Two words: Fort Pillow.

Nathan Bedford Forrest was from Chapel Hill, Tennessee so why would Mississippi honor him except as a tip to the KKK?

Sorry to go OT right at the start, but there is quite a spectacle going on at ew’s house. Someone claiming to be Chet Uber, the subject of the post, has shown up, and to minimize, suffers seriously from diarrhea of the keyboard. He even responded to a comment of mine which had nothing to do with him.

Precisely.

Maybe he didn’t have time to make a denunciation. He’s got his sheets to starch and press, and then he’s gotta make it all the way across town in time to officiate at the big cross-burning. All his best buddies will be there. He can recognize them through the eyeholes.

The Grand Dragon has a lot of responsibilities.

And here’s to the government of Mississippi
In the swamp of their bureaucracy they’re always bogging down
And criminals are posing as the mayors of the towns
And they hope that no one sees the sights and no one hears the sounds
And the speeches of the governor are the ravings of a clown
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi find yourself another country to be part of.
–Phil Ochs

Note: the Republican Grand Dragon.

Oh, joy, I hate it when a blog post becomes important enough to draw trolls or wannabe cyberfighters.

Good question. His bio at Wiki says not one word about Mississippi. Apparently there’s also some controversy about his being a Grand Wizard although the fact that he was a member of the KKK is not in doubt.

Yes, it’s been quite entertaining. If it isn’t a troll masquerading as Uber, then Uber has definitely stuck his head in the Lion’s mouth. I wouldn’t want to go head to head with Marcy.

He was a co-founder the way I understand it.

So is Haley going to announce he’s running for President in that same town Reagan did where the Civil Rights activists were killed?

Barbour is not a guy who has a problem denouncing people he doesn’t like.

A blistering, scathing denouncement.

Haley Barbour also said that he didn’t think the measure would pass.

But Barbour is trying to get his Southern Strategy going in his run for President. And bowing in the direction of the South Carolina primary. Expect to hear some about states’ rights.

It’s really strange, but not that many Southerners are immediately aware the Bedford Forrest was a founder of the KKK. He is seen in the same category as Jeb Stuart, Stonewall Jackson, and John Mosby. Wade Hampton is better known for the post-Civil War “home rule” activities of the Red Shirts, a group not much different in those days from Bedford Forrest’s Ku Klux Klan. Fraternity hijinks, you know.

Maybe he’ll announce in the same town that Bush told Brownie he was doing a heckuva job.

This is all very interesting to me because I never heard of Forrest until years after I left Ms. People there are not worshipping at the shrine of Forrest. I’d bet money if you stopped 25 people on the street and asked them who he was, none would have a clue.

Well Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson wasn’t known for his post civil war activities because he didn’t survive the civil war.

I’d bet money if you stopped 25 people on the street and asked them who he was, none would have a clue.

“Who? Oh, was he that dude on American Idol?”

You bet.

Yikes. I just took a peek. When he wrote I will be the guide to the truth., that was enough for me.

Like I said, he was from Tennessee. It makes no sense for Mississippi to honor him except as a founder of the KKK.

OT, but perhaps one of the scribes at FDL will prepare a thread on the events in South Dakota.

A law under consideration in South Dakota would expand the definition of “justifiable homicide” to include killings that are intended to prevent harm to a fetus—a move that could make it legal to kill doctors who perform abortions.

I hope so too. I brought that up yesterday but nobody has taken it up yet.

Every time I hear the term “A heckuva job,” I immediately flash on the Harry Shearer tune that he wrote right after that infamous statement. If you haven’t heard it, it’s worth a listen. I’ll see if I can run it down on the Googles.

“There was no way of knowin’
The hurricane was a-blowin’
Brownie you’re doin’ a heckuva job…”

Hell, ask most people about any general on either side outside of Lee, Grant, Jackson or Longstreet and they’re prolly clueless.

Reread what I wrote carefully. I never made the claim you criticize.

This particular story may have collateral damage, or at least some unwelcome splashes, for would-be Senate returnee George Allen as well. That Southern Californian Republican, transplanted to Virginia and elected Governor and Senator there, named one of his kids after Nathan Bedford Forrest.

Because of his, desire to pay his “Southern heritage” an homage, you see.

Exactly. It’s a matter of lighting the fiery cross and seeing who puts on their white satin sheets.

I hope you went down far enough to see my response.

Reread what I wrote. I wasn’t criticizing anything. I was just pointing out Sorry if it seemed otherwise. :)

Hmmm, I don’t think that’s right. Barbour and the bigots at the SCV certainly know.

