In honor of Myrna Copeland, the finest democratic woman I know

I'm trying to remember if I told Mryna Copeland she was one of my Shero's .  I hope I did, because she was right up there with Viola Luizzio  in my book.  She was a privileged, white woman who used her position of privilege and power  to fight for equal rights, civil rights and human rights for all people.

On a personal note, Myrna was, in my Daddy's words, his buddy.  She drove him to Eutaw, Alabama in Greene County, in her car in the Spring of 1970, along with Dr. John Cashin and others, to introduce him to the community and the School Board when he was named Superintendent of the Green County School System.  Dad says he was scared to death to be riding in the car with a white woman in Alabama at night in 1970, but Myrna was not. My Dad would have been the first African American School Superintendent in the nation if it had been embroiled in the same racial politics that prevail in Alabama and the nation today, and the racial politics Myrna devoted her life to fighting.

It's so like Myrna to be found dead at the health food store she founded and operated for 40 years appropriately named the Pearly Gates.  She died as she lived.  Fighting the good fight.  We will miss her vital presence, her courage, her sense of humor and her comittment to making this world a better place for all of God's people.

 HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- She was considered a woman of strong will, and she had to be to do all that she did during one of the most socially turbulent periods in the history of the Deep South.She was a white woman, one of the few from Alabama, who marched from Selma to Montgomery, belonged to the NAACP and attended strategy sessions at the home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Late in her life, she still lived by the motto she had adopted when she was active in the civil rights movement: "Not to have taken part in the actions and passions of your time is to have never lived.''

Rest in the peace you deserve for a life well lived beyond the Pearly Gates.

How are republicans planning to steal the midterm elections?

Seriously, why would voters reward the the party that got us into this mess and obstructed the cleanup?

How can the gop win without the African American vote?


How can the gop to win without the Latino vote?

Those ads by a right-wing front group called "Latinos for Reform" -- urging Latinos no to vote for Democrats in the coming election because they haven't delivered on comprehensive immigration reform -- may not be turning out to be such a hot idea:

But the fever-pitch backlash to this advertisement suggests the message could bring about just the opposite effect, by energizing a Hispanic voting bloc that may have been lethargic with a new and compelling reason to get out and vote — by and large, for Democrats.

The Silent Majority is sick and tired of the Tea Bagger noise machine.

So, just who is this Silent Majority? I'll tell you.

They are the quiet men and women in the grocery line when the right-wing cranky woman starts gassing her lunacy out loud about President Obama being a Muslim, being born in Kenya, or hating white people, or that he is cozy with terrorists.

They are parents, who attend school sports events with their kids, and are forced to endure hearing that same old, cranky man in the bleachers talking loudly -- and always loud enough so everyone can hear him -- about that "god-damned Nancy Pelosi" and the Democrats for socializing our health-care" and "taking away our constitutional rights".

This new Silent Majority of Americans includes not just whites, blacks, asians, latinos, but also families that are blessedly mixed racially, and who have a gay child, brother, sister, aunt or uncle that they love dearly. These Americans may not speak up in that grocery line or at the sports event, for not wanting to embarrass their children or because it's just not how they behave. But, believe me, their silence is deadly.

How can the gop win without the middle class?


How can the gop win without women?

How can the gop win without labor?

Is the gop counting on there being more angry white male voters than progressive voters?

Progressives haven't been hating on anything (excepting Rahm Emanuel); we've been begging the government to help people who are going bankrupt because of medical bills, who are losing their homes because they've lost their jobs, who can't even begin to pay for their kids to go to college. Progressives haven't been bashing the military, we've been begging our country to get back on the right track on civil and human rights, and to hold those accountable who took us down the wrong path. If we hate anything, it's needless human suffering. We haven't been railing against productivity and success, but against theft and a rigged game where the big bettors cannot lose.

We've been warning people that it's wrong to take our your pain and insecurities on the insecure who are in pain.

Is the gop planning to resort to the tried true voter fraud meme?

Playing off right-wing fears of rampant voter fraud, conservative groups are exhorting activists to film and photograph unseemly activity at the polls, question voters' citizenship, and follow suspect vehicles to keep the election from being stolen. Voting rights advocates now worry that such instructions—which are at the heart of the right's expansive poll-watching campaign—could encourage harmful and possibly illegal activity.

If you believe the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and the Polling Pollster who Poll them, a majority of the American people are going to give the keys to the car back to the party that drove the country into the ditch. Now why would we the people do something stoopid like that? I mean, really?

Friday Links I Like

This is the kind of Democratic Women's' organization I wish we had! THIS is what I'm talking about!

The Hamilton County Democratic Women have released video of their heated meeting with Tim Crawford, Democratic candidate for the House in IN-05, who local Democrats see as an inept right-winger ruining their chance to take control of the seat.

Uh, Mr. President, Sir....it's time to kick some BP butt and take some BP names. They've been lying to us and to you.

Just what the hell is BP doing denying people access to land they don't own, much less airspace they don't control?

And what about this nonsense about BP simply "not heed[ing]" EPA directives?

If the White House is looking for a way back into the driver's seat on this thing, this is it.

The proliferation of stories about journalists and others being denied access to these areas ostensibly by local authorities but at the direction of the private corporation responsible for the disaster in the first place is an scandal that would ordinarily have the dictators of banana republics hanging their heads in shame.

Bring our damn troops home NOW!

Michael Clauer is a captain in the Army Reserve who commanded over 100 soldiers in Iraq. But while he was fighting for his country, a different kind of battle was brewing on the home front. Last September, Michael returned to Frisco, Texas, to find that his homeowners' association had foreclosed on his $300,000 house—and sold it for $3,500. This story illustrates the type of legal quagmire that can get out of hand while soldiers are serving abroad and their families are dealing with the stress of their deployment. And fixing the mess isn't easy.

Send the republicans and the right wing media to stay the course in Iraq for Bush and Dick!

Whether you commemorate Memorial Day somberly or celebrate the arrival of summer with barbecues, beaches, and beer, your thoughts are probably drawn back to a particular person who died in uniform.

Alabama, Tim James, George Wallace and Campaign Exploitation,

A meticulous research in the book 'Alabama, Portrait of a Deep South State,' notes, in the 1960's, when poor whites who'd recently entered the middle class saw their earning power failing to keep pace with inflation, instead of acting rationally and organizing or joining unions, they often acted in non-rational ways, "through scape-goading, fatalism, or blind rage." To champion the cause, "they chose George C. Wallace."

Artur Davis must have taken notes from Tim James and George Wallace, I got a robo call from Davis today whining about Ron Sparks alleged racism. All of a sudden Artur Davis cares about black folks and racism?

Gag me with a spoon.