Jackson Jambalaya

Finally some leadership. Good for him.

Glad Gunn had the balls to come out and say that. Time for Bryant and Tater Tot to join him.

I agree with the Speaker.

I have state-funded, no-oversight recovery facilities in my neighborhood. I pay entirely too much in taxes. I have to pay for my kids to go to private school because our public school system sucks. I could go on and on. But yet the Speaker sees this as a top issue? Why not do something about real problems instead of pandering?

Pre-election posturing. Containment strategy.

He can kiss running for statewide office goodbye.

Got damn I can't BELIEVE an elected official in MISSISSIPPI would show such leadership. Thank you. Geezus. Pinch me. White 69 year old Republican here. Pinch me.

8:41 Agree...but Bryant already said "the people have spoken, we've already voted"...Now be careful Phil the Tea Party is watching...

Any statewide office this guy has his sights on is over.

You are driving down the off road state highway in let's say Perry County. You see a Confederate battle flag flying in front of a home. What do you instantly think....historian or redneck. Be honest.

8:48 -- thanks for that comment. For you others -- you're "go along to get along people". No leadership there -- just politically correct mumbo jumbo. He lost my vote because he focused on all the wrong things. 8:48 has it absolutely correct!!! Phil -- you might have chosen poorly. Always a good idea to choose metaphorically which hill you're willing to die on -- state flag discussions would not be one of them.

I'm offended by Bobby Moak's rotund state. As we fight obesity we can't allow anyone obese to remain in any political position of prominence.

Leave my flag alone. How much do we have to give up??????

Right 9:09. To many rednecks here, that don't see the flag as treason. TREASON.

9:06: You are sad, unfortunately. Guess he'd be OK in his Clinton district though.

Gunn has really impressed me on this.

Does Mr. Gunn, want to Remove the "Monument to the Mothers of the Confederacy" that is located on the Southside of the Capitol ?

After they get the flag changed. They will come after your guns. After your guns they will take away what you can say and act (can't say (N******) But, Obama can. After that they will take all your money thru taxation.

9:09. The redneck 29 year old grit is all over your face.

9:32. The sky will continue to fall. Boo hoo.

8:56: "Pre-election posturing", yeah because Gunn's position is such a popular opinion in MS

Hey -- what's next?? Take down the crosses because they represent the Crusaders and offend Muslims. Vote was taken -- people decided. NOT a discussion Phillip should be having. In case someone has not whispered in his ear --- VOTERS DECIDE AT THE END OF THE DAY -- and they might not decide on him in the future. Jackson is a mess, and the State has issues and he's out there jumping on this bandwagon.

@836 That is real leadership? HaHa Go back to jackson free press and read about how conservatives are phobes.

Anon @ 9:07 Homo Erectus Trailerpithicus Magnum

@ truth

Scary place - time to go! There is nothing positive about that flag. It's got death written all over it in so many ways I don't think I could list them all.

It was hoisted to signal a bloody battle in which we lost and the hypothetical minds of " if the south would have won" will not let it go. That flag is an embarrassment to our state in the eyes of the nation and does not truly represent how far we have come from when it was first hoisted. The only reason it still flies is because of SOCV and Haley Barbour.

I pay taxes, I'm a native Mississippian, I'm Caucasian, and that cursed flag of blood, guts, and non-glory makes me feel uncomfortable. It makes me feel embarrassed to the point of pondering if the supporters of our state flag are confederates first and Americans second. If you want to fly that flag at your residence, then so be it. Your nostalgia should not decide what flag my taxes pay to be hoisted on a government building.

I agree with the speaker. Period.

D.C 1928 - largest Klan rally in history - marched down Pennsylvania Ave. Just google the pics. Thousands and not a single confederate flag...but hundreds of U.S. flags. Any group can co-opt a flag, symbol, etc.

Why not just replace all flags with a white flag - just surrender everything - we have already allowed the left to define us - pander on politicians - we find you repugnant. Change the flag but it will not satisfy them. They will come for something else. The left operates much like ISIS, convert or suffer the consequences.

Hailey could have been a good president , but lost out because of Mississippi's baggage . Gunn just might be the one from Mississippi . The young educated christian just might be Mississippi's savior .

