Who are these people who don't want "government run healthcare"?

Every time I hear the republicans say "polls show the American people are against government run health care" I wonder who in the world are they polling? Due to the illness of a family member, I've been dealing with the health care system up close and personal for past six months. Thankfully my family member has health insurance and is getting quality care, but I wonder about the 46 million Americans who don't have access to health insurance and quality health care. Do they ever poll these people?

My Senator (sic) held health care town hall meeting this summer. The location couldn't accommodate the crowd, so a lot of people like me had to watch on closed circuit television in the parking lot, which turned into a shouting match between pro/anti health care reform. There was a very pregnant and vocal young lady protesting socialism (government health care) and socialist (President Obama). In an attempt to reason with, her I told her if she was happy with her present health insurance she could keep it and would have to change. She looked me dead in the face and bragged "I don't have insurance". I remember thinking, so who is going to pay to pay to deliver your baby? And after the baby is born, who is going to pay for the medical expenses that go along with children?

I asked another "protester" what were people without health insurance supposed to do when they needed treatment,they replied "the emergency room". Who do they think pays for that? And the emergency room doesn't provide preventive care or screening. I thought the emergency room was for, you know, emergencies.

On another occasion I was in the emergency room with a family member and overheard a the parents of a sick child tell other assembled family members the ER doctor was referring the child to a specialist, but if the specialist wouldn't see the child because they didn't have insurance they were going to come back to the emergency room. I saw in them parking lot getting in a truck with a McCain/Palin 08 bumper sticker. I just shook my head, and said a prayer the specialist would treat their child.

If you think people without health insurance aren't treated differently, think again. They have to go to back of the line behind patients who have insurance. I saw how a woman no insurance trying to have CT Scan. She was still waiting when I left 3 hours later. I hope she eventually got her Scan, and hope it wasn't life threatening.

I'm saying all of this to say what Booman said

I am not advising Obama to start saying this, but the real response to Mitch McConnell touting polls that say that the American people don't like the health care bills is to say that it doesn't matter because the American people need a health care bill.

Stop listening to the misinformed and the uniformed and just do the right thing Mr. Obama. That's what real leaders do. Stop listening to the "polls" and listen to your heart. Do what you know is right (no pun).

Post Health Care Summit Roundup
The republicans showed their true colors.

Well, the Republicans were quite predictably exposed as peddling a bunch of inaccurate talking points, not caring about the uninsured, not negotiating in good faith, and as generally not being serious at all about the crisis in exploding health costs.

Real, raw, commentary from the Rude Pundit (warning graphic)

What Obama did yesterday will either go down as the naive last gasps of hope and change on health care reform or as a stroke of genius, providing cover for Democrats and resuscitating an effort that will progress from the degraded baseline of the current bill.

Get the Rope!

The public is thoroughly sick of the health reform process, but people still like the idea of health care reform. So, the GOP can't just say "kill the bill" in public. Instead, Republicans have to make disingenuous speeches about "starting over," knowing full well that if health care reform dies now, it'll stay dead.

Boehner must realize the prospect of starting over is about as appealing as National Root Canal Week at the DMV. But what can he do? The Republicans have no ideas beyond "tax cuts cure cancer."

It's the Media.

So much hypocrisy, so little time.

The War on Terra Continues. A NATO airstrike mistakenly killed 28-30 people today. I'm with StevenD, How much longer is this madness going to continue? When will enough killing and bombing be enough? Bring our troops home. Bring them home now.

So why are we repeating the same mistakes made by other "super powers" of the past? In a time of extraordinary economic decline for most Americans we continue to pour precious resources into a conflict that we cannot "win" whatever "metric" one uses to measure "winning."

Congress should immediately reinstate funds to ACORN. This knee-jerk action by Congress was a travesty. It's been proven the whole Pimp story was a right wing funded set up and lie. ACORNS only crime was being a community organizing group. They need to go after the real Pimps, but of course they won't. That would be to much like right(pun intended).

O'Keefe got big accolades from a lot of the CPAC speakers and of course ACORN got ripped up one side and down the other.

Sometimes I think some of the elected people in DC never read anything and instead rely on each other regarding what to think. They jumped all over ACORN without really looking into the whole case.

I thought I read somewhere that a judge had said the govt. had to give ACORN the money they had already been promised.

Instead of going after ACORN they need to go after stuff like THIS.

Voters trying to cast ballots in Lower Oxford Township East stood in lines for so long that TV crews showed up to capture the scene. Some of those waiting ordered out for pizza. Sympathetic neighbors brought water and coffee. When the last vote was cast shortly before 11 p.m., polls were officially closing on the West Coast and Barack Obama had already been declared the winner.

Some of the 1,440 who voted there that day waited for seven to eight hours in the rain, queuing up close enough to working railroad tracks to reach out and touch passing freight cars. The tiny community center they waited to enter could accommodate only seven booths and one optical scanner. The adjacent parking lot was big enough for a dozen cars.

This wasn't a mistake. It was deliberate. It was the clearest example you could hope to find of partisan politics trumping common sense and civic duty.

Listen up Democrats! Bipartisanshop=Appeasement. When are you going to learn that appeasement doesn't work? It's not wise to appease republicans. It's how they turn the winners into the losers and the losers into the winners.

