It's not about "winning the Election, it's about "winning" the Electoral College Congress Certifies

We can vote until the cows come home but the Electoral College makes sure the candidate with the most votes loses.



It's the Electoral College. 

#Stupid

"Violence from many sides" My Donkey #DeondreHarris #HeatherHeyer #Charlottesville

So the next time you see a poll that says tRump has a 36% approval rating and you wonder who they polled....think about this video.  

WARNING.

Criminal evidence.

The vicious criminal assault of Deandre Harris by white supremacists. The clearest video.

ARREST THESE MEN. pic.twitter.com/oV13SGv1Uw

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) August 15, 2017

This is who/what "won"

A savage attack on a counter-protester during Saturday’s violent “Unite the Right” rally in Virginia evoked memories of the ugliest days of the civil rights movement, an original Freedom Rider said Monday.
Among the victims of the Charlottesville violence was a local resident who joined his friends to demonstrate against the organizers of the white nationalist event in the city’s Emancipation Park.
Deandre Harris, 20, was attacked in a parking lot by a group of white supremacists who kicked him, punched him and pummeled him with metal poles.

The system is rigged and not in favor of We The Peeps.

Shock and Awe aren't coming....they are already here.

This statement from Seth Meyers is a real statement from someone who has spoken strongly against Trump throughout.pic.twitter.com/FB0sG17xNY

— Erick Fernandez (@ErickFernandez) August 15, 2017

EYE want my democracy back! #Gerrymandering

Our democracy is fading. Until we clean up our election process we will be stuck w illegitimate corrupt leadership like Trump and McConnell.

— Amy Siskind (@Amy_Siskind) June 23, 2017

Can you say rigged?

The 2016 presidential contest was awash with charges that the fix was in: Republican Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that the election was rigged against him, while Democrats have accused the Russians of stacking the odds in Trump’s favor.
Less attention was paid to manipulation that occurred not during the presidential race, but before it — in the drawing of lines for hundreds of U.S. and state legislative seats. The result, according to an Associated Press analysis: Republicans had a real advantage.

It's the #Stupid #Gerrymandering. 

Any party that relies on voter suppression, the Russians and gerrymandering to obtain power can't say it's patriotic or supports democracy.

— Col. Morris Davis (@ColMorrisDavis) June 25, 2017

To Blog or not to Blog.... that is the question

Say, have you seen my democracy?  You know the land of the free and the home of the brave with liberty and justice for all?  It seems like every day there is a new assault on every right we have except the right to bear arms, and even that right doesn't apply to all.  EYE am scared to Blog but EYE am more scared not to Blog so here goes.  

From the Files of Freedom isn't Free

Trumpsters can dish it out but they can't take it.

This Colbert joke was the bridge too far for Trumpers. Sure, they were on board when during the campaign Trump mocked a disabled reporter. And when Trump demonized Mexican immigrants as “rapists” and stoked hate versus Muslims by saying “Islam hates us.” Many of them defended Trump’s bragging about grabbing women by the genitals as “locker room talk.” And Trumpers literally cheered at his campaign rally in October when he called the courageous women who came forward to report that Trump had sexually assaulted them “horrible liars”.

So they call on the government to take care of it for them 

Late night talk show host Stephen Colbert’s controversial joke about President Trump drew the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. The agency received “a number” of complaints about Colbert’s commentary earlier in the week, according to the FCC’s chief.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai promised to “take the appropriate action” following a comprehensive investigation of Colbert’s remarks.
The FCC's response will depend on whether Colbert’s remarks are considered “obscene.”

In Case You Missed It

The Trump administration is making Fox News into official State TV

The televisions in public areas at the Health and Human Services Department headquarters in Washington have been switched to Fox News. Now the same change appears to have applied to other HHS buildings, including Food and Drug Administration buildings in Maryland.
According to two people who work at the agency, the televisions at the Hubert Humphrey building had previously rotated among the three main cable channels every three days or so. But since shortly after the Trump administration took over, the televisions have been on Fox News.
One of the sources suggested that the information came from "high up" in the agency. (Our colleague Dan Diamond first pointed out in January that the televisions were tuned to Fox.) Now, a new internal email that appears to be from the agency's White Oak campus in Silver Spring, posted to Twitter by several reporters, says current administration officials ordered the change.

