David Sirota points to several Republican governors who have adopted more-or-less progressive stances on taxation and low-income health care, including Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky, Bob Riley of Alabama, and Mark Sanford of South Carolina. His point is that pragmatic politicians, of whatever party, will sometimes turn to progressive solutions:

But these governors are not seen as mere turncoats to be ignored - they are seen as mortal threats to conservatism itself. Because by embracing progressive policies during their states' budget crises, they are exposing conservatism as ill-equipped to deal with real-world challenges.

One shouldn't make too much of this -- these are mostly, it seems, emergency measures in the context of budget shortfalls. Nevertheless, liberals who think that winning the South must always involve embracing conservative philosophies should take note.

I'm here in Chapel Hill, N.C. at "New Strategies for Southern Progress," a Center for American Progress-connected gathering which, as its modest task, aims to "chart a new progressive vision for the region." The crowd spilling out of the elegant Carolina Inn ballroom at the conference opener and reception last night was a mix of Democratic Party insiders and activists, journalists, foundation officers, and other Southerners and South-watchers eager to see better days in the South.

"The fear is gone. Let me say that again: the fear is gone." That's how Hodding Carter III ended his remarks while moderating the panel, which featured such Southern liberals as former U.S. Senator David Pryor from Arkansas and ex-Mississippi Governor Bill Winter (both of whom, like Jimmy Carter, seem to have become more progressive after retiring from office). Hodding was referring to the intimidation faced by Southern liberals of previous generations who stuck their necks out, especially for racial justice. The words carried special meaning after Gov. Winter described how Carter's dad, the crusading Mississippi journalist Hodding Carter II, used to sit on his porch with a shotgun to ward off violent racists who questioned his support for desegregation.

If yesterday's panel was meant to give us a sense of where we've been, today and tomorrow are aimed at the future, with panels on tax policy, faith in the South, and polls on Southern attitudes.

One question from the audience at last night's session: "What do you mean by 'progressive?'" A good question, given the broad range of ideologies and interests of those in attendance. Winter's response -- "progressive means that you believe there is a social contract" -- seemed to elicit the best response, but I imagine the question will remain up for debate.

As the Texas audience hurled “spit, popcorn, beer cups, cans, hot dogs, whipped cream, bottles, and pies,” the band taunted and provoked them relentlessly. Sid Vicious scrawled “Gimme a Fix” on his naked chest. Johnny Rotten “blew snot” at the front row as the audience fought among themselves. Vicious was struck in the face with a beer can, then tried to club a heckler with his bass, hitting a record company executive instead. The heckler later called the band “sewer rats with guitars.”

No, this wasn’t a Kerry campaign event gone bad, or an episode in a new Fox reality series, When Blue Staters Meet Red Staters. It was the San Antonio stop on the Sex Pistols’ infamous 1978 U.S. tour. Their manager, Malcolm McLaren, booked mostly small, country-oriented venues in the South, hoping to create a media stir by confronting the hicks with foul-mouthed, safety-pinned, spiky-haired British freaks. The above paragraph is drawn from these great pages devoted to the Pistols’ show at Randy’s Rodeo. It’s safe to say that neither McLaren nor the Pistols suspected that their act of cultural provocation (or whatever) would leave a lasting impact on nearby Austin:

The show was a defining, galvanizing moment for Austin's counterculture…. Musically, of course, it helped inspire Austin's punk scene - one of the earliest and best outside of New York City. But beyond the obvious, the common experience of Austin's attendees fostered many new connections. It was an energizing, polarizing event. Virtually everyone who worked at the Austin Chronicle in its early days witnessed the show, and the Chronicle's staff influenced much of what the city became artistically and politically in the 80's and 90's.

ALSO -- while we’re on the subject, I hope nobody minds a personal plug. The late singer/songwriter Elliott Smith endured drug addiction and a difficult Texas childhood to become one of the most singular talents in alternative music, creating a body of work, both beautiful and angry, that ranges from spare, acoustic folk punk to lush Beatlesque pop, from Piedmont blues to fuzzed-out psychedelia. And he played all the instruments himself. Anyway, for you North Carolinians, the Cat's Cradle in Carrboro is hosting a tribute to him tonight (Friday night), featuring performers like Chris Stamey (of the dB’s) as well as videos and short films, with proceeds to go to the Elliott Smith Memorial Fund for Abused Children.

Many thanks to Katrina vanden Heuvel at The Nation (where, as she notes, I did my first gig out of college as a wide-eyed journalist aiming to change the world), as well as MaxSpeak, Pam's House Blend, South Knox Bubba, and other friends for their kind words about Facing South.

Since we launched this blog on February 10, the traffic keeps rising, which tells me that progressives are interested in a deeper discussion of how we can turn things around in the South.

If this is your first visit to Facing South -- welcome, make yourself at home. You can get a sense of where we're coming from here and here.

As you can see, we believe the South can't be ignored -- and besides, there's reason for hope. We have no illusions about the power of the South's conservative forces, and no naive faith in magic formulas for change. But we also know that in the South, we have much to draw on -- the South's enduring progressive values, a rich history of popular movements, and a growing energy for progressive renewal today.

