Meet the new #Segregationist, same as the old #Segregationist, now they are the #media

Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly (Credit: Reuters/Micah Walter/AP/Douglas C. Pizac)

New Rules:  Instead of standing in the school house door, the new Segregationist sit in front of cameras and microphones while using the public airways to enable media driven racial stereotypes.

It is not simply that Black people are victims of a numbers game. Rather, there has been a wholesale P.R. campaign on the part of those on the right to associate all public goods and services, from public schools to public assistance, with the bodies of undeserving people of color, particularly Blacks and Latinos.

Yep, the white, male dominated, media enables elected officials , and others in position of power and influence, to drive a false narrative.

Any discussion of welfare or public assistance in this country is rife with dog whistles from the right toward the lower elements of their base, who in Pavlovian fashion, respond to code words about welfare and public assistance by conjuring images of the undeserving Black and Brown poor.

Segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever, from sea to shining sea.

In his new book “How Propaganda Works,” Yale philosopher Jason Stanley argues that while a “liberal democratic culture… does not tolerate explicit degradation of its citizens,” there are “apparently innocent words that have the feature of slurs, namely that whenever the words occur in a sentence, they convey the problematic content. The word welfare …conveys a problematic social meaning.” I am suggesting that the word “public” in our political discourse is becoming just such a tool of political propaganda as well.

Who needs George Wallace when we have the media?

 Despite bright spots in the mainstream media for representing race and gender diversity, like Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC, the output of the industry largely still appears white and male. Almost 40 percent of the U.S. identifies as nonwhite and women make up more than half of the population, yet popular media outlets largely remain homogenous. Missing diverse perspectives from the media landscape can have wide-ranging detrimental effects.

Ya Think?

How the white, male dominated, media turns the good guys into the bad guys, and the bad guys into the good guys

 

 
For the perfect example of how the white, male dominated media enables racial stereotypes and advances a false narrative,  please watch what happens when this white, male,  reporter ask a group of African Americans why they need a coalition to combat police terrorism.

The mainstream media needs to face it's race problem.

It's the media.

The power of the press.

When communities distrust media institutions, and in turn the media reinforces negative stereotypes of those communities, the problem of a white-male dominated newsroom becomes self-perpetuating.

 RedEye

The Power of the Press #ItsTheMedia

“This idea that every time a black person does something, they automatically become a ‘thug worthy of their own death?’ We don’t own drug crimes. We’re not the only ones that sell and do drugs all the time, we’re not the only ones who steal, we’re not the only ones who talk crazy to cops. There’s a complete double standard and a complete different experience that a certain element of this country has the privilege of being treated as human beings. And the rest of us are not being treated like human beings. Period. And that needs to be discussed, that is the story…we’re not making this up.”

7 Cynical Ways Police and Media have smeared Micheal Brown and the Black People of Ferguson

The unrest and protests following Brown’s killing have put the militarization of local police forces in the national spotlight, especially as police who look like soldiers are facing down protesters on Ferguson’s streets. But the most important issue that’s not getting widely discussed transcends the horrible specifics of Michael Brown’s death: the continuing trend of police officers shooting and killing black men, instead of using other tactics to deal with confrontations.
(On Tuesday, St. Louis police shot and killed another man, apparently wielding a knife, several miles from Ferguson.)

Thank you social media for being the kind of media we wish we had, instead of the media we have.

We ARE the media. We are in the middle of the second Information Revolution. The people with satellite uplinks and klieg lights will still have their place. But they will not be the main witnesses. All of us can hold power to account. And we must, if we are to have any kind of decent life.
Mike Brown should never have been killed. His young life was snuffed out for no good reason. But the reaction to his murder is proof that humans still strive for justice, still strive for freedom, despite what those in authority will.
Walter Cronkite narrated the Civil Rights struggle for middle American homes in the Sixties. Today, it could be me. It could be you. And that is power.

#Ferguson

Happy New Year?

 

I'm back..... sort of.  Trying to catch up with all of the political news and views after my annual holiday mental health break.  Just for kicks I tuned in to Morning Joke, I mean, Joe to determine what the right wing is whining about in 2014, only to learn they are whining about  the same things they whined about in 2013.

