RedEye Around Red State AlaBAMA~Update

 H/T Teanderthal Party

Most red states are dirt poor because they are fed a steady diet of distortions via News(sic) Talk  Radio, whose job it is to use the public airways to misinform the uniformed, and, distract them with so called wedge issues, which in turn, makes them vote against their self interest.  

I meet you all the time. You hate Obama. You hate gay people. You hate black people, immigrants, Muslims, labor unions, women who want the right to make choices concerning their bodies, you hate em all. You hate being called racist. You hate being called a bigot. Maybe if you talked about creating jobs more than you talk about why you hate gay people we wouldn't call you bigots. Maybe if you talked about black people without automatically assuming they are on food stamps while demanding their birth certificates we wouldn't call you racist. You hate socialism and social justice. You hate regulations and taxes and spending and the Government. You hate.

RedEye's  Right Wing Watch

I'm glad I have my own blog to debunk the right wing distortions since Dale "Jackson" won't allow me to comment on his blog because he's afraid to engage me in a debate/discussion.Yep, the same Dale who refuses to debate me online is demanding that Huntsville City Councilman Will Culver bow down, I mean, apologize to him, for daring to walk out of the Council meeting after Dale took aim at him and Calhoun Community College , and, for (get this) threatening to sue Dale, which he really didn't threaten to do, and even if he did so what? 

"I'm saddened by the inaccuracy of the information that's being disseminated," said Culver. "All those things that are being alleged did not happen."
During the ensuing debate over whether Jackson should be allowed to continue speaking, a clearly agitated Culver packed his briefcase, walked out of the meeting and did not return.
On Friday, Culver called Jackson's allegations "totally unfounded" and said he is "looking at my legal options."

Psst Dale!  Will Culver has the right (pun intended) to pack up his briefcase and walk out of  meeting and to look at his  legal options.  You can't force him to recant his charge any more than he can force you to recant your charges.  You both have 1st amendment rights, remember?  You might want to read  this.  I'm just saying...BTW, you are welcome to comment on my blog anytime because I believe in freedom of speech.

The same Alabama Red Republican Controlled State Legislature that wants to arm teachers, recently passed new gun laws, and the so called Alabama Accountability Act, want to ban certain books in public schools because (wait for it), State Senator Bill Holtzclaw (yes you read it right) finds Nobel Prize winning author Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye highly objectionable and sees no value or purpose in this book, educational or otherwise.  And you wonder why most red states are dirt poor?

The University of  Alabama sorority row bought, I mean, brought, a late surge in voter registrations for Tuesdays election which helped elect  Lee "Penis Nose" Garrison President of the Tuscaloosa City School Board. And how did the Sorority girls pull off such a feat you ask?  Why they did what any self respecting Southern Belle, I mean, Sorority girl would do...they chartered them some stretch limos and offered free drinks to members who voted.  There are allegations,  not to be confused with facts, that some of the voters weren't even from Alabama.  Why does this remind me of State Senator Scott Beason's infamous Aborigines comment?

The recording followed a different conversation that jurors heard Thursday in which Beason and other Republican senators can be heard talking about “HUD-financed buses” taking black voters to the polls in the November 2010 election if the ballot included a referendum to legalize electronic bingo.

Meanwhile way down yonder in Mobile, Alabama,  the white candidate mayoral beat the incumbent black mayoral candidate with a white surge . Surge must be the word of the day for Al.com.

Mayor Sam Jones lost support among both white and black voters in Tuesday’s election, compared with his first successful mayoral race eight years ago, an AL.com/Press-Register analysis suggests.

White voters left him for challenger Sandy Stimpson, while black voters abandoned him for home.

The difference is that there were fewer black voters, while white turnout was higher and went emphatically for Stimpson.

 Steve Raby, the mayor’s political consultant, said he did not know why white voters turned out in such higher numbers than blacks.

 There's just one little problem with this analysis....

Overall, voter turnout was 46 percent, roughly the same as in 2005.

Which leads me to believe the part about black voters abandoning the black candidate for home, which black voters don't do because the right to vote is sacred to black voters, which is why republicans are trying to suppress the black vote, is not true, but the part about white voters abandoning the black candidate, is true.

On Tuesday, Jones did not come close to winning a district where white voters outnumber blacks. Turnout averaged 48 percent in the precincts that are at least 55 percent white and exceeded 50 percent in five of them. In the precincts that are at least 55 percent black, meanwhile, turnout averaged only 39.2 percent

Rut Rho...Absentee ballots brings scrutiny and confusion on Election Day.

Less than an hour into the Mobile municipal election, people were already complaining of issues at the polls — the most common of those being that when the voter went to the poll, he or she was marked as already voted by absentee ballot. 

