EYE am sorry but the only thoughts and prayers EYE have are for me and mine

Today in Making America Great Again

What happens when the President blows wind into these sales is Parkland, Florida. White supremacy has a body count. https://t.co/zN8lySDI5O pic.twitter.com/SemmTAuKqm

— Dave Zirin (@EdgeofSports) February 15, 2018

Let me say right off the bat EYE am more afraid of the police, Republicans, tRump supporters and white males than EYE am ISIS, Immigrants, #BlackLivesMatter, and Dreamers.

White nationalist militia says Parkland school shooting suspect was member of their group

 The GOP and tRump can take their #fake thoughts and prayers and shove them where the sun don't shine. 

Happy #ValentinesDay #FakeFLOTUS

What if Melania was black? 

EYE sorta feel kinda bad for Melania....

NOT

Why is it more important than ever to highlight Melania Trump's racist claims? Ever since her husband's nomination through this past weekend's Women's March, there's been ongoing rhetoric about "freeing" Melania from Donald Trump, as if she has no choice in the matter or in her views.

There is more than a whiff of #hypocrisy #DreamAct

REMINDER:

John Edwards was indicted for his attorney/friend (Fred Baron) paying $200K in Rielle Hunter's expenses in order to get her to cover up an affair during his presidential campaign. https://t.co/EK8G7vkK0d

— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) February 14, 2018

"History will remember this racism" #DreamActNow

Republicans had a chance to be #DreamHeroes but they instead chose to shutdown the government and side with white supremacy.

History will remember this racism...#DreamActNow pic.twitter.com/rAATjXfv7v

— United We Dream (#DreamActNow: 478-488-8059) (@UNITEDWEDREAM) February 12, 2018

Every moment in tRumps charged relationship with race. 

Editor’s note: This story contains explicit language. We’ve updated this list after reports that President Donald Trump referred to Haiti and other African nations as “shithole countries” during an immigration meeting at the White House.

If it's not racist/racism what is it? 

Axios reported:A source close to the White House tells me that with an eye to getting Republicans excited about voting for Republicans in midterms, the president this year will be looking for “unexpected cultural flashpoints” — like the NFL and kneeling — that he can latch onto in person and on Twitter. The source said Trump “is going to be looking for opportunities to stir up the base, more than focusing on any particular legislation or issue.”

Every Republican and one so-called democratic senator voted to confirm Jeff Sessions as the Attorney General for the United States of America. 

Let that sink in. 

EYE understand why #GOPCongressCowards are skeered to face taxpayers

Only 1 Republican In New Jersey Is Holding Town Halls. Constituents Aren't Wasting The Opportunity. https://t.co/k2Y5k6f6MU

— Gregory McCray (@g_mccray) February 27, 2017

If EYE were a GOP Congress Critter EYE would be afraid to face my constituents too. Especially those scary democrats because EYE would have to admit the media enabled narrative was an #AlternativeFact. 

Contrary to misguided belief the majority of the American people don't hate ObamaCare more than they love themselves.  The majority of the American people like having access to quality affordable health insurance. 

The majority of the American people don't want to send them there illegals back to Mexico.  The majority of the American people aren't afraid of Muslims.  The majority of the American people don't care more about keeping women from choosing to have a safe legal abortion, keeping the gays from getting married and controlling what bathroom transgendered taxpayers use.

Now if the GOP had listened to the people instead of their media enablers they wouldn't be afraid to face the masses and we the peeps wouldn't be in this mess.

Speaking of the Tea Party-infused media enablers,  they have the nerve to whine because the creature they created has turned on them.  You know what they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

EYE have two words to say about #JeffSessions nomination for #AttorneyGeneral, Lani Guinier

Lani Guinier and President-Elect Bill Clinton

Before EYE type another word please accept my apologies for the sparse postings.  EYE must admit the "election" of Donald Trump through me for a loop.  EYE was so sure there were more of us than there were of them.  Time will tell  if my faith in the American people is justified.  EYE  still refuse to believe the majority of the American people hate President Obama more than they love their country.  But EYE have my groove back and EYE am fired up and ready to go.  

So, Donald Trump plans to nominate Alabama's own Jefferson Beauregard Sessions as the chief law enforcement officer of the land as payback for his loyalty while giving African Americans, women,  veterans,  and immigrants the middle finger.

Who is Lani Guinier?

