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This column originally appeared in THE DAILY BEAST. In looking ahead toward the November election, Republican strategists should take proactive steps to avoid a damaging, dangerous conclusion to the presidential race and to prevent the very real chance that Mitt Romney will win the Electoral College even while losing the popular vote badly to Barack Obama. The problem stems from the lopsided margins President Obama will surely pile up in a few uncontested states with big populations, including California, New York, Illinois and Massachusetts. Mr. Romney, meanwhile, will prevail by comparable margins in only relatively small states: Utah, Idaho, the...

by John HillStand With ArizonaThe Alabama Legislature scored a huge victory on Friday, as Gov. Robert Bentley reluctantly signed immigration law H.B. 658 - after legislators refused to "moderate" provisions Bentley (and open-borders activists) had complained were too "harsh" against illegal aliens. Alabama's immigration law H.B. 56, patterned after Arizona's S.B. 1070, passed in 2011, and has been called the toughest state immigration law in America. But several issues were causing legal Alabamans longer lines to obtain state documents and foreign executives issues with being detained, and those provisions were fixed in the new bill. But H.B. 658 (PDF) also...

BIRMINGHAM - AL - Family and friends are in mourning, the funeral service was held at Living Stone Temple church, community members tell me they're not too happy that no arrests have been made. During the service, Walkers family was overcome with emotion during the ceremony and had to step outside. Many mourners wore red, black and white t-shirts with walker's picture saying "In loving memory of Tez". Dr. Al B. Sutton Jr. led a sermon preaching out the book of mark and had a direct message to young adults as well as the parents in the building. "Our son's,...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Shortly after holding a press conference this afternoon to say that authorities are not giving her the information she deserves about the shooting death of her 13-year-old son, Latonya Walker met with Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls. Falls said Walker had not contacted him before she and community activist Frank Matthews held today's press conference. Falls said he met with her and Matthews today for 45 minutes. Normally, Falls said, the DA's office will not contact family members after a decision made not to file charges in a case. They never meet with family's of defendants...

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- The parents of slain Florida teen Trayvon Martin arrived in Birmingham today, spoke briefly this afternoon in front of the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in downtown Birmingham and walked with a group of about 50 people to the King statue in Kelly Ingram Park. "We are going through a lot but it's good to know we have a lot of people standing with us," said Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton. Martin's father, Tracy Martin, thanked the City of Birmingham for making his son an honorary citizen in a vote by the City Council. "Most of all I'd like...

The mother of a 13-year-old boy fatally shot when police say he tried to rob a couple said she is in shock that her son is dead -- and even more so at the circumstances surrounding his death. "I don't want it put out like he was a bad person or a mean person, because he wasn't," Latonya Walker, 38, said Tuesday. "This is not him, not who he was. Anybody that knew Ja'Quares knows that." Birmingham police said Ja'Quares Cortez Walker was in a car that pulled into the parking lot of the gated Skyview Condominiums at 407 Skyview...

Auburn authorities have released the name of the suspect who held up officers in a 10-hour standoff. Investigators say 24-year-old Ahmed Sherif Elbagdadi was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, discharging a firearm within city limits and making terroristic threats. The standoff began after Auburn police received a call for shots fired just before 7:00 Monday evening. A passing motorist reported hearing a gunshot and seeing a man pointing a gun toward the street near the area of East University Drive and East Glenn Avenue. When officers arrived on the scene, they heard a gunshot from a home in the...

Dr. Mortimer looked strangely at us for an instant, and his voice sank almost to a whisper as he answered: "Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound!" —Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles The odds of convicting George Zimmerman on any charges stemming from the killing of Trayvon Martin for the crime of being in a neighborhood where Zimmerman thought he didn't belong were always pretty damned long. The local cops screwed the pooch on the case almost from jump. The Florida law under which Zimmerman has sought protection is bizarre and contradictory and...

