The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy Huntsville City Schools Style ~Friday Edition #hsvboe

Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski answers questions from the press following Thursday night's Huntsville school board meeting. (The Huntsville Times/Michael Mercier)

Why is it when a longtime HCS teacher  is accused of violating district policy, everyone immediately calls for her (or his) head, but when a private company does the same thing, or usually something far worse, everyone rushes to defend it? This is indeed The Pinnacle of Hypocrisy.

Pinnacle is a privately run alternative campus that often takes in children who’ve been expelled from Huntsville City Schools.
Huntsville city has no direct authority or oversight of pinnacle

Why is it when student's, alumni, and any number of councilmen and officials call to inform the Superintendent he is making a gargantuan mistake changing the name of Lee High School, he acknowledges his mistake and backtracks on his proposal, but when J.O.Johnson High School alumni and students protest, and any number of councilmen and officials call to inform him he is making a gargantuan mistake changing the name of Johnson High School,  he violates district policy and changes the name of not just Johnson but Davis Hills Middle School too?  This is indeed the Pinnacle of Hypocrisy.

 Last night the Huntsville City School Board of Education violated their own policy on the Selection of School, Facility, and/or Property Name (Policy 2.9, presented September 5, 2013) by concluding the process and voting on the new names approximately three weeks before they were allowed to do so.

Why is it public officials, and citizens expressed environmental concerns about unsafe traffic patterns, heavy trucks sharing roads with school buses, and  air quality at two schools located two miles from an active rock quarry in New Hope, but those same officials say the air quality is safe at two schools located less than half a mile from an active rock quarry?  This is indeed the Pinnacle of Hypocrisy.

 Other elected officials speaking against the quarry were Mark Russell, president of Huntsville City Council, Madison County District 3 Commissioner Eddie Sisk, state Sen. Paul Sanford, state Sen. Shadrack McGill, state Rep. Wayne Johnson, Gurley Mayor Rob Sentell, Gurley Councilman Robert Wren.

So much hypocrisy, so little time.

#hsvboe

Update~ Throwback Thursday #Ferguson Round Up

How ppl in the media look when you turn down interviews bcz racial justice isn't abt more white talking heads. pic.twitter.com/BfHsjqJ5ei
— Brian Dominick (@BrianDominick) August 28, 2014

The fickle, white, male dominated, mainstream media is bored with #Ferguson and #MikeBrown. They have shut this story down tighter than a drum, and moved on to the next, bright, shiny object.  The Revolution may not be televised, but it will continue to be blogged about on RedEye's Page.

 In order to halt any real conversation, one of the tools often used by right wing media is to cast every issue as an either/or. Media Matters has been doing a pretty good job lately of showing how Fox News edited the remarks of President Obama and AG Eric Holder about the situation in Ferguson by eliminating the balance in their statements. They aired only the side of these remarks that was sure to inflame their audience and eliminated the side conservatives might have agreed with.

I  must say Fox News is doing their part.

 It didn’t take long for people to start rallying to Darren Wilson’s defense.  In less than a week, several hundred thousand dollars had been raised on his behalf — with a healthy smattering of hateful racist messages in support, such as “I would have donated double this amount, but you missed his accomplice” — and Fox News had run a flood of false, unsourced stories, claiming that Wilson’s eye socket had been broken, implicitly “proving” that he had been in a heroic struggle for his life.

Only in America can you kill a black teen and earn 6 figures.

When you shoot and kill an unarmed Black teenager, you can expect the racists of America to crack their piggy banks open and reward you a six-figure sum.
Over the weekend, Darren Wilson’s supporters gathered for a rally, and sadly, they had much to celebrate now that it’s being reported that they’ve managed to best supporters of Michael Brown’s family in online fundraising. Indeed, the page in support of Wilson raised $235,010 from 5,902 people before organizers stopped accepting donations on Friday. They surpassed their goal of $100,000 in just four days. They have since opened another fundraising page, which has already amassed more than $100,000.
Meanwhile, a fundraising page in support of the Michael Brown Memorial Fund raised $214,000. According to Brown family laywer Benjamin Crump, “the funds will assist his family with costs that they will acquire as they seek justice on Michael’s behalf.”
What exactly does Darren Wilson need money for? He’s on paid leave, and wherever he is, I presume it’s on the state’s dime. After all, Darren Wilson was concealed long enough to get out of town before the national media arrived.