The absentee ballots in this election have become a flashpoint over the past few days after it came to light Friday that the U.S. Postal Inspector was looking into possible mail fraud in regard to the way the ballots were being sent in. The inspector, Tony Robinson, told FOX10, "We do have an active investigation in the Mobile area and inspectors there will be seeing that through toward prosecution.”

Herding Alabama DemoCats Rant

So, the Alabama Democratic Majority, which seceded from the Alabama Democratic Party because they refused to bow down to Joe Reed and his bunch,  held a democratic revival were they were supposed to be preaching the democratic gospel of of education, equal opportunity, voting rights, and inclusiveness (sic), however the headline in AL.com said Mark Kennedy's Alabama Democratic Majority seeking Dem's, Republicans to run for Legislature.

Add Republican candidates for public office to the growing umbrella of the Alabama Democratic Majority organization.
Speaking at a reception in his honor tonight, Mark Kennedy, who formed the Alabama Democratic Party in April following his resignation as chair of the state Democratic Party, said his group is seeking not only Democratic candidates to support but also Republicans.
"We're going to support Democrats but we're also going to look at opportunities to support independents and even Republicans to have a more balanced approach to government," Kennedy said.

Add this to the list of  I tried to tell some of y'all this is a farce.  Now why would Democrats seek republicans to run for office?  I don't see republicans say they are seeking democrats to run for office.  You know why? Because democrats and republicans have an entirely different agenda.  I'm sick and tired of  candidates running on the democratic ticket, getting elected with democratic votes, then governing like a republican.  If my choice is between a conservadem and republican I will stay my Ebony Donkey at home on election day.  If I wanted to vote republican, I would be a republican.  Maybe Kennedy and Company didn't get the memo that recent polls suggest calling Someone a republican is an insult?

 The independent political polling company NSON Opinion Strategy [1] recently published the results of a case study in which 250,000 randomly selected American voters were asked a series of questions. The details of how and where the study was conducted have yet to be released but the results are clear: 87% of Americans consider the word “Republican” to be synonymous with greed, racism, and violence.

No Absence of Malice in Bama  Update;

Attorneys for former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman, who is in jail for something that is not a crime,  filed a brief with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals asking for a new trial, or at the minimum additional discovery about the role of former U.S. Attorney Leura Canary.  Maybe now that President Obama's former White House counsel is listed as the lawyers on is defense team this travesty of injustice will be over for the Siegelman family.

 Seven years after the former governor was found guilty, and after numerous failed appeals, Dana Siegelman said the family is still driven to overturn what she describes as a miscarriage of justice carried out by those who wanted her father exiled from state politics.

Free at  Last!  Free at Last!  Thank God Almighty Chris McNair is Free at Last!

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- A federal judge this afternoon issued an order for the immediate release of 87-year-old former Jefferson County Commissioner Chris McNair, who is serving time in prison for his conviction on public corruption charges related to the county's sewer system. 
 McNair is the father of Denise McNair, one of the four little girls killed in the KKK's bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church on Sept. 15, 1963. The 50th anniversary of that  pivotal moment in Civil Rights history is 17 days away.

RedEye Around Red State AlaBAMA over and out for now.

Legal Schnauzer: Was AG Eric Holder Mistaken, Misleading, Or Evasive In His Answers To Congress About Siegelman Case?

Legal Schnauzer: Was AG Eric Holder Mistaken, Misleading, Or Evasive In His Answers To Congress About Siegelman Case?

 If Siegelman has an active appeal, it has escaped my attention. And that raises this question: Is Eric Holder mistaken or did he intentionally make a misleading statement to Congress and the American people? I have sent queries to Siegelman's legal team, seeking clarification about any appeals, plus their response to Holder's statements. We will update this post as new information becomes available.

What Mollie said all the damn way!

 Is it me or does Holder appear uncomfortable discussing Seigleman? He was so fidgety in addition to his lack of knowledge of the case. I hope no political deal has been made with the DOJ regarding Seigleman. These folks scare me. Cohen was excellent.

I wish President Obama were just as outraged about the political persecutions, I mean prosecutions here in Sweet Home Alabama.

If the cries of Montgomery politicians under indictment don’t generate sympathy, certainly the lamentation of unemployed workers in the Black Belt does. One effect of the bribe-induced Riley-Canary war on bingo in Alabama is the closure of bingo operations in Greene, Macon and Houston Counties, that employed literally thousands of workers, and brought millions of dollars annually to local government treasuries. We all wish that overwhelmingly black Greene and Macon Counties had bulldozers clearing land for new automotive and electronics plants, or for high-powered biology labs or computer engineering firms, but that’s the progress of the next generation. Right now, those counties are absolutely dependent on the entertainment and gaming business for their economic survival, and Obama’s what-me-worry attitude about Canary has placed that survival in jeopardy.

