“But there’s a difference between substance and symbol”

Listen to Dr. Cornell West destroy the "but, but, we have a black President" meme.

Letterman told West that he’d assumed we were on the “right path to race relations” and asked the professor whether he was just being “ignorant.”
Dr. West responded by pointing out the difference between symbolism and substance.

Watch.  Read.   Learn



From the files of Typical right wing fraud. So,  conservative, Race Pimp,  James O'Keef is accused of trying to goad protestors (code for blacks) to kill some cops.

 'The fear of losing their grip on power to progressives and minorities makes them do desperate things."

Ya Think?

Elephants, Guns, Voter Suppression and Donkeys, Oh My!

Fist Dap The Pragmatic Progressive

If this political cartoon doesn't illustrate the grand obstructionist party, media infused, Tea Party's,  plan for President Obama's Waterloo, I don't know what will.  It also illustrates how stoopid  they must think the majority of the American people are.   If I hear another Talking TeeVee Pundit Head say "If the economy doesn't improve by the election President Obama is in trouble, blah, blah, blab, blab"  I am going to scream!.  If the majority of the American people fall for the republican Okey Doke we the people will get what we deserve. No access to health care.  No jobs.  No access to a quality public education.  No civil rights. No human rights.  What we will get is a tax cut for rich and all war all the time.

Fist Dap Americans Against the Tea Party

Call me cynical, but could the reason the media won't let us have a conversation about gun laws is because they like massacres for ratings?  If I hear another TeeVee Talking Pundit Head talk about the victims/suspect complete with graphics and a sound track, I am going to scream!

Some of the same people who say more gun laws won't stop real gun violence are some of the same people who claim voter ID laws will stop  the 3% cases of voter fraud.  FYI, in person voter fraud never happens.  Everybody knows the Voter ID law is an attempt by republicans to keep people who vote against them in elections from voting.  When are they going to learn that cheating is not winning? A cynical person could believe the mainstream media  is enabling the gop to steal another election.

Mega Fist Dap to the Madison County Democratic Executive Committee for moving Party HQ from the south side of town where the republicans live, to the north side of town where the democrats live.

What say you?

Starting off the New Year with a RedEye Rant

 This system cannot stand.  Despite what the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and Talk Radio Hate Jocks tell you, the Iowa Primary is a JOKE that is so not funny.

Let's stop beating around the bush (no pun) with nice code words like fiscal conservatives, Evangelical Christians, Religious Right, Blue Collar voters, Values Voters, Moderates, Undecided and Independents to describe the electorate.

If you vote for and elect a racist, you are a racist.

If you vote for and elect a homophobic, you re a homophobic.

If you vote for and elect a bigot, you are a bigot.

If you vote against your self-interest you are a Sucker.

It's not about Black Voter Fraud.  It's about keeping blacks from voting because republicans know that is the only way they can steal, I mean to win  the election and kick President Obama's African American Donkey out of the White House.  But first, they had to get rid of ACORN so they could stop them there voter registration drives. Yep, when republicans change the rules it's for freedom and democracy. Snark

republicans can't handle the truth.  They would RATHER believe a lie.


My resolution for 2012 and beyond- I will not vote for any candidate who can't come out in support of health care, gay marriage, public education, or any other issues I care about.

Rant over.

For now.

An Open Letter to Bill O'Rielly

I just had to share this letter posted on Face Book. When asked what took them so long to pen this letter the Writer said Keith Olbermann has been doing a good job making fun of him, so I never had to. It's raw. It's rude. It's on point.
Redeye

Dear Bill O the Clown,

One of my pet peeves is stupidity. Not ignorance of a fact or subject matter that one has never heard of, but complete and total foolishness on a subject that is established scientific fact is unacceptable. You attended Harvard University,not to some degree mill or Joe and Ernie's school of bull. You attended an Ivy League school and for some reason you can't scientifically explain the tides, the gravitational forces and the relational relationship they have with the moon. As a result, it can't be science, then it must be God. "Tides go in, tides go out, there's never a miscommunication. If it isn't God, then you explain it", you exclaim to a guest. Surely, your middle school teachers taught about gravitational pull of the earth, the poles, and how the moon affects the tides of the ocean. This is not the Dark Ages where something we can't explain happens and it becomes conclusive proof of Satan's work and we start burning witches or have trials by ordeal.

