It's very difficult to read your "interpretation" of the Civil War....

You wrote:

"For instance. there was truth in the old "Southern" histories which spoke of the Civil War as "The War for Southern Independence." It began by invoking the "right to independence " laid down in our Declaration of Independence while carefully avoiding the part about all men being created equal. It saw the American union was an association of free political communities under a common government, with the right of secession as a given. Sort of like the right of Slovenia to secede from Yugoslavia. That right was denied by the Lincoln Administration, and then after repelling Federal troops from its soil, it was faced by the threat of invasion and subjugation by Federal forces, after the establishment of a blockade of its ports that was in blantant violation of international law. The rights of the "Negroes" did not arise at this time, and men like the English Liberal John Acton favored their cause.

The South was crushed. Its economy destroyed, a huge perecentage of its young manhood killed and maimed. It was occupied by Federal troops and denied self-government until the people agreed to be ruled by regimes dominated by greedy Northerners, ignorant ex-slaves, and southern turncoats. It took to resistance to overthrow these regimes. Finally, after ten years, the North agreed to a return self-rule by thge white majority.

We cna look beyond this narrative and see they were still saddled with a large and ignorant black minority and a great dearth of capital. It took another century for the South materially to recover from the Civil War; psychologically they have only recently put behind them the hatred they bear for "Yankees." Thus they owe to Lyndon Johnson, who cut the knot of the rope that had been strangling the South since "The War."

First, let's remember, that Lincoln was murdered by a southerner, as many progressives have been murdered.

Second, the war was in fact about slavery. There was a huge and powerful abolitionist movement in this country (back to my post about resistance to evil). Many whites born in the South supported Reconstruction. Education became available for Black children for the first time in the south. Scalawags and carpetbaggers are terms coined by white Souther Dems to defame their opponents. History now rejects the right wing slant that you parrot above. Many Northerners went South to work to provide education to African Americans. African Americans never took over the Southern States. All governors were white and almost all legilsatures had white majorities throughout. Mississippi enjoyed less corrupt government during Reconstruciton than in the decades immediately afterward. Some white democrats used force and fraud to wrest control from biracisal Republican coalitions. Military rule ended by 1968 in all but three southern states.

I object to your characterization of slaves as "ignorant." All the slaves were working! and many were working in skilled trades such as sawyers, silversmiths, bakers, coopers, etc.

The rightwing Southerners were successful in taking over and using racist violence to reestablish control. The victors of the Civil War executed one Confederate officholder, Henry Wirz, notorious commantdant of Andersonville prison, while the losers murdered hundreds of officeholders, and other Unionists, white and balck. In Hinds County, Mississippi, alone, whites killed an average of one African American a day, many of them servicemen, during Confederate Recontsutrction, the period from 1865 to 1967 when ex-Confederates ran the governments of most Southern states.

Etc. Etc.Etc.

Susan

"ms. walsh, you need to get laid

I can't find words to describe your hateful view of life...where did you grow up and who gave you this job. You bring out the most negative sentiments in me...I can't even say you are different...you are an idiot...Ms. Walsh...go get laid

-- Blue98"

Here is another example. Women who do not agree with men, or who do not agree with you, are assumed to need hetersexual intercourse, whether voluntary or not.....

Disgusting.

Susan

Really, the vast majority of Americans think Senator Clinton is untrustworthy? Then why is she beating McCain in the latest polls? Why did she win the Pennsylvania primary?

What is stunning to me is the Obama supporters who claim to be about transformation and new politics, and who can't seem to rise above personal insult and invective?

The latest mysoginist comment -- about someone slapping someone's dong across someone else's face? Okay, maybe it's just disgusting vitriol.

Susan

I'm really tired of people being down on Sen. Clinton for staying with her philandering husband.

He was the one who committed adultery. Not her.

It's a private matter why she decided to stay with him.

You're the same people who were screaming that the NY Governor's use and consumption of women was his private issue.

Susan

Oh, my goodness, I understand.

I've been wedged into the middle seat in the very back seat of an airplane, and have said "They ought to pay us!" and received blank stares.

The most depressing part about traveling is the acquiescence of people to being treated like cattle, watching people being passive, not questioning, complying.....

What about all the people who sat on the tarmac, while toilets overflowed, and there was no food, and people were having medical emergencies..where was the person, or people, who said "enough" and popped the emergency shute, and got out of the airplane, and walked to the terminal?

It's really scary.

Susan

Well, first "very little affect"? Don't you mean "very little effect."

Well, it's obvious what YOU think -- you think Sen. Clinton would never sacrifice political capitol to make an ethical point. Do you think Senator Obama has been vocal about the vicious sexism in the campaign?

I'd like to see Sen. Clinton talk about racism, and Sen. Obama talk about sexism, but I'm not holding my breath. BOTH of them are politicians.

Susan McgGee