The theory is that if Democrats make a show out of reaching out to Republicans, but Republicans slap Democrats down every time and obstruct for the sake of obstructing, then Democrats will gain politically.

The reality is that Republicans gain in the polls if Democrats fail to pass legislation that improves people's lives, no matter the political theater of obstruction.

Thanks to the democratically controlled Congress, President Obama is afraid to lead. Seriously. They've made him afraid of the far left liberals, who have been right about everything from the war to the deficity in favor of the so called moderates and independents. The President's Healthcare Bill and What is Missing is proof.

There’s no public option in the Prez’s proposal which is a shame since polls show that the majority of Americans want a public option (such a dumb phrase), as good as say… Medicare or VA health benefits or even the government-sponsored program in which Sarah Palin’s son Tripp is hypocritically enrolled. The audacity of that woman — what’s good enough for her son is evidently not good enough for other Americans, it would seem.

Sarah Palin is the Hypocrit of the Decade.

As we all know, Sarah's suffering for her family is boundless, but this must be the worst of all. What is difficult to understand is why she doesn't use this most personal example of the horrors of government run health care in her public cries to prevent Obamacare. She normally isn't one to suffer in silence; maybe someone in the media will ask her to share the nightmare that her daughter must endure knowing, all day every day, that her son will receive health care regardless of her ability to afford it. Or maybe not.

Tiger Yoo? While the MSM was breathlessly parsing every word of Tiger Woods apology they totally ignored the story about John Woo and the Massacre Memo

In John Yoo's vision of executive power, the president can legally order a village of civilians "massacred," according to the internal Justice Department report released Friday.

The MSM calls Glenn Becks wild eyed rant *cough cough* Brave Criticism of the GOP. Give me a break.

Take a look at these headlines.

WaPo: “At CPAC, Glenn Beck scolds the Republican Party.“
MSNBC: “Beck criticizes Obama and the GOP.“
The Atlantic: “Beck Thumps GOP, Puzzling Conservatives.”
L.A. Times: “Glenn Beck to Republican Party: Repent.“
And on and on. If you only skimmed those headlines, you’d think that Beck went boldly into the belly of the beast, and had some kind of Sister Souljah moment.

Except Beck didn’t do that. He blew smoke up the CPAC audience’s white asses by simply reciting, verbatim, exactly the same tired spiel Republican leaders have been parroting nonstop since they lost control of Congress in 2006.

Are we in trouble yet?

Sunday Blog Stroll

Mitchell Howie Makes the Move---A PROGRESSIVE CHALLENGER for Congress. Yippie!!!! Let's support this man, he is the one we have been waiting for.

Judging from the first two candidates in the field, we can see how Alabama’s Fifth District got stuck with a turncoat like Parker Griffith. Luckily, there is a better option.

Now this is what I'm talking about! Obama, Arnold, Petreus finally kick some GOP Butt! It's about damn time! Arnold Schwarzenegger (r.CA) slammed the GOP stimulus hyprocrisy. The Terminator is back!

What part of you can't reason with the gop doesn't Obama understand?

CPAC had their little convention this weekend. The Revolution Is Being Televised for our viewing displeasure. Too bad they didn't televise the anti Iraq W-ar protest.

Skeptical Brother has a great diary about what the numbers tell us about race in Alabama.

Yo Tiger, get on with your life. I mean,really. You don't owe anyone an apology or an explanation but your wife and mother. If anyone needs to apologize publically it's the hussies that slept with you knowing you were a married man. It takes two to tango.

All War All the Time, UNfair and Unbalanced

War with a new name is still war, or as mcjoan says, A Rose by any other name..... The Iraq occupation started of as Operation Iraqi Liberation until the warmongers figured out the acronym spelled O.I.L (go ahead and laugh), so they changed the name to Operation Iraqi Freedom (are the Eye Rack Eees free yet?), as of September 1 when combat troops leave it will be called Operation New Damn, I mean Dawn. Who the heck comes up with this stuff?

George W. Bush told us he was sending our sons and daughters to Iraq because he had proof of tons and tons of Weapon of Mass Destruction and Saddam was about to use them on us, remember? So where are the WMD?

Remember how Bush and Dick told us the Iraqis would greet as liberators and throw flowers and candy at our troops and Iraqi oil would pay would pay for the war. So, did the Iraqis greet us as liberators? Nope. The only thing the Iraqi people are throwing at our troops are bombs and bullets, and we aren't even going to talk about the 4 billion dollar a month price tag for the W-ar.

Can you imagine the outrage if Bill Clinton had sent our troops to war based on dead wrong intelligence? I mean he was impeached for trying to conceal a private sexual affair for Christ sake. The teabaggers are upset at President Obama's "out of control spending for domestics issues" but don't say a mumbling word about the price tag of the war and it's negative impact on the deficit.

The mantra from the right said our troops couldn't come home until we (they) win in Iraq. Win what? A mistake?

Operation New Dawn My Donkey.

Bipartisan My Donkey!

Democratic 5th Congressional District candidate Steve Raby says"A congressman's job is to work in a bipartisan way to make the federal government work for the Tennessee Valley," Which prompted this response from a member of Pam's listserv;

Well, good luck with that, Raby, and please let us know how that "Bipartisan" thing works out for you. It sure hasn't worked with health care reform, or much of anything else, but who am I to tell you not to continue to shoot yourself, the Alabama Democratic Party and the DNC right in the head. I thought "A Congressman's job" was to work for the interest of the people of his District...but then, I'm not a "Washington Insider" like you. I'm just a plain old, Registered Democratic Party, Alabama Granny.

