Redeye's Bah Humbug Week In Review

The first National Prom of the United States of America was held Tuesday night in the well of the Capitol. President Obama (D.) was crowned prom King and Rep. Michelle Bachman (r.) was crowned prom Queen, the media had an orgasm and we the peeps got the shaft. That is my reaction to the State of Union Address. President Obama had something for the republicans, big business, corporations, the military, even the media, but nothing, I repeat nothing, about jobs, foreclosures, gun control, poverty. Nothing for the people who voted him into office. Where are the JOBS?

Speaking of the State of the Union WTF was Congresswoman Terri Sewell? After sending out a press release saying she and 6 other freshmen Democrats were going to escort President Obama into the House Chamber we didn't see hide nor hair of Little Miss Sewell. First fan mooncat caught a glimpse of her. Why was HD Brantley chosen to represent the 7th district at the SOTU address? Never mind. We know. Psst Terri! It's not about you. Remember?

The Civil War within the Democratic Party is going to break out this weekend when the ADP selects a new Chair. Looks like the Artur Davis wing of the democratic party is posed to assume power. Oh well, it's fitting since the Alabama State Government turned blood red, the ADP might was well turn blood red too. I have it on good authority black democrats have had enough of the DEMS. I know one thing, this is the end of the road for me. From now on, I am a Bernie Sanders Independent. I'm going to vote for candidates and not the party. I didn't leave the Alabama Democratic Party. The Alabama Democratic Party left me.

There is a perception that the ADP caters to black voters but ignores white voters. A significant number of Democrats, some on the SDEC, have expressed concern to me that the ADP will "become like Mississippi" where, I gather, race is the significant difference between the two parties. If you want to run for office and you're white, you run as a Republican, if you're black you run as a Democrat. Now, I know that isn't strictly the case in Mississippi since they recently had a white Democrat run (unsuccessfully) for Senate, but this is a huge concern for people who care about the Democratic party in Alabama.

It's a fool's bargain that way. Give an oppressed minority a guaranteed amount of power, but make sure it isn't enough power for them to ever get out of the minority. And white Dems who live outside the minority districts get nothing so they start voting for the least objectionable Republican. The party continues to dwindle ... that's a very bad road.

See what I mean? If the ADP catered to black voters the Alabama Government wouldn't be blood red. If white democrats weren't fair weather liberals they wouldn't have to try and figure out how they were going to rise again. If democrats weren't so busy appeasing republicans we wouldn't be in this mess.

Redeye stomping away from the computer muttering bah humbug.

A Horse Head In the Presidents Bed

Remember the scene from the Godfather when movie producer Jack Wolz woke up with the severed head of his prized racehorse in the bed with him? Tom Hagen - Don Vito Corleone's adoptive son, was sent to make Jack Woltz an offer he couldn't refuse. Substitute President Obama for Jack Wolz, John Bohner for Tom Hagen, Mitch McConnell for Don Vito Corleone and the American People for the prize racehorse and you have a modern-day remake of The Godfather.

Tucked away in the massive tax bill Obama is trying to pass in the last days of the current session of Congress -- before a new Republican majority takes over the U.S. House of Representatives -- are several affordable-housing incentives critical to the Gulf Coast and in particular New Orleans. But while Obama has conceded to Republicans by agreeing to extend tax cuts for the wealthy if they agree to, among other things, extend emergency unemployment benefits, there is no word on whether the final bill will include the critical affordable housing incentives written into earlier versions.

Among its myriad tax code provisions, the bill under debate, S. 3793, proposes to extend a low-income housing tax credit exchange program for a year, reauthorize a New Markets Tax Credit program and fund a National Housing Trust Fund meant to pay for affordable rental housing in all states with a shortage, including Louisiana. Introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) in September, the bill has fallen victim to partisan haggling. It still must be passed by the House and the Senate.

Most critically to New Orleans, the bill includes a two-year extension of the placed-in-service date for projects being financed with Gulf Opportunity Zone tax credits created after Hurricane Katrina. Without the extension of the current placed-in-service deadline of Dec. 31, Louisiana stands to lose at least 1,770 units and $398 million in total investment dollars for projects that will not forward without more time, according to Louisiana Housing Finance Agency documents. Another 3,230 units across 66 complexes are in jeopardy across the other Gulf Coast states.

