The most important "violence" in the south today is that constituted by
> the prison system.
>
And look who, in the absence of a cohesive left, is doing the most about it:
"There are few things rarer than a major politician doing something that is genuinely courageous and principled, but Jim Webb's impassioned commitment to fundamental prison reform is exactly that ... What's most notable about Webb's decision to champion this cause is how honest his advocacy is.
He isn't just attempting to chip away at the safe edges of America's oppressive prison state. His critique of what we're doing is fundamental, not incremental."
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/03/28/webb
I'm not necessarily prepared to go as far as Greenwald, but Webb's Scotch-Irish orneriness is generally aimed at the right targets. Does someone want to remind me again why it would have been such a catastrophe for him to be vice president?
-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."