They hate us for our freedom 

To be black in America means to live in a state of constant vulnerability. 

So far in 2017, black people have constituted 25 percent of the police shooting victims, according to the Washington Post.
Out of the 339 people shot and killed by police this year, 85 of them are black—and it’s only May.

And we dare not protest 

We are in an era where the White House considers Black Lives Matter to be a terrorist organization. Deliberate attacks against black people who are fighting for justice—whether the Rev. Clementa Pinckney of Mother Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., or half a dozen other activists killed by white nationalists in the last decade—are not far-fetched.

If you are scared then say you are scared 

Don't underestimate Trump

As far back as 2006, Lakoff saw the writing on the wall. “A dark cloud of authoritarianism looms over the nation,” he wrote in his book Thinking Points, A Progressive’s Handbook. ”Radical conservatives have taken over the reins of government and have been controlling the terms of the political debate for many years.” The progressives couldn’t hear him, either.

Why we can't wait

Am I just paranoid—or perhaps merely still sufficiently medicated—to wonder if these giddy omadhauns who went to the White House kegger on Thursday afternoon did so because they have faith unbroken in voter suppression, gerrymandering, and other activities within the margin of chicanery that has come to mark close elections in this country?

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray....

"Republicans think President Obama should only get 3/5ths of his term". #SCOTUS #BlackHistoryMonth2016

There is a mean spirit on the loose.  Remember when Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D.Selma) said those powerful, provocative words, and was accused of "race baiting".... among other things?  Well, can you hear him now?

The message is clear: Making America Great Again means purging everyone who isn’t white and Christian.

There can be no more pretenses.  The mean spirit is manifested in Voter ID laws, Republican Gerrymandering, and Citizens United.  

The only thing "unprecedented" about this Supreme Court vacancy is the race of the President who gets to fill it. We see you, Republicans. Elections have consequences.

RedEYE

#BlackHistoryMonth2016

Updated~ You get who/what you vote for. The misinformed and the uniformed "win" again

BREAKING: Tea Partier Wins KY Gov Race After Promising To Take Healthcare From 400,000 in KY https://t.co/6V1rkVjVP8 pic.twitter.com/D3JpXjURR0

— The Baxter Bean (@TheBaxterBean) November 4, 2015

EYE HOPE you are happy now.

EYE have to give credit where credit is due, low information voters will turn out and vote.  EYE wish someone would figure out a way to suppress their vote.  Thanks to their willful ignorance we can't even vote them out.  Strike that ,we can vote them out if white democrats/progressives ,or whatever they want to call themselves these days, would get off their Donkey's and VOTE.

That said, Democrats must have someone to get off their Donkey's to vote FOR.  In some cases republicans are running unopposed. What does that tell you about the sorry state of affairs when the party that is anti minority, anti choice/women, anti labor, anti public education, anti LBGT, pro war, and debt as far as they can see has a full slate of proud candidates, and the party that is supposed to be for the little guys and gals have none?  What is wrong with this picture when democrats are ashamed/afraid to be called liberal/progressive, and bend over backwards to be conservative?

It used to be the job of the media to inform the public so we could make informed decisions.  Now it's the job of the media to misinform the uniformed, which enabled the gerrymandering, voter suppression, and dark money, creating this situation where we can't even vote them out of office.

EYE sure do miss the good old days when the the candidate with the most votes won instead of the candidate with the most money to use the public airways to keep misinformed uninformed.

Let America Be America Again.

Edit~What's up with the separate and unequal fundraisers in #SweetHomeAlabama for Hillary Clinton?

Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks Friday, July 24, 2015, at the New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business in New York.(AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (Mary Altaffer)

Let me say EYE am happy a democratic Presidential candidate is actually coming to Alabama and not writing us off, because they think the game is rigged  due to republican gerrymandering, Voter ID laws, and dark money.  But, EYE have to ask why Hillary Clinton is having a $50.00 and up fundraiser for the black democrats, and a $150.00 and up fundraiser for the.... others?  Why not take a play out of Donald Trumps' playbook and have one big $50.00 per person fundraiser for everybody?  You know...a fundraiser that looks like America, and not the republican convention.