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - The Mobile County District Attorney's Office says Mobile police have made an arrest in the beating of Matthew Owens. Authorities say the suspect is 44-year-old Terry Rawls. They say he is charged with first degree assault. Police say Owens was beaten severely with bats, bricks and a paint can. The attack happened on Saturday, April 21 in the evening on Delmar Drive in Mobile. Cpl. Chris Levy with Mobile police said their investigation shows the incident stems from an ongoing dispute between the Owens and Rawls. Police also wanted to release that no one has confirmed...

MOBILE, Alabama -- Mobile police need your help to catch a mob that beat Matthew Owens so badly that he's in critical condition. According to police, Owens fussed at some kids playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night. They say the kids left and a group of adults returned, armed with everything but the kitchen sink. Police tell News 5 the suspects used chairs, pipes and paint cans to beat Owens. Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. "It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed." Parker says 20 people, all African American, attacked...

“Justice for Trayvon” mob beatings are now a rising cause for the right, with a horrific crime leaving one man in critical condition. Elevating “walking while white” is the most absurdly tortured false equivalency someone can hoist as an answer to George Zimmerman killing Trayvon Martin. But that’s what Erick Erickson was happy to legitimize when he drew attention to this post via Twitter.And this is the third racially-motivated attack in which the attackers explicitly cited “Justice for Trayvon” as a motivation or excuse for the brutal attacks. 1. The Baltimore Beating. This was the videotaped gang attack on a...

A petition posted earlier this week at change.org demands justice and equal treatment for Matthew Owens, a Mobile, Alabama man who was brutally beaten by a mob late Saturday night. Earlier Tuesday, we reported that Owens was beaten after he "fussed" over kids playing basketball in the road. According to Ashley Parker, Owen's sister, one of the attackers said “[n]ow that's justice for Trayvon.” Fox News reported Tuesday that the case is not being investigated as a hate crime, despite the alleged reference to Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed in February, and the racial makeup of...

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Police said attack leaves a man in critical condition, and police investigating possible arrests. It happened Saturday night, and allegedly started with kids playing basketball. "What we initially have been able to tell from the investigation is that our victim was fussing at some kids for playing basketball on the street. What we believe happened is the kids left and told someone that he was fussing about them playing basketball," said Cpl. Chris Levy with Mobile Police. That's when police said an unknown number of people came back and attacked Owens on the front porch of...

An angry mob of youngsters brutally battered a man who told them to stop playing basketball outside his home - and allegedly then told him 'that's justice for Trayvon'. Matthew Owens was hit with bricks, chairs, pipes and paint cans on his own Mobile, Alabama, front porch by 20 people on Saturday night after complaining about the noise. Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, claimed the group attacking her white brother were all African-American as she told wkrg.com: 'It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed.' And she alleged that, as they walked away leaving him badly bruised and bleeding on...

MOBILE, Alabama -- Mobile Police Chief Micheal T. Williams said this morning that investigators have not yet corroborated allegations that a Saturday mob attack on a white man by a group of black men was racially motivated. The sister of the alleged victim, Matthew Owens, told WKRG that she heard one of the attackers say, "Now, that's justice for Trayvon," as he walked away. Williams said that investigators have interviewed the sister, Ashley Parker, and the victim, and that neither mentioned attackers saying anything about "justice for Trayvon." Trayvon Martin was the unarmed teenager police say was shot and killed...

20 people, all African American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using "brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on." One of them said "Now thats justice for Trayvon."

Voters back state over fedsThe Supreme Court’s health care showdown last month was all about Constitution theory and prerogatives. Wednesday’s arguments between Arizona and the Obama administration over the state’s tough immigration law looks to be all about power. Arizona argues that the federal government has failed to enforce its laws on the books and says states should be free to enforce their own laws as long as they complement the national goals. Obama attorneys say the Constitution gives power over immigration to the federal government, and there can be no infringement. The electorate is clearly on the side of...

The crystal football Alabama won for beating LSU in the BCS championship game in January was shattered on A-Day when it was accidentally knocked off a display by the father of a current player.

