Racial Profiling for Dummies

When black/brown/red/yellow skinned Americans are asked by law enforcement to show proof of citizenship because of the color of their skin, and white skinned Americans are not asked to show proof of citizenship, that is RACIAL PROFILING.

The Supreme Court basically gutted the Arizona Law and said the states had no business making immigration law, but righty's falsely believe they still have the right (pun intended) to racial profile.

Wrong!

Police do not have the right to stop and arrest "them" without a warrant because they look Hispanic, I mean illegal.

Immigrants don't have to carry their papers with "them" at all times.

Immigrants who seek or accept work without the  necessary documentation are not guilty of a crime.

Nor is being black and wearing a Hoodie.

Friday Photo Blog with Commentary

Remember when liberals ruined the country?

H/T Leftwing Nutjob via Progressive Soup Welcome to my Blogroll!

This is the latest  gop pResidential debate in a nutshell, 4 white guys with the access to the best health care their millions can buy telling millions of Americans who don't have access to quality, affordable health care they don't need access to health care because it's ObamaCare.  

This is the new face of the gop.  And she felt threatened by the President of the United States of America because he's a scary African American man surrounded by the Secret Service?  ROFLMAO!

Racism Chasing?  I report.  You decide.

Did you know Sean Hannity got his start in Alabama?  Are you surprised Hannity helps promote Newt Gingirchs foodstamp attack on President Obama?  Naaahh.  He's just helping Gingrich find his race card.

Happy Friday!

Redeye's National Week in Review

"Great events may stem from words of no importance"~African Proverb

The week begin with the right wing republicans and their media enablers scrambling to distance themselves from their words in the aftermath of the tragedy in Tucson,Arizona.

Can you be rabidly anti-government and not be political?

Apparently the answer is yes, according to the mainstream media, and even some of the progressive press.

It is a bit shocking to read news analysis variations on the Tucson shooter that are phrased along the lines of "Jared L. Loughner was not considered political, although he did express anti-government feelings."

Excuse me, but we don't know if the press has slept through what has been going on in the right-wing world of media and politics - particularly during the Obama administration - but the No. 1 political target of the radical right is the government! One doesn't need to be an active booster of the Republican Party to be a part of this dangerous political mindset.

But, but liberals do it too, they whined.

Liberals are so uncivilized. And intolerant. And they hate America, too. How dare they exercise their own free speech rights to condemn the free speech rights of Real Americans? Jeez, talk about your overreaction to some "lone nut" (like so many lone nuts before him) using his god-given second amendment rights to remedy the problem of liberal tyranny.

Terrorism in black, brown, red and white.

When a “crazy” White guy with a gun, wound up on polarized talking points and manifestos, indiscriminately kills innocent Americans in broad daylight, it takes several days in the aftermath before the larger public will even accept a hint of pre-meditation. Typically, the collective American psyche will initially trivialize the event by calling the perpetrator “deranged” or “mentally unstable.” The social response script is fashioned to fake us into a false sense of security. It’s isolated, they say. Just one crazed nut with a gun.

That dude who flew his plane into an IRS building? Isolated. Or the cat who waited for, scoped, then killed three Pittsburgh police officers? Crazy. What about the man who shot at the Panama City school board then shot himself? Off the edge.

Brown skin man with bombs strapped to his torso? Oh, that’s a terrorist.

It wasn't the speech I would have given but President Obama reached out to those who hate him with a great Kumbya speech. And how did they respond?

They are claiming that it was nothing more than a political rally for you and that your peeps were responsible for the pep rally type atmosphere in that arena last night. It was your peeps who printed all those "together we thrive" t-shirts in blue. ("Why not red? I thought you wanted unity, Obama?") You were responsible for some folks in the crowd booing the republi-clown governor. (She potentially caused the death of at least two people in her state. Her ass deserved to be booed.) You were responsible for all those dumbocratic stage managers running things. You were responsible for Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano being there. (BTW, where was the crying tan man?). It was you who allowed that Indi.....I mean Native American to give his "peculiar" prayer. It's all on you, Obama.

Did President Obama and us voters help set the stage for what happened in Arizona?

