Say, Have You Seen My Democracy? #VoteForYourLife

Sharing with permission, this up close and personal account of a Donald Trump rally via Facebook.  Read it and Weep. ~RedEYE

(The guy in the suit is a Trump Secret Service agent)

This is what I will say about the Trump rally I attended Saturday...alone.

It was scary. This man knows just what to say to fire up his crowd, no matter how factually inaccurate it may be.

Wall! ISIS! Kill Them! Mexico!

Then there was the blatant fear mongering. He told Ohioans that only oil was propping up their state, and that their economy was in serious trouble. He said this over and over again.

He also told the crowd that ISIS was out to kill them. That ISIS was putting 50 people at a time in cages and drowning them in the ocean. And that we had to kill them first.

Cheers for water boarding. Cheers for torture. Calls to cut off their heads.

If this was a brown person saying the exact same things in the Middle East, we'd call them a dangerous terrorist. But since it's a white man in America, we call him a Presidential Candidate.

The scariest part was the crowd. They loved everything that was being said. The calls for the wall. The calls to blow up oil fields. The calls to torture and kill people.

And the protesters. Every time a protester was kicked out, they were yells to get them out of here, even to KILL THEM!!!

Really? Kill them? For protesting?

When Trump brought up Obama, a teen even exclaimed "F+CK THAT NI&&ER!!!!"

I felt like at any point, the crowd was going to light torches and grab their pitchforks, and spill out into the streets.

The worst part was when their venom turned toward me. There were protesters around me who got ushered out, and then people started pointing at me, motioning for the Secret Service to "get him out of there".

Now mind you, I hadn't uttered a single word the entire rally, but people still said things like "Well what about this one? He needs to go too!"

At this point, the black kid that grew up in the projects, surrounded by drugs and gunfire, felt CONCERNED for his safety...at a Donald Trump rally.

At that rally, I saw the scary underbelly of America. I saw unadulterated hate, fueled by intentional misinformation.

These people who, just 2 hours ago, seemed like good and kind people, were now cheering for blood.

The worst part is Donald Trump knows EXACTLY what he's doing. He's patterned his campaign after a WWE match...

And it's working.

‪#‎Trump‬
‪#‎TrumpRally‬
‪#‎BlackLivesMatter‬

This Elections is 1968 All Over Again, And That's Not a Good Thing.

Update: If the The South Huntsville Civic (sic) Association is turning against you..#SpyGate

Copied and pasted verbatim from the  South Huntsville Civic Association Facebook Page

Nearly three weeks ago, citizens were informed by local media that the Huntsville City School System has operated a secret program for the past 18 months, designed to monitor student’s online activity. It was reported that this program began as a result of a tip from the NSA. After it became reasonably clear that the NSA did not contact the Huntsville City Schools security officer, Dr. Wardynski resorted to asking, “What does it matter who the call was from?” It does matter. It seems that the public was misinformed with a statement that would have shaped public opinion if it had been blindly accepted. There are several similar statements pertaining to this program, but no documentation is being provided.

Why does this matter? According to Superintendent Casey Wardynski, it shouldn’t. Our only concern should be for the safety of students. While this argument, launched after most citizens took umbrage to the program, is an effective diversion, (who would disagree that student safety is important?), it is also a means by which the conversation has been halted. We still have not heard straight answers regarding the parameters of the program, the source and amount of funding, the reason for its inception, or what elected official, responsible to citizens, knows the answers to these questions.
SHCA has spoken with the reporter who broke the story, who maintains that he reported what he was told by HCS administration. Follow-up interviews included details which differed from the information first provided.

While it was reported that students social media accounts were being monitored, later statements indicated that accounts are only looked at if school officials are alerted by a tip. The specialist hired to run this program works for T&W Operations, Inc. Upon learning about the program, we checked and found that T&W Operations, Inc had “liked” the facebook page of SHCA and was therefore receiving notifications of our activity. At last check, no member of the SHCA Board of Directors either is enrolled in or would have been reported as a threat to any school. Were we being monitored, or is this a coincidence?