1.  The Federal Government is impeding job growth.  Oh really?  I guess they think the American people are too stupid to realize the republicans control the house, and their counter parts in the senate are the party of obstructionist.

2. The red state democratic candidates are in an up hill battle for re-election because having access to Obama Care, I mean, affordable health health care, is so unpopular in their states?  Oh really?  I guess that's why people are signing up like crazy in the red, republican, Confederate, slave states.

3.  New York's rich fear their new mayor because he's going to take all their money and give it to the poor.  Not.

The more things change, the  more they remain the same...


Thank you for reading and your input.  All points of view are welcome here as long as they are presented with courtesy, civility, and respect.  Tolerant people can agree to disagree without resorting to name calling, personal attacks, insults, or banning.

Read on!
Read often!

"Down is Up, White is Black, and Do You See Those Dark Skinned Racist?"

H/T Left in Alabama

Can a clever scheme calling for diversity to attract more white voters change reality? I don't know but the ConservaDems are sure trying. First they picked up their marbles, stomped off the playground, and seceded from the Alabama Democratic Party.  Now they are basically calling the State Democratic Party a bunch of homophobic/bigots/sexist/racist (take your pick), when nothing could be further from the truth.  In other words they are framing the issues to make themselves look like the good guys.

Now, this seems like a no-brainer, because the charter and by-laws of the DNC already require states to "Establish standards and rules of procedure to afford all members of the Democratic Party full, timely and equal opportunities to participate in decisions concerning the selection of candidates, the formulation of policy, and the conduct of other Party affairs, without prejudice on the basis of sex, race, age (if of voting age), color, creed, national origin, religion, economic status, sexual orientation, ethnic identity or physical disability"
It's long past time for the SDEC to get with the program.

Uh, the SDEC has always been with the program thank you very much. This is white privilege disguised as a diversity issue.  It continues to be a source of consternation to the Alabama, white power structure they keep being outsmarted by the State Democratic Executive Committee led by their arch enemy Dr. Joe L. Reed.

To refresh your memory Left in Alabama, has followed the diversity amendment for some time. You can read the sad, sorry, saga (my words)  here,  here,  and  here.   You won't see any comments from me in the comment section because  I've been banned for life from Left in Alabama because the administrators didn't like the content of my comments and other post.  That's right (pun intended), the same Informed. Involved.  Progressive. blog who has followed the diversity amendment for some time refuse to admit they banned the only diversity they had.

A big thank you to commenter Yellowdog  for calling them out:

 I want the Alabama Democratic Party to reflect my political views. I want the candidate I vote for to reflect at least some basic core Democratic views.

If the Democratic Party reflects the hopes and aspirations of the majority of the black community this is an outcome I consider fair and reasonable.

Our calling should be to stand up for inclusion and diversity as an outcome of our political views. If most white Americans do not support inclusion and diversity, they should not support the Democratic Party (and in Alabama most whites do not).

The idea we should call for some kind of "diversity" to represent the Alabama Democratic Party - to make it more attractive to white
voters - is crass and exploitative and would have nothing to do with
our principles and beliefs.

We support inclusion, diversity, and tolerance should be the attraction to all voters including whites. Gaming the system to get a few more ignorant white votes would and has gotten us nowhere.

 Attacking the messenger is so creepily Republican.~Yellowdog

RedEye Reports.  You Decide.

Edit~ "Ensure that the Alabama Democratic Party Welcomes Inclusion and Diversity" My Donkey

“Don’t just overlook the hard work that we did,” said one black woman who canvassed for Doug Jones.

It appears the proponents of diluting diversity in the Alabama Democratic Party haven't given up the attack, I mean, fight.

As the petition signature page says:

Allow debate and a vote on a bylaw amendment that mirrors Democratic National Committee language to define ‘minority’ in order to make the party more inclusive, diverse, and to expand participation. For too long, the Alabama Democratic Party’s bylaws have not been reflective of the changing electorate in Alabama. It is time the Alabama Democratic Party joined the rest of the nation and defined ‘minority’ under National Democratic Party guidelines.

The proponents of inclusion and diversity must have the Alabama Democratic Party confused with the Alabama Republican Party , because if the photo above doesn't depict inclusion and diversity I don't know what does.

This isn't about inclusion and diversity, it's about reducing the representation of African Americans in the Alabama Democratic Party.

