sKerry’s liberalism, no. Ironic now that sKerry seems to be parroting classic isolationism and realpolitik a la Kissenger/Baker/Shultz. IOW it doesn’t matter how a particular nation is ruled, as long as they like us.

I know. Its a great victory for liberal idealism. Too bad its also ‘no policy shift’. So coddling of tyrants continues.

Seems to me that as far as this 16th Commander in Chief was concerned, the war would continue, God willing, until full reparations were made to the slaves, as excepted from his 2nd Inauguration speech.
“If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him?

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.”

In like manner, Bush’s 2nd Inauguration speech boldly serves to put the moral equivilance crowd on notice. Freedom supercedes peace. IOW, without freedom, there can be no peace from evil.

They could have not fired on them. Thats kind of the point.

‘The welfare of the slaves was of little concern to the North, and even the Emancipation Proclamation specifically denied emancipation to slaves in the Northern slave states and also Union occupied Southern States.’

Oh I know.

Please DO feel free to construe any of this to mean that I support secession, and not just in 1860. Have you read the news in the last couple of months? Hmmm? I refer to all the rancor of the “red/blue” state controversy in the last election, there are those who not altogether jokingly suggest that those “blue” states ought to secede from the red states. This primarily from those of the LEFT.

As a resident of a “red” state myself (not to suggest that I wholly support the man that the ‘red’ represents), I would be delighted if the blue states would go, and would not lift a finger to stop them. I would like to see the day when being governed by the likes of Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, and others would end.

They know how to play the victim, and their civilians certainly were victims of Sherman. Still don’t change the fact that they killed more americans than bin laden.

Am I wrong, or did they not fire the first shot?

Actus, “they” didn’t declare war on anyone. Many Southrons still refer to the late unpleasantness, even today, as the War of NORTHERN Agression.

Sherman’s march was pretty awful. But that wasn’t the rebels doing that, that was the good ole U.S. of A. And don’t you call our soldiers criminals!

And yes. In a war, thats what i’m talking about: they waged war against the US and killed more Americans than bin laden. The fact that its a war isn’t an excuse: thats the point of blame.

I don’t think they’re equivalent. I just think they have killed more americans.

Haley Barbour is the Republican Governor of MS and did proclaim MLK/REL holiday. http://www.governorbarbour.com/ProcHoliday.htm

But wait, there’s more.

According to the Secretary of State website, http://www.sos.state.ms.us/pubs/Proclamations/King.asp, it would appear that REL’s birthday was originally & officially commemorated by the Legislature in 2003. So the legislature is a bunch of racists?

Well, hold on, what Russell left out in his rant is that the whole backstory is not so clear, so let’s walk the cat.

According to the citation of authority for MLK/REL comes from “Section 3-3-7, Mississippi Code of 1972″. Since Democrat Ronnie Musgrove was MS Governor, the 2003 MLK/REL holiday is therefore by his authority.

When further investigating Section 3-3-7, Mississippi Code of 1972, we find it was amended in 1997. Kirk Fordyce was the Republican Governor of MS in 1997 when the code was revised by the Legislature to add the following (empasis theirs):
(2) In lieu of any one (1) legal holiday provided for in subsection (1) of this section, with the exception of the third Monday in January (Robert E. Lee’s and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s, birthday), the governing authorities of any municipality or county may declare, by order spread upon its minutes, Mardi Gras Day or any one (1) other day during the year, to be a legal holiday.

The document makes reference to “approved February 11, 1993″, so let’s see what changed in 1993. Hmm, can’t seem to Google it except for one site that is password protected and apparently intended for MS Lawyers, so let’s try LexisNexis. Hmm, nothing there either. Rather than being some kind of vast conspiracy, I think that documents that have been superceded and are that old, just have been digitized yet. So we’re stuck with the 1972 annotated and 97 versions. So let’s look at 1972, annotated:
(1) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (2) of this section, the following are declared to be legal holidays, viz: the first day of January (New Year’s Day); the third Monday of January (Robert E. Lee’s birthday and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday); the third Monday of February (Washington’s birthday); the last Monday of April (Confederate Memorial Day); the last Monday of May (National Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis’ birthday); the fourth day of July (Independence Day); the first Monday of September (Labor Day); the eleventh day of November (Armistice or Veterans’ Day); the day fixed by proclamation by the Governor of Mississippi as a day of Thanksgiving, which shall be fixed to correspond to the date proclaimed by the President of the United States (Thanksgiving Day); and the twenty-fifth day of December (Christmas Day). In the event any holiday hereinbefore declared legal shall fall on Sunday, then the next following day shall be a legal holiday.

(2) In lieu of any one (1) legal holiday provided for in subsection (1) of this section, the governing authorities of any municipality or county may declare, by order spread upon its minutes, Mardi Gras Day to be a legal holiday.

So it would seem that somewhere between 1972 and 1993, MLK was added in. As for REL, I don’t know. Odds are he’s always been around, seeing how Confederate Memorial & Jefferson Davis gets one as well.

Ultimately, much ado over feigned indignation. If we forget the players in the Civil War, we risk forgetting why we fought. So let all the memorials and statues remain, lest we forget and repeat history.

The moonbat movers and shakers know that, hence the long-range attempts to strip away local power, and stack the 1st, 2nd, 4th and other amendments against those who would conserve our values and principles.

Within that context, slavery notwithstanding, Jefferson Davis & Robert E. Lee, among others (not all), were honorable men and disagreed/fought by the rules.

Ironic that if the MSM was around, they’d be harping that the North was fighting a lost cause and Lincoln lied and that we should just cede the South up to the “insurgents” & “freedom fighters”.

Note that also up until the Civil War, the US was always refered to in the plural (emp on States), afterwards in the singular (emp on United). That was a major shift in the prevailing meme.

If it was the latter, then Russell’s unstated “Mississippi is still racist” argument might have some merit; but if it was the former, then his unstated argument fails entirely. I’d like to get some actual data, if anyone has any to provide.