Among the developers relying on the credits to finance post-Katrina housing projects are those building mixed-income communities on the site of the former B.W. Cooper and Lafitte public housing developments. At Lafitte, where 220 units are nearly complete, the failure to pass an extension could cost 430 still-unbuilt units financed through deals that rely on the tax credits and have not yet closed, according to the finance authority. For B.W. Cooper, the end of the tax credit program could kill the 410-unit project completely because none of its financing has closed and construction hasn't started. Project developer KBK Enterprises did not return several calls made over the past week requesting comment. In September, company Chief Financial Officer Mike McCroskey told The Times-Picayune that the company was "at the mercy of the federal government."

Without the extension, Lafitte developers Providence Community Housing and Enterprise Community Partners, will have to come up with a way to replace the revenue projected to come from the GO Zone tax credits. Reached Tuesday, a spokeswoman for Providence reaffirmed the company's commitment to completing the 650-unit project, with or without the credits.

The President didn't cave or capitulate, he did what he had to do in order to free the hostages. The question I have is how and why did the Democrats allow the GOP to take us hostage? Democrats had control of the government for 2 years and didn't do a damn thing. President Obama has not only had to fight the GOP and the white wing media, but he's also had to fight members of his own damn party time and time again.

After a two-hour floor debate, the House passed the DREAM Act along mostly partisan lines, 216 to 198, with 38 Democrats voting against the bill and 8 Republicans supporting it.

It's too late for democratic theatrics It's too late to take a stand and draw a line in the sand. This is what happens when the Professional Left is suppressed. The blame can't be placed entirely on democrats and media, The White House did their part too.

The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”

Of those who complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as health care reform, Gibbs said: “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”

The White House, constantly under fire from expected enemies on the right, has been frustrated by nightly attacks on cable news shows catering to the left, where Obama and top lieutenants like Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel have been excoriated for abandoning the public option in health care reform; for not moving faster to close the prison at Guantánamo Bay; and for failing, so far, to end the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

I want a President who takes a strong stand and fights for it, not one who is a mediator with hostage-takers. I had a feeling we were heading down this road when the media made candidate Obama renounce, repudiate and reject his pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright. IMHO that was his first mistake because it set the tone for Eric Holder's Americans are cowards walk back, Henry Louis Gates the police acted stupidly beer summit, and the Shirley Sherrod firing.

I was depressed yesterday, but I woke up to the realization the President had a horse head placed in his bed. He was made an offer he couldn't refuse. I'm not going to write President Obama off, I'm going to continue to support him, help him fight and have his back so they can't put any more horse heads in his bed.

The Shirley Sherroding of Hank Sanders

You know the drill by now.

Take a snippet of AL State Senator Hanks Sanders robo call to DEMOCRATIC voters out of context and spin it like a top. It's not what you say, it's what other people hear.

What AL State Senator Hank Sanders actually said;

Hello this is Hank Sanders, Alabama state Senator, and I’m still mad as hell. I say hell no! I ain’t going back to the cotton fields of Jim Crow days. I’m going forward with Ron Sparks, Jim Folsom and others who would do right by all of us. I hope you are mad as hell and will not go back, and you have the power to choose. I will stand until hell freezes over for Ron Sparks for Governor and Jim Folsom for Lt. Governor on November the 2nd.

Paid for by Alabama New South.

This is what the Reactionaries heard.
Here;

Sanders comments shouldn't shock any of you. The democrat power brokers like Hank have played low income blacks for fools for decades now. I probably mentioned this before but Ill never forget being in a democrat party headquarters on election day along the stateline when I was a little boy back in the 80’s and hearing a certain democrat elected county schools superintendent yell at volunteer drivers to be sure and take the [archaic, inappropriate term for a black person] to vote before you take them to get some fried chicken and beer at the Qmart store. But until the GOP starts recruiting credible young black gentlemen into the party in these areas. You might as well continue to get used to the Hank Sanders of the world….

This is what he should have said;

A message that might appeal to both Democratic groups is something like:

Republicans are taking care of the rich people; Democrats care about people like you.

And this;

I am upset that a politician by the name of Hank Sanders keeps calling my house campaigning for Ron Sparks and Jim Folsom using foul language. This is very unprofessional and I do not appreciate such language being brought into my home and left on my machine.

He goes into how he is mad as “h—-” and he hopes that we are mad as “h—-” and that he is not going back to Jim Crow days. The number he is calling from blocks all incoming calls or I would tell him this myself.

America, when did we become so immoral?