Oh, and BTW, you might want to have a conversation with your hostess  for the $150.00 and up fundraiser about some of her recent votes prior to the event.  

EYE am just saying....

New Year same as the Old Year, only worse....

#Scalise #scaliseexcuses Well said!!! pic.twitter.com/j9cvdrUJ9P
— Jeremy Meredith (@SosukeAizen) December 31, 2014

I'm sorry, but I can't bring myself to start the year with a post full of HOPE for the future of our country in 2015.  Maybe things have to get worse before they get better.  Between the gop infused, media enabled, Tea Party gaining control of the House, the Senate, and  republican gerrymandering to ensure they maintain control until eternity, and the dark money thanks to Citizens United, the game is rigged.  And who wins in the end?  Not us liberals that's for sure.

RedEye's Predictions:

But, but, black on black crime will continue to be the excuse for the extra judicial killing of black folks.

But, but, guns don't kill people will continue be the excuse for mentally ill people and toddlers to exercise their second amendment rights.

But, but, I'm not a white supremacist because I know some good Negroes will continue to be used as a an excuse for those in positions of power and influence to exercise their racism.

But, but, let's not throw any more money to fund public education will be used as an excuse to justify not funding public education.

But, but, Obama is a Kenyan, Muslim, Socialist, will continue to be used as an excuse for red state governors not to expand medicaid.

But, but, excuse me while I go back to eating drinking and being merry for a little while longer.

This is the reason "the mid term elections didn't turn out like you would have liked for them to turn out" Mr. President Obama Sir

Hey, @chucktodd, you missed the story. Again. I fixed your monitor headline.  You're welcome. #MTP pic.twitter.com/Rl7Z5BZDv6
— Steve Marmel (@Marmel) November 16, 2014

The Game is rigged.  Between Voter Suppression, gerrymandering, and Citizens United ,Democrats will never "win" an election in the United States of the America.

I sure do miss the good old days when we had freedom and democracy, and  fair and free elections in America too.

 

From the files of "Stuck On Stoopid" pre-election papaplooza

The white supremacists are going all out this Halloween...smh http://t.co/uGLj2idPQP #StrangeFruit #Lynching pic.twitter.com/3wF16l97Fj
— BlackHistoryStudies (@BlkHistStudies) October 29, 2014

You can tell election day is near and republicans are not as confident as their media enablers tell us they are. Of course, this is the United States of America, and you can't predict what the majority of voters are going to do, despite what the polling pollsters and the polling pollsters who poll them say.  Republicans know they only way they can "win" is to cheat. So, between the GOP controlled  Supreme Court striking down section 5 of the voting rights act, which enabled wholesale voter suppression,  along with gerrymandering, they just might eke out a "win".  I might be one of the few people in America who hope republicans take over the Senate because sometimes you just have show people who don't believe fat meat is greasy how greasy it really is.

Anyhoo, here is a rundown of Stuck On Stoopid

Mark Bray filed for bankruptcy in 2008, vote for Mo "do anything short of shooting illegals" Brooks, despite the fact Brooks is a liability to the district.

Let me make this clear for you Laura Ingram,  unlike you,  Democrats believe that blacks do have a choice.

Today in Black History:  Supreme Court  Issues a SmackDown to Die Heart Segregationist.  Only they didn't.

So let me see if I have this right (pun intended), we sent our troops and treasure to Iraq so they could have fair and free elections, but we block the youth vote in America?  Oh, OK.

Remember when the media used to inform voters and keep elected officials from lying to the public?  Where is that media?

RedEye Reports What You Decide.

America held hostage by Sore Losers Day 14

Would someone please tell the TeaPublicans and the white, male dominated Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads that President Obama won twice?  It's not just political districts.  Our news is gerrymandered too.

It isn’t just politicians that are feeding their bases, it is the media outlets, as well. The village common — you know, that place where we all meet to discuss our problems, relying on the same set of facts — has shrunk to the size of a postage stamp, surrounded by the huge gated communities of like minds who never venture into the great beyond.

