This is What the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" Looks Like in 2015 Y'all

Protesting while white vs. protesting while black. Police protection vs. police interference #ConcernedStudent1950 pic.twitter.com/2XMevobXrY

— Teezo (@365DaysOfAutumn) October 13, 2015

See, this is where I start to lose it! ---> http://t.co/v08Jtw4x2F pic.twitter.com/f1AHLLMQiQ

— Charles M. Blow (@CharlesMBlow) October 13, 2015

Video shows GA deputies tase handcuffed man in groin before he died in custody

Father pressing charges against Cop who threw son to the ground by the throat.

Waiving the wrong flag while waiving their rights.

How NBA player Thabo Sefolosha took on police brutality and won.

Here's what happens when you complain to cops about cops.

It's the white, male dominated media driven racial stereotypes.

"And they want us to sing God Bless America?"

No

No

No

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

RedEye's "Back to the future" Rundown

The Freedom Riders Then and Now

As a survivor of the domestic terrorism of the Civil Rights Movement, EYE think America is going back to the future.  EYE don't know if the election of the first president who is black 
bought out the worst in some (not to be confused with all) white people, but if this is the result EYE fear Barack Hussein Obama will be the first and last president who is black of these United States of America.

 Today, a large part of the population remains willfully racist, [TEA PARTY] and by extension, a great number of people have also become unconsciously so, buying implicitly into stereotypes about Black Americans as dependent and lazy [MITT ROMNEY]; and thus determined to stop social programs [CRUZ] and limit the federal government’s influence [PAUL] — even if it is not to their own benefit. In a sense, much of the middle class population has been HOODWINKED into voting for the interests of the top one percent GOP because of their own unconscious prejudices.

FBI warning of of white supremacist infiltrating law enforcement nearly forgotten.   EYE wonder why?  Snark

In near prophetic fashion, after the FBI’s warning, white supremacy extremism in the U.S. increased, exponentially. From 2008 to 2014, the number of white supremacist groups, reportedly, grew from 149 to nearly a thousand, with no apparent abatement in their infiltration of law enforcement.

From the files of SWB (Shopping While Black) in Sweet Home Alabama. 

Real Housewives of Atlanta star Claudia Jordan recently had a run-in with a mall security guard in Opelika, Ala., and is claiming she was racially profiled. On Friday, Jordan was in Opelika to see Ginuwine perform, but both Jordan and Ginuwine were thrown out of the Auburn Mall because she wouldn’t remove her sunglasses, she says.

Meanwhile, there is some Strange Fruit in Georgia.

I don't know about the rest of you, but when I hear stories like the recent one about Roosevelt Champion, I get a little nervous.   
"A black man who'd recently been questioned in connection with the death of a white woman was found dead hanging from a tree Monday morning in rural Greensboro, Georgia, police said. Local and state investigators said there was nothing to immediately suggest foul play.

Adventures in double standards #Baltimore edition,  Because black folks.....

Riots led by largely white participants over largely innocuous things (your favorite sports team lost, your favorite sports team won, your favorite event just ended, you're drunk, others are drunk so let's tear sh*t up) are never treated with the racial disdain that the highly uncommon riots that occur in black communities receive.
There's no condemnation of white Americans as a whole, nor are there any calls for the Caucasian community to restrain itself and seek non-violent means of expressing itself. They're not denigrated as "thugs," accused of being "out of control" or used as fodder for unreconstructed fantasies of putting them back in their rightful place. Even the language becomes different - these are "disturbances," not "riots."  They're not "thugs," but "young party goers" and "revelers" who just happen to be "over-exuberant."

So much for HOPE for CHANGE we can believe in.

RedEye

Quick Drive By~Edit

Stopping by for a quick run down on some of  the current events you won't see on TeeVee, read in the newspaper, or hear on the radio.~RedEye

Speaking of the media we have, do you think  newspapers would bury the story of a black sheriff wishing death on former President George W. Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney?  Heck no, they wouldn't.

Can we have a majority leader who is not skeered of the right wing Bully's?  It's time to give Harry Reid the Hook.

Paging the black political class!  The Vampires aren't coming...they are already here!

Hello this is Hank Sanders, Alabama state Senator, and I’m still mad as hell. I say hell no! I ain’t going back to the cotton fields of Jim Crow days.   Psst!  Anderson Cooper and Left in Alabama...can you hear State Senator Hank Sanders now?

Memo to the GOP:    You may as well keep that $10 million dollars you plan to spend on minority outreach in your pockets.  Just because we are minorities doesn't mean we are stoopid.  We know the gop will never change.   Once a Pit Bull always a Pit Bull.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of O.I.L. (Operation Iraqi Liberation) when Bush and Dick  sent our troops to war based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE to look for WMD that was NOT there, without body armor, or an exit plan.