The Shirley Sherroding of Rep. Joe Mitchell (D. Mobile)~Edit

Here we go again....you know the drill....leak an email exchange between Rep. Joe Mitchell and a constituent about gun control to the press and Viola!.... The media enabled spin from substance to rhetoric is in!  Instead of talking about gun control and our constitution we are talking about racial rhetoric.  Sigh

Let's recap.  Retired coal miner and Jefferson County resident Eddie Maxwell sent a mass email to all Alabama Legislators "warning them that even attempting to introduce a gun control bill was, in his opinion, a violation of state law."  Oh really?     
  
Instead of ignoring Maxwell's email, or, sending out the standard thank you for contacting my office blah, blah, blab, blab  auto reply, Rep. Mitchell chose to exercise his first amendment right and respond in the following manner; "Your folk never used all this sheit (sic) to protect my folk from your slave-holding, murdering, adulterous, baby-raping, incestuous, snaggle-toothed, backward-a**ed, inbreed (sic), imported criminal-minded kin folk."

It is unfortunate Rep. Mitchell chose to respond in this manner because the point he was trying to make got lost in the rhetoric.   Call me cynical, but could the reason the media won't let us have a conversation about gun laws is because they like massacres for ratings? 

Now don't get me wrong, I am not condoning Rep. Mitchell's response, but I understand where he is coming from.

Copies of the email exchange were provided to AL.com by state lawmakers who were included in the correspondence. The emails are printed below, edited only to remove the specific addresses.
Mitchell, who is black, did not respond to email and telephone messages from AL.com seeking comment this week. He told the Associated Press today that he was explaining that citizens who descended from slaves and were disenfranchised by the state constitution have a different view of history and the constitution than white citizens.

So, now we have the Alabama Democratic Party,  some democrats, and  some democratic lawmakers falling over themselves disowning Rep. Mitchell, and Mobile republicans calling for his resignation over the racially charged email.  And who wins if Rep. Mitchell resigns?  Not the people who elected him, that's for sure.

• During an intense debate over the public display of the 10 Commandments in 2004, Mitchell walked to a state House window, stuck his head outside and yelled, "Mitchell calling Earth."
• During a heated debate over same-sex marriage in 2005, Mitchell threw conservatives for a loop when he introduced an amendment that would have banned divorce and another that would have made adultery a crime. Both proposals failed, but not before Mitchell made his point that they ought to be supported by a legislative body bent on "protecting the sanctity of marriage."
• Mitchell donned a gas mask on the floor of the state House last year in protest of Alabama’s controversial immigration law. “This bill stinks,” Mitchell said, when asked about the stunt .

I expect republicans to make hay out of Mitchell's response  and some even trying equate them with Rep. Scott Beason's (r. Gardendale) Aborigine remarks for partisan political gain, but it troubles me when democrats fall for the media enabled weapon of mass distraction.  It's about gun violence control, not racial rhetoric.

It is also troubling to me that the same people who reject Rep. Mitchell's response applaud Alabama Democratic Party Chair Judge Mark Kennedy for emasculating  Alabama Democratic Party Vice Chairman Dr. Joe Reed on his facebook page.

It's impossible to have a unified party when the party is not unified.  Is the Alabama Democratic Party trying to return to it's roots?  Will the republican party take advantage of this rift and return to it's roots?

Time will tell the truth.

Reflections on the life and legacy of Alabama State Representative Yvonne Kennedy (D.Mobile)~ January 8, 1945 - December 8, 2012

 

Dr. Yvonne Kennedy, 19th National President of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. 

I write these words with a heavy heart.  Alabama State Representative Yvonne Kennedy (D. Mobile), died exactly one month prior to her 68th birthday at UAB Hospital .  She was a respected woman of substance  in every aspect of her life.  Our state will miss her strong willed dedication to making this world a better place.  As state lawmakers reflect , I would also like to offer my reflections on her political life, and her contributions to Alabama.

Rep. Kennedy served in the Alabama House of Representatives for more than three decades.  She also served as the President of Bishop State Community College for 25 years, and probably would still be serving as it's President had it not been for the ALA-GOP led,  Alabama media's jihad against educators constitutional rights.

We all know who the targets of this media crusade are. Career educators who have chosen to exercise their constitutional right to seek public office, and have successfully been elected - and in every case I know, re-elected - to the Legislature. With a couple of exceptions, these are Democrats, and many are members of AEA. Generally, they oppose the education-predatory policies of the Riley Administration. Those singled out by media attention include House Democratic Whip Jack Page of Gadsden, who works at Gadsden State Community College, and Representative Yvonne Kennedy of Mobile, who recently retired as President of Bishop State Community College in Mobile.

Rep. Kennedy served as chair of the Alabama Legislative Black Caucus during Governor Don Siegelman's administration.  She was a vocal and effective opponent of his push for a constitutional convention to re-write the states constitution , because the plan failed to protect minority interest. 

