Here is a picture of Sen. Richard "Dick" Shelby(r. Tuscaloosa) standing up to President Obama every day

Pres. Obama and Al. Gov. Robert Bentley tour tornado devastation (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Uh, about that standing up to President Obama every day Senator Shelby Sir.

Due to your age,  EYE can understand if you have some memory loss, but your aides should know better.  Either they are suffering from amnesia, or they think we are.  Perhaps you've forgotten the massive tornado that ripped through Sweet Home Alabama in April of 2011, when President Obama flew to Birmingham, AL,  motorcades to Tuscaloosa to assure Alabamans that every level of government was fully dedicated to doing everything possible to help the community recover from the devastation,

Even as Republicans have been kicking and screaming about the need to shrink government, even as they support a budget plan that would devastate government's ability to respond to disasters like this, when something like this happens they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Obama as government leaders eager to serve the people they represent. They aren't calling him a socialist, they aren't saying he was born in Kenya, they aren't accusing him of trying to kill grandma: they are just trying to do the right thing. It's just too bad it took a horrific storm to bring out that cooperative spirit.

EYE see you and the rest of the white, male, red republicans walking WITH President Obama, and the democrats walking BEHIND. 

Sidebar with a sigh
If you look closely at the photograph attached to this diary of a VIP group walking with President Obama, I count nine individuals....Two in the front row, three in the middle row and four in the back, one of whom is barely visible as a pair of grey-trousered legs and the corner of a face. Two of them -- counting the President -- are non-white, one more may be.
The proportion of non-white persons in Alabama's population is about 29%, so 22%, or better 33%, persons of color (2 or 3 out of 9) would not be far out of line with the state population.
According to the same source, the proportion of persons in the population of Alabama who happen to be female is almost 52%. Female persons in the VIP group including President Obama: precisely zero.

You may be suffering from memory loss but we the people will never forget. Link inserted for emphasis mine.

I'm glad the President and First Lady came to Alabama but, why didn't he visit Birmingham too? He went to the place that didn't vote for him, and ignored the place that did. And why wasn't Rep. Terri Sewell, the states top Democrat, the first person to greet President Obama instead of being 4th in line behind anti Socialist Bentley, "I haven't seen his birth certificate" Shelby, "I gave you the middle finger and sent the Azalea Trail Maids to your inauguration parade", Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, and "Birther Spencer Bacchus" all republicans?

You might want to reconsider your Wag the Dog political commercials because that dog won't hunt. 

To ‘Wag the Dog’ means to purposely divert attention from what would otherwise be of greater importance, to something else of lesser significance. By doing so, the lesser-significant event is catapulted into the limelight, drowning proper attention to what was originally the more important issue.
The expression comes from the saying that ‘a dog is smarter than its tail’, but if the tail were smarter, then the tail would ‘wag the dog.
In other words, Shelby’s commercial is nothing but an attempt to divert attention from the facts.

RedEye 

RedEye's Snark Attack

Big shout out to Mack Lyons for breaking down the Birmingham Sewage/Jefferson County Bankruptcy issue. I have not written on the subject because I didn't really understand the dynamics. But I do now. It all boils down to BIOTBG (Blame It On The Black Guy).

In late September, the SEC ended its case for disgorgement against former Birmingham mayor, former Jefferson County commission president and former Fairfield mayor Larry Langford, after the SEC discovered the only asset they could get as part of restitution was a 1/2-interest in his home. It's the only thing he has left, aside from a mess of debts stemming from criminal and civil penalties.

Langford is currently serving a 15-year sentence in federal prison, after being convicted of over 60 counts of bribery and corruption. Given his age (65) and how he won't be eligible to walk out of prison until at least 2023, it's a possibility that this man will die in prison. On the other hand, the two men convicted alongside him, investment banker Bill Blount and former lobbyist Al LaPierre, earned much lighter sentences. True, they plead guilty and Langford didn't, but the disparity in sentencing only raises the usual conclusions about racially-motivated "justice" in this country.

