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.

And republicans claim to care about children...

 

Fist Dap jobsanger

To keep the rich and the corporations from paying a little more in taxes, the Republicans are willing to cut education funding, cut food stamp programs (which cover more than 20% of the children in this country), cut unemployment funds and stop job creation efforts, cut funds to clean our water and air, cut funds for border security, cut funds for health care, etc. (the list is endless of the items that will be cut for ordinary Americans).
But the rich and the corporations will still be able to avoid paying as big a percentage in taxes as most middle class Americans have to pay -- and that's all the Republicans really care about. And one more thing. There is a branch of the federal government that is immune from the cuts -- Congress. The same Congress that cuts funds for hurting Americans will still be getting their full salaries. They have no interest in sharing the suffering they expect from the rest of America.

Today's Must Read because you won't see it on TeeVee
How the Sequester crosses the color line 

(The Root) -- For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Voters have twice elected an African-American president, and Republicans have twice responded with obstinance -- by waging an intellectual civil war. Voter-suppression efforts were insufficient to deliver a Romney victory, but strategically gerrymandered districts guaranteed that Speaker John Boehner and his Republican-dominated House could continue to serve as the proverbial thorn in Obama's side.

 The status quo keep getting rich, the rest keep getting the shaft.

"And they want us to sing God Bless America?"  Oh, OK.

Snowy Saturday Reading List and Week in Review

I guess the media believes if they regurgitate republican talking points over and over again the American people will believe it's the truth instead of a media-driven narrative.  Here's the deal, in a nutshell, Republicans refuse to budge on tax breaks for the rich, President Obama refuses to cut Social Security and Medicare.  And that my friends is all you really need to know.

 Don't forget this is the same media who enabled Bush and Dick to take our troops to war based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE, and who told us the 2012 presidential election was going to be close.  As a matter of fact, what has the media been right (no pun) about lately? 

There is one thing I will agree with the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads on, President Obama has no one to blame but himself for this sad, sorry, state of affairs.  Why he didn't believe republicans when they said they wanted him to fail I don't know.  Did he honestly believe the Sequester would be so awful republicans would compromise?  Everybody knows you can't compromise with a Suicide Bomber.  Their mission is to blow you up if they have to blow themselves up in the process...... so be it.

The Republican war on black voters, I mean entitlements, was in full force last week.  Everyone is expecting the Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II Supreme Court to overturn Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 since it was the only thing that prevented Republicans from stealing the election...again.

Republican hubris mushroomed into Republican arrogance as Alabama republicans invited Alabamians to kiss it this week under the guise they helping poor children flee failing schools.

By using this twilight legerdemain to pass a complex, watershed piece of legislation, Republicans avoided any input from our state's educators, from our state's financial experts and, most important, from we the people.
What an open display of contempt for the public: No need to bother writing your state senator or representative about your thoughts on tax credits to raise money for private schools. They don't need to hear from the likes of you.
Republican legislators disappeared into a cloakroom and practically had their way with us while we didn't even know it.

If Republicans are having their way with us, shouldn't we at least enjoy it?  I mean, really?

“Republicans heralded it as a historic day for education and life-altering for children stuck in poorly performing schools. But tempers boiled over as Democrats called the maneuver “sleaziness” and a “bait and switch.”"
On the other side of the aisle:
Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, as she was leaving the House chamber threw her hands over her head and shouted, “Welcome to the new confederacy where a bunch of white men are now going to take over black schools.”

Blast from the past re-post.

  I've noticed a renewed interest in WTF did Joe Reed to do you?, which gave me the opportunity to correct some typo's and update some links. The original content is unchanged. Looking back I have to wonder how Left in Alabama feels about Joe Reed now. Their candidate, Artur Davis ,was anti AEA and pro privatizing  public education in Alabama, and he was backed by the business community in and outside of the state.  That's a group with little love for entitlements, I mean,  social programs such as access to quality, affordable health care, equal access to a quality public education, a poor woman's right to choose to have a safe, legal abortion, access to birth control, LBGT rights, and the right to vote, and have that vote count.

