"Joey Kennedy nails it. If you're with Trump then you're just like Trump. Deal with it."

Republicans say cut Social Security—Cut Medicare—Cut Medicaid—Cut Food Stamps. I say CUT Republicans in 2016 pic.twitter.com/9iX1OO5tw3

— Captain Clarion (@citizensrock) July 1, 2016

Today's Must Read.

How can anybody support Trump? How can anybody believe he’s the best we have to lead the United States. Don’t vote for Hillary if you don’t like her. But don’t vote for Trump unless you’re like him.
Surely, Trump only caters to those who look like him: Angry White Men. With Bad Hair.

You are who/what you vote.... for.

These are times that try men and womens’ souls. We have not heard the type of things we’ve heard from Trump since George Wallace in 1968.

RedEye

From the Files of Stuck on Stoopid in #AmeriBama Tuesday Edition

Fist Dap Frank Matthews

How often does a newspaper fire a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter?

 As nonsensical as it sounds, al.com/The Birmingham News pulled off the unusual feat by ushering reporter Joey Kennedy out the door recently. Veronica Kennedy, Joey's wife, broke the news on her Facebook page and said he received no severance pay, just a final paycheck and notice that his insurance would end on February 28.

Left in Alabama, the Informed. Involved. Progressive. Blog of record, has the nerve to  blame the Alabama Democratic Party, and the Alabama Education Association for the Decline and Fall of the ADP and the AEA,  they enabled. 

In 2010, many Alabama Democratic candidates forgot their base, ran from their party, and failed to run on any issues that mattered to Alabama families.

Eye tried to tell some of Y'all, A party divided will NOT stand.  But did you listen?  Noooo.  That would have been too much like right(pun intended).

What Nancy Worley said all the damn way!

Worley said in a phone interview Monday it was unfortunate that Kennedy decided to resign and “take his toys and go home,” but she feels that people will return to the Alabama Democratic Party as they see the policies of the Republican super majority in the Legislature “taking care of the rich” and how those decisions affect them.
“We’re looking at a golden opportunity in the upcoming election in 2014, because quite frankly the Republicans have so many negative situations they have created for the state that I think people are going to feel the pinch in their pocketbook and they’re going to vote Democratic, like they once did,” she said.

Psst President Obama...please read this letter in preparation for your speech in #Selma on the anniversary of Bloody Sunday.

Dear President Obama,
This letter is in part to let you know that we are proud of you and your leadership. We are proud of the positive images you and your family provide for the nation in general and African Americans in particular.
However, we also write to share serious concerns voiced by many African Americans. We feel that an open letter will stimulate a broader dialogue.

Read On. Read Often.

Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Joey Kennedy has been fired from the Alabama Media Group for being too liberal

Joey Kennedy via Alabama Political Reporter

Another one bites the dust.....
According to a Facebook post by Veronica Kennedy, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Joey Kennedy has been fired from the Alabama Media Group.

“For those of you who haven't heard: My husband, Joey Kennedy, was fired by Alabama Media Group on Thursday for being 'too personally involved' in covering his beat and for 'threatening sources' wrote Mrs. Kennedy wrote of her husband's fate.
For years Kennedy has been pilloried over of his left-leaning columns. But it was his refusal to tailor his message to fit nicely into the every growing echo chamber of faux right-wing talking points that led to his declining voice on the pages of the Birmingham News and at al.com.

And they wonder why Alabama is solidly republican?

It's the media.

It doesn't pay to be too liberal in AmeriBama.

Real Alabama Democrats can't win for the Journalists

I am sick and damn tired of supposedly unbiased, white (yes I'm playing a race FACT), male, (yes I'm playing the gender FACT)  journalist getting to decide who/what/when/where a candidate is credible or not, or, when someone/something is racist/racism, or not?  Who elected them God?  I mean really?

Al.com's Joey Kennedy wrote a column entitled  Democrats need a credible candidate for governor, even it's it's a lost cause   in which he proclaims  Alabama is a solidly republican state and Bentley is very popular.  I wonder why? Snark

 Who is Bentley very popular with....the GOP?  Who gets to decide who is credible?