An Open Letter to the People of Ferguson, Mo.

 "We have felt your frustration at the uncomfortable realization that your protestors have been unfairly branded as looters, vigilantes, and rioters by segments of the ignorant, sensationalist news media".

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington.  It's a good thing it wasn't held 50 years later because protesters would have been greeted (snark) with tanks, guns, snipers with assault rifles, dogs,tear gas, and police masquerading as the military.  It's not like the #Ferguson protestors were protesting against  paying taxes or something.

#nojusticenopeace
#BlackLivesMatter

"And they want us to sing God Bless America?"

I still can't believe our government let this insanity go on for 15 days.  I just can't.

#WeCareAboutFerguson  B/c no American should be gassed 4 expressing their constitutional right to protest injustice. pic.twitter.com/moqmEWKxwb
— 3ChicsPolitico (@3ChicsPolitico) August 26, 2014

There is something wrong in America.

 "America is going to have to come to terms with, there’s something wrong that we have money to give military equipment to police forces, but we don’t have money for training and money for public education and money to train our children,"

Who is Darren Wilson?

So many questions! It’s seeping out DRIP, DRIP, DRIP… even after Darren Wilson has tried to scrub his online postings.

Would someone please CNN and Company  they've been Punked again? 

The story was exactly what you would expect it to be. Michael Brown was the aggressor; Wilson was the victim. Brown rushed Wilson and he had no choice but to shoot. And so on.
As it turns out, that story was lifted from a fake Facebook page. Little Green Footballs reports that Jill Meadows posted this on Facebook on August 15th:

 #Ferguson
#JusticeforMikeBrown

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy

From the files of IOKIYAR (It's OK If You Are Republican)

Personal failings should lead federal judge to resign

Legal Schnauzer: The Saga Of Federal Judge Mark Fuller Illustrates The Hypocrisy That Permeates Alabama's "Justice" System

A federal judge was forced to step down in Alabama 12 years ago, apparently over rumors about womanizing. Judge H. Dean Buttram Jr., appointed by Democrat Bill Clinton, quietly resigned after only four years on the bench.

Current U.S. District Judge Mark Fuller is expected to keep his seat, even though he faces criminal charges of battery against his wife in an incident that allegedly started after she accused him of having an affair with a law clerk. Fuller is a Republican appointee, with George W. Bush picking him in 2002.

Breaking News on Mark Fuller's Case

By Donald V. Watkins
©Copyrighted and Published (via Facebook) on August 26, 2014

We have learned that the judges, magistrates, court clerk and chief deputy clerk of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama have all been summoned to Atlanta. These court officials are expected be in Atlanta until Thursday. It is believed that this action is part of an ongoing judicial inquiry into the wife-beating and marital infidelity scandal engulfing federal judge/criminal defendant Mark Fuller.

The spotlight on Fuller's scandal brightened yesterday after I sent a letter to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. The letter exposes the hypocrisy inside the federal judiciary in Alabama and seeks Fuller's removal from the federal bench.

My news sources, who have requested anonymity on this subject due to the sensitive nature of the judicial inquiry, have confirmed (a) the gathering of Montgomery federal court personnel in Atlanta and (b) the accuracy of the information in my letter to Chief Justice Roberts regarding the forced resignation of Judge H. Dean Buttram from the Birmingham federal bench in 2002 for womanizing conduct similar in nature to the misconduct engaged in by Fuller.

Mainstream news organizations have not reported on my letter to Chief Justice Roberts even though they were provided a copy of the letter. Not one such organization in Alabama has engaged in any investigative reporting on the growing Fuller scandal.

Oops Watkins spoke to soon......

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Birmingham attorney Donald Watkins has been on a campaign in the past few weeks to see federal judge Mark Fuller removed from the bench in the wake of the judge's arrest on a domestic violence charge in Georgia earlier this month.
On Monday, Watkins stepped up his efforts in a letter to U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. In that letter, Watkins complains about a "flagrant display of hypocrisy in the federal judiciary in Alabama" that Watkins says is due to the judges' political stripes.

 Stay tuned...
#SweetHomeAlabama

Can EYE Rant?

Warning, I am over due for a righteous rant, so what I write today might offend some (not to be confused with all) of you.  All I'm going to say is if the shoe fits....wear it.

And they want us to sing Sweet Home Alabama?  No.  No.  And Hell to the No.