There is irony in Obama's speech because, in our view, he helped set the stage for the tragedy in Tucson. The president undoubtedly did not intend for blood to be shed at a political event. But his limp response to Republican lawlessness during the George W. Bush administration--plus voters' endorsement of a right-wing agenda in the 2010 midterm elections--helped create the toxic environment that led to the Giffords shooting.

The underlying causes of Jared Loughner's shooting spree go beyond ugly right-wing rhetoric. They also include ugly right-wing actions during the previous administration. Obama essentially has excused those actions, and many voters have more or less approved them by putting one house of Congress back in GOP hands. In our view, that means the president and large chunks of the voting public share in the blame for Saturday's bloodshed.

Is Blood Libel the beginning of the end of the mainstream media's obsession Sarah Palin?

Has Palin finally tarnished her luster with her thoughtless remarks about the Giffords shooting, or will she turn this into yet another opportunity to play the victim?

I vote for another opportunity to play the victim.

In the wake of President Obama's call for civility and unity are the republicans and their media enablers going to change? Are they going to be kinder, gentler republicans?

He who is bitten by a snake fears a lizard~African Proverb Ask gop token, I mean Chairman Michael Steele who is being rewarded for returning the Speakers Gavel to the gop by fighting for his job. *Snicker*

Steele, the brash former lieutenant governor of Maryland whose tenure has been marked by financial woes and verbal missteps, argues that he should be elected because of the GOP's record of coast-to-coast victories last fall, including winning control of the House, while he was chairman.

He doesn't mention that Republican operatives formed a network of outside groups that adopted traditional national party functions out of a concern about the RNC's ability under Steele to raise money and deploy resources to key races.

So let me get this straight, Michael Steele has served his purpose now it's time for him to GO? Now where have I heard that before?

Stay tuned for Redeye's Alabama Week in Review.

This is the speech I would write if I were President Obama's speechwriter

My Fellow Americans,

I come before you tonight to apologize to the victims of the Arizona Massacre for letting them down.. I not only let them down, I also let the people who voted for HOPE and CHANGE we can believe down. (Pause for applause)

You see, I mistakenly thought once I was elected I would be allowed to govern, however the republicans, led by Rush Limbaugh, wouldn't allow that because they wanted me to fail. I mistakenly believed they loved their country more than they hated the fact an African American Democrat was the President of the United States of America. I was wrong... again I apologize for not realizing this before more innocent blood was shed on American soil.

I've enabled and allowed my republican colleagues and the mainstream media to take my kindness for weakness. When I reached out to them and they cut off my arm I should have known there would be no compromise. Time after time I made concessions and offered an olive branch, each time I was rebuked or worse, made an offer I couldn't refuse.

My first mistake was not immediately authorizing Attorney General Eric Holder to restore honor and integrity to the justice department, because without justice there can be no peace.

I should have had Congressman Joe Wilson removed from the House Floor for calling me a liar on national and international TV.

I should have fought back against the Town Halls by holding my own Town Halls on the same day and the same time, and used the Bully pulpit more effectively.

I should have supported the public option instead of trying to appease the right wing, who doesn't like me, and will never like me, not because of the content of my character, but because of the color of my skin.

I should have never let the media force me to renounce, repudiate and reject my pastor and take his sermon out of context, like they are claiming the left is doing with Sarah Palins crosshairs tagets.(Wink)

I should have reinstated the Fairness Doctrine so the public airways couldn't be used to bombard the public with misinformation 24/7. There are two sides to every story and if the public only hears one side they will believe one side.

I should have called out the Birthers/Deathers for who and what they are, bigots who can't and won't accept the fact an African American man is the President of the United States of America.

I am tired of being bullied by the right wing bully's.

So, from this day forward, I say no more Mister Nice Guy, I'm going to be George W. Bush and Dick Cheney on steroids. I am going to fight the terrorist over HERE so we won't have to fight them over there. Speaker Bohner might as well get his giant crying towel handy. My Veto Pen is ready, willing and able to keep the gop from dismantling health care reform, DADT, or any other program that helps the middle class and the disenfranchised.

I have been so busy trying to keep my job I forgot to do my job.

My name is President Obama and I am the President of the United States of America.