Guinier is probably best known as President Bill Clinton's nominee for Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in April 1993.[7][8][9]
President Clinton withdrew his nomination in June 1993, following a wave of negative press that was brought on by her controversial writings, some of which even Clinton himself called "anti-democratic" and "very difficult to defend".[10]
Conservative journalists, as well as Republican Senators, mounted a campaign against Guinier's nomination. Guinier was infamously dubbed a "quota queen," a phrase first used in a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Clint Bolick, a Reagan-era Justice Department official.[11] The term was perceived by some to be racially loaded, combining the "welfare queen" stereotype with "quota," a buzzword used to challenge affirmative action.[12] In fact, Guinier was an opponent of racial quotas.[13]
Some journalists also alleged that Guinier's writings indicated that she supported the shaping of electoral districts to ensure a black majority, a process known as "race-conscious districting." One New York Times opinion piece claimed that Guinier was in favor of "segregating black voters in black-majority districts." Guinier was portrayed as a racial polarizer who believed—in the words of George Will—that "only blacks can represent blacks."
In the face of the negative media attention, many Democratic Senators, including David Pryor of Arkansas, Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, and Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois (the only African-American serving in the Senate at that time)[14] informed President Clinton that her interviews with senators were going poorly and urged him to withdraw Guinier's nomination.[15]
President Clinton took the senators' advice and withdrew Guinier's nomination on June 4, 1993. He stated that Guinier's writings "clearly lend themselves to interpretations that do not represent the views I expressed on civil rights during the [presidential] campaign."[16] Guinier, for her part, acknowledged that her writings were often "unclear and subject to vastly different interpretations," but believed that the political attacks had distorted and caricatured her academic philosophies.[16] William T. Coleman Jr., who had served as Secretary of Transportation under President Gerald Ford, wrote that the withdrawal was "a grave [loss], both for President Clinton and the country. The President's yanking of the nomination, caving in to shrill, unsubstantiated attacks, was not only unfair, but some would say political cowardice."[17]

Here is what the New York Times had to say about the Lani Guinier Mess:

Although he handled the nomination miserably, the President had good reason to drop it. Ms. Guinier's writings suggest that, despite her obvious talents as a civil rights attorney, she was not the right person to be Washington's civil rights enforcement chief. Mr. Clinton, already wobbling from other setbacks, had no stomach for a fight he couldn't win on behalf of a candidate whose views he now says he does not entirely endorse.
Without question the nominee herself created the basic problem. Her law review articles about voting rights -- poorly written, provocative and easy to caricature -- gave right-wing snipers a broad target for charges of radicalism. But they also alarmed moderate readers, including longtime supporters of the Voting Rights Act, who feared her extreme-sounding enforcement notions would discredit and imperil that valued law.

Here is what they have to say about Jeff Sessions

Donald Trump ran a presidential campaign that stoked white racial resentment. His choice for attorney general — which, like his other early choices, has been praised by white supremacists — embodies that worldview. We expect today’s senators, like their predecessors in 1986, to examine Mr. Sessions’s views and record with bipartisan rigor. If they do, it is hard to imagine that they will endorse a man once rejected for a low-level judgeship to safeguard justice for all Americans as attorney general.

If Lani Guinier was characterized as a racial polarizer and therefore deemed unfit, certainly the same applies to Jeff Sessions. Let's see if republicans and the white male dominated media apply the same standards to Sessions. My guess is they won't because there is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.

EYE am willing to forgive you Governor Bentley, but first you must repent!

Dear Governor Bentley,
EYE saw where you threw yourself on the altar and pulled the "I'm seeking forgiveness from y'all and God for what I've done card the 
other day in an attempt to justify your remaining in office, despite being caught red-handed doing some un-Godly stuff with a woman who was not your wife.

Being the good Deacon and Sunday School teacher you are, EYE mean, were,  EYE know you believe in the Ten Commandments, by my count you broke numbers,1, 7, 9, and 10.  Thou shall not kill ( your refusal to expand Medicaid is killing people), Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not bear false witness (lie), and Tough shall not covet (another man's wife).

EYE am willing to forgive your transgressions because the alternative is worse,  but first, you must repent.  Here's a list of things you can do to repent for your sins and earn the forgiveness of the citizens of Sweet Home Alabama.  

The first thing you can do is stop standing up to Obama and expand Medicaid.  President Obama has access to the best medical care our tax dollars can buy, as do you.  Medicaid expansion isn't about sticking it to President Obama.  Rather, it's about the working poor — those who, right now, are working and making too much money to qualify for Medicaid as it is but who are not making enough to afford health insurance, even after subsidies from the Affordable Care Act.

