Don't raised beds dry out more easily and so need a little more water? Do you just use a garden hose every evening, or do you have some kind of drip irrigation system?
This depends on the bed. If you are using a plastic container rather than a self built wood/stone one, it all depends on how absorbant the soil underneath is. This also assumes that you have a reasonable height for what you are growing. The main reason you'll hear that you need more water is because most people use raised beds for bedding plants, which requires water more often compared to mature plants.
Having said that, you need the right amount of water for the volume of soil you have - raised beds should absorb it faster, drawing it away from plants with smaller roots... and you probably will have run off. So you may need more because of that - the soil we have here isn't compact like it is where you are.
Do you (or anyone else) have definite opinions on fertilizer? My aunt has cows, so I could get a load of manure from her. She also has rabbits, and I've heard that pellet-poop is better for gardens. Do any of you compost?
If you are growing vegetables in Alabama and are you using natural soil, you'll need to turn the land and mix in a lower ph fertilizer. For the most part, you'd be looking for a PH between 6.0 and 6.5, unless you plan on growing trees or flowers (in which case you'd want it to be 5.0 - 6.0). So if you stick to plants that fit your climate, pretty much any fertilizer will do. This is even truer for raised beds with imported/bedding soil.
For starting, you don't need anything fancy. If you want to prepare your own soil, be very aware that you are in a hostile zone towards a lot of common plants and fertilizer may make your soil even worse.
There is nothing better than compost, in terms of natural ways of keeping your garden going. It's like you are giving a meal to your garden rather than just vitamins. Having said that, the turnover rate of compost depends a lot on worms, humidity and bacteria - Alabama is probably less than ideal for a small scale composting plant unless you are planning for 3-5 years in the future. (I don't know this for sure.)
Maybe I should find a good beginner gardening site.
It'll be easier to just list what you want to grow an search for what that plant needs.
You'd be shocked how many variations on a plant there are
Tomatoes!. This way you can pick easier varieties (ie: romain lettuce over butter lettuce), including fruit plants (in your case, strawberries and rasberries are both PH tolerant, where blueberries are decidedly not) and other staples (potatoes require lower PHs as well, compared to cucumbers and corn).
Does anyone here practice companion planting?
Never needed to but it is useful. It should be secondary to a good foundation (soil, watering and sun conditions), especially in a smaller bed.