There is a perception that the ADP caters to black voters but ignores white voters. A significant number of Democrats, some on the SDEC, have expressed concern to me that the ADP will "become like Mississippi" where, I gather, race is the significant difference between the two parties. If you want to run for office and you're white, you run as a Republican, if you're black you run as a Democrat. Now, I know that isn't strictly the case in Mississippi since they recently had a white Democrat run (unsuccessfully) for Senate, but this is a huge concern for people who care about the Democratic party in Alabama.

How about some inclusion and diversity among  the Left in Alabama contributors? 

Today's Must Reads
The White Elephant in the Democratic Tent

So, now we know how "white Dems" really feel

RedEye Reports.  You Decide.

The Plan to Dilute the Diversity in the Alabama State Democratic Party Not Dead Yet *sigh*

This is one of those time I would pay money to be allowed to post on Left in Alabama, the Involved.  Informed. Progressive.  blog of record for Alabama Progressives (not to be confused with  Alabama liberals).   I understand why I was banned because the Involved. Informed. Progressives. can't stand for their point of view to be questioned or challenged.  It's their way or the highway.  Sound familiar?

I guess it depends on what their definition of diversity IS.

The new administration put forth a plan to increase diversity in the delegation -- with proportional representation for African American, hispanic, native American, Asian/Pacific islander, GLBT and disabled populations, as well as those 35 and under.  The old guard dug their heels in against including other classes in the diversity requirement -- and eventually won in the wee hours of Saturday morning.  Minority still means "black" and nothing else to certain people on the SDEC Board.

 All of a sudden everybody wants to be considered black, I mean, a  minority.  The new amendment would expand the ADP's Executive Board to include: the President of the Alabama Democratic Conference, the President of the Alabama College Democrats, the President of the Alabama Federation of Democratic Women, the President of the Alabama Young Democrats, the President of the Alabama Democratic Hispanic Caucus, and the President of the Alabama Stonewall Democrats.

It's all about race.  And therein lies the problem. The "minority" representation has long been a bone of contention among some (not to confused with all) within the Alabama Democratic Party.  They are trying to dilute the ONLY black folks representation with Hispanic and "other minorities".  The question is why?

Today's Must Read:
Joe M. Reed Esq. for Alabama State Democratic Party Chair

RedEye report.  You decide.

GOP playing the Race Card from their Race Deck

this is the fox panel discussing a campaign on white privilege #withoutcomment pic.twitter.com/DgOZlQKV
— Oliver Willis (@owillis) February 20, 2013

Token Black  RNC Spokesman: "What Exactly Has the President Done for the Black Community.  More to the point,  what has the RNC done to, I mean, for the Blacks?

What has the GOP done for blacks?
Voter suppression
Cutting food stamps
Cutting Pell Grants
Denying health care
Bankrupting Detroit, Governor cut back block grants to Detroit
Gutting Head Start
Cutting education
Enriching charter school administrators
Spending more on prisons than education
GOP achievement that they are so proud of.

 Race card:  Something white people say when they want to belittle black folks problems.   

Media Is Growing More White, but don't tell anyone.

As the American Society of Newspaper Editors has reported, racial and ethnic minorities make up less than 13 percent of newsroom employees. Minority ownership of television stations hovers around 3 percent, while radio station ownership is at 7 percent, despite the fact that the minority population of the U.S. is roughly 28 percent.

 RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go play cards....

No "Absence of Malice" in Bama instant replay

I wish Madison County Democratic chairman Clete Welti  had asked somebody ,as the young people say, before he walked into Radio Boy's  Attack Machine.  Somebody should have told him you don't take a knife to a gun fight, or, to just say NO when asked to be a guest on his show. 

Dale likes to say democrats and liberals are afraid to appear on his show, but it's not fear that keeps self respecting democrats away, it's the knowledge they are going to be treated with contempt and  malice.

Evidently Dale has his knickers in a knot because CleteWelti, also a volunteer columnist for al.com., called him out in his introductory column.  So what does Dale do?  He invites Clete to be a guest on his radio show so he can ambush him, then calls him a liar and the feckless leader of a failed party (among other things) on his blog.   2 minutes for Clete, 36 minutes for Dale, all attack all the time, unfair and unbalanced.