I am convinced Alabama is stuck on stupid because it's citizens are fed a constant stream of misinformation. They ride around in their cars and trucks,  listening to so called News Talk Radio all day, then go home and sit in front of their flat screen TV's and watch Faux News distort what they decide, with all spin all the time, unfair and unbalanced. I am trying to figure out when it became the job of the media to keep the the right wing bigots in line, and not report on the crooks and liars?  I repeat, until and unless the fairness doctrine is restored, this state, and this country will continue to be controlled by those who hate President Obama, democrats, liberals, and the ACLU, more than they love themselves.   Sweet Home Alabama has plenty of money to buy military equipment,  but not one penny for teachers (not to be confused with state superintendents), and refuses to expand medicaid.   And that's sad.

RedEye Over and Out....for now.

Throwback Thursday: Facing Peaceful Protestors & the Media with Weapons of Mass Destruction #Ferguson

 

"I will F*cking kill you!"  St. Louis cop suspended (not to be confused with fired) for pointing a rifle at a peaceful protester in #Ferguson.

Police to Al Jazeera America Journalist near Ferguson:  "I will bust your ass."

Lessons Learned:

Freedom of the Press is not so free.

The very root of the uproar in Ferguson is the lack of accountability for a police officers' actions, and that outrage is being met with new and improved ways to hide unethical police actions, now including information kill switches. The ultimate police state weapon is one that hides its brutality from the public, at least until they come to a town near you.

Officer Darren Wilson is still at large.

A fourth witness has come forward. He confirms what the others have said. Michael Brown "Mike" was unarmed. There was a struggle at the police car window between the officer Darren Wilson and Mike. Mike breaks free and starts running away from the officer. The officer shot Mike. Mike turned around and the officer shot Mike three to four more times and killed him.

Despite complaints of them there Outside Agitators coming in from out of town to disturb the peace, four out of five of the people arrested are from Missouri, almost all from St. Louis. 

Rut Rho!  It seems Ferguson Police may have under reported the number of people they arrested.  I wonder why?

Attorney Charles E. Coleman tells us what to keep our eyes and ears focused on in the days and months ahead, because we all know the media we have can't walk and chew gum at the same time, and is already chasing the next bright and shiny object.

Oh BTW,  the narrative doesn't fit the facts in the police shooting of another young black man in St. Louis on Tuesday....

If Ferguson had remained “calm” in the face of Michael Brown’s murder, nobody outside greater St. Louis would know the place existed.

Know Justice, Know Peace.

#KajiemePowell
#Ferguson
#Justice for MikeBrown

The Power of the Press #ItsTheMedia

“This idea that every time a black person does something, they automatically become a ‘thug worthy of their own death?’ We don’t own drug crimes. We’re not the only ones that sell and do drugs all the time, we’re not the only ones who steal, we’re not the only ones who talk crazy to cops. There’s a complete double standard and a complete different experience that a certain element of this country has the privilege of being treated as human beings. And the rest of us are not being treated like human beings. Period. And that needs to be discussed, that is the story…we’re not making this up.”

7 Cynical Ways Police and Media have smeared Micheal Brown and the Black People of Ferguson

The unrest and protests following Brown’s killing have put the militarization of local police forces in the national spotlight, especially as police who look like soldiers are facing down protesters on Ferguson’s streets. But the most important issue that’s not getting widely discussed transcends the horrible specifics of Michael Brown’s death: the continuing trend of police officers shooting and killing black men, instead of using other tactics to deal with confrontations.
(On Tuesday, St. Louis police shot and killed another man, apparently wielding a knife, several miles from Ferguson.)

Thank you social media for being the kind of media we wish we had, instead of the media we have.

We ARE the media. We are in the middle of the second Information Revolution. The people with satellite uplinks and klieg lights will still have their place. But they will not be the main witnesses. All of us can hold power to account. And we must, if we are to have any kind of decent life.
Mike Brown should never have been killed. His young life was snuffed out for no good reason. But the reaction to his murder is proof that humans still strive for justice, still strive for freedom, despite what those in authority will.
Walter Cronkite narrated the Civil Rights struggle for middle American homes in the Sixties. Today, it could be me. It could be you. And that is power.

