Redeye's Alabama and Georgia Congress Critter Watch

The Terri Sewell fan club, aka Left in Alabama,makes much hay out press releases touting a Department of Homeland Security grant to the Birmingham Fire and Rescue Department, and an opportunity for high school students to compete in an art contest, but nary a word about Sewell being the only freshman democrat to sign a letter asking for less stringent boiler rules.

A coalition of freshmen lawmakers wrote to Administrator Lisa Jackson Wednesday calling on the agency to issue less stringent final regulations for limiting air pollution from industrial boilers.
The letter was signed by 61 members of the House. Only one Democrat, Rep. Terri Sewell (Ala.), signed on. It builds on a similar letter from 13 Senate freshmen.A coalition of lawmakers and industry groups have railed against the agency’s proposed regulations for industrial boilers, arguing they are impossible to meet. The agency has said its trying to address concerns as it crafts final rules.

Psst Terri! It's not about Y-O-U, remember Shirley Chishom?

Sewell, daughter of Selma's first African-American city councilwoman, noted that she had interviewed Shirley Chisolm for her thesis "Black Women in Politics: Our Time has Come" back in the 1980's. She quoted Chisolm on public service:

"Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth."

... and said, "I'm asking you on July 13th to let me make a small deposit toward that rent. You will not, you will not, be sorry."

Congress Critter Mo Brooks came under fire in Eye Rack, for real.

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, was part of a congressional delegation that came under fire while visiting Iraq this week, according to the website Politico.com.

Brooks and Reps. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., Chris Gibson, R-N.Y., David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Guam Democrat Madeleine Bordallo were eating lunch with troops at a military base Wednesday when the base came under rocket attack, Politico reported Friday.

No one was injured during the attack.

About a half hour later, the base was attacked again, and the representatives were escorted to a bunker. Again, no one was injured.

“I don’t think any of the members of our delegation experienced any fear,” Brooks, a member of the Armed Services Committee, told Politico from an undisclosed location in Iraq. “We placed our trust in our armed services, and they were very professional. They did exactly what they should do.”

Yeah, and Mo and the rest of the Congressional Cowards did what they do best. They cut and ran as fast as their little privileged legs would carry them to get on a plane back to America and left our sons and daughters over there to dodge bullets and rocket attacks 24/7.

Psst Mo! Are the Eye Rack Eees free yet? I thought the Eye Rack Eees were going to dance in the streets and throw flowers and candy at our troops? I thought Eye Rack Eee oil was going to pay for the W-ar?

Bring our troops home. Now. There are no Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Saddam didn't have anything to do with 911. We were lied to. Cut spending in Iraq and Afghanistan, not in America. The poor and the elderly have to give up heat in winter and air conditioning in summer. Cuts to medicare and social security will affect the middle class. WTF are the rich going to give up?

Let's make the midnight train across the state line to Georgia, where Rep. Paul Broun (TeaPublican, gutless coward) is asked, 'Who is going to shoot Obama?' and he didn't say a mumbling word.

Well, I would like to remind people how the media played a clip (out of context) of Reverend Jeremiah Wright saying "God Damn America" over and over again,forced President Obama to reject his church, renounce the man who performed his marriage ceremony and reject the man who baptised both his daughters.

I also want to remind people of the young man being tasered at a John Kerry event for trying to ask a question at a town hall meeting.

Anti War Activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested inside the capital for wearing a T Shirt.

Don't forget the outrage over then candidate Obama's bitter, clinging to their guns remarks (also taken out of context).

So where is the call for elected officials like Broun to reject, renounce and reputiate questions like this?

Crickets

Voice for the Voiceless Edition

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Redeye's Week In Review

We all know republicans love all war all the time so it's no surprise Wisconsin's and the gops the war on the middle class escalated this week. Yep, it's all war all the time, UNfair and UNbalanced.

Governor Walker started the whole Wisconsin union busting spectacle by saying that he’s ready to call out the National Guard, and his call with “David Koch” indicated that he’d considered planting agitators in the crowd, and that he has a baseball bat at the ready in his office.

This morning, his Republican colleagues in the State Assembly passed his bill in a 1 AM vote that was so short that 28 members present weren’t even able to register their vote.

Rham Emmanuel became the new mayor of Chicago this week. I feel sorry for the F^&king Liberal Retards..

Chicago's Daley regime was a half century orgy of arrogance, racism and plunder. Thanks to President Obama, it not only continues with the succession of Rahm Emanuel to the fifth floor office of Chicago's mayor, but with nationwide implementation of disastrous policies toward housing, schools, infrastructure and public workers, all pioneered in Chicago

Southern Public Workers say welcome to our world, Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders tried to tell y'all. But did you listen? Noooo, it was easier to bash Hank Sanders and call him a race baiter. YeeHaw!

Public workers in the South have few illusions about the uphill battle they face. For decades, Southern leaders have viewed promoting a friendly business climate -- including low unionization -- as a key to economic success.