Dr. Wardynski - "When we look on You Tube you'll see something go on there that some kid put up there some beat down somewhere on school property, that’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen. We see that then we go looking for the kid. So it’s a matter of using the resources we have, looking in public places which is social media. If we get a tip that a kid is going to do something, we'll go look at their facebook page."
School board member, Topper Birney also spoke with one of our board members. He emphatically states that he was not aware that a program of this nature was in place. When asked by the media whether he knew about the program, the name, SAFe, was not mentioned. The activity was described and he maintains that he was never made aware of its existence.
Dr. Wardynski "They didn't know the acronym, but they knew about the program because we brief them on some of the specific cases rarely and more generally on the trends."
David Blair - " I have known about that for a while as well as my fellow board members. . . “
In an attempt to get answers regarding the program’s parameters, Senator Paul Sanford sent the following request to all Huntsville City School Board Members –
Senator Paul Sanford would like to request a detailed explanation for all
expulsions related to the SAFe program. No personal information is
requested, just the facts surrounding each reported threat and subsequent
facts that lead to expulsion or disciplinary measures.
He received the following reply from Board President, David Blair –
“I am uncomfortable with this request due to the sensitive nature of the
expulsions. There is a process in place to deal with discipline issues in the schools
which we will be glad to share if so desired.”

Senator Sanford sent the following response and has not received another reply.
“Mr. Blair,
I see no reason why the board cannot provide information regarding the expulsions or disciplinary measures taken in relation to the SAFe Program. I do not need any personal information about the incidents, but I feel info regarding the tips received, the action taken, and the situations that necessitated the board taking action are an appropriate and reasonable request.
Again I ask that the board provide the previously requested information surrounding the incidents relating to the SAFe Program and the details leading to corrective action by the board.“
While opinions may differ regarding the appropriateness of this type of program, we have a more immediate issue. Our local school board is withholding information from the public. Are you willing to accept being denied information by those you elect and pay? If so, please let us know that we should close our eyes and pretend that our local government is not being run by fiat.

Note from RedEye: Are the rattlesnakes beginning to turn on the Mighty Casey Wardynski........

I attended this Republican cheer leading event at Grissom last evening. It was sickening. I’ve never seen so many Republicans in my life. There were 7 elected Repugs on the stage. Could well have been the Republican convention. They used these “civic” meetings to win the election for Mo Brooks, and it is absolutely the bailiwick of school board member, president, head honcho, Jennie Robinson. I have asked the school attorney how they could use a public building for political meetings, and he said "anybody could use it if they paid for it".

Time will tell the truth.... 

"Folks here are keenly interested in property value," Wardynski told the crowd. "I am also keenly interested in value."
Wardynski said that focusing too much on price could cause the system to lose many programs of value. He reiterated that he intends to take schools' success into account when deciding which schools to close.
He added that he does not like using the words "school closures."

Yet he closed schools.....

This non-responsiveness to public comments and opinions is becoming a pattern. As public interest increases, their willingness to allow public participation in the process has decreased. But that’s a posting for another day.

To be continued.....

#hsvboe #SpyGate Redux

"@PoliticsPeach: @Bidenshairplugs u RACIST PROUDLY wave guns ... but AA's it's a crime! #FergusonOctober #tcot pic.twitter.com/FecmQNaIHj"
— Ms. L. (@SouthernLady328) October 11, 2014

In order to combat gun violence, and to keep schools SAFe (pun intended), Huntsville City Schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski called the passage of strict gun control laws .

 NOPE.  He invoked the Sandy Hook tragedy and instituted a scheme, I mean, an  off the books spying program after being alerted of a potential (not to be confused with actual) threat via Twitter,  against a teacher with a cough cough foreign connection, via the National Security Agency, via Al Langford, of the need to monitor some (not to be confused with ALL) students  social media accounts , including, but not limited to, brazen students posting pictures of themselves with submachine (sic) guns, fist full of $100.00 bills, and flashing "gang" signs, not to be confused with students posting pictures of themselves with guns for hunting .

NOTICE: Due to Huntsville City School Superintendent Casey Warydynski's  Executive Orders, the school district may have read your social media accounts without warning, warrant, or notice. You have no recourse nor protection but to call for the resignation of the Superintendent and the Board of Education who enabled him.

Join us as we rally for the future of our children and the immediate resignation of HCS superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski,  Annie Merts Building, 200 White Street, Thursday, October 16,2014, @3:30 PM.  "The future of our children, community, and our city, requires your support and your presence.