Which prompted another member to ask what does bipartisan mean?

Psst! I'll tell you what it means. It means democrats are going to vote with republicans.

You don't hear of republican candidates saying they are going to Washington to work with democrats for the good of the country. You don't see republicans reaching across the aisle and voting with democrats. Quite the opposite. Republicans tell their supporters up front they are going to Washington to stop the liberal agenda. They don't even try and pretend they are going to be anything but what they are, obstructionist.

I don't want my representative working in a bipartisan manner if it means throwing democratic principles and values under the bus. If I wanted my representative to be a republican I would vote republican. Bipartisan is a two way street not a one way street. What part of that don't democrats understand?

President Obama made the mistake of saying he wanted to work with republicans, which they took to mean, it's our way or no way. I'm with Roland Martin on this one;

Civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer made famous the phrase, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired."

For me, I'm sick and tired of Democrats having power and being unwilling to use it. I've always respected Republicans when they had power because they were willing to use it and maybe apologize later.

You can't be bipartisan with republicans. They take kindness for weakness. They don't have it in them to work with democrats. I mean, how can you work with people whose sole sources of information are Faux News and right wing talk radio?

On almost every issue, Southern Republicans are far to the right of their national GOP brethren. In fact, GOP Southerners appear to be the driving base for some of the most extreme views circulating in the Republican Party today.

Faux News and right wing talk radio aren't the only ones to blame, the MSM we have enables the republicans by pretending not to notice their *ahem* transgressions.

If you don't think there's a media double standard that favors Republicans over Democrats, then let's play a game of what-if.

What if, in 2006, at Yearly Kos, the first annual convention of liberal bloggers and their readers, organizers shelled out $100,000 for former Vice President Al Gore to address attendees? And what if the same organizers booked as an opening-night speaker a fringe, radical-left conspiracy theorist who'd spent the previous year pushing the thoroughly debunked claim that some Bush White administration insiders played a role in, and even planned, the 9-11 attacks. What if the speaker (also proudly anti-Semitic) received a standing ovation from the liberal Yearly Kos crowd?

republicans have no ideas, no agenda, no plan. Which is why I can't understand why some democrats run across the aisle to work with them.

Topping the list is Artur Davis of Alabama, who comes from a D+18 district but yet has voted against his party on health care, detainees, cap-and-trade and Stupak. Fortunately, Democrats won't have to primary him -- he's quitting the Congress to run for governor -- but he's doing a fair amount of damage in the meantime. Following Davis is John Barrow of Georgia, who has been the subject of a primary challenge before. Then there's our good friend Parker Griffith, who voted against the Democrats on all ten bills -- fellow Alabaman Bobby Bright (who I'd give 60/40 odds of also joining the Republicans) was the only other Democrat to have done so.

If bipartisan means it's the republican way or the highway, I say forget it. I don't want a blue dog Congress Critter. I want a proud, liberal, progressive Congressman/woman who is willing to stand and fight for democratic principles and values. John Amato expalins why it matters;

There's an impulse to say screw it all and not show up anymore because "they're all the same," but I can't do that. For the most part, politicians will let us down because they are...well, politicians, but they aren't all the same. There have been plenty of books written about Florida in 2000. If ballots had been properly labeled so that voters who wanted Gore instead of Pat Buchanan could have done so, we might have had a more fair election. And then the Supreme Court would have been left to watch election night like the rest of us and Bush wouldn't have entered the White House in 2000.

Think of what that would have meant for the country:

The Bush tax cuts for the wealthy would never have been a reality.
I doubt we would have had the attacks of 9/11 because President Clinton warned that the greatest threat America would face was terrorism and Gore would have not ignored him like Bush did. But if we did get attacked, then you can bet that Gore would have handled it as an adult. He wouldn't sought "revenge" against Saddam Hussein and prioritized control of all that oil. Gore wouldn't have let Osama Bin Laden get away and the world would still be sympathetic to us.
Our efforts to put Afghanistan back together would be finished by now, assuming we even would have tried nation-building there.
More troops and people would be alive and we would have exited the Middle East with our heads held high.
America would never have invaded and occupied Iraq and over 4,000 troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians (if not millions) would be alive today.
Abu Ghraib would never have happened.
Terrorist recruitment would have stalled.
Torture would not be part of the American lexicon and the likes of Dick Cheney and John Yoo would never have descended upon the offices of the VP and OLC.
John Roberts and Sam Alito would not be on the Supreme Court and the makeup would probably be 6-3 against the radical Scalia-conservative agenda. A ruling on Citizens United is coming soon. Would the court ever have accepted that case? Not a chance and soon corporations will have a stranglehold on our election system much more than they have now.
George Bush would have been back home in Texas leading the state into secession along with his pal Alberto Gonzalez.
Nobody would have ever heard of Terry Schiavo.
A much swifter and more effective response to Hurricane Katrina would have been implemented.

Bipartisan My Donkey!

Peace Out.

Can a Real Progressive win in CD 05? You Betcha!