Today, the forces allied against expanding Southern labor rights are in some ways more formidable. Record budget shortfalls have spurred lawmakers to call for containing public sector pay and benefits. Southern Republicans, after enjoying historic victories in 2010, have an opportunity to undermine a constituency that funds and mobilizes their Democratic opposition.

Yes Virginia, there is a difference between republicans and democrats

The difference between Repubs and Dems is that the Dems don’t play as ruthlessly as the opposing team: they usually follow the rules of the game, don’t foul as often, and believe that the spectators should have some stake in the outcome of the game. But make no mistake about it, Dems are as eager to play for the sake of the team, as Repubs, but Repubs are out to play for themselves and themselves only, and the spectators be damned, if they get in their way.

What we've got here is a failure to communicate

Most of you know by now that I believe in the power of communication. I believe that radio and television, for instance, are powerful tools in the propaganda wars in this country, and that they can be used, in a serious way, to benefit those who want to control the message in our day to day discourse. It is imperative that minorities have a seat at this very profitable and powerful table, and that when we do get a seat, we don't waste the space on bulls^%t. (Are you listening Bob Johnson?)

Are you listening Left in Alabama?

I’d like to make it clear that the commenter known as Redeye has no relationship whatsoever with Left in Alabama, even though her name is a link to that blog, which I am associated with.

Redeye over and out...for now.

The DoJ to Huntsville City Schools-"Don't even think about it."

For some reason, the Huntsville City School Board of Education wants the school district released from a court order to desegregate even though the school district is segregated. The Department of Justice told them not to even think about being released from the federal court order.

The District’s 2007-2008 overall student enrollment was 43.1% black and 48.7% white. However, the majority of the District’s 47 schools were racially identifiable black or white due to the composition of their respective student bodies.

Here is the *ahem* rationale for the segregation

The DoJ can’t force people to live where they don’t want to live (yet), so it is basically saying that either Huntsville must engage in massive busing or… engage in massive busing.

The DoJ can't force people to live where they don't want to live, but the HCS can force them to send their children to school based on where they live. In most cases it's not where parents want to live, it's where parents can afford to live. Affluent parents have access to the best public schools their tax dollars can buy. Disadvantaged parents have access to the worst public schools their tax dollars can buy.

Why should parents be forced by the school system to send their children to failing public schools? Remember the Ohio parent who was convicted of sending her children to a school outside of her district?

American educational apartheid dictates that schools in poorer neighborhoods are of significantly less quality than other schools. The racial divisions within American schools are nothing less than a blatant and consistent human rights violation and should certainly be treated as such.

Blogger Ben at Flashpoint says;

The magnet schools that were supposed to lure white students to north Huntsville have been a colossal failure as a tool of integration, so it’s hard to see how else the system could otherwise meet this requirement.

Well, that's not quite true. The magnet schools did lure white students to north Huntsville, and far from being a colossal failure, they are a colossal success. They are racially balanced (thanks to busing) and have high test scores. The problem is there are no magnet schools located in south Huntsville to lure black students.

One thing is clear, Huntsville will not be released from the federal court order unless and until they reach a unitary status. My recommendation is they look at other systems who have achieved unitary status as a model.

The current school system is the result of a 1976 merger between the previous (historically largely white) Wake County school system and the former (historically largely minority) Raleigh City schools. The merger was proposed initially by business leaders in the early 1970s out of concerns that continued "white flight" from Raleigh's inner-city schools would negatively impact the county's overall economy. Political and educational leaders also hoped that merging the two systems would ease court-mandated desegregation. The proposal proved initially unpopular with residents, however, who rejected it by a 3-1 margin in a non-binding referendum in 1973. School and business leaders instead convinced the North Carolina General Assembly to force the merger.[2]

The district since has become notable for its integration efforts. Schools in the system are today integrated based on the income levels reported by families on applications for federally subsidized school lunches, with the goal of having a maximum ratio of 40% low-income students at any one school. Consequently, thousands of suburban students are bused to magnet schools in poorer areas—and likewise, low-income students to suburban schools—to help maintain this income balance.

The neighborhood school concept not only enables segregation but it affects property values. Houses cost $40-50,000 dollars more in south Huntsville because property values are tied to the academic success (or failure) of the schools. Eliminating the neighborhood school concept and instituting public school choice would not only integrate the school district but equalize property values. Instead of attending the nearest schools, parents and students could choose to attend schools based on their interest (i.e. magnet schools).

I repeat;

As long as the quality of public education in Huntsville is based on parental income and property values there is no hope for the Huntsville City Schools.


As long as those in positions of power believe it’s a silly, unrealistic, line that every school should be as good as Grissom, there is no hope for Huntsville City Schools.

As long as those in positions of power believe them uppity coloreds and sneaky Mexicans would receive an education only white, god-fearing, clean, and law-abiding children deserve, there is no hope for the Huntsville City Schools.

As long as black parents aren't politically involved to the same extent as white parents there is no hope for the Huntsville City Schools.

