America hates us for our Freedom

Photo: Auburn Gay and Lesbian Alliance

America hates us.For years, the Black students at Auburn University have protested Kappa Alpha Order’s “Old South Parade,” a tradition that happens on college campuses where members of one of the oldest American fraternities celebrate the Confederacy. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee did it when he was a member. South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster did it when he was a member in college. So did Rep. Joe Kennedy III (D-Mass.), Roy Blount (R- Ala.), Former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover and former Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson, among many others.

"Joe Biden will be the Democratic nominee because of Black voters not in spite of Black voters"

Life on the Democratic Party Plantation Cue in the theme song to Roots

Joe Biden won forty-eight per cent of the vote in South Carolina’s Democratic Presidential primary on Saturday.Photograph by Sam Wolfe / Bloomberg / Getty

Thanks to South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn Democratic Presidential Candidate Joe Biden carried all of the red, voter suppressing, Confederate, Slave States on Super Tuesday when African American voices are finally heard.  Candidate Biden didn't have to spend not one dime or make one promise to African American voters.  All it took was the word of one powerful Black man. 

A Trump presidency that’s been disastrous for America has been catastrophic for Black people.
From spikes in hate crimes to Trump’s racism, Black communities have suffered mightily under this administration. Certainly, more progressive policies pitched by Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren would benefit Black people, yet there is also a sense that this nation has no real appetite to foster economic or racial equality espoused by candidates on the left.
“I like [Warren and Sanders], but I don’t see them winning, because I think they’re too progressive for a lot of white people in his country,” said Marsha, a jewelry maker who offered political analysis along with her deft recommendations for good barbecue joints in Charleston. “I don’t think white people generally vote in a way that will benefit them if it also benefits Black people.”

So now we know for sure the power of the black vote is used to benefit white people.  And all Black voters can do is vote blue no matter who and HOPE and pray white people will decide to treat us as equals someday. 

My read of the South Carolina vote is that black people know exactly what they’re doing, and why. Joe Biden is the indictment older black folks have issued against white America. His support is buttressed by chunks of the black community who have determined that most white people are selfish and cannot be trusted to do the right thing. They believe if you make white people choose between their money and their morality—between candidates like Sanders or Elizabeth Warren (who somehow finished fifth in South Carolina, behind Pete Buttigieg) and candidates like Biden and Michael Bloomberg—they will choose their money every time and twice on Election Day.

EYE HOPE the candidate with the most votes wins this time. 

Edit~ The #ConfederateFlag has been taken down in South Carolina, It's too bad it took a #Massacre to #TakeItDown

Meanwhile back in Washington D.C. fresh from leading a Congressional Delegation to the funeral for one the #CharlestonMassacre victims, State Senator Rev. ClementaPickney, the "clowns in Washington are actually debating whether it is appropriate to remove that very same flag from National Park Service run cemeteries and federal lands". There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.

For those who don't know The Heart of Dixie, aka, Sweet Home Alabama... had not one, but four #ConfederateFlags flying on the grounds of the State Capitol. Although Governor Robert Bentley is being credited for suddenly developing a spine and removing the flag out of the kindness of his heart, it's really a vindication for former democratic governor Jim Folsom Jr.,  Alabama State Senator Alvin Holmes  and 14 other black lawmakers who tried for years to remove the Confederate Flag from the capital grounds.

1976: Alvin Holmes filed a suit against Wallace and others to prohibit the flying of the Confederate flag over the Capitol. The federal district court ruled against Holmes.
1988: The NAACP, Alvin Holmes and others filed a lawsuit against Gov. Guy Hunt seeking to remove the Confederate battle flag from the State Capitol grounds. The district court again ruled against Holmes.
Late 1980s-Early 1990s: The Alabama Capitol was flying the U.S., Alabama and Confederate battle flags. All three were taken down due to a massive renovation of the capitol in the early 1990s.
Alvin Holmes and other legislators filed a third lawsuit using a different argument than the first two (1976 and 1988). They argued that an Alabama law from 1975 doesn't allow for the flying of any flag above the Capitol other than the U.S. and Alabama flags.
Jan. 4, 1993: Circuit Judge William Gordon rules in favor of Alvin Holmes. Judge ordered Alabama law allows only the state and national flag be flown over Alabama's capitol and enjoined the governor from raising the Confederate, or any other flag.
Gov. Folsom didn't appeal the judge's ruling.
Late 1990s-Early 2000s: Gov. Don Siegelman made a provision that when the state restored the Confederate Memorial Monument it would be appropriate to fly Confederate flags for historical display. Four flags of the confederacy were raised on the north grounds of the Capitol. Three of the flags are the national flags of the Confederacy and the final flag is the Confederate battle flag, according to Ed Bridges with the Alabama Department of Archives and History.

