There is a glaring hypocrisy within the Republican Tea Party, for which I must now take my white Southern brethren to task. You say Big Government is evil. Ok, I get that and I tend to agree. But if this so, what the hell makes Big Business so good? It is just as powerful as government and just as evil. In fact, government, for all its excesses, is not actively destroying our environment or wastefully exhausting our resources, but Big Business is. Why is that ok?
Justice AmeriBama style
African-American residents of central Alabama are organizing to protest the six-month jail sentence that a white former state trooper has just begun for one of the seminal killings of the Civil Rights Movement.
A candlelight vigil open to people from across the country and other possible events are in the works, residents said this week.
The motivation for all this organizing is the fact that James Bonard Fowler, 77, began serving a half-year sentence on Dec. 1 in Geneva, Ala., for the Feb. 18, 1965, fatal shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old African-American church deacon, father and Vietnam veteran.
Jackson was taking part in a peaceful civil rights protest in his hometown of Marion, Ala., when Fowler shot him in the stomach. Jackson died eight days later in the hospital, his death prompting the Selma to Montgomery marches, which ultimately led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Meanwhile a peaceful Georgia Prisoners Strike is way under the radar.
The peaceful strike begun by inmates of several Georgia state prisons continued for a second day on Friday, according to family members of some of the participants. Copyrighted news stories by AP, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and local TV stations in Macon and Atlanta quote state corrections who say several institutions were placed on lock down beginning Thursday in anticipation of the inmate protest, on the initiative of wardens of those prisons.
"Don't call me a racist you N word" Read, watch and then tell me: was this lady being racist or was she just venting frustration? The floor is yours.
The Sunday Talking TeeVee Knucklehead meme is that President Obama is moving to the center to insure his re-election. Don't fall for the Okey Doke. The so called center are really republicans and if they have a choice between a real republican and you..you know the rest. Ask your Harvard buddy and ex Congress Critter Artur Davis how pandering to these people at the expense of you base worked out for him. Contrary to Knucklehead opinion, these people didn't bring you to the dance.
A GAMBLE REPUBLICANS WERE WILLING TO TAKE.... Political parties are traditionally motivated by fear of public revulsion. To take steps that make the party's members look like monsters is rarely a good idea.
So it was interesting this week to see congressional Republicans overwhelmingly reject the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would pay health care costs for 9/11 rescue workers, sickened after exposure to the toxic smoke and debris. In the House, more than 90% of GOP lawmakers opposed the bill. In the Senate, a unanimous Republican caucus found the bill so offensive, they wouldn't even give it an up-or-down vote.
Fear of appearing sociopathic probably should have led to a few more Republican votes. After all, it's not exactly a compelling message to take to the electorate: we'll fight tooth and nail for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, but we'll also reject health care costs for 9/11 rescue workers.
And why would Republicans take a risk like this, especially over legislation that was both affordable and paid for? Because they're probably confident most Americans won't hear a word about this.
The fact that the 9/-11-related legislation was defeated was news. Period. The fact that it was defeated as part of the larger Republican strategy to tie the Senate in knots made yesterday's vote even more newsworthy.
But not at ABC, CBS or NBC. Last night, all three evening newscasts failed to report on the fact that Republicans had voted down a previously bipartisan bill designed to provide medical coverage for Sept. 11 emergency workers. At the major networks, that development was not considered newsworthy.
That's pretty remarkable. But the larger point here is that Republicans are now practicing an unprecedented brand of obstructionism and they're doing without having to pay much of a political price. Why? Because the press is giving them a pass
The Tea Party's war on public education and public educators continues.
Alabama legislature in "special session" is taking on ethics reform. Of course this is the first time the GOP has ever had control in Montgomery so they are "making hay while the sun shines" so to speak. One of their so called ethics bills is directly aimed at taking away the AEA's pac automatic deductions and I/we here in Alabama need some help.
Shocking, Shameful and Awful.
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