What am I saying? You probably have no idea what I am talking about...The Bible is not, I repeat NOT a compendium of scientific data. It's just not. If anyone seriously reads the Bible and believes that anything is scientific in there then they should join ranks with Palin and Beck right now. Tides go in, tides go out...that's what's supposed to happen. But that can be and is explained scientifically for about 500 years, there's nothing head scratching about that like curing cancer or Beck's blackboard communist conspiracy theories.

So, since you got rightly made fun of for your tides come in nonsense we get this gem. "Okay, how did the Moon get there? How'd the Moon get there? Look, you pinheads who attacked me for this, you guys are just desperate. How'd the Moon get there? How'd the Sun get there? How'd it get there? Can you explain that to me? How come we have that and Mars doesn't have it? Venus doesn't have it. How come? Why not? How'd it get here?" Well, again in most middle school science classes, we learn that the moon was formed from an impact with earth and that Venus and most of the planets have moons, several in fact. All facts that can be easily verified if you simply looked into a telescope. Who figured these things out? Galileo, Isaac Newton, Copernicus...any of these ring a bell?

We know that your show has nothing to do with logic, facts or common sense. I can get more rationality from an episode of sesame street. Next you will have an expose about how the moon is made of cheese, or that there is a homeless Acorn New Black Panther member living there getting ready to mount an attack on all the white middle aged women named Susie. Maybe Noah put the moon there, then installed rocket boosters after the flood to get the moon there. We have the tooth fairy, Santa, so maybe the moon got there from the cheese fairy. Maybe Michael Jackson put it there. Oh, here is something for you to ponder, we only see one side of the moon, is God hiding something on the other side? The average menstrual cycle is 28 days which is the lunar cycle, coincidence or conspiracy?

I don't know our origins, we can argue till we are horse about whether we came out of a primordial soup or whether the earth was formed in 6 days. However, what I do know, we as Americans and a western culture are behind the times based on the idiocy that I just described above. Religion and science cannot coexist because one operates on facts and logic, the other on faith. Is is a leap that in the Genesis story, that maybe our 6 days may not be Gods 6 days? Could his day be 2 days, 100 days, 1,000 days, 1,000 years? How do we know? We have a book that was orally dictated, handwritten and translated from Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English and edited by Catholic Bishops who decided which gospels should be included and who should be changed a little to seem more interesting. Mathew, Mark, Luke and John recount the same story with some discrepancies.

If you have ever heard, "this strain of virus is resistant to antibiotics", then you are dealing with evolution and it can't be discounted as crap because you just want to believe in the Genesis intelligent design story. With all of all that, we are supposed to take everything in the as Bible 100% literal? I don't think so, if they did people wouldn't eat seafood or work on Sundays.

This is the 21st Century all unexplained things are not conclusive evidence of Jesus or Satan at work. The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, that should be Fox New's motto. Science is not a liberal conspiracy in order to turn people against God. Religious fundamentalism is a scourge on the planet that robs people of their ability to think and apply even the most basic level of common sense. When I hear such foolishness come from the mouth of a person that went to Harvard, get's paid millions of dollars a year and the best they can come up with is tides comes in, how does the sun get there...this is something I expect from Bachmann or Palin, but not you. You were really serious. You need to give Harvard their degree back or, they need to break in to your penthouse and steal it, because you are not representing a smart Harvard alum if you don't understand gravity.

I pray that you are pandering to the religious right because you know they disregard evolution and science. If so, you deserve a special place in hell for manipulating people based on their faith for political and economic gain. You are one of the most cynical of broadcasters, feigning the bumpkin upbringing and misunderstanding of the world so that you can goad your listeners into supporting the corporate system that feeds your own elite existence. Of course, Jimmie and Susie aren't thinking about that when they hear you talk, all they hear are those buzz words, "Jesus, patriotism, terrorism, christian, 9/11".