Alabama, aka, The Heart of Dixie had a Confederate Flag removal from public cemeteries flap too, starring none other than present candidate for Mayor  of the Cradle of the Confederacy, aka Montgomery, AL , Artur Davis, the latest delusional puppet of republican racial propaganda.

EYE wonder what it is going to take to remove The Heart of Dixie from ALL Alabama state license plates?

One behalf of all the martyrs EYE would like to thank former Governor Jim Folsom Jr., State Senator Alvin Holmes, Rep. Thomas Reed and others, for daring defending our right to remove the Confederate Battle flag from the grounds of the State House. Your perseverance and courage in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds will never be forgotten.  Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. 

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer humming We Shall Overcome One Day....at a time.

#FlagDown

It's not wise to point guns at cops....if you are black

“@Bipartisanism: Not only did these white men point rifles at police without consequence but their... #AntoinoMartin pic.twitter.com/c72rvnY54y”
— EnigmaticallyAwesome (@ChinaDoll_LIBRA) December 24, 2014

So I guess you've heard about the latest cop on black killing in Berkley, Mo. about two miles from Ferguson Mo. where #MichaelBrown was killed.  Police claim 18 year old #AntionoMartin pulled a gun on him and they had no choice.  I said "police claim" because it's not like we can believe everything anonymous police sources leak to the media, and it's not like the media is going to do any actual investigating on their own because that would be too much like right.  Pun intended.

My thing is, why would an 18 year old black teen pull a gun on police?  I mean, really?    On social media, not to be confused with the white, male dominated, mainstream media, conflicting accounts have surfaced.

We should be RTing this nonstop. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. OF. US. #AntonioMartin #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/E682UDwuKi
— Anonymous (@AnonymousCenter) December 24, 2014

 If police officers are afraid of black people maybe they shouldn't be police officers.

The latest case of cops behaving badly comes to us from South Carolina. *cue in Inner Circle music here: Bad boys, bad boys, what you gonna do?...*
"A South Carolina woman has filed a complaint with the Greenville City Police Department after officers Tasered and then arrested her autistic 34-year-old son on Christmas Eve after he attempted to avoid them, reports WYFF.
According to Carolyn Anderson, her son, Tario, has a severe form of autism rendering him almost incapable of speaking.
“Tario can say yes or no, he might ask for a thing or two, but just verbal, no,” Carolyn Anderson explained.

In all fairness, with all the new republican enacted #OpenCarry gun laws police can't distinguish between the GOOD IDIOTS with guns from the BAD IDIOTS with them, so they assume all black people are the BAD IDIOTS, and shoot first and ask questions later.

I'm just saying....

A Modest Proposal on the Anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot

British slave ship illustration from 1808 None: Original image housed by Chapin Library of Rare Books, Williams College


Ta-Nehisi Coates  presented an excellent case for reparations   saying, "America will never be whole again until we reckon with our compounding moral debt for 250 years of Slavery, 90 years of Jim Crow, sixty years of separate but equal, and thirty five years of racist housing policies."

On the anniversary of the Tulsa Race Riot I would like to make a modest proposal for those who are loath to call it reparations, let's call it:  #The Descendants of Slaves Educational Emancipation Act.

Under this act all descendants of American slaves would be entitled to scholarships for under graduate and post graduate studies at any institution of higher learning that receives federal funds. All African American student loan debt would be forgiven. Scholarships would provide for tuition, fees, and books. This act and it's provisions would operate similar to GI Bill ,which offers scholarships to dependents of American Disabled Veterans.