Redeye's Tuesday Must Reads

FALSE EQUIVALENCY WATCH, CONT'D

the drive continues to insist that "both sides" are equally to blame for rhetorical excesses and the toxicity of our discourse. Ross Douthat offers the latest evidence, arguing, "If overheated rhetoric and martial imagery really led inexorably to murder, then both parties would belong in the dock."
This isn't surprising, given that the media establishment appears obligated to always blame "both sides" for everything at all times. But as Paul Krugman reminded folks, "Where's that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let's not make a false pretense of balance: it's coming, overwhelmingly, from the right."

The AZ Shooter Has All the Ingredients of a Tea Party Member

Jared Loughner may not have attended a Tea Party rally or registered with any Tea Party groups, but he shares several similarities with the Tea Party movement.

Move along, nothing to see here says the gop infused, media enabled Tea Party

Let's recap: A sprawling media infrastructure, including an entire television network, whips up prejudice, fear and outrage on the part of "good" or "real" (or "great" in the case of Hannity) Americans against everyone else, relentlessly spreading breathless paranoia from coast to coast 24 hours a day, day after day, year after year after year. Limbaugh, Beck and the rest of the carnival barkers, who care more about how many rubes they can attract to their medicine shows than they ever did about the country they profess to be protecting from icky liberals, have bullied their suggestible audiences, virtually every Republican politician, and not a few Democrats into lock-step fealty to malicious public policies based on a failed ideology.

Under the radar, something sad and weird.

A lobbyist for the energy industry was found dead in her sport utility vehicle early Monday. The lobbyist, Ashley Turton, 37, a regulatory affairs analyst for Progress Energy, which is based in North Carolina, appeared to have been backing out of her garage when her car hit it and caught fire. She is the wife of Daniel Turton, White House deputy director for legislative affairs for the House of Representatives.

False Equivalency and Trial by Media

What we have in the wake of Saturday's shootings in Arizona is a false equivalency, and a trial by media, in the media, for the media(also known as the court of public opinion). Could it be the mainstream media is feeling a tad bit defensive for their role in enabling the toxic state of political discourse by giving Sarah Palin and others a national and international platform?

Roger Ailes, president of the Republican network, offered the usual defense -- insisting that Jared Lee Loughner "was not attached" to Tea Partiers -- and said the criticism of Fox News is "just a bullshit way to use the death of a little girl to get Fox News in an argument."
But also Ailes went a little further, making two related points. The first is that he claims to have told his network's on-air talent to "shut up, tone it down, make your argument intellectually," and urged Fox News' team to stay away from "bombast." The second is that Ailes is convinced that "the Democrat [sic] Party" is just as bad: "This goes on ... both sides are wrong." Ailes added that he hopes "the other side" tells its team to tone down the rhetoric, too.

TeeVee Pundit Heads parade "expert" after "expert" before cameras declaring Jared Loughner is mentally ill without the benefit of a professional, independent examination. It is a weapon of mass distraction from the fact he attempted to assassinate a Democratic congresswoman in an atmosphere of violent threats against Democratic politicians.
If Loughner were an African American, a Muslim or an immigrant we would hear HOURS AND HOURS of debate about, shiftless blacks, radical Muslims, and them there illegal immigrants, not a mental illness.
Legal Schnauzer says the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Reveals Cluelessness Among American Elites and is an indication that a few of our nation's leaders are woefully out of touch with reality.

Many Americans, especially elites, tend to think of crime in a "bottom-up" fashion. It's something that an individual from a lower class inflicts upon an individual from a higher class. In that sense, Jared Loughner appears to be a standard-issue American criminal. He apparently is a troubled guy, perhaps inflamed by right-wing rhetoric, who had access to a gun and took out his anger on an innocent person from a higher class. Had one of Loughner's targets not been a member of Congress, many Americans probably would have never heard about the shooting. Many of us, after all, have become anesthetized to bottom-up crime.

For the media and elected officials attemppt to promote the spin this tragedy is the result of a "maniac" and not the result of a political assassination by a fanatic influenced by a toxic political culture is proof they believe the American people are stoopid, and we will believe anything they say, simply because they said it.
Prior to the Arizona Shootings, we had a campaign season rife with gun rhetoric by right wing republicans.

