In today’s Republican nomination for Mississippi’s 1st district, Republicans rejected outsiders and chose a ‘career politician’ with a legacy of hurting Mississippi families as their standard bearer for Congress. For the last several weeks, the Mississippi Democratic Party has released updates on the devastating budget legacy of Appropriations Committee Chairman Alan Nunnelee. Nunnelee recently referred to his work on this year’s state budget as“one of the legacies I’ll leave.” [Clarion Ledger, 4/21/10]

“Alan Nunnelee’s a career politician whose legacy puts him out of touch with middle class families here in North Mississippi,” said Sam Hall with the Mississippi Democratic Party. “Even his primary opponents knew that Nunnelee was a say-one-thing do-another type of typical career politician but they didn’t realize how devastating that career has been for the families of this district. Whether it’s drastic cuts to law enforcement officers or increased class sizes in our schools, Alan Nunnelee’s priorities have been wrong for the district and harmful for families. Travis Childers has been independent minded and stood up for working families while Alan Nunnelee has only stood up for himself and his own career.”

THE LEGACY OF ALAN NUNNELEE, REPORT #5

Thousands of DeSoto County children will find more of their friends in class beside them this fall. Superintendent of Education Milton Kuykendall announced Monday the DeSoto County Schools district would eliminate 40 teaching and 50 teacher’s aide positions before the new school year begins in August. [Desoto Times, 5/4/10]

Background
Republican candidates, especially Tea party favorite Henry Ross, have tried to cast Nunnelee as a ‘career politician’ throughout the primary. [NEMS Daily Journal, 5/5/10; 5/30/10] Nunnelee is a career politician having been in the state senate for nearly two decades [Nunnelee for Congress, accessed 5/31/10]

The Mississippi Democratic Party began exploring the implications of Alan Nunnelee’s legacy in this state budget by raising concern over his “pay cut for thousands of teachers, law enforcement officers and other state and local employees” and continued raising concerns about budget cuts that directly affect children. [Mississippi Democratic Party, 5/10/10; 5/12/10; 5/13/10; 5/21/10]

For more information, contact Sam Hall at (601) 969-2913 or via email to sam@mississippidemocrats.org.

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For all the talk about how Republicans are in control in Mississippi, one thing gets constantly overlooked: Democrats hold three of the four seats from the U.S. House of Representatives.

Now, with what looks like a primary victory for Joel Gill, our slate is complete. We have four Democrats who are ready to run in November, and we’re ready to give them everything we’ve got in support.

First District Congressman Travis Childers has shown during his first term that he will put the needs of his district before anything else. He’s not a career politician; he’s a true representative of North Mississippi.

Second District Congressman Bennie Thompson is the chairman of the important House Homeland Security Committee. He’s been a strong advocate for the Mississippi Delta and for the Magnolia State as a whole. Whoever his eventual opponent, they will have a hard time convincing Mississippians in the Second Congressional District that Bennie Thompson has not done a stellar job in Washington.

Fourth District Congressman Gene Taylor has always been a loud voice for the people of the Coast. During Hurricane Katrina, he was a leader in helping bring federal assistance to Mississippi to help with recovery efforts. We expect he’ll do the same now as we face another disaster on the coast with the BP Oil Spill, which Gov. Barbour and Lt. Gov. Bryant have completely mismanaged.

And finally, Pickens Mayor Joel Gill is a working-class man with working-class values. He understands the plight of small businesses, main streets and hard-working Mississippians. He is not afraid to tackle the far-right, out-of-touch record of Congressman Gregg Harper. We need a Congressman in the Third Congressional District who represents Mississippians first, not their political party or their own professional aspirations. Joel Gill can be that man.

We hope that you will help support the Mississippi Democratic Party as we support our incumbents and our Democratic challenger in these so very important Congressional elections. You can do so by contributing at:

http://www.mississippidemocrats.org/contribute/

Thanks for your hard work on behalf of Democratic candidates.

Democratically yours,

Chairman Jamie Franks

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Today is Primary Day for Democrats in the Third CD. The polls are open, and we hope all of our Democratic faithful will head to the polls.

We’re also watching the GOP primary in the First and Fourth CDs closely. Those are both hotly contested. While there is GOP primary in the Second, we’ve heard little about it.

So go vote today. It’s one of the most important things we, as Americans, can do to ensure our continued freedom and to show the world the power and strength of Democracy.

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Today, we remember the fallen soldiers who gave their lives defending our freedom.

There was a particularly poignant quote in a Clarion-Ledger article yesterday that I wanted to share:

“I’ll be honest, Memorial Day for me was always a vacation day … a time to go to the beach or cook out. It never had a lot of meaning to me,” says Rosmari Kruger, Clark’s mother who lives in Brandon. “And when I did think about it, I pictured gray-haired men being honored and remembered – not a 19-year-old kid with his whole life ahead of him. And certainly not my baby. So Memorial Day … it’s hit home.”

Our fallen veterans come in all shapes, sizes, ethnicities, backgrounds, political persuasions, religious affiliations and personalities. But one thing they share — which we all share better on days like this than other days — is being American.

We salute those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you.

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Clarion-Ledger cartoonist Marshall Ramsey answers the question for us.