While this act doesn't meet the misery, untold affliction, and billions of dollars in lost economic value visited on the descendants of slaves,  it is something this county can do now to demonstrate remorse and serious concern for the condition of African Americans, many of which were/are caused by discriminatory laws  and  public policies in education, housing, and employment.  In other words, America can begin to solve the problem it helped create.  See graphic above.

What Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich said about Mitt's tax returns.

"I don't know how many years I will release, I will look at what the documents are, I want to release these things all at the same time"~ Mitt Romney

"The democrats want to attack me for being successful" ~ Mitt Romney

"I pay a lot of taxes, I've been very successful"~ Mitt Romney

"If he is going to stay in the race he ought to release his tax returns."~Newt Gingrich

"If there is anything in there that is going to cause us to lose the election we need to know before the nomination"~ Newt Gingrich

It's better to do it in in the primary season so the country understands what's going on and not be surprised in September" ~Newt Gingrich 

Why won't Romney release his tax returns, as long as he doesn't aren't we going to wonder what he's hiding?

The South Carolina Suckers have spoken!

And the winner of the gop South Carolina Presidential Primary is Newt "Sho I'm a Ho" Gingrich! Yee Haw!  The Holy Rollers, I mean Evangelical  Christians, Rope a Doped poor Mittens, I mean Willard. Snicker  I wonder how the gop elite feel about that Super Pac money now?

We have already established there are two kinds of republicans, millionaires/billionaires and Suckers.  Suckers are the people the millionaires/billionaires convince to vote against their self interest.   South Carolina Suckers care more about putting Juan Williams in his place, and punking John King ,than they care about having a job, a home, access to health care, and access to a quality education for their children.

Psst Mitt, I mean Willard!  They don't like you because you're too darn nice,  Resurrect the Ghost of Jim Crow and you will win too.  That's how the Holy Rollers, roll.

Newt claims he won because he's the only candidate who can put President Obama in his place (my words not his).  Oh really?  Newt must think we have forgotten his history, and I don't mean his cheating ways.  I mean the fact he and his gop brethren impeached President Clinton for trying to conceal a private, consensual sexual relationship from his wife, daughter and the country.  Or, that his mother  said he called Hillary Clinton a B*tch on national TeeVee and it cost Connie Chung her job.

Yep, Newt is filled with more excrement than your average politician.

Bring.
It.
On!

Today's must read-In SC the far right raises the white flag.

240,000 white republicans have spoken in New Hampshire, now it's on to South Carolina. Yee Haw!

And the winners are, Willard "Flip/Flop Mitt" Romney, Ron "racist newsletters" Paul, and John "country first McSame" Huntsman, in that order.  Willard may have won, but  60% of voters voted for for the other guys. Which tells me republicans aren't sold on their front runner.  I wonder why?  Snark

So now it's on to the racist, I mean conservative, Christian, red, republican, confederate, slave state of South Carolina.  Which may explain why Willard starting slinging red meat in his victory speech, accusing President Obama of not knowing what it means to be an American,  who wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society.  Code for birth certificate, welfare, food stamps.  

Here are some facts about the conservative state of South Carolina, which according to the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads,  is known for it's bare knuckles politics.

South Carolina is the home of  The Orangeburg Massacre at South Carolina State University where three black students were shot and killed by police during a peaceful protest.

South Carolina is the home of former republican U.S. Senator Strom Thurmon, racist by day, hypocrite by night.

South Carolina is the home of  current republican U.S Senator Jim "Waterloo" Demint.

South Carolina is the home of U.S. Congressman Joe "You Lie" Wilson.  Speaking of Congressman Joe "You Lie" Wilson, he will address a group of defense and military leaders at a  $1,000.00 per person luncheon in Huntsville, AL today. Dale "voter suppression with the state seal of approvall" Jackson will introduce Congressman Mo "I will do anything short of shooting them" Brooks who I'm assuming will introduce Wilson.  What's up with out of state/city Congress Critters raising money in North Alabama?

South Carolina is the state vowing to sue the United States Department of Justice, to enact a sate voter ID law, which they have already said punishes black voters.

South Carolina is the state where republican Governor Nikki Haley rejects the NAACP push to remove the Confederate Flag from atop the Statehouse.

