Saturday, January 03, 2009

Hey y'all~
HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM ZERO, NORTHWEST FLORIDA!

If you really dig that New Year's/Mardi Gras vibe then check out the juke box @ Professor Longhair's !
http://www.myspace.com/professorlonghair1


image courtesy of the Sunday, Nov. 16, 1975 issue of THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS

Hey Igor~
Do dat be you in THE RAUDELUNAS MARCHING BOOLEY BAND
of Bama Homecoming '75? http://www.craignutt.com/raudelunas/deals/rmvb.html.

This is gonna be one ambitious post because I have over 13 images and each one has a story behind it.

Clayton Lancaster, son of Jim & Jill Lancaster, had to have open heart surgery yesterday.
A lot of you know Clayton from working with him at Playground Recording Studio http://playgroundrecordingstudio.com/

image courtesy of
http://www.myspace.com/casperlayne


Clayton's not out of the woods yet so please keep him in your prayers.

Dear PRS Friends,

We'd like to thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers as well as the loving kindness and concern you have shown:

update for our Friends
Unbelievable how things can change in an instant. On Tuesday Clayton came into the studio about midnight with some severe pain that he couldn't really pinpoint. Patrick came and got me from the control room.. so I had Patrick take him to the ER in Niceville and they helicoptered him to Pensacola. Jill and I went over about 3am. Turns out he has a rare thing called Marfan's Syndrome and had an aneurysm on his aorta and long story short he had open heart surgery yesterday to replace some tubing and a heart valve.. a complicated 8 hr procedure that was supposed to last 4 hrs. The doc almost lost him in surgery.. and we almost lost him twice last night.. Thank God by daylight they have him almost stabilized.. enough for me to return to Valp for a bit. I have every confidence he will be just fine.. and really his quality of life should be better than ever after a month's recovery. He's not out of the woods quite yet.. but I could see plenty of life left in between the tattoos.

Ironically, we uploaded "A Stone's Throw" on Tuesday
After the dude threw his 3 children off of the Dauphin Island Bridge in Mobile.. no one could fathom or even discuss the situation. Clayton wrote this song within a day of the tragedy from the childrens' point of view

http://tinyurl.com/aybkbr or just go to http://www.ilike.com/artist/Clayton+Lancaster/dashboard/songs

Much Gratitude
The Lancasters


I received a nice email from the Roy Orbison Fan Club royorbison.com
detailing all of the Orbison organization's accomplishments in 2008.
Please check out the jukebox at Roy's myspace site. http://www.myspace.com/royorbison



Please check out the blog @ http://myspace.com/paulbearbryant
We are now approaching 17,000 views of the THE DAY BEAR BRYANT DIED http://daybeardied.com
on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCAq3D-AAbU&feature=related
& the fans have left 25 wonderful comments!


BEAR COUNTRY will have its world premiere at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival Friday night. There's a teaser video up on YouTube but the audio is TOTAL WRECKAGE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA0C6wYRvnE



HE WAS PROUD OF IT, A LETTER FROM A MAN WHO'S A WINNER

by Clettus Atkinson
BIRMINGHAM POST-HERALD, Tuesday, January 13, 1976

He didn't just say it. He pronounced it.
"Bear Bryant says," he said,"that there's no such thing as luck. You make your own luck." Then he stood there, kind of looking around, maybe waiting for someone to dispute it. Nobody did, not even the Auburn fans. Because there was a glint in the man's eyes, as if he'd just read one of the 10 commandments when it was written on the tablet of stone. He had spoken.

He was a slight, stoop-shouldered man, about 50, with beer-dulled eyes and three missing front teeth. He was shooting pool, doing real well, too, for $5 a game. He had on a "Bear hat," black checked; a sweatshirt, white, with a charging elephant on the front of it. "Alabama" was emblazoned in red in a rainbow above the beast, which appeared to be stampeding, trampling everything in its path(Penn State, Oklahoma, Ohio State?)

"Coach Bryant wrote to me once," he told a couldn't-care-less early morning group, most of whom were trying to consume some of the "hair of the dog" that had bitten them the night before.

"I bought these down in Tuscaloosa," he said, pointing to a pair of red boots and crimson belt that had "Roll Tide," imprinted in white on it. Then he walked over to the huge glass window and pointed out. "That's my car," he said, of a yellow Chevy. On its windshield was an Alabama sticker, and on the bumper was a similar tag. So, you got the point all right. He was an Alabama fan.

Turned out, listening to him talk, he was from down in the West Blocton area, had "run up to Bessemer to see some friends." He was a miner, lived with his sister. "My wife died three years ago," he said, "And I ain't been interested much in nobody since."