Robert Lowry, a Republican challenger to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schulz (D-FL), stopped by a local Republican event in October. The event was at a gun range, and Lowry shot at a human-shaped target that had Wasserman Schulz's initials written next to it. He later said it was a "mistake."

Geno at Pine Belt Progressive saw this coming and sounded the alarm in February of 2009.

I’m concentrating on studying white supremacy as a political movement until further notice. I need to know just how advanced it is at this point so that I can judge how best to deal with it.
It’s my general opinion that the way to deal with groups like this is to shine a spotlight on them. And I think when you do that, you typically find some people who have to be dealt with by the state, some who have to be defeated politically, and some who can be assisted by education.
I think a time may be coming when it will be necessary to confront these groups and deal with them. If so, the methods we use to confront them will determine whether we make the situation worse, or whether we make it better. So we must choose carefully.
For now, I will say that I am seeing some developments that concern me. I have a fairly alarming hypothesis about them that I am trying to confirm with evidence, and I am afraid they will be in a position to recruit a lot of real talent soon if they aren’t already. I think it is worthwhile to spend some time gathering evidence, and can think of nothing more important to spend my time on.

Geno also cautioned us not to forget about the white supremacists with this comment;

I'm afraid they're gonna have to be smacked down. Here's why. They've been forming totally new groups - chapters and cells -- for the entire time Bush was president. All these new orgs can recruit independently, and appeal to people with slightly different interests. And the numbers required to do great evil, assuming you have a committed and energetic rank-and-file with talented leadership, are smaller than one might think.

Driftglass warned us about the men and women who thrive and grow at the white hot core of the Pretty Hate Machine

Your Party Masters have burned your bridges and salted the Earth behind you, and now there is nothing left for you to do but desperately tunnel deeper into the Hell you have built for yourself.
Which is why John McCain now publicly grovels and kisses the poxy asses of the men who service and steered the Pretty Hate Machine diffidently past the bodies of the dead and dying of NOLA, and gleefully down the blood-tarred, bone-macadamed streets of Iraq. Men who went right after his family -- his wife and children -- and his honorable national service without a second thought when it suited their despicable purposes.
Because the Pretty Hate Machine does not come with a conscience, and it now casts its depraved shadow over their entire Party.
And over the entire nation that Party has seized.
And over the entire world that Party has polluted.
It has become all Means and no Ends but More Power, and as with all power, it comes with a steep price.

A steep price indeed. From "job killing" to "death panels" republicans have numbed us to their rhetoric, enabled by the mainstream media.

The GOP has relied on the phrase “job killing” to frame the repeal effort as an economic endeavor that will help create American jobs and sustain the economy, but conservatives probably didn’t give much thought to the implications of the word “killing,” having relied on the rhetoric of ‘life and death’ so frequently throughout the health care reform debate. In fact, if it wasn’t for Saturday’s shooting, few people would have seriously considered the real meaning of the GOP’s words. In the aftermath of “death panels,” suggestions that the law may “cost you your life“, kill more people, and abort babies, the Republicans have downright numbed us all to their frequent use of death imagery as a tool to ferment political opposition. A quick look through the past 18 months or so reveals a stunning array of messages warning Americans that the Democrats’ signature legislation would lead to death.

Once again I am begging President Obama to use the power invested in him by we the people to wrestle control of the message from the GOP infused, media enabled Tea Party and stop letting the MSM distort what we decide with all spin all the time. We didn't elect the media we elected Y-O-U. Yes, we DID.

I know that I am NOT culpable

SaintSatinStain, I respectfully disagree with your assertion we are all indirectly or just as responsible as Sarah Palin for the terrorism in Arizona. If I were allowed to post on Left in Alabama I would have posted this response there, but since I'm not I will post it here with HOPE you read and will respond accordingly.

You said;

You and I, along with some
politicians and public figures,
right and left, probably contribute
to the sickness with use
of the imagery of violence.

I don't use imagery of violence and I don't know of any democratic politicians or public figures who do. As Melissa Ewen of Shakesville says;

An anonymous commenter at Daily Kos and the last Republican vice presidential nominee are not equivalent, no matter how many ridiculously irresponsible members of the media would have us believe otherwise.

You said;

Public figures with a following
need to take special care
in what they say.