Phil will stand on the steps of the State Capitol Building clutching the Mississippi State Flag looking dead into the cameras: "You'll have to take this flag from my cold dead hands".

Gunn will retire as Speaker, Tater will speak on the entire matter as soon as Haley calls him back and tells him his strategy.

Will Ole Miss have to remove the Confederate soldier statue that is located in the middle of campus?

How about we take the battle flag out of the MS state flag and replace it with a Black Bear. That should make everyone happy. While we are at it we need to get rid of the Magnolia as the state flower since I am sure it reminds people that this is the "ole moonlight and magnolias" state. And finally take down all those crosses around the state and on churches, it reminds people that Christians have sinned! Just take it all down.

9:47 -- you make me laugh. You're the guy that got us in the position we find ourselves now. Stomp your foot, tell us how liberal you are and how farsighted. The rest of us "just don't get it". The telling comment you made -- "It is an embarrassment to the state in the eyes of the nation" -- suggestion, move somewhere else where you are not embarrassed.

You have no clue what you're talking about…..but then you know that don't you? Probably plenty of people have told you so in the past.

You are attributing Gunn's newly found virtue to his "Christian" values. Maybe, just maybe it has something to do with his districts changing demographics - he is looking for votes. I always find it amusing when a politician finds religion during an election year. And not a peep from him on the OH issue. MIA.

Good for Mr. Gunn. We should totally support this. There is no reason to keep the flag. None. It's a symbol of which most people in the country consider hatred. It's embarrassing and polarizing to some of Mississippi's best citizens. Mr. Gunn isn't doing this for politics, given the last vote, he's doing it because he believes it's right. I fully believe he's capable of state-wide office should he decide to run.

9:52 that is almost a hundred years ago. Before our grandparents. Smell the coffee. The flag is a treasonous wreck. Let the accustomed rag go, and all the dead racists that fought a useless war defending it.

Yet nobody decries being the fattest state in the U.S. Just save the flag. Probably because all the flag supporters are fat ass red necks.

He is balsy. It wasn't not that long ago that "save the flag, change the governor" signs beat Ronnie Musgrove. If my memory serves me correct, the new flag was voted down back then by 70% plus. I do agree with him though. It's time for it to go. I can't imagine how stupid my 16 year old self must have looked, when I flew a big one in the back of my truck.

Good on Gunn for having some balls. And good on all the gumps here regurgitating Dylann Roof's manifesto in these comments. You guys never disappoint.

#redneck10:05

Read your post. Slowly. Again. Again. AGAIN. You and your hick ass upbringing are why we remain last in anything of substance. Doofus mofo.

I rarely agree with the Speaker, but respect him for standing up for the right thing to do despite the risk to his political career. That is the true measure of a man. Mississippi deserves a better future and changing our state flag is a step forward for ALL Mississippians.

State flags are meaningless. As far as I am concerned, just spell Mississippi on a blanket and run it up the pole. For some good people that make a difference in this world, that symbol causes them pain, and until we walk in their shoes, we may not be able to understand that pain, thus, why should we choose to inflict it. There will always be worthless people that claim the flag holds them back.....they will answer for their laziness one day. We need to leave the symbols and institutions of division behind (including democrat and republican) and effort being one nation again, united, where our differences makes us stronger, and our ability to compromise and unify make us great

Like the Aceman says, government like to work small to big. Here is another example.

1) Education
2) Crime
3) Jobs
4) Infrastructure
5) Poverty
6) Taxes

...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
...

612) Change the state flag


Yeah, this state's priorities are right. Yeah, right.

What did the flag of secession stand for? Let's ask the men who voted to secede:

"A Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of the State of Mississippi from the Federal Union.

"In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course.

"Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery-- the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce of the earth."

Treason in defense of slavery. That's what the CSA's flags stood for. To pretend otherwise is to falsify our history and our heritage. Our flag is a lie. Let's stop lying to the world and to ourselves.

Haley will do three things: 1) hitch up his britches, 2) sip some Jack while sitting on the tailgate of his F-150 and then 3) babble something that makes no sense to the CNN reporter.

I highly disagree with the Speaker on this. We need a new Confederacy! State Senator Will Longwitz (R-Oxford House) can be the new President with Bruce Bartley as Vice President the Capitol will be at Livingston. Maryland WILL NOT be allowed to join the new nation.

