How about the practical benefits of federal funds to keep neanderthal states like Alabama from becoming police states and failed states run by tribal chiefs?

I can see how the tea partiers view Washington. They look on it like the corrupt and intolerant locals in the 'stans' and eastern Europe viewed the iron boot of Moscow...

What they wanted to do was take over the land and the wealth of their locales and do a little ethnic cleansing to make it work better. After the collapse of the USSR that is what they been doin'.

"This is Alabama. We speak English." Really? Has anyone here been to Alabama? What they speak there has only a small resemblance of the English that most Americans speak.

Just one more reason why they should secede, I suppose. What does that no-good fed'rul gummint doing tellin' them to give driver's licenses to furriners?

I've said it many times already, but it bears repeating.

I vastly underestimated the extent to which a black president would unhinge the right wing.

"This is Alabama. We speak English."

Now if only they could read and write it.

"You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught."

I agree, doubtful. They have lost it more than I thought they would and I am extremely cynical.

You gotta remember Tim's daddy was Fob James, the Gov who plucked Roy Moore out obscurity to champion his cause and make him a star.

The state of Alabama has already lost a lawsuit over providing drivers license test in multiple languages. What Tim is promising to do is waste even more of AL's resources fighting a lawsuit. Just like his daddy did many times.

This is all business as usual down here, and Tim's ads pretty much blend right in with all of the others. Except he failed to mention God and how much he loves him. Oh, and Tim's ads are much slicker than the other candidates. The little pause at the end is just soooo special.

As a native-Alabamian I need to say some things about Fob. Fob James used to be a Democrat. Granted far more conservative than most Democrats of his day, he ran on platforms which advocated the environment, civil rights, and education reform. However, much like Wallace, he soon abandoned his progresive agenda- after losing an election. Wallace had an awful phrase I won't repeat, you can find it with a quick google search, but James was right there with him. Along came 1994, and the Gingrinch revolution and James was all abord as a republican. Of course he wanted to model the state after a Waffle House (exact quote) and he was a quick one term governor.
Tim James wants to take this game to the next level, but will be trounced in his primary just like he was 4 years ago.

thats all

Ooops, spoke without checking. Alabama did lose the multilingual test lawsuit in 1998, but the Supremes reversed on a standing issue in in 2001, though we continue to give test in multiple languages.

Court said individuals can't sue, which may leave the door open for a class action suit.

James blow dog whistle; gets people riled up against the big bad gub'mint in Washington; blames Obama by crying about being persecuted for his oh-so-K-K-Kristianic xenophobia.

details at 6 and 11....

This guy is not my cup o tea, but I do believe ballots should be in English only.

and oh...... maybe all those ferinn languages may be one more reason for multi-national companies like Toyota, BMW, Sony, to invest in Ala.

Dumb and dumber

English? Is that what Senator Sessions speaks?

However, I thought several Southern states allowed "Speaking in tongues".

And he'll probably get elected.

As a transplant Alabamaian, this state has a lot more serious issues than what language the driver's test comes in.
It's great we get to watch another cookie cutter AL politician right out of the starting gate speak no higher on the scale of his proposed public service than to obediently spout the standard fist pumping Fox/Talk talking points. Obviously, a free thinker, fresh air this one.
Alabama needs a politician who isn't afraid to speak on serious and/or controversial issues of AL economy, inequality, crime rates, and if that politician needs to change from D to R to get into office to make such changes in this blood red state, then so be it. Them's been the rules down here for a long time, so don't blame politicians for playing the system.

This one obviously is playing the standard political songs and he's straight forward R, at least on the surface.

Sarah Palin can speak in tongues, and has much else in common with the good folk of Alabama.

Behind the xenophobia about tests in different languages is another type of ignorance: driver's manuals are a way of instructing drivers about the local laws. What do you do when an emergency vehicle is behind you? Who has the right of way in different situations? Can you pass on the right, or turn right on red? All of these have different answers in U.S. states, and it's not at all unreasonable for me to want other drivers to know the same rules that I do, if only so my English-speaking family and I don't get t-boned at an intersection by a truck driver who happens to be less than fluent in English. It's just common sense, just what this moron is trying to call up with this ad.

His is the type of ignorance and short-sightedness that causes real people to die. As Margaret Cho said about racism, likening it to hot weather, "it's not the hate, it's the stupidity."

"This is Alabama. We speak cracker."

Can we call Timmy "Gob James"?

What is wrong with expecting people to speak English?

If I drive a car in Alabama then I will see signs in English. If I get stopped by a cop then he will speak to me in English. If I am in an accident then I will communicate with everyone in English.

I lived in Japan. It was so much easier driving after I learned to read and write.

Like it or not, it is hard to get ahead in this country unless you speak English.

So, now you heard my piece, Fire away

Neil, in looking at James' comments, I initially, had similar thoughts as yours, but came to the same conclusion as Rathskeller:

....driver's manuals are a way of instructing drivers about the local laws. What do you do when an emergency vehicle is behind you? Who has the right of way in different situations? Can you pass on the right, or turn right on red? All of these have different answers in U.S. states, and it's not at all unreasonable for me to want other drivers to know the same rules that I do, if only so my English-speaking family and I don't get t-boned at an intersection by a truck driver who happens to be less than fluent in English.

Neil, this isn't about *speaking* English. It's about whether somebody with limited English proficiency can take the *written* part of the exam in another language.

To recapitulate on what several posters have already pointed out, English is a foreign language in Alabama. Cajun is closer to English than Alabamian.

Only English?

What about Alabama, Apalachee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Coushatta, Miccosukee, or Muscogee? To name but a few.

Asshole.

Everybody knows real Alabamians are white, and they claim they speak English, but if you listen to them, that's "a fact not in evidence."

Mr James ought to be worried about loosing transportation money. When I was at the University of Alabama one of the first things I noted was how nice their federal highways were. They were always, always, always repaving. It was one of the best avenues of largess to contractors and I would hazard a guess much of that money was federal money.

I was born and educated in England, and have always wondered what that funny language was in Alabama.

A half-black president has obviously enlivened the latent racism that lies just below the surface in most of the south. Neo-Confederates are now emboldened, and think they have permission to be openly racist and use it to their advantage in cynically getting onto the political ladder. It's the 1960s all over again, as if the civil rights movement never occurred.

What a disgusting display this is to the rest of the world. What a stomach-turning episode this is to those of us who thought the country had left most, if not all, of its racial bigotry behind.

@Neil

We aren't testing them because we're concerned about whether they can speak English while they drive. It's not about promoting social cohesion. It's not about discouraging filthy ferriners from polluting our fair shores with their foul languages by preventing them from driving.

It's about safety.

We're concerned about whether they can conform to the traffic laws and safely get to point A to point B in a car.

If that's not the point of the exercise, then there's no reason for licensing drivers at all. If that's not the point of licensing drivers, then it's all just another pointless government infringement on our freedom.

The irony is that when you try to explain simple concepts like "we license drivers for safety reasons, not political reaasons" to wingnuts, they give you that "I hear word-like sounds coming from your mouth but I can't for the life of me understand what you're babbling about" look. Leads to the conclusion that if they want to turn the driving test into an English comprehension test, they're the ones with the most to lose.

If English was good enough for Jesus then it's good enough for Alabama !