That is the question being asked by some in light Capt. Howie Mitchell throwing his hat into the ring as a candidate for the congressional seat presently occupied by Parker Griffith(r.turncoat).

There are some who say Howie sounds to good to be true because heis what I call a real democrat i.e. socially liberal/fiscally conservative. After the Parker Griffith charade/fiasco democrats understandably gun shy of anyone claiming to be a liberal democrat. Mitchell Howie can't just talk the talk, he's going to have to walk the walk. Fool us once...can't fool us again.

I don't expect the local or state Democratic Party elite to fully embrace Howie in favor of a *ahem* conservadem because they listen to the polling pollsters who pollster tell them that's the only way they can win (can you say Parker Griffith?), however as someone from my list serve said;

People are so sick of the ‘good ole boy’ politics from the likes of Parker Griffith and some of the other establishment candidates, that with the support of good Democrats and Progressives to help him get his message to folks throughout the district he will win!

This person hit the nail on the head:

There is a large progressive community in every part of the country. Any honest, reputable progressive is electable if the progressives can be inspired to vote.

I second what this person said;

Mitchell Howie is a candidate that can not only win, he can inspire. He represents an opportunity for North Alabamians to have a leader with integrity to represent us in Washington. But he can't do it without our help. He's going to need foot soldiers making calls, knocking on doors, and yes writing checks. It takes resources to bring down the status quo. Parker Griffith and other establishment candidates are going to be well funded by sources with their own agenda. It's up to us to ensure that Mitchell is funded by the people's agenda.

The question should be why can't Mitchell Howie win in north Alabama? Is north Alabama the hot bed of conservatism the polling pollsters claim it to be? I think NOT. I submit there are more of us than it is of them. It's past time for progressives to come out of the closet,stop being afraid to stand up for our principles/values and elect a progressive representation for a change. It's time to take our state back from the right wing. It's time for our state to make progress, to move forward, not backward.

This is how a true Progressive can win in CD 5;

1. Steve Raby and Taze Shepard can withdraw from the race and put all their support and resources behind Mitchell Howie. Nothing against either one of them, but it's time for some new blood.

2. Progressives need to organize. Those with money should give. Those without money should knock on doors, make phone calls, write letters to the editor, in other words have Howie Mitchell's back.

3. Get out the black vote. I'm going to say that again. Get out the black vote. It's the key. Give black folks something to vote for and they will vote in record numbers. Ask Barack Obama.

It's Yes we Can! Not No We Can't. If an African American man named Barack Hussein Obama can be elected President of the United States of America, Capt. Mitchell Howie can be elected Congressman from Alabama's 5th district.

Remember?

Links I Like

I thought republicans were supposed be pro life? If they are pro life why are they opposed to health care reform? Don't they know you don't have a life if you're dead? As Oliver Willis says, Insurance companies are condemning children to death because of what they see on a profit and loss statement. It’s ridiculous.

We’re America, for Christ’s sake. We can do this.

Obama needs to be the leader he told us he would be and stop pussy footing around with the republicans. What part of they want him to fail doesn't he understand? What part of they are the party of no doesn't he understand?


TPM reports the Alabama gop is 100k richer thanks to a mystery donor from Minnesota.

The Alabama GOP wouldn't tell MPR who the money came from. Pawlenty's office was also tight-lipped. But the mystery donor's identity will come out sooner or later, since state disclosure laws require it.

Is the racial undercurrent that has long structured US politics reasserting itself? Filmmakers Rick Rowley and Jacquie Soohen report, you decide.

Peace Out.

Pigskin and Politics Redux

I'm still basking in the after glow of the New Orleans Saints win over the Baltimore in the Super Bowl of all Super Bowls. Who would have thought the Ain'ts would win the Super Bowl? I mean really? As a Saints fan from way back in the days of paper bags and losing seasons, my heart is full today.

The Saints win is proof that anything is possible. That hard work and perseverance pays off in the end. That nothing beats a lose but a try. That courage and faith can overcome any obstacle. The democratic party should take heed and learn the lessons of the world champion New Orleans Saints.

New Orleans Saints History and American African American History
In honor of Black History Month The African American Experience in Professional Football is a must read for football fans and history buffs.

The New Orleans Saints franchise was the result of a back room deal.

The brainchild of local sports entrepreneur Dave Dixon, who also founded the Louisiana Super Dome and USFL, the Saints were actually secretly born in a backroom deal brought about by Congressman Hale Boggs and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle. The NFL needed congressional approval of the proposed AFL-NFL merger.[4] Dixon and a local civic group had been seeking a NFL franchise for over 5 years, and had hosted record crowds to NFL exhibition games.

Read about the behind the scene deal making HERE

The Saints were the offspring of Congressional approval of the National Football League-American Football League merger in 1966. And it was Boggs, the House majority whip at the time, who guided passage of a law that granted the leagues the limited immunity from antitrust laws that they needed to merge.

The AFL (American Football League) was more liberal than the NFL(National Football League).