Second, you can rescind the Voter Suppression,  EYE mean Voter ID Bill now that we have proof it's keeping registered voters from casting their vote.  This voter purge is undermining our democracy, you have the power to restore the right to vote.

Third, you can rescind the bill that cut off funding for women's health clinics, reducing the number of women's health clinics to six, making it hard, if not impossible for poor women, not to be confused with affluent women, to have access to health care. As a result of this bill, thousands of women across Alabama are no longer be able to access essential reproductive health care, such as cancer screenings, birth control, and well-woman exams. This is a cruel bill is designed to rip health care away from those most at risk.

Fourth, you know that mean-spirited immigration bill you signed that put Alabama on the map that crashed and burned?  Now it's time for you to shut down the detention centers.  Actually, EYE am more afraid of you and the republicans than EYE am of Syrian refugees.

After the recent death of Mr. Teka Gulema in late January – an Ethiopian immigrant who passed away after spending nearly a year in serious condition while in detention – activists are again highlighting why Etowah must be closed. Gulema’s death comes on the heels of a two-week hunger strike waged by Bangladeshi detainees against the inhumane treatment they’ve been subjected to in Etowah. Activists have been highlighting that the conditions in Etowah can be deadly if not at least torturous.

Finally, please let the citizens of Alabama gamble with their own damn money, in their own damn state if they choose to do so.  attorney General Luther Strange has caused "economic devastation" to the residents of the Black Belt by unlawfully closing the Victory Land casino.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court struck down the keep gays from getting married bill so you don't have to worry about that, just say you're sorry you care more about keeping gays from getting married than you do keeping your marriage vows and move on.

2 Chronicles 7:14  says,  If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

RedEye

EYE understand the fear in #SweetHomeAlabama #DonaldTrumpSupporters vs #BlackLivesMatterBirmingham Edition

Mercutio Southall was arrested in April 2015 during a protest in front of Birmingham police headquarters on First Avenue North. (Carol Robinson)

Remember what GOP presidential front runner Donald Trump said would happen if #BlackLivesMatter protesters dared try to shut him down?  

I don’t know if I’ll do the fighting myself or if other people will.

Well now we know... other people will do the fighting for him.

Trump supporters — yes, the same crowd that attracts “White Power Rangers” in droves — finally had an opportunity to do what they all secretly want to do anyway: beat up a black guy. At a campaign event in Birmingham, Alabama, a city with a long history of racism, discrimination, and violence against minorities, an African-American man became too disruptive for Trump’s liking, so the billionaire screamed “Get him the hell out of here.”

EYE thought Governor Bentley said it was his responsibility to protect us? 

Trump, the front-running Republican presidential candidate, had Southall thrown out. Secret Service agents and Birmingham police escorted Southall from the room. "They were trying to protect them from me and I was like, 'where were you when they were attacking me and choking me?" he said.
Southall said he was repeatedly called a "n****r" and "monkey" and told his life doesn't matter. It's nothing new to him. "When I wake up in the morning, I pretty much expect trouble,'' he said. "We're not the Negros from the 60s. I believe in defending myself, defending my people and sticking up for my people."
"I'm not violent. I'm not out threatening to blow up people,'' he said. "Self-preservation is an instinct every creature has and we deserve respect."

Nope, Mr. Southall, Donald Trump said you got what you deserved, and it wasn't r-e-s-p-e-c-t.

Trump was asked to weigh in on his supporters’ actions on Fox & Friends Sunday morning. “Maybe he should have been roughed up,” he said. “It was disgusting what he was doing.”
The Republican frontrunner compared what happened at his rally to a Black Lives Matter protest at a Bernie Sanders event, which prompted the Democratic candidate to release a detailed racial justice plan. “This is not the way Bernie Sanders handled his problem, I will tell you, but I have a lot of fans and they were not happy about it. And this was a very obnoxious guy, a troublemaker, looking to make trouble,” Trump said. 

AL.com captured a video of Southall flipping off the crowd while being led out of the building by police, but they didn't capture a video of Southall being attacked by trump supporters. Typical case of the media turning the victim into the criminal.

EYE understand the fear in Sweet Home Alabama.  Maybe they should change the slogan from Alabama the Beautiful to something else.....

Congressman (sic) Mo "anything short of shooting illegals" Brooks is making #SweetHomeAlabama proud again.