What horrendous sin did the people on this planet commit to be plagued with your tragic lie filled show? How many hail Mary's, confessions, sack cloth and ashes do I need to roll in end the suffering? If only I could go back and take out the person that invented the tv. While you were out sticking felafel's into hookers, you should been reading National Geographic, and taking remedial astronomy. Not astrology with Ms. Cleo, that's not the same thing. This is why Rome fell and why America is on the decline, gross ignorance that people like you perpetrate on a mass scale. Your stupidity is like a black hole, I fear it will suck all common sense, I.Q's, rationality inside and you will start watching cluster fox. All of the real journalists are in Egypt getting punched, threatened and tear gassed, but you are ok. Fox's new slogan should be: All ignorance, All the Time, You Don't Have to Feel Bad Watching Us." Bill, please stop talking out of Uranus.

Damn I miss Keith Olberbman.

Redeye's Midterm Election Blogstroll

I don't know why we bother to have elections. The media has already determined the outcome. Yes that was a snark.

A friend just called to ask me for advice/information on the ballot amendments. Specifically they wanted to know if there was an amendment about gambling on the ballot. I told them if they were against gambling don't gamble but don't try and legislate what grown a$$ men/women do with their own darn money. I told them if gambling is legal it doesn't mean the government is going to force you to gamble if you don't want to.

I refuse to believe a majority of the American people are going to punish President Obama and the democratic party for giving them access to quality, affordable health care, saving the country from a depression with the bank bailouts, giving the middle class a tax cut and stimulating the economy. If the majority of the American people are stuck on stoopid and to give the keys to the car back to the gop we deserve to stay in the ditch they drove us into in the first place. It's like the battered wife who stays with her abusive spouse because he bought her some new teeth after knocking the old ones out.

Uh, remember the last gop majority?

Opening statements are scheduled to begin Monday in the trial of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, who is charged with illegally funneling corporate money to help elect GOP candidates to the Texas Legislature.

The Republican was indicted in 2005 on charges he illegally sent $190,000 in corporate money through the Republican National Committee to help elect GOP Texas legislative candidates in 2002.

Those who forget the past.....

A new isolationism is metastasizing in the American body politic. At its heart lies not an urge to avoid war, but an urge to avoid contemplating the costs and realities of war. It sees war as having analgesic qualities - as lessening a collective feeling of impotence, a collective sense of fear and terror. Making war in the name of reducing terror serves this state of mind and helps to preserve it. Marked by a calculated estrangement from war's horrific realities and mercenary purposes, the new isolationism magically turns an historic term on its head, for it keeps us in wars, rather than out of them.

Speaking of ballot iniatives, take a look at 7 right wing ballot inititives that could ruin our democracy for decades to come

Anti-tax initiatives are dangerous -- it’s easy to get people who are hurting economically to vote for lower taxes, but hard to get them to think about long-term effects.

There are 11 races where black voters can make a difference , now do you understand the demise of ACORN and the rise of the Tea Party?

People who believe their vote does not make a difference may be encouraged to know that in many close contests across the U.S., they have the power to sway the direction of the race.

There is a general consensus emerging that many voters of color are lacking enthusiasm this election season, with minority voters not expected to go to the polls with nearly the same level of participation as they did in 2008 -- when President Obama was on the ballot. Nevertheless, African-Americans are well positioned to affect the outcome of as many as 20 House races, and 14 contests for Senate and Governor, according to David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

Watch Civil Right Icon and Representative John Lewis tell us Why We Vote then got off your Donkey's and VOTE.

If someone in your life ain’t ready to vote after this vid, well, then you may just have to hogtie em and drag em down bodily to cast that ballot! (just kidding, don’t hurt nobody, y’all)

The only thing standing between the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party taking control of our government is Y-O-U!

