Redeye's Inbox

I would like to share a few emails I received in response to some of this weeks front page diaries.

WTF is the Democratic Party?
I want to know too. You and I ARE on the "same page," Girl Friend.
The President that we worked so hard to elect has extended yet another
olive branch to the GOP by offering to freeze salary increases for all
Government workers while prices on everything from electricity to food
continue to rise.. Meanwhile the National Dem. Party has selected a
former Blue Dawg from New York to head up Party activities for the 2012
push to elect Democrats. Another slap in the face to the liberal,
progressive Democratic Party base who made the difference in electing
Obama President. Sheeze! What's next? Cuts in Medicare, Medicaid and
Social Security? I'm polishing my pitchfork for that one.

I just received a horror story from a friend in Florida. Her bank was
taken over by one of the Banking giants we bailed out. The Giant Bank
then proceeded to play Bank Bingo with the mortgages on both her
business and her home, increasing the rates and making it damn near
impossible for her to keep either her home or business from going
under. She is temporarily covered by Unemployment Benefits, which are
helping make the mortgage payments, but there's no way of knowing when
the newly elected Republican Congress are going to stop paying those
benefits. When that happens, there goes both her home and her business
that she has worked so hard to maintain all of her adult life. Stories
like this are being repeated all over America, but those huge salaries
and bonuses for Banking CEOs keep being doled out. The rich are
getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. It's Class Warfare and
the rich are winning more than just elections. They are eliminating
the Middle Class in America!

Like you, I can't understand why Americans don't wake up to what is
happening before it is too late.

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving in spite of all the dire stuff
going on around us, and would like to wish you Happy Holidays and a
Super New Year.

Note: I agree and I'm polishing my pitchfork too!

I Choose Neither
Every real Democrat I know is doing more than just a little soul
searching after the last election. Clearly something has broken within
the Democratic Party in Alabama, and I believe it began with Ron Sparks
and other True Democrat's inability to raise the funds needed to win
the race. That, of course, could have been overcome IF the
progressive/liberal Democrats had hit the streets and donated to the
campaigns of old fashion, "We serve the people," Democrats with the
same zeal they exhibited during the 2008 election, and had been given
real Democrats running for office instead of Rahm's "Blue Dawg
Democrats" as candidates. We have now seen the Corporate Takeover of
our Government raise it's ugly head once again. How we managed to
hang on to the U. S. Senate is akin to a miracle. How much good will be
derived from our hanging on to the Senate is yet to be seen. The
Republicans in Congress are STILL obstructing all laws that are not
favorable for the very rich and their corporations as exhibited by
their recent threatening letter stating that they will obstruct all
matters coming before the Senate except tax breaks which include
millionaires and billionaires, and renewing funding so the government
can continue to function.

Our State Party is broken, so perhaps now it is time to make a clean
sweep of the Party Leadership and begin anew, electing, keeping, and
appointing only those Democrats who adhere to the long standing
Democratic principles of taking care of the least among us and our
elderly, supporting the efforts of Unions, who fight against the
excesses of their Corporate bosses, and ending all inequality of
racial and lifestyle issues once and for all by passing such laws as
"The Dream Act" and repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." More than
anything else, however, The Glass/Steagall Act needs to be reinstated
and thereby bring back the banking regulations that kept us out of a
depression/recession until it was repealed. Paying Unemployment
Benefits is a must as well. The money spent by those receiving
assistance during unemployment goes directly back into the economy for
things like food and making mortgage payments to keep families from
joining the ranks of the homeless in America. We know that the
"trickle down economy" proposed by the Republicans hasn't worked in the
past and won't work now. 12 million jobs were created during the
Clinton Administration. Under Bush and his tax cuts for the very rich
only 1 million jobs were created as the Nation's newly unemployed
continued to march off a cliff to drown like lemmings.

The greatest disappointment is that our President from whom we expected
much change and progress has accomplished neither. His bipartisan
give-aways have NOT WORKED and his disregard for the Liberal Democratic
Base turned out to be a disaster when we review the results of the 2010
Midterm election. I am beginning to fear that President Obama is
nothing more than yet another Corporatist Politician. That hurts most
of all.

Note: I fear President Obama let his advisers and the media shape him into their image of the first black President. President Obama let the media define him. Therein lies the problem. A media that is controlled by white males who wanted him to fail so that he would be the first and last African American President of the United States of America.

Tooting my own horn

I'm writing this in reference to XXXXX's suggestion that Democrats search their souls to see if they're good democrats, or something to that effect. If everybody had worked even one-fourth as hard as I did, there may have been a different out come. I have long contended that most Democrats do nothing during an election but go into a voting booth and vote, if they even do that. Here's some of what I specifically did for Ron Sparks and Steve Raby.


First I tried to get people registered. I took applications for registration forms to three black ministers and asked them to distribute
them to any person they knew who is not registered to vote. I'm guilty as sin of targeting people who I think will vote democratic. I don't have the
time to waste on anybody I'm not sure of. Been there, done that. As an enticement, I paid $2 each for 20 pictures of President Obama being sworn in to give to people to hang in their homes. I always carried a supply of registration forms in my car in case I encountered anyone who wanted to
register. I have been run off store parking lots more times than one.

I made many phone calls from the Democratic Headquarters for various candidates.

I e-mailed and called teachers, both active and retired to within an hour of the polls closing reminding them of the pitfalls awaiting them if
Republicans got elected. (They can read today's paper to see how right I was.)