CREDIT: AP PHOTO/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE

Not.  It ought to be against the law to use the public airways to spew hatred, bigotry, and misinformation, but it's not, so Alabama's CD 5 Congress Critter Mo Brooks went there when he made an appearance on Radio Boy's show.  

"We’re paying them about $15,000 a year in free health care, free food, free shelter, free clothing, free transportation,” Brooks said. “That answers very quickly why so many of them want to come to the United States of America.”
“We’re paying them to come here,” the Alabama congressman concluded. “It’s a paid vacation!”

Yep,  Mo used the public airways to misinform the uniformed, and turn the victims into criminals.

Instead of viewing refugees as people fleeing the violence that has claimed more than 200,000 lives, Brooks saw a host of incoming welfare queens intent on taking advantage of Americans’ generosity.

Psst Mo!  Sweet Home Alabama is the last place Syrian Refugees would want to "vacation".  They are trying to flee violence and despair. 

Thousands of civilians have been victims of mass shootings and gunfire between government forces and insurgents. In one case documented by the United Nations, more than 100 people, including at least 49 children, were killed in Homs on May 25, 2012. Most were shot at close range.
The U.N. reports that armed opposition groups have also executed children, but lack of access in areas controlled by the Islamic State has prevented systematic documentation. “In places like Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, it’s almost impossible to verify the information,” said Bassam al-Ahmad, spokesman for the Violation Documentation Center in Syria.

What is most troubling to me is the fact Mo Brooks is an elected official, and has been most of his adult life.  For an elected official to have this point of view is dangerous, because he also has to the power to act on his beliefs.

In its essence, racism is culturally sanctioned strategies that defend the advantages of power, privilege and prestige which "Whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities." This deliberate political, economical, religious and sociocultural structuring of privilege, does not take place in some moral vacuum. It has behind it the moral force of an ideology of supremacy, an ill-will that claims racial superiority and pride of position. By ideology I mean a system of ideas and beliefs about the universe, to which a people adhere in order to justify their attitudes and actions. This ideology can have a religious or a scientific basis, depending on which one shapes our worldview. Nevertheless the outcome is the same, where one group benefits and the other does not.

They say parents are the first teachers, so I have to assume Mo Brooks was raised with this point of view, and he raised his children with this point of view, and they are raising their children with this point of view, and that it will go on, and on, and on.  Sigh

We can't stop people from being racist, but we damn well can stop electing them to office.   The only problem is finding someone to vote for.  Surely there are more people of good will than there are of... them.

Psst Governor Bentley! There's a problem with your stand on the state line to refuse Syrian refugees...

You can't

Just in case there is any doubt, President Obama has explicit statutory authorization to accept foreign refugees into the United States. Under the Refugee Act of 1980, the president may admit refugees who face “persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion” into the United States, and the president’s power to do so is particularly robust if they determine that an “unforeseen emergency refugee situation” such as the Syrian refugee crisis exists.

Despite popular and uniformed opinion, Alabama is still a part of the United States of America.  Sir.

The problem for Jindal, Abbott and the other governors opposed to admitting refugees, however, is that there is no lawful means that permits a state government to dictate immigration policy to the president in this way. As the Supreme Court explained in Hines v. Davidowitz, “the supremacy of the national power in the general field of foreign affairs, including power over immigration, naturalization and deportation, is made clear by the Constitution.” States do not get to overrule the federal government on matters such as this one.

Editorial Carton for Alabama Media Group by J.D.Crowe

You can take a whole row of seats now. 

What looks like Stupid On An Ordinary Day in #SweetHomeAlabama

The crowd pic.twitter.com/89o5rZmJEQ

— Robert Costa (@costareports) August 21, 2015

EYE am sure no one is surprised Donald Trump bought his Reality TV Show, I mean, Presidential campaign to the Reddest of the Red, Republican, Confederate, Slave States, or, that it was held in a football stadium, or that  Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions was the ringmaster, I mean, organizer. After all this is The Heart of Dixie where football is King, and education not so much. It's also the home of what liberal, not to be confused with Fox News, commentators call the most brutal immigration act in history.  It's also the home of Congressman Mo "anything short of shooting them" Brooks (R. CD5). 

