Here we go again, It must have been "the tone and tenor" of something I said.

 

First I was banned from the AL.com forum because I opposed George W. Bush's policies, especially the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Then I was banned from Left in Alabama because I didn't support Artur Davis for Governor of Alabama.

 Next I was banned from The Attack Machine for defending the feckless leader of a failed party.  Now I've been "un" friended (yes I know that's not a word)  by a friend on face book and removed from their Yahoo group because I stood up for Dr. Joe Reed and Nancy Worley. Sigh

The funny thing is it's OK for them to attack  Reed and Worley and accuse them of corruption, racism,  bigotry and everything else under the sun, but when I defend or rebut the charges  made against them I'm attacking democrats and being divisive.

There is a lot of misinformation being spread that needs to be cleared up.  The Alabama Democratic Party isn't in debt because Joe Reed is borrowing and spending money like there is no tomorrow.  Most of the debt stemmed from elections before Kennedy’s tenure and from former Gov. Don Siegelman’s failed drive for a state lottery in 1999.

It's not true no one wants to lead the Alabama Democratic Party because they don't want to bow down to Joe Reed.

 Birmingham attorney Ed Gentle had sought the chairmanship, but Worley said Gentle decided not to take the post on a judge’s advice because of his work as a special master in a couple of cases involving politics.

It's not true  donors won't contribute to the ADP as long as Joe Reed is in control with no accountability.

“I can tell you we are broke, but today I’ll remove two of the brokes,” Worley said.
Worley said some donors stepped up "to keep the doors open for the party" and the rent is now paid through June at the party headquarters in Montgomery.
“We are working the bills down as we can get money,” Worley said.
Worley said about half of the party's $500,000 debt dates back to the 1999 lottery referendum when the party spent considerable funds on get out the vote efforts.

I could care less about being banned from the AL.com forum and The Attack Machine because I expect them to close their eyes, ears, and mind, to people who don't agree with them, and you would think I would learn by now real  friends respect each others opinions and treat them as  equals. 

 I've discovered a disturbing pattern in all of this...don't like what I'm saying, ,on't  want to heari it.........shut me out   and maybe I will go away.  If that doesn't work.....  shut you down, or worse. 

I still believe we should test the theory that all will magically be right (pun intended) and white men will flock back to the party, a new generation of leaders will emerge, candidates will run for office, and donors will dig deep into their pockets  if the Alabama Democratic Party got rid of Joe Reed and his bunch.

While the ADP is destroying it's on the Roberts Court is poised to strike down Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. I'm going to say as an African American I feel like I'm under attack not only by the republicans, but the democrats too.   Republicans don't want us to vote,  and some democrats (not confused with all) don't want us to have any power.  What to do and where to go?

In any event I'm through with the ADP vs ADM psycho drama and moving on to something important.
Black leaders plan caravan in support of Voting Rights Act.

The National Coalition of Leaders to Save Section 5 announced on Tuesday that Farrakhan would join them for a June 14 caravan and pilgrimage that will stop at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, at the Shelby County courthouse in Columbiana, at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, and conclude with a 4 p.m. event at the state Capitol in Montgomery.

The caravan will start at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama  where four little girls were killed when a bomb exploded during Sunday school class, in the state where their killer died after serving 6 months in prison, and the 85 year old father of one of those girls is serving time in prison convicted of bribery and conspiracy in 2007 for his role in the Jefferson County sewer scandal.

I wouldn't want to see/hear/think about stuff like this either.

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to 'Comfort the disturbed, disturb the comfortable' one blog post at a time.

 

Mark Kennedy resigns as ADP chair and announces the formation of the anti "Joe Reed and his bunch group"

Oops, I mean the formation of the Democratic Majority. :)  So, Judge Mark Kennedy basically gave the same speech to the Democratic Majority he gave to the Alabama Democratic Party two years ago.  I hope he has a different result with his "new organization" , because you know what they say about doing the same thing over and over again.  Since he won't have Joe Reed and his bunch to obstruct him at every turn,  he's leaving the ADP millions of dollars in debt,  raided most of the  ADP staff and opened field office in Birmingham,  he shouldn't have a problem turning the ADP into his uncle's ADP.

You can think what you want, but If you have any doubt Kennedy took his toys and went home because of Joe Reed and his bunch look no farther than this statement by Madison County Democratic Chair Clete Wetli.

"Part of the issue is just the way Joe Reed has operated and some of the decisions he has made, especially recently, it kind of promotes a divisive sort of politics that most Democrats are not interested in," Wetli said. "What we're interested in doing is fixing the economy in Alabama, ensuring public education is where it needs to be, making sure we promote a message of real equality and real inclusion.

Now why wouldn't Joe Reed be interested in fixing the economy in Alabama, ensuring every child has access to a public education, and making sure we promote a message of real equality and real inclusion?  It's not like that's what he's fought for all his life.

"If you look back, unfortunately, over the past decade of how Joe Reed has operated in Montgomery, that certainly hasn't been the message he put out there. I think Judge Kennedy did his absolute best to try to change things from within. When that became impossible, he decided to do something different."

So let's look at what things Judge Kennedy did his absolute best to try to change from within and how Joe Reed obstructed, I mean operated in Montgomery.  As John Archibald says,  It's all about the Racism. Intolerance. Prejudice.  of Joe Reed and his bunch.