 All roads lead to Selma mobilizing to Free Don Siegelman! H/T Sharron via Pam's List

LAST MINUTE ANNOUNCEMENT FOR SELMA TOMORROW!

We just found out some different procedures for tomorrow due to Secret Service for the Vice-President.

We will still be distributing shirts and signs, but we will not know for certain exactly where we can set up until we get there in the morning.

So just look for this banner of Gov. Siegelman and that is where we will be.

Some other things to note is EVERYONE will have to go through metal detectors.

The Bridge Crossing will still begin at 1:30. The march from Brown Chapel AME Church to the bridge will begin at 11:00am.

If we understood it correctly, Vice-President will speak at the bridge prior to the crossing at 1:30.

We'll figure it all out, but we will make sure we get these signs and t-shirts distributed to you before 1:30.

 Happy reading!

Black folks aren't "entitled" to vote in America

The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Sigh

Thirteen years after the Florida recount, it looks like republicans are going to get their way, once again using the same Supreme Court that handed them the election,  to snatch Section 5 away from the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

If you can't beat em, suppress em.

Can't say I didn't see this day coming.

Race still  matters.  If the election of the first African American President bought out the worst in some (not to be confused with all) white Americans, his re-election has driven them over the edge.  The looming Sequester is the big payback for the people who re-elected President Obama. Obama voters, already feeling  the pain of republican polices stabbing them in the back,  the Sequester will  twist the knife.
 
Let's be honest.. the word entitlements, rather it be in regard to spending or voting, is code for lazy black folks who want the government to take care of them and give them free stuff.

 “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America?’ No, no, no, not ‘God Bless America,’ ‘God Damn America.’”

This is what Reverend Jeremiah Wright was talking about.

Can you hear him now?

"Rhetoric in abundance" at Second Amendment rally in gun free zone

Photo via  al.com

I was going to attend the so called 2nd amendment rally   at the Von Braun Civic Center until I found out no guns were allowed and I couldn't take my AR-15 and my hundred round ammo clip.  What good is a rally to learn about the right to bare arms if you can't bare arms?  What if I had to stand my ground? RedEye Roll

What was billed as a 2nd amendment rally hosted by the South Huntsville Civic (sic) Association, was in reality, an organized day of resistance for those fighting President Obama's 23 executive orders to stop gun violence.  According to AL.com about 1700 people fell for the Okey Doke,  led by the usual suspects.

Speakers included Congressman Mo (anything short of shooting them) Brooks of the Fifth Congressional District; Sen. Arthur(racist policies) Orr, R-Decatur; Sen. Bill (rape is a slippery slope)Holtzclaw, R-Madison; Sen. Clay(trans vaginal probe) Scofield, R-Guntersville; Sen. Paul(whistle blower) Sanford, R-Huntsville; Chris Stephens, chief deputy for the Madison County Sheriff's Department; Trevor Santos, the state liaison for the National Rifle Association; and Greg Hopkins, a Second Amendment attorney.

Too bad Congresswoman Gabby Giffords wasn't speaking to constituents in a gun free zone.  Instead of speaking to voters about real issues, Mo, who was against the Sequester before he was for the Sequester,  was safely on stage calling President Obama the radical leftist in the White House (code for Socialist, Marxist) instead of  doing the job he was elected to do.

"It is our duty as American citizens to resist and stop President Obama's efforts," Brooks said.
He asked the crowd: "Are you going to fight to protect our Second Amendment right to bear arms and our Constitution?" Audience members yelled back and Brooks asked again, and then a third time, more loudly, adding, "I want President Obama to hear you in the White House"!

As wrong  as the out right lies and the blatant disrespectful tone of Mo's comments were,  the revelations made by Madison County Chief Deputy Chris Stephens are what I find the most troubling.