#Ferguson

"What part of the First Amendment does it say, "Keep it moving"? #Ferguson

My Tiananmen Square: African American woman facing down armed vehicles and teargas in Ferguson MO. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/jXhD9clz0t
— madison (@maddyjrbrown) August 18, 2014

Ten Things You Need to Know about Ferguson that the media won't tell you.

 #MarieChappelleNadal "there has only been one murder in #Ferguson this year and that was the death of #MichaelBrown #LetThatSinkIn

The #MikeBrown shooting may have been about race, but the #Ferguson military police crackdown on protestors is about all of us.

This is what democracy looks like in the land of the free and the home of the brave~Update

Rise and Shine http://t.co/uztTgo6Mjt pic.twitter.com/lWblDBlcCJ
— TheObamaDiary.com (@TheObamaDiary) August 18, 2014

@jesseberney: Call this “looting,” I dare you. RT @ShaunKing: Protestors broke into McDonalds to get milk for tear gas victims

Being the object of unwarranted deadly force by police officers is part of what it means to be black and poor in America. But, as Hamm said, no matter how much blacks raise their voices against indiscriminate police violence “the killings keep coming.”

The Latest from #Ferguson

Earlier today, Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called in the National Guard:

Gov. Jay Nixon said the National Guard would help "in restoring peace and order" to Ferguson, where protests over the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown by a white police officer entered their second week. Police said they acted in response to gunfire, looting, vandalism and protesters who hurled Molotov cocktails. "These violent acts are a disservice to the family of Michael Brown and his memory and to the people of this community who yearn for justice to be served and to feel safe in their own homes," Nixon said in a statement.

Nixon didn't comment on the unprovoked attacks by police against peaceful protesters. And a preliminary private autopsy report, requested by the Brown family, has been released:

Michael Brown, the unarmed black teenager who was killed by a police officer, sparking protests around the nation, was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, a preliminary private autopsy performed on Sunday found. One of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when it struck him and caused a fatal injury ... It was likely the last of bullets to hit him, he said.

And yet we keep hearing about black on black crime because it fits the false media narrative 

Missouri Congressman Clay on #Ferguson: "facing down innocent protesters w/sniper rifles & machine guns is totally unacceptable in America."

#WarOnWhites, #HandsUpDon'tShoot, #RIPMikeBrown, #FergusonPoliceDepartment, #NoJusticeNoPeace, #KnowJusticeKnowPeace

We couldn't contain our anger and frustration on #Politini this week. After #nerdland LISTEN:  http://t.co/5H5dE5DbtG pic.twitter.com/pSbYaVqTrC
— DanielleMoodie-Mills (@DeeTwoCents) August 17, 2014

I weep for my country.

#HandsUpDon'tShoot

#HandsUp #DontShoot #Ferguson #RIPMikeBrown #RIPMLK pic.twitter.com/GBlgVgeNKB
— Flac Billi (@Billionsburg_F) August 17, 2014

Just because "some media reported the police were attacked by protestors", doesn't mean police were attacked by the protestors

Warning, this is live-feed raw coverage of the events as they happen in #Ferguson, Mo. May contain graphic language.

#HandUpDon'tShoot
#MikeBrown
#FergusonPolice
#NoJusticeNoPeace
#KnowJusticeKnowPeace

Is This is My Country? #WarOnWhites

#ferguson Hey, @TIME This US citizen throwing gas can back at police while draped flag is THE PHOTO OF THE YEAR 2014 pic.twitter.com/IhB9JN0HbI
— LiNCOLN PARK (@linc0lnpark) August 14, 2014

It's important for people to understand that the man is this photo was throwing it BACK at police who shot it at him.~Antonio French

Some people don't think we have the right

To say it's my country

Before they give in they would rather fuss and fight

Than say it's my country

I've paid 300 years or more

Of slave driving sweat and welts on my back

This is my country

Too many have died in protecting my pride

For me to go second class

We've survived a hard blow, and I want you to know

That you must face us at last

And I know you will give consideration

Shall we perish unjust or live equal as a nation

This is my country

This is my country, The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield)

Some people think we don't have the right To say it's my country Before they give in, they'd rather fuss and fight Than say it's my country I've paid three hundred years or more Of slave driving, sweat, and welts on my back This is my country

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/t/this_is_my_country.lyrics.php

This Is My Country The Impressions (Curtis Mayfield)

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/t/this_is_my_country.lyrics.php

Some people think we don't have the right To say it's my country Before they give in, they'd rather fuss and fight Than say it's my country I've paid three hundred years or more Of slave driving, sweat, and welts on my back This is my country

Source: http://lyrics-a-plenty.com/t/this_is_my_country.lyrics.php

"He was shot like an animal" #MikeBrown

"When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son,"

President Obama finally issued a statement regarding the death of Michael Brown, asking people to remember Micheal Brown  with reflections and understanding.