Early on, the American Football League began recruiting from small colleges, which the NFL had avoided. Drawing on this source of talent that had been essentially untapped by the NFL, in the AFL's first year its teams signed such stars as Elbert Dubenion (Bluffton), Lionel Taylor (New Mexico Highlands), and Abner Haynes (North Texas State). For black players, the AFL's recruitment from small colleges opened a door that the NFL had cracked only grudgingly. On a per-team basis, the AFL had a significantly greater number of black players than the NFL, which had still not fully overcome the exclusion of blacks precipitated by the entry into the league of openly bigoted Redskins owner George Preston Marshall. Accordingly, the American Football League hired many more black college talent scouts, including the Houston Oilers' Tom Williams and The Kansas City Chiefs' Lloyd C.A. Wells, pro football's first black full-time scout, who was credited with signing AFL Hall of Famers Otis Taylor and Buck Buchanan as well as a half-dozen other Chiefs who achieved AFL All-Star status.

Minority players in the NFL have increased since the early days and Recent surveys have shown that the current, post-merger NFL is approximately 57–61% non-white (this includes African Americans, Polynesians, non-white Hispanics, Asians, and people that are mixed race.) The NFL made history in 2007 when two teams coached by African American Head coaches were in the Super Bowl,e number of minority head coaches in the NFL is still lacking according to this report.

Ironically, former Baltimore Colts coach Tony Dungee was the first African American NFL head coach to win a Super Bowl and the Baltimore Colts have some Bama ties. Baltimore Colts Corner Back Jerraud Powers is a native of Decatur, Alabama and a former Auburn Tiger. Defensive End Robert Mathis is former Alabama A&M Bulldog.

Who Dat? We Dat!!!

Peace Out.

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.

A redEYE Look Around Reddest of the Red States

The Bingo War is heating up. It's the Greene County Alabama Sherriff vs. Governor Bob Riley. The Greene County Sherriff says he won't allow Gov. Riley's task force to raid Greentrack. Stay tuned.

Alabama SenatorRichard "Dick" Shelby (r.) is living up to his nick name for blocking every one of the president’s nominees over spending disputes involving his state. Shock and Shame.

Meanwhile the University of Alabama won't cover PACT's tuition gap. You know the gap caused by State Treasurer and republican gubernatorial candidate Cowgirl Kay.

Mobile, Alabama says NO to toxic waste treatment! They are going to stop accepting shipments of wastewater runoff from the Perry County landfill because it's laced with arsenic, mercury, lead, uranium and other heavy metals and toxic substances. Can't say that I blame them.

Can we please have our data back please? Pretty please with sugar on top. Yes, democrats are still begging Parker Griffith to return their date he took with him when he defected to the republican party. Good luck with getting it back.

Real progressive Mitchell Howie is considering running for Congress in the 5th district of Alabama. He's a real progressive which is why he probably doesn't stand a snowmans chance in hell of chance of winning the democratic nomination. Isn't that ironic?

Congressman Artur Davis(DINO) is a strong advocate of Charter Schools, I wonder if he is aware of the data that shows the racial divide grows with Charter Schools? What's that saying about finding out who is driving the wagon before you jump on?

That's what's happening in the reddest of the red states.

Peace Out.

Free For All Friday

Educational Apartheid Coming to Alabama
The enactment of Brown vs. Board (separate is not equal) was supposed to overturn Plessy vs. Ferguson (separate but equal), however 50 years after the passage of Brown vs. Board America's public schools The South has become the first region in the country where more than half of public school students are poor and more than half are members of minorities, according to a report by the Southern Education Foundation.

Southern schools are far more segregated now than they were at the height of integration in the ’70s and ’80s, a period that saw a narrowing of the achievement gap, said Gary Orfield, the co-director of The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles at U.C.L.A. The South has the lowest percentage of children in private school of any region, Mr. Orfield said.

Which makes you wonder why republicans and even some democrats are pushing for the enactment of Charter School legislation Alabama since a study finds Segregation rife at Charter schools.

Nearly 3 out of 4 black students who attend charters are in "intensely segregated" schools with student populations that are at least 90 percent minority, according to the study by the UCLA Civil Rights Project. That's twice the rate of regular public schools.

Almost a third of those black students are in what the researchers called "apartheid schools," where 0 to 1 percent of their classmates are white. Charter schools in the Bay Area and California have similar rates of racial isolation.

Guns don't kill people, people with guns kill people

A 14 year old student was shot and killed at school by another student today. The clueless talking teevee pundit heads are getting their information from face book and twitter and repeating the rumors the shooting is "gang related" what ever that means. But lost in all of the chatter is the fact a 14 year old bought a loaded gun to school and killed another 14 year old. Where did he get a gun? How did he manage to get it inside the school building? Instead of repeating facebook and twitter rumors , how about doing some investigating?

The Tea Baggers at the Grand Old Opry!
The "national tea party movement" is holding their first ever convention in Nashville, TN at the Opryland Hotel. I'll bet there is some big time square dancing and hee hawing going on. Sarah Palin is scheduled to speak tomorrow. Can't wait to here her mangle the English language. Tom Tancredo was her warm up act today. One of the Senator Mary Landreiu phone tappers was even spotted there. Nashville sounds like a good place to be from this weekend. Yee Haw!

Kidnapping in the name of the Lord

A group of American *ahem* missionaries were arrested and later indicted this week on charges of attempting to kidnap a group of Haitian children. As Booman blogger Terrancedc says

And kidnapping is a crime. It doesn't matter if you're taking a child out of a poor or disaster-stricken country. If you do the above, you are committing a criminal act. You are, in fact, a criminal.

