Update~Paging JD Crow, Joey Kennedy and John Archibald!

Birmingham School Board Warts n'All Crowblog al.com

Oh how I wish self described moderately disturbed Press-Register cartoonist J.D. Crow,  Birmingham News Pulitzer Prize winner, editorial writer, columnist and blogger Joey Kennedy  and  metro columnist John Archibald would drive/fly up here to north Alabama and show their sister paper how to report on the superintendent  and the school board.

To be honest, I haven't been keeping up with what's going on within the Birmingham Public School system, I do know the mainstream media covers the school board like white on rice, and, they are not taking their foot out of the behinds of the school board, or the superintendent.

This is the kind of education reporting I wish we had in Huntsville, instead of the lap dog ( yes I said it) education reporting we have.  If it weren't for unpaid blogger Geek Palaver I never would have known there was a call for the superintendent to resign, and the citizens comments deck was stacked against the citizens.

If I relied on reporting from mainstream media as my sole source of information I would believe "the superintendent and board are bringing the schools back to the status they enjoyed as the best in the state."

Compare and contrast coverage of the Birmingham City School Board of Education with the Huntsville City School Board of Education

No problems here.
Everything is just lovely.
Pay your taxes and go back to sleep.
We have everything under control.

Yeah right.

Thomas Jefferson said democracy demands and educated and informed electorate.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." (as cited in Padover, 1939, p. 89)
". . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right." (as cited in Padover, 1939, p. 88)

The above quotes were the cornerstones of Jefferson's interest in education and the franchise. He placed education as the foundation of democracy and a prerequisite to vote.

I report.  You decide.

Today's Must Reads
The American Public's Distrust of the News Media Hits Record Low

The Bias of Mainstream Media

"Alabama is still treating the average black citizens like chattel"

kayman and I don't agree on much, but on this we can agree.

I see Alabama is still treating the average black citizens like chattel (0.00 / 0)
To be shuffled around like between owners every few years.

I'm not surprised at all. The idea of blacks been in the same community as some is bad enough so they move away from us. But GASP, if they reside in the same congressional district as them then it means they will not allow a white person be elected as their congressional representative, so GET THEM AWAY, GET THEM AWAY! It's so pathetic how aversive bias is still at work in this state when it comes to blacks. Some politicos can't even stare an iota of though to attempt to appeal to black citizens because that'll mean they have to deal with them.

As I've said time and time again, some people wonder why educated blacks evacuate Alabama like rats from a sinking ship. It's obvious that nobody respects us here, so we vote with our feet and go to places where we are appreciated.

I've been following the discussion at Left in Alabama concerning the Reapportionment Hearings and Dr. Joe L. Reed's request the committee look at creating a second minority black district in Alabama.

At yesterday's meeting in Montgomery, Dr. Joe Reed asked the Committee to look at creating a second majority black district in Alabama. AL-07, which includes Selma, is 62.8% African-American, is currently the only majority-minority district in the state and the only district held by a Democrat, Rep. Terri Sewell.

IMHO Alabama needs a second minority-majority district because in it's present state white folks end up deciding who should represent black folks.

Winding from the downtown skyline of Birmingham, southward through Selma, and almost to Mobile, is Alabama's 7th Congressional District. This is a district of history, providing Alabama with its first black Congressman since Reconstruction, and again poised to make history this year by electing its first woman to Congress, other than the widow of an incumbent. In terms of this blog, it also occurred to me that if I want to say something about this district, I'd best be typing, as the general election vote in this 63.3% black district promises to be one of the great yawners of November. The action, as it has been from this district's birth in the 1992 cycle, is in the Democratic primary.

This is, of course, an open seat, vacated by Artur Davis in his Quixotic bid to become a triangulating black governor of Alabama. The runoff gives voters a choice between Jefferson County Commissioner Shelia Smoot, and Birmingham lawyer Terri Sewell. Sewell led the primary with 36.8% of the vote, with Smoot getting 28.6%. State Representative Earl Hilliard, Jr., of Birmingham, son of the former Congressman from this district, narrowly missed the runoff with 26.8%, and Martha Bozeman, a former Davis staffer, trailed with 7.8%.