I realize we have some JFP posters on tonight, but let me give you a hint when decrying all the rednecks...they vote. Came real close to putting McDaniel in office...I was sitting at the Hilton on County Line when the victory party turned into a wake! Just take a drive by one Saturday at the Bass Pro in Pearl ( - for heavens sake don't go in, you might get some of the "redneck" on you), lots of voters in that parking lot. Take a big leap in your personal safety and drive outside the metro area into the land of the "redneck" and see how many are at ball games on Saturday with their kids. Keep belittling them, and they will keep voting a Phil Bryant in and those that tell them how stupid they are, out. It is pretty obvious you folks have never caught a horse in a pasture with a feed bucket...you sure don't catch them running around around the pasture yelling, you stupid redneck!

One commentor submitted this. I removed a curse word. Anonymous wrote:

hey _______ @ 10:05. I'm pretty conservative and shared my opinion. If you want to hold on to it then by all means, but don't fool yourself into thinking that our flag does any good for our state in the same way that the confederate grave yard in Vicksburg does any good by not having names on their gravestones. Quite disrespectful and designed to be that way. It's about what's right and ain't none of it right in my opinion. Apparently I'm entitled to that ( my opinion) because we live in America and not the CSA. I'm so sorry that you were born too late to own slaves.

It seems to me there are two separate issues - the Confederate flag, a symbol to historians as well as to rednecks (as 9:07 noted), which people are free to display and fly on their private property, and the state of Mississippi flag, which includes the Confederate flag as part of its design and is flown on state property.

Yes, the people voted to keep the state flag as is, but that was before. Charleston is now, and the actions of that 21-year-old against those innocent people have opened a whole new discussion. How will Mississippians respond now?

Yeah, Gunn who is unopposed, is looking for votes.

Hey, Speaker Gunn, trolling for votes from the Democraps again, are we????

Using the logic of the all the flag changers:

James Holmes, currently on trial for the murder of 12 and wounding of 70 in the Denver theatre, was according to police, obsessed with Batman. Had Batman paraphernalia all over his apartment. His rampage was carried out during a Batman movie. Batman symbology is therefore a murderous motivator at least in this case and should be removed from the public square.

Nuts

Gunn is ballsy BECAUSE he has no opponent.

Hey there, Confederate sympathizers. 35 year old lifelong Republican here. The kind who has knocked on doors and manned phone banks for the MSGOP since before he could vote. On behalf of myself and --I'd estimate-- 95% of the Republicans I know under 40, please --please for the love of God-- give up this pointless last stand.

Symbols mean whatever most people think they mean. Most people -- including the aforementioned Republicans under 40-- take the leaders of the Confederacy at their word when they said their flag was the symbol of an armed rebellion to preserve the right of states to permit slavery. The debate about meaning --like the war itself-- is over and you lost. Call us all JFP readers or whatever. We're still right. You still lost.

When you are dead, the Confederate flag will die with you. We and our children will make sure that happens. Deep down, you know this. So please, take this last opportunity to show some measure of magnanimity. Make the only choice you have left: to exit the stage with dignity, rather than kicking and screaming on behalf of an evil cause that is mercifully consigned to the ash bin.

Hello speaker baker.

I can't believe how many girly men there are wanting to bow down cower like sissies with Fillup Gunn...
Ya'll need a good dose of Hanz & Franz to PUMP....YOU UP !!!

I hate to break the news to everyone, but the flag in dispute was not the flag of the Confederacy ( there were three) but one of the battle flags of the Army of Northern Virginia though it wasn't flown over Robert E Lee's headquarters ever.

It was also not South Carolina's flag of Secession or their battle flag.

It is NOT the Confederate flag. It's a battle flag that the KKK co-opted later.

The cross in the flag is St. Andrew's cross...the patron saint of Scotland, by the way.

There's really little reason to get all sentimental about it. Cry over the Bonnie Blue flag if you are a Virginian or pick one of the actual 3 flags of the Confederacy or the dozens of other symbols that were far more meaningful to those who were alive during the Civil War.

Look for Barker of Hattiesburg to call for a new flag tomorrow.

