Notorious RBG Kneecaps Kaep

UPDATE: The Business Insider reported: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday called her criticism of National Football League player Colin Kaepernick "inappropriately dismissive and harsh" and said she should not have commented on his protest against racism and police brutality in the United States." In the NYTimes Justice Ginsburg said she should have declined to comment.

“Some of you have inquired about a book interview in which I was asked how I felt about Colin Kaepernick and other N.F.L. players who refused to stand for the national anthem,” she wrote in a note to reporters. “Barely aware of the incident or its purpose, my comments were inappropriately dismissive and harsh. I should have declined to respond.”

We're getting close now. Election season is almost over, and I can barely wait for it to end. I suspect that a lot of folks feel the way I do now. I'm about numb from the droning din of the election antics, the daily charges and counter-charges pitched across the partisan divide of character assassinations.

Today, one thing stood out to me, and it had nothing to do with the election. It is about Colin Kaepernick. And one of the Supreme Court's icons, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  

Katie Couric interviewed her, and asked about Kaep's "taking the knee." (By the way, without any disrespect to the venerable Rosa Parks, my opinion is that "taking the knee" is preferable in these circumstances and this time period to "staying seated" because, now, it is more difficult to criticize a person on bended knee than one protesting by staying seated.)    

I am flabbergasted at Justice Ginsburg's response.

"When asked by Couric how she feels about San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, and other athletes, refusing to stand for the anthem, Ginsburg replied, "I think it's really dumb of them...I think it's a terrible thing to do, but I wouldn't lock a person up for doing it. I would point out how ridiculous it seems to me to do such an act...What I would do is strongly take issue with the point of view that they are expressing when they do that."

"All I can say is that I am sensitive to discrimination on any basis because I have experienced that upset...I looked at that sign, and I said, 'I am a Jew, but I'm an American, and Americans are not supposed to say such things," she recalled.

Whiplash!

On the one hand, a carefully calibrated, peaceful, prominent protest against oppression is characterized by a Supreme Court Justice as "dumb...terrible...ridiculous" even as she expresses in the interview that she is "sensitive to discrimination" while taking issue with the protesters "point of view."

Without doubt, the esteemed Justice is much smarter and accomplished than I, but her response exposes a duplicity of her position of epic proportions.

Colin was clear and explicit in his statement.

"I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color," Kaepernick told NFL Media in an exclusive interview after the game. "To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder."

Our flag and anthem declare our national principles.

My white stripes stand for liberty and equality for all.
My blue is the blue of heaven, loyalty, and faith.
I represent these eternal principles: liberty, justice, and humanity.
I embody American freedom: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, the press, and the sanctity of the home.

I take the knee with Kaep, hand over heart, - and encourage you to, too, at every opportunity.  

Jesus, Save Us From Your Followers Continued...

caapusa.org

Brittany Cooper penned a powerful and provocative essay for Salon.com, entitled The right's made-up God:  How bigots invented a white supremacist Jesus. 

As a practicing Christian, I am deeply incensed by these calls for restoration and reclamation in the name of religious freedom. This kind of legislation is largely driven by conservative Christian men and women, who hold political views that are antagonistic to every single group of people who are not white, male, Christian, cisgender, straight and middle-class. Jesus, a brown, working-class, Jew, doesn’t even meet all the qualifications.

Nothing drives this point home like Left in Alabama Blogger countrycats' we must laugh to keep from crying account of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore praising "Plessy v. Ferguson  minutes after a group of African-American pastors hung a "Letter from the Birmingham Jail Courage Award" around his neck. Seriously, that's what happened yesterday in Montgomery".    

Watch the video here.  And note just how, well... white... the assembly is for a "Coalition of African American Pastors" event.

Before I turn the blog over to countrycat let me say this...it is our responsibility to be a bold witness and stop letting the right wing  use Jesus to justify their own prejudices.  Jesus didn't hate women, minorities, the poor and  LBGT's.   Jesus didn't say come whomever will as long as you look, think, and act like bigots.  As a matter of fact  Matthew 25:40 English Standard Version of the Bible reads:  And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

It is our responsibility to be a bold witness and say hate and bigotry is not God's way. 