Smoot was considered the more progressive/liberal of the two candidates but Sewell had the financial support of white voters from Birmingham which fueled her victory.

This is an election for the people that ACTUALLY live in the district (4.00 / 1)
This is truly an election for the people that actually live in congressional district 7 and for people that can actually VOTE in the district. The problem is that way too many people and organizations are trying to influence it for the wrong reasons (I'm sure that many consider this subjective but it is really not). People that do not live in the district can give high level spin for candidates, write flashy blog posts, post misinformation about candidates, put up radio ads, act as tools of outside interest but in the end it is about the people that vote. It will be about the people who's everyday life is affected by their congressional representation.

Joey Kennedy at the Birmingham News posed the following:

Here are the facts: In Alabama, blacks make up 26.2 percent of the state's population. But only one of the state's congressional districts is majority black, the 7th District. That's just over 14 percent of the state's congressional districts.

One can understand why Joe Reed, the state Democratic Party's vice chairman for minority affairs is urging the Legislature's reapportionment committee to look at the possibility of creating a second majority-black district. Even Reed admits he's not certain another majority-black district could be created, but it is possible, he said, that a district that links Mobile and Montgomery could have a majority of black residents.

The majority of those polled said NO for reasons like this;

Mr. Kennedy, if one of our goals as a people and as a nation is to be color blind and treat all Americans equally regardless of their ethnicity, the simple answer to your question is NO.

If we are all equal it makes no sense to create districts based on race.

You, Joe Reed, and the US Department of Justice should just think about that for a while.

And this;

Congressional districts should be based only on population, NOT race, thats whats called racist.
If white people called for spliting districts to increase congressional representation, old Jessie would be protestin and marchin in the streets.

bluebearcat offers the best counter to their *ahem* rationale at LiA

We live in the real world... (3.00 / 2)
not a theoretical political universe. African-Americans in this state faced numerous documented, codified efforts to actively prevent them from participating in the political process. The VRA and its many provisions were an effort to find pratical ways to correct this historic injustice. We don't live in a fantasy world where ethnic minorities are evenly distributed in every community around the state; we live in a real world where those ethnic minorities are often concentrated in a few areas surrounded by other areas where white voters are concentrated. I don't think it's a cart leading the horse situation, either. I've never known a person - other than perhaps a politician or two - who made a decision on where they would live based on what CD it was in.

So what will the good white folks decide today? Will they pack all the black voters in one district? I say, hell yes they will, because if all the black voters are packed into one district they can win all the others and continue to choose who represents the interest of black voters. Or not.

Remember when Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D) said he was supporting Ron Sparks (D) for governor because he didn't want to return to the days of slavery and Jim Crow?

It's not about gerrymandering,

In the process of setting electoral districts, rather than using uniform geographic standards, Gerrymandering is a practice of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander; however, that word can also refer to the process.

It's about the Voting Rights Act

The Act was sent to Congress by President Johnson on March 17, 1965. The bill passed the Senate on May 26, 1965 (after a successful cloture vote on March 23), by a vote of seventy-seven to nineteen. The House was slower to give its approval. After five weeks of debate, it was finally passed on July 9. After differences between the two bills were resolved in conference, the House passed the Conference Report on August 3, the Senate on August 4. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Act into law with Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and other civil rights leaders in attendance.

Chattleland here we come. Look away. Look away.

Wednesday Must Reads

In honor of Earth Week please read Taking America back from the Polluters  aka the gop.

We must finally put an end to the days when dirty interests — who put their own short-term profits before the long-term health of our country — have more influence than the people.

America belongs to everyone. It’s time to take our power back from the polluters.