The Dixie Chicks were right (pun intended)

What looks like Bats#it crazy on an ordinary day in AmeriBama

H/T Kingcockfight

It's official, President Barack Hussein Obama has driven the gop crazy.  So much so, even die heart republicans are asking  is it time to abandon the republican party, and  Jeb Bush is trying to disarm the circular firing squad.   I do believe the Suckers are waking up and smelling the Tea. Pun Intended.

Alabama Legislature 2012:  Bill could require anal probe inserted in republican male candidates to get on the ballot.  Snark  Not to be left out of the stuck on stupid,  State Senator Clay Scofield (r. Guntersville) introduced a bill requiring women to have a vaginal ultrasound before having an abortion.  Why don't they call it the make Doctors and Ultrasound Companies richer bill?  I'm just saying...

Give me some ideological purity over winning any day, any time, any place.  What's the good in winning as a democrat but governing like a republican?  I mean, really?

And that's this week in Bats#t Crazy AmeriBama.

Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Troy Anthony Davis

Thousands of his supporters and loved ones will gather at Jonesville Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, to honor the spirit and legacy of a man who has galvanized a global movement for justice.

We would like you to join us, too.

To accommodate the worldwide demand to mark this moment together, as a global community, Troy's family has generously allowed his funeral to be broadcast live on www.NAACP.org.

Beginning at 11 a.m. today 10/01/2011, you will be able to share the experience with the Davis family and Troy's supporters and loved ones around the world.

Troy Davis: A Celebration of Life
Saturday, October 1st, 2011 at 11 a.m.
Watch the service live at www.NAACP.org

Even in the face of death Troy understood how his story could change this country forever. In the days and weeks ahead, we will work to ensure that Troy's mission is carried out, and the brutal practice of the death penalty is abolished in this country once and for all.

Troy's story has touched each of our lives. Please join us tomorrow as we stand alongside his family in this time of reflection and remembrance.

Sincerely yours,

Benjamin Todd Jealous
President and CEO
NAACP

P.S. Many have asked about contributions to the Davis family. Letters of condolence may be sent to "I am Troy Davis," P.O. Box 2105, Savannah, GA 31407

In lieu of flowers, donations may be mailed to: "I Am Troy Fund," Capitol City Bank, 339 MLK, Jr., Blvd. Savannah, Georgia 31401

P.P.S. If you have not yet already, please sign the petition in Troy's memory, calling for an end to the death penalty in the United States: http://action.naacp.org/EndTheDP

"The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia"

Lyrical story

A young woman tells the story of her unnamed older brother who returns home after a two-week trip from a place called "Candletop." The brother meets his best friend, Andy Wolloe, at Webb's Bar ("Andy Wolloe said hello, and he said, 'Hi, what's doing, Wo?'"), and Andy informs the brother that his young wife (who is later described as "cheatin'") has been seeing another man in town, Seth Amos. Andy then reveals that he, too, has been sleeping with his friend's wife. The brother is understandably upset, which scares Andy, who leaves and walks home. The brother assumes his wife has left town, gets his gun, and heads out to the back woods to sneak up on Andy and confront him. When the brother arrives at Andy's house, he finds tracks outside ("tracks that were too small for Andy to make") and discovers that someone has already killed Andy. The brother, in a moment of panic ("he started to shake"), fires his gun in the air to summon a passing sheriff. When the sheriff approaches the scene, the brother is immediately accused of murder. A "backwoods Southern lawyer" doesn't keep the sheriff and a judge from convicting the brother in a kangaroo court ("the judge said 'guilty' in a make-believe trial / slapped the sheriff on the back with a smile"), and hang him that same night, effectively lynching him. This was apparently the same night of a statewide electrical blackout, although the phrase "the night the lights went out in Georgia" could refer to the fact that the "light" of justice went out that night as an innocent man was killed by the law.

The "light" of justice went out for real last night as Troy Davis was killed by the law. What is the difference between killing your own people and the death penalty? Isn't that the excuse, I mean justification, our country used for regime change in Iraq and Libya?

The decision of the United States Supreme Court to deny a stay of execution for Troy Davis will join The Dred Scott Decision, Bush v. Gore and Citizens United in infamy as one of the stupidest decisions ever. How could the voices of millions of people be ignored?. I guess they showed us who was Boss.

Huge numbers of people all over the world are begging them to reconsider but it seems to be falling on callously deaf ears. This is a travesty.

The execution of Troy Davis illustrates all the flaws in the death penalty, and why it should be abolished. H/T Booman

The debate about Troy Davis should have been about whether he had been wrongly imprisoned for two decades, not over whether he could prove his innocence beyond a reasonable doubt.

How did we arrive at a system where so much discretion is stripped away from the decision makers?

This case highlights every flaw with the death penalty. Even from the point of view of advocates of the death penalty, it took 20 years to get 'justice.' Whether we abolish the death penalty or not, this case proves that it is in need of an overhaul. Georgia might have killed an innocent man last night simply because the system didn't allow people to save him, despite the obvious doubts about his guilt.