With fresh ideas, good strategy, and a commitment to building the institutions and movements that make change happen, another South is possible.

The central idea of Thomas Frank’s fine book, What’s the Matter with Kansas?, is that the modern right wing is powered by a contradiction: the grassroots, the ground troops of the movement, are recruited on the basis of a culture war against liberalism; but the politicians they put in power are concerned first and foremost to implement a right-wing economic agenda. A cultural “phony war” ensues, year after year, over abortion, gay marriage, school prayer, evolution…but, with few exceptions, little changes on these fronts. The myth of an all-powerful liberalism that always frustrates “real” Americans fuels constant outrage, a self-sustaining rebellion that keeps the troops (and their opponents) busy while the real business of undoing the New Deal, cutting taxes, and gutting regulations can go on largely unhindered. A “fake” culture war underwrites the “real” economic one.

And in the meantime liberals, having abandoned economic populism and severed important connections to their natural constituency in the working class, have nowhere left to fight but on cultural grounds.

Frank’s argument is about Kansas, but is probably even more relevant in the South, where politics can sometimes seem like a battle of symbols. The dynamics of phony culture war seem especially suited to the white South’s Lost Cause mythology and its rebel mystique, to Southern suspicion of Yankees, “elites,” and cultural others in general.

The trouble with Frank’s argument is, you really can't fake this sort of thing, not in the long run. Passions are inflamed, and eventually the grassroots will demand their due. Frank assumes that, on the whole, progress is never made on the cultural front; that’s the perpetual-motion machine that powers hard-right politics. But it’s important to keep in mind that, in fact, conservatives have made, and continue to make, important gains on cultural issues.

Take abortion rights, one of Frank’s main culture-war examples. Conservative activists haven’t yet succeeded in overturning Roe v Wade (though they are closer now than ever) – but they have steadily, incrementally chipped away at women’s right to choose, state by state, while beginning to demand a bolder stance from their leaders. And now there are signs that the center is caving, despite polls showing that the general public's support for abortion rights has remained consistent since the 1970s. Liberals are advised to abandon their “intolerance” and “defiance” on abortion, to stop speaking in terms of rights and instead to seek some sort of “common ground.”

Of course, abortion rights is also an issue of economic justice – you can’t always make clear-cut distinctions between “economic” and “cultural.” Those categories make a lot of sense when you’re talking about symbolic battles, over (for instance) the Confederate battle flag, or the public display of the Ten Commandments -- but not so much when the issue is, literally, the control of women’s bodies.

A roundup of some interesting news around the region:

PRIVATE ACCOUNTS HAVEN'T WORKED FOR STATES: The L.A. Times finds that public employees have been less than enthusiastic about private accounts for pensions in the seven states that have offered them. On average, only 5% of employees have opted to join the "ownership society." Joseph Jankowski, executive director of the West Virginia Consolidated Public Retirement Board, said: "The vast majority of people don't have the inclination or comfort level to be responsible for their own retirements." West Virginia board officials are debating whether to drop the state's private account plan.

NC LEG MOVES TO RESTORE VOTES: The North Carolina Sentate voted to restore over 11,000 provisional ballots that the state Supreme Court tossed out last month in the state's school superintendent race. Although N.C. law specifically allows provisional voters to cast ballots outside of their precinct, the court had declared them invalid. State advocacy group Democracy North Carolina fought to restore the votes, which their analysis found were disproportionately African American voters.

ARKANSAS EXPANDS HEALTH COVERAGE: The Arkansas House on Monday passed two bills which allow patients more freedom to choose their physicians and requires health care management plans to pay those doctors at the plan's regular rates. A similar bill already passed in the Senate. Said Steve Faris, D-Malvern, "It was a good day for the little man."

DISCLOSURE BILL UPSETS AL CHRISTIAN COALITION: The Alabama Senate passed a bill, echoing a similar House measure passed last week, requiring that any nonprofit group that spends more than $1,000 to influence an election would have to disclose the names and addresses of all its donors. Particularly upset is the Alabama Christian Coalition, whose spokesman said "We're not out here advocating one candidate or the other. We're advocating issues." The bill's sponsor, Sen. Pat Lindsey (D-Butler), said "All the bill is, is letting a little sunshine in."

NO SEX TOYS FOR ALABAMA: The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to review the constitutionality of Alabama's state law banning the sale of sex toys. Despite an ACLU challenge on privacy grounds, the Supremes let stand the Atlanta-based 11th Circut Court of Appeals' decision last July that siding with the sex toy merchants could open the door to the legalization of undesirable sexual behavior such as prostitution.

CATCHING UP: Two stories from last week that deserve more attention. 1) W. Va. prisons: Grassroots Leadership and other groups released an excellent report showing how West Virginia -- which has one of the fastest-growing incarceration rates in the country -- is bankrupting itself by building new prisons. The state's spending on prisons has grown five times faster than it has on higher education. 2) A Soldier's Heart: The Jackson (Mississippi) Free Press, in partnership with others, have an insightful story on post-traumatic stress disorder among Iraq War (part II) veterans. A December 2003 study found at least 16% of those returning from Iraq suffer from PTSD; experts put the number at twice that. The impact is lasting.

