RedEye's Blog Round Up

"When you elect a clown, expect a circus."  

If there ever was a phenomenon to be simultaneously amusing and depressing, this is it. It boggles the mind to even contemplate that this unhinged psychopath and common pervert is living in the same house that was at one time occupied by Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. The wheels have come off this country. This is going to end very badly, but I think I've already mentioned that. Pay it no mind.

You Think? 

#BlackWomenAtWork Week 2.  So former National Security Advisor Dr. Susan Rice is being bashed for doing her J-O-B.

It should be noted that a request to unmask one of these names only reveals that name to the person making the request, it does NOT make the name public.
And to be clear if Rice did make this request it was only because she was doing her job, and NOT because she was necessarily targeting Donald Trump and his associates.
However considering what we have learned since the election I am pretty upset that she WASN'T targeting Trump and his associates.
For her part Rice says she had nothing to do with the names becoming public:
“I leaked nothing to nobody,” she said.

Calling Colin Powell

BOOM!  EYE have to give it to the republicans, they like to blow stuff up.

There is no sugarcoating the fact that Gorsuch is getting a stolen seat. He will be a far-right justice for decades. He’s anti-choice, anti-environmental protection, against regulating money in politics, and hostile to voting rights. But what’s more worrisome to a liberal constitutional scholar like Levinson is what he says Trump and the GOP Senate will do as its followup: seat right-wingers across the federal judiciary. All they need is a simple majority in the Senate to do that—and they have it.

With democrats like this who needs republicans? 

What good are Democrats if they act just like Republicans? What good are black elected officials if they harm black people?

Nothing to see here move along... 

RedEye over and out.  

"Clueless White Texas Commissioners Accidentally Vote to Back Slavery Reparations" on Juneteenth

Happy Juneteenth!

Today marks the holiday known variously as Emancipation Day, Freedom Day, Juneteenth Independence Day, or simply Juneteenth. It commemorates the day in 1865 that slaves in Texas were finally set free, more than two years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.
Here's an explanation of the holiday's roots from a 1977 issue of Southern Exposure magazine:

The Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, did not have any effect in Texas because too little of the state was occupied by Northern troops. When Lee surrendered in April, 1865, most Texas plantations were still intact, and a quarter-million black people were working as slaves.
It was not until June 19, 1865 -- when General George Granger arrived with Yankee troops in Galveston and issued his own emancipation decree -- that slaves were actually freed in Texas. June 19 -- "Juneteenth" -- therefore became the day of celebration.

The event became a Texas state holiday in 1980, and today it's recognized as either a state holiday or special day of observance in 43 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

That's right, African Americans didn't find out the Civil War was over, the north won, and they were free, until two years after the war was over.  This is why I report with great glee, that on this day the Dallas County, Texas Commissioners  Unanimously, Mistakenly Approve Reparations For Black Communities.




This is what happen when blacks elected officials are marginalized, minimized, and ignored.

Guns don't kill people....

Coalition to Stop Gun Violence

RedEye Around the Web

Your laugh out loud for the day courtesy of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (r. Tuscaloosa).

“I would have voted against this agreement because I believe we need a more balanced approach that would include significant spending cuts and making the federal government more efficient, like we’re doing here in Alabama,” Bentley said.

Uh,  do you mean the efficient government like were doing here in Alabama where voters just voted to raid the Trust Fund to avoid budget cuts? Or, do you mean the efficient Alabama government who takes $1.7 dollars of federal funds for every $1.00 it sends in?  Or, do the you mean the efficient Alabama government with the largest number of people relying on  food stamps?

Things that make you go Hmmmm....

 Leave it to a congressman from the ex-Confederacy, where the white rape of black women has a long and sordid history, to hold up the Violence Against Women Act in order to protect white men from prosecution by tribal courts if they rape a Native American woman.

 So let me get this straight, the same men who want to arm teachers ( most of whom are females), voted against the violence against women act,  but passed laws requiring women to have a vaginal ultrasound before they can obtain a safe, legal, abortion?  They trust women with a child and and a gun, but they don't trust them with a choice. Hmmm....