Most AL.com commentators have been chomping at the bit for Langford's demise and rolling around in his family's misery like happy pigs in slop. Blount and LaPierre never got this much bile thrown at them.

The Birmingham Skews on The Almost Certain Uncertainty the residents of Jefferson County face due to the debt sewer debacle.

Maybe only good will come of it—and maybe only bad. In any case it does seem reasonable to expect to see higher rates and to assume that Jefferson County, never exactly the belle of the ball, will now be infinitely less attractive to economic developers of every stripe. (I don’t know about you, but I tend to avoid the aging person with a rotten tooth, bad odor, and a black eye who is in the middle of doing an apparently irresponsible thing. You can never be sure where they’ll take you or what you’ll get.) In any case, today is the first day of our increasingly uncertain future.

ADP Calls for Bachus to Resign Over Lucky, Lucrative Stock Deals. Oh, OK. (RedEye roll). I wonder what part of IOKIYAR (It's OK If You Are A Republican) for elected officials to get rich off insider information don't they understand?

What's that you say? GOP hopefuls would limit federal role in education? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you. NOT. The GOP wants to go back to the days of separate and unequal education, recreating a lot of under educated black youth so they can form non-profit (sic), faith-based, compassionate, Christan, charitable organizations to provide sports and after school programs to help them. Big Snark. It would be too much like the right (pun intended) to invest in making sure every child had access to a quality public education. Can't have them there disadvantaged youth rising up out of the New Jim Crow.

The Republican Slogan for 2012: Suppress the Vote! Or, If you can't beat em, suppress em.

Aside from making it harder or impossible for certain voters to participate in elections, conservatives are working to assure that the “right” voters are not left out of the system.

You know your campaign is in trouble when you have to resort to making your wife Stand By Her Man and defend you against sexual harassment on TeeVee like a good little wife.

But this time, Gloria Cain has come out fighting.
"You hear the graphic allegations and we know that would have been something that's totally disrespectful of her as a woman," she says in her first televised interview. "And I know the type of person he is. He totally respects women."

I hate to tell you this Gloria, but THIS is Herman Cain's totally respectful sexy job creation plan for women.

“He suddenly reached over and he put his hand on my leg, under my skirt, and reached for my genitals. He also grabbed my head and brought it towards his crotch.” And then he asked if she wanted that job or not. So technically Herman Cain might be right when he keeps saying those “harassment” charges are false, in the sense that they are actually more like assault.

RedEye's Snark Attack over and out.

"The Storm is Passing Over"

During a recent episode of The Good Wife, the main character was asked if she was happy. She replied;

"Are we happy when the storm passes over or are we relieved?"

I am relieved to report me and mine are fine. We had relatively minor property damage, however many friends lost everything, some for the second time, due to a tornado. The death count is rising daily, damages continue to be assessed, power is gradually being restored.

As a life long resident of Tornado Ally, I have to ask, is it a coincidence the red, republican, Confederate Slave states are being bombarded with tornadoes, floods, and fires? Will the latest frightful day in Alabama put a stop to the human meaness?

But what about human meanness? Are we capable of coming to grips with that, limiting the havoc it wreaks? I'm not optimistic about that one. This blog chronicles the actions of numerous judges, lawyers, and individuals who have acted corruptly in our justice system, heaping major damage on their fellow human travelers. Like Mrs. Schnauzer and me, quite a few of these bad actors probably were fortunate to escape major damage in yesterday's storms. Did that cause any of them to stop for a moment, count their blessings, and vow to change their ways? I doubt it. Were many of them right back to their underhanded ways this morning? Probably so.

Probably so indeed. Which brings me to the politicization of President Obama's post storm visit to Alabama.