#SpyGate "Casey Wardynski totally believes NSA contacted HCS" ... because Al Langford

HCS Security Chief Al Langford (L) HCS Superintendent Casey Wardynski R)

Question:  Why would an "unidentified person from the National Security Agency" call Al Langford to warn of the "potential of a violent threat"?  Did he fall for a prank?   I'm just asking....

Imagine this scenario: Cue in music from Get Smart


Al Langford , Huntsville's longtime security officer, sitting at his desk doing long time security and the phone rings:

Ring! Ring!

AL Picks up the phone and says:  Hello, this is Al Langford, longtime security officer for Huntsville City Schools.

Mr. AL Langford, this is agent 00something from the NSA in Washington D.C. Look at your caller ID for verification. (snicker)

AL:  Hey, how are things at NASA?

Agent 00something:  Not N-A-S=A.....N-S-A as in the National Security Agency.

Al sits up straighter in his seat and says  Oh!  Yes Sir!  How... what can I do for you?

Agent 00something:  *Ahem*, well we've been *ahem* monitoring the Facebook accounts in your area and I'm calling to warn you of the potential of a violent threat against a teacher by a  student with a *ahem* foreign connection.  Your mission, if you decide to accept, is to notify your Superiors and commence rounding up the potential threats ASAP.

Al stands up, salutes and says:   Yes Sir, I will get on this right away!  Good bye Um ... Your excellencies or  sirs, or brothers, people ... um ... !

Langford hangs up the phone, sprints down the hall of the Merts Center, notifies his superiors of the phone call and Viola'!.....  Operation #SpyGate is born! 

 The schools started tapping into students’ Facebook and social media postings to check for photos of guns and gang signs, threats of violence and anything else that could give clues of looming acts of violence, the Daily Mail reported. They conducted the surveillance as part of a program called Students Against Fear, or SAFe,Mr. Wardynski insists the NSA got involved because there was a “foreign connection” — that a student in Huntsville who was found to have made threats had previously engaged in an online chat with an individual in Yemen.

Um...about that student in Huntsville who was found to have made potential threats...

 Auseel Yousefi says he did it. He sent the tweets that school officials say led to a warning from the NSA which led Huntsville to begin monitoring student Facebook pages.
But he says it was all a joke, a bad one -- a stand-up routine that would cost him the first semester of his senior year at Lee High School.
On the day he got in trouble, Yousefi says, he was taken into a room full of administrators and shown emailed photos of a series of jokes on his Twitter feed. He says the administrators alternately referred to reports of threats forwarded by "the NSA" or an "NSA affiliate."  
"It meant absolutely nothing to me at the time," he said of the  National Security Agency, the U.S. government's global spy network. Instead, Yousefi was focused on defending the humor in those tweets. Then school security searched his car. They found a jeweled dagger from a Renaissance fair in the glove box. Yousefi would be expelled for one semester.
Superintendent Casey Wardynski has said the NSA contacted the system because of the foreign connection. Yousefi, now a student at Birmingham-Southern, said he was born and raised in Alabama, but his parents were from Yemen.

So Operation #SpyGate was created because of some tweeting gone bad by a student whose parents are from (not to be confused with IN) Yemen?

It was his last day of junior year at Lee High School. Yousefi said he woke up early and decided: "How funny would it be if I tweeted last day of school jokes?"
He announced a list of what he would do that day. He sent four or five tweets.
"In retrospect, it was a very dumb thing to do."
The first was the most problematic. Yousefi said he wrote" "I'm going to chop (his biology teacher) in the throat." To his mind, it was harmless. It was an inside joke, he said, as the female teacher had used similar language to get the class to be quiet. The students thought it was funny.
Yousefi was her student aide. He called her "adorable."
The second was the one he regrets most. But it contained nothing that could be misconstrued as a violent threat. He tweeted something about a female administrator's "balls of steel." He said that tweet made him feel the most awkward when confronted later.
Third, he tweeted he would sweet talk an attractive young teacher and get a kiss. "Total joke. She's 24. It's never going to happen," he said.
Next, he tweeted: "I'm going to get in a fight today." This joke, he said, was funny if you knew him. Later he would try use his own tweets espousing pacifism to explain the irony. It didn't work.
"This is 6 in the morning in my bed. I didn't think about it afterwards."