Ironic, Donald Trump held a rally Friday night in the belly of American racism, yet fortuitous. Alabama, one of the multi-state wombs the Southern Strategy gestated for several decades after the passage of 1960s federal civil rights legislation. Nevertheless, peremptorily Trump follows another ambitious liberal who flipped to champion the racist dogma in pursuit of elected office, the late Governor George Wallace (R) – ALA.

After Friday Night Lights Alabama Trump Style there is no doubt the white, male dominated media is enabling Trump, and his supporters are....downright nasty for lack of a better word.  EYE prefer to call them  Alabama's Bad Tooth Syndrome .

We often have a bad tooth that hurts. Sometimes it hurts bad, and sometimes it hurts really bad. We never know when or how much or how long it will hurt. We refuse to have it removed for fear of the intense pain. Therefore, we allow the pain to come and go for years, worsening over time. If we have the bad tooth removed, we will experience intense pain at the dentist, but the pain will be over in a day or two and our mouth will not only be pain free but healthy for years to come. Most people will suffer bad pain a hundred times over rather than suffer intense pain once. That’s the bad tooth syndrome.
Alabama has the bad tooth syndrome really bad.

Ya Think?

Attention media: 20,000 people turning out in Alabama to cheer a racist is not news ~Andy Borowitz

And the problem with President Obama comparing jihadist in the Middle East to acts of violence committed by the United State government is what exactly?

@RedEyesPage @DanteB4u @ShareThis pic.twitter.com/j2J7sIjPcu
— vivian harris (@HarrisVivian) February 7, 2015

Let's be clear:  The Obama Crusades Controversy is over weather it's OK to hate Muslims

 Obama's point was actually pretty simple. Let's not pretend that Islam itself is to blame for ISIS or that Muslims are inherently more violent, he suggested, because the problem of religious violence is not exclusive to any one religion. In other words, don't oversimplify the problem of ISIS to "Muslims are different from the rest of us."

The media enabled spin is in

President Barack Obama caused a wave of backlash after he compared the actions of Islamic State jihadists in the Middle East to acts of violence committed by Christian crusaders centuries ago.

And the problem with President Obama comparing the actions jihadist in the Middle East to acts of violence committed by the United State government  is what exactly?

Most Americans know about the murder of students by National Guard troops at Kent State in Ohio on May 4, 1970, which was later immortalized in song. A smaller group are probably aware of the city and state police murders, at Jackson State in Mississippi, on May 15, 1970. Students from the campus were protesting racism. Two young black people died, 15 students were wounded, and over 460 rounds were fired into a dormitory.
Two years before these tragedies occurred, three young black people who were protesting—not a war in Vietnam, but a war against black people called "segregation"—were killed by police. Twenty-seven more were shot (many in the back) or injured by being beaten with billy clubs. These events took place on February 8, 1968, in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and have come come to be known by those who do remember as "the Orangeburg Massacre."

This post is dedicated to  Delano Herman Middleton, 17,Samuel Ephesians Hammond Jr., 18, Henry Ezekial Smith, 19

RedEye Tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray.

Don't Think, Vote Republican

Voted Republican! They cut his retiree pension, raised the retirement age, and attack his social security! @cspanwj pic.twitter.com/NCRiNICPvx
— George Monroe (@Nupe117) January 17, 2015

But what if it is hidden racism?

Fist Dap What Would Jack Do

Republicans have been fighting public school integration since before former Governor George C. Wallaces' infamous stand in the school house door.  They are still fighting to keep them there Negroes  and Hispanics out of their schools, today, tomorrow, and probably forever,  if  people of good will continue let them.

 In modern America we believe racism to be the property of the uniquely villainous and morally deformed, the ideology of trolls, gorgons and orcs. We believe this even when we are actually being racist.

My post, The Truth about the ALGOP School Flex Bill, and nothing but the truth , generated the following response  from a member of  Pam's List serve  which I believe illustrates this point.  Emphasis mine with names redacted.

I have a problem with calling a school a failing school. When we say a school is failing, we are saying the teachers are failing, the Principal is failing, the parents are failing,  and the community is failing. If this is the case, any student transferring to a Successful school from a failing school will eventually result into a failing school. Let me say this, I transferred my son and daughter from Xxxxxx High school to  Xxxxxxxxxx High, not to avoid a failing school. The Principal and the teachers at Butler were great teachers. I met them at every PTA meeting.

I transferred my kids from Xxxxx High to remove my kids from the students attending Xxxxx High, not the staff. What was failing at Butler High was the parenting of a majority of the students. I attended school in the 1960's, through some of the worst times for blacks to get an education, but a majority of blacks back then were committed to get an education regardless of racism. 