It's time for America to stop condoning cruel and unusual punishment.

According to Amnesty International, 137 countries have abolished the death penalty. Argentina, Chile, and Uzbekistan outlawed the death penalty in 2008. During 2007, 24 countries, 88% in China, Iran, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States alone, executed 1,252 people compared to 1,591 in 2006. Nearly 3,350 people were sentenced to death in 51 countries. More than 20,000 prisoners are on death row across the world.

Ask yourself the following, "What kind of society do I want to live in?". What kind of society do I want future generations to live in? What if Troy Davis were my son/brother/father/uncle/cousin/friend?

Do you want to live in a society where people, prideful, imperfect, deceivable people reserve unto themselves the right to kill other people?

Because I guarantee you that so long as we think that people en masse under the guise of The State have the right to kill they are going to find ways to exercise that power.

We must not let the lights of Justice be extinguished.

Defiant until the end, Troy Davis was executed Wednesday night for the murder of an off-duty police officer. He convinced hundreds of thousands of people around the world, but not a single court, that he was innocent.

As he lay strapped to a gurney in the death chamber, the 42-year-old told relatives of Mark MacPhail that he was not responsible for his 1989 slaying.

"I am innocent. The incident that happened that night is not my fault. I did not have a gun," he insisted.

"All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth," he said.

Davis was declared dead at 11:08 p.m. The lethal injection began about 15 minutes earlier, after the Supreme Court rejected an 11th-hour request for a stay.

Let us march on until victory is won. The movement continues.
This movement couldn’t stop Davis’ execution — but it’s a movement that won’t die with Troy Davis. There’s no better way to honor Troy’s memory than to keep fighting for justice.

You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression ... If we are wrong, the Supreme Court of this nation is wrong. If we are wrong, the Constitution of the United States is wrong. And if we are wrong, God Almighty is wrong. If we are wrong, Jesus of Nazareth was merely a utopian dreamer that never came down to Earth. If we are wrong, justice is a lie, love has no meaning. And we are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until "justice runs down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream." Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Three Strikes You're Out! Die Boy Die!

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African-American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia

.
The Georgia Clemency Board denied clemency for Troy Davis. The legal lynching will continue.

Early Tuesday morning, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles elected to deny clemency to Troy Davis, letting his original punishment stand. His date of execution by lethal injection will take place September 21st as scheduled. The fate of Davis, 42 rested in the hands of the five board members. They are the only entity in Georgia with the power to convert Davis’ death sentence, outside of a last-minute appeal by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Well, I guess they showed us.

The Internet community has also been buzzing in support, with Twitter promoting the hashtag #toomuchdoubt bringing attention to the idea that Georgia may potentially execute an innocent man. Also, close to 1 million signatures have been collected in a petition supporting Davis attempt at clemency. Protesters have also been holding demonstrations outside the board meeting in Atlanta with posters saying “Justice for Tray Davis” and “I Am Troy Davis.” Demonstrations were also held in 300 towns across the globe, which perhaps shows a changing attitude towards executions.

The Georgia Clemency Board shines a harsh light on the American legal system for the world to see.

Davis’ case has garnered international attention, since his impending day of execution this week. While Davis was sentenced to death 20 years ago for the murder of Savannah Police Officer Mark Allen MacPhail. During the course of his time incarcerated, his case has caught the attention of various dignitaries, such as former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, former Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Norman Fletcher and former FBI Director William Sessions, who all believe that Davis should receive clemency.

The board members, with their dates of appointment, are:

-- Gale Buckner (January 2005), a former GBI agent

-- Bob Keller (January 2007), a former Clayton County district attorney

-- James Donald (January 2009), former commissioner of the Department of Corrections

-- Albert Murray (May 2010), former commissioner of the Department of Juvenile Justice

-- Terry Barnard (May 2010), former state Representative

If I were a member of the Board, I would want to make damned sure that whomever is sentenced to death actually did the crime.I would not want to execute someone only to find out later that the condemned person was innocent. An execution does not allow for “do-overs” to get it right.

Troy Davis's fate is now in the hands of the United States Supreme Court and, President Barack Hussein Obama.

While Davis is set to go before the state board of pardons and paroles for a final review on September 19th, President Obama should consider granting clemency.
There are several arguments to support Obama's intervention in this case, not the least of which is salvaging the U.S.'s reputation with regard to the integrity of its justice system. We learn in school that the fair administration of justice is a fundamental value in our democracy. We speak of our justice system as if it sets us apart from other leading nations and reflects, at its the core, the presumption of innocence until guilt is proven and the guarantee of a fair trial, if someone has been accused of breaking the law.

And before the righty's start whining, two words, Terri Schiavo.