He shot then, hardly ever missing, pinpointing the pool balls like Richard Todd did his passes in the Sugar Bowl. Right on target. He was beating everyone who challenged. His front pocket bulged with bills, and his right-side pants legs were streaked with chalk marks where he'd wiped his fingers.

"When Bear Bryant went out to Texas A and M from Kentucky," he said, "he told them people out there he'd come to win some ball games. And he did. Just like he's done here." Somebody played some loud music on the juke box. Englebert Humperdinck doing "Release Me." He told the woman behind the counter, "How 'bout turning it down some." She ignored him. He shrugged.

"You know," he said, "that next year, we gonna have the best team we ever had." And he named off a lot of players who were coming back, and told about the ones recruited this year. "It'll be a winner," he said. "We'll be able to pick our bowl."

We?
Well, that's what a man at the counter asked him. A tall, bigchested man with Muhammad Ali fists and a submarine sandwich half-eaten. "Whatta you mean, we?" he said, an end of the bun sticking from his mouth.

The small man in the sweatshirt with the elephant on it put his cuestick down, tilted his Bear-hat back and spoke above the noise of the juke box. "One time," he said, "right after my wife died, I lost a boy in a car wreck. I give up. I was a loser. There was nothing left."

But, he said, he got to thinking of the sign he'd heard about being in Bear Bryant's office that said, something to the effect that winning isn't everything, but it sure beats anything that comes in second, and he'd written a letter to Coach Bryant. "I spilled my guts," he said,"It was a crying letter. I ought not to done it, but I'm glad I did."

He went out to his car then, came back with an envelope. In it was a carefully handled letter. A reply from Coach Bryant. Just a couple of paragraphs, thoughtfully written, along the lines of "Win one for the Gipper."

He showed it to the man with the Muhammad Ali fists and the inch of submarine sandwich sticking from his mouth. The man sat there, swallowing. "That's a good letter," he said.

The "Roll Tide" man went back to shooting pool then. He cut a ball into a side pocket, told his opponent, "There's no such thing as luck. Coach Bryant says you make your own luck."

The elephant on his sweatshirt glowed in the sun from the windows.
And it looked twice the size it had been.



THE CRIMSON BLIGHT

Plaguing The University for more than 90 years.
April Fool's Issue April 1, 1982

BRYANT ANNOUNCES RETIREMENT
by FRANK DEFLOORED CW Sports Correspondent

In a totally unexpected press conference Wednesday, Paul "Bear" Bryant, the winningest coach in college football history, announced his retirement from college athletics.

Bryant, who has 315 career victories to his credit, said he was "tired of all this football garbage. I know I said that football is my life, but I lied."

The coach said 315 games was enough, and it was time for him to "get back to Mary Harmon and my family."

Bryant said the reason for quitting now was that "I tried everything I could to lose against Auburn, so I would have something to shoot for next season. But we won anyway, and after I won number 315, there wasn't anything left to do."

Bryant also announced that his last act as University athletic director was to hire Doug Barfield as head football coach and promote Charlie Thornton to the office of athletic director.

When asked what he would do after his retirement, Bryant said, "I'm going to do two things. First, ABC has offered me a job as color announcer at college football games. I'll be working alongside Howard Cosell and, if I'm lucky, Ara Parseghian."

The legendary coach's last statement was, "Boy, I sure do loves that football."

Bryant left the press conference as a train rumbled down the railroad tracks, singing "Love Lifted Me" and toting a can of bug spray.



Seeing Shorty out in front of the Druid Dragon Marching Band reminded me of my ten years in the Dragon Den & so did this front page article from the Thursday, Feb. 27, 1975 issue of the Tuscaloosa News.

I was teaching at Druid the day Rhonda & Rosalyn were blasted by LaGrand White's shotgun as they sat in the parking lot. Our guidance counselor,the late Bob Roberts, saved Rhonda's life by stuffing a rag in her sucking chest wound so she could catch her breath. By doing that Bob also saved the life of Rhonda's unborn baby.

Mr. McDonald Hughes, our principal, tried to save Rhonda's mother's life. He called her, had her on the phone and yelled at her, "Get out of that house right now! A man's coming to shoot you." She replied something like,"Wait a minute, somebody's at the door." I'm pretty sure Mr. Hughes heard the shootgun blast that killed Rhonda's mother.

Years later, I worked with Rhonda and the daughter Bob saved that day.
Funny how these old newspapers from the Pake Realty Archives http://pakerealty.com
bring back so many memories.


Andy Warhol came to The University in the spring of '68 and this cover of the Farrago commemorated his visit.
The article PSYCHEDELIC WOMAN was a photo essay by Marshal Hagler but what I really loved was the following:

Oh Where Oh Where To Get A DRINK


Oh where, oh where can I get a drink? My world for a nice place to get a drink.