Last Friday, there was a piece in the Washington Post about plans for anti-war protests on March 19, the 2nd anniversary of the Iraq war. The lead pointed to an important and growing constituency in the anti-war movement:

"On Feb. 15, 2003, as millions of people worldwide took to the streets to protest the imminent U.S. invasion of Iraq, Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Hoffman was in Kuwait, awaiting deployment to Baghdad.

"Two years later, Hoffman, 25, is a civilian on the lecture circuit, introducing himself as an Iraq Veteran Against the War. On March 19, when war opponents plan to converge near Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, N.C., to mark the date of the invasion, Hoffman, who co-founded the Iraq veterans group, will be one of the lead speakers.

"'I disagreed with the war before I went over,' said Hoffman, the son of a steelworker from Allentown, Pa. 'But now, I can talk about the reality of war -- what it's really like, the lack of support the troops have, the civilians being killed. The biggest problem with Iraq right now is the occupation.'"

Ending the occupation is the main theme of the national March 19 protests, including the South-wide protest in Fayetteville. This makes sense not only as a way to reach out to military families, but to draw attention to the South's unique role in the military-industrial complex.

As the Institute for Southern Studies has documented, the South is the region most impacted by war -- politically, economically and culturally. Over 40% of the nation's troops come from the South, and 56% are based in Southern states. In 2001, 43% of military contracts went to Southern states.

The protests also come at the right time. As a Harris Poll revealed last week, the public is opening up to withdrawal from Iraq:

[A]lmost six in 10 (59%) adults now favor bringing most troops home in the next year and 39 percent favor keeping a large number of troops in Iraq until there is a stable government there. In November, less than half (47%) favored bringing troops home and half (50%) favored keeping troops in Iraq.

As for Iraq itself, the current elections (which Southerners also had a hand in) may seem to have led to an impasse, but my friend Rahul Mahajan (formerly at the University of Texas, now at NYU, who has travelled to Iraq) sees opportunity for progressives, as he writes in his excellent Empire Notes blog:

Although not perfectly democratic, these elections were a vast improvement not only on the naked U.S. military occupation but on the Allawi dictatorship ... The government now being put into place has the legal authority to expel coalition troops, to conduct its own foreign policy, and to overturn all existing laws, including Paul Bremer’s decrees.

It over-represents Kurds, doesn’t represent Sunni Arabs much at all, and has only a handful of anti-occupation politicians, even though the vast mass of Sunni and Shi’a Arabs oppose the occupation. By the same token, it includes a mass of figures, from SCIRI, Dawa, and other groups that have serious problems with American rule, with Sistani in the background as a figure who has neither sold out to the occupation nor repudiated it forcefully. ...

Some on the left have seemed to take the elections as a defeat and to think that the phase ahead for the U.S. antiwar movement is going to be much more difficult than it was before. The opposite should be true. The situation right now is this: legally, de jure, the Iraqi government is sovereign and responsive to its people. Practically, de facto, the U.S. military is sovereign and is virtually unresponsive and unaccountable. It is precisely in this disjunction between the de jure and the de facto that some of our most fruitful activism in this country has come ...

The challenges are many, but they start with us overturning the dominant media framework, that classifies all anti-occupation forces as anti-democracy. That is not true. We want the Iraqis’ de jure sovereignty and democracy to become de facto as well.

Ensuring our rhetoric matches reality -- that sounds like a good message for March 19 and beyond.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a piece on Sunday that roughly summed up the two major camps that have emerged on the question of "how should Democrats approach the South."

Camp one are those who counsel Democrats to "forget the South." From the story:

"[University of Maryland political scientist Thomas] Schaller said the party should fold its tent and abandon the South ... Schaller said the party should attempt to portray Republicans as the 'Party of the South,' in a negative sense. He would attempt to tar the GOP with the South's legacy of opposition to civil rights and remind voters elsewhere that some Southerners are still fighting over displaying the Confederate flag."

The other dominant position is to "stay in the South, but move to the right":

[Emory University political scientist Merle] Black said that if Democrats are to be competitive in the border states in presidential races, they need to choose a "moderate, centrist candidate." ...

A key to Democratic acceptance, strategists say, is not alienating Southerners on social issues. At a conference in Atlanta in 2003 called "God, Guns and Guts," the Democratic Leadership Council counseled Democrats to embrace what it called "values centrism."

As we've argued elsewhere, forgetting the South isn't an option. The region is too big, growing too fast, and too dominant a player nationally for any party with governing aspirations to bypass completely (among other reasons).

So the real question is, what kind of politics can win in the South? This is a longer discussion, and one we'll be returning to frequently, but two brief points are in order.