A Redeye Stroll Down Memory Lane

It's has come to my attention that it's been almost a year since my front page privileges were revoked at leaning Left in Alabama for being to black, I mean uppity, I mean liberal, I mean anti Artur Davis/Terri Sewell, I mean posting factual incorrect information on the front page, and I founded Redeye's Front Page. Although I miss being able to participate in the discussions at LiA, I'm enjoying the freedom of having my own blog. In honor of the first Anniversary of Redeye's Front Page, from now until November 13, I will take readers on a stroll down memory lane and post links from some of my favorite diaries I wrote during my tenure at LiA. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank readers for their encouragement, comments and most importantly for reading. I don't have any illusions as to my "influence" or importance in the world, but I love my country, and in my own way I HOPE to make a difference because I want to make the world a better place for everyone.



With all the talk about gambling, vote buying and elections A Gambling Man is a must read.

You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em.

Know when to walk away, know when to run
You never count your money, when you're sittin' at the table.
There'll be time enough for countin', when the dealin's done. ~Kenny Rodgers, The Gambler

No, I these lyrics don't apply to Ron Sparks. They apply to Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis.

AL-5 republican congressional candidate Mo Brooks wants to go to Washington so he can fight with a girl (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) and repeal ObamaCare. He might want to rethink that strategy after reading By The Grace of God Go I Redux

How would you feel if you, or someone you loved, was diagnosed with cancer then fired from their job because "they were obviously unable to perform their duties"? Never mind they aren't able to perform their duties because they are undergoing chemo therapy. Never mind they won't have health insurance because it goes with the job. Never mind they can't afford the cobra payments to maintain their insurance because they have no job. Never mind they can't get health insurance because they have a pre-existing condition. Never mind their former employer has sentenced them to death.

I was outraged then and I'm outraged now. You're Darn Skippy I'm Always Outraged.

There is an angry, fringe-left in this country, but the progressive base of the Democratic Party is not fringe. At least, we're not fringe if you poll the American people on what they want to see in domestic and foreign policy. But, we are feeling a bit dispossessed at the moment because we're seeing policy get crafted to appeal to the most conservative elements of the Democratic Party.

Why would conservatives be a member of a party where they disagree with the party platform? Think about it.

I'm with healthy, lets stop calling them Blue Dogs and start calling them Blue Rats

Political Prosecutions Prose and Politics Blog stroll

First they came for Democrats.

Then they came for ACORN.

Then they came for LBGT's.

Then they came for health care reform.

Then they came for health care reform supporters.

Hope will never be silent.

And neither will I.

Poverty is at an all time high in Alabama, come with me on The Poverty Tour.

My family relocated from the big city of Huntsville to a small, rural Alabama town when I was eight years old because my Daddy was named the principal of a segregated K-12 school. We weren't rich, but we were better of than a whole lot of our new classmates and neighbors. My Daddy didn't want us to feel like we were better than anyone else because of who we were or how we lived so one cold winter evening he and my mother bundled us up, loaded up the VW bus with brown paper bags of "government cheese, butter, powdered milk, rice, flour and cornmeal and set off on what my Dad called the Poverty Tour.

This diary is dedicated to my parents who instilled in me a social conscious and molded me into the person I am today. All that I am, all that I hope to be, I owe to them.

Redeye's Week In Review

Yo GoBlue! If you are reading this you owe me some Obama wine glasses. Remember, our friendly wager before I was booted from the Left in Alabama sandbox regarding young, conservative, phone tapper James O'Keefe? Well, A Felony Will Get You Probation If You're a Conservative in America.

Although, this is nothing new in America if your not brown or black skinned people. O'Keefe won't get the felony label that is issued out like free tickets to the circus. We all know that had he been black or brown he would have been singing that tune they sing when baseball player hits a baseball out of the park-bye,bye baby! And some white folks wonder why black and brown people get all puff out of shape and complain about the sentencing system in the courts of America. Puleeeeeze!

You want to deliver those glasses or should I pick them up? :)

BTW, the Alabama Teacher who used the assassination of President Obama as a teaching tool got a slap on the wrist too.

I think that the Superintendent Phil Hammonds felt obligated simply because of the national attention and the fact he was named MSNBC's worst person in the world.

Ya think?