Meanwhile under the radar, did you know President Obama signed an executive order giving Congress a pay raise?  Yep, the same Congress that is talking about cutting food stamps, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.   This is one of those rare times I agree with the republicans.

Fortunately, the Republicans agree that the idea of this lot getting a raise is obscene. Obama must be the most out-of-touch politician Inside-the-Beltway. These bums make $174,000, although the Speaker makes $223,500 and the 4 party leaders make $193,400 each-- have gigantically rich benefits packages and cushy retirement plans that no one else in America gets. On touch of that, most of them are corrupt and spend most of their energy feathering their own nests in countless schemes and scams.

Filibuster reform coming to the Senate? I HOPE so, and not a minute too soon.  I'm tired of being held hostage by the right wing Bully's.   Make them talk so the whole world can see/hear them.

Liberals say the Levin-McCain proposal is inadequate because it would not implement their highest-priority reform, the so-called talking filibuster.
Udall and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore), the leading advocates for filibuster reform, say lawmakers who filibuster legislation should be required to actively hold the floor and debate. This would make it more arduous for senators who want to hold up business — they would have to organize teams to hold the floor for days or even weeks on end.
Udall said he would have to be convinced to support the Levin-McCain plan because it would not implement a talking filibuster rule, which he said is “the heart of the matter”

GOP=Gerrymandering Over People.  Nobody can turn the losers into the winners, and the winners into the losers,  like the GOP. Although a  majority of voters voted for democrats, republicans won,  thanks to republican gerrymandering enabled by  the conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court.

 Worse, top Republicans are already threatening to use the looming debt ceiling fight to torpedo the entire U.S. economy unless Congress agrees to slash Social Security or Medicare benefits for seniors. They will have the leverage to attempt this because the incoming House bears no resemblance to the one America actually voted for. And individual Republican House members will be able to engage in this political dangerous game of chicken comfortable in the knowledge that partisan gerrymandering makes many of them untouchable in a general election.

Para quoting the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D. MN) I dare imagine a country where every child has equal access to a quality public education, regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of their gender, regardless of their address, regardless of their parents income,  where every child will have the chance to reach their full potential. What we have here is a  Race to the top for the fortunate few, the rest, not so much.  Blame public school teachers.  Snark

"There's a stark wealth gap in New York between black and brown families versus white families. This is reflected in the school system, where property taxes are used to fund schools, which translates to higher salaries for teachers who can instruct advanced courses and facilitate expanded college-counseling services,"

Congratulations to Wayne Bennett, organizer, publisher and founder of the award winning The Field Negro blog, for being named Politics 365 Game Changer of the the day.

 While his blog is known for covering national affairs that affect Black Americans in an unconventional tone, The Field Negro is also known for letting its commenter's voice their opinions on what is published on the blog without being censored.

 Real liberal quotes from real liberals.

 Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.~ President Abraham Lincoln

We do not own many media outlets, but what we can be is more responsive. We must counter the hate radio movement with programs that provide useful and helpful information.~ Bernie Hayes The St. Louis American  

RedEye Over and Out...for now.

"All we want is make us free."~ The Armistad Revolt

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the day President Abraham Lincoln (R. IL) signed the Emancipation Proclamation as our  nation approached the third year of the War between the States.

The proclamation declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free."

So, I'm sitting here 150 years later wondering how the party that freed the slaves turned into the party that is trying to bring back slavery?   The answer can be found in the graphic below. 

 

 See the areas in red?  These are the states that are covered by the Emancipation Proclamation.  Slave holding states not covered are in blue.  Is it a coincidence the states responsible for putting the most Tea Party representatives in the house are all members of the former Confederacy?  I think NOT.  

The goals, methods and passions of the Tea Party in the House are all characteristic of the radical southern right.