And, no, it doesn't matter whether your purpose is profit or proselytizing. It doesn't matter if God, the Tooth Fairy, Charles Manson, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster told you do to it. It doesn't matter if your Baptist, Methodist, Episcopalian, or Rosicrucian. You do no have the right to just take a child. Your religion doesn't give it do you. Nor do your intentions. (Or what you say they are.)

As it turns out the ring leader of the group from Idaho (yes you read it right, Idaho) has some issues;

A CBS News employee who witnessed today's court proceedings says Silsby told the judge: "We were trying to do what's best for the children."

When the judge asked, "Didn’t you know you were committing a crime?" Silsby quietly answered, "We are innocent."

But CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker reports there are serious questions tonight about Silsby's motives. The 40-year-old business woman, who convinced members of Idaho's Central Valley Baptist Church to follow her dream of an orphanage in Haiti, has a troubling financial history.

She's been the subject of eight civil lawsuits, 14 for unpaid wages, Whitaker reports. Her Meridian, Idaho house is in foreclosure. She's had at least nine traffic citations in the last 12 years including four for failing to register or insure her car.

Who Dat Gonna Beat them Saints?

I'm more excited about this years Super Bowl game between the Saints of New Orleans and the Colts of Baltimore than I've been in a long time. I was a Saints fan when they were the Ain'ts, so I'm hoping and praying they will be victorius this Sunday. But, IF the Colt's win I won't be mad because they are one of my favorite NFL teams too. It's a win win for me! I still can't understand why CBS thought it would be a good idea to air an anti abortion ad during the biggest game of the year, but since they did my friend and I are going to do our patriotic duty and moon the TeeVee in unison when it airs. :)

Peace Out.

Redeye's Rants and Raves~Update

Are you ready for the Super Bowl , I mean some Super Bowl advertising? No one is talking about the big game because of the controversy over Tim Tebow's mother decision to share her personal, private CHOICE with millions of people.

The White Guy says this whole bru ha ha proves how out of touch the MSM is with the American people, and why.

Some people in the industry blame the decline of "traditional" media on the Internet. That's wrong. The decline of "traditional" media is because of their "tradition" of keeping their club predominantly white and male. Most of major media is pathetic now, flailing around; the major magazine publishers just recently got together to declare a digital standard for magazines. The problem is nobody cares anymore. And this folderol over the Super Bowl? Please. It's a LEADING INDICATOR, not an anomaly.

Planned Parenthood comes out swinging with their own ad posted on the Inter tubes, And The Women's' Media Center says Game On! You can sign their petition against the ad at not under the bus.com

"Game time is 6:30 on Sunday and the NFL is facing increased pressure to step in," says Spicuglia. "The last thing we need is CBS, the NFL, or their advertisers telling us when and how to have a family. It's not too late to send a letter in protest."

Rut Rho! ACORN fights back and prepare to sting the stinger. What's that saying about as you reap... And did you know that wanna be pimp James O'Keefe was playing dress up for the camera but not while inside the ACORN offices? Uh Huh.

But just imagine the years of outrage and endless repetition of the charges from the Right wing media and their acolytes --- folks like Crazy Andy --- that would accompany four operatives allied with the Democratic Party, perpetrating a scheme to dress up as phony telephone company employees in order to access and manipulate the phone system in the office of a sitting Republican U.S. Senator.

You know how the republicans love polls and the polling pollsters who poll them? Well, Daily Kos has polled the republican nation and it ain't pretty.

Ultimately, these results explain why it is impossible for elected Republicans to work with Democrats to improve our country. Their base are conspiracy mongers who don't believe Obama was born in the United States, that he is the second coming of Lenin, and that he is racist against white people. They already want to impeach him despite the glaringly obvious lack of high crimes or misdemeanors. If any Republican strays and decides to do the right thing and try to work in a bipartisan fashion, they suffer primaries and attacks. Even the Maine twins have quit cooperating out of fear of their homegrown teabaggers.

Chris Kromm of Facing South says the Kos poll illustrates the power of the red, republican, Confederate slave states. You think?

In short: The poll doesn't reflect a general shift to the right in the South. But it does show the growing hold of a certain form of far-right politics in Southern Republican circles, and a high level of receptivity among Republican Southerners to some of the conservative movement's most extreme views.

It's Black History Month so let's talk about Jim Crow Policing in New York City.

The New York City Police Department needs to be restrained. The nonstop humiliation of young black and Hispanic New Yorkers, including children, by police officers who feel no obligation to treat them fairly or with any respect at all is an abomination. That many of the officers engaged in the mistreatment are black or Latino themselves is shameful.

Say, have you seen my Democracy? I mean, really I want my Democracy back. Lawarence Lessig says if we want change we must change congress.

We should remember what it felt like one year ago, as the ability to recall it emotionally will pass and it is an emotional memory as much as anything else. It was a moment rare in a democracy's history. The feeling was palpable--to supporters and opponents alike--that something important had happened. America had elected, the young candidate promised, a transformational president. And wrapped in a campaign that had produced the biggest influx of new voters and small-dollar contributions in a generation, the claim seemed credible, almost intoxicating, and just in time.

