Saturday, March 17, 2012

The Southern Strategy


Several recent events have led me to the composition of this post. As I am sure all my regular readers know that the infamous Southern Strategy has long been at the top of my soapbox, so it should not be necessary to go over the history and details of the concept again. The Southern Strategy and its enablers in the CNP are of course discussed in detail in Paradigm Shift. However, several particularly poignant events have occurred in recent days that shed additional light on the subject. First of all, Alexandra Pelosi swatted the hornets' nest, as I like to call it, on Bill Maher's Real Time a week ago. She showed a brief film clip she shot in Somewhere, Mississippi, of potential voters briefly stating their opinions of President Obama, God, guns, and certain well established welfare programs. On last night's show, she returned with a film clip of mostly African Americans in New York City mouthing off their support of food stamps and welfare checks. One potential voter was ready for a career, but not a job. The working doorman interviewed nearby was not pleased.

Sandwiched between the airing of these two documentary film clips were a few key Republican Primaries last Tuesday. The Huffington Post did its usual outstanding job of tracking these primaries in real time for us Internet junkies and here are the final results. Since I was born in Mississippi, lived there until well into adulthood, and still have family living in the state, I feel qualified to discuss the voting results of that state in detail. Although the results in Alabama probably mirror these just like the geographical shapes of the states themselves, we are going to use Mississippi as our special Southern Strategy guinea pig. I followed the results as they came in, clicking on specific counties, and the lessons to be learned are pretty much as I expected.

You have a map of the counties to follow along geographically if you wish. Let's start with the Urban, Suburban, and Educated counties. Hinds County, the central county of the largest city in the state (Jackson, with a population of 173,000) voted 41% for Romney and 27% each for Gingrich and Santorum. (All these figures are rounded for simplicity here.) Rankin County (still mostly Jackson) voted 34% for Romney, 32% Geingrich, and 29% Santorum. In Madison County, mostly a wealthy suburb of Jackson, Romney got 43%, Gingrich 27%, and Santorum 26%. Now let's travel down to the Gulf Coast, a well-developed area containing the pseudo-resort towns of Gulfport and Biloxi. I refer to this as a pseudo-resort area because it is so effectively overwhelmed by the white beaches of Santa Rosa Island and other nearby Florida areas. Romney carried both Jackson and Harrison Counties with Santorum coming in second. There are three sizable universities in the state. Do you see that lonesome little Romney-tinted rectangle in the upper-middle of the state? That is Oktibbeha County containing Mississippi State University. Romney carried 35%, Santorum 31%, and Gingrich 27% in the college town. Romney kicked some Rebel butt at Ole Miss with 37% in Lafayette County. Gingrich and Santorum came in with 29% and 26% respectively. Gingrich scored a win in Forrest County, home of The University of Southern Mississippi, obviously a party school famous for being located not far from New Orleans. Yes, I guess you could consider Newt more of a party animal than his two opponents.

Now let's venture out into the deep piney woods of Redneck Central. Ronald Reagan made a point of announcing his 1980 candidacy in Neshoba County, also famous for civil rights murders and the movies made about them. Neshoba brought in 41% for Santorum, 32% for Gingrich, and 23% for Mittens. Ron Paul barely beat out Other at 3% to 1.4%! As you can easily see, guns and war are still quite popular in this infamous county. Clay County, the very place in which I discovered precisely the potential for the political nightmare that would become known as Sarah Palin decades later surprisingly voted 33% for Gingrich, 31% for Rick, and 30% for Mitt. I would have thought Mittens would have taken a dive there, showing this analysis is not perfectly scientific, but if Karl Rove can scribble figures on a board, I can write this article! Itawamba County brought home 44& for Santorum, 29% for Newt, and only 22% for Mittens. This is just one of many counties located out in the middle of nowhere in MS Sant0rum Country. In case you are wondering, most of the difficult to spell names originated with the Indians who were there before the rednecks moved in. Leflore County surrounds Greenwood, one of the richest Delta towns. Both are named after an Indian named Greenwood Leflore and money still supports money. Mittens took 49% in the county, Gingrich got 29%, and Santorum crawled in third with 16%. Gingrich easily took neighboring Carroll County where I lived when I was Opie Taylor's age and everything still looks like Mayberry. One thing that puzzles me is there is a band of Gingrich Country across the southern portion of the state, exactly three counties above the coastline. I haven't personally spent enough time in that area to define it.