First, the reality is that the centrist strategy that has been largely adopted by Democrats in the South for the past 15 years hasn't exactly been a stunning success. One by one, Senate and House seats have steadily fallen into Republican hands. The biggest success story of the centrist approach, Bill Clinton's victory in 12 Southern states between his 1992 and 1996 presidential campaigns, is also less than convincing: of the dozen states Clinton won (AR, KY, LA, TN and WV twice, GA and FL once), only four were outside of the margin of victory had not H. Ross Perot been in the race (LA and WV in 1996, and his home state of Arkansas twice).

Second, there's a disturbing tendency to see Southern political and social attitudes -- especially conservative attitudes -- as being carved in stone.

On the contrary, over the last 7-8 generations, the South has been radically transformed by Reconstruction, populism, labor insurgencies, the New Deal, the black freedom movement, and countless other people and events that have propelled "The Mind of the South" in a more progressive direction.

The persistent strains of conservatism are well-documented and have had great impact. Each period of progressive change was met with a dismal era of reaction. But the progressive traditions have endured, too -- a sense of place, love of the land, mutual aid, a healthy populist wariness of unaccountable power.

These progressive and conservative traditions are, and always will be, at war for the South's soul. The pendulum swings depending on the national and international context and the constellation of forces -- movements, ideas, institutions, articulate leaders, etc. -- that each side is able to muster.

In a broad sense, the Democrats have a choice: to nourish and build on the South's progressive legacy, or to turn away from it. Which of these choices will be a more successful strategy in the short term is uncertain. But which will result in enduring progressive change in the South and beyond is clear.

Excellent news from the Associated Press today:

Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker won his fifth George Polk Award for his accounts of prisoner abuse in Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, making him the most-honored individual in the history of the awards.

A much-deserved honor for a one-of-a-kind investigative journalist.

Hearing that Hersh won it this year makes me even more proud that we here at Southern Exposure won the Polk Award for Magazine Reporting last year. We gained the honor for "Banking on Misery," Virginia-based reporter Michael Hudson's investigation into Citigroup and other financial institutions that prey on the economically vulnerable and keep millions locked in debt.

With Hersh, we're in good company.

Last week, the Annenberg Public Policy Center released part of the results of its 2004 Election Survey, a national poll of registered voters. Last week's findings concerned party identification among registered voters, and the results may surprise those who think Democrats are dead in the South:

• Maryland and West Virginia are the two most Democratic states in the country, measured by percentage of registered voters who identify as Democrats
  
• Six of the 13 Southern states have more registered Democrats than Republicans.
• Democrats dominate by bigger majorities in Democratic states than Republicans do in GOP states. Democrats have an average 6.2% edge over their GOP counterparts in Democratic states; Republicans only lead by an average of 3.4% in states where they are the majority.
• Independents are strong in the South. In 10 out of 13 states, at least one out of five registered voters identify as independent. In four states, it was at least a quarter.
• The heart of Republicanism is in the Midwest/West: Kansas, Nebraska and Utah are the most Republican states.

You can view the numbers in PDF form here.

A few thoughts on this. First, the numbers are clear that Democrats, as a party, haven't lost their appeal to voters in the South, or at least any more so than any other region of the country.

But of course, in the states where registered Democrats are a majority, or not far behind (only in Texas and Virginia do Republicans have more than a 3% edge), Republicans have often won the big state-wide races for national offices.

This takes progressives into deeper questions about what kinds of candidates can win in Southern states, and further, what it will take in Southern states to build up progressive political strength.

But for now, it's clear that merely having the numbers in terms of party affiliation isn't enough for Southern Democrats. In other words, the question isn't whether or not Democrats have a future in the South, but what kind of Democrats -- a distinction that often gets lost.

A handful of interesting stories from over the weekend:

• Friday brought news that Irving, TX-based oil behemoth Exxon-Mobile is now the world's largest publicly-traded company, beating out GE and Wal-Mart. Exxon Chairman Lee Raymond took the moment to scold European nations for their support of the Kyoto accords aimed at reigning in global warming, saying a "reality check" is needed. Reality check, indeed.
• The scandal surrounding Georgia-based ChoicePoint -- the country's biggest "data-brokering" company -- gained steam, with news that they may have compromised sensitive information about half a million people. ChoicePoint, known for their role in Florida's 2000 election fiasco and other scandals, maintains databases of Social Security numbers, credit and medical histories, criminal files, and other data you wouldn't want the world to see. They also run a DNA analysis lab and "facilitate drug testing for employers."
• On Saturday, North Carolina witnessed the upset victory of insurgent Jerry Meek to chair the state Democratic Party. Meek's opponent, Ed Turlington, had been endorsed by Gov. Mike Easley and most of the party heavy-hitters. But the 34-year-old Meek promised a program of grassroots renewal in winning the vote 271-242.
• Speaking of party leaders, Pam's House Blend alerts readers that the head of Alabama's GOP -- one Twinkie Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh -- will be pushing for a special election to ban same-sex marriage. Even though fiscal conservatives noted that a dedicated anti-gay vote would cost the state $3 million, Twinkie Twinkle was unfazed: "If we held a special election for the lottery, surely we could have it to protect marriage."
• On the day of Meek's victory in North Carolina, the results of a state-wide poll on Social Security were released: "almost half of the state's residents don't like" President Bush's privatization proposal, "while about one-third do." The poll came a week after W visited Raleigh to pitch his plan.
  