The legislative, executive, and judicial branches, of both the United States federal government and the State of Florida, were involved in the case of Terri Schiavo. In November 1998 Michael Schiavo, husband of Terri Schiavo, first sought permission to remove his wife's feeding tube. Schiavo had suffered brain damage in February 1990, and in February 2000 had been ruled by a Florida circuit court to be in a persistent vegetative state. Her feeding tube was removed first on April 26, 2001, but was reinserted two days later on an appeal by her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler.

I HOPE and PRAY someone will stop the judicial lynching of Troy Davis.

Despite evidence that he's innocent, Troy Davis faces execution on September 21. With a culture that cheers Rick Perry's execution record, what chance does he have?

What chance does anyone have? What will we tell our children?

And if the clemency bid fails, and Troy Davis is executed next week, I will tell her (and I will pray that it is so) that her message and all the other messages and all the well wishes of all the tens-of-thousands of people who have supported him these many long years were in his heart as authorities gave him those drugs -- that as his life ended, Troy Davis at the very least knew he was being held by tens-of-thousands of loving hands.

Amen and Amen.

Reasonable Doubt for Dummies!

A broke clock is right twice a day, and every once in a while our resident righty FED UP gets it right(pun intended), as in this comment regarding the pending execution of Troy Anthony Davis, even though the case against him as fallen apart.

FED UP said;

You DO NOT know that he did not commit that crime and I do not know that he did!

This my friends is REASONABLE DOUBT for Dummies. This is why Troy Davis should not be executed. This is why Troy Davis should be granted a new trial. This is why I am against the death penalty.

Troy Davis and the politics of death.

Troy Davis has three major strikes against him. First, he is an African-American man. Second, he was charged with killing a white police officer. And third, he is in Georgia.

More than a century ago, the legendary muckraking journalist Ida B. Wells risked her life when she began reporting on the epidemic of lynchings in the Deep South. She published “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases” in 1892 and followed up with “The Red Record” in 1895, detailing hundreds of lynchings. She wrote: “In Brooks County, Ga., Dec. 23, while this Christian country was preparing for Christmas celebration, seven Negroes were lynched in twenty-four hours because they refused, or were unable to tell the whereabouts of a colored man named Pike, who killed a white man ... Georgia heads the list of lynching states.”

None dare call it racism, but the fact remains there are more blacks than whites on death row, because they're well....black.

Barring some miraculous intervention by Gov. Rick Perry, Duane Buck will become the 11th person to be executed this year in Texas’ death chamber and the execution will be wrong—not because of some anti-death penalty view I may have but because his death sentence was definitively the result of race.
Buck, an African-American, was convicted in 1997 for the 1995 double murder of his girlfriend and her companion. During Buck’s 1997 trial, his defense attorney called a psychologist named Walter Quijano who testified during the punishment phase of the trial and who, upon cross examination by prosecutors with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, stated he believed that because Buck was black, he posed a greater risk of “future dangerousness” in the prison setting. Future dangerousness is a critical factor a capital jury must consider in deciding whether the death penalty is appropriate in a given case.
In 2000 U.S. Senator John Cronyn, then Texas’ attorney general, said that Buck’s case was one of six his office had identified in which Quijano had introduced race into jury deliberations. Then Attorney General Cronyn said that all of the condemned inmates were entitled to a new punishment hearing. Five of those inmates was given new punishment hearings by various federal courts which resulted in each being re-sentenced to death. One of the five has been executed.
Neither state nor federal courts ever ordered a new punishment hearing in Buck’s case. Why Buck’s trial attorney would call a psychologist who had a history of injecting race in the trial process is not readily available in the public record. What is known is that state and federal courts over the last few weeks have rebuffed the determined efforts by Buck’s current attorneys, David Dow and Katherine Black, to secure a new punishment hearing. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday denied Buck’s last legal opportunity to get a new punishment hearing.

Is Duane Buck guilty of the crimes he was convicted of? Yes. Should he be executed because he's black? No. And FED Up, before you tune up your spin machine, just because I oppose the death penalty doesn't mean I want rapist and murderers to go free, or live among civil society. It means I want them to spend the rest of their natural lives in behind bars. I oppose the death penalty because I'm pro life. For real.

Under Politics 101, a conservative governor, especially in Texas, would not intercede in a case that has been rejected by the courts and the pardon board. But these are not normal political circumstances. Gov. Perry is running for the presidency of the United States and has already faced serious media questions about his refusal to stop the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham, despite compelling evidence indicating the condemned inmate was innocent. The Buck case offers the governor an opportunity to redeem himself, especially among African-Americans who believe the death penalty in Texas unfairly targets blacks. A thirty-day reprieve would not cost the governor a single point among his conservative political base because chances are the courts would not order a new punishment hearing during the reprieve period and the pardon board most certainly would not. Thus, the only thing a reprieve would probably accomplish is a few more months of life for Duane Buck—an insignificant price considering the good will the governor would benefit from granting the reprieve.
As I said in my opening, barring some miraculous intervention by Gov. Perry, Buck will be executed tonight.