As we have all said, Haley won’t be the nominee but he might provide some hilarious moments during the debates. If he stands beside Huntsman, he’s toast without opening his mouth.

I’m concerned Barbour is the sacrificial lamb pig that will be used to make cHuckabee or Gingrich look sane and reasonable.

I first heard of Forrest when my mother named a new cat for him that she got just as I graduated HS. It had been the first of the litter and was born on a Saturday and the rest of the litter on Sunday and Monday.

It was an all white cat and incredibly vicious and was finally put down after it had an unprovoked attack on Mom one Thanksgiving morning (it had attacked a couple of cousins unprovoked a couple of years before – the Vet after the first time blamed it on constipation)

Great Catch!

Haley Barbour sees himself as a grand strategist, and would be happy to be Veep on a ticket with someone less acceptable to The GOP Establishment. He’d like to be Sarah or Michele’s Cheney, I imagine.

Recall that Cheney made some presidential-campaign noises of his own in 1996.

I’m concerned Barbour is the sacrificial lamb pig that will be used to make cHuckabee look thin

My suggested edit in ital.

We should ask all the GOP Presidential candidates if any of them would denounce Forest:)

Bill Egnor wrote about it yesterday morning at MyFDL

Sounds like it may have been the actual reincarnation of Forrest.

Funny. I am eager, also. I mean, really, who doesn’t seek the truth? Oh, nevermind. Bad question.

And David Dayen wrote about it yesterday as well; apparently that blog wasn’t front-paged, although I think it would have been good to do so. This proposed law is a travesty.

“Southern Heritage”? His father was born in Detroit and his mother in Tunisia.

LMAO! Yep, he would do that too.

Actually – I’m all in favor of the license plates. Not to glorify the subject, but as a “red flag” warning to those of us who would rather never interact with folks who do glorify him.

Just think – you drive up to a restaurant – in the owner’s “reserved” parking spot is his faded blue pick-em-up truck – with a NBF license plate – you can turn around and never even have to look at the bigot, much less purchase anything from him/her/it.

Conversely, if you own the restaurant and someone with that plate drives up, you could conveniently be “out” of everything on the menu.

Yeah, I kinda think so. I’m a cat person but that animal was not missed by anyone that i can recall.

And he spent a good part of his childhood in CA. But he just loves the Old Confederacy.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Why would Barbour denounce Forrest? What would it gain him?

Edit:

How many reading this were going to vote for Barbour but now, because he won’t denounce Forrest, will not?

As I said yesterday, a measure honoring Forrest can’t reach his desk without some Dem support, because Dems have a majority in the Mississippi House.

Yep and here I’ve only been paying attention to the front page while I’ve been taking a break from applying for jobs.

Ah! It’s Haley’s crony, here to blog for him.

“Interesting” is one word for it.
And while Detroit is in southern Michigan, it’s unlikely his mom was from southern Tunisia. Too many “macacas”, (to use Allen’s word), down that way I expect.

Hence the quotes. :-)

It’s not Forrest that’s in question – it’s the license plate.

I saw that too. Bill writes some great diaries. Regular visitors to the Lake should remember to check the diaries. Lots of great writing at this place, as well as having a place to vent/comment.

The vote of moderate, tolerant, decent folks…

Uh, seriously? Would you ask that question of Hitler?

I think it’s Chet Uber X-s

Pay no attention to the troll behind the curtain.

There’s curtains in this joint? Classy ;)

Your post has no content. You already knew that. It’s just name calling.

Some trace their roots back further than one generation. I could go check on his, I know how to google, but, I really don’t care enough to. Teddy made a comment. K?

I repeat: What would Barbour gain by denouncing Forrest?

Edit: Another post with no content.

gvandergrift always turns up to defend Haley Barbour. Tells us he’s “smart”. Just like Pat Buchanan and Jon Kyl to give two of his examples.

Hard to imagine why Haley would denounce something that his bid for the presidency is built around.

Yes indeed, Fort Pillow. This man was the 19th century version of the SS in the Confederate army. Forrest was a military genius who after the war turned into a terrorist. He and few other Southern traitors should have been hanged for war crimes. He massacred those people had them slaughtered like cattle.

I gave you a concrete answer to that question and you’re ignoring it.

Red curtains. Just like on Twin Peaks.

Were you going to vote for Barbour before, but now, after this Forrest episode, have changed your mind?