Since the OH has been mentioned previously in this thread, I'll use them as an example. How many of us would call them white trash if we drove by tomorrow and they were flying the confederate flag? I would. I wouldn't for a second consider anyone in that dwelling a historian.

@ 1:40 No, that wouldn't make them white trash. Hanging out in the front yard smoking cigarettes all day sure does though

Amazing. If you landed here from another planet, you'd assume the guy in Charleston suffocated the nine victims with a flag the way everyone has launched into hysteria over it. At least it's stopped being about guns (for now). After flags are changed/banned/whatever and we have another one of these incidents, can we look at the medications these people are on when they commit these mass murders?

Rachel Maddow, Donna Ladd, and Paul Gallo are all excited!

Who killed Battlefield Gucci?

You might be an idiot if:

1) ANY flag offends you;
2) You think ANY flag actually offends someone else and is not just an excuse or tool to create division;
3) You think ANY flag is worth fighting to keep or get rid of;
4) You think keeping or changing ANY flag will make one damn bit of difference in ANYthing;
5) You think the people who would pick a new flag would not be idiots (see Ole Miss);
5) You get sucked into a stupid squabble over ANY flag. (oops)

Think of what we could accomplish if Gunn could move legislation like he moves press releases.

The last vote on the flag cost the state $2m. Do we have that money to spend? I think not. The flag did not kill anyone.

I agree with Giles!

We aren't doing a good job of identifying and treating those with mental illness. We did better 40 years ago when families ( who invariably know their family member is in trouble) could get an involuntary assessment and some help.

To make that worse, our political rhetoric is so hostile and out of control and constant that it's a miracle we don't have more of the mentally ill incited even more often.

For certain, the chances of having a rational discussion on any subject so solutions to serious problems we face can be found is becoming all but impossible.

And, some of you are so paranoid about any gun legislation that you are willing for the mentally ill and home grown terrorists to have easy access to high powered weapons. You will not even allow a rational discussion that might result in a solution that would keep this sort of thing from happening less often.

And, all of you seem to think you can't be ambushed if you own a gun or rifle and won't face that most people murdered are murdered by people they know, not strangers!

The dumbest thing I've seen was a church sign that started " Cain killed Able with a rock"...yeah and he could have killed his entire family and his village if he'd had a high powered rifle!

And, in case you haven't noticed in the Middle East, having high powered rifles isn't good enough. Don't you want RPGs and a good bomb maker in the family as well? Why not just put mines or IED's around your homes and churches and along our the borders as well? Isn't being armed to the teeth your answer for everything? We should all be more tribal and more worked up about our religious and ethnic and political differences, right? That has worked out so well for centuries...not!

And, while we are focused on this, I expect most of you missed that yet another research study has shown that the pollutants in our environment are altering our DNA in ways that will kill not us but our children and grandchildren.

We couldn't be more self-destructive if we tried!

The tragedy in Charleston is another symptom of our society's decline. That it is being politicized in such an absurd way as to think banning a flag is offered as a solution is also symptomatic! Racists have lots of other symbolic choices available. Shall we spend the next decades banning oh...the Bonnie Blue flag or each of the three actual flags of the Confederacy ?

KEEP THE FLAG!
CHANGE THE SPEAKER!

Get rid of the speaker and keep the flag!
Offended? Be offended if that is what you see fit to do.
If you did manage to get the flag changed, which I seriously doubt will happen. What would you then have to be offended by?

Legislature won't vote to change the flag but they may vote to put it on the ballot again. The margin will be narrower but the result will be the same.

10:19 p.m. -- Only real rednecks use "DOOFUS MOFO" in their post.

@2:22 way to crowbar in an OH jan. I'm so sick of seeing mention of them in every topic or post. They've been here three months and I haven't heard a peep out of them. I haven't even seen them. I drive by every morning and evening and I've never seen anyone hanging out in the yard smoking.
I haven't got a problem with bashing the company and the way they go about setting up these homes, but hurling insults at the residents is entirely unacceptable until they prove to be miscreants.
Sorry for the rant. Wrong place on the site for it.

Where does it stop?
Do we rename Forrest, Lee and Jefferson Davis counties?

Should residents of those counties be forced to buy and place car tags
on their vehicles with these names depicted?

1) For those who claim flags shouldn't offend, should damaging a flag offend?