Yes, yes, where in the world- or more specifically, where in Tuscaloosa- can I get a drink?

There aren't many such places in Tuscaloosa to begin with- so even in the beginning you and your holy quest have one strike against you. And of all the places that do serve the nectar of the gods, you probably wouldn't want to go to many of them.

Once you have located said spot of repose, you will probably have considerable trouble digging your way through reds [ed. note: i.e. "rednecks"], wiping the grease off the glass so you can taste whatever it is you ordered, and finally trying in some futile way not to become annoyed by that damned drunk at the next table who thinks that the "C" he made in Basket Weaving 101 was the best thing on earth.

Beyond this, there is little trouble finding a good place to go have a quick one before dinner, or some place at least partially civilized where you can take that "nice" girl you have finally managed- after six weeks - to get a date with.

We recommend that you go somewhere besides Tuscaloosa if you really want a nice place to get a beer, or a gimlet, or even a whiskey sour- but there are a few places here in Tuscaloosa that are at least decent- some of them are even nice. And since our purpose is to tell you "where, oh where can I get a drink", we'll list most of the Tuscaloosa Pubs.

While it's certainly not the most elegant place in "T-town," THE CHUKKER does have an atmosphere of its own. It's one of those places you find in every college town that has the artwork of the local Chagalls hanging on the walls (the only trouble is that it's too dark to really make out what the paintings are all about). They only serve beer. They also have food- from inexpensive hamburgers to steaks. Sometimes on the weekends The Chukker features live entertainment (a guy at a piano) but the management usually does not like you to sing along.

It's a very close place, with concrete floors, sardine-like seating and a good supply of beer nuts. At The Chukker you'll find everyone from art students, journalism students, English TA's toan occasional professor. Watch our for reds any time but weekends. Location- across from Leigh Buick- 2121 6th Street.

A bit of a change from the having-to-shout-to-be-heard type place is the DEEP SOUTH LOUNGE (next to Johnny's at the corner of University Boulevard and Greensboro Ave). It is considerably more relaxing, and slightly more expensive, but is a better place to take a date. Here to you have to watch out for reds.

As long as we are on the clean-cut places, try Pete's on University Blvd. just before you get to Queen City Ave. Here you rarely, if ever, have to worry about reds.
The glasses are not greasy and the people frequenting this pub are usually more aware of the social graces. (Pete's is basically a restaurant which serves good, reasonable meals, but has a lounge in the "after" half of the place).

Pete keeps the color TV going most of the time- good color, too- has a nice padded bar with real brass rails around the bottom of the bar stools. You can eat in the lounge part at a number of tables. Pete will whip up just about any drink you can think of. About the same prices as the DS, but higher that the Chukker's beer.

If you really want to go all out and impress her, or even yourself, go to the Holiday Inn Lounge- across the foyer from the dining room. The Holiday Inn is located on the US-82 bypass between Tuscaloosa and Northport. Prices are higher that at most other bistros, but the atmosphere is better, often have entertainment on weekends, and you can charge it all on your father's Gulf credit card, we think. It's a good place- especially for cocktails before some big wingding.

The Red Ox- now there's a place- presents problems in finding a place to take a breather. Besides reds, the Red Ox usually charges a cover and a fairly good amount for the intoxicants.

The Tuscaloosa city commission would not renew the liquor license of the Cross Keys- now there was a swinger- a real Go-Go Girl and all. Scream at the puritanical, sanctemonious, inept city government for messing you up there.

The Hotel Stafford
is another place you can go- but it's mainly frequented by the natives and some reds. Prices are high, atmosphere not too bad.

Two particularly good places, though visited by only a few Caucasian UA students, are
The Club 61 (ed. note: The Club 61 on 26th Avenue was demolished last month) and
The Citizens Club. They are both frequented predominantely by Negroes- but if you really want a rocking time, take 'em in. They're great. Entertainment on the weekend is the rule at both, as is a small cover charge, and the beer is reasonable.

The first time, go with someone who has been before because both clubs are hard to find: Club 61 is on the residential south side of Tuscaloosa, and the Citizens Club is on the Eutaw highway. You'll have a real swinging evening.

Kanora is a restaurant that has unpretentious, but good food and serves beer. Located on the University side of the Birmingham highway, near the Skyland Drive-In Theatre, the Kanora has been known to have reds. It's not a night spot, however, just a place to eat and have a drink. Good in the not-so-busy afternoon just to sit and have a beer and read the paper. Has TV, but it's black and white.