Oh, OK.

Reflect on THIS:

 By all accounts, [Michael] Brown was One Of The Good Ones. But laying all this out, explaining all the ways in which he didn't deserve to die like a dog in the street, is in itself disgraceful. Arguing whether Brown was a good kid or not is functionally arguing over whether he specifically deserved to die, a way of acknowledging that some black men ought to be executed.

 Understand THIS

Officers have tanks now. They have drones. They have automatic rifles, and planes, and helicopters, and they go through military-style boot camp training. It's a constant complaint from what remains of this country's civil liberties caucus. Just this last June, the ACLU issued a report on how police departments now possess arsenals in need of a use. Few paid attention, as usually happens.

The worst part of outfitting our police officers as soldiers has been psychological. Give a man access to drones, tanks, and body armor, and he'll reasonably think that his job isn't simply to maintain peace, but to eradicate danger. Instead of protecting and serving, police are searching and destroying.

If officers are soldiers, it follows that the neighborhoods they patrol are battlefields. And if they're working battlefields, it follows that the population is the enemy. And because of correlations, rooted in historical injustice, between crime and income and income and race, the enemy population will consist largely of people of color, and especially of black men. Throughout the country, police officers are capturing, imprisoning, and killing black males at a ridiculous clip, waging a very literal war on people like Michael Brown.

THIS is why we're mad about the shooting of Mike Brown.

As a black person in America, it's getting exhausting to still have to explain, in the year 2014, your right to exist in this country. To explain that you are a human being whose value sits no lower than anyone else's. To explain our basic humanity. And perhaps worst of all, to explain exactly why we are outraged.

Hey America!  Can you please stop killing our (usually) innocent black male children now? 

#MikeBrown

#Trayvon Martin

#Ferguson

 #I'mGonnaVote

"This is What Domestic Terrorism Looks Like"

Thought I was looking at a pix from Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 but nope I was looking at #Ferguson Missouri 2014 smh pic.twitter.com/V3vuwlNBFF
— Etan Thomas (@etanthomas36) August 13, 2014

 H/T Mack Lyons

This and other acts of state-sanctioned terrorism is a cancer. This is the cancer that is slowly but surely killing this nation. It metastasized early on, up to the sloppy and life-threatening surgery that was the American Civil War. It went into remission with Reconstruction, but flared up in its full glory with Jim Crow. Chemotherapy came in the form of the Civil Rights movement and after that, everyone thought it would finally stay in remission and eventually disappear.

And then the country had the nerve to elect, and  re-elect Barack Hussein Obama President of the United State of America and all hell broke lose....

#MikeBrown
#Ferguson
#TrayvonMartin
#EricGarner
#OscarGrant
#SeanBell
#JordanDavis
#RenishaMcBride
#I'mGonnaVote

#WarOnWhites my Donkey

This Aggressive Police Force Approaching Unarmed, Hands In The Air Individuals With Guns Pointed At Them #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/XvRYKPtioL
— Lnon (@Lnonblonde) August 12, 2014

The Ghost of #MikeBrown: why must a dead black child defend his right to life?

Why was he in the police car?, people will ask. Why did he run? If he’d just been a pliant enough, wouldn’t he still be alive?!
Brown’s prosecutors in the court of public opinion will nonetheless demand he defend himself against these charges because he was a black teenager. His killer will remain presumed innocent. But for Mike Brown, there was a collective presumption of his guilt by the Ferguson police ... and that of the Ferguson citizens who gathered to air their grievances about the shooting long before any rioting started – and the timing of this is important. As a St Louis community activist who talked to me on Monday put it, he knew something was amiss when the police stationed K-9 units at the protest at 9am protest on Sunday.

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown  It's the white, male, dominated media driven racial stereotypes.

The hashtag demonstrates that the narrative the media continues to portray regarding black people isn’t always truthful.