Fans of soul music revivalists such as Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings will want to check out this debut album by Alabama Shakes. This Athens, Ala., quartet hones its soulful rock even further back to basics than most similar modern performers, all the way down to the barest organic essentials. "Boys & Girls" contains no blaring horns, orchestrations or electronic tricks, just Heath Fogg's prominent guitar riffs, an airtight rhythm section, Brittany Howard's vocal pyrotechnics and an abiding love of the Stax/Volt Memphis sound of the 1960s. "Hold On" showcases the band's strengths, using its small-combo punch to full...

Democrats in House of Reps. joined J Street in supporting Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions Seventy-four Democrats in the House of Representatives have joined the dovish J Street organization in supporting the Obama administration's attempt to force Israel into making painful concessions to the Palestinian Authority. “In our view, support for a two-state resolution is inseparable from such support for Israel, its special relationship with the United States, and its very survival as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people,” the letter said. Seven Jewish members signed the letter, including Reps. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), John...

On the surface, 17-year old Courtney Alvis looks like your everyday teenager. She's Two days shy of her senior prom and testing a new do at the salon. But getting to this point hasn't been easy, "I have heard of leukemia but I wanted to make sure that was cancer. So I was like are you telling me I have cancer and he was like it could be cancer," she said.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- A Birmingham abortion clinic has agreed to relinquish its license by May 18 after an Alabama Department of Public Health investigation found violations of state rules. State health officials said Friday the New Woman All Women Health Care Clinic in Birmingham voluntarily agreed to close. The clinic was found in a more than 70-page report to have violated numerous rules, including making errors in delivering medication to patients and failing to ensure that staff was properly trained to provide safe patient care.

Alabama Supreme Court Justice Notes Evidence Presented Raises Serious Questions to Authenticity of Both Obama's Birth Certificates. Sheriff Joe Arpaio's and Mara Zebest's reports were included in the Petition submitted to the Alabama Supreme Court. Alabama Supreme Court Justice Tom Parker noted in the Order to Strike Hugh McInnish's Petition for Writ of Mandamus: "Mclnnish has attached certain documentation to his mandamus petition, which, if presented to the appropriate forum as part of a proper evidentiary presentation, would raise serious questions about the authenticity of both the "short form" and the "long form" birth certificates of President Barack Hussein Obama...

I'm told that this is no joke.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Louis Farrakhan, the controversial leader of the Nation of Islam, has accepted an invitation from a coalition of student groups to speak at Alabama A&M University on April 10, The Times' news partner, WHNT News 19, reports. The Alabama A&M Poetry Club and the Alabama A&M Democrats were two of the student groups who invited Farrakhan to speak, according to WHNT. Poetry club president Kris Taylor told WHNT the Farrakhan appearance, which comes on the heels of anti-Jewish comments by the Nation of Islam leader, is intended to "uplift" and bring "positive energy." "There's going to be...

USA --(Ammoland.com)- BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —“Doctors managed to do what the government could not—temporarily silence me,” Sipsey Street Irregulars blogger Mike Vanderboegh told Gun Rights Examiner by phone this morning from the intensive care unit at Trinity Medical Center. The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance blog reported yesterday that Vanderboegh, the first citizen journalist to tie in the connection between Fast and Furious “walked” guns and the death of a U.S. Border Patrol agent, and a continual force in breaking new information about the ongoing story, was out of surgery, where a large gastro-intestinal stromal tumor was removed. His...

Change is in the air. States from Arizona to Virginia have enacted laws cracking down on illegal immigration. Some target the immigrants; some target their employers. Some rely on local police to do the job; others require that employers use the federal e-Verify system to check the immigration status of employees. Many of these statutes have been challenged in court. Some have been put on hold while others — including an Alabama statute regarded as the most stringent of all — have been endorsed by federal appeals judges. These initiatives share a common goal: enforcement of federal immigration laws, something...

This is based on a genealogy table I made. Had a bit more trouble than I should have tracking down the first round results, wth.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: We're gonna start Columbia, South Carolina. Naomi, a southern Christian woman who's looked down upon by Washington Democrat women. It's great to have you on the program. CALLER: Thanks, Rush. When I heard those clips that you played I was absolutely furious. I am a white working woman. I am not a racist and I'm not stupid. Those women are doing so much to put us back decades by letting us being victimized, thinking that we can't control our own bodies and we have to have someone else pay for our birth control, that I can't see...

