Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Alabama's Black Belt

Obama, Alabama officials pledge aid for white storm survivors, black storm storm survivors not so much.

If you look closely at the photograph attached to this diary of a VIP group walking with President Obama, I count nine individuals....Two in the front row, three in the middle row and four in the back, one of whom is barely visible as a pair of grey-trousered legs and the corner of a face. Two of them -- counting the President -- are non-white, one more may be.

The proportion of non-white persons in Alabama's population is about 29%, so 22%, or better 33%, persons of color (2 or 3 out of 9) would not be far out of line with the state population.

According to the same source, the proportion of persons in the population of Alabama who happen to be female is almost 52%. Female persons in the VIP group including President Obama: precisely zero.

Band Director Ryan Campbell watched his Sumter Central High School Tigers marching band strut last week on a field outside the gleaming new public high school in Sumter County.

"Where are the white kids?" a visitor asked.

"At the academy down the road," Campbell said, referring to private Sumter Academy.

And this is why Governor Bentley and the red, republican controlled state legislature robbed the public education budget to the tune of $80 million dollars.   This is why public schools (not to be confused with segregation academies) are failing, or should EYE say, being failed? 

If you're thinking of moving to Huntsville, or the State of Alabama I hope you don't have any k-12 school children. If you are not affluent enough to live in a neighborhood with the best public schools your tax dollars can buy, or afford to send your student to private schools, your children are tough out of luck, because of the sad, sorry state of separate and unequal education in Huntsville, and the state of Alabama. Over 50 years after Brown v. Board ordered schools to integrate Alabama is still the state of segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and it looks like segregation forever.

Officially, the news out of Alabama is this:

Alabama's Republican-controlled legislature and governor's office are committed to cutting the state's budget and the size of state government. That means the state will slice into the money available to a number of public agencies. And the Department of Public Safety, which includes the state's offices that issue driver's licenses, will simply have to take an $11 million hit. To make that math work, the agency will shutter driver's license offices in the state's most sparsely populated counties.

B-But it's not racial, it's just a coincidence the DMV offices slated for closing are in the Black Belt.  If it was really about saving money Governor Bentley would expand Medicaid.  But if he did that people who need access to health care the most might benefit.

Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District in the center of the state. It includes a region called the Black Belt, which has some of the poorest counties in the Southeast and the nation.

A recent national study on county-by-county health rankings published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that several counties in Davis’ district had high poverty, inadequate access to primary care doctors and a large numbers of uninsured residents.

Sumter, Hale and Greene counties had less than half the number of doctors recommended for their size populations, and 13 percent to 16 percent of the residents were uninsured, the survey showed.

Saving money my Donkey.  If it were about saving money they wouldn't be appealing  the Victory Land verdict.  Heck, they wouldn't have closed Victory Land in the first place.

If the cries of Montgomery politicians under indictment don’t generate sympathy, certainly the lamentation of unemployed workers in the Black Belt does. One effect of the bribe-induced Riley-Canary war on bingo in Alabama is the closure of bingo operations in Greene, Macon and Houston Counties, that employed literally thousands of workers, and brought millions of dollars annually to local government treasuries. We all wish that overwhelmingly black Greene and Macon Counties had bulldozers clearing land for new automotive and electronics plants, or for high-powered biology labs or computer engineering firms, but that’s the progress of the next generation. Right now, those counties are absolutely dependent on the entertainment and gaming business for their economic survival, and Obama’s what-me-worry attitude about Canary has placed that survival in jeopardy. Even in the white-majority Wiregrass, it’s probably safe to assume that Country Crossing employed a fair number of African-Americans in its service sector jobs. Had Bob Riley needed to worry about a U.S. Attorney with integrity in Montgomery, he would likely not have earned his Mississippi Choctaw bribes by shutting down the bingo halls, and the Legislature would probably have put a bingo referendum on this November’s ballot.

This is why EYE weep for the residents of Alabama's Black Belt, our state, and our country.

You’re either going to treat us right, or we’re going to withdraw from you our economic support,We intend to boycott Christmas, but not Jesus,”said Farrakhan. “So on Black Friday, we won’t be there.”‪#‎JusticeOrElse‬ #NotOneDime

From the Files of Stuck on Stoopid in Alabama Second Editon

Artur Davis

Just when you thought things couldn't get any wackier in Sweet Home Alabama we learn former democrat turned republican,  Congress Critter Artur Davis is back and running for Mayor of Montgomery, Al.

Either Davis  believes voters in Montgomery have a chronic case of amnesia, or, he thinks they are stuck on stoopid.

Bye-bye, Democratic Party ... or as the right wing Daily Caller originally put it: Former Alabama Democratic Rep. Artur Davis has come out of the closet -- as a Republican.