Politicians are like diapers. They both need changing regularly and for the same reason. ~Author Unknown

"The courts and the ballot box are the solution to the bingo controversy, not the Governors sad side show"

GUEST EDITORIAL FROM THE DESK OF REPRESENTATIVE LAURA HALL

The attempted raids by the governor’s gaming task force over the past weeks looks more and more like some sort of strange revenge movie rather than law enforcement. Massing state troopers in the middle of the night, early morning court injunctions and stays, lawyers standing in doorways, moving trucks coming in, and then everyone leaves and it goes away until the whole show comes back. It is for lack of a better word: crazy.

It is also dangerous, costing the taxpayers millions, and making a mockery of how law enforcement and the laws of the state are supposed to work. It is threatening the jobs of thousands while there is often no other employment.

Worst of all, it gets us no closer to the fundamental legal questions about electronic bingo. It is time the showboating and the personal settling of scores stop, before someone gets hurt and irreparable harm happens.

It is already doing great harm to the state. We’ve had a well respected man who led the governor’s task force found in a Mississippi Indian casino winning thousands and resign in disgrace. We have seen a plane circling above the Rose Bowl calling for the impeachment of Riley to the embarrassment of us all. We see local sheriffs confronting state officials. We see men taken away from keeping our roads safe so they can stand in parking lots all morning long.

Moreover, under what authority does the governor take these actions, constitutionally or otherwise? He is not elected as a law enforcement officer, we elect the Attorney General for that purpose. Another embarrassing sideshow is the personal, as well as professional, conflict between the Riley and King. The name calling and innuendo, the charges of the governor taking Mississippi money during his gubernatorial campaigns and the contributions the Attorney General has from gaming interests doesn’t befit the offices they hold, but it is just par for the course in this sad sideshow.

The damage to the state, and the horrible precedents being set, indicate one thing: enough!

There are only two venues where the controversy over electronic bingo and gambling in this state can be solved: in the courts and in the ballot box.

The fact is, there have already been votes on whether people want electronic bingo. For a major resort like Victoryland in Shorter there has been more than one vote. These are constitutional amendments approved by the people, and in a place like Macon County where the resort is the county’s largest employer, there is still vigorous local support.

When there is a conflict over what laws and constitutional amendments mean and how they are to be applied, the proper venue is the courts, not with hundreds of state troopers. The courts have already made some rulings on electronic bingo, and one of those the governor uses as the fig leaf for his actions. It is clear there is confusion at all levels of the judiciary on this question.

That is the reason why the final arbiter for electronic bingo in Alabama must be the ballot box. A vote by the people on what they want is the only final solution to what is and is not allowed in bingo facilities across the state. The people can decide whether we are going to tax and regulate bingo, or we are going to remove it.

One side note, even if the citizens of Alabama decide to eliminate all bingo in a vote, it will not be the end of gaming in the state. The Alabama Poarch Creek Indians have a huge gaming resort in Atmore, and two others in Montgomery and Wetumpka. They are covered under federal law.

Gaming, in one fashion or form, will be here now and in the future.
###Report

Controlled Chaos

The aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti is beginning to remind me of the aftermath of Katrina. The American military invades and occupies. Former Presidents Clinton and Bush take their two man fund raising act on the road. The American Red Cross raises millions of dollars. Hollywood holds a telethon. The music industry cuts a record. Millions of American donate money, food, clothes. Thousands of Haitians/Africans suffer and die. Children are separated from their families. Corruption thrives in chaos.

As expected, chaos reigns on the streets of Haiti as victims scramble for food, water, shelter, and anything they can use for money in the wake of horrible devastation. When there are no basic facilities there are no such thing as looters, there are only victims looking to survive.

US policy so far is designed to keep the Haitians in Haiti at all costs. Hack off an arm or leg with a rusty saw, bandage them up with a bandage they can't change, and send them back to the rubble they came from. The Navy ships offshore are not only providing medical services, but, security as well for the white folks in Miami. The US policy is to do everything they can in Haiti to keep a flotilla of boat people leaving the island for the US for their very survival. The United States would look like real dicks turning away earthquake victims from Haiti while accepting Cuban traitors wanting a new flat screen television.
A nation that took in hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese boat people after the war, thousands of Cubans, and millions of Mexicans can surely absorb a few dying Haitians

.

Granny standing for truth asks;

Why is it that America thinks that helping in disasters in which the majority of the victims are black means:

"More recently, Clinton has been busy setting up investment opportunities for Wall Street corporations to further exploit Haitian labor." ~~Kiilu Nyasha-Poor People Magazine~~

"Haitians need real help trying to dig out victims who may still be alive, not opportunistic posturing and photo ops." ~~Kiilu Nyasha-Poor People Magazine~~

In light of the recent revelations and accusations of child trafficking Real Freedom Fighters asks;

When will people learn that just because some white person shows up and claims to represent God, that they are to be obeyed without question?

John Maxwell says;

if anyone wants to know what to do right now: Land 10 thousand wheelbarrows on the streets, handing them over to neighborhood groups. Let the groups decide how they are going to move the rubble and what they are going to do with it. Give the groups money and supplies to set up 10 thousand street kitchens – say about $200 a group. Let the groups pay the wheelbarrow men if necessary. In three weeks the casual journalist would be hard put to find any of the “usual” stories. Total cost $2 million plus $1 million for wheelbarrows.
Meanwhile the UN can be assembling a real security force to protect the Haitians and particularly their president and under his direction,design and install the apparatus allowing Haitians to run their own country and to make their own mistakes, for the first time at last.