Now that’s a comeback. Roy Moore, the nationally known “Ten Commandments Judge” and former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, on Tuesday won the Republican nomination in his state to regain his old seat after being ousted from it in 2003. “The people have spoken,” Moore said, according to the Montgomery Advertister. Moore was forced out of his job about a decade ago after refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments — at the order of a federal judge — that he placed in the state’s judicial building while serving as chief justice. The Associated Press on...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Karen Finney is the Democrat strategerist. She was on MSNBC last night. They were in total shock, total shock. "Santorum won last night! Santorum? Conservative women? How can this happen? " Karen Finney, big-time Democrat strategerist, said it hurt her that women voted for Santorum. FINNEY: (haltingly) Well... This woman vote really hurts me, I gotta say. (snickering) It's a little painful 'cause I'm wondering if those women really heard the full message that: Yes, there is the economy, but if you've gotta worry about your basic health care, how are you then gonna be able to...

HBO's Bill Maher on Tuesday took a disgusting cheap shot at Alabama and Mississippi voters. With all eyes on Republican primaries in those states, Maher sent a message via Twitter saying, "Toothless Tuesday too tight to tally!" This came just days after he and his Real Time panel mocked poor people in Mississippi. Their behavior was even too offensive for Roseanne Barr who tweeted Tuesday, "I was really disheartened to see how Pelosi's daughter& Bill Maher portrayed southern americans-classism at its best by H'wood elitists." Barr followed this up with, "southern folk are not all toothless idiots or racists, unlike...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The plodding Republican presidential nomination fight is grinding forward toward Puerto Rico — and a two-man race, with Rick Santorum ascendant and Mitt Romney vanquished in the Deep South. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the former Georgia lawmaker whose Southern strategy stalled, was all but relegated to an asterisk in the contest even as he vowed to stay in it. “Now is the time to pull together,” Santorum declared to conservatives in Lafayette, La., after winning Tuesday’s primaries in Alabama and Mississippi, urging the party’s faithful to unite behind him to beat Romney. “We are...

After Wins, Santorum Says It's Time 'For Conservatives To Pull Together' By Michael Finnegan and John Hoeffel Los Angeles Times March 13, 2012 — Rick Santorum scored two major victories in his insurgent campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, winning the Alabama and Mississippi primaries and dealing a potentially crippling blow to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. With most of the votes tallied, Gingrich was running second in both states, followed closely by Mitt Romney. The twin losses for Gingrich, who devoted a full week to zigzagging across the two states by bus, effectively crushed his effort to resuscitate...

Newt Gingrich says, "Between us, Santorum and I are stopping Romney."

I was dead wrong last night in a post that I wrote here at freerepublic last night titled "Split" the convention - DON'T Split the Vote in the South! Romney is counting on it. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2858265/posts?page=1 - and I have never been more pleased to be wrong. The lesson to me is that GOD is in control and He speaks to the hearts of man. I’m glad more people didn’t listen to me. I encouraged Santorum voters to vote for Newt Gingrich in Alabama and Mississippi because I was concerned that Santorum gaining in the polls would give Romney a chance...

<p>Rick Santorum has won the Mississippi GOP presidential primary, according to an Associated Press projection, following his earlier triumph in neighboring Alabama on Tuesday. The dual victories are a major boost to the former Pennsylvania senator's campaign at a time when the primary calendar favors him. He's spending tonight in Louisiana, another deeply conservative state which holds a March 24 primary.</p>

Rick Santorum is the winner of the Mississippi Republican presidential primary, Fox News projects. ORIGINAL STORY ... Rick Santorum has won the Alabama Republican presidential primary, Fox News projects, and is holding onto a narrow lead in Mississippi where the race is still too close to call. The victory in Alabama is a major boost for Santorum, a state in which he was

Rick Santorum has won the Republican primary in Alabama, NBC News is projecting with 31 percent of the vote reported. He leads Newt Gingrich in the state by 5 percentage points and Mitt Romney by 6 points. Early returns from urban areas that typically favor Romney, and are often slower to report their results, suggest the former Massachusetts governor cannot pick up enough ground to gain the lead later in the evening.