Remember that time Huntsville High Students posted pictures of their Senior Prank and their reaction on the Web?  

The Huntsville High School students have had their punishment handed down. As we dig deeper into this story, WAFF 48 News wanted to tell you about some of the things we found on the web about the prank.
Many of the messages on message boards, including the one on WAFF.com , seem to be in support of what these teens did.
We found comment after comment in support of these Huntsville High teens. And we found pictures of the man in the halls of Huntsville High.
Photos were posted on the www.facebook.com by 19-year-old Huntsville High student, Charles Bendall.
It shows a man in a hallway partially dressed. The title reads: Huntsville Hobo Fans with a description that says: "This is for all who thought our senior prank was hilarious, and that think it's bull**** that they are making such a big deal over it."
Other pictures show a homeless man, with Charles Bendall and Travis Bridges.

And what punishment was handed down for these students you ask?

According to school officials, the students were apprehended soon after the event. They have been prohibited from Senior Activities and may, yes may, face community service hours.

WHAT?! They dehumanized a homeless man. They shred his dignity. They took advantage of his situation. They put him in harm as an intruder in the school that could be dealt with by force by the police. Why are there no criminal charges? Surely, the D.A. could charge them with abuse or criminal negligence or criminal mischief. Was it because the students are trying to be naive in the fact that it was a "harmless" prank? I don't know, but if there was ever a need for a "trading places" experiment- it's with these young adults.

Big difference from the punishment some students faced for allegedly posting pictures of themselves on social media with sub machine guns and fists full of $100.00 bills.

Wardynski said the city used the SAFe program to break up a gang called the Wolfpack, with six or seven members -- all related to each other through family -- in various schools. The students were expelled and placed in alternative school and boot camp programs.
Wardynski said Huntsville schools have seen sporadic gang recruitment and what he called "wannabe" gangs. "We don't want them to get into the major league," he said.
Acting on tips from students or teachers or others, schools security staff scour numerous social media sites, including Facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, and more. They look for evidence of imminent threats to the schools or of gang activity. Wardysnki said the program has led to about a dozen expulsions each year so far and that security is actively monitoring social media at all times.

So let me see if I have this right (pun intended), post the potential of an imminent threat on Facebook you get expulsion.  Post a picture of a naked homeless man, you get banned from Senior activities, community service, and you get to go on with your life.  Oh, OK.

Don't get me wrong,  I am glad this little "youthful indiscretion" didn't ruin the Huntsville High School students lives, or destroy their future. I think the punishment they received was appropriate, compassionate, and fair.  Hopefully they learned a valuable life lesson and went on to become productive citizens. The victims of #SpyGate, not so much.

 But consider those kids who weren't so "lucky" and because they posted pictures of themselves as wannabe toughs with guns ended up at the Pinnacle Boot Camp (aka the teepees aka therapeutic wilderness camp aka private prison) with no contact with the outside world, no lawyer, and no release date, or at Pinnacle's Huntsville campus where one of the guards was indicted (and I presume is still awaiting trial) for torturing students.

The motto of Huntsville City Schools  used to be Education is the Hope of the Republic, with the dismantling of the Fletcher Seldon Center and other radical changes, this motto is no longer true for black/brown/poor/special education students because this superintendent,  enabled by this school board, is systematically destroying any hope for the future of our republic, choosing to fuel the cradle to prison pipeline instead.

Operation #SpyGate recap:
 HCS school superintendent Casey Wardynski decided it was within his power to set up a super secret  surveillance program of some students' social media accounts , based on an alleged call from an unidentified caller who said they were from the NSA, placed to longtime Huntsville City Schools  security officer Al Langford.

Oh, OK.

RedEye Roll

#hsvboe...Anything "some students" say on Social Media can, and will be, used against them

Seal of the National Security Agency

I have a ritual to help me decide the topic of my daily blog post.  First, I log on to my blog and scroll down the blog roll.  Then I log on to Facebook, followed by Twitter,  and lastly,  Al.com.