Even as Republicans have been kicking and screaming about the need to shrink government, even as they support a budget plan that would devastate government's ability to respond to disasters like this, when something like this happens they stand shoulder-to-shoulder with President Obama as government leaders eager to serve the people they represent. They aren't calling him a socialist, they aren't saying he was born in Kenya, they aren't accusing him of trying to kill grandma: they are just trying to do the right thing. It's just too bad it took a horrific storm to bring out that cooperative spirit.

I hate to say it, but as an African American supporter of President Obama, his actions continue to disappoint me. Don't get me wrong, although it took a tornado to bring him to Alabama, I'm glad he came. But, Tuscaloosa was not the only area hit hard by the storms. Entire neighborhoods were devastated in nearby Birmingham also.

President Obama did not carry Tuscaloosa County, and he will never carry Tuscaloosa County. President Obama did carry Jefferson County, and he can count on carrying Jefferson County again. So why did he pander to the ones who will never vote for him at the expense of those who will, and did, vote for him?

It made me sick to my stomach to watch the President and First Lady arrive in Tuscaloosa and as femaledog notes;

I'm glad the President and First Lady came to Alabama but, why didn't he visit Birmingham too? He went to the place that didn't vote for him and ignored the place that did. And why wasn't Rep. Terri Sewell, the states top Democrat the first person to greet President Obama instead of being 4th in line behind anti Socialist Bentley, I haven't seen his birth certificate Shelby, I gave you the middle finger and sent the Azalea Trail Maids to your inauguration parade, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, and Birther Spencer Bacchus all republicans?

Representative Terri Sewell (D.Birmingham) and Mayor William Bell (D.Birmingham) should have been the first people to greet President Obama when he stepped off Air Force One. And speaking of Air Force One,  it should have landed in Birmingham FIRST, Obama should have spent time there FIRST, then motorcade on down the road to T-Town.

Pres. Obama and Al. Gov. Robert Bentley tour tornado devastation (Larry Downing/Reuters)

Sidebar with a sigh

If you look closely at the photograph attached to this diary of a VIP group walking with President Obama, I count nine individuals....Two in the front row, three in the middle row and four in the back, one of whom is barely visible as a pair of grey-trousered legs and the corner of a face. Two of them -- counting the President -- are non-white, one more may be.
The proportion of non-white persons in Alabama's population is about 29%, so 22%, or better 33%, persons of color (2 or 3 out of 9) would not be far out of line with the state population.
According to the same source, the proportion of persons in the population of Alabama who happen to be female is almost 52%. Female persons in the VIP group including President Obama: precisely zero.

How I wish the mainstream media would ask Spencer Bacchus, Dick Shelby, Jeff Sessions, and other republicans from devastated areas if they still back Paul Ryan's budget that guts FEMA and the National Weather Service?

How I wish the mainstream media would focus on the pain and suffering in Pratt City Alabama to the same extent they focus on Tuscaloosa and the Royal Wedding.

How I wish the mainstream media would ask the red republicans how they feel about public service workers and the Unions who represent them now.

How I wish President Obama had bought relief to the people who voted for him instead of the people who didn't. 

EXCUSE NUMBER 10: “You can't expect him to address issues like black unemployment, which has been double the white rate forever. He's not the president of Black America, and you can't expect him to act like it. He's the president of the United States of America...”
QUICK ANSWER: Obama wasn't drafted, he volunteered for the job, he campaigned for it, said he was “Joshua” to Dr. King's Moses, and lectured us on the Fierce Urgency of Now. He campaigned like a “civil rights leader.” His web site said “Join the Movement!” If the black president can't or won't address black mass incarceration, black unemployment, HIV-AIDS, the foreclosure crisis and other matters that disproportionately affect our communities, then why do we have any kind of collective racial obligation to support him?

If the person we elect runs like a democrat then governs like a republican, for republicans, by the republicans, why do we have any kind of collective racial obligation to support him? What choice do we have?

The Storm is Passing Over for some, but not for all.  I am not relieved.