AL.com community editor Anthony Cook had this to say in defense of Dale's newest bullet in his resume;

  We live in a society where we can't discuss politics civilly with anyone who disagrees with us. Many of us can't even tolerate hearing an opinion that's different from our own. How pathetically weak we've become as a nation that has at its historical core the good sense to listen to and nurture ideas.

Truer words were never spoken, and if Mr. Cook wants to see an example of this type of discourse all he has to do is click on Dale's blog.  If you can't win the debate, resort to name calling, personal attacks, insults, lies, and moderate the comments.

Some readers expressed such intolerance in the comments section when Dale was announced as a new columnist with al.com, some even declaring they'd cancel their subscriptions to The Times. That would be the equivalent of canceling your cable because one channel broadcasts a show you don't like. I'd only remind you that you don't have to click on any link with Dale's name next to it.

Thanks for the reminder.

 When I look at the political landscape in this country, it's become the norm to see highly intelligent people, supposedly the best among us, acting like spoiled children, who must have their way or else. And even worse, it's not just a matter of their political opponents having a different opinion on issues, but Republicans and Democrats demonize each other, convincing constituents that the reason an opponent disagrees is because he or she is evil and wants to destroy the country. And worst of all, political opponents literally don't respect each other. They don't do lunch, they don't have conversations. Oh, they talk – plenty – but no one listens.

And therein lies the problem. 

RedEye's National InSecurity Week in Review

 

Remember the color-coded terrorism advisory scale created by a Homeland Security Presidential directive in response to the 9/11 attacks?

Remember when Bush and Company said they were sending our sons and daughters to Iraq and Afghanistan to fight-them-there-so-we-don't-have-to-fight-them-here?

What color is the Terra Lert?

Does Terra Lert brown mean run, or run and hide?

Are your Ducks taped?

Is your watta bottled?  

 Will 1776 commence again if guns are taken away?

Are we safe yet?

The response to President Obama's special  task force headed by Vice President Joe Biden to create proposals to decrease gun violence proved to be an economic stimulus for gun dealers/manufactures.  The proposed recommendations produced calls for a Gun Appreciation Day to send a loud an clear message to Congress and President Obama to keep your "hands off my guns",.  Ironically, this event will be held on the same day we celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr, who was shot and killed  by a single .30 bullet fired from a Remington 760 Gamemaster rifle while fighting for non violent social change.

Waive your rights while waving your guns!  YeeHaw!!

 Next month, the Supreme Court will take up a challenge to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the most effective law of its kind in the history of the United States. A century after the Civil War, the act, in abolishing many forms of discrimination employed by the Southern states, such as poll taxes and literacy tests, finally turned the legal right for African-Americans in those states to vote into an actual right to vote. Bipartisan congressional majorities have reauthorized the law four times, most recently in 2006. (It passed the House overwhelmingly and the Senate unanimously, and was signed into law by George W. Bush.) The question now is whether the Supreme Court will strike down the Voting Rights Act as a violation of states’ rights.

Psst!  Mr. President Obama  sir, you know you are doing something wrong when Joe Scarborough,  and the mainstream media, of all people, accuses you having too many white men in the White House.   I don't know why anyone is surprised women and minorities need not apply for high level positions with the Romney, I mean Obama, administration.  I knew when the white, I mean right wing media made candidate Obama renounce, reject and repudiate Reverend Jeremiah Wright, poor black folks, not to be confused with rich black folks, were going to get left behind. 

And they want us to sing God Bless America?

No!  No!  No!  God Help America.

Gun violence saturates our children’s lives and relentlessly threatens them every day. It has romped through their playgrounds; invaded their birthday parties; terrorized their Head Start classrooms, child care centers, and schools; frolicked down the streets they walk to and from school; danced through their school buses; waited at the red light and bus stop; lurked behind trees; run them down on the corner; shot them through their bedroom windows, on their front porches, and in their neighborhoods.

RedEye's Year in Review~ It's the Media, they think we are Stoopid!!

So we end 2012 like we began 2011, 2010, and so on, with the GOP infused, media enabled, Tea Party holding America hostage.  In case you are still trying to figure out how we got into this mess, and why we can't get out of it, thank the media who enabled the GOP to have a lock on the House of misRepresentatives for the foreseeable future.