"What so ever we sow, so shall we reap"~Galatians 6:7

RedEye stepping down out of the pulpit...for now.

HELL NAW They Ain't Fergittin', Not Now, Not EVAH!

 H/T The Crimson and White

When a sitting United States Senator says we need 100 more Senators like Jesse Helms in the Senate, after the United States Supreme Court overturned Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act on the grounds the south was no longer racist because we elected an African American President,  it's pretty clear why the Civil War Never Ends, especially in Sweet Home Alabama, because it is a culture that is ingrained, embedded, and institutionalized  in the hearts and minds of white folks from the cradle to the grave.

 But if you look at the state of Alabama, an awful lot of the people that run this state (government and business) came through the greek system at UA.  The white branch of the greek system.  So it isn't just an academic thing, and it isn't just student choice -- we all know that alums will have considerable input on whether the first (or second or third) black or white student will be accepted -- this is about whether people of some different color have a chance to get a foot onto this important ladder.  Right now, evidence says they have essentially zero chance.

The allegations of segregation, racism, and discrimination in Alabama's University Greek System aren't new.  The Old South Parade at University of Alabama just bite the dust two years ago.

What is the Old South Parade you ask?  I'll let Fox News distort, I mean, describe, it for you. Links inserted for clarity.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. –  A white fraternity that traces its roots to the Civil War and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee is again facing complaints over its antebellum-themed events.
This time, University of Alabama alumnae are upset after Kappa Alpha Order members wearing Confederate uniforms and carrying battle flags paraded past a historically black sorority as the women celebrated the group's 35th anniversary.
The fraternity has been forced to halt its "Old South" festivities on some campuses because of claims of racial insensitivity, and Alabama members have apologized for pausing in front of Alpha Kappa Alpha's sorority house during this year's parade.

mooncat said it best

The Old South has perfected the art of victimhood and put it on a pedestal right up there beside the hoop-skirted women of the silver screen, to be celebrated it at every opportunity.  This is a self-fulfilling prophecy.  It's time to leave the dead past in the past, guys, and move forward to at least the 20th century even if you can't yet bear to join the rest of us in the 21st.  I feel sure Robert E. Lee, whom you claim to revere so much, would offer the same advice.

"For those of you who are tired of hearing about racism, imagine how much more tired we are constantly experiencing it." - Barbara Smith

I heard it on the radio, but is it true?

I was listening to the Joe Madison talk show on XM 169 The Power this evening when a female caller from Dothan,Alabama called in to comment on Herman Cain's 9% sales tax proposal. I don't remember her name, but she said they were already paying 9% sales tax in Dothan, in addition to a 10% surcharge at the grocery stores in the black community, for a total of 19% on groceries.

Madison asked her what the surcharge was for and she replied they were told it was to keep the price of groceries down. Huh?

I hope it's not true the city of Dothan,AL added a 10% surcharge to Piggly Wiggly and Save a Lot stores in the black community. Please tell me if there is a 10% surcharge it's across the board.

I noticed in Atlanta last week gasoline was $2.39 per gallon in the inner city (black neighborhood) and $2.13 in the suburbs (white neighborhood)

Why are those with the least paying more than those who have the most for goods and services? What's wrong with this picture?

Dear Left in Alabama

Send at least $15, and we’ll reward you with some fun LIA swag – a mousepad, pens, and a notepad. Not to mention a handwritten thank you note, as well as the knowledge that you’ve helped boost a progressive voice in the state.

How are you doing today? How has your week gone? Are you happy this week? Are you sad? I am writing on this beautiful Sunday morning respectfully asking that I be allowed to participate in the informed, involved and progressive discussion at Left in Alabama again.

I have to tell you that I am very disappointed in you. I do not like what you have allowed others to do. Barring and banning me from the discussion enabled the non-informed, non-involved, non-progressives.

I can't promise I will not write or say something that might make you uncomfortable, or, that I will go along to get along, but I can promise I will be honest, thoughtful and fair

Remember when you said

Please consider this blog your own personal printing press. Each diary is a pamphlet. Click "New Diary" and start writing. Thomas Paine would be proud.

I have to ask, do you have a problem with how I deliver my message, or, do you have a problem with the message I deliver?