On the first anniversary of the BP/Gulf Oil disaster please read Lax Congressional Response to BP Oil Disaster Another Gulf Tragedy?

One year ago today, an explosion aboard the BP Deepwater Horizon drilling rig claimed the lives of 11 workers and initiated the worst oil disaster the U.S. has ever seen. Thousands of animals in the Gulf of Mexico were killed, many of which were endangered or threatened already, and oil and toxic dispersants continue to impact coastal communities and natural habitats.

Despite recommendations from the Presidential Oil Spill Commission, Congress has yet to pass legislation that ensures safer operations in any water depth, provides better spill response, lifts the existing liability cap or secures funding for restoration efforts in the Gulf.

There is no pretty way to say it...women, strike that, poor women are under attack by rich white men aka republicans. Read Give me your money and your conscience , then read how the gop wants poor women to Trust their Twat to Walgreen's big H/T to Writechic.

Not content to have a go at gutting tenure, the red TeaPublican Alabama state legislature is also looking into having a go at the Teachers Retirement System too. If you can read this thank a Teacher. If you can't read this thank the TeaPublicans.

Speaker Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, the House leader, praised the bills, which are set for review Wednesday by the House Ways and Means -- General Fund Committee.

"I believe we've long needed to update the members of the boards overseeing those funds, to make sure they make sound, professional decisions and ... look out for the taxpayers," he said. The state expects to pay a total of $964 million to support the TRS and ERS this year.

Mac McArthur, executive director of the Alabama State Employees Association, said the ERS board doesn't need fixing. "I don't know why anybody would want to fix something that's not broken," McArthur said.

The Birmingham Skews is back with a vengeance after it's Hack Attack! Read, Don't Take it Out of the Oven-It's Half Baked
Power to We the People!

Recently, I wrote a post about the difference between blogs and the big newspapers and why I favored blogs. Reading Archibald’s column today, it occurred to me that blogs allow us (as in “we, the people”) to serve the function that the newspapers once ostensibly served: holding those with power accountable. I see no reason that the Birmingham News and its journalists should be exempt. They have power. And influence.

Check out this headline from The Birmingham News (not to be confused with the Birmingham Skews)Birmingham's Nation of Islam leaders call for firing of officers involved in latest video-taped incident which prompted comments like this;

The Nation of Islam is a joke. Who really gives a rip what they say?

And this

Religious leaders are social gagsters (sic) prey on the weak of mind.

And this

"Granted the police shouldn't have kicked his tail . . . " - I happen to disagree with you: They SHOULD have kicked his tail! They should have kicked it longer and harder! They should have kicked it enough for him to be coming forth with an apology instead of a lawsuit!

Notice how public opinion is focused on the Nation of Islam and not the actions of the Birmingham Police Department?

What are you reading today? Knowledge is power. Share the knowledge.

Update! Hypocrisy Pot Meets Hypocrisy Kettle in Bama, Oh My!

This just in!

Yes, Skews, you will get a few clicks from my post here. And I suppose you figure that means you have real support, and you might have some. Donald Trump gets a lot of publicity these days, too, and he certainly has supporters. Maybe for your next trick you can out yourself as a birther. That would certainly get you a few clicks.

MeOuch!

I love it when the covers are pulled off and the bright lights are turned on to expose the face of real, raw, unadulterated hypocrisy by the so called liberal thinking,mainstream media all stars. Note the names in bold for future reference.

You won't want to miss our all star media panel happening just 4 days before the start of Mayor Langford's trial, just 9 days after the Birmingham City Council runoffs, and who knows what else might happen between now and then?

Panelists
Bill Payer, CBS42 News Dir.
Mooncat, Left in Alabama
Ron January, WATV
John Archibald, Bham News
Charles Dean, Bham News
Kyle Whitmire, Bham Weekly

We can thank new blog The Birmingham Skews for making them squirm. And squirming they are.