The mainstream media have completely missed the story, by portraying the Tea Party movement in ideological rather than regional terms. Whether by accident or design, the public faces of the Tea Party in the House are Midwesterners — Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann and Joe Walsh of Illinois. But while there may be Tea Party sympathizers throughout the country, in the House of Representatives the Tea Party faction that has used the debt ceiling issue to plunge the nation into crisis is overwhelmingly Southern in its origins:

From the Armistad Revolt, the the Emancipation Proclamation, to now,  all we want is make us free.

John Quincy Adams: [to the Court] This man is black. We can all see that. But, can we also see as easily, that which is equally true? That he is the only true hero in this room. Now, if he were white, he wouldn't be standing before this court fighting for his life. If he were white and his enslavers were British, he wouldn't be standing, so heavy the weight of the medals and honors we would bestow upon him. Songs would be written about him. The great authors of our times would fill books about him. His story would be told and retold, in our classrooms. Our children, because we would make sure of it, would know his name as well as they know Patrick Henry's. Yet, if the South is right, what are we to do with that embarrassing, annoying document, The Declaration of Independence? What of its conceits? "All men created equal," "inalienable rights," "life, liberty," and so on and so forth? What on Earth are we to do with this? I have a modest suggestion.
[tears papers in half]

Welcome to 2013!

Emancipation Sunday

January 1, 2011 marked the 148th anniversary of President Lincoln signing an Executive Order ending Slavery and freeing 3.1 million of the nation's 4 million slaves, and immediately freed 50,000 of them, with the rest freed as Union armies advanced.

This act by President Lincoln probably cost him his life. In the 148 ensuing years since the signage of the Emancipation Proclamation, there are some who would argue African Americans still aren't free. And, there are some who still try and deny African Americans the equality and freedom promised by the Emancipation Proclamation.

Although African Americans make up 25% of the population, they make up 75% of the prison population. Does that mean African Americans commit more crimes? No, it means African Americans are accused and convicted of crimes more than white Americans. An African American male is more likely to go to prison than to college in America.

There are no second chances for African Americans as evidenced by Swanson Food Heir and Talking TeeVee Pundit Head Tucker Carlson saying Michael Vick should be executed because he funded Cousin Pooky nem's dog fighting enterprise. Never mind the fact Vick paid for his crime. Compare that to the slap on the wrist white, conservative, activist James O'Keefe received for attempting to tamper with Senator Mary Landrieu phone lines, AFTER he posed as a pimp and selectively edited videos of his infiltration of ACCORN offices.

Then there are those who tell African Americans they should get over Slavery but celebrate the Confederacy every chance they get.

I grew up in the South, I know how white folks feel about the days of mint juleps, swinging parasols, and darkies in the fields. They swallow that garbage like a black man in the RNC swallows his pride. Gulp.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not characterizing all white people as racist. I know from personal and professional experience all white people don't fit the racist stereotype. From the early abolitionist to the Freedom Riders and Viola Luzzio whites have fought along side blacks for equal rights and social justice.

White people publicly standing up against racism AWESOME!!

Accountability and White Anti-racist Organizing lights the path for White anti-racist activists to become effective in their work and build sustainability as a collective. Accountability is the key to building cross racial relationships in the movement to undo racism and create a more just society.

Is it going to take another Civil War, or another 148 years before we all are free and freedom rings from every mountaintop and every valley? We need more white Americans to step out of their postition of privilege and stand up against racism. People of color live with racism every day, we can't "opt out".

The winners vs the losers, the new American Way

That's right (pun intended), America the Beautiful is no longer the land of the free and the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all, It's America the Corporation, land of the haves and the have nots, with liberty and justice for the fortunate few, the rest are on their own. Where the rich get richer and the rest get the shaft. God Bless the New American Way!

According the people in control of our state and national government, the federal government is trying to "redistribute the wealth" by taking from the winners and giving to the losers. Asking the winners to pay their fair share of taxes means the federal government is punishing the winners for being successful. According to the powerful privileged, the winners are winners through hard work, and the losers are losers because they are lazy and want the government to take care of them. The losers don't deserve to have access to quality affordable health care if they get sick because they are well...losers. The losers should just go somewhere and STFD and STFU. And to think, this comes from the family values, compassionate, christian, conservative crowd. There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.