• To close with other inspiring news, diarist "tepster" at DKos profiles a gutsy 14-year-old Texan who's standing up to the travesty known as high-stakes school testing.

Other news readers should know about?

Twinkle edits 11:45 a.m. 2/21/05 -- we sincerely regret the error.

Apparently, in the past few days Michael Jordan, Clay Aiken, and other NC celebrities led a surprise "Stop the War Machine" campaign and brought the Navy's OLF plans to a screeching halt.

OK, not really. But the Washington and Beaufort counties and a coalition of conservation groups did convince one federal judge that the Navy's proposal fails to meet environmental standards.

The next step (possibly): the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, should the Navy decide to appeal.

Today, Ralph Reed made official what everyone had expected -- he's running for Lieutenant Governor of Georgia in 2006:

"After much prayer and reflection, and with a heart filled with anticipation for the bright future for our state, today I write you to announce my candidacy for the office of lieutenant governor of Georgia," the former Christian Coalition director and state GOP chairman wrote in a letter that was e-mailed to 'tens of thousands' of Georgians.' ...

"Asked why he should be lieutentant governor, Reed said he's a 'team player' who can work with the Republican majority in the state Capitol and has a background as a strategist who helped craft the Contract With America, which the GOP rode to a congressional majority in 1994, and the Declaration for a New Georgia, which was the Republican's campaign document in 2002."

Good to know he's a "team player" who can work with Republicans. But the story behind the story is that Reed sees this as a mere stepping-stone to bigger and better things. As the Washington Times reported on January 18:

"Word that Ralph Reed plans to seek the lieutenant governorship of Georgia signals what friends say is the former Christian Coalition executive director's ultimate ambition — 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue ...

Associates say Mr. Reed, 43, whose picture first appeared on the cover of Time magazine nearly 10 years ago, hopes to use the lieutenant governor's job to position himself to run for Georgia governor. Friends also say the Atlanta-based consultant's long-held ambition is ultimately to win for himself the Republican presidential nomination."

I'm not sure Reed's political star is so bright. It's one thing for the fundamentalist right to be a large part of your electoral base; it's quite another for the country to put one of the movement's most public leaders in the White House.

Besides, Reed's shady involvement in lobbying for Indian gambling operations (after having called gambling "a cancer on the American body politic"), his lucrative consultancy with Enron while the firm bilked consumers and defrauded investors, and other unholy dealings have taken a bit of the shine off his wholesome "family values" image.

Reed's genius is that, at his core, he's a savvy political operative -- a lot smoother and strategic than his more unhinged far-right breatheren. If and when he moves up the political ladder, the challenge will be for Reed to square his earthly political power-plays with his professed higher calling.

Now online: this week's edition of the email newsletter Facing South, featuring news around the region; columnist Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on "tort reform;" and the always-popular Institute Index:

INSTITUTE INDEX - The Costs of War

* Cost of Bush Administration's recent supplemental request for war spending: $81.9 billion
* Amount for Army military bases, including "in some limited cases, permanent facilities": $990 million
* Amount for Air Force base construction: $301.5 million
* Amount for "embassy security, construction and maintenance": $1.4 billion
* Value of Iraq contracts given to Custer Battles, a Virginia-based security company, in 2003-2004: $100 million
* Amount for which Custer Battles is accused of fraudulently billing the government: $50 million
* Value of contract the company received to provide security for civilian flights at Baghdad International Airport: $15 million
* Number of civilian flights that flew during the contract term: 0
* Number of ex-Custer Battles employees who say company workers indiscriminantly killed Iraqi civilians: 4

For past editions of Facing South visit here

Laura LaFay, writing in the latest Southern Exposure, draws a revealing parallel between the Abu Ghraib scandals and similar abuses in Southern prisons. The recently-convicted ringleader of the "bad apples" in Iraq, Ivan "Chip" Frederick, was in civilian life a Virginia prison guard, and the men hired to run the Iraqi detention system were prison officials themselves tainted by prisoner-abuse scandals in the U.S. We exported a lot more than freedom, it seems.

The other night I happened to catch Comedy Central’s Designated Red State Comedian, Jeff Foxworthy, as he launched into a half-hearted riff on why men try to avoid prison (not the most promising comic premise), the answer being that they don’t want to become their cellmate Bubba’s love slave (to paraphrase from memory).

Yes, there’s a connection here. Before Abu Ghraib disappears entirely down the memory hole, it might pay to think about the role played by the now-pervasive sense in American society that prisoners (any prisoners) deserve whatever happens to them behind bars, that torture, humiliation, and abuse are merely informal and extralegal (but perfectly justified) forms of societal payback.