I posted at Left in Alabama almost since it's inception, and at your invitation, I might add. I argued my case with tenacity, conviction, and civility. I used my platform at Left in Alabama to be a voice for the voiceless, and even when I vehemently disagreed with the point of view of others, I never resorted to malicious personal attacks or insults.

We all respond to comments in our own way, and in our own style. Even when I strongly disagree with a point of view, I respect the right to express that point of view. I will fight with all that is in me for the rights granted to all of us in the First Amendment. Tolerant/progressive people can agree to disagree without being disagreeable. That is the philosophy I live by not only on LIA but in my everyday life.

discrimination is the prejudicial treatment of an individual based solely on their membership in a certain group or category. Discrimination is the actual behavior towards members of another group. It involves excluding or restricting members of one group from opportunities that are available to other groups.[1] The United Nations explains: "Discriminatory behaviors take many forms, but they all involve some form of exclusion or rejection."[2] Discriminatory laws such as redlining have existed in many countries. In some countries, controversial attempts such as racial quotas have been used to redress negative effects of discrimination.

My position is this,  if you are going to regulate comments,  regulate them for everybody. Don't have one set of rules for me another set of rules for everyone else. That's discrimination. Banning me from participating in the discussion is censorship.

Sincerely,
RedEye

What is on my mind Wednesday.

If 50 Teabaggers showed up to protest President Obama or Congressman Parker Griffith (r. traitor) I'll bet there would be wall to wall media coverage complete with live interviews, but since according to al.com, it was only 50 progressive, democratic outcast protesting Dubya's former *ahem* advisor the media we have barely yawned. Thank goodness we have a real media outlet to tell us what really happened duringKKKarl Rove's trip to Sweet Home Alabama. Compare and contrast the coverage. It's like night and day. But I'm not surprised, are you?

Speaking of Bushes Brain aka KKKarl Rove, his base is repackaging their movement in a new, multicultural wrapping. Yeah right. Same stuff, different robe.

Speaking of media coverage, or the lack thereof, check out Booman's version of What if the Tea Party were black.

What would happen if we took, say, a couple hundred nicely dressed black men, to a gun show out in rural Anywhere, U.S.A.? What if we came in a couple of busloads, legally purchased firearms and left in a quiet and orderly fashion, just as we'd come. What kind of news coverage, if any, would we get?

Uh Oh! The Mainstream Media fired a warning shot at President Obama today. This is the same media who enabled Bush and Dick to send our troops to Iraq based on DEAD WRONG Intelligence, remember? What BlatantLiberal said!

I'm outraged over this meaningless story for one reason: health care. We saw this most clearly with the death panel lie. That is not a failure of communication or messaging. That was a failure of the mainstream media to educate the people. It speaks to the systemic and endemic failure of the media to simply report. And that is not the White House's fault; it's the fault of a media that will allow lies to take hold. That is willing to report a lie and give it the same billing as the policy itself warping the public's knowledge and facts.

Lord help us, Gun Nut Political Gathering Organized in PA to Shoot Up Cars Representing "Liberal Ideas": Next It's Us

On that note, remember what happened to ultra liberal radio talk show host Rhandi Rhodes when when made a joke about guns and George W-ar Bush? Remember what happened to Air America afterwards? RedEYE reports what you decide.


Paging the Alabama ACLU!!! We've got another prom situation in Dixie. This time it's in Calhoun County Alabama.

"Oxford High School, a school in Calhoun County, Ala., prom dress codes are strictly enforced. Some say too strictly. This year, the Anniston Star reports that 25 students were disciplined for violating the prom dress code. The strangest part of the story, though, is that the students were allowed to stay at the prom, but the following week, they had to choose the option of receiving corporal punishment (by paddling) or a three-day suspension....The principal, Trey Holladay, defends the policy stating that, "We're using the same policy we've had for the last five years. Being a parent, I want to make sure girls and guys act accordingly. We're a high school, and our community has certain expectations of what is appropriate."

So much discrimination, so little time.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A sharply divided federal appeals court on Monday exposed Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to billions of dollars in legal damages when it ruled a massive class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination over pay for female workers can go to trial.

It couldn't have happened to a more deserving company. *Snicker*

Redeye over and out for now.