Danny Schechter takes the media to task;

The media coverage to date has been missing this type of fact-based and experience driven framework. Its been organized around images, not investigations.
Sadly, tragedies like the one in Haiti require better and more explanatory coverage just as the media packs up and heads to the next disaster, if not to face pink slips in new rounds of news cutbacks.

I pray I'm wrong and Haiti is not another Katrina, but as of right now the similarities are striking.

"OMG... It is like he saw their arguments in bullet time"

John Stewart, host of the daily show, breaks down Big O's beat down on house GOP members.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Q & O
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

It's the Stoopid Media, Stupid!

I know you're probably tired of hearing me say this, but I keep saying it because it's true. The MSM we has is largely responsible for influencing public opinion and shaping public policy. As President Obama said in the SOTU address, the media has turned politics into a game of gotcha, right wing talking points and all spin all the time. Instead of telling us what we need to know, they tell us what they want us to know. For example, we know more about Bill Clintons' private parts than we do about 911. Why?

This is the media who allowed Bush and Cheney to take us to war based on DEAD WRONG INTELLIGENCE. This is the media who allowed Bill Clinton to be impeached for trying to conceal a private, consensual, extra marital,sexual affair from his wife, his daughter and the country. This is the same media that marginalized and minimized the anti war protesters as anti Americans who don't support our troops, but legitimize the Teabaggers as a "grass roots" movement. This is the media that claims it's being fair and balanced when they are actually UNfair and UNbalanced.


As this post from another group explains "Democrats are lacking in media and message".

It seems to me more and more that the Democrats and the Obama administration
lack a comprehensive media strategy to explain and promote their agenda,
policies and programs. They have left it up to the increasingly active tea party
movement and promoter such as Fox News, Right wing talk show and cable networks
of all stripes to tell the American people what President Obama and the
Democrats are all about.

It's not only Fox News and other right wing media outlets, it's CNN, MSNBC and even C-Span. CNN is so busy trying to prove it's not "liberal" they've turned into Fox lite. MSNBC treats us to three hours of misinformation with ex republican Congressman Joe Scarbrough first thing every morning. We used to be able to count on C-Span to at least be fair, if not balanced, but the so called liberal Washington Post has been replaced with the conservative Washington Times as the newspaper of record and conservative leaning Politico.com is the blog of record and conservative/right wing groups and talking heads out number and out debate the democratic/liberal counter side. All of them have a noticeable lack of cultural diversity i.e. it's all white unless the minorities are conservatives.

They have allowed the President to have his face grotesquely smeared on posters
all around the country, House leader Pelosi and Harry Reid's name used as a
pejorative by Fox News day in and day out.

I would add they also allowed President Clinton, Hillary Clinton, the late Senator Edward Kennedy, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, and liberals in general to become a dirty word. If anyone dared protray Bush is a negative light they screamed bloody murder. Republicans=good. Democrats=bad.

Democrats could not explain their health bill in a way the American public could
understand.


Democrats reigned in the credit card companies last summer, then gave the same
companies six months to raise before the law kicked in.

Democrats failed to create a consumer protection agency.
The Democrats failed to create a Deficit reduction commission.

The democrats passed a stimulus bill and then let the right wing and cable news
pick it apart.

The democrats passed the Tarp and other laws and actions without adequately
explaining what would have happened if that had not been done.

With all the so called big money donors, why the lack of any media buys
explaining the Democrats and Obama's accomplishments?

Why indeed? The President and the democrats need to stop taking a knife to the gunfight and take the big guns instead. The current group of people who are allowed to present the message on TeeVee have failed and failed miserably. They are not effective. POTUS needs new, strong, bold faces on TeeVee speaking on behalf of the people, like Howard Dean, Rep. Maxine Waters, Rep. Dennis Kuchinich and other effective progressives and liberals. Someone who isn't afraid to take on the right wing bullies. In sports lingo, they need to send in the second string. ASAP.

One example that could have been effective is a simple chart showing which U.S
President had the highest deficit during their terms. This chart from zFacts
clearly shows the trend between cumulative federal debt and the economy during
each presidential term since Truman.
See: Gross National Debt as a Percent of GDP, by President
1950-2010
http://uspolitics.about.com/od/thefederalbudget/ig/Political-Economic-Measures/Debt-GDP-by-President.htm?p=1

The writer concludes;

The republicans, conservatives, corporations have a simple formula for winning
elections.
1. Appear to be for the middle class while doing the corporate bidding.
2. Embrace the moral issues (always votes there)
3 Strong military defense (men like guns and war- Male Vote)
4. Use fear of immigrants (brown, black) White and Asian are OK.
5. Use fear of Debt and deficits even though Republicans presidents such as
Reagan and Bush ran up more debt than any other previous presidents.
6. Count on the voters not reading or knowing history.

When will the progressives and liberals get their own Cable network to mirror
Fox News but from the left? The way things are going, liberals are disheartened
and disappointed and the right wing smells blood in the water.

When will progressives and liberals get our own Cable network and talk radio programs? How long are we going to continue to allow the public airways to be used to spread misinformation and to distort what we decide?

It's the media I tell you. The media thinks we are stoopid. They think they can tell us anything and we will believe it. It ought to be against the law to use the public airways to lie to the American people.