In next door Hall county they are planning a big do to celebrate all the Confederate generals but someone raised doubt including Longstreet since he denounced slavery and discrimination after the ending of the war (then went on to be a benefactor of said county.) Go figure.

Public outrage has also forced a local college president to take down a painting of the Confederate flag over a background of a lynching.

You damned betcha Barbour is not about to offend his large and fine racist base.

I wasn’t finding fault demi. Teddy figured it out and so did EDP and BT.

If Haley is half as smart as I think he is, he should be able to veto the measure and have the legislature override his veto.

What makes you think I was talking about you?

The odd claim that this post has no content is a comment I would expect from a supporter of the things Mr. Barbour and Mr. Forrest are most known for advocating. Mr. Barbour is a character that Tennessee Williams would blush about having invented.

Forrest died in 1877. That means he lived only a short while after the Union Army left Mississippi. One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Forrest was operating in occupied territory. Correct?

If Barbour is half as smart as you think he is, he’ll have time in the afternoon to solve global climate change and invent the warp drive. If he’s half as smart as I think he is, he’ll need help managing his cornflakes in the morning.

Mr. Barbour is Boss Hogg from the Dukes of Hazzard. Only much, much smarter.

You’re funny.

A very early example of ‘look forward, not backward’ regarding war crimes committed by Americans. It was wrong then, it’s wrong now — and look how long the echo lives on in our history!

Can you imagine some Michigander wanting to put Rumsfeld on their license plates in fifty or seventy years? Or the Wyoming legislature creating a vanity plate to honor Cheney in 2050? I can, and without war crimes convictions how will our political descendants actually fight this? The same as we now fight against honoring Forrest.

good grief.

From the Wasilla Alaska vantage point:

I don’t know about other parts of the north, but where I live, I’ve had a lot of kids I coached in sports, in my youth music groups, and in school activities named Forrest. They were ALL named after Nathan Bedford Forrest. I can remember about seven of them out of my head, as I write.

Needless to say, they are all white kids, now in their mid-20s to late teens. ALL from rather large, fundamentalist Xian families. Good kids mostly, all saddled proudly with an American version of the name “Adolf.”

Forrest was from Chapel Hill, Tennessee and died in Memphis Tennessee. Nowhere in his bio is there a connection to Mississippi. He never even fought in Mississippi during the Civil War. The closest he came was at Cedar Bluff, Alabama.

Forrest then and his ilk now consider themselves freedom fighters. Freedom to pillage and murder anyone they deem the wrong color, religion or sex.

How many sanctimonious, holier-than-thou libs or progs were going to vote for Barbour, but now have changed their minds?

I have heard, and made, the Boss Hogg reference to Haley as a criticism before. Are you actually making an accolade?

Well, except — it’s much worse than that. Cheney and Rumsfeld didn’t wage war against the United States, then later commit acts of terrorism against it.

It’s more like honoring Tim McVeigh.

Wow.

I don’t vote in Mississippi. But I’m sure there are some moderate republicans and moderate independents who would be more attracted to him if he were to denounce this person.

And I’m not exactly sure what you’re doing but I’m still going to be your friend even though you don’t seem to want to be mine anymore. :)

One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.

That’s exactly what Al Qaeda says. Congratulations.

I don;t see anything good about this grief. Looks like we have us a gen-yoo-whine southern partisan here.

I promise you the spirit of NBF is alive and well in the south and sadly now many other parts of the nation. That’s why there is no way Barbour will be critical.

It’s not even about “attracting voters” — what’s the *downside* to denouncing a racist terrorist?

I mean, really.

There are no moderate Republicans in the south.

War crimes? Isn’t that a modern concept? Was Sherman a war criminal? Wasn’t there a fairly large swath of Georgia laid waste? Were the Romans war criminals? I mean Carthage is just, um, gone.

Back to the job hunt for me. Laters koinu.

This troll is the kind of person who should be tracked by federal agents and monitored for their fealty to failed terrorism and past treason, but I’m afraid that any NSA/FBI interest in these threads is likely to be directed at other sentiments.

It makes no sense, but that’s probably the way things work now.

I really hate it that Haley will now become the face of Ms. There is plenty wrong with Ms but not all the people, by any means, are racists or bigots. There are so many good people in the state, just like every other state.

Of the seven I can remember, one who is now 22, recently came out openly as gay. He’s also a recovering fundamentalist, struggling in college, totally shunned by his family and his former bible-based community.

Good luck.