This gets richly manifested in the trope of prison rape, which has become the most irritating staple of tough-guy talk in American pop culture. It’s as ubiquitous in male standup comedy as mother-in-law jokes were a couple generations back, and has extended its dominion everywhere: cop shows, soap operas, 7-Up commercials. Bubba the rapist cellmate becomes everybody’s avenger, the sweaty, tattooed specter that scares you straight (in more ways than one) and promises the bad guys a fate truly worse than death.

The baroque homophobia of the Abu Ghraib scenarios, as well as American interrogators’ obsession with Muslim men’s sexual self-respect, surely derive much of their energy and logic from this apparently deeply-felt and society-wide yearning for the righteous visitation of homosexual violence on evil-doers. It has certainly made its way into correctional practice in the United States itself; a Human Rights Watch report concludes that prison authorities condone and even encourage prisoner-on-prisoner sexual abuse.

Isn’t this just the other side of gay-bashing? And what kind of culture fears gay marriage but savors the thought of homosexual rape?

NOTE: Minor edit for style 10:09 a.m. 2-18-05

Tuesday's accusations by ex-employees of Custer Battles, an upstart Virginia company hired to do "security" work in Iraq, have been getting some media play, but not enough. From MSNBC news:

There are new allegations that heavily armed private security contractors in Iraq are brutalizing Iraqi civilians. In an exclusive interview, four former security contractors told NBC News that they watched as innocent Iraqi civilians were fired upon, and one crushed by a truck ... They were so upset by what they saw, three quit after only one or two missions. "What we saw, I know the American population wouldn't stand for," says [ex-Custer Battles employee Capt. Bill] Craun.

The public would be outraged -- if they heard about it. Here are some of the stories:

[The whistle-blowers] claim heavily armed security operators on Custer Battles' missions — among them poorly trained young Kurds, who have historical resentments against other Iraqis — terrorized civilians, shooting indiscriminately as they ran for cover, smashing into and shooting up cars ...

In another traffic jam, they claim a Ford 350 pickup truck smashed into, then rolled up and over the back of a small sedan full of Iraqis. "The front of the truck came down," says Craun. "I could see two children sitting in the back seat of that car with their eyes looking up at the axle as it came down and pulverized the back."

As the story notes, the ill-named Custer Battles doesn't exactly have a pristine record:

This is not the firm’s first brush with controversy ... The company is already under criminal investigation for allegations of fraud centering on the way it billed the government. Those allegations are also at the heart of a lawsuit by former associates. In September, the military banned the firm and its associates from obtaining new federal contracts or subcontracts.

But why were they allowed to keep operating in Iraq at all? Last November, NPR reported on whistle-blowers Bob Isakson and Pete Baldwin and their revelations about Custer Battle's scams to defraud taxpayers of millions of dollars:

ISAKSON: They would take and open a company in Lebanon and buy the materials through the Lebanese company which they would own, and then the Lebanese company would sell it to their American company at a highly inflated rate, and then they would charge their profit on top of the highly inflated rate. In other words, they would make a profit plus another profit.

BALDWIN: They confiscated old Iraqi Airways green and white fork-lifts and transported them out of the airport facility, which Custer Battles had control over, and painted them blue and then sold them back to the government on a lease. That's a blatant example where something was actually acquired free and sold back to the government."

When Isakson said he wouldn't go along with the schemes, "Custer Battles security guards cornered him in a hallway at gunpoint. They said, `You're terminated and you're under arrest, and don't move or we'll shoot you.'"

What is the Bush Administration doing to ensure the $82 billion it's now requesting for war-related expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan won't be (ab)used the same way?

Florida Politics via Political State Report passes along a big piece of news from Florida:

Believe it or not, there is a bipartisan push to restore the right of felons to vote in Florida. Back in December, Bush and the Cabinet made limited changes to the state's complicated clemency process. However, led by the the state's leading newspapers' editorial boards ... there has been a push to eliminate altogether the prohibition against felons voting.

To that end, in January, two "powerful Republican lawmakers", State Sen. Steven Wise, R-Jacksonville, and Senate Majority Leader Alex Villalobos, R-Miami, began urging Bush "to restore civil rights to felons who have completed their sentences -- and have vowed to support a voter referendum to end Florida's 137-year-old ban altogether if the governor refuses."

The Report adds that the American Correctional Association, the nation's largest group of corrections workers, has added their might to the cause, stating that a "ban on voting after a felon is discharged ... (is) contradictory to the goals of a democracy, the rehabilitation of felons and their successful re-entry to the community."

If it happens, this would be a landmark victory not only for civil rights, but for progressive politics.

Felon disenfranchisement laws were enacted in the 1890s almost solely for the purpose of stripping African Americans (and poor whites) of the vote. That's the objective role they still play today: of the almost 5 million citizens nationally with felony convictions who are denied the franchise, 40% are African American. In Florida alone, up to 600,000 citizens who have served their time have no voting rights.

This mass lock-out of blacks and the poor from the voting booth has had a direct impact on the balance of political power, especially in the South, where felon disenfranchisement laws are most severe.