I can't wait to see which candidate will emerge victorious in the Battle for South Carolina.

Orangeburg, S.C.  A student loaded onto a gurney after the shooting on Feb. 8, 1968. Photo by Bill Barley.
Today's Must Reads
The Rude Pundit, A Brief List of Conservative Men Who Need to Be Punched in the Balls.

Shock Treatment

A Massachusetts Mormon vs The Safe Black Guy for President

Monday Musings

This is what crazy in Alabama looks like. I sure am glad Rick Barber" The Crazy in AL-02 didn't come out with this ad calling for an armed over throw of the government before Arizona won the stupidest state in America contest.

Just when you thought Republicans couldn't get any crazier, enter Rick Barber in AL-02*. "Gather Your Armies" appears to be the latest entry into in the category of batsh*t crazy Republican ads this season, joining entries from Tim James and Dale Peterson. Memo to Barber: James and Peterson both lost.

Speaking of stupid, how stupid is the Huntspatch Sitty School Board ? h/t KB;

I was really disappointed in how the Huntsville krowd just sailed into the Supt. of Ed., as if everything was her fault.
First, they hired her; and to this point, she'd been praised to the high heavens.
Second, she didn't have any say in the Board's expenditure for the new Lee High School - built during a time of economic hardship. (an EXTRAORDINARILY STOOOPID IDEA)
Third, I wouldn't give a rip if she was pink and green with horns on her back. The fact of her skin color and sex had NOTHING to do with her job performance and should NEVER have EVER been mentioned by the "liberal" media - whoever the hell THAT is!
Fourth, if the job she had done was so poor, the Board that hired her should've fired her, and have been replaced themselves, as well! Come to think of it, "we the people" should vote those doofuses out anyway.

Yes we should vote the doofuses out! All of them!

All politics is local. Poor Huntsville District 1 city councilman Richard Showers should change his name to Rodney Dangerfield because he just can't get no R-E-S-P-E-C-T either. First the previous mayor calls him uppity, now the present mayor flips a bottle cap at him during a live city council meeting. This was AFTER he was shouted down by south Huntsville residents at a school board meeting.

Moore's supporters packed the school board meeting, and some claimed her ouster was racially motivated. Councilman Richard Showers recalled a community meeting at Chaffee Elementary School last year to protest the Huntsville Housing Authority's purchase of Stone Manor apartments.
Most in the crowd were white; the housing's authority's executive director, Michael Lundy, is black.
"If there had been a tree and a rope," Showers began, before being shouted down by several people in the audience.

Psst Councilman Showers! From now on just pray.

Dems form circular firing squad in South Carolina and fires. South Carolina Pol Questions Dem Senate Candidates mental condition. Oh boy. All I'm going to say is Alvin Greene had the "mental condition to earn a bachelors degree in Political Science from South Carolina State University, serve in the Iraq War and WIN the democratic primary.

On Friday South Carolina authorities launched a formal investigation into Greene's unlikely win. The campaign of his vanquished opponent, Vic Rawl, said it too is looking into reports across the state from voters and poll workers who "experienced problems with voting for whom they intended."

A Rawl campaign spokesman said he believes that the outcome of Tuesday's election is "statistically impossible" and "South Carolinians would rather be 100 percent right than 90 percent uncertain." Greene won with about 60 percent of the vote.

What, Vic Rawls just can't believe South Carolina voters didn't vote for him? I mean, really, this is taking Sore Loserman to a different level. With democrats like these who needs republicans?

I must share my listserve friend Maggikats response to President Obama's "Will you stand with me?" email blast"

Dear Barack,

I have been giving you a chance to implement those "changes" for well over a year now

and all I see is more bullschitt & cutesy speeches which, quite frankly, make me want to vomit. You have bent over backwards, sideways & every which way to appease and please the Republicans. And what did that gain for you?

Did you not notice idiots like Eric Cantor, John Boner, John McCain, Michelle Bachman,Mitch McConnell, and others like them calling you everything but the 'N' word and I would guess that everyone of them called you that & more behind your back more times than we could count.