Thou Shalt not Kill. That means everybody.

The primary reason God hates murder is that out of all creation, only human are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 9:4-6). Even before the codification of the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai the murder of other human beings was wrong (Genesis 4:8-12; 4:23-24; 9:4-6; Exodus 1:16-17). While on earth, Jesus spoke out against murder (Matthew 5:21-26; Mark 10:17-19). We also see in the writings of Paul (Romans 1:18, 29-32; 13:8-10; Galatians 5:19-21), James (James 2:8-11; 4:1-3), Peter (1 Peter 4:15-16) and John (Revelation 9:20-21; 21:7-8; 22:14-15) that murder is wrong.

WWJD?

Kill Baby Kill!

Troy Davis artwork by Amnesty International

Troy Anthony Davis, the eldest child of Korean War veteran Joseph Davis and hospital worker Virginia Davis is scheduled to be killed on September 21, 2012, even though the case against him has fallen apart.

Contrary to the opinion of the uninformed and the misinformed, Troy Davis is not a thug just because he's an African American. Troy Davis Davis grew up with four siblings in the predominantly black, middle-class neighborhood of Cloverdale in Savannah, GA. He attended Windsor Forest High School but dropped out in his junior year to be available to drive his disabled younger sister to her rehabilitation. Davis obtained his GED in 1987. People who actually knew him described him as a "straight-up fella" who acted as a big brother to local children.

Although Davis was convicted by a jury of his peers, seven out of the nine people who said it was him have "recanted" or changed their testimony. In addition to that, Sylvester "Redd" Coles, the first person to accuse Davis -- might have actually been the shooter because, since the conviction, several people have testified that he lied about Davis to protect himself. And boasted about getting away with it.

To make things worse, they don't have any physical evidence (nothing you can see or touch) against Davis either. What little physical evidence the State of Georgia once had it has since withdrawn and new forensics technologies have revealed grievous error, making the assumptions of the past wrong.

Troy Davis's wheelchair-bound sister Martina Correia said: “They know my brother is innocent but the state is bent on taking his life." Ain't that a dip?

How do you explain the death penalty to children?

There are moments in parenting when not telling the whole truth is very important. I did not say "They will wheel Troy into a tiled room. They will strap him to a gurney. They will inject him with a series of drugs that will kill him in stages, despite the fact that there is real evidence that these drugs do not always work as smoothly as we are told. Despite the fact that he may suffer as he dies, they will strap him down, and people will watch, and they will inject him, and Troy Davis will die, even though he is almost certainly innocent."

Instead, I swallowed hard and thought about our cat, the one we put to sleep a couple years back, the one whose last living memory was of being in my arms. I said "Oh no, honey, they'll give him drugs like we gave Chauncey. The first one will make him sleep, and the next one will stop his heart. Do you remember how Chauncey died, quietly in my arms?"

What the Christian Progressive Liberal said, all the damn way!

If I’m the Governor of a state that has the Death Penalty, I would want to make damned sure that whomever is sentenced to death actually did the crime.

I would not want to execute someone only to find out later that the condemned person was innocent. An execution does not allow for “do-overs” to get it right. From what I’ve read about Troy Davis, there is hell of enough reasonable doubt to set him free, let alone grant him a new trial.

What if that were the kind of Governor the State of Georgia had instead of the kind of Governor they have?

An execution warrant setting Troy Davis’ execution has been signed by a Chatham County judge. The execution date has now been set for September 21st.

An execution is NOT inevitable. This merely sets the clemency process in motion. Before Sept. 21, the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles will rule on whether Troy Davis’ sentence should be commuted, or whether the execution should be carried out as scheduled. Previously, the Board stated that it would not allow an execution unless there was “no doubt” as to guilt.

Oppose the killing of some body's baby.

What I'm reading on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 and a call to action

Ten Years After; Fear itself.

We have changed though. We now have more names to call our enemies, and far more prowess in killing people. The techniques of warfare are changing, and we seem to be willing to give up some of our cherished freedoms for security. And to tell you the truth, that is the change I fear the most.

The Price of Security-When Citizens Become Suspects

Public buildings used to project a community’s vision of itself. In the past this might be civic pride — the New York Public Library — or ambition — the Louisiana Capitol in Baton Rouge, Huey Long’s declaration of modernity.

Public buildings still talk to us, but the message now is not pride but fear and suspicion. The hulking masses, set back from the street, with hard to find entryways protected by heavy bollards and other ill-disguised barriers, send a clear signal — stay away. You can’t be trusted. You might, in fact, be the enemy.

How I lost the country I used to know and the person I used to be

On September 11, 2001, I was lucky. I didn't lose anybody close to me -- except my country and the person I had been before.

