Hatred and Bigotry in the name of The Lord #Black HistoryMonth2016

See the "Closed on Sunday" sign?  Check out the Picture of Jesus in the window

Meanwhile down in Sweet Home Alabama...

Dana Jones, a found member of the FTC, said it made perfect sense for the flag to be there at the first capital of the Confederacy. Her reasoning? She wants it to spark interest in the role the state of Alabama played in the Civil War. According to Jones, as descendants of the Confederacy, their Confederate lives matter just as the lives of blacks.
When asked if she didn’t think the flag was a “slap in the face” against the predominantly black university, Jones responded: “I’m not prejudiced (or) racist, I am a Christian.”

BlackHistoryMonth2016

On this day in 1965 Martin Luther King Jr. met with President Lyndon Johnson to discuss Voting Rights for African Americans which the Supreme Court struck down in 2013 because Obama.

RedEye 

Update~ What Looks Like #VoterSuppression on an Ordinary Day in #SweetHomeAlabama

#MediaDrivenNarrativeAlert:   Gov. Robert Bentley, left to right, Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., and Peggy Wallace Kennedy, daughter of former Gov. George Wallace, in a commemoration of the voting rights march from Selma to Montgomery (Julie Bennett/ jbennett@al.com)

Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! Alabama get voter suppression right!  (pun intended).

Alabama has followed its voter ID requirement that went into effect last year with closing drivers license offices in eight of 10 counties with majority black voting populations. The voter suppression effect is complimented by raising the fee for driver license renewal from $23.50 to $36.25 earlier this year.

EYE don't know why the Alabama Media Group , EYE am look at Y-O-U, Kyle Whitmire, John Archibald, and Dale "Jackson", are acting all shocked and awed Alabama has figured out a way to remain the reddest of the red, Confederate Slave States... today, tomorrow and forever.

EYE don't know why some people are acting all shocked and ashamed to learn Alabama to stop issuing drivers licenses in counties with 75% black registered voters.  Didn't Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D. Selma) try to tell y'all?

Hank Sanders knew the red, republican, controlled House would pass the Voter ID bill to disenfranchise black/poor/brown voters.

The Alabama Legislature, under Republican control for the first time since Reconstruction, passed a voter ID law this year. The law takes effect in 2014.
Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin have passed laws this year that allow voters without the required photo ID to cast provisional ballots, but the voters must return to a specific location with that ID within a certain time limit for their ballots to count.
Indiana and Georgia already had such laws. Other states have photo ID laws too, but provide different way to verify a voter’s identity without a photo ID. Texas and South Carolina are awaiting approval for their laws from the Justice Department because of those are among that states with a history of voting rights suppression and discrimination.

EYE knew when the republican majority Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act because things had changed dramatically in the south,  clearing the way for republicans to gerrymander their way to a permanent majority,  this was going to happen.  And it's too late to call for a justice department investigation into the closings Mr. Archibald, Sir.

Maybe if the Alabama Democratic Party had joined with The Alabama Democratic Conference instead of fighting with the Alabama Democratic Conference we wouldn't be in this mess.

EYE am just saying...

Still think Voter ID laws aren’t meant to keep folks from voting? What other purpose can they possibly serve? Back in 2011, Alabama passed a voter ID law requiring Photo ID. For most Americans, that’s a driver’s license.
Unfortunately for folks living in Alabama’s “Black Belt” – the state’s 15 mostly Black counties – those driver’s licences are about to become a LOT harder to get. Why? Because on Thursday, October 1, the state’s shutting down a staggering 31 driver’s license offices, leaving only four open.
Officials claim they’re doing this because of budget cuts, but it looks a lot more like the GOP-controlled state legislature wants to keep Black people from voting. After all, this certainly isn’t the first time the state of Alabama’s tried to keep Black people from voting. And now that the majority -GOP Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, they’re free to do it again.

EYE Report.  YOU Decide. 

President Obama is coming to Sweet Home AmeriBAMA....Yawn

"It’s easy to get complacent about battles won long ago. But rights not safeguarded can be eroded or lost.... http://t.co/HqMzEHOGxP
— Anti-Racism Media (@AntiRacismTv) January 22, 2015

Why am I not excited President Obama plans to visit Selma, AmeriBama to celebrate the 5Oth Anniversary of the Voting Rights Act?