It is my opinion that today, parenting is failing not only education in the United States, parents are failing their children. It is my opinion, and please don't get angry, that if all the students at a failing school were bussed to a non-failing school, and the students from the non-failing school were bussed to the failing school, leaving all staff at both schools in place, the failing schools would be reversed!

No teacher can educate a student! Teachers provide an educational environment for learning, and they provide the proper instruction. If the parents and students are not committed to an education, it will not happen! Regardless of the racist Republicans and their racist attitudes, if blacks, whites, poor blacks, and poor whites commit themselves to an education, it will happen!

Alabama will always have racist, Alabama will always have Republicans that wish the negro was still cooking in their kitchens and plowing their fields with no hope of wealth or education. What parents today have to do is, regardless of which school their children attend, commit themselves to their children's education, involve themselves in their children's educational endeavors, and commit their children to learn how to read, and write, and to learn arithmetic in grade school. They must commit their children to the joys of learning! 

If a child today can't read in the 8th grade it is not the teachers fault. Parents must stop looking for someone to blame. The blame starts at home. The blame starts at home. When the next PTA meeting occurs, go to one of those failing schools and count the parents attending. I have, and it is a sad sight! I feel sorry for the kids whose parents are failing them. Successful public schools are the result of involved parents. They use the same books, they have the same quality teachers and they are supervised under the same superintendent. In the 18 years my children attended school, never, ever, have I had to say a teacher was poorly educated! Not once!

The difference between my children and others was that there was study time in our home during the week, and With limited TV and play time. I removed my son from the basketball team at Huntsville High because he was too tired from practice to study. Today he is Xx. Xxxxxx (name redacted) with a PhD from Xxxxxx. 

Yes, racism exist, but lets not pull the race card as a trump card so quickly.

My solution: take any failing school and institute a program to get more parental involvement in the children's classwork and homework. Make it a law that some guardian is required at PTA meetings from 1st through 8th grade. Make it a law that if a child is not bringing in homework, a Child Development Agency is notified to visit the child's home.  Do this and watch this failing school turn into a oasis of education and learning!

Racism can only exist where there is fertile soil for it to grow and to flourish!  But even racism can't overcome the personal commitment to get an education!

No!  No!  No! Racism not only exists but is perpetuated because we would rather pretend it doesn't.

 Its long past time for us to redefine racism based not on the intent of the sender but on the experience of the receiver. As someone said during a blog conversation I participated in on this topic long ago...if I accidentally dropped an anvil on your toe, the fact that I didn't mean to doesn't make it hurt any less.

So where is the hidden racism in the response above?  Let's start with this;

I transferred my kids from Xxxxxx High to remove my kids from the students attending Xxxxxx High, not the staff. What was failing at Xxxxxx High was the parenting of a majority of the students.

What proof does the writer have to support this assertion other than  media enabled stereotypes that black parents are not actively involved in their child education?  Are they are dysfunctional  just because they are black?

 Hidden racism #2

It is my opinion that today, parenting is failing not only education in the United States, parents are failing their children. It is my opinion, and please don't get angry, that if all the students at a failing school were bussed to a non-failing school, and the students from the non-failing school were bussed to the failing school, leaving all staff at both schools in place, the failing schools would be reversed!

 It's easy to accuse and blame some anonymous parents than address the real reason Alabama schools are failing. I have a problem with blaming tax payers, because that's what parents are, for the failure of the school system just because they are  convenient scapegoats.   If the ALGOP really cared about students attending failing schools they would try and fix them instead of bankrupting them.

Hidden racism #3

If a child today can't read in the 8th grade it is not the teachers fault. Parents must stop looking for someone to blame. The blame starts at home. When the next PTA meeting occurs, go to one of those failing schools and count the parents attending. I have, and it is a sad sight! I feel sorry for the kids whose parents are failing them. Successful public schools are the result of involved parents. They use the same books, they have the same quality teachers and they are supervised under the same superintendent. In the 18 years my children attended school, never, ever, have I had to say a teacher was poorly educated! Not once!

 Oh, really?  So if a parent sends their child to school every day to learn how to read and their child can't read it's their fault because they don't go to PTA meeting?  I didn't now they trained parents how to teach  at PTA meetings.  I didn't know parents decided to replace text books with IPads and laptops at PTA meetings.  I didn't know parents hired and fired Superintendents/principals/ teachers/ support personnel or granted tenure.   Snark  If parents are going to teach their children everything at home what do we need schools for?  The teachers may not be poorly educated, but what if the parents are?  Should their child also be doomed to a life of ignorance and poverty?