I've said it before, and I will say it again, as long as the media looks like the GOP instead of looking like  America, we will continue to have gridlock instead of progress.  The media enables the GOP with a  false equivalency/fair and balanced meme that is killing our governments' chances of solving the real problems facing real Americans, not to be confused with the media elites, who by the way, have access to quality affordable health care, quality public/private schools, multiple homes, are able to save, send their students to college, take care of their elderly parents and take vacations, etc.

As the American Society of Newspaper Editors has reported, racial and ethnic minorities make up less than 13 percent of newsroom employees. Minority ownership of television stations hovers around 3 percent, while radio station ownership is at 7 percent, despite the fact that the minority population of the U.S. is roughly 28 percent.

The truth is not fair and balanced.  It's either the truth, or it's not.

Let's just say it, Republicans are the problem.  Strike that, republicans enabled by the media are the problem.

"Both sides do it" or "There is plenty of blame to go around" are the traditional refuges for an American news media intent on proving its lack of bias, while political scientists prefer generality and neutrality when discussing partisan polarization. Many self-styled bipartisan groups, in their search for common ground, propose solutions that move both sides to the center, a strategy that is simply untenable when one side is so far out of reach. [The Washington Post, 4/29/2012]

See Ya in the New Year!

RedEye Around the Web

Despite White House Press Secretary Jay Carney's assertion  "now is not the time to talk about  gun control laws",  and  keep we the peeps from demanding gun control legislation in wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School killings, "We the People" petition site is the  most popular ever. 

"Immediately address the issue of gun control through the introduction of legislation in Congress," it says. "While a national dialogue is critical, laws are the only means in which we can reduce the number of people murdered in gun related deaths."

Guns don't kill people...oh wait...guns actually do really kill people.  The argument that "Guns don't kill people....people kill people" is a fallacy that needs to be held up to the ridicule that it deserves.

Does anyone really think that guns aren’t the important part of this equation? How many people would be alive today if the possession of guns had been tightly controlled? How many would be celebrating this Christmas with their loved ones if the assault weapons ban hadn’t been allowed to lapse?

How about some media control too?  The media narrative is out of control.  However this is the same media who enabled Bush and Company to take our troops to war based on dead wrong intelligence.....

 And finally, let's get the facts right, guys, okay? Pretty much everything reported on the shooting in the first few hours turned out (once again) to be completely wrong. And that is not even counting all the breathless speculation which I'm positive went out over the 24-hour news networks (which I refused to watch as the story unfolded, just on general principles). When you're on the air non-stop, and there is little or no information, don't try to scoop everybody else when you have not checked your facts. The police have gotten a lot better about refusing to release information until facts are known (and the police, to be fair in this instance, did release erroneous information which the media dutifully reported), but the news media itself needs to do a much better job of policing what goes out over their airwaves in the first few hours of any breaking story.

Grand Old White Male Party gets diversity memo.   I thought republicans didn't believe in affirmative action and quotas?  Anyhoo...meet the soon to be only African American Senator serving in the United States Senate from the red state of South Carolina, Tim Scott (r. Tea Party).

 He will do the bidding of the Good Old Boy network down there, which should be profoundly depressing most of the time. Perhaps there will be some hope for him somewhere down the line. He seems like a genuinely nice person of deep religious faith who has a permanent smile plastered on his face.

Red State Protest in the Reddest of the Red States....also known as Sweet Home Alabama.  Yee Haw!

As if Mitt Romney’s 61 percent performance in Alabama wasn’t proof enough, most of the state’s Republican electors wore red clothing Monday to highlight Alabama’s red state status.

RedEye signing off!

Sweet Home Alabama introduces The New Jim Crow

Remember Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders mad as hell robo call to democratic voters?

Hello this is Hank Sanders, Alabama state Senator, and I’m still mad as hell. I say hell no! I ain’t going back to the cotton fields of Jim Crow days. I’m going forward with Ron Sparks, Jim Folsom and others who would do right by all of us. I hope you are mad as hell and will not go back, and you have the power to choose. I will stand until hell freezes over for Ron Sparks for Governor and Jim Folsom for Lt. Governor on November the 2nd.

Paid for by Alabama New South.

I am posting the following in it's entirety as a reminder.