OK. Going OT again. Sen. Scott Brown revelations to 60-Minutes. Have bucket of brain bleach on the ready.

It Gets Better!

I’ve never met a Forrest. And other than Gump and Gregg, I wasn’t aware it was a common name.

Tennessee likes to claim to be the “least Southern of the Southern states” because they claim to have been the last ones out in secession and the first state back in after.

Teabaggery has not really taken off here in Music City, USA, thankfully.

If Barbour were any smarter, he’d know how stupid he is.

As for war crimes, there’s a difference between what Sherman did, which was still illegal and should’ve been punished to the full extent of the law, and what Forrest did. Forrest continued to act against his own government after the war was over, and killed civilians in the process.

David Dayen has a fresh cross-post up: Yes, Elizabeth Drew’s “Grand Bargain” Is Real

Tennessee likes to claim to be the “least Southern of the Southern states” because they claim to have been the last state out in secession and the first state back in after.

Teabaggery has not really taken off here in Music City, USA, thankfully.

There have been standards for conduct in battle going back to the Middle Ages.

Ignore the troll.

I really hate it that Haley will now become the face of Ms. There is plenty wrong with Ms but not all the people, by any means, are racists or bigots. There are so many good people in the state, just like every other state

.

That is true but the good and well meaning folks are oppressed and many fearful to speak out. I just had lunch with a local journalist in a semi-rural area. I suggested we need to focus some on local Republican misdeeds and policies.His answer was “I am afraid to. These people know where I live.”

If I see him on campus, I’ll pass that on to him. Good kid, Forrest. A naturally talented left-handed pitcher when I coached him.

Just name-calling.

You called me troll. So I guess you won the argument. Hardy har har. Hardy har har.

any NSA/FBI interest in these threads is likely to be directed at other sentiments

Like for grandmom Quakers organizing quilting parties for peace.

How desperate is Haley to have to do a stunt like this in an attempt to get the Racist vote away from Sarah? Is this the start of a new GOP contest a who is the more racist contest?

You’re talking about an occupying government? 10 years after the war was over? I doubt that very many Mississippians alive in 1875 thought the occupying government was legitimate.

Actually Haley hasn’t done anything. He doesn’t have to do anything. A bill can’t reach him without Dem support, i.e., without Dems in the Mississippi House providing him some cover.

And others in the Middle East we now call allies.

Yes, there have been laws of war for quite some time, long before the American Civil War. Indeed, some of the current ones developed because political leaders were widely revolted by the excesses of that war, not that the US is overly keen to admit it or comply with them.

For an overtly religious southern leadership, did it really take a law, or simply a conscience, to understand that slaughtering troops that had lain down their arms was beyond the pale? Perhaps it was that Mr. Forrest, like some of his kinsmen, didn’t consider African Americans human and that they were therefore beyond the laws of man and God.

Yeah, anyone who asks, “Why should so-and-so denounce a plan to honor one of history’s great monsters?” is a troll in my book.

What other GOP Presidential candidates are challenging Haley on the racist front? Haley does know that after this episode his name on any GOP Presidential ticket will drive up African American voter turnout. I don’t think the GOP wants that.

The controversy already made the news the damage is done and yes if Haley wins the nomination this minor scandal will suddenly be all over the news and blogs again.

Well, this was just the latest. He also said Jim Crow Mississippi “wasn’t that bad.”

Mr. Barbour’s misdeeds extend well beyond whether he supports or disdains honoring Mr. Forrest by putting him on the back end of a modern motor car. He would be happy to follow in the footsteps of Jesse Helms and is not likely to restrain himself owing to the fate of Trent Lott.

It’s good to know that the War of Northern Aggression is not yet over in the minds of some of our compatriots and their political patrons, an observation, BTW, that might explain the lengthy occupation, if not excuse its excesses any more than theirs.

“I mean, a white Southern Republican like Barbour could get himself into some trouble for denouncing, say, Robert E. Lee. But Forrest? Is Barbour really that worried about losing the white supremacist vote?

Are there really that many Republican voters in Mississippi who are KKK fans? Seriously?”

Blue Texan I am thinking you must be from around the Austin area. Have you been to places like Philadelphia Mississippi, Houma Louisiana or Central Alabama within the last 5 years? I was born and raised in that part of the country and shit has not changed. Jim Crow may be outlawed but the people still act like it is in effect.

One of history’s great monsters? Compared to Hitler? Compared to Stalin? Small potatoes compared to Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot. I think your hysteria is generating hyperbole.