So, how and when did this happen? When did the United States of America morph into the United States of the Rich vs Middle Class/Poor? How did the billionaires convince the have nots they were their friend?

In the next month, despite all their loud rhetoric about the "deficit crisis," the Republicans want to add $700 billion to the national debt over the next 10 years by extending Bush's tax breaks for the top 2 percent. Families who earn $1 million a year or more would receive, on average, a tax break of $100,000 a year. The Republicans also want to eliminate or significantly reduce the estate tax, which has existed since 1916. Its elimination would add, over 10 years, about $1 trillion to our national debt and all of the benefits would go to the top 0.3 percent. Over 99.7 percent of American families would not gain a nickel. The Walton family of WalMart would receive an estimated tax break of more than $30 billion by repealing the estate tax.

Bob Herbet says all we are good at is bulldozing money to the very wealthy

We’ve become a hapless, can’t-do society, and it’s, frankly, embarrassing. Public figures talk endlessly about “transformative changes” in public education, but the years go by and we see no such thing. Politicians across the spectrum insist that they are all about job creation while the employment situation in the real world remains beyond pathetic.

The winners are obsessed with so called deficit spending/reduction, constitution reform and ethics reform because it's a convenient weapon of mass distraction from the real issues, facing real people

In a recent poll, only 4% of Americans identified deficit reduction as the most important issue to be addressed in Congress right now. By comparison, 56% of Americans identified jobs and the economy as the most important issues. These polling results are one reason that it is important, as we explained previously, for the Democrats to avoid getting caught up in the current obsession in the D.C. media and political circles with the deficit.

How is it the winners have any creditability anyway?

What is it, exactly, that the Republican Party stands for? They have a PR rep for being strong on the military, strong on fiscal discipline and strong on traditional values. The problem is that over the last couple of years we have seen that, as a group, they really don’t have any credibility on any of these issues.

The idea that a part who is calling for 700 billion in tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, money that will have to be borrowed, while at the same time braying about the size of the deficit is not one that can truly be credible on the issue of financing the government. The tax breaks they are ready to defend, at the cost of raising the taxes on the middle class in the middle of the worst economic climate in more than two generations. Not a single Republican would answer what they would cut to pay for this windfall for the ultra wealthy prior to the election or even now.

When are the real republicans going to take their party back from the winners?

Boehner weeps for his dad. Cantor mumbles. Palin communes with bears. One of the least diverse, least intellectually-equipped group of freshmen Congressmen invades Washington soon--to lead, create, fix? Nah, to attack and tear up.

I want my Democracy back. You know, the one where there are no red states and blue states, but the United States of America, with liberty and justice for ALL not for some. The United States of America where black, brown, red children have equal opportunities. I want my American Way back. The American way of helping people who need help. The American Way where everybody has the inalienable right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness, regardless of race, gender, circumstance or political party.

I knew this was going to happen

All of my political instincts told me there was going to be huge black, I mean backlash when Barack Hussein Obama won the 2008 Presidential election.

I knew all the talk of a post racial America, and the Abraham Lincoln narrative was just media driven bullpoop.

I knew the red,republican, confederate,slave states weren't going to let President Obama govern.

I knew the democrats would be spineless.

Based on this country's rich southern heritage and history I just knew it was going to be bad news for African Americans, our LBGT sisters and brothers, immigrants, labor,public schools,women's reproductive rights, voting rights, and health care reform.

As Bill Maher said, democrat is the new republican.

Last week Bill Maher called out Obama for pussy-footing around in the face of an audacious onslaught from Corporate America. He made clear that the President needs to show a little audacity of his own if he hopes to beat the health care companies, the energy companies, and the legions of powerful lobbyists swarming Capitol Hill.

I tried to tell y'all how this was going to play out way back when President Obama was first elected with one of my first blogs at Left in Alabama

Here is a quick Civics lesson so the right wing media talking points can be refuted. Democrats make a big mistake believing most people know how our Government works.