Teachers Deputized to Enforce the New Jim Crow
On the surface, Alabama's new law cracking down on unauthorized immigrants resembles Arizona's infamous S.B. 1070 law. But Teaching Tolerance Director Maureen Costello says the real inspiration came from something a lot closer to home: Jim Crow.

Alabama’s Immigration Law: The New Jim Crow

Submitted by Maureen Costello on June 13, 2011 for Teaching Tolerance.org a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center

Alabama’s new law—with provisions against hiring, harboring or transporting undocumented immigrants—is bad enough for adults. But it is potentially disastrous for kids.

By requiring schools to determine the immigration status of every student at enrollment, the law makes it hard to tell the difference between educators and immigration officials. It already has immigrant parents asking, “Should we keep our children out of school in September?”

On the surface, Alabama’s H.B. 56 appears to be fashioned after Arizona’s infamous S.B. 1070 law. But the real model wasn’t so far away. Take a good look. This law was inspired by something a lot closer to home: Jim Crow.
H.B. 56, which goes into effect on Sept. 1, justifies the requirement as a way to keep track of just how much money the state is spending to educate the children of undocumented immigrants. Never mind that immigrants—both legal and illegal—support schools by paying Alabama’s regressive sales tax (10 percent here in Montgomery, including on food) and local property taxes.
Some will argue that children brought here illegally should not get a public education. But the Supreme Court ruled otherwise almost 30 years ago, in Plyler v. Doe. In 1982, the court ruled that Texas schools could not deny enrollment to the children of undocumented immigrants. The decision found that children—even those here illegally—had 14th Amendment protections, should not be punished for the actions of their parents, and were safe from discrimination in the absence of substantial state interests to the contrary.

Wanting to “take account” of the costs of ESL fails the substantial interest test. The majority in Plyler also said that refusing to educate these students “raises the specter of a permanent caste of undocumented resident aliens,” a permanent “underclass” of illiterates who would burden society far more than the cost of educating them.
Maybe history has inured Alabama to such an underclass. The law requires school officials to keep track of students “born outside the jurisdiction of the United States.” But it goes even further. Schools must also determine which U.S. citizens among their students have parents who are “aliens not authorized to be in the United States.”

Alabama didn’t go the Texas route and outright deny the right to an education. But H.B. 56 is a thinly veiled way to discourage immigrant parents from enrolling their children in school. It reminds one of the poll taxes and literacy tests that made voting, although theoretically legal, an impossible act for so many African Americans a half-century ago.

It’s unclear exactly how schools will identify the unauthorized parents, and that’s part of its poisonous charm. Birth certificates don’t include the legal status of parents. Will all parents now be required to prove their legal status, or only those who look like immigrants? Must educators infer which soccer mom is a likely prospect? Will children be asked where their parents were born? In the absence of evidence to the contrary, schools are instructed to presume that the student should be tracked under the new law.
All of these scenarios are ugly; they will make immigrant parents unwilling to enroll their kids. But as a nation, we can’t afford to leave them behind. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 20 percent of the students in grades K-12 in 2009 were the children of immigrants. Policies that don’t meet their educational needs or encourage their parents to keep them from school will leave us all behind as a nation. The cost will be far more than what Alabama pays ESL teachers.

The new law is likely to drive some undocumented immigrants away from Alabama, as its authors intended. But it will also set in stone the underclass that the Supreme Court predicted. Like Jim Crow, the law strips away rights, from having legally enforceable contracts to accepting a ride to the bus stop. Like the segregated schools of Jim Crow, this law puts obstacles in the path of immigrant parents who want their kids to become educated.
Educators have not shown great enthusiasm for the law, and they shouldn’t. To his credit, Joe Morton, Alabama’s state superintendent of education, has decided that the law doesn’t take effect until after schools enroll students for the 2011-2012 school year. So it won’t be enforced until August 2012. Morton’s most likely counting on the law being declared unconstitutional by then.
No teacher or principal relishes the prospect of turning students or parents over to Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). None would want to help divide families. Yet Alabama teachers will soon be doing just that. Although the law includes nominal privacy protection, it specifically exempts requirements related to ICE. “Every state actor” must report known illegal immigrants.