Most people by now have read John Archibald's column from this morning's Birmingham News. As so many who tend to tell the truth, he's scared someone with enough resources to pull together what looks to be a fake grassroots blog and can pay for a private domain registry.

I'll spare you the details of the attack in general. It's nothing that I find personally interesting or unusual, and it really has no bearing one way or the other on any criticisms Archibald has ever written.

But an attack on a journalist is an attack on anyone who wants to spread the truth, and that includes us lowly bloggers, boys and girls.

So I'm here to ask the question: Who could be behind such attacks on Archibald and the Birmingham News?

Who indeed? But as Legal Schnauzer notes, who really cares about who is behind the attacks on Archibald and the Birmingham News? I mean God forbid Archibald and the Birmingham News be *ahem* attacked.

One of the South's most nauseating right-wing media puppets recently had someone return fire. The puppet howled in pain when the buckshot found its target--right in his white, doughy flanks. We're still struggling to wipe the smile from our face.

John Archibald, a columnist for The Birmingham News, consistently has trumpeted the Karl Rove agenda in Alabama over the past 10 years or so. Anything GOP Governor Bob Riley did was pure and honorable. Anyone pursued by Bush-appointed U.S. attorneys Alice Martin and Leura Canary was guilty. Official "corruption"--if it involved a Democrat, person of color, or individual who refused to testify falsely against Don Siegelman--was public enemy No. 1.

Archibald specializes in clucking at the misfortune of others--whether they have committed wrongdoing or not. So imagine our delight in learning Archibald has some untidiness in his own closet. When confronted about his personal mess, Archibald first lied about it, claimed ignorance, and then essentially blamed his wife. What a guy!

That's right (pun intended) Archibald and the Birmingham News can dish it out but they can't take it. I also find it laughable Almoderate at right leaning Left in Alabama is attacking the messenger in an attempt to silence the messenger.

I have spent a fair amount of time criticizing the Birmingham News on this blog, but you do not know much about me. I have a few friends who think that I leave myself open for criticism by not identifying myself. I think that is reasonable. At this point I am only willing to say that I am an ordinary citizen who loves my country, state, and city. I also love being informed, and learning the whole story.

I will not identify myself by name and for that I will make no apologies. When reporters like John Archibald use unnamed sources and “leaked” documents to bolster facts that are shaky to begin, then use them to paint their targets in a negative light, those reporters should be able to handle reasonable criticism from any source, named or anonymous.The News buys its paper by the ton and its ink by the barrel, and their resources are limitless when compared to my own. All I have to offer is the truth, and a critical way of looking at how the news has been reported in Birmingham. The Birmingham News does not appreciate this, and therefore, I remain anonymous.

Those without sin cast the first stone? H/T julie for this Interesting Dichotomy, or more Pots and Kettles.

Call Mayor Larry Langford the king of all Birmingham media -- or at least all media that take cash.

---John Archibald, Birmingham News

Birmingham Mayor Larry Langford Put Media on His Payroll

Go ahead, John Archibald, and remind us who you are and how you really feel about the Alabama Democratic Party and Dr. Joe Reed.

Go on. Remind us why Alabama's Democratic Party has less to fear from Republicans than from, say, the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

John Archibald is Wrong you say?

John Archibald stated in the 16th and 17th paragraphs (I judge paragraphs online by double line breaks) that:

This is not, I repeat, about French. To be honest, I feel for her as much as anyone.

She will, after all, become known as the judge who earned her robe with one credential: her skin color.

I don't think she deserves that. But the whole process wreaks of unfairness -- the same kind battled at lunch counters and schools and bus stops across the South.

Have we learned nothing?

I'm sorry, John, but I think you meant that "the process reeks of unfairness." I think it stinks to high heaven!

And the unfairness wreaks havoc on the fabric of the Alabama Democratic Party. Although you didn't write that.

Otherwise, the whole article was spot on and correct. We like what you're doing, sir, just get the verbs right...