2) If your favorite book endorses both slavery and genocide, why be offended by a flag that endorses the same?

Wake me when Gunn does something substantive on an issue. Anything substantive. On any issue.

The Bottle Rockets break it down so that even the most ignorant redneck can understand. Whether they choose to change their mind is a different story.

https://youtu.be/m2DnmObuK4E

1). Good for Gunn. I think he did this because he believed it was right. He darn sure didn't because it was expedient.

2). Those advising him to write-off statewide office ought to look at which counties actually vote in a statewide Republican Primary.
Jackson; Harrison; Hancock; Jones; Lamar; Forrest; Lauderdale; Hinds; Madison; Rankin; Lowndes; Lee; Lafayette; & DeSoto

Of those, he would only be hurt in a couple of counties (Jones and Lamar & the rural parts of Lee & Rankin). That may well be counter-acted by votes gained in Hinds and Madison.

The Shiloh and Vicksburg military parks are offensive and need to be closed.

While were in the subject Im just curious to know whether anyone understands how offensive it is to have a reservoir named after Ross Barnett. How does the naming of that body of water culivate inclusion and not encourage division? Any thoughts?

We need to rename Battlefield Park. Confederates made a stand there and is highly offensive. It needs to be renamed immediately.

It appears we have the environmental wackos (9:24), the JFP crowd (too numerous to count), and OH support team(8:22) going full bore on this topic - it fits nicely in their wheel house of victimhood and caring. Speaker Gunn can show us how committed he is to removing the flag by sponsoring a bill to put it to a vote again. By the time that happens another knat will fly by and he will be on to another cause celeb in the ever constant vote pandering he and his ilk engage in daily.

Market and Commerce streets must be renamed as soon as possible since those were the names of streets throughout the South where slave trader’s offices placed their offices and conducted the slave trade.

7:23Am Verbose... you exceed your bandwidth.

Meriwether Lewis was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Native Americans while white and in charge of the Corps of Discovery. The Memorial in Lewis' honor on the Natchez Trace should be removed as those unnecessary deaths are highly offensive.

Good for Gunn! The reality is that the battle flag flew over an army whose purpose in fighting was to preserve slavery, (See Mississippi's Ordinance of Secession.) Private citizens will continue to be free to fly that flag to their hearts' content. But it doesn't belong anywhere as an official symbol of the State of Mississippi.

Mississippi's Ordinance of Secession, passed in 1861 to protect the institution of slavery, was legislation debated and approved in Mississippi's Old Capitol. The Old Capitol must be closed as soon as possible since so many reprehensible and offensive decisions and actions to maintain Mississippi as a slave state were made inside the walls of that disgraceful building.

Close the Old Capitol NOW!
Close the Old Capitol NOW!
Close the Old Capitol NOW!

If a flag evokes anything other than reverence for the high ideals it represents, there is something wrong with both the flag and you!

And, if you can't control your emotions and are so easily offended, angered, triggered back into focusing on negative events, you are either extremely immature or need mental health counseling or both!

If you judge people and feel superior to others based on color of skin, you are an idiot as well as having the preceding paragraph apply to you.

You don't fix racism except by condemning the racist behaviors.

There are bullies on both sides of this argument and that's all you are, insecure bullies who want everyone and everything to gee and haw to your perceptions of how things should be with you at the center of that imagined universe.

Grow up and/or get help!

I'm so sick of the immature and looney extremists dictating our political dialogue.

And, it's so bad there's not yet ONE single person in either party running for President fit to hold that office because they are , to a person, catering to their party's nincompoops!

Mississippi needs to stop growing cotton. Period. Slaves were forced to pick cotton. Agricultural production of cotton must be banned by law.

I stand with Speaker Gunn on this one. A portion of the Mississippi Flag has been usurped by those who cannot be respected if you have a Christian bone in your body.

The alternative flag presented to us a few years ago had a phoney looking tree on it (a magnolia with stand-out full blooming flowers scattered over it. Lets look at the Mississippi Flag prior to the Confederacy and remove the single star on a blue field in the upper left corner and add a blue bar next to the red one and move the tree (magnolia?) to the left a tad. That would be a beautiful white, blue and red flag with a green tree and would be appealing.