What I saw posted in the Alabama Today section about HCS Superintendent Casey WARdynski   made my Eyes get bigger,  the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and had me pacing the floor muttering expletives. 

A secret program to monitor students' online activities began quietly in Huntsville schools, following a phone call from the NSA, school officials say.
Huntsville schools Superintendent Casey Wardynski says the system began monitoring social media sites 18 months ago, after the National Security Agency tipped the school district to a student making violent threats on Facebook.

There are so many things wrong here I don't know where to start, so I guess I will start by saying Freedom isn't Free.

Since the inception of the Patriot Act and the revelations of warrant less surveillance, I've long held Big Brother  is watching every move we make, but like a good citizen I adopted the if you aren't doing anything wrong you don't have anything to worry about meme.  To my knowledge, expressing opinions via social media, blogs or forums is not against the law.  I falsely assumed we had this little thingy called freedom of speech in the United States of America, and anything we said in these forums couldn't/wouldn't be used against us.   Wrong.

Regardless of how the program started, Huntsville City Schools began scanning Facebook and other sites for signs of gang activity, watching for photos of guns, photos of gang signs and threats of violence.

This superintendent is consumed with the idea of gangs and considers himself an expert.

The four students from Lee High School who filmed a fight in a school bathroom and posted the video to YouTube did so as a gang initiation, Huntsville's superintendent said.
Dr. Casey Wardynski said the fight, which came to light Jan. 20 after the video went viral, wasn't an ordinary skirmish between students. 

"It was a gang initiation; these students went to lunch together afterward," Wardynski said.

 The superintendent said there is zero tolerance in the district for gang activity.

"There will be no gangs in our schools," Wardynski said.

Gang is the new Black 
When asked at a community meeting why students in north Huntsville are required to wear school uniforms,  in a rare moment of candor the superintendent said that was the only way school administrators could tell the gang members from students.

Here's the school district's explanation of how the program got started:
About a year and half ago, Wardynski said, the NSA called Huntsville and reported a high school student had threatened on Facebook to injure a teacher.
Al Lankford, the city's longtime school security officer, told AL.com that he took the NSA phone call. He said security officers went to the high school and eventually searched the boy's car.

Huntsville City Schools

"We found a very good size knife and the student was expelled," said Wardynski, a former U.S. Army colonel appointed as superintendent in Huntsville in 2011.

Big Brother isn't coming, he's already here.
Why was the NSA watching what this student posted on facebook?  The above article says the knife was found in his car but that's not what the initial news reports said.

 A Huntsville City Schools spokesperson said security workers found a knife and gun in a student’s possession Monday at Butler High School.
Additional search procedures were implemented, and no other prohibited items were found.  The male student was charged with two Class III violations of the Huntsville City Schools Student Code of Conduct.

So which one is it, was the knife found in his car (perfectly legal), or in his possession?

The NSA is focused on foreign intelligence. Vines said any information about a domestic safety issue would be sent to another federal agency, like the FBI. "Moreover, NSA does not make recommendations regarding school safety programs," said Vines via email.

"There was a foreign connection," said Wardynski, explaining why the NSA would contact Huntsville schools. He said the student in Huntsville had made the online threats while chatting online with a group that included an individual in Yemen.

There is just one little problem with this scenario...the NSA denies they contacted Huntsville City Schools .

NSA did not acknowledge placing such a call. "The National Security Agency has no record that it passed any information to the Huntsville school district, and the description of what supposedly occurred is inconsistent with NSA's practices," said Vanee Vines, public affairs specialist with the NSA, on Monday.
The NSA is focused on foreign intelligence. Vines said any information about a domestic safety issue would be sent to another federal agency, like the FBI. "Moreover, NSA does not make recommendations regarding school safety programs," said Vines via email.

So who are you going to believe Casey Wardynski, or the NSA?  I'll take the NSA for 100 Alex.

 Board members Topper Birney and Laurie McCaulley, contacted for this story last week, said they were unaware of the monitoring program and the board was not briefed. The city system web site contains no operational information on SAFe, but displays a logo and lists three staff members. Those include two security officers and consultant Chris McRae.

What did BOE members know and when did they know it?
I can understand the weakest links Birney and McCaulley) not having a clue about this program, but what about David Blair, Dr. Jeannie Robinson, and Mike Culbreath?  Did they know?  Did they authorize the hiring of a full time staff to do nothing but investigate what students and other private citizens do online ?