Santorum is the projected winner in Alabama, gradually increasing a 5% lead, 12,000 vote margin over runner-up Newt Gingrich. Mississippi remains too close to call and is very much a three way race with Santorum still clinging to a narrow lead.

Republican Results Mar. 13, 2012| Polls Close: 8:00 pm ET County Results » Exit Poll » 7of 1,889Precincts Reporting | ★ = Projected Winner | Delegates = Estimated Delegate Count Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/primary-election-results-2012/state.shtml?state=MS#ixzz1p31az74e

Didn't see a thread

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) voted Tuesday morning for Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator’s campaign announced via Twitter. “Honored to learn this morning on @rickandbubba that AL Gov. @GovernorBentley cast his vote for me and joined the fight!” @RickSantorum tweeted, referring to the popular “Rick and Bubba” radio show.

They are replaying the Alabama GOP Forum from earlier tonight on CSPAN at 9:55pm. Compare Santorum and Gingrich speeches here. Thanks for your review!

The Alabama Democratic Party has now scrubbed a web page advertising its upcoming fundraiser with HBO’s Bill Maher following an uproar from conservatives about the event because of the comedian’s history of making sexist statements about women. The web address — http://aldemocrats.org/bill-maher — once took visitors to an invitation to the Maher reception in Huntsville on March 17. Now it redirects to the homepage of the Alabama Democratic Party. Bradley Davidson, the executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, has not returned multiple requests for comment from TheDC about the reception. The scrubbing was first reported by the Alabama blog...

CALLS NEEDED NOW! You are receiving this email because you signed up for Santorum Call from Home   CALLS NEEDED NOW! ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, HAWAII PRIMARIES TOMORROW   CallFromHome.RickSantorum.com ALABAMA, MISSISSIPPI, & HAWAII GO TO THE POLLS IN LESS THAN 24 HOURS! With tight races in Alabama, Mississippi and Hawaii tomorrow, every vote will make a difference.  Personal calls from volunteers are one of the most effective ways to reach undecided voters. 20 calls today may be the deciding factor tomorrow. Thank you for being a key part of the grassroots effort to help Rick Santorum become our next president! ...

Birmingham, AL - Monday, March 12, 2012 The Alabama Republican Party hosts a presidential candidate forum with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum at the Alabama Theatre in Birmingham. AL Candidates Forum: Live at 6:30pm (ET) on C-SPAN. The Alabama Republican Primary is Tuesday, March 13. Fifty Republican delegates are at stake.

Regardless of how the final votes come out tomorrow, based on delegate allocation rules, little is going to change between now and tomorrow: Let's start with MS. This is the easiest state to allocate based on the rules. Essentially, if no one gets over 50% and you clear the 15% hurdle, you're going to get delegates. Let's assume for a moment the current polls are correct, with Gingrich 35%, Romney 30%, and Santorum 25% Based on this, virutally all are certain to get a 1-1-1 delegate split in all 4 Congressional Deistricts. Of the remaining 25 delegates, Gingrich would get...

Voters in Alabama and Mississippi may still be split on which Republican they want in the White House, but they agree on this much — in their minds, President Obama is a Muslim. A stunning 66% of Mississippi respondents to a survey done ahead of Tuesday’s presidential primary have bought into the false notion that Obama worships Allah, Public Policy Polling reported Monday. Some 36% said they weren’t sure. In Alabama, 45% responded in the affirmative when asked the same question and 41% said they weren’t sure, pollsters found. Obama is a Christian. But many conservative Republicans just refuse to...

With Tuesday’s Alabama and Mississippi primaries on the horizon, Bill Maher sent filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi to the heart of Mississippi to interview some prospective voters, and what she found was some scary footage– of voters who feared President Obama was a “Muslim” and promising “the South will rise again.” The panel, including Jon Hamm and Michael Steele, analyzed the situation and, after making a few jokes about the subject’s teeth, argued that education was the only solution to their poverty. With two caveats– that “all these people knew they were going to be on this show and they all think...