Obviously, any children pulled from school will suffer. The rest of us suffer, too. As a state and as a nation, we need as many well-educated people as possible in the years ahead. And for educators, already struggling as society’s latest whipping boy, the law is a blow to professional integrity. Teachers’ very ability to succeed depends on being trusted allies of students and families. That’s going to be tough to do after Alabama makes them deputies of ICE.

Costello is the director of Teaching Tolerance.

Voice for the Voiceless Edition

Repeat after me...
Black voices aren't *ahem* allowed to be heard in the court of public opinion because they are well...black.
Black folks should be seen (used for props) and not heard because they are well...black.
Black folks couldn't possibly know anything about anything because they are well..black.
Black folks need to STFU and STFD because they are well...black.

This seems to be the mantra of the Lame Stream Media and the status quo because black voices are absent from the conversation. If you want to hear what black folks have to say about the issues of the day you have to subscribe to Sirrus/XM radio or subscribe to Direct TV. In other words you have to PAY to hear from black folks.

Maybe if black voices were heard we wouldn't be in this mess. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus tried to tell y'all the Obama Compromise was going to be paid for on the backs of the middle class and the poor.

Scott's biggest concern was how the president's plan is going to be paid for.

"Finally, we have a choice," Scott said. "If we are going to do a tax cut, somebody is going to eventually have to pay for it and you can't give everybody a tax cut like it's Oprah Winfrey or Santa Claus. You get a tax cut. You get a tax cut. And eventually somebody is going to have to pay for it."

Many in the CBC seem worried that when the Republicans take over the House next year, the way it will get paid for is by repealing health care or cutting back on education spending. Scott took it one step further, "We're on track to essentially extend them all. The idea that you're going to extend them into a presidential year and then cut them? We've already established the principle that failure to extend the tax cut constitutes a tax increase. And if we can't do that, if we can't cut them off now, what is the chance we're going to be able to do it… in the middle of a presidential, congressional election…The last presidential candidate running on a platform of increasing taxes was Walter Mondale. That was not a successful strategy."

Rep. Barbara Lee (D.CA) and Elijah Cummings (D. MD) tried to tell y'all Medicare and Social Security would be at risk if the Bush tax cuts were extended. This is the same Barbra Lee who tried to tell y'all going to war in Afghanistan was a very bad idea.

I wonder what part of the gop will never respect an African American democratic President don't they understand?

Nobody listened when Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders warned they wanted to take us back to before the Civil War.

The media didn't want us to listen to Reverend Jeremiah Wright and they darn sure didn't want President Obama hearing anything he had to say.

We need some Affirmative Action or Quotas in the media. For every white male conservative voice there should be a black male liberal voice. For every white female conservative voice, there should be a black female liberal voice. Let's have some fairness and diversity. All white is not right.

Until and unless we start having some real fairness and balance in the media, tea party groups will continue to thrive. Until and unless we have a free press that informs the public instead of distorting what we decide we will continue to send our sons and daughters to war based on dead wrong intelligence.

Let's address it, not suppress it.
Peace Out.

Redeye's Saturday Must Reads and Open Thread

Warning readers, this is not one of those uplifting forward thinking posts. I still reserve the right to complain... LOUDLY over folk's FOOLISHNESS!~Gina, The Blogmother

Over the Mountain Dems are looking for a solution to the Joe Reed problem.

10,000 Pound Elephant (4.00 / 1)
The all danced around a very pertinent issue, Joe Reed. He has got to go and will be used as the poster boy to beat Dems going forward for many years. Good lord, how badly do we have todo in elections before stupid people at the top get it.

I can't say I didn't see this coming. Comast in. Keith Olberman out.

Which of these statements are true?

There is no such thing as white privilege.
Blacks like to complain.
Blacks are their own worst enemy, not white people or their supposed racism.
Blacks need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps just like everyone else.
I made it on my own, I did not get any special favours. Why should blacks?
If anything, blacks have it easier than whites, what with affirmative action and all.
Affirmative action is unfair to whites.
Whites are a better judge of whether something is racist than blacks are. Blacks are oversensitive.
It is unfair to have a Black History Month when there is no White History Month.
Blacks are just as racist as whites.

The Tea Party will be No Party for the poor and the middle class

Republicans and Tea Partiers have no compunction when it comes to lowering the hammer on the lives and welfare of taxpayers (the "low-hanging fruit"), while the rich and the powerful are advocated for with full press--the extension of the Bush tax cuts which will increase this nation's deficit hole, although economists are mostly in agreement that such an extension will do little to stimulate our lethargic economy.