When it comes to drinking places in "T-town" there just aren't many. Sorry we couldn't have opened up a few more for UA'ers, but that's life.

We recommend, however, that if you really want a good time- but a fairly expensive one- go to Huntsville about 150 miles to the north. Go with someone who lives there and knows how to get to the spots. Go-Go girls are usually the rule, dancing everywhere, bands the rule, 50 cents and up for a beer is also the rule.
BUT THEY ARE OPEN ON SUNDAY NIGHTS, alas! All are private clubs- the only way they can serve mixed drinks by law- and usually require membership which can be purchased at the door.




image courtesy of http://www.hbo.com/events/breakingthehuddle/

While I was in Apalachicola last Sunday I saw the HBO documentary BREAKING THE HUDDLE.
My old friend Percy Jones is on there a lot and so is George Jr.
Junior says something about his Daddy being a racial moderate in the '58 Governors race and that the voters ignored his platform but started stomping their feet and getting excited when he talked about resisting integration.
I'm not so sure about how moderate our Little Fightin' Judge was in '58...
















from the November 26, 1958 Montgomery Advertiser

After tour abroad-
Shooting war could erase mankind, says Sparkman


Montgomery, Ala., Nov. 26-(AP)-
If a shooting war should break out, there is a possibility that mankind would cease to be an occupant of the globe, Sen. John Sparkman (D., Ala.) warned yesterday.

Sparkman, who recently returned from a tour of the Far East, said he came back "with a feeling of discouragement" as to who is winning the cold war.

"Today we have an uneasy peace but a raging cold war," he told a Montgomery civic club, "and in the event a hot war should break out it is not beyond the realm of possibility that mankind as an occupant of the globe will come to an end."

The Alabama senator said people outside the South are beginning to realize "you don't force people by bayonets to change their way of life."

He said there has been talk that the Little Rock school integration controversy hurt U.S. influence overseas but added that this "has been overplayed as much as anything I've heard of."

"The feeling where I visited was that those nations had their racial problems just as we do,"

he said.

While minimizing the effect of Little Rock on U.S. foreign relations, Sparkman said Sputnik had a far different effect.

"YOU TALK ABOUT something that hit us hard, well Sputnik did," he said.
"That was all they were talking about."


While most of the countries are uncommitted to the free world or communism, he said,
"they want to be on the winning side."

"And with Sputnik up there they are no longer sure that America is on the winning side,"
the senator said.



Roberto-

Hope you had a good and safe holiday. I did my pilgrimage to the Studio One site in Doraville a few days before Christmas. I got inside the building. From what I could see there's not a clue left that there was ever a studio there which I knew would be the case but depressed me nonetheless.

Don't know if you heard but Delaney Bramlett passed away Dec. 27.http://www.myspace.com/delaneybramlett
Very sad. He was such a good man and a big influence on so many. Did you hear the cut he and my daddy did of "Lost Highway" on 'Last Man Standing'? (that's the album we released in 2006).

image courtesy of http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000GRUQYW.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Anyway, he was so talented and will be very missed.

Take care,
Phoebe Lewis http://jerryleelewis.com/

from http://delaneybramlett.com

Delaney's memorial service was 1-2-09 at Forest Lawn in Burbank, Ca.

It was a send off fit for the KING he was.

The service was filled with music, tears, and laughs of joy and love for Delaney.

I am sure that Delaney was looking down with Duane, Jimi, George, King Curtis and John laughing at what he heard.

To all the fans of Delaney, on behalf of Susan Bramlett, I would like to extend a thank you for all your kind words of support and love.

I hope 2009 is filled with good health, joy and prosperity for all of you.

Steve Fischler
Magnolia Gold Records
Home of the Legendary Delaney Bramlett
Added: January 3, 2009

Thursday, January 01, 2009

I Believe...
That my best friend and I can do anything, or nothing, and have the best time.


My fascination with FaceBook increased when I got the following post.
The last time I saw this cat was back in about the spring of '81 or '82.
I was taking a family of Sicilians down to P.C. & they wanted to see the Capitol in Montgomery .
I took them into the Senate chambers and they immediately started pillaging the desks of the Senators.

Suddenly, a door opened up on the speaker's platform and a little light came into the chamber.
Then we saw a shadow & someone yelled,
"Robert Register, what in the hell are you doing here?"


We didn't know the Secret Service had taken over the chamber for Reagan.

The cat who yelled that at me wrote the following:



It was a hot steamy summer day in the Wiregrass. We were standing at the store on the Boy Scout Reservation near New Brockton. You were the instruction for the Conservation & Natural Resources merit badge. We all had to take a test from you to be awarded that merit badge. Most of us went through hell to answer your questions. To one lucky scout (I do not remember his name) you simply asked for the ultimate solution to erosion. His answer was concrete. You passed him!