The Men on the Right, who employ the Men on the Left, want #JusticeForMikeBrown and no more dead #MikeBrowns pic.twitter.com/97M5jGPbmi
— Randy Prine (@randyprine) August 12, 2014

I don't support the looting and violence in #Ferguson, but I understand the looting and violence in #Ferguson

It is that deep irrational fear of young black men that continues to sit with me.  Here’s the thing: I do not believe that most white people see black people and say, “I hate black people.”  Racism is not that tangible, that explicit. I do not believe most white people hate most black people. I do not believe that most police officers seek to do harm or consciously hate black people. At least I hope they don’t.

 Riots make news in #Ferguson but not the peaceful protest.

I guess it depends on what your definition of "playing the race card" IS #WarOnWhites

@xTheDevilUKnowx @MRBistruth @kharyp @BNwls @abutler04 pic.twitter.com/NTjdLAwH0y
— Bernard Cannariato (@DocTexian) August 11, 2014

Man, was Mo Brooks wrong! Democrats never play the race card, says Mo's favorite defender, Dale "Jackson",  who then asked the media to show where Mo was wrong. about his war on whites assertion.   Psst Radio Boy! Your pal Mo didn't accuse democrats of playing the race card, he accused "democrats" of waging a war on whites.  Remember?

It seems he, and other old, white racists like him, feel that Democrats are racist by having the nerve to expose the racist actions of RWNJs.

Everybody knows playing the race card is what white people say when they want to belittle, marginalize, and minimize, legitimate complaint/concerns, such as the ones outlined in an article published yesterday by the New Republic, which looks at the actions of the Legislature since the Republican takeover of 2010 and examines them in terms of race and party affiliation.

 Alabama's Republican-controlled legislature is systematically undoing the gains achieved during the civil rights movement, a new article contends, pointing to things such as voter ID laws, cutting public assistance and refusing to expand Medicaid as proof of what the writer calls "the new racism."

We tried to tell some of y'all the republicans were up to no good, but did y'all listen? Nooooo. We were just race baiting, racist, dinosaurs.

Remember when Mo looked for help from African American voters before he was against  help from African American voters?

About that #WarOnWhites, Congressman Brooks....

Someone please remind me what year it is again? #ferguson pic.twitter.com/33cebmojwV
— Brenna Muncy (@brennamuncy) August 10, 2014

Hundreds Protest after cops kill black teen in St. Louis surburb

The fatal shooting of a black teenager by police sent hundreds of angry residents out of their apartments Saturday in a St. Louis suburb, igniting protests during a confrontation that lasted several hours.
A St. Louis County chapter of the NAACP called for the FBI to look into the killing of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, a predominantly black suburb a few miles north of downtown St. Louis. A police spokesman acknowledged that a Ferguson police officer shot Brown but declined to give a reason for the shooting.
By early Saturday night, dozens of police cars remained parked near the shooting scene as mourners left votive candles, rose petals, a large stuffed animal and other remembrances at a makeshift memorial in the middle of the street.
At the height of the post-shooting tensions, police at the scene called for about 60 other police units to respond to the area in Ferguson, a city of about 21,000 residents, about two-thirds of whom are black.

Meanwhile.... The man who touted the phrase ‘War on Whites’ went on to say, “We don’t categorize people by race.”

RedEye, tip toeing away from the computer to go pray.

#ferguson
#WarOnWhites
#I'mGonnaVote

Tweet of the Week #WaronWhites

Being Republican means you get to have your white privilege and tell yourself you are victimized too.
— Jesse LaGreca (@JesseLaGreca) August 6, 2014

Throwback Thursday: No mooncat, Southern men aren't the problem with the GOP

#tbt  The more things change.....the more they don't.

The Republican Party has a terrible, perhaps fatal, case of indigestion.  It swallowed the Tea Party and now can neither digest it nor rid itself of the rancid meal.  Unfortunately, their indigestion is making all of America sick. 
Robert Reich makes the case that we're in this mess because Angry, White, Southern Men Took Over the GOP and Made Our Government Into a War Zone:

If "democrats" are waging a war on whites, "democrats" sure aren't winning....

Community activist Sheila Tyson of Birmingham says that those hit hardest by the county sewer rate hike are near a breaking point."These people are going to end up rioting about this," she says. "If they let this stuff happen they are going to get the biggest riot the South has ever seen. Over this sewer business. I can see it coming."

 And the race baiting continues....

#WarOnWhites my Donkey.