There's an old saying, if you throw a rock at a pen full of pigs the one that squeals is the one that was hit. Looks like there's a whole lot of squealing going on. We can all pretend the Tea Party movement of today is yesterday's Southern Strategy. We can pretend the gop is tolerant and inclusive of minorities. We can pretend KY republican Senatorial nominee Rand Paul doesn't want to repeal the 14th amendment. We can pretend AL 05 Congressional nominee Mo Brooks and AL Senate nominee Paul Sandford didn't snub the NAACP. We can pretend Alabama isn't the home of former Governor George C. Wallace and Bull Conner. We can pretend Alabama democrats aren't under attack. We can pretend we don't know what the gop infused, media enabled, Tea Party candidates mean when they say "they want to take their country BACK". We can pretend Alabama and America is post racial, but that's exactly what we would be doing. I'm sick and tired of pretending everything is lovey dovey.

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel

Senator Sanders said he was supporting candidates like Ron Sparks and Jim Folsom who will take us forward, not backwards. Instead of focusing on going forward the Reactionaries focused on re-enslavement and the word hell. Project much?

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Martin Luther King Jr.
US black civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 - 1968)

Those who do not remember their past are condemned to repeat their mistakes. ... the mistakes of their predecessors are destined to repeat them~George Santayana



Hell no I ain't fergittin!

A Redeye Stroll Down Memory Lane~ 2nd Edition

Welcome to the second installment of the first anniversary blog stroll down memory lane. In reviewing the post for today I've tried to construct a timeline for the beginning of the end of my LiA front page privileges.

Let's start with A blog stroll from my heart on October 17, 2009 be sure and read the comments....

As someone who is a product of the south and it's rich southern heritage I know racism when I see, hear and/or feel it. I'm aware of the code words and subtleties racist and bigots hide behind. Racism today is covert and institutional. Sure blacks/browns/reds can use public facilities and have the right to vote etc. but they are still the victims of defacto segregation and institutional racism.

Three days later I wrote What you see is what you get which is relevant today in light of the recent Bingo indictments.

There is the misconception that I am stoopid enough to believe ALL prosecutions are politically/racially motivated. Let me be clear, anytime I've made the allegation of political/racial prosecutions it's been in response to a SPECIFIC case we've discussed on LiA. I can understand why our conservative friends don't believe the prosecutions have a political/racial motivation, but I don't understand why my fellow liberals/progressives don't share my concern that our justice system, strike that, the Bush justice system has compromised the integrity of the rule of law, especially here in Alabama.

Followed by No Poor Coloreds Allowed in South Huntsville, also relevant today in light of the upcoming Congressional and State Senate election.

I read about this in the dead tree edition
And was suitably shocked at the rhetoric because I know quite a few people who live south of Governor's Drive and they aren't selfish bigots as you might believe if you listen to the leaders of this organization. This is a deliberate political strategy to frighten voters in south Huntsville and rile them up in advance of the 2010 election. Just look at the people involved:

On Tuesday, the upstart group drew an influential crowd, including Republican Brooks, a former legislator; newly elected state Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville; state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur; and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne.

Bradley Byrne? He's running for governor, not mayor. Arthur Orr is from Decatur. Paul Sanford wouldn't be a state senator today without the (dare I say racial?) outrage stirred up over the initial HHA purchase of apartments near Chaffee and he desperately needs that same outrage next November to hold onto his seat. And Mo Brooks? He's saying some of the most incendiary stuff and he happens to be running for Congress -- so he also needs to scare those south Huntsville voters so he can look like a savior in the next election.

I believe Pigskin and Politics at Legion Field was the "beginning of the end"

I spent the weekend tailgating with friends and family at Legion Field attending what is affectionately called the Coal Bowl (aka The Magic City Classic). For readers who don't live in Sweet Home Alabama the Iron Bowl is the much anticipated annual interstate rivalry between Auburn University and The University of Alabama, the 'white schools". The Coal Bowl is the much anticipated annual interstate rivalry between Alabama A&M University and Alabama State University, the "black schools". The vestiges of segregation continue but it's all good.

But this is the straw that broke the Camel's back.

Weaall what do you know! Alabama Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Artur Davis is the House Negro of the Day! I'm sure that will make him more viable to white conservatives. Way to go Artur! Make Alabama proud! *Snicker*

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Here we are a year later talking about the same people and the same issues. Are we ever going to have change we can believe in or is it just a mirage?
Time will tell the truth.

Redeye's Week in Review

Get the rope! Light the torches! The Obama/Holder InJustice Department is cleaning up that there democratic culture of corruption and cronyism down here in Sweet Home Alabama with a couple of token republicans, independents and lobbyist thrown in for good measure. Yep, republicans are breathlessly salivating over the Bingo indictments and having multiple orgasms over the prospect of Milton McGregor and company spending lots of time at Club Fed. The spin is in.