The White House says the March 7 trip also will highlight the upcoming 50th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act.
Obama last visited Selma for the 2007 anniversary, when he was running for the Democratic presidential nomination against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Both candidates and former President Clinton marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge where white police officers beat civil rights protesters in 1965.

Maybe it's because 50 years later Shelby County v. Holder gutted Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

You have to give Alabama credit for its cheek. Last year, the state's Shelby County persuaded the US Supreme Court to find unconstitutional part of the Voting Rights Act that required certain states with histories of discriminatory election laws to get permission from the federal government before changing their voting practices. On Wednesday, Alabama will argue before the court that the same provision it helped decimate compelled lawmakers to racially gerrymander the entire state.

Maybe it's because 50 years later some (not to be confused with all)  police are killing black people and some are getting away with it. 

Justice Department lawyers will recommend that no civil rights charges be brought against the police officer who fatally shot an unarmed teenager in Ferguson, Mo., after an F.B.I. investigation found no evidence to support charges, law enforcement officials said Wednesday.

Maybe it's because 50 years later we are still fighting for the right to vote.

 The specific means of suppression have changed, but the objectives haven't: People in power are still trying to keep specific groups of Americans from voting.

 Maybe it's because 50 years later tax payer funded, government issued Weapons of Mass Destruction are being used on black citizens for protesting.

 “It didn’t look like America. It looked like Soweto,” Mr. Lyon said, referring to the South African township that was a hotbed of protests against apartheid. “It looked like soldiers. And soldiers’ job isn’t to protect. Their job is to kill people and to be ready to die.”

Maybe it's because 50 years later black people are still begging for the right to breathe.

 “I can’t breathe,” protesters chanted, in mostly peaceful demonstrations that brought longstanding strains over race to the heart of America’s most populous city. Earlier in the day, prosecutors announced the jury’s decision not to charge Daniel Pantaleo, one of the New York police officers who had confronted Garner for selling loose cigarettes on Staten Island in July.

Maybe it's because 50 years later, the more things change in America, the more they don't change in AmeriBama.

Taylor's decision, which he says was made in part out of concern for Dekalb County's taxpayer money being spent on "filthy language," comes as theaters across the country are hosting free-screenings to hundreds of thousands of students hoping to view the same film. Despite the national embrace and Selma's official PG-13 rating, however, Taylor said he simply could not permit students to experience a movie with the "F-word in it."

So come on down to the land of cotten, take some pretty pictures then board Air Force 1 and head on back to the White House Mr. President Obama sir.

 Don't worry about us.

Out of sight out of mind.

Look away.

Look away.

Look away. 

Dixieland.

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray....

Playing Politics with Suckers Lives Day 2

I understand that Teapublitarian voters are a bunch of mindless rubes, but does Eric Cantor think the rest of America is just as stupid?


Mission Accomplished:  The Tea Party Shutdown of the government continues.

WASHINGTON — The Tea Party Republicans should hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner across the House of Representatives. They could flank it with large portraits of Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who has in fact, if not in name, replaced John Boehner as Speaker of the House. The right-wing extremists got exactly what they wanted. Now, what will the country do about it?

The Real Story of the GOP Shutdown:  50 Years of GOP Race Baiting:

On the day the Affordable Care Act takes effect, the U.S. government is shut down, and it may be permanently broken. You’ll read lots of explanations for the dysfunction, but the simple truth is this: It’s the culmination of 50 years of evolving yet consistent Republican strategy to depict government as the enemy, an oppressor that works primarily as the protector of and provider for African-Americans, to the detriment of everyone else. The fact that everything came apart under our first African-American president wasn’t an accident, it was probably inevitable.

Hostage Taking is All They Have

"In a democracy, hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t otherwise win their fights through elections, can’t win their fights in Congress, can’t win their fights for the Presidency, and can’t win their fights in Courts," Warren said. "For this right-wing minority, hostage-taking is all they have left – a last gasp of those who cannot cope with the realities of our democracy."