Long ago and far away...amid the sound of live fire exercises over Ft. Rucker.....the 60s never looked the same to me.

Robert....you are in Northport....I live in West Hoover! I am in Tuscaloosa quite a bit!

D. L.
http://www.photobama.zenfolio.com

Hi Robert,

Happy New Year. I've enjoyed your emails. I accidently deleted the one with the pictures of the Hang Out at PC Beach. I wanted to save the pictures. Could you send them to me again along with any others you might have of PC Beach back in "the day". (The best days of our lives - only we didn't know it then.)

Aloha,
Ann


Hi Robert,
Thanks. Boy, do those pictures bring back the memories - Debonaire house parties, mother and daddy's cottage across the street from the beach, and my very first trip to PC Beach at age 5. Email me your address. I have something to send you "snail mail".

Aloha,
Ann


Roberto,


I’m sad to inform you that Rusty Crumptons’ father died yesterday. I don’t know if any arrangements have been made, but will try and let you know. Mr. Crumpton was an integral part of the Rockin’ Gibraltars band. He was there at many of our gigs, and was there to pick us up when we broke down on the road. Everyone in the band truly loved Mr. Crumpton, and he will be missed by us all. Most of the RG’s will be pallbearers at the funeral. Please keep Rusty and Nancy in your prayers.


Bobby Dupree

Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Hey y'all~

Rockin' Rodney
myspace.com/rodneyjusto

& Coo Coo Ca Choo






had they big gig last night.
Hope they tore it up!




This is a scan of a quarter sized polished slug that
I got out of a newspaper machine in Dune Allen and it impressed me the energy taken to waste your time at the beach doing that kind of stuff.





IMAGES courtesy of http://www.amazon.com/Panama-City-Beach-Images-America/dp/0738517003

image taken less than 100 yds. East of
THE SPRAY MOTEL,
HOME OF
THE BLUE COD SQUAD!



I Found This circa 1890 Map TODAY! Check out the size of DeSoto, Lee & Dade Counties!

Hola, Roberto:


Hey, you be hangin' in my neck o' the woods, now, talkin' 'bout Tate's Hell.


image courtesy of www.semanchuk.com/TripReports/PaddlesSandWind

I got a house down there right on the edge of it, half way 'tween Eastpoint and Carrabelle.

Next time you find yo'se'f headed that way, gimme a shout and I'll give you the nickel tour.

I've only been down there since 1986, so I don't know a lot. :-)


Yep, back when I first got the place down there anybody could run hell for leather through Tate's Hell. Still can, but you have fewer access points.

The state built a GREAT hiking trail that runs behind my house for about six miles.

Much has changed in C'belle since I've been there, but for the most part it's the same. The real estate boom was an exhilarating thing to watch---everybody with half a brain knew it was going to bust.

And bust it did, big time.

I mostly fish down there.

Sure, any time you be free, come on down. 'Twould be a hoot.

cheers from Denton, Texas, home of the Mean Green (they play Bama in Sept.).

happy new one!

Frankie

FS~

I got this map of Tate's Hell at the lighthouse & was going up 65 looking for Road Camp Rd. & it was a path covered in pine straw so seeing as I didn't have 4WD, I went on down to where the sign is for the Dwarf Cypress Walkway. When I left there I had intentions of eventually taking Carbody Rd. up to W. River Road & on the Billy's Rd.

Didn't work out.

Even before I got to Carbody Rd. , there were deer hunters everywhere and they were killing some deer (I speck I'd a field dressed mine seeing as how it was 80 degrees!)

At Carbody Rd. there were so many deer hunters I took the path of least resistance and ended up on River Rd. in West Carrabelle and all those northern routes were dead ends.

Whazzzzzzzzzzzzz up wid dat?!!!!

best,
rr

rr:
Yeah, I tend to stay out of the thick stuff during deer season. If you keep on the trails you tend to be alright. The state came in and truncated lots of those roads. They had to put some kind of public access limits on the place.

My house, btw, is on H. Road. 124 H.
If you do a Google Earth search you can find it.
I'm basically in the middle of an old pine field that got burned over in '85. Few neighbors. I'm 800 feet from the water. I trailer into Carrabelle (Timber Island, across the river from the IGA) to launch.

happy new year, dude----we're off to the Ouachita Mtns in a few

f





text from:http://www.topix.com/forum/city/marion-junction-al/TJI4D6BADVRAUSQDS/p342#lastPost


Roberto wrote:"The transcription of the articles, the hateful SPLS article and the daily grind at the radio station's show have done they job Good!