Dr. Jess Brown?
Jess Brown, a political science professor at Athens State University, said the absence of a Democratic candidate for governor at this point is “indicative of the weakness of the Democratic Party.” In an email, Brown said the Democrats have lost so many races in Alabama “that it is a party without an effective message or messengers.”

Uh, no Dr. Jess Brown, the party has messengers, they just aren't allowed to express their opinions in the mainstream press like you.   How about an opinion from a political science professor at Alabama A&M University, Tuskegee University, Alabama State University, University of Alabama in Birmingham, Miles College? 

Let's just stop having elections and let Kennedy and others decide who the winners are. The reason Alabama is solidly republican  is  because journalist know they can count on the uniformed and misinformed to hate democrats more than they love their county, city, state, country, or themselves for that matter. 

I sure do miss the good old days when  the media used their powers for good, and informed the public of what we needed to know to make informed decisions, and let the voters decide who/what is credible or not.

It's the media, I won't say stupid, because we aren't stupid, It's the media who caters to stupid.

No wonder more and more people are turning to the blogosphere for unfiltered information.

Tuesday Talking Points~Edit

Hello Readers!  I'm going through one of those times when my real life and my blog life collide.  Postings will be sparse until the stars in  my universe align again.   ~RedEye

This is the United States Senator representing Alabama  I wish we had instead of the United States Senator we have.

Retired Public Educator, former State Representative/Senator and former AEA State President Gerald Waldrop writes one of the best explanations in defense of public education and educators I've read so far.  Snipet:

Regression in public education, by rabid, right-wing Republican loonies, was put in motion when newly elected members of the Alabama Legislature were called into Special Session by out-going Governor Bob Riley shortly after the General Election of November 2, 2010.  On surface, the Session was called (with the approval of incoming Governor Robert Bentley) to enact "Ethics" Reform but the hidden agenda was to kill the reliable "Keeper of the Gate" for Public Education in Alabama, AEA.

This was done by repealing the Dues Check-Off Law of 1983, thus dramatically reducing the ability of the Alabama Education Association to protect and promote public education - its students and the employees who serve them.  Contrary to portrayals by the media, public education enemies and their political allies,  AEA was never Paul Hubbert and Joe Reed.  They were hired hands with good guns who represented their members well and thus public education.

It is rare al.com, Pultzer Prize winner columnist Joey Kennedy and I disagree, disagree with  his criticism of State Rep. Mary Moore (D. Birmingham)  for "bringing a racial motivation" into the discussion regarding the the republican majority legislature's Alabama School Accountability Act (gag).  Commenter Car54 said it best:

Rep. Moore was responding in anger to the realities of this bill. Bottom line is that the bill takes tax money out of the public school system in Alabama (white kids, black kids, Hispanic and other minority kids) and puts the tax money into the private schools in Alabama that are nearly 100% white. "In my book that's a racist policy."

 Blast from the past re-post, A RedEye Rant about whining and complaining

 This is exactly why I didn't want an African American President, I knew if black folks dared complain we would be accused of wanting preferential treatment and be told to stop whining because America is post racial. *Snark*

Today's Must Read
An Apology to Jesse Jackson 

 As much as I hate to admit it, Jackson got it right when he accused Obama of “talking down to Black people.” Everyone, including myself, eviscerated him for making the comment and accused him of being jealous of Obama. How can we forget when Obama spoke at the Congressional Black Caucus dinner a couple years ago and told Blacks to “stop complaining?” Obviously, Jackson saw something in Obama early that the rest of us missed. Now, we are paying the price for it, especially Blacks.

Read On!  Read Often!

But what if it is hidden racism?

Fist Dap What Would Jack Do

Republicans have been fighting public school integration since before former Governor George C. Wallaces' infamous stand in the school house door.  They are still fighting to keep them there Negroes  and Hispanics out of their schools, today, tomorrow, and probably forever,  if  people of good will continue let them.

 In modern America we believe racism to be the property of the uniquely villainous and morally deformed, the ideology of trolls, gorgons and orcs. We believe this even when we are actually being racist.

