I knew this was going to happen

All of my political instincts told me there was going to be huge black, I mean backlash when Barack Hussein Obama won the 2008 Presidential election.

I knew all the talk of a post racial America, and the Abraham Lincoln narrative was just media driven bullpoop.

I knew the red,republican, confederate,slave states weren't going to let President Obama govern.

I knew the democrats would be spineless.

Based on this country's rich southern heritage and history I just knew it was going to be bad news for African Americans, our LBGT sisters and brothers, immigrants, labor,public schools,women's reproductive rights, voting rights, and health care reform.

As Bill Maher said, democrat is the new republican.

Last week Bill Maher called out Obama for pussy-footing around in the face of an audacious onslaught from Corporate America. He made clear that the President needs to show a little audacity of his own if he hopes to beat the health care companies, the energy companies, and the legions of powerful lobbyists swarming Capitol Hill.

I tried to tell y'all how this was going to play out way back when President Obama was first elected with one of my first blogs at Left in Alabama

Here is a quick Civics lesson so the right wing media talking points can be refuted. Democrats make a big mistake believing most people know how our Government works.

Although Democrats are in the majority in Congress it is a small majority, therefore Democrats CAN NOT OVER RIDE A VETO. This means any BILLS passed by Congress a VETO by the President or NOT SIGNED does NOT become LAW.

Democrats do have enough votes in the Senate to stop a filibuster, which in fact will KILL legislation. Democrats DO NOT have enough votes to remove the President or Vice President after Impeachment. Congress needs an over riding majority to pass legislation the President does not want.

Well we know how that story ended, democrats pussy footed around and lost the filibuster proof majority.

Then came the stimulus bill despite the gop and the right wing media's efforts to derail it. republican'ts gambled (pun intended) on the stimulus bill failing because they believed the American people will be stupid enough to vote them into power again.Oh wait...the America people were stoopid enough to vote them into power again! How did that happen you ask? Republican governors controlled the stimulus spending and they made sure the funds went to the people who didn't need it and not to the people it was intended to help so they could yell out of control,big government, spending, and ask where are the jobs,instead of the fact the economic stimulus package included one of the largest tax cuts in American history -- $282 billion in tax cuts over two years.

Of course the stimulus bill could not pass without some capitulation,I mean compromise on the part of POTUS,which a lot of folks,including moi tried to tell y'all was not a good idea.

Congressional leaders scale down plan to about $789 billion, a smaller package than versions of bill passed earlier by either body. Translation; Less spending for the poor and the middle class more tax cuts for the rich.

How did the winners become the losers and the losers become the winners? Check out this answer from my inbox;

These cuts were the price the Senate Democrats had to pay to get the three republican votes to filibuster proof the senate bill.. Without these three votes(giving the majority Democrats 61 votes) the Republican minority would still be filibustering on the floor of the Senate. Now the "conference " of the house and senate is hammering out a bill that can be supported by a simple majority of both bodies. And we'll have a bill for the President to sign. How wonderful it would have been for the Democrats to have elected 60 senators, so they would not have had to compromise with Republicans. Now Obama and the House democrats had to give up education and state incentive stimulus to have a bill at all, while the Republicans got additional tax cuts for the rich. It may not be the best system, but it beats hands down any other option.

To be clear republicans voted against the jobs bill, unemployment extension, and raising the minimum wage then campaigned and won on a where are the jobs,and we are going to create jobs meme, and the majority of the American people fell for it. Of course the gop infused,media enabled Tea Party helped.

To be clear, this is what Sessions and Shelby in the Senate and Griffith, Bright, Aderholt, Bacchus and the entire Bama House delegation (sans Davis) voted against on behalf of the Alabama citizens;

Impact on Alabama

Creating or saving 55,000 jobs over the next two years.
Providing a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for 1,770,000 workers and their families
Making 70,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable.
Offering an addition $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 247,000 workers in Alabama who have lost their jobs this recession.
Providing funding to modernize at least 156 schools in Alabama so our children have the labs, classrooms and libraries they need to compete in the 21st century economy.
President Obama has made it clear that his recovery package is just one component of what we need to to to get the economy moving again. He knows that we also need to make sure we have better financial regulation, and that we act swiftly to get credit flowing again. And of course, we going to have to engage with our partners around the world.

Which brings me to the sad,sorry state of the democratic party in the reddest state in the union. Democrats are jumping ship like rats off the Titanic and republicans now have a super majority in the state house and the state senate. They aren't even pretending anymore because they now have the power to do anything they want to do. And what is the Alabama democratic party doing about it? When they aren't bashing and smashing Joe Reed they are standing around with their hands in their pockets whistling Dixie. Everybody was hollering at state Senator Hank Sanders because he sounded the alarm instead of listening to him. Or maybe they did listen to him but didn't care...per DaleJackson;

"The African American vote is a powerful voting block. Both parties realize they can't win elections without the African American vote, so is their plan to neutralize it's block voting strength? Really, the GOP did pretty good without them last election. Fsct(sic): The 90+% Dem vote for blacks regardless of behavior has rendered that block feckless. You get lip-service and nothing more. The GOP won't get you and the Dems got ya.

Were we punk'd? You betcha. Are we in trouble yet? You betcha. How did we get here, and where do we go from here? God only knows.

Redeye tiptoeing away from the computer still waiting to exhale...

I won't exhale until our sons and daughters are bought home from Iraq. I won't exhale until torture is stopped. I won't exhale until Gitmo is closed. I won't exhale until the next Attorney General is named. I won't exhale until all Americans have access to quality healthcare. I won't exhale until all children have equal access to a quality education. I won't exhale until won't until we have peace and prosperity again. I won't exhale until we get our democracy back.