The only Selma folks he's got halfway in his camp right now are the
"He's Not Bothering Me Yet/Can't We Just Get Along" Crowd &
The Sorry Bastards
who welcomed him to Selma in the frist place
and then allowed The MD Agenda to soil their Printing Presses,Pulpits,Altars and Microphones.

We'll forgive you, My Dearly Beloved Sistuhs & Brother's From Other Mothers of All Kinds Uv Diff'rint Colors,
But We'ze Ain't Never Gonna Forget!"

I really do appreciate that link to
http://www.spiritualrights.com/

If you wanna really got the appetite to read some sho' nuff evil, malicious garbage,
read what came out of BHO's mouf when he spoke in Selma in March of 2007,
click on http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2007/03/obamas_selma_speech_text_as_de.html

After BHO sends the crowd in Brown's greetings from Jeremiah Jr.,
he rilly tells a Tall Tale that'd win a Kathryn Tucker Windham Contest.
http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/30/wapo-reports-on-obama-selma-kennedy-birth-myth/

2009 is gonna be a big game of Musical Chairs.

Know Where You Are
'cause when the music stops, there ain't gonna be no chairs.

BHO's whole speech in Selma was about the Joshua Generation.

Chew On DAT FOLKSIZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!


from http://hotair.com/archives/2008/03/30/wapo-reports-on-obama-selma-kennedy-birth-myth/

On Wednesday, I did the math that most of the mainstream media couldn’t do in March 2007. I asked how Barack Obama could have told a Selma audience that the 1965 March on Selma resulted in his conception when he was born in 1961. I also challenged Obama’s assertion that the Kennedy administration could have been responsible for his father’s arrival in America when his conception predated Kennedy’s oath of office. The Washington Post’s Michael Dobbs delves deeper into the Kennedy myth of fingerprints on Obama’s birth, and finds little basis in fact for it:

Addressing civil rights activists in Selma, Ala., a year ago, Sen. Barack Obama traced his “very existence” to the generosity of the Kennedy family, which he said paid for his Kenyan father to travel to America on a student scholarship and thus meet his Kansan mother.

The Camelot connection has become part of the mythology surrounding Obama’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. After Caroline Kennedy endorsed his candidacy in January, Newsweek commentator Jonathan Alter reported that she had been struck by the extraordinary way in which “history replays itself” and by how “two generations of two families — separated by distance, culture and wealth — can intersect in strange and wonderful ways.”

It is a touching story — but the key details are either untrue or grossly oversimplified.

Contrary to Obama’s claims in speeches in January at American University and in Selma last year, the Kennedy family did not provide the funding for a September 1959 airlift of 81 Kenyan students to the United States that included Obama’s father. According to historical records and interviews with participants, the Kennedys were first approached for support for the program nearly a year later, in July 1960. The family responded with a $100,000 donation, most of which went to pay for a second airlift in September 1960.

In the speech, Obama made specific reference to the airlift as a White House program, a product of the Kennedy administration. He said:

It worried folks in the White House who said, “You know, we’re battling Communism. How are we going to win hearts and minds all across the world? If right here in our own country, John, we’re not observing the ideals set fort in our Constitution, we might be accused of being hypocrites.” So the Kennedy’s decided we’re going to do an air lift.

This gets history wrong on several counts. First, the timing is incorrect, as I noted. The airlifts started before Kennedy took office. It never had official sanction as a government program, but only private support from the Kennedy Foundation — and only after Obama Sr. had arrived in Hawaii for his studies. The Kennedys didn’t create the idea of the airlift, either; it began with eventual Kenyan political martyr Tom Mboya.

Why the deception? Obama’s speech had two purposes: to increase his authenticity as a black politician by tying himself to Selma and the general civil-rights movement, and to assume the mantle of Kennedy’s Camelot. Both are essentially falsehoods. Selma had nothing to do with his conception or his formative years; by the time the march occured, his father had already left the family and returned to Kenya (1963). The Kennedy administration has nothing at all to do with his existence, as I pointed out by doing the math that shows that Obama would have had to have been almost three months premature to have been conceived even on JFK’s inauguration.

This exposes Obama as a politician who plays fast and loose with his life story to transform himself into whatever his audience wants to see. For those who want to see a post-racial candidate, he downplays race as an issue. When in Chicago, he hangs out with radicals like Jeremiah Wright, William Ayers, and Bernadette Dohrn for authenticity. For Democrats wanting a return to JFK, he ties himself to the Kennedys in a false and strangely sexual manner. And for those who want a candidate with civil-rights movement credentials, he offers the same kind of connection to a famous march that obviously had nothing to do with his birth.