My post, The Truth about the ALGOP School Flex Bill, and nothing but the truth , generated the following response  from a member of  Pam's List serve  which I believe illustrates this point.  Emphasis mine with names redacted.

I have a problem with calling a school a failing school. When we say a school is failing, we are saying the teachers are failing, the Principal is failing, the parents are failing,  and the community is failing. If this is the case, any student transferring to a Successful school from a failing school will eventually result into a failing school. Let me say this, I transferred my son and daughter from Xxxxxx High school to  Xxxxxxxxxx High, not to avoid a failing school. The Principal and the teachers at Butler were great teachers. I met them at every PTA meeting.

I transferred my kids from Xxxxx High to remove my kids from the students attending Xxxxx High, not the staff. What was failing at Butler High was the parenting of a majority of the students. I attended school in the 1960's, through some of the worst times for blacks to get an education, but a majority of blacks back then were committed to get an education regardless of racism. 

It is my opinion that today, parenting is failing not only education in the United States, parents are failing their children. It is my opinion, and please don't get angry, that if all the students at a failing school were bussed to a non-failing school, and the students from the non-failing school were bussed to the failing school, leaving all staff at both schools in place, the failing schools would be reversed!

No teacher can educate a student! Teachers provide an educational environment for learning, and they provide the proper instruction. If the parents and students are not committed to an education, it will not happen! Regardless of the racist Republicans and their racist attitudes, if blacks, whites, poor blacks, and poor whites commit themselves to an education, it will happen!

Alabama will always have racist, Alabama will always have Republicans that wish the negro was still cooking in their kitchens and plowing their fields with no hope of wealth or education. What parents today have to do is, regardless of which school their children attend, commit themselves to their children's education, involve themselves in their children's educational endeavors, and commit their children to learn how to read, and write, and to learn arithmetic in grade school. They must commit their children to the joys of learning! 

If a child today can't read in the 8th grade it is not the teachers fault. Parents must stop looking for someone to blame. The blame starts at home. The blame starts at home. When the next PTA meeting occurs, go to one of those failing schools and count the parents attending. I have, and it is a sad sight! I feel sorry for the kids whose parents are failing them. Successful public schools are the result of involved parents. They use the same books, they have the same quality teachers and they are supervised under the same superintendent. In the 18 years my children attended school, never, ever, have I had to say a teacher was poorly educated! Not once!

The difference between my children and others was that there was study time in our home during the week, and With limited TV and play time. I removed my son from the basketball team at Huntsville High because he was too tired from practice to study. Today he is Xx. Xxxxxx (name redacted) with a PhD from Xxxxxx. 

Yes, racism exist, but lets not pull the race card as a trump card so quickly.

My solution: take any failing school and institute a program to get more parental involvement in the children's classwork and homework. Make it a law that some guardian is required at PTA meetings from 1st through 8th grade. Make it a law that if a child is not bringing in homework, a Child Development Agency is notified to visit the child's home.  Do this and watch this failing school turn into a oasis of education and learning!

Racism can only exist where there is fertile soil for it to grow and to flourish!  But even racism can't overcome the personal commitment to get an education!

No!  No!  No! Racism not only exists but is perpetuated because we would rather pretend it doesn't.

 Its long past time for us to redefine racism based not on the intent of the sender but on the experience of the receiver. As someone said during a blog conversation I participated in on this topic long ago...if I accidentally dropped an anvil on your toe, the fact that I didn't mean to doesn't make it hurt any less.

So where is the hidden racism in the response above?  Let's start with this;

I transferred my kids from Xxxxxx High to remove my kids from the students attending Xxxxxx High, not the staff. What was failing at Xxxxxx High was the parenting of a majority of the students.

What proof does the writer have to support this assertion other than  media enabled stereotypes that black parents are not actively involved in their child education?  Are they are dysfunctional  just because they are black?

 Hidden racism #2

It is my opinion that today, parenting is failing not only education in the United States, parents are failing their children. It is my opinion, and please don't get angry, that if all the students at a failing school were bussed to a non-failing school, and the students from the non-failing school were bussed to the failing school, leaving all staff at both schools in place, the failing schools would be reversed!