IMHO the rank hypocrisy stinks to high heaven. Thanks The Birmingham Skews and Legal Schnauzer for exposing the Fake News. I like what you're doing and you have the verbs right....

For those who don’t already know, John Archibald hosts a live chat every Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. CST. I’m not the host of the party, but I’d like to extend the invitation to anyone who is interested in participating. I’ve attempted to submit questions about his blatant disregard to the facts, but have fallen victim to censorship, or have possibly been banned altogether. He doesn't care to answer my questions, but maybe he'll answer yours. I invite you all to join in this week and see for yourself. You can find the link to the chat at the end of his column found here.

They want me fired.

Perhaps they're right.

These anonymous people, these people who want me fired, dug deep into my past and set up a website to post their findings. They've gone door to door in mostly black Birmingham neighborhoods, leaving fliers that portray me as a liar and racist.

Speaking of fliers in the black neighborhood and gutter campaigning, remember THIS?

Agriculture Commissioner and gubernatorial candidate Ron Sparks spoke to the Morgan County Democrats last night and, in light of the really heated and ugly races coming to an end yesterday, it seemed an appropriate time to ask what Sparks thinks of innuendo and whisper campaigns bent on character assassination, such as the one we saw last weekend against Patrick Cooper in the Birmingham mayoral race.

In that case, as you may recall, this letter from Frank Matthews was widely circulated via email. Under the guise of "giving you the facts about Patrick Cooper," it "informed" readers that Cooper standing next to Howard Bayless -- who is openly gay -- is "an abomination" and "unpleasing" in the eyes of God. The letter was closely followed by a Powerpoint presentation that dropped the gloves altogether and just asked "Is Patrick Cooper Gay?" It was 10 pages of hints about divorce, contributions from Cooper's ex-wife, endorsements and how terrible it would be if Birmingham ended up like Atlanta. Pure character assassination, not an issue in the whole mess.

I've also seen Frank Matthews at Sparks events, doing official looking stuff. It turns out he isn't paid directly by Sparks2010, but by their consultant, Matrix, LLC. Nevertheless, with that kind of ugliness being openly distributed, I wanted to find out if we should expect similar, under-the-radar smears in the gubernatorial primary.

Don't dish it out if you can't take it in. I'm just saying....

Now someone cross-post me to Kos so that I can get some hits.

It. Is. On.

"Modest Wealth" is an oxymoron

I am still snickering at the Birmingham News characterization of Alabama's newly elected Congress Critters wealth as "comfortable but not extravagant".

WASHINGTON -- Alabama's three freshmen members of Congress, all trained as lawyers, are bringing to Washington comfortable but not extravagant personal investment portfolios, according to financial disclosure forms filed with Congress.

Gag me with a spoon! This is further evidence that the Lame Stream Media as Sarah Palin calls them, must think we the people are stoopid. They think they can just tell us anything and we'll believe them just because they said it.

We are supposed to be too stoopid to know you're either wealthy or you're not. You can either buy what ever you want without being concerned about the price or you can't. You can either afford to get sick or you can't. You can either afford to send your children to the best schools or you can't. You can afford to go on vaction and buy a vacations home or you can't. Get it?

Now I will agree there is a difference between being rich and being wealthy. Vagabond Scholar has an excellent explanation with links and video.

Here are three rather different approaches to explaining how the game just ain't the same for the rich and wealthy. First up, some animation (from October 2004) by Lee Arnold explaining "The Bush Tax Cuts." (Via Linda Beale of ataxingmatter and Angry Bear.)

Next up, via David Dayen, here's Al Franken's floor speech from last week on tax cuts, unemployment and wealth:

Finally, Chris Rock explains the difference between being "rich" and having "wealth" (NSFW):

What Paul Wartenberg said...
There's only one reason why a vast majority of Americans are not rioting in the streets about the income inequality.

We can't afford the lawyers or bail to keep us out of jail.

Sigh.