Post 9/11 Permanent State of War Should Have Ended Long Ago

There never was a "war on terrorism." It wasn't "terrorism" that crashed airliners into buildings on that brilliant Tuesday morning. The attacks were carried out by a 19-member assault team from al-Qaeda, a terrorist organization then being sheltered by the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. There most definitely was a war against al-Qaeda, and we won

.

What passes for journalism and opinion in America and the Sunday Morning Bobblehead Report

We all have our own personal stories on 9/11: where we were, what we saw, who we lost. The thing is, I don't know if I necessarily feel like sharing them, just because it's been ten years. It feels exploitative, and wrong. Which is, of course, exactly why we'll be inundated with 9/11 coverage today. Channel after channel, they are going to rehash the tragedy, with all the hysteria and hyperbole they can muster. But will they media take an honest eye to what happened? Will they admit that changed subsequent criticism of George W Bush? 'Course not. We'll have to relive collapsing buildings and sad survival stories and pictures of children who grew up in the last ten years without a parent. Personally, I'd rather watch the Mayles brothers' documentary of the Concert for New York that grew out of the tragedy.

Republicans soon may have one more reason to applaud.

When Rick Perry was asked by Brian Williams in a recent republican presidential debate if he looses any sleep over the executions in his state, this is how he replied: “I’ve never struggled with that at all.” He said it with a smirk on his face, and when he said it his republican audience roared with applause.

Rick Perry has been the overseer of more executions in modern history (234)than any other governor in the United States. And you better believe that he is proud of every one of them.

Michael Moore: I was the most hated man in America

In his 2003 Oscar acceptance speech, Michael Moore denounced President Bush and the invasion of Iraq. Overnight he became the most hated man in America. In an exclusive extract from his new book, Here Comes Trouble, he tells of the bomb threats, bodyguards and how he fought back

A call to action on 9/11
We are one day away from September 11th. And the psychos who flew the planes into those buildings were inhumane and had no empathy for their fellow human beings. They represented the worst of what humanity has to offer.

Come September 22, 2011, we will find out if they have more company.

*Sign the petition to save Troy Davis, here.

State Senator Hank Sanders tried to tell y'all the republicans want to bring back slavery

What's that you say? Representative Michelle Bachman (r. MN) is running for President on a pro slavery anti porn platform? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you. NOT.

GOP Presidential candidate and front runner, Rep. Michelle Bachman was the first Joker, I mean gop candidate to sign the Family Leader's pro-marriage pledge

The Family Leader, a prominent Iowa group that promotes Christian conservative social values, said Thursday it is asking all presidential candidates to sign a pledge regarding their personal convictions on traditional marriage.

The pledge is entitled, “The Marriage Vow – A Declaration of Dependence upon Marriage and Family.”

The organization’s chief executive officer is Bob Vander Plaats, a conservative evangelical leader who was the state chair of Mike Huckabee’s Republican presidential campaign when he won the 2008 Iowa Caucuses. Vander Plaats said the Family Leader will not support any candidate who declines to sign the pledge.

“If you are looking at being a leader of our great country….we would like to have you pledge personal fidelity to your own spouse and a respect for the marital bonds of others,” Vander Plaats told reporters at a news conference on the steps of the Iowa Statehouse.

U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minnesota, quickly signed the pledge Thursday, while an aide to to former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman said he never signs any pledges. A spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, said the congressman has reservations, while a representative of President Barack Obama’s Democratic campaign committee declined comment.

Now all of that sounds good and well, but the Devil is in the details.

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President.

There they go re-writing history again.

Actually, the wording of that piece is also wrong. There were no Black "households". Blacks couldn't own property. Also, while Blacks were parents, they were powerless. Their kids didn't belong to them, but the Massa. So it really wasn't a "two parent" household at all. It was the slavemaster, his family, his paid employees, all the other white folk--any of whom could, at any time, usurp the parents or discipline the children. So, yeah, not really a household at all but a labor camp. Also? Back in the white folk days of yore, white kids were most likely to be raised with two parents, even when their mothers were little more than chattel and kids were forced to work almost as soon as they could stand. Oh, for those wonderful days of old!

"Oh, for those wonderful days of old!" This is what Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders was talking about in his mad as hell robo call to democratic voters;

Hello this is Hank Sanders, Alabama state Senator, and I’m still mad as hell. I say hell no! I ain’t going back to the cotton fields of Jim Crow days. I’m going forward with Ron Sparks, Jim Folsom and others who would do right by all of us. I hope you are mad as hell and will not go back, and you have the power to choose. I will stand until hell freezes over for Ron Sparks for Governor and Jim Folsom for Lt. Governor on November the 2nd.

Paid for by Alabama New South.

The threat is real.