 It's easy to accuse and blame some anonymous parents than address the real reason Alabama schools are failing. I have a problem with blaming tax payers, because that's what parents are, for the failure of the school system just because they are  convenient scapegoats.   If the ALGOP really cared about students attending failing schools they would try and fix them instead of bankrupting them.

Hidden racism #3

If a child today can't read in the 8th grade it is not the teachers fault. Parents must stop looking for someone to blame. The blame starts at home. When the next PTA meeting occurs, go to one of those failing schools and count the parents attending. I have, and it is a sad sight! I feel sorry for the kids whose parents are failing them. Successful public schools are the result of involved parents. They use the same books, they have the same quality teachers and they are supervised under the same superintendent. In the 18 years my children attended school, never, ever, have I had to say a teacher was poorly educated! Not once!

 Oh, really?  So if a parent sends their child to school every day to learn how to read and their child can't read it's their fault because they don't go to PTA meeting?  I didn't now they trained parents how to teach  at PTA meetings.  I didn't know parents decided to replace text books with IPads and laptops at PTA meetings.  I didn't know parents hired and fired Superintendents/principals/ teachers/ support personnel or granted tenure.   Snark  If parents are going to teach their children everything at home what do we need schools for?  The teachers may not be poorly educated, but what if the parents are?  Should their child also be doomed to a life of ignorance and poverty?

Hidden racism #4

My solution: take any failing school and institute a program to get more parental involvement in the children's classwork and homework. Make it a law that some guardian is required at PTA meetings from 1st through 8th grade. Make it a law that if a child is not bringing in homework, a Child Development Agency is notified to visit the child's home.  Do this and watch this failing school turn into a oasis of education and learning!


The government can't require parents to attend PTA meetings, or home visits by Child Development Agencies because a child is not bringing in homework.  What if parents have to work or have other obligations?  If children aren't turning in their home work teachers should stop assigning it, or make them do it at school.  In my day we had study hall with trained teachers to assist us if necessary.  Students aren't failing classwork, they are failing homework.  Again, if they are going to do all the work at home why do we need schools.  How about the government requiring principals and teachers to make home visits?

Hidden racism #5

Alabama will always have racist, Alabama will always have Republicans that wish the negro was still cooking in their kitchens and plowing their fields with no hope of wealth or education.

 True, but when this point is made by non whites  we are accused of playing the "race card".

In the less critical sense, the phrase is commonly used in two contexts. In the first, and more common context, it alleges that someone has deliberately and falsely accused another person of being a racist in order to gain some sort of advantage.^[1] An example of this use of the term occurred during the O. J. Simpson murder trial, when critics accused the defense of "playing the race card"^[2] in presenting Mark Fuhrman's past (e.g., his recorded use of the word "nigger" in addition to his being accused of tampering with murder evidence in prior cases, as well as his use of the Fifth Amendment to avoid potential self-incrimination upon questioning) as a reason to draw his credibility as a witness into question.
In the second context, it refers to someone exploiting prejudice against another race for political or some other advantage. The use of the southern strategy by a political candidate is said by some to be a version of playing the race card, such as when former Senator Jesse Helms, during his 1990 North Carolina Senate campaign, ran an ad showing a black man taking a white man's job, intended as a criticism of the idea of racial quotas. The ad was interpreted by many people as trying to play to racist fears among white voters.

Contrary to popular belief, black parents realize the value of an education, and black children want to learn.   Silence helps the oppressor oppress the oppressed.

 The idea that racism lives in the heart of particularly evil individuals, as opposed to the heart of a democratic society, is reinforcing to anyone who might, from time to time, find their tongue sprinting ahead of their discretion.

"It's pretty obvious the Ala-repubs are trying to re-segregate the schools without calling it that."  The question is, are good people going continue to let then get away with it?