 Case in point

 There is no such law, I am aware who would need to indict Showers but a little MSM media attention would go a long way…

Tweet of the Day

So it upsets you when a poor person buys some Mountain Dew with their #EBT card, but not when a rich person buys your congressman?
— Grand Old Parody (@GrandOldParody1) October 13, 2013

Today's Must Read

Fox Recruited Mob Call For Reversal Of Policy Demanded By Previous Fox-Recruited Mob

H/T Rachael Maddow Fan Page

Psst Senator John McCain! Republicans are humiliating themselves.

America on Cruz Control Day 7

The GOP infused, media enabled, Tea Party has been planning the government shutdown since last year.  They knew they could count on the Suckers from the Gerrymandered districts to waive their right to have access to quality, affordable, healthcare, while waiving their Confederate Flags.  Republicans take Soreloserdom to a different level.  I wish the democrats had closed down the government until all the votes in Florida were counted in 2001.

Today's Must Read

The "Welfare Queen", The "Homeless by Choice" Reagan's Toxic Legacy

You remember the Welfare Queen, don't you? The welfare queen stereotype (circa 1976) is a picture that some whites still have in their heads about black women.
The Welfare Queen lived very comfortably (after all, she had 35 different IDs and 35 monthly checks from welfare, plus child support), and raised her many children without a husband or partner.  All of the children had different fathers.  The pervasive stereotype was that black women are unwilling to work, unwilling to control our insatiable sexual appetites, and unwilling to better ourselves (because the world, or the federal government to be precise, owes us a living). 

“You and other journalists have a real shortcoming in that you are trying so hard to be fair that you are unfair,” Reid said. “Democrats have had almost nothing to do with the problems here. It’s all Republicans.”

You think?

Playing Politics with Suckers Lives Day 2

I understand that Teapublitarian voters are a bunch of mindless rubes, but does Eric Cantor think the rest of America is just as stupid?


Mission Accomplished:  The Tea Party Shutdown of the government continues.

WASHINGTON — The Tea Party Republicans should hang a “Mission Accomplished” banner across the House of Representatives. They could flank it with large portraits of Senator Ted Cruz, the Texas Republican who has in fact, if not in name, replaced John Boehner as Speaker of the House. The right-wing extremists got exactly what they wanted. Now, what will the country do about it?

The Real Story of the GOP Shutdown:  50 Years of GOP Race Baiting:

On the day the Affordable Care Act takes effect, the U.S. government is shut down, and it may be permanently broken. You’ll read lots of explanations for the dysfunction, but the simple truth is this: It’s the culmination of 50 years of evolving yet consistent Republican strategy to depict government as the enemy, an oppressor that works primarily as the protector of and provider for African-Americans, to the detriment of everyone else. The fact that everything came apart under our first African-American president wasn’t an accident, it was probably inevitable.

Hostage Taking is All They Have

"In a democracy, hostage tactics are the last resort for those who can’t otherwise win their fights through elections, can’t win their fights in Congress, can’t win their fights for the Presidency, and can’t win their fights in Courts," Warren said. "For this right-wing minority, hostage-taking is all they have left – a last gasp of those who cannot cope with the realities of our democracy."

The GOP Takes It's Clothes Off in Public:  It's Not a Pretty Sight, Even For Some Republicans

And so, the "moderate" (ho, ho, ho) House Republicans tell us that what they are afraid of is primary challenges from the "Tea Party" should they vote for rationality on the continuing resolution matter and then on the perhaps more important debt ceiling increase that is just around the corner. Well yes, many of them would face such challenges, but the overall national leadership of the GOP is just as afraid of them as any individual House member is. For in the highly gerrymandered districts inhabited by so many Republicans in the House, many of those challenges would be effective. But then, in the general election, given decent Democratic candidates with some money from the DNC, even in gerrymandered districts, as happened in a few elections in 2010 and 2012, the far-rightists might be so far-right, that Democrats might be able to take over the House. To say nothing of what it might do to GOP chances in the state–wide elections for Governor and Senator. Then there's Ted Cruz and 2016. A big OY! on that one.

 That Thing about Congress Being "Exempted from ObamaCare?  A Huge Whopper

You might’ve heard just about every Republican member of Congress, along with Fox News and AM talk radio, shrieking about how President Obama has “exempted” Congress from Obamacare. The point they’re trying to make is that Obamacare is so awful and so ridiculous that the Obama administration has offered Congress a Get-Out-Of-Obamacare-Free card. Taking it one step further, they’re insisting that if Obamacare isn’t good enough for Congress, why should the American people be forced to endure its awfulness? The people should be exempted, too, which means the elimination of the individual mandate, and, without the mandate (a Republican idea by the way), premiums would skyrocket and the law would explode. Political sabotage, pure and simple.