Meanwhile under the radar...a Watchdog Groups Calls on Criminal Investigations and an IRS Audit of U.S. Chamber of Commerce over allegations of Foreign Money.
Hundreds Of Thousands Collected By Chamber To Influence Elections

Washington, DC--StopTheChamber.com, a group of watchdog organizations dedicated to corporate accountability, today renewed its calls for a criminal investigation and complete audit of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in light of yesterday’s stunning revelation that the Chamber has been actively soliciting money from foreign companies to influence American elections. In a report released yesterday, the non partisan Center for American Progress Action Fund found that the Chamber has been blatantly violating campaign finance laws not only by accepting money from foreign companies but also soliciting that money and then using it to try to influence U.S. Elections.

Race Baiting Radio Boy aka Dale Jackson (r. voter suppression with the state seal of approval) must really be desperate for ratings if he's going on location to Democratic Party Headquarters. I would rather run through hell with a pair of gasoline drawers than show up at Democratic Party Headquarters, or listen to his hate radio show myself, but y'all have fun. I hope radio boy shows up at the correct address. Oh wait, this might be another one of his *ahem* parody's.

Hallelujah! About 100 people from Alabama are traveling to Washington D.C. on October 30, 2010 to have their sanity restored! Please let them come back ready to fight the right wing noise machine, support the democratic nominee(s) and stop pandering to the right at the expense of the left. Amen.

This week, Elon James White provides what I believe to be the most persuasive and urgent articulation of the extreme importance of getting your Donkey out there and voting in this year’s election. H/T Jill Tubman Warning video contains the F word and it's not just for black people.

It’s not just the President who is under attack y’all…and yeah, it hasn’t all been perfect. Some things have happened that shouldn’t have happened. But overall it’s been pretty good and the Prez is working hard to pull America from the brink and get us back on track. The vision the Republicans and their Tea Party appears to involve some weird fetish for the America of the Founders….many of whom were active slave owners. If y’all can’t grasp the underlying significance of that fetish and have our President’s back, then you know what to do. Despite the fact that Barack Obama has not turned out to be a bacon-flavored magical unicorn avatar who can solve all America’s problems by appointing Professor Dumbledore to his cabinet — you betta vote (to crib a little RuPaul). Enthusiasm gap? Get over it. And vote.

Vote like your life depends on it.

Breaking-The Shirley Sherroding of Ron Sparks Continues~Sigh

Thanks to Rep. Artur Davis' role in helping to pick federal nominees for the Obama administration, The Obama Justice Department, staffed by leftovers from the Bush administration, swooped in this morning and arrested casino owners, Alabama state legislators and lobbyists in what is being billed as a federal political corruption investigation, but looks more like political prosecutions designed to taint the upcoming Nov. 2 election.

It's DejaVoodoo all over again...
What shocks me, even more, is that Ron Sparks wasn't indicted as well. Milton McGregor is Sparks' biggest donor.

It's a sad day for liberty and justice for all;

“Anyone who loves democracy and freedom should be concerned with the timing of these indictments,” he said. “Waiting to announce indictments after the election would have had no impact on the cause of justice. The timing of this, regardless of how you feel about it, is suspicious and must be questioned.” Alabama Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Ron Sparks

You know the drill, take a snippet from a comment by Ron Sparks and spin it like a top to suit your own political purpose.

It is now official, everyone running for office in Alabama is a conservative, including Democrat Ron Sparks.

The writer makes this conclusion by taking a snippet Ron Sparks response to the charge by his opponent he is the most liberal candidate in the governors' race like that's a bad thing, but I digress.

"I'm conservative," Sparks said. "I'd like to know one thing that I've done to consider me the most liberal in the history of this state. I’ve created jobs, I'm fiscally responsible and I’ve helped business, helped consumers."

The writer further concludes Ron Sparks is saying liberals don't create jobs, are not fiscally responsible, don't help businesses and consumers and accuses him of being unwilling to challenge conservative framing.

In CONTEXT that is exactly what Ron Sparks said.
Without preamble, Bentley applied the “L” word to his Democratic opponent, an unflattering reference in conservative Alabama. “I’m running against the most liberal Democratic candidate that’s ever run for governor,” Bentley said.

Bentley went on to label himself as an abortion foe who opposes illegal immigration. And the retired Tuscaloosa physician said he opposes nationalized health care, while “my opponent favors it.”

“I believe in state sovereignty,” while Sparks does not Bentley charged.