Although Democrats are in the majority in Congress it is a small majority, therefore Democrats CAN NOT OVER RIDE A VETO. This means any BILLS passed by Congress a VETO by the President or NOT SIGNED does NOT become LAW.

Democrats do have enough votes in the Senate to stop a filibuster, which in fact will KILL legislation. Democrats DO NOT have enough votes to remove the President or Vice President after Impeachment. Congress needs an over riding majority to pass legislation the President does not want.

Well we know how that story ended, democrats pussy footed around and lost the filibuster proof majority.

Then came the stimulus bill despite the gop and the right wing media's efforts to derail it. republican'ts gambled (pun intended) on the stimulus bill failing because they believed the American people will be stupid enough to vote them into power again.Oh wait...the America people were stoopid enough to vote them into power again! How did that happen you ask? Republican governors controlled the stimulus spending and they made sure the funds went to the people who didn't need it and not to the people it was intended to help so they could yell out of control,big government, spending, and ask where are the jobs,instead of the fact the economic stimulus package included one of the largest tax cuts in American history -- $282 billion in tax cuts over two years.

Of course the stimulus bill could not pass without some capitulation,I mean compromise on the part of POTUS,which a lot of folks,including moi tried to tell y'all was not a good idea.

Congressional leaders scale down plan to about $789 billion, a smaller package than versions of bill passed earlier by either body. Translation; Less spending for the poor and the middle class more tax cuts for the rich.

How did the winners become the losers and the losers become the winners? Check out this answer from my inbox;

These cuts were the price the Senate Democrats had to pay to get the three republican votes to filibuster proof the senate bill.. Without these three votes(giving the majority Democrats 61 votes) the Republican minority would still be filibustering on the floor of the Senate. Now the "conference " of the house and senate is hammering out a bill that can be supported by a simple majority of both bodies. And we'll have a bill for the President to sign. How wonderful it would have been for the Democrats to have elected 60 senators, so they would not have had to compromise with Republicans. Now Obama and the House democrats had to give up education and state incentive stimulus to have a bill at all, while the Republicans got additional tax cuts for the rich. It may not be the best system, but it beats hands down any other option.

To be clear republicans voted against the jobs bill, unemployment extension, and raising the minimum wage then campaigned and won on a where are the jobs,and we are going to create jobs meme, and the majority of the American people fell for it. Of course the gop infused,media enabled Tea Party helped.

To be clear, this is what Sessions and Shelby in the Senate and Griffith, Bright, Aderholt, Bacchus and the entire Bama House delegation (sans Davis) voted against on behalf of the Alabama citizens;

Impact on Alabama

Creating or saving 55,000 jobs over the next two years.
Providing a making work pay tax cut of up to $1,000 for 1,770,000 workers and their families
Making 70,000 families eligible for a new American Opportunity Tax Credit to make college affordable.
Offering an addition $100 per month in unemployment insurance benefits to 247,000 workers in Alabama who have lost their jobs this recession.
Providing funding to modernize at least 156 schools in Alabama so our children have the labs, classrooms and libraries they need to compete in the 21st century economy.
President Obama has made it clear that his recovery package is just one component of what we need to to to get the economy moving again. He knows that we also need to make sure we have better financial regulation, and that we act swiftly to get credit flowing again. And of course, we going to have to engage with our partners around the world.

Which brings me to the sad,sorry state of the democratic party in the reddest state in the union. Democrats are jumping ship like rats off the Titanic and republicans now have a super majority in the state house and the state senate. They aren't even pretending anymore because they now have the power to do anything they want to do. And what is the Alabama democratic party doing about it? When they aren't bashing and smashing Joe Reed they are standing around with their hands in their pockets whistling Dixie. Everybody was hollering at state Senator Hank Sanders because he sounded the alarm instead of listening to him. Or maybe they did listen to him but didn't care...per DaleJackson;

"The African American vote is a powerful voting block. Both parties realize they can't win elections without the African American vote, so is their plan to neutralize it's block voting strength? Really, the GOP did pretty good without them last election. Fsct(sic): The 90+% Dem vote for blacks regardless of behavior has rendered that block feckless. You get lip-service and nothing more. The GOP won't get you and the Dems got ya.