Radical GOP House Made Safe by Gerrymandering:  

Bad politicians were sent to Washington by Citizens United, Gerrymandering, and Voter Suppression.

But let’s not forget who draws the lines for redistricting—state lawmakers (and in a few states, commissions appointed by the states). These legislators are often chosen in midterm and off-year elections in which the composition of the electorate has tended to be older and whiter than in presidential election years. That helps explain why the Democrats took a beating in 2010. The lesson is that midterm elections can have big consequences. If Democrats ever want to win back the House, they have to get their people to the polls in the off years. And if the Supreme Court guts the Voting Rights Act, it will be more important than ever.

Field Negro ~ I know that most of you reading this haven't felt it yet, but my fear is that we will feel it in unspeakable ways down the line. Our national security is at stake. The safety of our air travel will be jeopardized and the lives of poor children will be disrupted.

Biting off your nose to spite your face, Proceed Republiklans

These days, there are two kinds of Republicans: Millionaires, and suckers.
— Barracks O'Bama (@P0TUS) February 8, 2014

Armed with rightous indignation, misinformation, and down right hatred, the republican controlled house of mis representatives voted to cut food stamps to cut $40 billion dollars in food stamps with the misguided misconception they are sticking it to the food stamp President in the name of the Lord.

Psst!  President Obama is not on food stamps, will never need food stamps and has access to the best, quality, affordable, health care our tax dollars can buy.  So do the Congress, Senate, The Koch Brothers, and the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads.

You see, Right-wing Snake Oil Salesmen and greed driven Hucksters like Ru$h, $ean,, Bill O'Rielly, and other RW Lords of Loud,  have convinced their base  the majority of welfare recipients are lazy promiscuous black women in the inner city, popping out babies like rabbits and turning government cheese vouchers into gold chains and plasma screen televisions.

But here's the rub, more red state white people  depend on the Government to take care of them than black and brown people.  You know why?  Because white people make up the majority of the population in the south.

 The actual facts about welfare have always been pretty clear; whites and children are the greatest recipients and beneficiaries of various programs, but that’s not good fodder for talk radio.  From the beginning of government sponsored welfare programs, discriminatory policies were enacted to keep blacks off the rolls (like excluding farm workers and domestics in the 1950’s) and even once those policies were removed media and politicians, especially on the right, insisted on maintaining the myth that the face of poverty in America was a black thing.

I wonder how long it's going to take for the Suckers to realize they've been Suckered?  I wonder when the House of Reps GOP grow a pair and take their party back from the TeaPublicans?   I can't wait for their base to start feeling the pain and suffering black/brown/poor people have been feeling for decades.  I don't think their gerrymandered districts are going to be able to save them from the wrath of We the People this time.

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

"When elected officials ignore public opinion, isn't that treason?"

 

H/T jobsanger

You won't hear it from the Iraq War Architects  on TeeVee,  but according to The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press; Public Opinion Runs Against Syrian Attack

The new national survey by the Pew Research Center, conducted Aug. 29-Sept. 1 among 1,000 adults, finds that Obama has significant ground to make up in his own party. Just 29% of Democrats favor conducting air strikes against Syria while 48% are opposed. Opinion among independents is similar (29% favor, 50% oppose). Republicans are more divided, with 35% favoring air strikes and 40% opposed.

treason, noun,

1.  Violation of allegiance toward one's country.

2. A betrayal of trust or confidence.

Fix America First.

Uh, remember that Sugar-Coated Satan Sandwich?

Fist Dap Flick River Photography

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 The 2013 sequester includes:

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

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

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

Bon appetite!

GOP dominates Politics in Alabama! YeeHaw!

First Confederate Flag, now flying over Alabama State Capitol

 
This photo of Montgomery is courtesy of TripAdvisor

I can't figure out of the Alabama GOP is bragging or complaining about their "domination" of Alabama politics  in a recent article on al.com entitled;  GOP dominates politics in Alabama and plans to keep it that way.  Kind of sounds like they are bragging but....