Why can't our government officials share in the pain?

Every time I hear the phrase "it's gonna be painful", what comes to mind is that the only ones that are feeling the pain are the downtrodden and poor. However, our government officials always seem to glide through the pain as untouchables.

What's on your Saturday reading list?

All White is Not Right (pun intended)

We can no longer ignore the elephant in the room (yes that's another pun),or, as one of my list serve buddies says, "It's time to pull the sheets off the "Tea Baggers" and call them what they really are."

NEOCONS.

The Bush neocons realized they would never get back in with the party name
'REPUBLICAN' while the Republican Party tries to chave it's image and present
itself as less extreme.

Welcome TEA BAGGERS.

If PALIN is going to lead that party, that is EXACTLY WHAT IT IS;

NEOCON

In the aftermath of the so called Tea Party convention this weekend, we can no longer ignore the FACT the members are ALL WHITE and they despise President Obama. Sure they have a couple of token blacks so they can claim they are "diverse", but the majority of the members are white and bitter.

Yes I said it. They are bitter because they are afraid. They are afraid because they've been terrorised. They are bitter because they've been misinformed (lied to). They are clinging to their God and their guns out of pure unadulterated fear or retribution and retaliation for their past sins and transgressions. Black folks are going to pay them back for slavery and Jim Crow. Native Americans are going to get them for taking their land and giving them small pox. Hispanics are going to take over. Lesbians and gays are going to come out of the closet and be allowed to marry. Women are going to be allowed to kill their babies. The heathens and the unwashed are going to take our bibles and our guns. Get my drift?

This is what happens when the all white is not right media allows the public airways to be used to spread misinformation (lies) without impunity. This is what happens when the media lacks cultural diversity. This is what happens when the media censors and suppresses dissent. All fear all the time UNfair and Unbalanced, all terror all the time UNfair and UNbalanced,all war all the time UNfair and UNbalanced thrives when there is no truth.

What do you think the media would have said if after the selection of pResident George W. Bush guns sales boomed among Black folks?

"Definitely, it's because of Obama," said a saleswoman at Freddie Bear Sports in Tinley Park. The saleswoman, who declined to give her name, said that the boost is more for the "long guns," like AK-47s and assault rifles.

What if large groups of black folks organized into a Tea Party like movement and called George W. Bush a "socialist"?

Comedienne Janeane Garofalo held nothing back while discussing the “tea parties” with Keith Olbermann last night. Though the parties’ organizers claim they’re protesting taxes, Garofalo insists they’re nothing but “tea-bagging rednecks” who are simply motivated by “hating a black man in the White House.” She went on to say that participants “will believe anything you tell them, as long as it’s not the truth.” The truth, she claims, “confuses them.”

Olbermann basically agreed.

Compare how former Vice President Al Gore was treated by the media and in the media compared to Sarah Palin. Al Gore didn't become a paid, Faux News Talking TeeVee Pundit Head. He certainly was not the de facto leader of an organized movement giving red meat speeches against Bush and Dick.

Palin was mocking, asking, "How's that hope-y, change-y stuff working out for you?" and she was serious, especially while criticizing what she judged to be President Obama's too-measured approach to national security. A country at war, she said, needs "a commander-in-chief, not a professor of law."
Palin was folksy. Sticking our kids with the bill for deficit spending is a form of "generational theft" that makes us less secure, makes us less free, "and that should tick us off." Sure, solving the country's problems is tough, she added, but "If you can't ride two horses at once you shouldn't be in the circus."

The only black folks on TeeVee this Sunday morning are talking about the Super Bowl. There are no African American, Hispanic, native American Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads or host of cable talk shows. We used to be able to count on C-Span for diversity and fairness, but they've fallen prey to the all white is right rule too.

Until and unless we start having some real fairness and balance in the media, tea party groups will continue to thrive. Until and unless we have a free press that informs the public instead of distorting what we decide we will continue to send our sons and daughters to war based on dead wrong intelligence.

We can no longer ignore the elephant in the room.

All white is not right.

It's the stoopid.

Not talking about the racism isn't going to make it go away

Let's address it, not suppress it.

Peace Out.