In other words, Barack Obama is a phony. Had the media that covered his speech in Selma in March 2007 thought to do the math, Democrats could have figured this out nine months before the first primary contests. Now they’re stuck with him — unless the superdelegates want to hand the nomination to the Tuzla Dash candidate instead.

from
http://donedems.com/2008/03/30/selma-gate-obamas-selma-speech-a-fraud-full-of-untruths/

Washington Post on Selma-gate: Obama tales “untrue or grossly oversimplified”

The Washington Post is the only mainstream media outlet with the integrity to nationally expose the story about the exaggerations, tall tales, and outright lies in a speech Obama gave last year commemorating the watershed Selma marches, flatly calling some of Obama’s assertions “untrue or grossly oversimplified.”

That’s putting it mildly.

Selma-gate Untruth #1: Obama claimed that the Kennedys financed his father’s immigration to America in 1959, saying “So the Kennedy’s decided we’re going to do an air lift. We’re going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so they can learn what a wonderful country America is. This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country.”

This is demonstrably false, as the Obama campaign subsequently confirmed. In fact, the Kennedys did not finance the 1959 air lift nor was the program even their brainchild. The truth is that they were approached by the program to help fund the 1960 air lift, for which Richard Nixon also helped secure financing.

Did Obama misremember the dates, or did he deliberately mislead the audience in Selma in order to forge a Kennedy connection that just wasn’t there?

There was no need for Obama to lie, as Harry Belafonte, Jackie Robinson, and Sidney Poiter are among the big names who helped finance his dad’s 1959 immigration. But I guess a tall tale playing up a Kennedy connection was more attractive.

Note, he spread this deception more than once, having also apparently used the false story in an earlier speech at American University.

Selma-gate Untruth #2: Obama exaggerated his Selma connection, falsely implying that his parents married because of events there: “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama, because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don’t tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama.”

This is an easily debunked falsehood. The violent stirrings that “happened in Selma, Alabama” happened in 1965. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961. It is therefore impossible that his parents “got together” “because of what happened in Selma.”

As a Clinton campaign memo notes, when the New York Times called him on this lie, Obama’s tepid response was “I meant the whole Civil Rights movement.”

If that’s the truth about what he meant, why didn’t he just…tell the truth? Or did he, again, deliberately mislead the audience to forge a connection that simply was not there?

Selma-gate Untruth #3: Obama misled about his origins, claiming “You see, my Grandfather was a cook to the British in Kenya. Grew up in a small village and all his life, that’s all he was — a cook and a house boy.”

The problem? This isn’t true. As others have pointed out, in Obama’s own bestseller, Dreams of My Father, he had described his grandfather as “a prominent farmer, an elder of the tribe, a medicine man with healing powers.”

So which is it? Did Obama lie in his book or at Selma? Was his grandfather a lowly servant, or a prominent elder? Or if he was somehow both, why did Obama deceive and not tell the whole truth?

***

One has to wonder whether the press, so suddenly concerned last week with Hillary Clinton’s memories, will be as eager to castigate Obama for his lies and exaggerations. Since he is getting a free pass for constantly changing his story about Rezko and lying about taking oil company money, you can bet the mainstream media will try to forget Selma-gate. Don’t let them.




William Alford to me:


it breaks my heart to report the passing of dear friend Doug Newby. he died on Dec. 16 from kidney failure after a sudden illness. many of you will remember him from the raudelunas days in tuscaloosa as he documented so much of the work as sort of the 'sacred witnesss'. he was a great resource to skizz for the documentary project ( http://www.skizz.net/FredLaneDoc.html -see doug's photo there) with many color slides of those days and was interviewed by skizz for his memories. we remained very close over the years with phone calls and emails, and he visited with us in tuscaloosa every chance he got. when leah first became ill and was hospitalized, doug and candy were living in salt lake city. doug was on the road somewhere for his company and when candy reached him with the news, the first thing he said was, "do we need to go?" that's the kind of friend he was. he was a really big guy, but his heart was so much more than that frame could hold.

doug and candy, marshal hagler, courtney hayden, and bill and judy moody were the founders of the 'high gauge' paper in the old radical days of the early 70s at the UA--and of course doug's big dog 'che' who got equal billing as contributor in the paper. i will miss him terribly and remember him with the greatest of love. there will be a "remembrance" of doug in montgomery on Dec. 26 at the Dalraida United Methodist Church, 3817 Atlanta hyway, with dinner around noon and the remembrance afterward with a sharing of stories and memories.

Roberto,
I didn't know if you'd heard yet, but the Alabama Shakespeare
Festival is going to have a play in January about the life of Bear Bryant. I
thought this would be good if Buddy Buie could get his song into the
production. Have a great new Year bro.