The GOP Takes It's Clothes Off in Public:  It's Not a Pretty Sight, Even For Some Republicans

And so, the "moderate" (ho, ho, ho) House Republicans tell us that what they are afraid of is primary challenges from the "Tea Party" should they vote for rationality on the continuing resolution matter and then on the perhaps more important debt ceiling increase that is just around the corner. Well yes, many of them would face such challenges, but the overall national leadership of the GOP is just as afraid of them as any individual House member is. For in the highly gerrymandered districts inhabited by so many Republicans in the House, many of those challenges would be effective. But then, in the general election, given decent Democratic candidates with some money from the DNC, even in gerrymandered districts, as happened in a few elections in 2010 and 2012, the far-rightists might be so far-right, that Democrats might be able to take over the House. To say nothing of what it might do to GOP chances in the state–wide elections for Governor and Senator. Then there's Ted Cruz and 2016. A big OY! on that one.

 That Thing about Congress Being "Exempted from ObamaCare?  A Huge Whopper

You might’ve heard just about every Republican member of Congress, along with Fox News and AM talk radio, shrieking about how President Obama has “exempted” Congress from Obamacare. The point they’re trying to make is that Obamacare is so awful and so ridiculous that the Obama administration has offered Congress a Get-Out-Of-Obamacare-Free card. Taking it one step further, they’re insisting that if Obamacare isn’t good enough for Congress, why should the American people be forced to endure its awfulness? The people should be exempted, too, which means the elimination of the individual mandate, and, without the mandate (a Republican idea by the way), premiums would skyrocket and the law would explode. Political sabotage, pure and simple.

Radical GOP House Made Safe by Gerrymandering:  

Bad politicians were sent to Washington by Citizens United, Gerrymandering, and Voter Suppression.

But let’s not forget who draws the lines for redistricting—state lawmakers (and in a few states, commissions appointed by the states). These legislators are often chosen in midterm and off-year elections in which the composition of the electorate has tended to be older and whiter than in presidential election years. That helps explain why the Democrats took a beating in 2010. The lesson is that midterm elections can have big consequences. If Democrats ever want to win back the House, they have to get their people to the polls in the off years. And if the Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act, it will be more important than ever.

Field Negro ~ I know that most of you reading this haven't felt it yet, but my fear is that we will feel it in unspeakable ways down the line. Our national security is at stake. The safety of our air travel will be jeopardized and the lives of poor children will be disrupted.

States Rights Today. States Rights Tommorrow. States Rights Forever.

To my LBGT brothers and sisters,  I'm happy The Supreme Court overturned the Defense of Marriage Act, paving the way for same sex marriage, but I can't join in your celebrations because the Supreme Court resurrected the ghost of George Wallace and overturned the Voting Rights Act ,thereby bringing Jim Crow back with a vengeance.

Yes, bigotry is dying for some,  but it's not dying when it comes to poor, black/brown people having equal rights, and now we are forced to depend on the gop infused, media enabled, TeaPublicans to give us a new Voting Rights Act.

The struggle continues.

 

 Are you with us......?

I weep for "Four Little Girls, and all of the others who lost their life fighting for the right to vote in the United States of America

The Congressional Gold Medal has been posthumously awarded to four girls killed in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church. President Obama signed the legislation Friday, as (from left) Birmingham Mayor William Bell, Dr. Sharon Malone Holder, Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Terri Sewell, and relatives of Denise McNair and Carole Robertson look on.

What's wrong with this picture?  Here's hint, relatives of Denise McNair look on because Denise McNairs critically ill 85+  year old father is in jail. convicted of bribery and the conspiracy to commit bribery in connection with the construction and repairs of the Birmingham sewer system.

In the Summer of 2005 a multi-count indictment naming 21 defendants was filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in connection with alleged bribery, conspiracy and obstruction of justice. As of April 2008 fifteen individuals have been convicted of bribery.