There is disagreement on the Huntsville school board about whether or not Superintendent Casey Wardynski informed board members that the district had begun secretly monitoring student activity on social media.

Psst! The key word here is SECRETLY.  If you tell people what's going on it's not a secret.

Both Blair and McCaulley voiced concerns about the information provided to AL.com and the subsequent media attention the program is receiving.
Blair said students intending to do harm at school might be less likely to put information about their intentions online if they know the district is watching.
"This kind of stuff puts kids in danger," Blair said.
McCaulley said that whoever leaked the security presentation to the media may have broken Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) laws because the presentation included pictures of students.
She said, however, that the program itself has worked by letting the district know about students who may have been planning something dangerous on campus. The documents obtained by AL.com showed pictures of four different students posing on Facebook with handguns.
Three of those students were subsequently expelled and the fourth was referred for counseling.  
"This is a program that works to save kids," McCaulley said

Preemptive Strike!
Are they out of their cotton picking minds?  Do they honestly believe this program has saved kids?  Saved them from whom?  Saved them from what?  Expelling students who may (or may not) have been planning something dangerous and referring the counseling isn't helping them, or anybody else.   And why weren't parents notified of any potential threats of violence?

Although this information is just hitting the fan, it's not new.  CaseyWardynski is doing the job he was hired to do. 

Casey you have to break the mold and prove you're not afraid of minorities, democrats, liberals, aclu (sic) types and the entire entitlement crowd! Do that, and you'll be doing the job you were hired to do! Oh yeah, not to mention striking down all racial transfers. And that includes allowing not allowing whites to racially transfer either. If you don't like where your child goes to school, move to where they can be zoned into a school of your preference, that's what I had to do!

The Alabama ACLU asked Huntsville City Schools about their social media policy  three months ago.

The American Civil Liberties Union wants to know if Huntsville City Schools is snooping on students.
The group published an open letter (PDF) to Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski Tuesday, which includes a public records request for information on any disciplinary actions taken against students based on their social media activities.
The ACLU said other schools around the country are punishing students for comments made on social media critical of schools, even if the comments are made after school hours on private property.
There is no indication of any specific complaints against Huntsville City Schools at the present time.
Tuesday afternoon, WAFF also mailed a public records request for the same information. We will keep you updated on how the district responds.

The letter said the program can constitute a students right to privacy and freedom of expression online.  It also said suspensions and expulsions are often meted out in a disproportionate manner that negatively impacts student of color.  Look at the pictures presented in the article and you will see this to be true.

It ought to be against the law to lie to taxpayers

Someone is lying about the origins of a secret student social media monitoring program started by the Huntsville City Schools and "needs to lose his job," a national First Amendment expert said today.
"Lying to the public should be a firing offense," according to Frank LoMonte, executive director of the Student Press Law Center in Washington.

Lying to the public is par for the course in Huntsville City Schools, and if that doesn't work, blame it on the black guy.

There's a third possibility, U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Huntsville) said today. "The school system is telling the truth as they understand it," but the call "could have been anybody, misrepresenting their status."
"If there is proof that the NSA actually made the phone call," Brooks said, "it would behoove the Congress to ascertain whether the NSA has a program consistent with that phone call."
To start an inquiry, Brooks said he'd need the name of the person who called and that person's phone number, "If he's keeping good records, he should have that phone number and that name," Brooks said of schools' security officer Al Lankford.

 Why the Pinnacle Hypocrisy matters:

Wardynski said the city used the SAFe program to break up a gang called the Wolfpack, with six or seven members -- all related to each other through family -- in various schools. The students were expelled and placed in alternative school and boot camp programs.
"People are very good about 'If you see something, say something,'" said Wardynski.
Wardysnki said the monitoring program is limited to threats against schools, and students are expelled from neighborhood schools and placed into alternative programs. Asked if school officials are also searching online for photos of alcohol, drugs and sex, Wardynski said: "None of that."

One of the many, many, things wrong with the Pinnacle Policy is the denial of students right to equal protection under the  law and due process.  I turn the floor over to The Mertz Center Monitor.

To be continued.....