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So Gov. Haley Barbour had a news photographer thrown out of a commercial shoot at Mary Mahoney’s a popular (and quite good) restaurant in Biloxi.

Here’s the Sun-Herald’s reaction to what happened:

Fitzhugh and Perez went to Mary Mahoney’s restaurant on Friday to cover Gov. Haley Barbour and his wife, Marsha, taping a commercial to promote Coast tourism in the wake of the BP oil spill.

It was, in marketing parlance, an excellent opportunity for “free media” for the governor. Broadcasting the commercial being taped in the Biloxi restaurant’s courtyard would be paid for with money provided by BP, but the Sun Herald’s coverage of the making of the commercial would not cost anything while still getting out the message that the oil spill has not shut down the Coast’s tourism industry.

All was going well when Barbour’s press secretary, Dan Turner, demanded that Fitzhugh leave the courtyard so the governor would not be distracted. When Fitzhugh objected, Turner told members of the governor’s security detail to remove him. Perez remained in the courtyard.

Once outside the restaurant, and while standing on a public sidewalk, Fitzhugh started taking pictures of the building’s exterior. He was then told by a uniformed Mississippi Highway Patrol officer that he would be arrested if he took one more picture.

Fitzhugh complied.

That was the end of the incident, but it was only the beginning of our concerns.

What Barbour and his staff did makes no sense.

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Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant has decided he wants to bring the Arizona immigration bill to Mississippi.

Before he does that, we probably should get a better handle on the impact illegal immigration has on Mississippi.

Via WLBT:

The informational clearing house website statemaster.com says Mississippi has about 8,000 workers, and we’re ranked 39th in the country. That’s fewer than Alabama, which charts 24,000 illegals, and more than Louisiana, which may have as few as 5,000.

But Lieutenant Governor Phil Bryant says Mississippi’s numbers were much larger when he spearheaded a study back in 2006, and they’re only growing. “50,000 illegal immigrants, if I remember correctly, that cost us $25 million,” he says.

The cynic in me says this is Bryant just trying to find a good wedge issue. Looking past the cynic in me, I think back to what David Hampton wrote this weekend:

Immigration reform? We can’t, won’t nor do we want to deport the millions of illegal immigrants, nor are we willing to take steps necessary to secure the border. It will involve making illegals, legal.

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Sun-Herald writer Geoff Pender went on a flyover of the oil spill recently. He wrote an excellent column about what he saw:

It was amazing. And disturbing.

Dr. Walker, Gov. Haley Barbour, federal government and BP officials have downplayed the disaster, said it’s nowhere near as bad as national media and environmentalists’ reports. I can’t say from looking at it who’s right.

But what I saw was foul and scary and massive. The largest oil slick I’d personally seen before was when I was fishing out near East Ship Island years ago and some jackass had changed the oil in his boat, dumped the used oil out and even tossed the empty oil jugs into the water.

The full read is not too long and well worth the time.

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Here’s breaking news via ABC News:

New oil flow estimates by scientists studying the blown-out well in the Gulf of Mexico would make leak the worst in the nation’s history, far bigger than 11 million gallons that spilled in the Exxon Valdez disaster. U.S. Geological Survey Director Dr. Marcia McNutt says the results are preliminary, but two teams using different methods determined the well that exploded April 20 and sank two days later has spilled between 17 and 39 million gallons.

Gov. Barbour’s talking points are going to have to change…

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This is an amazing story, folks. I’m not making it up! Gov. Barbour’s latest two points are this:

1. Drill, baby, drill!
2. Let the oil hit the beaches!

The governor continue his role as Apologist-in-Chief for BP and the oil companies by trying to change the discussion to why we shouldn’t stop drilling.

Via The Sun-Herald:

Gov. Haley Barbour said he doesn’t think the Deepwater Horizon oil spill should mark the end of offshore drilling in the United States.

“A bunch of liberal elite were hoping this would be the Three Mile Island of offshore drilling,” he told the Mississippi Manufacturers Association at the Beau Rivage Resort and Casino on Friday.

Gov. Barbour doesn’t get it. It’s not about stopping offshore drilling so much as it ensuring that the proper safety precautions are taken.

Second, Barbour has said that he’s not worried about the oil hitting our beaches. They are man-made beaches, after all, so we’ll just clean them up. Besides, most of them are gone anyway and none of them were there when he was a little boy.

If the oil reaches land, “we’ll fight it in the sand,” he said. “If we get some oil on the beaches, we’ll clean it up.” The beach is man-made and wasn’t there when he was a boy, he said. New sand can be pumped in if needed, but Barbour said, “I don’t think that’s going to be the case.”

He said $400 million already is appropriated to rebuild the barrier islands, which are less than 50 percent of their former footprint after hurricanes Camille and Katrina. If the oil gets onto the islands, he said they are due to be rebuilt in the next two to three years.

That is an absurdly shortsighted and irresponsible approach to this catastrophe. What of the damage being done to our shrimping business? What of the fishermen who will lose jobs for years to come? What of the sea life that is being affected? What of the damage done to the ecosystems of the Gulf Coast?

Barbour called the oil hitting the shores of Louisiana “glop”. That’s what I call his oil company apologist tendencies in the wake of this oil spill.

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