Hidden racism #4

My solution: take any failing school and institute a program to get more parental involvement in the children's classwork and homework. Make it a law that some guardian is required at PTA meetings from 1st through 8th grade. Make it a law that if a child is not bringing in homework, a Child Development Agency is notified to visit the child's home.  Do this and watch this failing school turn into a oasis of education and learning!


The government can't require parents to attend PTA meetings, or home visits by Child Development Agencies because a child is not bringing in homework.  What if parents have to work or have other obligations?  If children aren't turning in their home work teachers should stop assigning it, or make them do it at school.  In my day we had study hall with trained teachers to assist us if necessary.  Students aren't failing classwork, they are failing homework.  Again, if they are going to do all the work at home why do we need schools.  How about the government requiring principals and teachers to make home visits?

Hidden racism #5

Alabama will always have racist, Alabama will always have Republicans that wish the negro was still cooking in their kitchens and plowing their fields with no hope of wealth or education.

 True, but when this point is made by non whites  we are accused of playing the "race card".

In the less critical sense, the phrase is commonly used in two contexts. In the first, and more common context, it alleges that someone has deliberately and falsely accused another person of being a racist in order to gain some sort of advantage.^[1] An example of this use of the term occurred during the O. J. Simpson murder trial, when critics accused the defense of "playing the race card"^[2] in presenting Mark Fuhrman's past (e.g., his recorded use of the word "nigger" in addition to his being accused of tampering with murder evidence in prior cases, as well as his use of the Fifth Amendment to avoid potential self-incrimination upon questioning) as a reason to draw his credibility as a witness into question.
In the second context, it refers to someone exploiting prejudice against another race for political or some other advantage. The use of the southern strategy by a political candidate is said by some to be a version of playing the race card, such as when former Senator Jesse Helms, during his 1990 North Carolina Senate campaign, ran an ad showing a black man taking a white man's job, intended as a criticism of the idea of racial quotas. The ad was interpreted by many people as trying to play to racist fears among white voters.

Contrary to popular belief, black parents realize the value of an education, and black children want to learn.   Silence helps the oppressor oppress the oppressed.

 The idea that racism lives in the heart of particularly evil individuals, as opposed to the heart of a democratic society, is reinforcing to anyone who might, from time to time, find their tongue sprinting ahead of their discretion.

"It's pretty obvious the Ala-repubs are trying to re-segregate the schools without calling it that."  The question is, are good people going continue to let then get away with it?

There are plenty of valid criticisms to make about last week's hijacking of the legislative process by Republicans to pass the Alabama Accountability Act. Wouldn't take much work, either. But leave it to Moore to get that simple task wrong, too.
Moore, after the Republicans passed the Accountability Act over Democratic and other objections, said this, as reported by AL.com's Kim Chandler: "Welcome to the new confederacy where a bunch of white men are now going to take over black schools."
Criticize Republican sleaziness or secrecy or deception or betrayal. But Moore's statement crosses the line, and it was intercepted by Alabama Republican Party senior vice-chairman George Williams, the highest ranking African-American in the state GOP.
"I am astonished at Rep. Moore for making such a racist statement about our leaders in Montgomery," Williams, from Bay Minette, said in a GOP press release. "I am an African-American, Vietnam War Vet, a leader in the Alabama Republican Party, and I support this legislation. Does that mean I am part of the 'new confederacy'?"

No Mister "highest ranking African-American in the state GOP" (who knew?), it means you are part of the problem.

 America lives under the interesting premise that a racist can't be black. That's like believing that a man can't hate his sibling, or that a woman can't advocate for a man to beat his wife (as Whoopi did to Oprah in "The Color Purple"). The truth is that racism is typically most effective when you put a black face on it, and Herman Cain has volunteered to become the cute little political puppet which allows white America to say the things that they are afraid to say.

 The journey is not about labeling the racism "out there." Its about being open to how it has been hard-wired into our own brains. We need not fear exposing it. The only way it is perpetuated is if we pretend its not there.