Bobby Dupree





BB:

K. at the Bryant Museum is the cat to talk to.
ASF paid for this image.

ASF announced today they're canceling Les Miserable which was the centerpiece of their season.

Talk to K.

Best,
rr

Dick: "Marie Antoinette With Southern Accent"





One of the things that irritates me about some folks is how they use the Bible to justify inactivity.

Monday, December 29, 2008

Hey y'all~

Warning!!!!
The amateurs are up off out into & amongst the barrooms this week.
I don't know what happened.
Maybe Momma Kong gave her little knuckle draggers a Kritmuh present but dey definitely be out in force.
Get ready to hear a lot of "asshole" & "bitch" words yelled out in public.

Looks like they're getting started on EKAT.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/oct/28/periodandhistorical

This movie will be directed by Van Sant & written by Black, the same two who just teamed up to make the Senn Penn biopic MILK.

Lance Black sez in this interview that's on the Web right now that
THE ELECTRIC KOOL-AID ACID TEST http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Electric_Kool-Aid_Acid_Test
is his NEXT project but he could not speak for Van Sant but said he hoped is was at the top of Van Sant's list.

They are gonna have to film some of this movie on the Gulf Coast.
I hope they film in Mobile & Gulf Shores.

Speaking of the beach.

I spent Christmas at the beach.

The dawn of Christmas Day found me singing Happy Birthday to little baby Jesus from the dock of the boat landing at Point Washington next to Eden State Park.


Did not see a car on the road from Hwy 98 all the way to Seagrove, through Grayton Beach and then on to Dune Allen. Not one car on the road for over ten miles at almost 8 o'clock on a Thursday morning.

The new Tops'l Hill State Park at the junction of 30-A & 98 is a big chunk of paradise but the Greenies with The State of Florida make you walk a mile and a half just to get to the beach and you have to walk on a paved road that's got full underground utilities!
Duhhhhhhh!

I drove over to P.C. and got a room in the Patel Motel in St. Andrews.
I LOVE THE SMELL OF CURRY POWDER IN THE MORNING!

I spent the morning after Christmas combing the beach at Little Dothan on St. Andrews Bay.
I didn't find any Indian pottery but I got to observe some fine specimens collected by a cat who lives on the bay.

For lunch, I had a cheeseburger in Paradise at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville & after finding my lost shaker of salt, I walked over to Borders Books and bought the best North Florida guidebook I've ever seen published and the new book of old Panama City Beach photos.

Then I walked over to Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and had a beer while reminiscing about The Hang Out.






After watching Benjamin Button,

image courtesy of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Curious_Case_of_Benjamin_Button_(film)
returned to The Hindu Inn to freshen up for Happy Hour @ THE NO NAME!
That lasted too late but I got home safely.

I packed up the next morning and headed for Torreya State Park just above Bristol on the east bank of the Apalachicola.
The story of the Torreya Tree is such a sad tale that it almost makes me wanna become A TREE HUGGER!

NOTTTTT!

Had a dozen raw and a dozen baked at the Indian Pass Oyster Bar & headed to Apalachicola. After cruising the old neighborhoods & surveying downtown, I sat my fanny down on a bar stool at the Oasis Bar & Package Store and got caught up on all the Apalach gossip.

They said when the bottom fell out of real estate
it was just like musical chairs.
When the music was over,
IT WAS OVER!

After getting a room at RANCHO, I returned to the Oasis and asked the new bartender for his recommendation for some fried oysters. He referred me to Tamara's next door. The oysters were excellent but it wasn't no oyster basket from Harry A's on the Island.

Visited the pier at Lafayette park for a few astronomical observations before retiring and packed up the next morning and headed to the island.
They rebuilt the old Little St. George Island Light House right slap dab in the middle of town and it opened this month.

After picking up a ton of shells on the beach at the state park
(Florida's Great Depression limits the number of tourists on the beach so shells are plentiful this winter),
I headed north but delayed my journey by visiting the Dwarf Cypress Walkway in the Tate's Hell Swamp State Forest between Eastpoint and Carrabelle.

Believe it or not, I made it home safely and at 8 o'clock this morning I was being of service to my tenants.

I LOVE THIS JOB SO MUCH THAT I DREAM IN SECTION 8!!!!!

Please Check out the juke box on Rodney Justo's myspace site
along with his band Cu Cu Ka Joo's myspace page

Heard from my son, Christopher, today. He was on the eighth floor of a nice hotel in Denver admiring the Rockies.

image by Christopher http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=178172075
that Kelvin Pake Did Fo' Him http://pakerealty.com

UN PROSPERO ANO NUEVO, MIS AMIGOS!

Best,
rr