There are plenty of valid criticisms to make about last week's hijacking of the legislative process by Republicans to pass the Alabama Accountability Act. Wouldn't take much work, either. But leave it to Moore to get that simple task wrong, too.
Moore, after the Republicans passed the Accountability Act over Democratic and other objections, said this, as reported by AL.com's Kim Chandler: "Welcome to the new confederacy where a bunch of white men are now going to take over black schools."
Criticize Republican sleaziness or secrecy or deception or betrayal. But Moore's statement crosses the line, and it was intercepted by Alabama Republican Party senior vice-chairman George Williams, the highest ranking African-American in the state GOP.
"I am astonished at Rep. Moore for making such a racist statement about our leaders in Montgomery," Williams, from Bay Minette, said in a GOP press release. "I am an African-American, Vietnam War Vet, a leader in the Alabama Republican Party, and I support this legislation. Does that mean I am part of the 'new confederacy'?"

No Mister "highest ranking African-American in the state GOP" (who knew?), it means you are part of the problem.

 America lives under the interesting premise that a racist can't be black. That's like believing that a man can't hate his sibling, or that a woman can't advocate for a man to beat his wife (as Whoopi did to Oprah in "The Color Purple"). The truth is that racism is typically most effective when you put a black face on it, and Herman Cain has volunteered to become the cute little political puppet which allows white America to say the things that they are afraid to say.

 The journey is not about labeling the racism "out there." Its about being open to how it has been hard-wired into our own brains. We need not fear exposing it. The only way it is perpetuated is if we pretend its not there.

The hidden racism is eating away at the future of our country.  It's time to call it out and end it once and for all.
RedEye

"Is Alabama going to be left behind" because the "Alabama Democratic Party is on Life Support"?

Let me think about that for a minute........

In a recent column al.com's Joey Kennedy points out the majority of Alabama sore losers, I mean voters, proved they hate our President and democrats more than they love their country or themselves,  by sending the same old obstructionist back to Washington D.C. to put President Obama, and them there freeloaders, in their places.

So it's 11 days after the election, and some Alabama Republicans (and Republicans in other states, too, I suppose) are still firmly parked in denial. They can't believe -- gasp! -- that Barack Hussein Obama (they often use all three of the president's names, part of their birther pride) actually won re-election. These avoiders would rather have confrontation than cooperation. And it doesn't look as if the Alabama GOP is about to eject the extremists who have far too much authority in the party.

While the Alabama GOP is hunkering down and circling the wagons,  WSFA's Ken Hare notes the Alabama Democratic party is not dead, but it's on life support.

After state Democrats failed to field candidates in 10 of the 12 statewide races on the ballot on Nov. 6 and saw their candidates lose in the other two races, talk of Alabama once again being a "one-party state" -- just with Republicans in power instead of Democrats -- started being bandied about.

Why is the Alabama Democratic Party on life support you ask?  Because they insist on doing the same thing over and over again HOPING for a different result. 

"We still have more than 50 percent of the elective offices in courthouses throughout the state," said Kennedy, a former associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court.
He admitted disappointment over the party's poor showing in the election, but said he was "encouraged that we still have a lot of grassroots support." He spoke of the need to become better organized at the grassroots level, to develop "more intense messaging," and to "have a better conversation with people we know share our values."

See what I mean?  Now,  I am not the head honcho of the Alabama Democratic Party, and no one asked for my opinion but I'm going to offer my prescription for getting the Alabama Democratic Party off life support now and forever in 5 easy steps.

1.  Expel all INFILTRATORS,  paraquoting George Dubya Bush "yer either wit us or aginst us".

2.  Stop suppressing MINORITY voices.  All WHITE   is not right (pun intended).

3.  He/she who controls the MESSAGE controls the outcome. As they say in my neighborhood, talk is cheap.....just DO IT! 

4.  Call out the HYPOCRISY. 

5.  Elect a LEADER who is mean as a snake a likes a fight  for real, and who won't do the same thing over and over again HOPING for a different result.

On a personal note, postings will be light for the next few days as I celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends.  I am thankful President Obama was reelected and will continue to take our country forward and not back to the days of slavery and Jim Crow, and I will pray he will not leave Alabama behind.  

Peace and blessings!
RedEye

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

Birmingham School Board Warts n'All Crowblog al.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yeah right.

Thomas Jefferson said democracy demands and educated and informed electorate.

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

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

I report.  You decide.

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

The Bias of Mainstream Media