they got Rice, Powell and Thomas

and that's enough oreos for me to know that the old testament Christians aren't racists! praise Jesus Bush /sarcasm

[gasperc]

10. half full or half empty

at least 49.9 voted to strike the language. So there is hope, we have nothing to gain by constantly mocking the nutcase majority in the south. There is a base of wise, progressive open minded people in Alabama and we need to help them convince more people about the good that will be gained by progressive, liberal politics.

ps what the hell were 50.1% thinking? dumb crackers

[Ian David]

11. It further discredits them

One can say that they voted to keep segregation on the books, and that the christian coalition campaigned for it.

When they start foaming at the mouth about things like gay marriage, we can say, "But you also voted to defend segregation in 2004."

[vajraroshana]

12. fairly sizable amount voted no as a protest vote

There's a sizable number of folks in Alabama that vote no on every proposed amendment no matter what as a protest in hopes of having the state constitution completely redone. Alabama's is the largest constitution in the world and is hopelessly messed up. To redo piecemeal every single vile thing in the state constitution would take hundreds of years. So the theory is to punish the state by voting no on everything until it precipitates a crisis big enough to have it completely re-written.

And of course the CC and Roy "ten-commandments" Moore said it was a backdoor attempt to force more taxes.

[American Tragedy]

18. This was allegedly due to fear of federally mandated tax increases

God forbid that the state of Alabama should actually have to generate revenue to match the funds that they siphon from the federal government.

At first I doubted whether that was really the reason that the amendment was rejected, but on second thought I find it easy to believe that the Christian Coalition would oppose higher spending on education.