"With Obama's run, town recalls racial history " by Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times | June 22, 2008
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. - Some places are defined by a single event. Roswell, N.M., will always be known for space aliens, Dallas for assassination. And this little town in the Piney Woods of Eastern Mississippi will forever be the site of one of the most brutal crimes of the civil rights era.
What is with the UFO references? Globe going checkout counter?
Nice to know that all you will be known for is racism, huh, Mississip?
But Philadelphia, situated in a county once dubbed "Bloody Neshoba," can now add a footnote to its most nefarious chapter: The rural county where three men were murdered for trying to help black people vote has cast the majority of its ballots to put a black man in the White House.
Much has changed here.... but much is the same....
Obama's primary victory comes just as Philadelphia prepares to mark the 44th anniversary of the killings. Racial tensions are not as overt today; the slights are subtle, from the glance averted on the street to the job application that is never considered. With five months of presidential campaigning ahead - black against white - there is a sense that racial tensions are about to boil again.
With the MSM helping to heat the pot.
This is such bullshit!!
Most people I know DON'T GIVE a DAMN about his color -- they only know he is not named Clinton, Bush or Bush III!!!!
But you gotta come up with a reason to tell us why Obama didn't win, huh, MSM?
Around here, that always leads to June 21, 1964. Mount Zion lay in charred rubble, and three civil rights workers - two white and one black - came after that violence to register black people to vote.
The three were stopped by law-enforcement officers and jailed for speeding. Released that night, they were chased down a country road and shot, their bodies found six weeks later in an earthen dam outside town....
The story was fodder for the 1989 movie "Mississippi Burning."
.... Obama's strong performance in a county that is 65 percent white is less a sign of racial tolerance than of white flight to the Republican Party. Those voting on the Democratic side in the primary were mainly black or white liberals who tend to be progressive on racial issues.
Steve Wilkerson, a white resident, worked for a service station with one bathroom for men, one for women, and one for "coloreds," predicted Obama will have a hard time winning Mississippi's white voters in November...."
And just in case you didn't get the message:
"Survey shows race, age may affect election views
As Barack Obama opens his campaign as the first African-American on a major party presidential ticket, nearly half of all Americans say race relations in the country are in bad shape and 3 in 10 acknowledge feelings of racial prejudice, according to a new
Overall, 51 percent call the current state of race relations "good" or "excellent." At the same time, nearly 9 in 10 whites said they would be comfortable with a black president.
Just over half of whites in the new poll called Obama a "risky" choice for the White House, while two-thirds said John McCain is a "safe" pick. Forty-three percent of whites said Obama has sufficient experience to serve effectively (Washington Post)."
Too put that brief up they took the Ron Paul rebellion in Montana out of their political briefs.
It never ends...."
"MISSOULA, Mont. --Sen. John McCain may be the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, but supporters of Ron Paul in Montana refused to abandon their candidate.
That's right!
The group led an impassioned fight Friday at the Montana GOP convention, shaking things up in a failed effort to secure the state's 22 national convention delegates for Paul -- who suspended his presidential bid earlier this month.
While the battle jazzed up a normally dull delegate selection process, Paul supporters could not muster enough votes to trump McCain's backers. In the end, McCain received all 22 delegates despite a close vote, party officials said.
Earlier in the evening, Paul told the crowd that his support in Montana was the best he had received anywhere.
"Montana's been treating me quite well," he said. "The spirit is alive here."
The Texas congressman praised the Montana GOP for letting him speak at their evening dinner and for giving his delegates a chance.
"This is has been one of the best -- if not the best -- in the way we have been treated," Paul said.
Paul was not a typical GOP convention headliner. He criticized nearly as many Bush administration ideas, such as wartime spending and No Child Left Behind, as he did Democratic ones.
But he received a warm reception from the crowd anyway with a message heavy on cutting government.
"We are talking about the fundamental beliefs of the Republican Party," said Paul, in what he characterized as likely the last speech of his suspended campaign. "These are issues that are important to me."
Paul's supporters said they would continue to fight for delegates at the national convention to honor the principles of the campaign, and as a way to continue pushing their ideals.
Paul finished second in Montana's Super Tuesday caucus -- behind Mitt Romney and ahead of McCain, who came in third."But he won no delegates?
System is FIXED!