 The invisible foot is the foot that white people have on the necks of blacks, Native Americans and others. It is called invisible because whites say they do not see it.

"Democrats" are waging a War on Whites? Who knew?

H/T Left in Alabama

Finally a war I can support!  Just kidding. Those who know me know I am anti-war/anti-violence of any kind. My weapons of choice are words and the ballot box, but I got to thinking....what if democrats did wage a war on white folks?  Maybe if Democrats had waged a war on white folks we wouldn't be in this mess.  By mess I am referring to sending our troops to war based on dead wrong intelligence, raiding the surplus to give the rich a tax cut, spying on the American people without a warrant, outing CIA  agents,  massive unemployment, record foreclosures, failing public schools and infrastructure, and the list goes on and on, like the Energizer Bunny.

Before we jump into Congressman Mo Brooks (r. AL 05) #WarOnWhites we must decode his code words.  First, democrats are code for black folks, African Americans, Negroes, coloreds, and whatever else you want to call people of color, not to be confused with them their illegals, which is code for Mexicans, Hispanics, anyone else from south of the border.  So when Congressman Brooks says democrats are waging war on white folks, he's really saying black folks are waging war on white folks, because everybody knows the democratic party panders to black voters at the expense of white voters.  Now, this is not true, but this is the perception held by some, not to be confused with all, white folks.

A generation ago, the Alabama Democratic Party’s black caucus had to fight for representation on the party’s executive committee, but today the party and that caucus, the Alabama Democratic Conference, overlap so much they are nearly synonymous.

Under a 25-year-old consent decree, ADC can select at-large executive committee members to make the committee racially proportionate to the party’s electorate. But it has exercised that power only in terms of black and white. Hispanics and other minority groups are not represented well, if at all, on the committee.

The ADC’s power has put its president, Joe Reed, squarely in the party driver’s seat and has made him a divisive figure. Last year, a spat with then-party chairman Mark Kennedy ended with Kennedy resigning his position and creating a new political group, the Alabama Democratic Majority, which some in the party hoped could reform or replace the state executive committee. At the time, Kennedy denied that was its purpose, but the message was clear: For at least part of the leadership, Alabama’s Democratic party had become too dysfunctional to be salvageable.

What Kennedy and his allies left behind was a smattering of white faces in a mostly black crowd.

I tried to tell them instead of creating their own separate and unequal party to get rid of Joe Reed and his bunch, they should have been joining Joe Reed and his bunch.  But did they listen to me?  Naaaaah. So here we are 3 months before the election and democrats in the fifth congressional district have a choice between Mo Brooks and Mo Brooks Lite.  My only hope is Mo Brooks Lite has the decency not to publicly disrespect the President of the United States of America, and if elected he will put his republican past behind him, and put people over party.  But I digress.

Before we return to the #WarOnWhites, there is one more word we have to define, and that word is psychological projection.

Psychological projection is a theory in psychology in which humans defend themselves against unpleasant impulses by denying their existence in themselves, while attributing them to others.^[1] For example, a person who is rude may constantly accuse other people of being rude.

So, when Congressman Mo Brooks accuses democrats (blacks) of waging war on whites, he really means republicans (whites) are waging war on democrats (blacks).

Alabama has an ugly racial past that has taken decades to overcome. Still, for many outside the state, Alabama is remembered for Bloody Sunday in Selma and Bull Connor's fire hoses turned on peaceful protesters in Birmingham. Those images belong in the past in the wake of the civil rights movement, but Brooks' comments will only reinforce those images.The irony in Brooks' comments is he accuses Democrats of "... launching this war (by) claiming that whites hate everybody else." Really? With our first African-American president in his second term, is it he and his party fomenting hate? No.Brooks embodies all that is wrong with the contemporary Republican Party. He's too far right to understand ordinary people's problems, and he won't engage with Democrats to craft legislation — such as immigration — that has long needed to be addressed. He is mired in political theory and ideology, refusing to accept that others, even in his own party, have something to bring to the table. That is arrogance.Sadly, Brooks will find a willing audience for his incendiary views in a state and a nation increasingly divided against themselves.

Whites are waging a war on blacks, and the opening salvo was the certification of the 2000 election. 