On this point I agree, however as Melissa points out again;

There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language ("Don't Retreat, RELOAD") to exhort her followers to action.

You said;

We all need to take care
in what we say in public
and in private.

I guess it depends on who WE IS. It's a slippery slope when some have to watch what they say and others don't.

There is no leftist equivalent to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group which was created from the mailing list of the old white supremacist White Citizens Councils and has been noted as becoming increasingly "radical and racist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies the CCC as a hate group—and is nonetheless considered an acceptable association by prominent members of the Republican Party, including a a former senator and the last Republican presidential nominee.

You said;

Call folk on it whenever they use violence imagery, especially in political debate
and in the public space.

Again we agree people who use violent imagery should be called on it, however it can't be taken out of context, there is a difference in saying "I clean my flintlock and leave it loaded by the door." as an imagery to express the strength of your feelings about our racial and racist past and telling people if you can't win at the ballot box, use bullets.

There is no leftist equivalent to Glenn Beck, host of a long-running nationally syndicated radio show, former host of a show on CNN and current host of a show on Fox, best-selling author, DC rally organizer, and longtime user of eliminationist rhetoric, including equating universal health care to rape, joking about victims of forest fires being America-hating liberals, comparing Al Gore to Hitler, condoning the murder of Michael Moore, accusing Holocaust survivor George Soros of being a Nazi collaborator, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi, equating immigration reform with burning US citizens alive, publicly endorsing violent revolution, and winkingly telling his viewers not to get violent, all of which amounts to a speck on the tip of a very big iceberg.

You said;

Believe in self defence
and defence of others, such as the weak,
but don't talk it, especially in public.
It may influence others, others
who don't perceive nuance real
and imagined.

What good is believing in self-defense and the defense of others if you can't talk about it? How you are you going to defend yourself and the weak with silence? IMHO that's why we're in this mess because those who believe in self-defense and the defense of others are silenced.

There is no leftist equivalent to Ann Coulter, best-selling author and syndicated columnist, who has been a panelist on Fox's Hannity 28 times and was on Hannity & Colmes an additional 18 times, who has been a guest multiple times on The O'Reilly Factor, Geraldo at Large, Larry King Live, Huckabee, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hardball, and other cable news shows, has made appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and has co-hosted The View, and has also said that a baseball bat is "the most effective way" to talk to liberals, as well as: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too." And: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building." And: "In [Clinton's] recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he 'did it,' even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate."

You said;

No ambiguity in cross hairs, especially when used in targeting context.

Rationalizations, such as claim that it's surveyors' cross hairs, are disingenuous, spurious, and profane.

Per Melissa Ewen;

This is not an argument there is no hatred, no inappropriate and even violent rhetoric, among US leftists. There is.

This is evidence that, although violent rhetoric exists among US leftists, it is not remotely on the same scale, and, more importantly, not an institutionally endorsed tactic, as it is among US right wingers.

This is a fact. It is not debatable.

I will not apologize for standing up to the right-wing bully's. I am not culpable and neither are you.

The shooting in Tucson was not an anomaly. It was an inevitability.

And as long as we continue to play this foolish game of "both sides are just as bad," and rely on trusty old ablism to dismiss Jared Lee Loughner as a crackpot—dutifully ignoring that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators; carefully pretending that the existence of people with mental illness who are potentially dangerous somehow absolves us of responsibility for violent rhetoric, as opposed to serving to underline precisely why it's irresponsible—it will be inevitable again.

Democrats are the ones under attack. Democrats who defend the defenseless.

Congressman Danny Davis reportedly received a threatening email following Saturday's shooting rampage in Arizona.

U.S. Rep. Davis, a Democrat from Chicago, told the Chicago Tribune the email was sent to a staffer and read "Danny Davis is next," likely referencing the Saturday shooting. Davis' staff then notified the authorities.

That's not my fault or your fault. WE are not the ones culpable.

Since Rep. Gabriel Giffords (D-AZ) and others were shot in Tucson, AZ this weekend, Sarah Palin has received renewed criticism for a map her PAC posted last year with gun cross-hairs over the districts of several Democrats who voted for health care reform — including Giffords’. Hours after the shooting, Fox News — which employs Palin — aired scenes from a vigil in Phoenix, but when one mourner appeared to began to call out Palin’s incendiary rhetoric, the Fox feed abruptly went to commercial.