But, for him it wasn’t…

That’s like saying the US Government occupies California because there are military bases there. Mississippi was part of the US, the military wasn’t “occupying” anything. They were keeping the peace. Which was obviously needed. See the 100 years after the war.

None of this, however, has anything to do with your initial question. And my answer still stands. You want to talk about scorched earth and Forrest’s heroism. I want to talk about Barbour standing up for real values and saying the right thing for the right reasons.

He killed less people so he’s a better person, huh? Cool beans, dood.

A bill can’t reach Barbour without Dem support. Barbour should waste political capital before the time is ripe, before he needs to? Were you born yesterday? He has not endorsed the bill. The only people who are upset with Barbour in Mississippi or elsewhere are people who would not vote for him in 10,000 years.

It’s the Bush defense: “well he killed fewer than…”

That’s like saying the US Government occupies California because there are military bases there.

Disingenuous.

Forrest is objectively one of the worst Americans in our history. Period.

Being less successful than Stalin at killing and terrorizing people doesn’t mean he should be put on a license plate.

Forrest is objectively one of the worst Americans in our history.

Hysteria. Period.

Edit:

Directed to Blue Texan.

I have been rhetorically pulling my hair to say the same thing but ignored. I have come to realize too many of us are in denial as to how free expression is oppressed, as I was for a long time especially as long as I lived in upscale urban areas. Do not count on any southern Democrat to offer resistance or speak out. Some do, not many.

I will concede that he is right after Cheney.

If a slave trader and the first leader of America’s most violent domestic terrorist organization doesn’t make your list of “Top 10 Worst Americans’ — you’re telling us everything we need to know about you.

He wasn’t the only slave trader. There were far more than 10 slave traders. Forrest was dead before 1878. After the Civil War, he lived in occupied territory.

Terrorism? That’s a modern concept, isn’t it?

Would you call 19th Century Apaches domestic terrorists?

How is that disengenuous? The United States included Mississippi after 1865, and before 1861, right? So troops on the ground in Mississippi after 1865 is not an occupation. It’s a peacekeeping mission.

Would you call 19th Century Apaches domestic terrorists?

Now who’s being disingenuous?

That’s like saying the US Government occupies California because there are military bases there.

This is what you said.

You’re comparing military bases in CA today with the Union Army in MS in 1870.

Disingenuous.

Yea it would be something to have actual freedom of speech in the South. Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama state legislatures are all being run by majority right wing bigots. The Louisiana state attorney recently switched parties just so he can fight health care. Mary Landreiu is a DINO and her brother runs the city of New Orleans.

Wouldn’t it be something if there protest in the south like they are having in Wisconsin right now? Progressivism in the south is barely kept alive only by a few institutions like the SPLC.

Radical Republicans after the US Civil War until the end of Reconstruction (1877). Well, what was radical about them? Their diet? Their clothing?

The United States Army, not the Union Army. You’re being irritating now, and I think you’re doing it on purpose.

Do you think Southerners are kidding when they call it the War of Northern Aggression? They were forcibly compelled to remain as part of the Union.

The War was fought essentially entirely in the South. The South was devastated. Then the South was punished: looted and governed by outsiders and occupied by an army. Hard to believe they had (have) chips on their shoulders.

Edit: Reply to KrisAinCA

Don’t you think it’s time for the south to let this go? My however-many-great grandfather was a Confederate soldier and died in a prison camp in Delaware. Guess what? – I’m not mad at anyone.

See my 68. It is impossible to get any even barely critical of the local situation in the papers or other media. I know the president of the college that had to pull down that painting, a good person. I cried to see the immediate fold. I am convinced it was done in order to keep the college operating. It serves a large Hispanic population and has been under fire by the state delegations and governor’s office for years.

The “Heritage not Hate” crowd are a bunch of delusional people who want to re-write history so that they can feel good about themselves when they decide to don confederate outfits and yet deny the fact that their ancestors where fighting to preserve slavery. These are the true antecedents of the tea-baggers today. Ready to die for the plantation owner yet owns no slaves or has any viable economic opportunity.

My great-grandfather was also in the Confederate Army and spent 18 months in a Yankee prison camp in Indiana. He did survive it (or I wouldn’t be here).

Way too many people want to return to the antebellum life that exists in their fantasies.

They owned slaves, and they created a new Constitution/seceded towards the specific end of ensuring that slavery wasn’t challenged by the rest of the nation.

They get no sympathy from me whatsoever.