The vote may not be as people are predicting above. We have a whole new "crop" of voters who have reached majority since then and a great deal of old-times who have died. Then there are people like me who just didn't like the alternative we were offered. I want a red, white, and blue field.

I don't believe that red-necks rule anymore, but neither do liberals. Start a petition that is not sponsered by moveon.org and I will sign.

The re-emergence of this flag debate is a boon for the Clarion-Ledger since they only need to regurgitate old reporting, repeat Tweets and mail-in Facebook commentary. The value of that exhaustive nationwide search for Sam R Hall will be evident for all to see on this issue in the weeks to come.

Monticello: The [Thomas Jefferson's] mansion sits atop a long tunnel through which slaves, unseen, hurried back and forth carrying platters of food, fresh tableware, ice, beer, wine and linens, while above them 20, 30 or 40 guests sat listening to Jefferson’s dinner-table conversation. At one end of the tunnel lay the icehouse, at the other the kitchen, a hive of ceaseless activity where the enslaved cooks and their helpers produced one course after another.

From a pure aesthetics / design perspective I think the Mississippi Magnolia flag looks awesome and classic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Mississippi#/media/File:Flag_of_Mississippi_(1861-1894).svg

Also I think the history of it is really neat, since it was our first state flag and we flew it when we were a sovereign Republic.

What is wrong with this one? It has much more heritage than the current one we have now that came later.

Native Mississippian here. Ancestor of CSA officer who was both wounded in action and a POW. Barely survived. Lost his brother at Spotsylvania. Not a liberal. Change the flag. It's time and would honor those killed by a hate filled nut who adored it. It's embarrassing to our state and detrimental to our future. It's not actually the true flag, and does nothing but bring shame on us. It's a no brainer. It's the Christian thing to do to honor an 87 year old black woman assassinated while praying in her church. It's not going to "dis honor" our ancestors who fought (and did not own slaves), but help to make them more honorable than to display a Klan item from the 1950s. I like the design and idea of a "rebel" or "rebellious" flag, but it's been ruined by the sin of slavery and even more by the acts of modern day Klansmen and haters. It's become a political symbol of hate. Easy fix. Just do it. The old old Confederate veterans met with Union veterans, even though they had family killed by the other side. They swore oaths of loyalty back to the US, OUR country. They conducted themselves with honor on the battlefield and afterward, and we need to act with honor now. Bury the hatchet by burying this flag. I just think of the horror visited on those innocent church going people, folks you respect and enjoy meeting, who work and strive and raise children just like us, who worship like us, who have faced great adversity, who nonetheless welcomed in this filth, only to be betrayed like Christ. Do it. Change the flag.

From a policy perspective, I found very little to agree with Speaker Gunn about since he assumed leadership in the House. I commend his stand and leadership on this issue. Kudos!

Native Mississippian here. Ancestor of CSA officer who was both wounded in action and a POW. Barely survived. Lost his brother at Spotsylvania. Not a liberal. Change the flag.

Appeal to Authority. Fallacy.

@11:09, what is the "true" flag?

Next, just get rid of Mississippi... the mere mention of the name evokes 'everything wrong'

If the South had won the war, we would not be having the discussion.

Republican leadership has just played the lame stream Mississippi Press Corps like a fiddle!

11:09 - I question your bone fides - you talk all about your ancestors but don't seem to know the current MS state flag was adopted in 1894 to honor those CSA veterans still living at the time as well as those that had died. It had NOTHING to do with the 1950/60s segregation issues - that was still 60 years away. It was merely bestowing an honor on those that had sacrificed life and limb for their state. Most were young boys who had no idea what they were fighting for and absolutely no financial stake in the affair. They left as kids and those that did return were in many cases missing a limb. 1/5 of the state budget in 1866/67 was spent on artificial limbs? That is a lot of hooks and stumps. In fact many of the actual slave owners never fought and wanted to stay in the Union - better for business. Why you will let one nut in another state dictate your life, heritage, culture, and define who you are is beyond me. You all seem to be suffering from the Bruce Jenner affect - I don't like myself so It must be someone else's fault and I will wear a dress - there now - I feel good about myself again. Changing a flag changes nothing - just like Bruce you can change the outside but the fundamentals remain the same.