In a race that pretty much has avoided personal attacks, Bentley’s reference to Sparks ratcheted up the rhetoric and prompted a reply from the two-term agriculture commissioner from Fort Payne.

“I’m conservative,” Sparks said. “I’d like to know one thing that I’ve done to consider me the most liberal in the history of this state. I’ve created jobs, I’m fiscally responsible and I’ve helped business, helped consumers.”

Sparks said Bentley’s campaign is about “rhetoric, sound bites, and gimmicks.”

“If I didn’t have a plan I’d be saying that, too,” Sparks said last week. “There’s not one thing you hear in one of his speeches, that ‘I’m going to move Alabama forward, I’m going to educate children and build highways.’ ”

The headline in Bentley's hometown paper reads; Governor's race leader is Bentley, polls show, Who are they polling the anti-abortion rights, anti-immigration, anti-Obama voters, anti health care, anti-public education voters? Yep.

The Bentley camp is counting on the segment of uninformed/misinformed voters who hate "liberals" more than they love themselves. That is the only possible explanation why they are supporting a candidate who has access to health care, who has an education, whose wife/daughter/sister/niece can afford to choose to have a safe, legal abortion, but doesn't want them to have the same. As Mister T used to say "I pity the fools."

Bentley went on to label himself as an abortion foe who opposes illegal immigration. And the retired Tuscaloosa physician said he opposes nationalized health care, while “my opponent favors it.”

Dr. Robert Bentley is the only real conservative in the Governor's race;

Bentley is a 67-year-old retired dermatologist and two-term state representative who emerged from the back bench in the House, where his party is in the minority, to become the front runner in the governor’s race.

He stumbled briefly earlier in the campaign when one of his ads nearly claimed he was a Vietnam veteran. In fact, he served stateside during the Vietnam War as a young physician in North Carolina. Sparks is a Coast Guard veteran.

Bentley said he is not a Tea Party member but has unwavering views about government’s role. Translation- He is not a member of the Tea Party but he agrees with them. Shades of Mo Brooks.

“I want government to get out of the way,” he said. Translation-I'm running to be the government of Alabama so I can get out of the way.

Wake up and smell the coffee people!

“He needs to be more specific on solutions because what’s going to happen is we have a tremendous budget failure and we have to get more revenue. Being anti-Washington is a popular stance, but the reality is how is this going to relate to the state?

“People want to hear anti-establishment rhetoric and that resonates with a lot of people right now, but you still have to have solutions to all these problems because the challenge of the next governor is you have to have the support of people as you come into office.”

Other than calling Ron Sparks a liberal (like that's a bad thing) What's your plan Dr. anti health care reform, anti-government, anti-women, anti-immigration reform, anti-education, Bentley? We know exactly what you stand against, but we don't have a clue what you stand for. Strike that, yes we do. You stand for maintaining the status quo.

Psst Ron Sparks! Embrace your liberalness, wear it like a badge of honor. Remember we liberals are right and conservatives are wrong. Take this opportunity to educate low information voters how they are being used to make the rich richer and the rest get the shaft. keep them poor.

Alaska's Joe Miller Wants to Abolish Federal Minimum Wage

Ron Sparks wants to create jobs, republicans kill jobs for political sport.

Date that Republicans used Senate rules to block an extension of the TANF Emergency Fund that directly subsidized jobs for the unemployed in government, nonprofits and small businesses: 9/28/2010

Date that the program expired: 9/30/2010

Amount of money the program had given states for job creation: $1 billion

Number of jobs the program created nationwide for unemployed parents and youth: nearly 250,000

Number of jobs the program created in the South*: 86,827

Democrat Ron Sparks says he's a fiscally responsible candidate who created jobs, helped small businesses and helped consumers. All the things conservatives claim to be/do but aren't/don't. I don't have a problem with Sparks saying he is a fiscal conservative. At least he didn't vote against health care reform for his personal, political gain.

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, announced today that he will vote against the version of health care reform legislation pending in the U.S. House.

The decision means all three Democrats from Alabama will defy their party leadership on the biggest domestic policy agenda item of the year.

The economy is really bad thanks to the conservative republican non-agenda. People are suffering thanks to the conservative republican non-agenda. Vote for the man with a plan, not the man with the anti-government rhetoric and spin.

Don't fall for the Rope A Dope. Ron Sparks is not the one running as a conservative democrat. He is running as a Democrat.

The trick, of course, would be to convince those constituencies that their interests are not opposed at all.

Run Ron Run!