WARNER ROBINS, Ga. (AP) -- Civil rights groups have criticized a white city councilman in Warner Robins, Ga., for telling a black colleague during a public meeting that he should work in a cotton field.
The exchanged happened during an argument Monday between Councilman John Williams, who is white, and Daron Lee, who is black.
"I was disrespected last Monday," Lee said in televised comments. "I'm getting tired of y'all talking to me any kind of way. I'm sorry, I'm not in a cotton field. OK?"
"You should be," Williams replied.
Lee said in an interview with WXIA-TV that he considered Williams' comment a racial remark. Black slaves labored in the cotton fields of Southern plantations until slavery was banned in 1865 after the U.S. Civil War.

This is how they feel and who they are. This is why The Alabama State President of the NAACP objected to The Azalea Trail Maids being the only official representative in the Inaugural Parade of President Barack Hussein Obama. There were some who just couldn't understand why it was a reminder of Slavery. It was the opening salvo.

When you see a single young woman, let alone fifty, as a neon-colored caricature of Miss Scarlett at the Barbecue, it calls to mind, well, Miss Scarlett at the Barbecue. I’m sure girls north of the Mason-Dixon line wore hoop skirts too—we’ve all seen Little Women—but the silhouette of the big ruffledy Barbie-cake skirt and parasol is forever linked in the American mind with the antebellum South. And not just any aspect of the South, but the sprawling, colonnaded white plantation house, where in the evening by the moonlight you can hear those darkies singing. And when we choose to present that as the single representative image for our state, it looks like we’re yearning to hear ‘em singing again. It just does, y’all.

If President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder don't get off their Donkey's and reign in the gop we will be singing and slaving again.

WASHINGTON -- Former President Bill Clinton went after Republican governors and legislators on Wednesday for their "disciplined, passionate, determined effort" to pass controversial voter ID laws that could keep some traditionally Democratic voters from casting a ballot in 2012.
"There has never been in my lifetime, since we got rid of the poll tax and all the other Jim Crow burdens on voting, the determined effort to limit the franchise that we see today," Clinton said in his keynote address to a roomful of young progressives at the Campus Progress National Conference.
"This is not rocket science. They are trying to make the 2012 election look more like the 2010 election than the 2008 election."
Clinton specifically chastised Florida Gov. Rick Scott ® for imposing a five-year waiting period on the restoration of voting rights for ex-prisoners, many of whom fall into racial groups that have traditionally voted Democratic -- and would likely vote for Democratic candidates in 2012.

I wish I were in the land of cotton, old times there are not forgotten.

Can you hear him now?

Redeye's Alabama and Georgia Congress Critter Watch

The Terri Sewell fan club, aka Left in Alabama,makes much hay out press releases touting a Department of Homeland Security grant to the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Department, and an opportunity for high school students to compete in an art contest, but nary a word about Sewell being the only freshman democrat to sign a letter asking for less stringent boiler rules.

A coalition of freshmen lawmakers wrote to Administrator Lisa Jackson Wednesday calling on the agency to issue less stringent final regulations for limiting air pollution from industrial boilers.
The letter was signed by 61 members of the House. Only one Democrat, Rep. Terri Sewell (Ala.), signed on. It builds on a similar letter from 13 Senate freshmen.A coalition of lawmakers and industry groups have railed against the agency’s proposed regulations for industrial boilers, arguing they are impossible to meet. The agency has said its trying to address concerns as it crafts final rules.

Psst Terri! It's not about Y-O-U, remember Shirley Chishom?

Sewell, daughter of Selma's first African-American city councilwoman, noted that she had interviewed Shirley Chisolm for her thesis "Black Women in Politics: Our Time has Come" back in the 1980's. She quoted Chisolm on public service:

"Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth."

... and said, "I'm asking you on July 13th to let me make a small deposit toward that rent. You will not, you will not, be sorry."

Congress Critter Mo Brooks came under fire in Eye Rack, for real.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, was part of a congressional delegation that came under fire while visiting Iraq this week, according to the website Politico.com.

Brooks and Reps. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Guam Democrat Madeleine Bordallo were eating lunch with troops at a military base Wednesday when the base came under rocket attack, Politico reported Friday.

No one was injured during the attack.

About a half hour later, the base was attacked again, and the representatives were escorted to a bunker. Again, no one was injured.

“I don’t think any of the members of our delegation experienced any fear,” Brooks, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told Politico from an undisclosed location in Iraq. “We placed our trust in our armed services, and they were very professional. They did exactly what they should do.”

Yeah, and Mo and the rest of the Congressional Cowards did what they do best. They cut and ran as fast as their little privileged legs would carry them to get on a plane back to America and left our sons and daughters over there to dodge bullets and rocket attacks 24/7.

Psst Mo! Are the Eye Rack Eees free yet? I thought the Eye Rack Eees were going to dance in the streets and throw flowers and candy at our troops? I thought Eye Rack Eee oil was going to pay for the W-ar?

Bring our troops home. Now. There are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Saddam didn't have anything to do with 911. We were lied to. Cut spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, not in America. The poor and the elderly have to give up heat in winter and air conditioning in summer. Cuts to medicare and social security will affect the middle class. WTF are the rich going to give up?