Yeah, I know you are returning to this area today as I had to dodge the people workingin this awful heat putting up barricades to keep "We the People" away from you. I've been writing letters for clean energy for a bunch of years now only to be ignored by you while you were in the Senate and which will probably be ignored by you now that you are in the White House. So why the hell should I waste my time signing your damn petition?

You dragged that so called health care bill out for over a year and then you were too damncowardly to include a public option. You had to go behind closed doors and make dirty deals with the companies that are bankrupting this country & making health care unaffordable for the very people who need it the most.So you will have to pardon me Obama, if I just don't put a lot of stake in anything you say these days. If you ever grow any balls and decide to stand up to the vile, corrupt Republican party I will support you to my last breath but not until.

By the way, I have heard that the "clean energy" bill that the Senate has dreamed up is a pileof horse manure at best......... that it's just another hand out to the people causing the problems. Get real Obama. As our first Black President you have the means to gain massive public support for almost anything you want to accomplish but you have to show that you are representing "We the People" and not the damn, corrupt, greedy, corporations.

Why don't you put on your boots today and make a stop in Orange Beach, Alabama which is a hop, skip and jump from Pensacola and which is becoming covered up with that that nasty, foul smelling, crap that BP is pumping out into the gulf?

AND why doesn't BP have more tankers in the location of the actual spill siphoning up that crap. Seems to me that a few tankers dropping pipes down and catching that stuff as it explodes upwards would prevent tons of it from ever being a problem. AH........ gee whiz..... that would be too much like common sense wouldn't it?

*Ahem* Me thinks the natives have gotten restless......

Jobs, Education and Justice~Updated

South Carolina democratic senate nominee Alvin Greene said he will focus on jobs, education in justice in a live radio interview with Armstrong Williams on XM 169 The Power today. Sounds like a plan to me. I wonder why it doesn't sound like a plan to the South Carolina democratic party?

Seriously, once I focused on what Alvin Greene said and not how he said it,  his message begin to resonate with me. After listening to the mainstream media, and reading all kinds of stuff about him in the blogosphere ,I was convinced he was a republican plant, but after listening to him today I found him to be sincere if not articulate.
Here is a brief recap of what Alvin Greene said on Armstrong Williams show today.

Mr. Greene said he paid the $10,000 filing fee with money he saved from money he earned in the military.

Mr. Greene said his attorney was handling the obscenity allegations and we are innocent until proven guilty in America.

Mr. Greene said he was a democrat and he was an Obama supporter.

Mr. Greene said he decided to run for the Senate because he saw the country going down the tubes and he wanted to help get it back on track.

Mr. Greene said jobs could be created with transportation jobs that ended after 911.

Mr. Greene said if he were a member of Congress he would have voted for health care reform because it provides all Americans with insurance.

Mr. Greene said he lives with his 81 year old father who is a life long democrat.

Mr. Greene said people voted for him because they could identify with him and his message.

Mr. Greene said he was discharged from the military honorably.

Maybe instead of laughing at Alvin Greene we should support Alvin Greene like RiPPa said over at the Field Negro

If Alvin Greene was a white unemployed vet and he won. There wouldn't be any media scrutiny. Instead, he would be heralded as a hero. He would have already had a book deal, a job on Fox, and a front seat on the Tea Party Express.

What Constructive Feedback said;

What you need to do is, Filled Negro, is what Rachel Maddow has been doing - CONVINCE THE PEOPLE OF SOUTH CAROLINA that they are VOTING AGAINST THEIR BEST INTERESTS when they VOTE FOR DeMint - the evil Republicans. Get those racist Conservative whites in SC to realize that they have more in common with Trapped In South Carolina than they do with the elites at Goldman Sacs.

And what fodder said;

The whole tone of your coverage smacks of a sort of political elitism that says that only party-approved people with large organizations are allowed to run for public office, and it doesn't flatter you.

I understand that he's running for a very high office, but the last I looked there weren't any restrictions on who can run other than those in the Constitution and even those don't cover how well-known you are, your education level or how old your bank account is.

I'm disappointed in the democratic party's handling of this,but hey, this is the democratic party we have instead of the democratic party I wish we had. As for me, I'm not going to rush to judgement, I'm going to keep an open mind regarding Alvin Greene. So far he sounds like my kind of democrat.