Stephens was asked how many new applications for concealed carry permits the Madison County Sheriff's Department is receiving.
"We're up 400 new applicants per week," he said. The process takes about four weeks to complete, which he said is largely due to staff cutbacks.
Stephens also was asked whether the Sheriff's Department will have the right to confiscate weapons if a gun ban is passed.
He quoted Sheriff Blake Dorning as saying, "If the federal government wants your guns, they can come get them. It won't be us," which resulted in cheers and an ovation. Stephens later explained that local sheriff's offices have no authority to enforce federal law.

 Who knew?  IF, I repeat IF the federal government "wants your guns" the Sheriffs department is ready, willing and able to stand in the school house door, I mean defy the federal government.  Am I the only one concerned those who are supposed to enforce the law are picking and choosing what laws they will/not enforce?  Does that mean they are can also choose who they are/not going to protect and serve?  I'm just asking...

Let's flip the script, what if this were the headline ~Several Democratic  lawmakers, a liberal talk-show host and representatives of the NAACP are scheduled to appear today at a Second Amendment rally at the Von Braun Center.

What do you want to bet we would have some sensible gun control legislation quick, fast and in a hurry?

What WhiteDog 51 said; 

Gathering yesterday appeared to serve purpose it was intended to accomplish. Inflamed rhetoric, anecdotal evidence of danger vanquished by guns, attention seekers center stage with adoring worshipers in attendance. Not many minds changed on any subject. Attendees can visit church today and pray for condemnation of everyone who doesn't share their opinions.

Amen and Amen.

Uh, remember that Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich?

Fist Dap Flick River Photography

Looks like the Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich is back for a second course...

The phony debt ceiling crisis was, from beginning to end, a con. It was an elaborate and successful hoax in which the nation's first black president, the Democratic and Republican parties, Wall Street and corporate media all played indispensable parts. The object of the supposed “crisis” was to short circuit public opinion, existing law, democratic process and traditions of public oversight, in order to deal fatal blows to Medicaid, Medicare, social security, job growth and public expenditures for the common good. It worked. We've been conned.

The result was painful and predictable then, and it's painful and predictable now.....

 If nothing else, the debt ceiling crisis provided what Barack Obama is so fond of calling a "teachable moment." Hopefully, that extends to the President himself. After seeing his nominees blocked, his legislation filibustered and popular upper-income tax increases delayed by Republicans who withheld their support from his watered down stimulus and health care programs, President Obama nevertheless continued to seek common ground with those whose only goal remains his political destruction. 

Some of us tried to tell y'all the deal sucked, but did you listen?  Nooooo, that would have been too much like right (pun intended). You keep smashing an economy over the head with the austerity is good for you meme and you end up with a bloodied economy.

The American people made it perfectly clear we want to preserve the social safety net while raising taxes on the rich in November. Since republicans got 98% of what they wanted in the debt deal by holding America hostage,  they are doing it again. Who cares what we want? 

 Here’s how it happened: Republicans engaged in unprecedented hostage-taking, threatening to push America into default by refusing to raise the debt ceiling unless President Obama agreed to a grand bargain on their terms. Mr. Obama, alas, didn’t stand firm; instead, he tried to buy time. And, somehow, both sides decided that the way to buy time was to create a fiscal doomsday machine that would inflict gratuitous damage on the nation through spending cuts unless a grand bargain was reached. Sure enough, there is no bargain, and the doomsday machine will go off at the end of next week.

This is what is on the menu IMHO...... Republicans want the Sequester to go into effect.

 The 2013 sequester includes:

• $42.7 billion in defense cuts (a 7.9 percent cut).
• $28.7 billion in domestic discretionary cuts (a 5.3 percent cut).
• $9.9 billion in Medicare cuts (a 2 percent cut).
• $4 billion in other mandatory cuts (a 5.8 percent cut to non-defense programs, and a 7.8 percent cut to mandatory defense programs).

Republicans control the House ( thanks to gerrymandering), have a filibuster-proof Senate (thanks to Harry Reid), defense spending will be restored, the rich will keep their tax cuts, so-called entitlements will be cut.

It's a win-win for the GOP,  another Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich for the majority of the America people.

Bon appetite!