Speaking of Left in Alabama I see where they made their endorsements for the June 1st, democratic primary. Now I know why Bengoshi and I were booted from the front page, we were just too darn liberal for Left in Alabama. I bout fell off my bar stool laughing at this one;;

Generally, we are going with the outsiders this year. The corrupt, good old boy culture in Montgomery has done no favors for Alabama or the Democratic Party. It's time to bring in some fresh troops and generals because we aren't going to solve our problems by continually electing political retreads.

Translation, we want to replace the good guys with the bad guys. You know the good guys who believe in women's rights, equal rights, civil rights, human rights, health care reform, labor, and public education.

I spewed coffee all over my keyboard at this one;

Of course, this is Alabama, so there will be Constitutional Amendments on the ballot next Tuesday. Knowing nothing about them as yet, we hope and pray someone (Old Prosecutor?) will take pity and tell us what they mean and how a progressive Alabamian might want to vote on them.

Let me see if I've got this right (pun intended), they want resident righty Old Prosecutor to tell them how a progressive Alabamian might want to vote on them? ROFLMAO! I guess it depends on what the definition of a progressive Alabamian IS. *Snark*. But in any event, now we know progressive at Left in Alabama means the following;

If you don't like the content, write your own. We're a progressive blog that deals mainly with state issues - particularly during a state primary season.

As far as progressive issues go, most of us here support Constitution reform, ethics reform, tax fairness, and a better educational system.

Sound familiar?

The Progressive Electorate released their endorsements for the democratic primary also. Not surprising, with the exception of Jeremy Sherer and no endorsement in the governors race they are the complete opposite of slightly Left in Alabama.

Alabama Governor - This is a tough call. Artur Davis has brought a lot of attention to the 7th Congressional District. However, as progressives we are extremely disappointed in some of his recent votes that have shown his capitulation to the right. I.E. Health Care Reform, Hate Crimes. Ron Sparks is the alternative in this race and we genuinely like some of his ideas such as an Education Lottery. Sparks has been an outstanding Ag Commissioner and been great in that position. However, we are also disappointed in his stance on constitutional reform. The constitution in its current form continues to hinder our State from reaching its potential. Therefore we issue a no-endorsement in this race.

Now this is what I call a progressive slate and a well reasoned endorsement. I don't agree with everyone endorsed (I endorse Mitchell Howie and Ron Sparks), but at least the slate of candidates are liberals and will work for the people, not on the people.

Ministry of Truths' diary is a must read.

I was surprised to learn that an African American woman has NEVER been elected to a full term to represent the state of Alabama in the House of Representatives.
My goal today is to help change that.

When last I wrote about one of my heroes, Rosa Parks, it was to illustrate how the right would roll back the Civil Rights act to allow discrimination in the name of economic freedom.

145 years after the Civil War, much has changed, but more should change, until we truly achieve the Change We Can Believe In!.

In 2010, it is finally time to elect an African American woman to a full term in Congress to serve the State of Alabama in the House of Representatives!

I can't make up my mind in this race between Sheila Smoot and Earl Hillard Jr, because they both are better than the current Congress Critter from the 7th district, so may the best liberal win!

The United States House of Representatives approved the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell this week! Yippie! Not surprising, Alabama's two DINO's (Bright and Davis) didn't bother to vote and the republicans voted NO. Bummer.

So, did the Top Kill Work? We don't know what we don't know, we don't know. Of course the vultures are circling trying to turn this into President Obama's Katrina. No more Mister Nice Blog has some suggested alternative responses for President Obama. The Rude Pundit wants to know why is BP still in charge of the Gulf and so do I. Meanwhile the oil is still spilling. We need real solutions, not Crazy Uncle Solutions

President Obama expected, however wrongly and however stupidly, that the American media -- even though overloaded with voluble crazy uncles -- would, for a change, react to this crisis with proper disgust, but also maturity and Reason.

Maturity and reason? What's that?

So much hypocrisy, so little time.

The War on Terra Continues. A NATO airstrike mistakenly killed 28-30 people today. I'm with StevenD, How much longer is this madness going to continue? When will enough killing and bombing be enough? Bring our troops home. Bring them home now.

So why are we repeating the same mistakes made by other "super powers" of the past? In a time of extraordinary economic decline for most Americans we continue to pour precious resources into a conflict that we cannot "win" whatever "metric" one uses to measure "winning."