That's enough numbers to paint you an accurate picture. The short version is that The Southern Strategy is most effective where: (a) the residents are most isolated from urban areas; (b) the voting districts are small in size, where everyone knows everyone else's business; (c) education levels are low; (d) income levels are low; (e) diversity of demographics is minimal; (f) job opportunities are minimal; and/or (g) the economic strength of the city, county, or region is low and not well diversified. I think these influences pretty much fall in this decreasing order, too. The most important indicator of whether or not a district will be heavily populated with voters who do not vote in their own best economic interests is geographic and demographic isolation. If you look at a map of the Southern states as a region, what do you see? MS and AR have far the least number and size of metropolitan areas, and these are the two states that usually battle it out for the title of poorest, depending on the criteria being studied. Alabama may at first glance look like a mirror image of Mississippi, but the state is populated by many urbanites in Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery, and the high-tech Huntsville. The University of Alabama and its host city Tuscaloosa are far larger than any equivalent in MS. Mittens carried only five Alabama counties, including Birmingham, Mobile, and Montgomery, while Santorum took both Huntsville and Tuscaloosa! That surprises me probably as much as it does you.

On Bill Maher's show last night, Dylan Ratigan made two wonderfully accurate and poignant statements. He said that American citizens on both the left and right really want pretty much the same things. We want decent jobs paying decent wages in a country that we feel offers opportunity and a bright future for our children, and we want our government to represent us all equally. He also said in a comment to Alexandra Pelosi's first film, the one shot at some undisclosed location in Mississippi, that the voters living in poverty long ago gave up hope that our economic system is on their side, so they may as well vote on the God issues. Growing up surrounded by so many like them, I could not agree more. We on the left often confuse stupidity with ignorance. Voters who vote against their own best economic interests may be ignorant, but they are not necessarily stupid. One key thing they are is surrounded by reinforcement of their beliefs and voting influences. They are isolated into many tiny subcultural groups. Many of them associate little or none at all with the enormous African-American populations that closely surround them. Many cannot afford to run off to the nearest city to play or shop at every whim. They live their lives in a bubble, as Bill Maher would say, controlled by the reinforcement of church activities and the great isolated outdoors. The men shoot defenseless animals in packs and the women gossip about Muslim Presidents at the church socials. Their lives are limited by a lot more than their meager imaginations.

Ms Pelosi said something quite exquisite on the show, too. She said that liberals on the left do practically nothing to keep voters from continually sliding over to The Dark Side. She was referring to those who would sneer at the smart-mouths in the second film, those who said they had not worked in years, but who were walking on their own two feet like the rest of us. The doorman may have had a job, but as Bill asked, how many black people get doormen jobs? One young black man in the film was asked why he did not work and his reply was that he had been in prison and ex-cons have great difficulty finding a job. Amen to that! For starters, let's end The Drug War right now! How many lives do we have to ruin for their duration over such trivial matters as holding or possession? If every redneck in the USA wants to carry a .38 Special, a 9mm, or Dirty Harry's .45 stuck inside his pants, why cannot an adult with dark skin carry around a bag of weed? He's only going to blow his mind, not a hole in your head!