 "I believe the days are coming that you are going to have to be a Republican, unless you are in a minority district," to get elected, said state Senate President Pro Tem Del Marsh, R-Anniston.

In any event, the article confirmed my assertion the only way to get elected  in Sweet Home Alabama is run for office as a democrat in order to take advantage of the traditional democratic base, then govern as as a republican.  And you wonder why they are called politicians......

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — State Rep. Lynn Greer, of Rogersville, has been elected to office off and on since 1974.
He's in his fourth term in the Alabama House and spent nearly a decade on the Public Service Commission.

The Alabama Legislature begins its annual regular session on Feb. 5. Frank Couch/fcouch@al.com  

He's now a Republican, but until the late 1980s he had a "D'' by his name like almost all of Alabama's elected leaders. Greer said his politics didn't change: He's always been conservative. "You basically had liberal Democrats, middle-of-the-road Democrats and conservative Democrats, which probably should have been Republicans," Greer said of his early political career.
He was not alone.
"If you were going to get elected, you had to run as a Democrat," said Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard, R-Auburn, a former chairman of the state GOP credited with orchestrating the Republicans' 2010 takeover of the state Legislature.

So, now that they have gerrymandered their way into dominance, and, since it's no way a democrat, strike that, a real democrat, can ever win, what does that mean for the Great State of Alabama?   Here is a preview......

Alabama will continue to be #1 in Football and dead last on everything else.

Why?  Because  in our rich southern heritage, culture trumps self interest. 

“They are very biblical down here.”

Today's Must Read
Media Politics:  Outrage, Lies and Occasional Facts

An apology to Left in Alabama, and a question for the Alabama Democratic Party

 New Alabama Congressional Map

When the Cats and other Critters were talking about gerrymandering and redistricting as far back as 2007 and 2009,  I was kind of  taken a back because I thought they were bashing racially gerrymandered districts to abolish long held minority voting blocks,  by questioning  why we still need minority voting districts.

Little did I know they may have been trying to warn us (democrats)  republicans were plotting to, as my Daddy says,  spank us with our own switch.

The question is...did we (democrats) mess around and let them (republicans) redistrict the 7th district, paving the way for a conservative who happens to be black to mis-represent Alabama's 7th congressional district?

I'm  just asking....

RedEye Around the Web

Your laugh out loud for the day courtesy of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (r. Tuscaloosa).

“I would have voted against this agreement because I believe we need a more balanced approach that would include significant spending cuts and making the federal government more efficient, like we’re doing here in Alabama,” Bentley said.

Uh,  do you mean the efficient government like were doing here in Alabama where voters just voted to raid the Trust Fund to avoid budget cuts? Or, do you mean the efficient Alabama government who takes $1.7 dollars of federal funds for every $1.00 it sends in?  Or, do the you mean the efficient Alabama government with the largest number of people relying on  food stamps?

Things that make you go Hmmmm....

 Leave it to a congressman from the ex-Confederacy, where the white rape of black women has a long and sordid history, to hold up the Violence Against Women Act in order to protect white men from prosecution by tribal courts if they rape a Native American woman.

 So let me get this straight, the same men who want to arm teachers ( most of whom are females), voted against the violence against women act,  but passed laws requiring women to have a vaginal ultrasound before they can obtain a safe, legal, abortion?  They trust women with a child and and a gun, but they don't trust them with a choice. Hmmm....

Meanwhile under the radar, did you know President Obama signed an executive order giving Congress a pay raise?  Yep, the same Congress that is talking about cutting food stamps, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid.   This is one of those rare times I agree with the republicans.

Fortunately, the Republicans agree that the idea of this lot getting a raise is obscene. Obama must be the most out-of-touch politician Inside-the-Beltway. These bums make $174,000, although the Speaker makes $223,500 and the 4 party leaders make $193,400 each-- have gigantically rich benefits packages and cushy retirement plans that no one else in America gets. On touch of that, most of them are corrupt and spend most of their energy feathering their own nests in countless schemes and scams.

Filibuster reform coming to the Senate? I HOPE so, and not a minute too soon.  I'm tired of being held hostage by the right wing Bully's.   Make them talk so the whole world can see/hear them.