Were we punk'd? You betcha. Are we in trouble yet? You betcha. How did we get here, and where do we go from here? God only knows.

Redeye tiptoeing away from the computer still waiting to exhale...

I won't exhale until our sons and daughters are bought home from Iraq. I won't exhale until torture is stopped. I won't exhale until Gitmo is closed. I won't exhale until the next Attorney General is named. I won't exhale until all Americans have access to quality healthcare. I won't exhale until all children have equal access to a quality education. I won't exhale until won't until we have peace and prosperity again. I won't exhale until we get our democracy back.

Memorial Day Musings

At it's inception Memorial Day was known as Decoration Day,originating after the Civil War to honor , it originated in the years following the Civil War to acknowledge the brave Americans who fought in the Civil War and to decorate their graves. Ironically the red, republican, confederate,slave states hold a seperate holiday to honor soliders who died fighting against the United States of America. They can't honor soldiers on Memorial Day with the rest of the nation, that would be too much like right (pun intended), they have to have a *ahem* seperate holiday.

Columnist Leonard Pitts notes they have never been on our side.

“They” meaning social conservatives. “Our” meaning African-American people.

They were not there in the century after the Civil War, as conservative Southern Democrats violently repressed would-be black voters, made a shadow government of the Ku Klux Klan, turned a deaf ear to the howling of lynch mobs and lynch victims. They have not been there in the half century since, as conservative Southern Republicans fought affirmative action, poverty programs, and attempts to ban the American swastika, i.e., the Confederate battle flag, from public lands.

I hate to tell Linda Chavez, but Rand Paul and Russell Pearce are the ugly face of the gop.

Are the likes of Rand Paul and Russell Pearce becoming the face of the Republican Party? Let's hope not. Paul, an ophthalmologist who recently became the Senate nominee from Kentucky, has already embroiled himself in controversy over his comments about the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Pearce, the Arizona legislator who sponsored the state's tough anti-illegal immigrant law, has now decided to target not only illegal immigrants but their U.S.-citizen children as well. Both men represent the soft underbelly of the populist movement that catapulted them to fame —and a danger to the future of the Republican Party.

The time to celebrate and remember Memorial/Decoration Day is on election day because for military families , the day is compounded by far more than sleeping in, grilling and beer. It's a day to honor the lives of the soldiers who put themselves into the hands of the officials whom we as a citizenry elect, the soldiers who say "I'll follow your orders" whether they want to or not, for the country.


Remember when you go to the polls and pull that lever you are giving elected officials the authority and the power to send our sons and daughters to war. Remember that pResident George W. Bush sent our troops to Iraq based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE. Remember that President Abraham Lincoln sent our troops to war to preserve the Union. Remember all the wars and rumors of wars when you pull that lever. Remember our troops are fighting in the name of ALL Americans, regardless of race, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation or economic circumstance. Remember they aren't laying their lives and limbs on the line for the red states or the blue states but the United States of America. With liberty and justice for ALL.

George R. Nixon said it best in a letter to the Editor in today's Huntsville Times
GOP knows all
Well, the election is here and it looks to me like the Republicans will win it all. It must really be nice to be a Republican at this time. You know all the questions; just none of the answers.

If anyone questions you or disagrees with anything you say, they are un-American, socialist, and worst of all, a liberal.

You care little about the working man so long as he keeps voting to support Big Business and the rich.

You say you believe in God, but that is only on Sunday, while the rest of the week, you don't practice what he teaches.

You talk about cutting government spending, yet all you do is cut those programs that benefit the poor and uneducated.

Most of all, you know you have the money and backing from Big Business and corporations to outspend anyone who runs against you.

You say you don't want the federal government in your business, yet I haven't seen one Republican turn down or give back any money the federal government has given him.

Finally, you can blame everyone else and claim you had no hand into getting us into any of the problems we now have. Yes, it must be nice to be a Republican.
George R. Nixon



Redeye, tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray voters remember Memorial Day today and on election day tomorrow.