After reading through these details, even if you have never driven through the state of Mississippi, you can guess that Ms. Pelosi did not stop and whip out her cameras in Greenwood, Jackson, Starkville, or Oxford. Of course she could have gone anywhere not far from these bastions of money and education and found the toothless people on food stamps. In a poor, rural state like Mississippi, they are indeed just about everywhere, even in the urban ghettos. Of course all Southerners should not be painted with the same brush. If someone does this on the radio to women, the country explodes in an uproar. We have to find common ground. Dylan Ratigan, Alexandra Pelosi, and Bill Maher contributed equally to the discussion. Even Amy Holmes and the Mayor of Oklahoma City behaved themselves. We should all learn from their discussion. Conquer the issues. Don't divide the country. You know who really wins when we do not follow this mantra? The winners are the one-percenters and the media who are selling tickets to the game.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Secrets Before Your Eyes


This has never been a simple story. It has been complicated by many factors since the very beginning. Those who seek easy, simple answers will never be rewarded with the truth. The massive pile of victims, lies, con artists, and shills is more enormous than anything we have experienced in modern America. Quite likely this is the only blog you read on the subject written by a lifelong Democrat. I am the only one who has never voted for a Republican, even for local dog catcher. There are of course a few other Democratic bloggers mining the same vein, but if you look closely you will see that these were all late to the party. They are hangers on, who have come and gone with the prevailing winds. Examine the bloggers with any real power in numbers and you will discover that none were voting Democrats when Reagan, Bush, or even Clinton were elected. Most of them were Republicans all the way up until Bush and Cheney made them all mad by starting a war with Iraq. Oh, I see. These are the people you really trust. You are pleased with the progress we have made over the past four years. Then you don't need to read any further. Just sit back and watch the movie Saturday, content in your notion that Sarah Palin will be declared a historical monument to madness in American politics on the Sunday morning talk shows and you will never have to hear her screech and growl at our President ever again.

Arianna Huffington is a shill for the CNP and her many other Republican pals. So is Markos Moulitsas. Geoffrey Dunn is a shill for Arianna Huffington. Jesse Griffin is a shill for Queen Audrey and Geoffrey Dunn. They are all con artists of a strange and unusual sort, and you are their marks. Patrick, Kathleen, and Litman are in on it, too. They have all been consistently keeping the truth from you. Kathleen, in paticular, is scared silly that I will blab everything I know. Hi, Kathleen! Yes, I know that it is never coincidence that you seem to suddenly pop up whenever you fear that I am exposing a truth you so desperately want to keep quiet. Just keep on worrying. I have amassed enough data on all you con artists to fill a book. You claim you are just an innocent victim? Prove it. Tell your readers the whole truth of what you know, and while you're at it, explain to them why you hide behind anonymity way over there in Germany. Tell them why you have been using your henchwomen as shills to control the message. And don't forget to mention exactly how long you have been aware of the details of the con.

Hide and watch, kids! The best movie of 2012 is about to come and go. Yes, it will be an outstanding show to watch, and absolutely nothing will change after it is over. That's why Dunn has been sent in to set up the storyline. Let's see now, the first HP article in eleven months, check; a follow-up article six days later, check; a copycat article of the first one at IM, check; copycat article of the first one at PoliticalGates, check; copycat article of the second one at IM, check; and finally, a copycat article by Kathleen of the second one, check. Gryphen so aptly ponders why Dunn is reinforcing the impression that Steve Schmidt was solely responsible for the spur of the moment VP selection. Could it be that that message is the whole intent of Dunn's resurrection at The Huffington Post? All together now, kids, recite after me: "Sarah Palin is an incompetent moron who was thrown into the deep end of the pool. The end."

Yes, Gryphen did ask the right question in this case, but he has not told you more than a portion of the truth over these past four years. Maybe you forgot to read the part about his voting record in the past, or the fact that he posted over a hundred times (and that's a conservative figure) before ever acquiring more than a tiny handful of commenters. Maybe you didn't notice that he officially endorsed Palin for Governor. Maybe you didn't read the post about the birth of Trig. (He congratulated Sarah and did not question the birth in any way.) The first time, after several years of blogging, that Gryphen received any degree of attention was after August 2008, when all of us were seeking more information concerning this farce. He quickly discovered that posts concerning Babygate brought boatloads of attention to his blog.