In the interest of full disclosure, and for those who don't know,  Artur Davis ripped his drawers with me a six ago, and I hold my non support of his gubernatorial aspirations partially responsible for me being booted and banned from the pages of Left in Alabama. 

Davis supporter, and regular columnist for Alabama Media Group Cameron Smith  says,  Even if you don't like Artur Davis Montgomery should hear him out.

Alabamians from both ends of the political spectrum are willing to take pot shots at Davis. Democrats rejected his gubernatorial bid because he was not liberal enough for their base, and many Republicans are skeptical of a candidate who used to be a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. And then there is the matter of his leaving for Virginia once that race was done.
But unlike many politicians, Davis is more interested in answering his critics than avoiding them.

 Pots shots?  Is that what you call honest criticism of Davis' actions?

Alabama District 7 is 61.7% African-American. 72.2% live in urban areas (primarily Birmingham, Bessemer, Tuscaloosa, Selma and Demopolis). The district’s median per capita income was $26,672.
NO group is disproportionately uninsured than Black folks, and he voted AGAINST healthcare reform.
Uh huh.
No group is at the BOTTOM of nearly all healthcare statistics like Black folks, and he voted AGAINST healthcare reform.
Uh huh.

RedEYE can't wait to see how Davis answers his critics. 

Davis is a political enigma in Alabama, the kind of moderate pragmatist that drives the partisan purists wild, a market-minded politician who sees a helpful role for government to play. Davis embraces it noting,

RedEYE can't wait to see how that embracing nothing works out for Artur this time.

Stuck on Stoopid in Alabama to be continued.....

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

H/T Left in Alabama

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Addendum

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

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

The End.

Throwback Thursday: It's voter fraud because Artur Davis say's it's voter fraud

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On Voter ID Law- Outspoken AL State Rep Hides Behind Blue Dog Dem turned Republican.

Politics Nation's Al Sharpton did a good job of hitting Alabama State Rep. Kerry Rich for just that during an interview this Wednesday on MSNBC and with pushing back at the notion that invoking Davis justified the impact of the law and the fact that it is designed to do exactly one thing, and that's keep people from voting. As Sharpton noted during the interview, actual cases of voter fraud are virtually nonexistent, but that didn't keep Rich from insisting repeatedly that it was a problem. Of course there's voter fraud going on, because Artur Davis told me so. Pitiful. And these guys claim to be the party of "personal responsibility." Except of course they never want to take responsibility for anything they do. Either blame it on someone else, deny the facts and if that doesn't work, just make up your own alternate reality.

Alabama Republicans are totally delusional.

Voter suppression is not something made up by paranoid African Americans

African Americans are constantly told that voter suppression is some made up pipe-dream by-election stealing African American voters.

We are told we are "stupid" and there is no such thing as voter suppression.

Except clearly there is.  The Washington Post Aaron Blake writes this:

Black voters played a huge role in delivering Barack Obama to the White House in 2008 and 2012. And in 2014, they will play a huge role in determining whether the president's party can stop Republicans from taking the Senate.

So I guess we are supposed to believe it's a coincidence the first things red, republican controlled state legislatures did when they became the majority is enacted strict Voter ID laws under the guise of combating almost nonexistent "voter fraud." ?

Despite the GOP’s avowal to reach out to new constituencies following the 2012 election, Republican state legislators have continued to support new voting restrictions in 2013. According to a report by Project Vote, fifty-five new voting restrictions have been introduced in thirty states so far this year. “The 2013 legislative season has once again brought an onslaught of bills to restrict access to the ballot, including proposals to undercut important election laws that have recently opened the electorate to more voters,” writes Erin Ferns Lee. These measures include “strict photo ID policies…voter registration restrictions; voter purges; [felon] disenfranchisement; and policies to cut back or revoke voting laws that have made voting more convenient.” By my count, 235 new voting restrictions have been introduced in forty-four states over the past three years.

And where does the majority of the outcry of voter fraud come from?  It comes from republicans and sore losers who don't think African-Americans should have the right (pun intended) to vote unless they are voting for republicans of course.

So here we are, 3 months before a primary and we will have the usual jokers out moaning that Voter ID laws will suppress turnout in the black community. From the President Barack Obama tore into state voter ID laws Friday when speaking to the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, accusing Republicans of trying to block minorities, women and seniors from voting and calling the laws a fraud.
But the reality is much better than this, it will suppress illegal turnout in the black community.

Just so you know Radio Boy, there is no illegal turnout in the black community.  The right to vote is scared to the black community.  It is steeped in blood, sweat, tears, courage, and sacrifice.  It is the only weapon we have to protect the very freedoms you hate us for having.