Congress should immediately reinstate funds to ACORN. This knee-jerk action by Congress was a travesty. It's been proven the whole Pimp story was a right wing funded set up and lie. ACORNS only crime was being a community organizing group. They need to go after the real Pimps, but of course they won't. That would be to much like right(pun intended).

O'Keefe got big accolades from a lot of the CPAC speakers and of course ACORN got ripped up one side and down the other.

Sometimes I think some of the elected people in DC never read anything and instead rely on each other regarding what to think. They jumped all over ACORN without really looking into the whole case.

I thought I read somewhere that a judge had said the govt. had to give ACORN the money they had already been promised.

Instead of going after ACORN they need to go after stuff like THIS.

Voters trying to cast ballots in Lower Oxford Township East stood in lines for so long that TV crews showed up to capture the scene. Some of those waiting ordered out for pizza. Sympathetic neighbors brought water and coffee. When the last vote was cast shortly before 11 p.m., polls were officially closing on the West Coast and Barack Obama had already been declared the winner.

Some of the 1,440 who voted there that day waited for seven to eight hours in the rain, queuing up close enough to working railroad tracks to reach out and touch passing freight cars. The tiny community center they waited to enter could accommodate only seven booths and one optical scanner. The adjacent parking lot was big enough for a dozen cars.

This wasn't a mistake. It was deliberate. It was the clearest example you could hope to find of partisan politics trumping common sense and civic duty.

Listen up Democrats! Bipartisanshop=Appeasement. When are you going to learn that appeasement doesn't work? It's not wise to appease republicans. It's how they turn the winners into the losers and the losers into the winners.

The theory is that if Democrats make a show out of reaching out to Republicans, but Republicans slap Democrats down every time and obstruct for the sake of obstructing, then Democrats will gain politically.

The reality is that Republicans gain in the polls if Democrats fail to pass legislation that improves people's lives, no matter the political theater of obstruction.

Thanks to the democratically controlled Congress, President Obama is afraid to lead. Seriously. They've made him afraid of the far left liberals, who have been right about everything from the war to the deficity in favor of the so called moderates and independents. The President's Healthcare Bill and What is Missing is proof.

There’s no public option in the Prez’s proposal which is a shame since polls show that the majority of Americans want a public option (such a dumb phrase), as good as say… Medicare or VA health benefits or even the government-sponsored program in which Sarah Palin’s son Tripp is hypocritically enrolled. The audacity of that woman — what’s good enough for her son is evidently not good enough for other Americans, it would seem.

Sarah Palin is the Hypocrit of the Decade.

As we all know, Sarah's suffering for her family is boundless, but this must be the worst of all. What is difficult to understand is why she doesn't use this most personal example of the horrors of government run health care in her public cries to prevent Obamacare. She normally isn't one to suffer in silence; maybe someone in the media will ask her to share the nightmare that her daughter must endure knowing, all day every day, that her son will receive health care regardless of her ability to afford it. Or maybe not.

Tiger Yoo? While the MSM was breathlessly parsing every word of Tiger Woods apology they totally ignored the story about John Woo and the Massacre Memo

In John Yoo's vision of executive power, the president can legally order a village of civilians "massacred," according to the internal Justice Department report released Friday.

The MSM calls Glenn Becks wild eyed rant *cough cough* Brave Criticism of the GOP. Give me a break.

Take a look at these headlines.

WaPo: “At CPAC, Glenn Beck scolds the Republican Party.“
MSNBC: “Beck criticizes Obama and the GOP.“
The Atlantic: “Beck Thumps GOP, Puzzling Conservatives.”
L.A. Times: “Glenn Beck to Republican Party: Repent.“
And on and on. If you only skimmed those headlines, you’d think that Beck went boldly into the belly of the beast, and had some kind of Sister Souljah moment.

Except Beck didn’t do that. He blew smoke up the CPAC audience’s white asses by simply reciting, verbatim, exactly the same tired spiel Republican leaders have been parroting nonstop since they lost control of Congress in 2006.

Are we in trouble yet?