The hidden racism is eating away at the future of our country.  It's time to call it out and end it once and for all.
RedEye

"Stupid is as Stupid does" The Trifecta

 

Let's see, where to start....oh I know, let's start with stupid and evil Alabama State Representative Mary Sue McClurkin (r. Pelham) .  You would think someone with a BA from Huntingdon College and a MA from Auburn University would know better than to say something this stupid to support her effort to drive abortion clinics out of business , so poor Alabama women, not to be confused with women like Mary Sue, won't have access to a safe legal abortion.

“When a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body,” McClurkin said in an interview Thursday. “That’s a big thing. That’s a big surgery. You don’t have any other organs in your body that are bigger than that.”

 Let's move on to Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange (yes you read it right) and his all out war against grown folks playing BINGO with their own damn money in Alabama.  With all the problems facing Alabama why is he so concerned about closing down Victoryland and stopping the operation of slot machines at casinos owned by the Porch Band of Creek Indians?  I mean, really?   It's not like Victoryland provides jobs or anything so people won't be Moochers who want the government to take care of them. What about my right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness Mr. Strange?

 Last but not least we have Congress Critter Mo (anything short of shooting them) Brooks (AL O5) who told hundreds of people at a town hall meeting who are worried about loosing their jobs don't blame him, blame the Senate and of course the Socialist, I mean President.

For now, though, Brooks said the House's position "seems to be" not to act on sequestration unless the Senate passes a bill first and then sends it to the House. But Brooks said history indicates the Senate has no interest in developing a sequestration bill.

Hmmm...looks like that republican bill to test the body fluids of welfare recipients is going to come in handy.

  Remember when Florida  made headlines for passing a law to drug screen welfare recipients? And then a little later, a judge ruled it was unconstitutional? And then remember when everyone found out the law cost the taxpayers more money than it saved? Haha! Good times!

Now Alabama wants in on it too! Those fruity Tax and Spend Liberal Democrats are at it again, pissing our cash away, right into a little plastic cup. Just kidding! It’s not the Liberals (this time); it’s those Constitutional-minded Deficit-obsessed Conservative Republican Mavericks.

Sweet Home Alabama, where there is nothing more dangerous than ignorance in action!

"Rep. Crazy-A$$ has some things to say about the Supreme Court"

Meet  Republican Becky Nordgren (r. Gadsden, Ayn Rand fan)

H/T Reran Tragedy

Excerpt:

You also may not know that the freshman District 29 representative has a Twitter account. That would probably be because she is not the most prolific tweeter, though she does occasionally praise the works of Ayn Rand and offer the odd 140-characterPresident-Obama-is-trying-to-let-illegal-people-vote conspiracy theory. Both fit well with the book report of Thomas Paine’s “Common Sense” she posted on her campaign website.

In the wake of Monday’s Supreme Court three-quarter heel turn against states that want to harass funny-talk foreigners until they leave, Rep. Nordgren fired off her first tweet of 2012 and caused a mild stir among Alabama’s political tweeter scene.

Becky Nordgren@RepBeckNordgren

After the Supreme Court ruling, it looks like we are going to have to take a stand for State's Rights!!!!!!

25 Jun 12

The tweet is beautiful for a number of reasons, but we can settle on three:

1. It is always good to see an Alabama state official make a public comment vaguely in favor of secession. It validates that we remain a stalwart among these fine United States, with our leaders having not changed all that much from the “Let’s go to war so we can own people!” crew of the mid-19th century to the “Let’s go to war so we can keep them from talkin’ Spanish down at the Walmart!” folks of today.It’s like Coca-Cola: We don’t really change a classic.
   We just took out a little cocaine.
2. Yelling “States’ rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!1!!” means precisely shit in the conversation of what the Supreme Court decided yesterday.The Court’s decision turned on whether federal law preempted, or trumped, Arizona’s immigration law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The Supremacy Clause essentially says that if there is an existing federal law or an area of law that the federal government is better suited to handle, and a state then makes a conflicting law on the same subject, the federal law is the one enforced. Our founders thought the clause was necessary to keep the government together and give the central government some teeth when the states did, for example, stupid shit.Though I suppose stating so much legal reality is unfairly expecting of Nordgren a knowledge of law and government beyond yelling things.
3. The number of exclamation marks, of course, mean she is serious.

That sort of civic illiteracy from an elected official always makes one wonder how a leader would react at other great moments in American history.

Luckily, we here at Reran Tragedy like mocking dumb Alabama political people enough to assemble such a guide for how Rep. Nordgren would have reacted to past key Supreme Court decisions.

Brown v. Board.

Lord help us.