Since by all rights this should be Shailey Tripp's week, let's focus on someone you think is a heroine for her efforts to aid Shailey in exposing whatever truths she knows. You would never know this by looking at all the Limbaugh rants at Malia Litman's blog this week, would you? She has time to copy and paste horseshit from all over the net, as usual, but suddenly she has no time to even mention Shailey's book, Boys Will Be Boys, in a blog post? Give me a break! Do you remember when she said she could not afford to visit Alaska for more than 24 hours? She followed the exact same path as The Wild Ride, met with Gryphen, and signed her two pamphlets at Border's, but she did not even go look at Wasilla? Give me a break on that one, too! Do you even have a clue how rich this woman is? Let's just say that she easily fits into the 1%, but she does not want you to know this because if you did, you might question a few of her motives. Oops!

Let's bring up Me Again. Like many of the aforementioned, she had an opportunity to make the right decision, but she chickened out. She gave her pertinent information to Gryphen, and as one of the smart ones of you out there so aptly stated, he buried it in his backyard! Me Again, the offer is always open. Come on over to the light from the dark side. Step away from the cons. I am always here to listen to whatever you have to tell me. Unlike all the rest, I am right here, out in the open. Anyone can read my books or blogs. I never write anything except under my own real name.

Maybe a few of you will finally wake up this time. Although I know that the story told by Shailey Tripp probably contains many technical and artistic flaws, most likely there is at least some fire under all that smoke. Yes, she is misguided in trying to focus on Todd because no one cares. They want to know if that twit was pregnant when she got a massage! Whether or not you can honestly answer that question, Shailey, is clearly up to you, and I seriously doubt that your books reflect the detailed professionalism or educational level that mine do. However, these con artists have done you wrong, and I do not mean Sarah or Todd. I mean Gryphen, Kathleen, and Litman. All three of them should have stampeded to see who could be the first one to publish a review of your book, and I don't mean those fawning sycophants at Amazon, either. I mean real reviews. Whatever information is contained in your book should have been discussed on the major blogs the day it was released! I am not saying this because all your secrets should be exposed for free. I am saying it because this is the way book promotion works. If these buttheads don't promote the book's existence, and its qualities both pro and con, just who do you think will?

As of this moment, Boys Will Be Boys has sold twenty copies since its second day at Amazon. Whatever sales occurred on the first day could not be tracked until the ranking numbers kicked in. If you add the direct CreateSpace sales and those of the first day with the twenty, you might be able to double that figure for total sales. Congratulations! You have tied the sales of Bristol's book over the same time period, and Going Rogue has sold the same amount in the same period, and that refers to the original hardback version only! First of all, Shailey, you can wise up and get that book out on Kindle as promptly as possible. Secondly, get it up at Smashwords. That will send it to B&N and other online e-book sources. Be sure to price the Kindle version within the right range to get a 70% royalty. Don't expect any big-name media sources to give it a moment's notice, even with Todd Palin's name on it. They won't. Do you wonder where all the used copies of a book on Amazon come from? Now you know. Your best chances, quite unfortunately, are with the very bloggers who are currently ignoring you and your book. Don't kid yourself; they know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it. Remember, you had a chance to work with me from the beginning, Shailey, and you chose not to do so. I know more about publishing than you can imagine. I am on your side. I hope your story explodes all over the cable news, but I am not holding my breath.

I never dreamed four years ago what subject matter I would be writing about today. Even as I approached 2009 did I have a clue what tales of mystery and imagination I would be facing today. I love using these little hints of pleasant nostalgia. Of course that's the title of the first Alan Parsons album. This has been far more a tale of con artistry, backstabbing, and deceit. Although it is certainly a mystery, little imagination is involved. As I said, I have tons of material at my disposal. I would like to make one thing clear to all of you. The key is that there is so much information that has no paper trail, and this has been a deliberate conceit from the beginning. The concept applies to both Babygate and the Blog Wars. In some way or another, you have to make contacts with insiders to put the story together. There is no absolutely complete paper trail for either scam. That's the truth and that's the way it has all been designed from the very, very beginning.

Some people have questioned why I dare to attack my fellow bloggers. Unlike the subject we chase every day, the answer is very simple. The truth will set you free.