Maybe Lincoln Should Have Let The South Go When They Wanted To-- Maybe We'll Get Another Chance

Shelby may not like unions or Europe but he LOVES K Street

Last night Daily Kos released some interesting polling that shows that every demographic in terms of gender, age, politics, race and region has favorable opinions of iconic progressive symbols San Francisco, Europe, France and New York City-- except one: Southerners. They don't have a favorable opinion of any of the categories. It's a shame Kos didn't ask Americans whether or not they have a favorable opinion of the old Confederacy.

Last November Obama won 365 electoral votes to McCain's 173. Of the 173 electoral votes McCain got, 106 came from former slave-holding states still out of synch with the U.S. Take Europe, for example. 63% of Americans have a favorable opinion of Europe-- including 58% of Republicans nationwide. But in the South the approval rating for Europe is only 45%. (48% have an unfavorable opinion and 7% either have no opinion or never heard of it.) Something tells me the South's opinion of Europe is about to tumble further as the Old World takes up some unfinished business the U.S. is too chickenshit to confront: the Bush Regime's crimes against humanity. This morning Spain announced they are going to indict former U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and five top associates (Jay Bybee, John Yoo, William J. Haynes II, David Addington, and Douglas Feith) over their role in the torture of five Spanish citizens held at Guantánamo.

A member of Congress once told me how Southern Republican yahoos would brag to him about how they've never been outside of the U.S. and how they don't even own passports-- as though that's some kind of a redneck badge of courage. But aside from disapproving of Europe, boycotting French goods and not visiting Spain, your typical Alabaman may soon be avoiding Michigan as well. One of the Senate's most corrupt members, Richard Shelby (R-AL) has set about destroying the American auto industry-- it's really just a matter of hating labor unions and loving the big bucks he scoops up from foreign-based auto companies that love Alabama's friendliness to bidness-- low wages and low taxes and no accountability to consumers, workers or the environment. Yesterday a Michigan car dealership decided to turn the tables on Shelby a bit and his bloated ugly mug is all over that state's TV stations in a commercial demonizing him with his own words.

"We're wasting our time to try to keep them alive," Shelby says of GM and Chrysler. "We're wasting our time and taxpayers' money," he intones in another clip, adding: "It won't matter, we're postponing…the inevitable."

A mock interviewer then asks the dealership owners, "How that makes you feel?"

"Angry," Paul Sanford answers. "And I'll tell you, I'm tired of their hypocrisy. American workers built this country, and American workers built the best product in the world. And we sell them right here: Chevrolet and Cadillac."

In another ad, the interviewer sets up a stark regional conflict: "Some of these southern senators have stated that the American car companies don't even deserve to be in business anymore. What's your response to that?"

"They say our autoworkers are overpaid and under-skilled?" Paul Sanford answers. "They ought to look in the mirror."

Meanwhile this anti-America crowd of GOP dead-enders is all excited about tomorrow's teabaggery. And, Glenn Beck is calling for seccesion.