Now both Geoff Pender and Clay Chandler are mailing it in! Reporting from Mississippi's Daily-of-Record at its finest. We must applaud Jason Taylor for sparing no expense in scouring the USofA to find Sam Hall hiding right in his very own newsroom. Can we just give the C-L all the awards going forward?

What happened yesterday guns killed people. Now today flags kill people.
You people are sheep the left knows more gun laws are going nowhere so to " never let a crisis go by" they think they can get our flag.
This is a trial balloon to gauge public support,
1. To 11:35 you are a product of our skrools your knowledge of southern history is suspect.(read Patrick Cleburne's quote on how history will be written")
2. A person could try to explain the difference between the battle flag (that was only on the battlefield ) and the first, second or third confederate national flag. But you can only reason with someone willing to accept reason as an answer.
3. Today the battle flag, tomorrow the Christian flag. Remember what the priest said about the nazi's ,yesterday they took the crazy and homosexuals and nobody said anything ect.ect. Tomorrow they will come for you.
4. Reparations ,we are 18 trillion in debt.
5. They are trying to put us on our knees and you are bending your own knee willingly.
6. As for your redneck comment "redneck" is relative everyone who lives below Maryland is redneck to someone.
7. I could go on but proverbs says not to argue with a fool or people will wonder which one is the fool. I'll do my talking at the ballot box.

"As a Christian..."

So can he or anyone else not be against the flag unless they believe in a mystic muffin in the sky???

If we could just elect an African American President all our troubles would go away----Racism would end, slavery would be just a memory, and a flag would just be a piece of cloth, everyone would be happy and smiling, just one big happy melting pot of a family, with a chicken in the pot and two cars in every driveway, just you wait !!

"the current MS state flag was adopted in 1894 to honor those CSA veterans still living at the time as well as those that had died"

An equally good argument could be made for Germany to put a swastika in its flag. Which tends to suggest that it's not a good argument at all.

I was brought up that being a southerner you were special.
You were patriotic
God fearing
Treated your women with respect
Honest
Now look at y'all
F@&k America. I'll get mine don't care who's taxes paid for it. God huh goddamn bitch go steal something.
This is what you people want I believe you are gonna get it.


It's funny we throw God out of our schools and run to him when something bad happens.
What did you expect DUMBASS!
What Hippocrates !

I'm amazed that people like 12:44 actually think anybody gives a flying shit about the nine different versions of the Confederate flag, and how version 2(b)(1) was totally about state sovereignty not slavery. Every thread on this subject has one moron droning on about this, as if it changes the meaning of the symbol in 2015.

It's like the racist version of Comic Book Guy going on about the philistines who don't know all the different Green Lanterns.

For everybody else, it's simple. The endless parade of poor racist whites who display the flag aren't doing it out of admiration for the superb tactical maneuvering of the Army of Northern Virginia. They're doing it because they don't like uppity liberals --including all those Southern Republican Christian closet liberals-- telling them slavery was wrong.

That's the meaning that flag-wavers have intended for nearly a century now. And it's the meaning that the rest of the world has rightly taken. So that's what the flag means. Deal with it.

1:10 "What Hippocrates!"

Hahahahaha.

Ironically, he linked melancholia to mania around 400 BC.

Which sort of explains your bipolar rant.

This is too funny.

9:24 AM, that's a good point. The rural NE Mississippi voters still vote in the Dem primary.

Andrew Jackson was a racist. Let's change the name of our city to Lumumbaville.

What the neo-confederates do not realize is that if the South had won, it would have fallen behind. The economy was primarily agricultural while the North was industrialized. The North created a navy that Max Boot said on its own was the largest and most powerful in the world by the end of the civil war. Agricultural economies tend to lag behind industrialized ones. See Germany and its rise to power and Russia's inability to industrialize. The South would have resembled countries such as Latin America or Spain where an elite class would have done fine but when compared to other countries, the nation itself would have been backwards and agricultural in nature. Thus creating riper conditions for certain economic theories strongly disliked by conservatives and classical liberals.

Then there is the matter of national defense. Fighting a war requires a stronger centralized government that can make quick executive decisions. 10 or 12 states playing chief at the same time would have made war-fighting tougher and such did happen during the Civil War.