That's why we don't think Voter Suppression with the State Seal of Approval is funny. It's why we shake our heads at the tough Voter ID Laws enacted by red republican state legislatures. It's why we get weep silently when real voter fraud/suppression gets a slap on the wrist, and the imagined voter fraud is prosecuted to the full extent of the law. It's like  1965 all over again.

America.gov

Today's Must Read
Why Obama and the Left Are Hated

RedEye's Sunday Blog Stroll

TEApublicans hate us for our freedom.  The question is why?  Despite the fact the Department of Justice ordered the great state of Florida to halt it's voter roll purge, the great state of Florida is Standing it's Ground.

TEApublicans care more about keeping poor women (not to be confused with rich women) from obtaining a safe, legal, abortion than they care about jobs, poverty, or debt thanks to the UNfair and Unbalanced media, who enable them to carry out WAR on everything for ratings.

Today's Must Read- A Tale of  Two Nations and their future teachers

Yes Sundog, I am out here, but as you well know, I can't comment at Left in Alabama because I was right (your words) about Artur Davis.  For the record I never dogged (your words)  Artur Davis or his supporters,personally, It was always about his politics.  Although I've been banned for life from participating in the discussion Left in Alabama, you are always welcome at RedEye's Front Page.
 

A Memorial Day Photo Blog with Links and Commentary

Say, have you seen my Democracy?  You know the Democracy with Liberty and Justice for ALL? Not the Democracy that sent our sons and daughters to W-ar based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE, and not look back, but will look back at a democratic Presidential Candidate who wanted to end poverty.  SMH

America is The Land of the Free because of the Brave.  The first Memorial Day was celebrated on May 1, in 1865 by freed slaves, missionaries and teachers,  in a ceremony honoring Union soldiers who died in a Confederate Prison Camp in Charleston, South Carolina.

None dare call it Treason.  Yet they want us to sing God Bless America?  No, No and,

NO.

God HELP America sing America again.

I, Too, Sing America By Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.

They send me to eat in the kitchen

When company comes,

But I laugh,

And eat well,

And grow strong.

Tomorrow,

I'll be at the table

When company comes.

Nobody'll dare

Say to me,

"Eat in the kitchen,"

Then.

Besides, 

They'll see how beautiful I am

And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

Putting a Black Face on Racist Racism Redux

Heather at Crooks and Liars ask:

So what does a Republican politician do when they can't give a good answer on why they think it's acceptable to disenfranchise millions of people with a voter ID law they just sponsored? Why blame it all on a Democratic sell out and Blue Dog, Artur Davis, who was rejected by the electorate in 2010, naturally.

Putting a black face on racist, racism,  Sweet Home Alabama Style!

RICH: Well, let me just quote Artur Davis. That`s the former black congressman from Alabama. He represented Selma, represented a portion of Montgomery and a good man. But, anyway, he said I have changed my mind on voter I.D. laws. He said, I think Alabama did the right thing passing one. He went on to say he said when I was congressman, I took the path of least resistance on this subject. And without any evidence to back it up. What this is about is it`s about protecting people`s vote. If you look at our law, our law is patterned almost identical to the Georgia law. The Georgia law has already been approved by the U.S. Justice Department. There`s also been laws in Indiana and also in Rhode Island. Southern states are not the only states that are passing these laws.

Alabama Voter ID h/t Tax the Rich
Alabama voter ID registration:

Are you white?

Do you vote GOP?

Are you a racist?

Are you a bigot?
Do you listen to Rush Limbaugh or Fox news at least 10 times a week?

Do you got to an evangelical church?

Are you conservative?

If you answered NO to any of the above; you must have birth certificates of all ancestors going back 4 generations, pay a $10,000 registration fee, pick up a parking sticker that will enable you to park no closer than 6 miles from your voting precinct, and prove you are not a member of any unpatriotic organization; at which time you will be allowed to cast your vote between 3:00 a.m. and 4:15 a.m., on the day before the first Tuesday in November.

Artur Davis, this post is for Y-O-U!

The Attack on Voting Rights Isn’t Racist—Just Ask Artur Davis

25% of Black folks Don't Have ID...and it's not because they are lazy..it's because they are black, old, and or poor. Republicans know they can't win elections fair and square, so they have to steal them fair and square.

Read all about the 96-year-old African American woman who can't vote because she can't produce her marriage license in the red, Confederate, Slave, state of Tennessee.

Read all about how threatening letters blanket black neighborhoods warning that creditors and police officers will check would-be voters at the polls, or that elections are taking place on a wrong day.

What part of Voter ID is a Poll Tax by another name don't you and your republican pals understand?

Who is going to pay for the cost of the Voter ID? We the people? I thought Republicans wanted to cut federal spending?

Why is it everybody but you and your republican pals can see the ugly parallels between Jim Crow and modern voter suppression laws? Or is it that you don't want to see the ugly parallels?