In a 2002 study, sociologists Jeff Manza and Christopher Uggen found at least seven U.S. Senate elections since 1978 that would likely have gone Democratic if ex-felons had not been denied the vote, but instead were won by Republicans. They also conclude that, if Florida did not bar ex-felons from voting, Al Gore would have been sitting in the White House the last four years.

In a way, Democrats have only themselves to blame. In the 1990s, President Clinton and the Democratic Leadership Council set were all too willing to embrace a "get tough on crime" agenda in the hopes of winning over fearful suburban swing voters.

The result of these policies was a soaring U.S. prison population -- and mass disenfranchisement of potential Democratic voters. As Georgetown University Law Professor David Cole told USA Today in 2000:

"The drug war and felony disenfranchisement have done more to turn away black voters than anything since the poll tax."

In the face of this dismal history, Florida's bi-partisan effort is a hopeful development.

Josh Marshall comments this morning on the way that Bush seems a bit reluctant to disclose details about his Social Security plan:

President Bush is trying to sell America on a plan that will cost several trillion dollars (the lower estimates are for ten years, before the big bills come due), cut future benefits by as much as 46% for today's children and pull more money out of Social Security ... Many people are worried, in most cases in with good reason. And yet the president says again and again that he won't say just what he wants to do to Social Security.

In fact, when a reporter asked Bush yesterday why he wasn't giving more details about his plan in the face of growing public concern, he turned to a gambling metaphor:

"The tendency in Washington is, ‘OK, Mr. President, you play your cards now and we’ll decide if we’re going to play ours. I’m not going to do that. I’m keeping them close to the vest."

What does Bush think this is, a round of Texas Hold'Em? The reckless casino imagery does not inspire confidence. Is the message here that the future of retirement security is just a game?

Bad news from Alabama today:

"Alabama's public high school graduation rate has declined substantially from 1991 to 2002 while the national rate has remained flat, a new study says.

Alabama ranked 47th among states in graduation rates for the class of 2002, the latest year the study was conducted by the Manhattan Institute."

Alabama also ranks 48th in the country in per-pupil spending on education -- any connection there?

Alabama is hamstrung by the state's antiquated tax code, including absurdly low property taxes, which generates woefully inadequate revenue for the state's schools (although, Alabama seems to have enough cash to hand out generous corporate tax breaks).

Republican Gov. Bob Riley, famously inspired by a religious conversion, led the charge to overhaul the state's tax structure in 2003, but Amendment 1 was defeated by a 2-1 margin. (See this handy power point presentation by Dr. Jim Seroka of Auburn about who voted against it and why.)

There’s a battle going on between the U.S. Navy and community activists in Washington County, N.C., where the Navy wants to place an Offsite Landing Field (OLF) so fighter pilots can practice carrier landing. OLF opponents bring up good arguments, including environmental damage, noise, and unfairness to farmers whose lands will be appropriated.

This is all happening because the Navy lost its testing and practice grounds on Vieques Island, Puerto Rico. A popular uprising, including everyone from churches to pop stars to pro athletes, eventually forced the Navy to leave, after they had occupied much of the island for nearly fifty years. Now they need to shift testing to sites in the U.S., where the prime candidates include a series of locations in Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, where live bombing exercises will take place at three ranges in the panhandle and central Florida.

So when the colonies act up, where does the military look? The rural South, of course, where they figure resistance can be defused with appeals to patriotism or fear of losing military dollars. Nearby Craven County’s state legislators (two Democrats, one Republican) have come out pro-OLF, citing the need to placate the military in an age of base closings. As Sen. Scott Thomas (D-Craven) put it, “It sends a very bad message to the BRAC [Base Realignment and Closure] Commission.” Craven County is the site of the Cherry Point Marine air station, where some of the jets that will practice landing in Washington County will be based.

Rep. Michael Gorman (R-Craven) said that Puerto Ricans "dealt themselves a devastating blow" by forcing the Navy to relocate.

Even in Puerto Rico, where unemployment is at 12 percent, legislators implored the Navy not to close the nearby Roosevelt Roads base in Ceiba after live testing ended. Ceiba’s mayor said that the closing was intended to punish Puerto Ricans for the Vieques outcome.

Protesters in North Carolina and Florida aren’t going to be able to marshal a popular movement to match the Vieques outpouring, for many reasons—most importantly, there was a strong nationalist/anti-colonialist element in the Puerto Rican movement. If anything, nationalism will work against the opponents of the new practice and bombing grounds. But it is instructive to see how the military exploits economic insecurity, in the South and elsewhere.

Any chance the rural South will wake up to its status as a colony any time soon?

At the moment, it would seem the Republicans are in pretty strong shape nationally, controlling the three branches of government and all. But over at Washington Whispers via Political Wire, we learn that at least one GOP presidential hopeful thinks a new image is in order:

Get ready for another Arkansas governor with a clever slogan to hit the presidential trail. This time it's Republican Mike Huckabee, who's calling himself a "new Republican" as he ramps up for the race. Like Bill Clinton , the guv is popular, plugged in, plays an instrument -- guitar -- and even hails from Hope.