And none of this would have happened if not for the blatant politics of race. It would not have been necessary – let's be real – without Nikki Still.
You remember Still? She was a candidate for a Jefferson County judgeship who finished second in her party primary. When the first place finisher was disqualified, the Alabama Democratic Executive Committee met and ...
The rest is disturbing history.
The committee – controlled in large part by Joe Reed, the powerful lightning-rod leader of the black wing of the party -- refused to appoint Still to the judgeship because she is white. Really.
They chose a black woman candidate – one who did not even run in the primary – because the first-place finisher was a black woman.
It was a powerful message of racial politics, from the party that claims to have a big umbrella.
Of course, the split wouldn't have happened without Patricia Todd, either. Todd is a white woman from Birmingham, the first openly gay member of the Alabama Legislature and a representative who has gained grudging respect from Democrats and Republicans alike.
Reed tried – and failed – to have Todd kicked out of office.
Because, as he saw it, a white woman had no business representing a majority black district. Even if it was the majority black district that elected her.

Let's debunk the Nikki Still misinformation first.

It continues to be a source of consternation to the Alabama, white power structure they keep being outsmarted by the State Democratic Executive Committee led by their arch enemy Dr. Joe L. Reed.
Just like Andrew Breitbart took a snippet of Shirley Sherrods' speech to the NAACP out of context to illustrate so called "black racism", The Big Mules, aided and abetted by some white democrats, accuse the SDEC of blatant racism because they didn't select the white women who lost the election to replace the black woman who won the election, after she was removed from the ballot.

Marshall, who is black, had her law license suspended, and that caused her to be removed as the Democratic Party nominee for a Jefferson County judgeship. That led the Alabama Democratic Executive Committee (ADEC) to replace Marshall with Elisabeth French, who is black, instead of Nicole Gordon Still, who is white and was runner up to Marshall in the primary election.

Legal Schnauzer breaks it down.

Alabama's mainstream press has tended to portray ADEC's decision as based on race. French is black and Still is white--and the nomination came open when Kenya Lavender Marshall, who is black and won the Democratic primary, had her law license suspended over allegations from the Alabama State Bar that she had misappropriated some $30,000 from a client account.
But this is not the first time recently that Alabama Democrats have rejected a candidate who seemed too cozy with the state's elites. Just a few weeks back, Artur Davis was beaten soundly in the party's primary for governor. Davis, who is black, had sought support from the Business Council of Alabama and other corporate types. Still had been appointed to the judicial seat last June by GOP Governor Bob Riley, and we suspect that helped sink her chances with the Democratic committee.

 Thanks to the folks at Left in Alabama, we can see for ourselves. Here is a video from the event, with Reed's comments starting at about the 2:10 mark. Elisabeth French speaks at about 4:50, and a clearly agitated Nichole Gordon Still speaks at about 6:08.

As for the Patrica Todd affair, her opponent, Gaynell Hendricks mother in law, Mattie Childress contested the election on these grounds:

 In a document filed on July 27, Ms. Childress accused Jefferson County election officials of “malconduct which occurred [that] was calculated to prevent a fair, free and full exercise of the elective franchise”. She claimed that Patricia received “illegal” votes and that vote totals were changed without notification to Ms. Hendricks. 

It is true Patrica Todd is a white woman represented a majority black district.  It is true Joe Reed opposed her election as he should have.  Attorney Jerome Grey explains why:

In 2000, the district was drawn with a 63 percent black majority. In the years since, gentrification has shrunk that proportion, and some estimate the current black population at about 50 percent. In his letter endorsing Hendricks, [Joe] Reed warned black community leaders that if they elected a white candidate, the district could be redrawn without a black majority.

It was NEVER about Todd or her sexual orientation, it was about the district and the real possibility a the district lines would be redrawn to the exclusion of African American representation.  Yes,the same African American representation mean, evil, old Joe Reed fought and sacrificed for.

Joe Reed is known as a “fighter for fairness” for black representation. In 1975, Joe Reed led the efforts to get equitable representation for blacks on the Montgomery City Council. His efforts resulted in four (4) blacks of nine (9) being elected. He served on the Montgomery City Council for 24 years. In the Democratic Party today, Alabama’s black representation exceeds all other states in the nation. For over 40 years he has led the effort to get more blacks elected and appointed to public office, including federal marshals, federal and state judges, members of the boards of registrars, legislators, county commissioners, city councils, and school boards. Due largely to his leadership, today Alabama has more black elected officials than any state in the nation. He drafted two (2) plans that increased black representation in the Alabama House of Representatives from 13 to 27; and in the Senate from 3 to 8 in 1982, and 1992, respectively. He also drew a reapportionment plan that provided for 25% (two of eight) majority black districts on the State Board of Education. Alabama is the only state in the nation where the Legislature reflects the state’s population of blacks and whites. Dr. Reed’s congressional plan also led to Alabama’s gaining a black congressional seat.

And let me clear something else up while I'm on a roll.  Black folks aren't stupid.  We don't sit around and wait on Joe Reed to tell us what to do and when to do it. We don't sit around and wait on Joe Reed to give us advice.  We don't hate Joe Reed.  We admire Joe Reed.  We are grateful to Joe Reed for his SERVICE and his accomplishments.... because without Joe Reed there would be no Congressman Artur Davis (DINO).

No one will be able lead the Alabama Democratic Party until it becomes less about race and more about ideology.Until that happens, Alabama will never be a two-party state.~ John Archibald