Liberals say the Levin-McCain proposal is inadequate because it would not implement their highest-priority reform, the so-called talking filibuster.
Udall and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore), the leading advocates for filibuster reform, say lawmakers who filibuster legislation should be required to actively hold the floor and debate. This would make it more arduous for senators who want to hold up business — they would have to organize teams to hold the floor for days or even weeks on end.
Udall said he would have to be convinced to support the Levin-McCain plan because it would not implement a talking filibuster rule, which he said is “the heart of the matter”

GOP=Gerrymandering Over People.  Nobody can turn the losers into the winners, and the winners into the losers,  like the GOP. Although a  majority of voters voted for democrats, republicans won,  thanks to republican gerrymandering enabled by  the conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court.

 Worse, top Republicans are already threatening to use the looming debt ceiling fight to torpedo the entire U.S. economy unless Congress agrees to slash Social Security or Medicare benefits for seniors. They will have the leverage to attempt this because the incoming House bears no resemblance to the one America actually voted for. And individual Republican House members will be able to engage in this political dangerous game of chicken comfortable in the knowledge that partisan gerrymandering makes many of them untouchable in a general election.

Para quoting the late Senator Paul Wellstone (D. MN) I dare imagine a country where every child has equal access to a quality public education, regardless of the color of their skin, regardless of their gender, regardless of their address, regardless of their parents income,  where every child will have the chance to reach their full potential. What we have here is a  Race to the top for the fortunate few, the rest, not so much.  Blame public school teachers.  Snark

"There's a stark wealth gap in New York between black and brown families versus white families. This is reflected in the school system, where property taxes are used to fund schools, which translates to higher salaries for teachers who can instruct advanced courses and facilitate expanded college-counseling services,"

Congratulations to Wayne Bennett, organizer, publisher and founder of the award winning The Field Negro blog, for being named Politics 365 Game Changer of the the day.

 While his blog is known for covering national affairs that affect Black Americans in an unconventional tone, The Field Negro is also known for letting its commenter's voice their opinions on what is published on the blog without being censored.

 Real liberal quotes from real liberals.

 Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the Government, unless you be allowed to construe and enforce the Constitution as you please, on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events.~ President Abraham Lincoln

We do not own many media outlets, but what we can be is more responsive. We must counter the hate radio movement with programs that provide useful and helpful information.~ Bernie Hayes The St. Louis American  

RedEye Over and Out...for now.

The Difference Between "Us" and "Them"

 

Fist Dap jobsanger

Might as well start the year off right (pun intended).  Sorry, but I am one of the Howling Left who doesn't get it.  I am NOT happy about the fiscal cliff  compromise.  Clearly, Obama, the upper middle class, heirs, and some of the American people  won, but guess who lost...the usual "suspects" aka Obama voters.  You know, the people who actually voted for the candidate who ran on, and won on, a $250,000 threshold and no cuts to Social Security benefits, Medicare and Medicaid twice. It's Deja Voodoo all over again, President Obama pandering to those who MIGHT vote for him, at the expense of those who DID vote for him.

I know there are some who believe the Tea Party is on the brink of extinction and can be removed, but I'm not one of them.  Republican controlled state legislatures and governors offices have gerrymandered themselves into a majority in the House, and an organized minority in the Senate, insulating them from being voted out. They don't have to do anything but obstruct the evil democratic agenda and they have a government job with government benefits for life.  Unless, and until, the Suckers who hate Obama more than they love America wake up and smell the coffee, we are stuck with them.

Which has me worried about Alabama's lone African American seat in Congress.  Looks like Rep. Terri Sewell (D. 07)  is facing a challenge from Stanley Mack, who calls himself a conservative who happens to be a black man. (code for republican  front man).  Regular readers know I am a critic of Sewell, but at least she is a liberal who happens to be a black woman.  The last thing the citizens in black belt need is a conservative who happens to be a black man representing them in Congress again.

Has the Alabama republican party finally gotten their claws into Alabama's lone democratic seat in Congress?  Strike that.  Did the Alabama Democratic Party  enable the Alabama republican party to get their claws into Alabama's lone democratic seat in Congress?

I HOPE not.

The difference between us and them is we believe in helping the least of these. ~RedEye