Addendum

The real reason that I oppose the Republican Party has nothing to do with my being a Democrat. I'm not. I'm an independent, with no political party. I don't oppose the Republicans in order to support the Democrats, I oppose the Republicans because the kind of people who perpetrated the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing have joined the GOP. Prior to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Nixon's Southern Strategy, these people were loyal Democrats, partly because of the New Deal but mostly because of Reconstruction and the Civil War. When the Democratic Party split along sectional lines in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Act, the Republicans reached out to the disaffected Southern Democrats, encouraged them to join the GOP. The party did not change the Dixiecrats, the Dixiecrats changed the party.

Whatever political party draws its strength from these people is the party I'm going to work to defeat
Whatever political party draws its strength from these people is the party I'm going to work to defeat.

The End.

Update~ Mo Brooks is right (pun intended) #waronwhites

No brainer

Mo Brooks (r. AL 05) is the Trent Lott (r. MS) of the republican party.  Like Lott, he said publicly what  some circles say privately.  Don't get it twisted, some (not to be confused with all)  aren't mad at what Mo said, they are  mad because he said on the radio and on TeeVee.  Rule 101 of James Crow Esq. is don't reveal your identity or your strategy.  If you hate blacks/women/Hispanics/LBGT, pretend you love them, that way you can be more effective  in thwarting their success or advancement, i.e. justice system, school system, housing system, banking system, employment system, and last but not least the social system.

"I want the American people to start recognizing what the heck's going on," Brooks said. "When the Democrats bring up race time after time after time, what's the theme? It's skin color. Who are they saying who dislikes whom? They're saying the whites dislike the blacks, the whites dislike the Hispanics and the Democrats are the ones who will protect you from those whites.
"That's the subliminal and sometimes open message."

Rep.Mo Brooks has a documented history in the 5th Congressional District, this is not his first tell us how you really feel moment.  This is the former appointed DA who voters, black and white, rejected in the general election (thank goodness). This is same individual who ran for a seat on the Madison County Commission and won due to it's gerrymandered composition.  This is the gentleman, who believes whites have a higher I.Q. than blacks, and children who live in public housing should not be allowed to attend south Huntsville schools because they lower test scores.  This is the sitting United States Congressman who was forced to withdraw use of the word socialist on the house floor, and,  who refused to back off his "anything short of shooting them" illegal immigration threat.

 And Mo says democrats are waging a war on white folks?

" Certainly if you were to flip the coin and a white person were to say vote for me because I'm white, it would be an uproar and deservedly so. So why do we allow blacks to say vote for me because I'm black or Hispanics vote for me because I'm Hispanic? " 

 Shhh!  Don't tell anyone but that is exactly what Mo Brooks is saying to his base, you know, the people who hate President Obama more than they love themselves.

Not to be left out, AL.com's  Mark McCarter wasted no time jumping into the fray to defend Mo by attempting to drag state Representative Alvin Holmes into Mo's mess.   This is not about Alvin Holmes or anyone else.  It's about Mo Brooks and the dark heart that is represented by his views.  These views speak to the content Mo's character, and those of his supporters, not to Alvin Holmes character, or any other false equivalency.

Congressman Brooks is an embarrassment to the state of Alabama, and the voters who elected him.  He is not the first Alabama politico to rant racist views, but hopefully he will be the last.  Voters have the chance to send him, and others like him, to the unemployment line.

Before Mo and Company took over, north Alabama was considered to  more cosmopolitan (for lack of a better word) than other parts of the state because of it's diversity. These views most certainly do not represent the diverse community Mo was elected to represent.  Huntsville depends on federal programs to fuel it's economy.  Local leaders must be cringing with fear.  Of course I won't hold my breath waiting for someone to step up and denounce, repudiate, and reject Mo Brooks they way they made candidate Obama reject Rev. Jeremiah Wright.  That would be too much like right (pun intended).

Let me end by saying we all have some degree of prejudice in our hearts, but it takes power to exercise racism.

Ordinarily we might expect to hear talk of a “war on whites” from those on the radical fringes of American society. When the phrase comes from a sitting member of Congress, the rhetoric is far more alarming.

I'm talking about you Mark Kennedy and the Alabama Democratic Majority.  Where are all those candidates you were going to recruit once you got rid of Joe Reed and his bunch?

In theory, these are the kind of remarks that would tarnish, if not irreparably harm, a politician’s career, but Brooks has very little to worry about – his Alabama district is ruby red, and this fall, Democrats won’t bother to run a candidate against him.

 Enough!