It’s not the entire South. It’s not even all of Mississippi. It’s a group called the Sons of Confederate Veterans who want a specialty license plate. I don’t know how many belong to that group. I don’t think it’s particularly hard to get a legislator to introduce a bill. Perhaps there even is a legislator who belongs. It’s another matter to get the bill passed. I think MS may already have a specialty tag somehow honoring the Confederacy, bearing an emblem of the Confederate flag. Possible reasons to oppose this new tag, without getting on a high horse, would be because there is already 1 tag honoring the Confederacy and because another tag might make MS seem obsessed with its past, i.e., not modern and forward looking. It might be bad for business or tourism having another tag.

I am done with this for today.

Haley Barbour, since he has nothing to gain by grandstanding and doing that which the Mississippi NAACP and various lib and prog outsiders think is the most pious thing to do, will do nothing. He will lie low. No bill can reach his desk without Dem support, since Dems are the majority party in the Mississippi House. Barbour says it won’t become law. Today, there is no problem. He will wait and let the process run its course. If he thinks having to sign it or veto it will present him with a problem, he will see to it that the bill is killed. For all I know, he has already killed it out of public view. Repubs have a majority of 1 in the Mississippi Senate. Haley Barbour is shrewd. If you think Haley Barbour is going publicly to fold like an accordion because of some pressure by outsiders who are irrelevant to his political future, you are quite mad.

Great debate fire pups, it was better than the usual agreement fest. I agree that Forest is one of the worst Americans ever to gain a following. And it is his following that created nightmares for hundreds and hundreds of American citizens, mostly former slaves and sympathizers of former slaves.

I do also get the question posed by the grifter. Barbour, bigot, doesn’t have anything to gain by denouncing forest in a state as fond of the KKK as Missiissippi is. However, this bigot, Barbour, does have alot to lose if he denounces the founder of the KKK in a state where there are alot of racists who also happen to be voters.

Republicans do a better job of placating their base than do Democrats like Obama who screw us over any chance he gets . . .

When did the KKK become a constituency to be shielded and protected from “denouncement” by very prominent Republicans? If not the KKK, who can Haley Barbour confidently “denounce”? Hitler? He sure has no problem “denouncing” our president…

When did the KKK become a constituency to be shielded and protected from “denouncement” by very prominent Republicans?

Nixon then Reagan

I say who cares if he won’t denounce such a ludicrous idea. If I were him, this would be my thought process: “What an insane idea. Even if I openly praised the idea, it would not be implemented. I’m not even going to give this stupid idea the time of day by denouncing it.”

Please tell me your not serious. I think gvandergrift made some good points and is certainly more civil than his critics.

Does that opinion and the fact that I live in Louisiana mean I should be persecuted by Fascist American “security” agencies? Do you consider me a terrorist? Do you hate me?

Do you think if some left-wing group had proposed making a Mississippi license plate that read, “Bush is Hitler” — Barbour would refuse to take a stand on it one way or the other?

Congratulations. It took you longer to type that than it would’ve taken Barbour to say “I disagree with the idea. The man was not someone that should be honored or revered.”

Hell, it would probably take Barbour longer to think the thought you suggest than it would for him to say the above phrase.

Forrest is a big deal in that area.

There’s a Forrest City AR, and a Forrest County, MS (both with 2 R’s, not 1), probably more than that.

On interstate 65 in suburban south Nashville there is a huge Forrest statue.

Forrest is buried in downtown Memphis in Nathan Bedford Forrest Park under a statue with him on horseback. Downtown Memphis also has a Jefferson Davis Park and a Confederate Park.

Memphis has had black mayors for decades and none of them have expressed much interest in renaming or denouncing things.

Libs and progs, already aware of their considerable irrelevance within their own Dem Party, would like to extend their sphere of no influence to include the Repub Party. Demonstrating that there is no shiny object too small for their attention, libs and progs are now in a lather about a bill before the Mississippi legislature, which the state’s governor says has no chance of becoming law. For his part, Haley Barbour wants everybody to spell his name correctly and feels that any attention beats no attention at this stage of the nominating process. Libs and progs have never voted for Barbour and have never contributed a dime to his campaigns. Nevertheless, from their unself-conscious posture of sincerity and politically correct moral rectitude, they feel they should dictate his behavior. Barbour thinks it can hardly hurt him to be seen by Repubs as bete noire to progs and libs and to be be perceived as standing up to leftist bullies. The brouhaha should serve to differentiate him from the riffraff running for the Repub nomination and can only redound to his benefit.