Question for the day: What does a "New Republican" look like?

A diary at Daily Kos gives a good run-down on the Senate's 72-26 vote on Friday for the "Class Action Fairness Act." Clearly, the White House is just getting warmed up in its assault on the right of ordinary people who are victims of corporate negligence to have their day in court. Ah, whatever happened to that nice Ford Pinto?

The corporate lobby realizes the time is right for "tort reform" (a phrase badly in need of progressive re-framing). They pushed through a dangerous repeal of legal rights in Mississippi last fall (which, like Texas, they are holding up as a national model) and look close to doing the same in Georgia.

As others have noted, this is more than just your typical right-wing dismantling of measures that might reign in corporate wrong-doing. It's political, an attempt to inflict damage on a key Democratic fundraising base.

Last fall, Mississippi native Curtis Wilkie wrote a thoughtful piece in the Boston Globe about the special role of trial lawyers in the South. In a region where states advertise their "business-friendly climate" and lax regulations, trial lawyers have served as rare populist heroes and public advocates -- a voice for the "little guy."

The right knows this all too well.

Now online: portions of "Acts of God?", the latest issue of Southern Exposure (Winter 2004/2005), the Institute’s award-winning magazine of culture, politics, and investigative journalism.

This issue’s writers take on the concept of the “natural disaster” to show how the effects of disasters -- the lost and devastated lives, property destroyed, communities laid waste -- often have as much to do with politics and economics as they do extreme weather. Booster-driven development strategies place communities in difficult-to-sustain locations, like the tourist economy underwriting coastal development on erosion-prone and hurricane-vulnerable beaches in Louisiana, Florida, and the Carolinas. Corrupt or poorly thought out programs of disaster relief can funnel aid toward wealthy communities and corporate interests while prolonging and worsening calamities for poor communities. And environmentally destructive practices such as deforestation, mountaintop removal mining, and the draining of wetlands worsen runoff and make floods more violent and intense.

As global warming threatens to intensify hurricanes, raise sea levels, and bring the effects of sea storms farther inland here in the South, it will pay to consider just how unnatural (and avoidable) some of our disasters really are.

Greetings, and welcome to Facing South -- a blog of the progressive South.

We are launching this blog with the hope that we inform, entertain, learn, and -- most importantly -- provide a space for Southerners and South-watchers to better understand the South, and kick-start the debate about prospects for progressive change in this fascinating region we call home.

These are subjects we’ve thought a lot about. The force behind this blog is the Institute for Southern Studies, a progressive "think tank/act tank" that’s been working in the region since being launched by civil rights veterans in 1970. You might also know our magazine, Southern Exposure -- which Julian Bond kindly called "the single best resource about the changing South" -- or our biweekly-ish email news update, also called Facing South.

In recent months, a passel of progressive pundits have been saying it’s time to write off the South -- that, contrary to Sam Cooke’s soulful vision, "change ain’t gonna come."

To make their point, the naysayers typically point to recent Electoral College votes for President, the makeup of Southerners in Congress, or the pieces of amusing or shocking news that readily emanate from the southland (unlike other places).

As important (or nauseating) as these indicators might be, we disagree with the conclusion. And we also think it’s the wrong question.

Put aside, for the moment, that the South has six of the country’s 15 fastest-growing states; holds 31% of the presidential electoral votes; has become a center of global commerce and immigration; and that, for at least the past decade, has set the tone for national politics -- making the South just as impossible to ignore now as when W.E.B. DuBois observed, "As goes the South, so goes the nation."

Also set aside the South's unbroken history of people and movements that have changed the country for the better, or that the region is home to half of all African Americans, who remain the country’s most steadfast progressive constituency, to the right's chagrin.

The fact is, whatever schemes for progressive renewal are cooked up in New York, D.C. or the Left Coast, Southerners committed to a better day will continue to fight, refine their message, hone their strategy, build their strength, and win victories -- at the ballot box, on the job, in statehouses, and beyond.

Progressives face much deeper questions than whether to court "the Southern vote" (by which the chattering classes usually mean the Southern white vote) by moving to the right, embracing NASCAR, finding religion, or learning a few country ditties (although that can’t hurt).

Our "Southern Strategy," a progressive strategy, will involve nothing less than a Third Reconstruction: developing an integrated set of common sense ideas, institutions, movements and strategies that build a critical mass for fundamental change that’s too strong to hold back.

Of course, it’s happened before. As Leslie Dunbar, one of the unsung white allies in the Second Reconstruction of the black freedom movement, recently wrote: "Serious work was done in the South those days. The Southern civil rights movement reversed the tides of the South’s history. Southern liberals, black and white, carried their share of the fight that ended the war in Vietnam. These years were the South’s historically finest hour."

It’s time to get serious again -- and have a good time while we’re at it -- about reversing the tides of history and realizing our vision for a progressive South and country.

It won't be easy. But if we succeed, our best years may still be ahead.