• Chris McNair (Jefferson County Commission), convicted December 2006, pleaded guilty during appeal in February 2007, sentenced to 5 years imprisonment in June 2007, but later freed after he was granted a new trial.
• Gary White (Jefferson County Commission), convicted on 9 counts, but granted a new trial
• Mary Buckelew (Jefferson County Commission), agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice in exchange for cooperation with investigators.
• Jack Swann, (Director of Environmental Services), sentenced to 102 months imprisonment and $350,000 in restitution to the County. Currently free on appeal.
• Harry T. Chandler (Assistant Director of Environmental Services), sentenced to 2 years probation and a $33,000 fine
• Ronald Wilson (Chief Engineer for Environmental Services), sentenced to 13 months imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. Released February 2008.
• Clarence Barber, former County Maintenance Chief, sentenced to 5 months imprisonment. Scheduled for release in June 2008.
• Larry Creel, sentenced to probation.

As expected the United States Supreme Court over turned Section 5 of the Voting Right Act, and I have that same pit in my stomach I had when the Supreme Court ruled in Bush v. Gore .  A lot of us tried to tell y'all It's The Supreme Court Stupid, but did you listen to us?  Nope.  So here we are, Mission Accomplished, it's about to get uglier because this ruling opens the door to republican gerrymandering, Voter suppression ensuring a permanent republican majority.  Yee Haw!

“This is a devastating blow to Americans, particularly African-Americans, who are now at the mercy of state governments. Given last year’s attempts by states to change voting rules, it is absurd to say that we do not need these protections.~ Rev. Al Sharpton

To say that I am angry is an understatement.  

I'm angry the Supreme Court stopped the vote count in Florida because it would do irreparable harm to George W. Bush, who ended up doing irreparable harm to we the people.  Strike that, we the black/brown/poor/disabled/ people.  The next time someone say's it doesn't matter who the President is, remember Supreme can Federal Court nominations.

I'm angry that not one democrat would sign the challenge to the 2000 election.

I'm angry at President Obama for not restoring honest and integrity to the United States Justice System like he promised.

I'm angry at the so-called mainstream media for enabling the gop infused Tea Party to take control of our government.

I'm angry at Alabama democrats.  If they fought the ALGOP with the same intensity they fight Joe Reed, we wouldn't be in this mess.  Instead of all the fingers on the hand working together to form a mighty fist,  they had to go and form their own group because the ADP party catered to blacks at the expense of whites, like that's a bad thing.  Instead of fighting the GOP, they want to be the gop.

To be clear, this ruling means the Fox is guarding the Hen House, and we the people can't even vote the Fox out of the Hen House.

God, help America. 

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go weep.

RedEye Around the Web

The Big Cats at Left in Alabama had a "warm fuzzy" for Congress Critter Mo Brooks before they didn't have a warm fuzzy for Mo Brooks.  I tried to tell them the facts didn't fit the narrative, but did they listen to me?  Nope. They yanked my microphone (figuratively and literally).

All:
I look forward to a great event.  Thank you, Left in Alabama, Tea Parties, Alabama A&M students, GOPers, Dale Jackson, Will Anderson, labor unions, and everyone else who, with vigor and dignity, sends a loud and clear message that the Alabama 5th Congressional District has every right to expect that our congressman will conduct himself with dignity and honor.
This is what citizenship should be about.
While some of us we may disagree on the best course for America, we all agree that our Washington leaders should, at a minimum, be truthful.
Sincerely,
Mo Brooks

Remember when I said   it takes people in positions of  power to exercise racism?

As the United States Supreme Court prepares to announce it's ruling in Shelby County vs Holder, which would overturn Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act on the grounds things have changed in Sweet Home Alabama, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange is seeking sanctions against Macon County plaintiffs and attorneys who filed a federal lawsuit claiming his raids on the Victory Land casino constitute a violation of the U.S. Voting Rights Act.

Under the radar and out of the media spotlight a rolling disaster on auto-pilot is happening.

 Slowly but surely, away from the glare of the national spotlight, the sequestration policy is doing exactly what it was intended to do: it's hurting the nation's economy and taking benefits from American families that need them. Worse, the sequester is undermining the country for no reason.