I would drive to neighborhoods I never knew existed, park my car then walk door-to-door through big lots and no side walks handing out candidates'
literature as well as letters I had written and signed myself. Then I decided that it would be more expedient if I did small businesses instead for a couple of reasons: both candidates stressed the importance of small businesses and had so much to offer them, and also the few people working there usually represent more than one family. Thus began my sojourn into the small business community. Starting at the Tennessee River, I hit every small small business on both sides of the street to Weatherly Road: propeller shops, tire stores, parts stores, antique stores, consignment shops, auto stores, engine shops, tackle shops, quilting stores, doctors' and dentists' offices, barber shops and beauty shops. I particularly enjoyed going into businesses with Mo Brooks signs on their property such as Lily Flag Furniture and Fuel City. At two ABC stores and a wine store in other areas of town, I found that everyone working there was a Democrat. In all my encounters, not one person was ever rude to me.

I did the same thing on Meridian Street hitting small businesses on BOTH sides of the street from where it begins down town to Oakwood Avenue. If
the businesses were closed, I struggled to get the info into a crevice around the door, sometimes lucking out and pushing it all the way in, or getting it to go under the door. Sometimes I attached the literature to doorknobs with rubber bands. I worked the old Holiday Office Center south Parkway, a big, sprawling multi-story complex. Twice it grew dark, as was the case at Holiday Office Center, and I would be afraid for I always worked alone.


On Bankhead Road, I covered two condominium complexes where doormats were close together and easy to slip material under. You learn the ropes after awhile, and you discover that people are really nice, regardless of their political persuasion.

Somebody said to toot your own horn, for ain't nobody gonna toot it for
you.

I have tooted my own horn.

Note: Toot on! Toot often! This is the kind of democrat I wish we had more of instead of some of the democrats we have. This illustrates the difference between the gop and the democratic party..the gop is organized, their voters don't have to be begged to come to the polls and vote because they've been armed with misinformation and righteous anger. The gop also put their most effective voices out front whereas democrats tend to suppress their effective voices out of fear of offending the gop.

What's the difference between Charlie Rangel and Joe Wilson despite the obvious?

I wrote this to another list: “Clearly this was done to a black progressive who had done great work for years and years. But never to the slimy Republican thieves who get away with anything, even when Democrats are in power

Please note that the Ethics Committee is thoroughly bipartisan – half democratic and half republican. The demographic significance is that the committee is strongly skewed to white persons – almost all of them are white.

Yes, the decision is racist!”

Reprimands are also issued in a racist (and nationalist) manner. When Earl Hilliard was running for Congress the first time, he wrote the Ethics committee asking if he could use an office he owned in Montgomery for a satellite campaign office. The Ethics Committee said it was OK!

Well, shortly after Earl went to Congress, he organized a caucus within the Black Caucus to concentrate on getting to know African nations better, and had Members “adopt” a country to get to know and to direct assistance to as much as possible. In doing this, he found that there one African nation not recognized by the US, Libya, and he couldn’t find out specifically why. (This was after Reagan tried to assassinate President Gadaffi by shelling the Presidential Palace from a US ship near the shore. [He failed to kill him, but he did manage to murder Gadaffi’s daughter, 3 years old, as I remember])

Unable to get clear info on our embargo, Earl went to look at the situation (he was unable to use his passport, since the State Department controls all use of passports) and arranged to go without using it (Americans are constitutionally guaranteed the right to go anywhere in the world, but the State Department and Treasury control things, making it difficult. [Later, during Clinton’s bombing of Iraq between the Bush wars, I went there without passport, and later still to Cuba – there being careful to stay below the $200 limit of matter we brought back]) You see, the administration doesn’t like the freedoms the Constitution grants to Americans! Anyway, when Earl returned, some Members freaked out, especially the ever-asinine Spencer Bachus, who called for Earl’s removal from Congress. That died, but ethics charges were filed against Earl from the campaign office matter, but in fact triggered by this incident.

The ethics charges hung over his head for years, not coming up, but used by the Birmingham News (Noose) in every election to smear him. Finally a Democrat who was a member of the Israel nationalist caucus became chair of the Democratic side of the Ethics Committee (I don’t remember his name but he was from Southern California) and the charges came up and Earl was reprimanded in a truly kangaroo trial. Earl was glad since he had called for them to hurry up and get it done over the years and get it over with, but the lowest level of politics ruled. Of course the reprimand meant nothing in the real world.

Note that a black member interested in a black nation was attacked by racist white southern member, Bachus. Sound familiar? Yes, Congress is racist, and the Democratic Party doesn’t purge itself of its own racists.

Both men, Rangel and Hilliard, are among most honorable and ethical members of Congress I have ever known.

Note: I'm sure it's no surprise I agree the Rangel censure was racist. Read the 10 good reasons Rangel shouldn't have been censured. Read the letter from Rep. Bobby Scott who served on the committee. Read about past sanctions and actions taken against other members of congress. If it's not racism, what is it?

We Will Overcome Someday
I'm wondering where all the righteous people have gone after
the humiliating defeat handed liberal Democrats recently? Surely we
liberals aren't so thinned-skinned that we no longer have the urge to
fright for the democratic principles so near and dear to all of our
hearts. It's time to get off the pity pot and renew the fight, my
sisters and brothers. We can and shall overcome if we put our bruised,
bloodied, but unbowed shoulders to the wheel and push! It's hard work,
but it is necessary work, right now, if we are to be successful in our
fight for liberty and JUSTICE for all American citizens. I like the
idea of hitching up the galluses one more notch on my coveralls, one
more time, and putting my bare feet on the hot asphalt road to
righteousness and liberty for all. Please join me and make a joyful
noise for justice, equality and freedom for all Americans. If you will
take the first step, and if we all take that first step, there is no
obstacle, boulder nor barrier that we cannot overcome.

Note: Let us march on until victory is won!

Thanks for reading, lurking, your emails and your comments.