Nor is Keith Olberman for calling them out and telling the world who they are and what they stand for.

It's another sad Sunday in America

Here we go again..another senseless act of domestic terrorism...a Democratic United States Congresswoman fighting for her life...a federal judge, a 9 year old girl are among the casualties...the media spinning the story like top for ratings...regurgitating the same old tired talking points... telling us what they want us to know instead of what we need to know...counting on we the people being too stoopid to realize we're being lied to...again.

The first thing I want to address is the lie the media is pushing that this now makes congressmen and politicians afraid to appear in public. BULLSHIT! This only makes DEMOCRATS fear to appear in public. Selling ads to the Tea Party is more important than the truth. It has gone too far.

Also Mr. Media, which of you will be first to use the correct term "TERRORISM" regarding this?

It's the same with shooting doctors in the back or one of our drones blowing up a wedding party. Americans are incapable of terrorism. Are we going to send Loughner to Gitmo and try him by military tribunal? Yeah right...

There is a clear and compelling case to be made of a pattern of right wing violence, so this "both sides are guilty" meme is another MSM brazen lie. Jill Tubman via JackandJillpolitics writes;

Here at JJP, we’ve been warning about the violent rhetoric of the right wing for sometime. We ain’t been sleeping on this because we continue to believe in the threat to our nation that inflammatory, anti-government, anti-Obama, unpatriotic, birther and secessionist language is creating for all Americans. Both the rhetoric and the violence it has inspired has ramped up considerably with the ascension of America’s first black president. Earlier this year, I shared with you that membership in right wing extremist groups went up by 244% in one year.

The coalition to stop gun violence has compiled a Insurrectionism Timeline which which tracks in compelling, terrifying detail the pattern of right wing threats & attacks since 2008.

Question of the day;

Riddle me this: Why would Jared Loughner be issued a 9mm automatic rifle if he were mentally disturbed?

These folks the media are pulling off the shelves are now coming forward and saying high deranged, strange loughner behaved, how scared they were of him, yet didn't come forward until now. They didn't report his behaviors to authorities if they felt so threatened, why not?

How dumb does the media think we are, watching them parade all these folks out to qualify that murderer as mentally ill is SICKENING.

Would someone please inform the media Americans are Sick of Derogatory Rhetorical BS being perpetrated under the guise of being fair and balanced?

A nine year old child is dead along with a Federal Judge and other innocent people. Congresswoman Gifford is fighting for her life and all because there are some folks like Palin, Beck, Bachmann, and Rush who like to stir up negative divisive BS. Whether they deny it or not they all have blood on their hands.

Politicians are not exempt.

Watching the politicians on the cable news channels is an exercise in disgust. Thy are posturing and voicing their sadness with their droopy eyes and all their bullshit but not one has talked about the fact that this nut case was instigated to do what he did by the angry and nasty political rhetoric that has been getting worse and worse over the past decade.

Let's call it like it is. . . the right uses violent and condemning rhetoric to polarize, scare and generally intimidate the voters. The left lets them get away with it instead of standing up to them and pointing out their recreant behavior by taking the high road.

Lies, damn lies and conservative opinions

The dominant theme amongst the wingnut bloggers is that the shooting in Tucson should not be politicized (not sure how you discuss a political assassination attempt apolitically but...) and if we must politicize it, let's make sure to paint Jared Lee Loughner as a liberal. It's a desperate scramble.

Now they want to be bipartisan.

In the aftermath of the Arizona shooting spree, House Republican leaders have cleared the legislative calendar for next week, which means that for the most part U.S. politics will slow to a crawl. Instead, members -- Democrats and Republicans -- will participate in a joint caucus meeting Wednesday, to be briefed on security precautions in the wake of the shooting.

One good thing that has come out of this tragedy, the gop has postponed it’s idiotic health care repeal vote. Maybe now they realize that it’s just a dumb stunt to make people dangerously angry with the government. But then again, maybe not.

"Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important." ~Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders

Maybe if Anderson Cooper and others had focused on these words instead of the over the top rhetoric, we wouldn't be in this mess.