Read on.  Read often.

Today marks the 50th Anniversary of the Assassination of Medgar Evers

 

Once Upon a Time in America

Fifty years ago today Medgar Evers was gunned down by a white supremacist. His crime? 

Bit by bit, Evers cultivated community resistance against inequity. He made bumper stickers, led protests and investigated vigilante violence, such as the murder of Emmett Till.
As Evers’ accomplishments grew, so did the determination of white supremacists to stop him. On the night of June 12, a member of the White Citizens’ Council shot Evers in the back as he walked from his car to his home. The murder took place just hours after President Kennedy had given a powerful speech supporting civil rights.
Evers’ death was but one violent act among many committed by segregationists who were set on stopping the movement. Community organizers acknowledged the danger, but continued to build the movement at the local level. In so doing, they ultimately overcame this violent opposition. Their individual courage made universal change possible.

Ironically the Roberts Court is poised to strike down section 5 of the Voting Rights Act Evers and others lost their lives fighting for  any day now.  Even more ironic is the fact the case was bought before the court on  behalf of  Shelby County Alabama  ,which happens to be represented by none other than Alabama State  Senator Scott (Aborigines) Beason.

Shelby County is involved in a United States Supreme Court case in the current session challenging the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Shelby County’s argument is one, essentially, of equal protection. While emphasizing the progress the South has made, they further the argument that if every district is not covered by Section Five’s preclearance requirement, none can be. Mr. Rein, the attorney for Shelby County, argues that the formula of the 1965 VRA deciding which States to cover is not tailored to today’s situation—that it was a formula made for 1965, and should therefore not be applied today. Essentially, that Shelby County should be left alone to do run their elections however they wish in their own backyard.

Well, we all know how that will turn out .

Well, I’m going to be real honest with you: The Republican Party doesn’t want black people to vote if they’re going to vote 9 to 1 for Democrats.

 MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and others are planning a caravan across Alabama on June 14 to encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to save a major portion of the Voting Rights Act.

While you're watching that nice lady whine about being persecuted...

No More Mister Nice Blog

  I hope the conversation isn't limited to how mean the IRS was to her and how much she loves freedom and the Constitution and our American way of life. I hope she gets around to talking about the speech her fourteen-year-old daughter, Desiree, delivered to a tea party rally last year, in which she compared modern-day America to the dystopia of The Hunger Games:

Gee, 14 year old Desiree sounds just like Alabama Congress Critter Mo Brooks.....they must have the same speech writer.   

I see the Righty's are gearing up for a giant sized, media enabled, Weapon of Mass Distraction....

The new and re-energized Alabama Democrat party is going to kickoff the 2014 election cycle with a June 14 caravan across the state featuring … Louis Farrakhan. Maybe they can keep him in Alabama and offer him the party chairmanship.

Waiting for the "media" to make it about Louis Farrakhan instead of the reason Louis Farrakhan and other Civil Rights leaders are coming to Sweet Home Alabama in 1-2-3...

 Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and others are planning a caravan across Alabama on June 14 to encourage the U.S. Supreme Court to save a major portion of the Voting Rights Act.
Southern Christian Leadership Conference CEO Charles Steele said the National Coalition of Leaders to Save Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is also calling on Justice Antonin Scalia to step aside from the court case because of public comments he made.The leaders, including state Sen. Hank Sanders and Alabama Democratic Conference Chairman Joe Reed, said the caravan will start at the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham on June 14 and then visit Shelby County, which brought the challenge to the Voting Rights Act. That will be followed by stops in Selma and at the Capitol in Montgomery.

 And what exactly were those public comments you ask?

WASHINGTON, DC — There were audible gasps in the Supreme Court’s lawyers’ lounge, where audio of the oral argument is pumped in for members of the Supreme Court bar, when Justice Antonin Scalia offered his assessment of a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. He called it a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.”

Then there is this....

 Speaking on Friday at the University of Richmond, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia denounced the concept of a "living Constitution" and said the 14th Amendment was not written with the intent of granting equal protection to ALL Americans. Just the heterosexual ones.

 But, but Louis Farrakhan...