Let's make the midnight train across the state line to Georgia, where Rep. Paul Broun (TeaPublican, gutless coward) is asked, 'Who is going to shoot Obama?' and he didn't say a mumbling word.

Well, I would like to remind people how the media played a clip (out of context) of Reverend Jeremiah Wright saying "God Damn America" over and over again,forced President Obama to reject his church, renounce the man who performed his marriage ceremony and reject the man who baptised both his daughters.

I also want to remind people of the young man being tasered at a John Kerry event for trying to ask a question at a town hall meeting.

Anti War Activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested inside the capital for wearing a T Shirt.

Don't forget the outrage over then candidate Obama's bitter, clinging to their guns remarks (also taken out of context).

So where is the call for elected officials like Broun to reject, renounce and reputiate questions like this?

Crickets

Sunday Shock, Shame and Awe

Southern Heritage,the Tea Party and the problem of Wal-mart.

There is a glaring hypocrisy within the Republican Tea Party, for which I must now take my white Southern brethren to task. You say Big Government is evil. Ok, I get that and I tend to agree. But if this so, what the hell makes Big Business so good? It is just as powerful as government and just as evil. In fact, government, for all its excesses, is not actively destroying our environment or wastefully exhausting our resources, but Big Business is. Why is that ok?

Justice AmeriBama style
African-American residents of central Alabama are organizing to protest the six-month jail sentence that a white former state trooper has just begun for one of the seminal killings of the Civil Rights Movement.

A candlelight vigil open to people from across the country and other possible events are in the works, residents said this week.

The motivation for all this organizing is the fact that James Bonard Fowler, 77, began serving a half-year sentence on Dec. 1 in Geneva, Ala., for the Feb. 18, 1965, fatal shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old African-American church deacon, father and Vietnam veteran.

Jackson was taking part in a peaceful civil rights protest in his hometown of Marion, Ala., when Fowler shot him in the stomach. Jackson died eight days later in the hospital, his death prompting the Selma to Montgomery marches, which ultimately led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Meanwhile a peaceful Georgia Prisoners Strike is way under the radar.

The peaceful strike begun by inmates of several Georgia state prisons continued for a second day on Friday, according to family members of some of the participants. Copyrighted news stories by AP, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and local TV stations in Macon and Atlanta quote state corrections who say several institutions were placed on lock down beginning Thursday in anticipation of the inmate protest, on the initiative of wardens of those prisons.

"Don't call me a racist you N word" Read, watch and then tell me: was this lady being racist or was she just venting frustration? The floor is yours.

The Sunday Talking TeeVee Knucklehead meme is that President Obama is moving to the center to insure his re-election. Don't fall for the Okey Doke. The so called center are really republicans and if they have a choice between a real republican and you..you know the rest. Ask your Harvard buddy and ex Congress Critter Artur Davis how pandering to these people at the expense of you base worked out for him. Contrary to Knucklehead opinion, these people didn't bring you to the dance.

A GAMBLE REPUBLICANS WERE WILLING TO TAKE.... Political parties are traditionally motivated by fear of public revulsion. To take steps that make the party's members look like monsters is rarely a good idea.

So it was interesting this week to see congressional Republicans overwhelmingly reject the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would pay health care costs for 9/11 rescue workers, sickened after exposure to the toxic smoke and debris. In the House, more than 90% of GOP lawmakers opposed the bill. In the Senate, a unanimous Republican caucus found the bill so offensive, they wouldn't even give it an up-or-down vote.

Fear of appearing sociopathic probably should have led to a few more Republican votes. After all, it's not exactly a compelling message to take to the electorate: we'll fight tooth and nail for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, but we'll also reject health care costs for 9/11 rescue workers.

And why would Republicans take a risk like this, especially over legislation that was both affordable and paid for? Because they're probably confident most Americans won't hear a word about this.

The fact that the 9/-11-related legislation was defeated was news. Period. The fact that it was defeated as part of the larger Republican strategy to tie the Senate in knots made yesterday's vote even more newsworthy.

But not at ABC, CBS or NBC. Last night, all three evening newscasts failed to report on the fact that Republicans had voted down a previously bipartisan bill designed to provide medical coverage for Sept. 11 emergency workers. At the major networks, that development was not considered newsworthy.

That's pretty remarkable. But the larger point here is that Republicans are now practicing an unprecedented brand of obstructionism and they're doing without having to pay much of a political price. Why? Because the press is giving them a pass

The Tea Party's war on public education and public educators continues.

Alabama legislature in "special session" is taking on ethics reform. Of course this is the first time the GOP has ever had control in Montgomery so they are "making hay while the sun shines" so to speak. One of their so called ethics bills is directly aimed at taking away the AEA's pac automatic deductions and I/we here in Alabama need some help.

Shocking, Shameful and Awful.