Per CL spreadsheet, Snowden is also a yes on flag change.

12:12. Won the war! Ha. If we hadn't enslaved people, we wouldn't have this flag issue either, would we?

Mr. Gunn and any others, Please don’t use religion for your campaign press release. Only a fool thinks he has the ability to “use” Jesus as a political card. You want to see words of true Christianity? In the courtroom in Charleston, family members said, “I forgive you, my family forgives you. We would like you to take this opportunity to repent. ... Do that and you'll be better off than you are right now." "Although my grandfather and the other victims died at the hands of hate, this is proof - everyone's plea for your soul is proof they lived in love and their legacies will live in love, so hate won't win.”

That, Mr. Gunn, is a representation of Christianity.

The person who committed this crime had succumbed to evil. If you think removing a piece of cloth will remove evil, you are doomed before you ever approach the flag pole.

Evil is the enemy. Always has been, always will be.

The people who were directly hit by this tragedy, who lost family members…..they made me proud and humble by their actions in that courtroom. And not one of those people stood in that court and said it was because of a piece of cloth. To the politicians—I back their statements, not your political grandstanding that will do absolutely nothing.

What a dishonorable service you make, playing into this fiasco. The true victims knew what the problem was and addressed it face to face. The politicians hide behind a piece of cloth.

I think the Speaker knows something about forgiving people who have killed family members.

Why did I waste my time on the flag vote in 2000? Doesn't my vote count for anything? Gunn wants to dictate his beliefs on others and circumvent the voting process.

In addition, I find it really odd that Gunn takes this stance now. Why wasn't he leading the charge to change the flag YEARS ago if it so offensive? If anything, it shows what a coward he is for only taking a stance when it is for gain or favor. This guy is a phony.

I really don't care if the flag stays or goes. It does not offend me, but if it is causing such pain and holding a certain group of people back, then let's change it. The black community has blamed the flag for crime, poverty, bastard kids, and all other woes of their community. Change the flag, but in 20 years, let's revisit those statistics on crime, poverty and bastard kids. I can guarantee you they won't have changed...

Whites are racists

I honestly don't care on this issue one way or the other. I do think that if it offends some, then let's just get rid of it. I certainly don't feel the need to fight to keep a flag that is apparently deeply hurtful to some. Get this "focus on the flag" bit over with as quickly as possible so we can move on to more important issues affecting our state such as education, crime, a failing capital city that needs help somehow some way, etc.

For anyone who fails to grasp the irony of the flag situation, reading Gwen Bristow's old novel,'The Handsome Road', is a must.

The novel shows "Confederate Patriotism" from the viewpoint of a piece of Blonde White Trash, who happens to be a smart enough to look past the rabble-rousing, and see the truth: that her people were being whipped into a frenzy, to fight for the very plantation system which held them down. Why should they fight, to keep the raven-haired aristocrats in their mansions?

The aristos' descendants have been leaving Mississippi since before the Civil War. The whites left in the state, today, are mostly the descendants of poor white farmers, white slaves, and "indentured servants". That any of them should identify with the Confederacy, and its symbols, is strange. Why should Mississippi's whites honor a system which assigned to their ancestors, less value than it did to African slaves? (Blacks were considered to have great value, because of their strength and heat tolerance. Poor whites were considered dangerous, uncontrollable, threats, and were often deliberately worked to death.)

KF, in the movie parody "Confederate States of America" (available on Netflix), the south won the war and did well afterwards.

6:11. All whites are not racists. The ones that are, like me, are that way because we tire of seeing black "men" every day on the news having done something stupid, like shooting each other at a kids birthday party. Sorry. If the shoe fits, wear it.

Okay, I have an idea. Let's change everything that a) is sanctioned by the state, and b) is recognized far and wide as a symbol of racial hatred. That means the Mississippi state flag should be changed, but nothing else you dimbulbs have been talking about fits both the criteria. Crosses? Not sanctioned by the state. American flag? Not seen as a symbol of racial hatred, no matter how many KKK parades feature it. This is a no brainer, people...

I'd vote to change the flag just so people can stop knocking it. Let's go back to the white flag with the Magnolia Tree. Keep it Mississippi. I'm just so sick of hearing the same tired, stupid reasoning that it is racist.