Rep. Kennedy  was a real democrat, who stood ready, willing, and able, to fight for democratic values regardless of race, gender, or party.  She didn't tolerate fools or charlatans.

My sources tell me Artur Davis' reception at Delta Day at the State Capitol on April Fools day was about as warm as an igloo. Davis reportedly touted his wife's membership in the organization. Despite the fact his wife Tara Davis is a member of the national organization of college educated women, they are aware she can't control how her spouse votes. I'm told the "ladies in red" don't take kindly to Congressman Davis being the only member of the CBC (Congressional Black Caucus) to vote against the health care reform bill. Maybe Davis should have sent his wife instead...

Yvonne Kennedy dedicated her life to to fighting for the rights of the least of these. She repeatedly  introduced legislation restoring voting rights to ex felons. 

Twelve years ago, Derrick Gayle, now thirty, fell in with the wrong crowd. He did drugs and dabbled in hot merchandise. He never expected to get caught. But he did. Charged with possession of marijuana and receiving stolen property, he spent nine years in Alabama's Bullock County Correctional Facility.

Gayle was released three years ago. He works a regular job and stays drug free and out of trouble, he says. He has tried to put his past behind him. But the state of Alabama won't let him. He is still denied one of the most basic rights of a free man: He can't vote.

"What more do I have to do to prove that I've repaid my debt to society? I've done my time," says Gayle, who works putting up wallpaper and building bookshelves. "All I want is the right to vote like everyone else."

The state of Alabama permanently bars people convicted of felonies from exercising the right to vote. In a state where some of the hardest battles over voting rights were fought, more than 100,000 black men like Gayle-31 percent of the black male population-are denied the franchise.

Instead of state lawmakers reflecting on her life,  they should honor Alabama State Representative Yvonne Kennedy's life by passing legislation restoring ex-felons voting rights. 

Yvonne Kennedy would like Derrick Gayle's vote. A six-term Democratic state representative in Alabama, Kennedy has introduced legislation to give former felons their right to vote back. The bill has twice been defeated, but Kennedy said she is undeterred.

"More and more, I feel optimistic about it," she says.

Rest in Peace Representative Kennedy, you fought the good fight.

If it's Sunday, it's time to Meet the Pest!

Also known as, the complete opposite of the Sunday Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads telling us what they want us to know, instead of telling us what we need to know.  ~RedEye

Sunday Reading List with commentary

O-M-G!  Run for cover!!!  Pigs are flying!!! Conservative Pundit Head George Will is defending former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D), against allegations of bribery, versus former Alabama Congress Critter Artur Davis (DINO), who says Governor Siegelman should just give up on a new hearing. I can only shake my head.

The coverage of Whitney Houston's death is already annoying me immensely too.

What's that you say?  White Supremacist showcased at CPAC Conservative Conference?  I am shocked!  Shocked I tell you!  NOT.

Attention Alabama Democratic Party Chair Mark Kennedy, republicans didn't beat us in 2010 b/c of the grassroots, they beat us on message, money ,and in the media.

I read it on Daily Kos first, anonymous hackers accessed Mobile's amnesty program.

If you don't vote, then yes, the other side will win, and yes, they are going to turn you upside down and shake you until the change falls from your pockets. 

A redEYE Look Around Reddest of the Red States

The Bingo War is heating up. It's the Greene County Alabama Sherriff vs. Governor Bob Riley. The Greene County Sherriff says he won't allow Gov. Riley's task force to raid Greentrack. Stay tuned.

Alabama SenatorRichard "Dick" Shelby (r.) is living up to his nick name for blocking every one of the president’s nominees over spending disputes involving his state. Shock and Shame.

Meanwhile the University of Alabama won't cover PACT's tuition gap. You know the gap caused by State Treasurer and republican gubernatorial candidate Cowgirl Kay.

Mobile, Alabama says NO to toxic waste treatment! They are going to stop accepting shipments of wastewater runoff from the Perry County landfill because it's laced with arsenic, mercury, lead, uranium and other heavy metals and toxic substances. Can't say that I blame them.

Can we please have our data back please? Pretty please with sugar on top. Yes, democrats are still begging Parker Griffith to return their date he took with him when he defected to the republican party. Good luck with getting it back.

Real progressive Mitchell Howie is considering running for Congress in the 5th district of Alabama. He's a real progressive which is why he probably doesn't stand a snowmans chance in hell of chance of winning the democratic nomination. Isn't that ironic?

Congressman Artur Davis(DINO) is a strong advocate of Charter Schools, I wonder if he is aware of the data that shows the racial divide grows with Charter Schools? What's that saying about finding out who is driving the wagon before you jump on?

That's what's happening in the reddest of the red states.

Peace Out.