I don't care how many Superintendents, clueless consultants and school boards are hired and fired, there is no hope for the Huntsville City Schools as long as long as people with racist beliefs have the power to exercise racism.

One would think a school system whose motto is Education is the Hope of the Republic would make an effort to educate ALL students regardless of race, gender, sex or address.

Uh, about that returning to Slavery thingy

Remember when Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders said in a robo call to democratic voters he was voting for Ron Sparks for Alabama's Governor because he didn't want to return to the days of slavery and Jim Crow ?

Remember how the righty's, as they are wont to do, took his words literally instead of metaphorically and accused him of being a racist, race baiting, fear monger,Dinosaur with no sense of shame or decency, blah blah blab blab?

Well,Balloon Juice via jackandjillpolitics breaks it down and shows the correlation to the gop's union busting and Slavery. Literally.

What thing becomes clear—as you consider the modern Republican Confederate Party’s effort to attack workers, Unions, the Middle Class and their rights—is that their focus is all about the theft of labor. Stealing the labor of folks is a sure fire way to get rich and it has been since, well, forever. Fighting efforts to protect people from the theft of their labor is what the modern so-called Conservative and/or Gliberterian movements are all about.

Hell no we ain't fergitten!

Slavery offered an elite class multiple ways to cut cost and steal labor. This system of labor theft has experienced two great threats in the last 150 years. The first was the Civil War, which ended the above ground buying and selling of humans and the theft of their labor. This was a major victory in the long fight for justice, but it was not long before gains were pushed backed.

The gop wants to make all states one of them there right to work states.

The effort to push back against labor rights started almost immediately. By 1947 this movement was able to pass the Taft Hartley Act and open the door to new restrictions to the rights of workers. By the Reagan era in the 1980s, the movement to steal labor was repackaged and resold to the most gullible and cynical among us. Since then it has picked up a lot of steam. Laws to restrict the rights of workers have been given the very Orwellian name, “Right to Work” laws—as in in you have the right to work, but not the right to come together and ask for a fair deal. In a “Right to Work” State, a worker is on his or her own. The State will always fight against you. You are on your own sucker and you just have to deal with it. In a “Right to Unionize State” you have back-up, regardless of whether or not you work in a Union shop.

So, are you mad as hell yet?

"Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important." ~Senator Hank Sanders

Can you hear him now?

It's the stoopid WAR, Stoopid!

What part of the reason we are broke is because we are spending BILLIONS of dollars per month fighting W-ars in Iraq and Afghanistan don't our *cough cough* elected officials don't understand?

What part of the reason our counties, cities and states are broke is because we are spending BILLIONS of dollars per month fighting W-ars in Iraq and Afghanistan don't our *ahem* elected officials not understand?

What part of all war all the time and giving the rich a tax cut are the reason we are broke don't our elected officials understand?

What part of you can't fit a square peg into a round hole aka balance the budget *snark* by waging W-ar on the middle class (working poor), labor (working poor) and the disenfranchised (poor) don't they understand?

What part of we the people are sick and tired of being lied too don't they understand?

Wisconsin is Ground Zero. Despite the lame stream media spin, Wisconsin isn't about balancing the budget. It's about putting organized labor in it's place. Thank goodness Wisconsin democrats have a spine.

What GuyinMilwaukee said;

Yeah, I love how the Teabaggies are always screaming about how Obama and the Dems are shredding the constitution, but damned if they can come up with a coherent example of it. Someone else exercises their ACTUAL constitutional rights, like the right to peacable assembly and redress of grievances, and they get all pompous about "the people have spoken" etc. Somehow that didn't apply to them when they were disrupting (and sometimes, not peacefully) the townhall meetings. They were mum about the obstruction of the Senate process by the secret holds and requiring everything to get a super majority. Where was the tut-tutting of the corporate media? I don't remember any. But now we get the Villagers, the know-nothings that follow Beck, Limbaugh, Fox News and the Astroturfed mythology of the teabag cult weighing in with their fictional talking points, saying the unions don't even have a right to assemble. Assholes.
The hypcrisy of it all serves to underscore its real purpose: the corporate take over of government, aka fascism.

If President Obama, John Boehner and the TeaPublicans are serious about cutting spending, stop spending our tax dollars on stupid wars! They need to put up or STFU.

Tea-baggers, Republicans, and Blue-Dog Democrats in Congress use their convoluted “values” and the deficit as excuses to slash and burn social safety net programs ... witness Planned Parenthood. Social Security and Medicare appear to be next on the chopping bloc, never mind that “we the people” have actually paid for these “entitlements.” So, I suggest we actually test their resolve and commitment to reducing the deficit by demanding they implement a “Deficit Reduction Tax.” It goes something like this:

All elected and appointed officials of the US Government will have 10% of their gross monthly earnings deducted and paid towards the deficit reduction.

All retired elected and appointed officials of the US Government with federal retirement benefits exceeding the US median household income (approximately $50K) will have 10% of their federal retirement income in excess of the US median income deducted and paid towards deficit reduction.

The TeaPublicans don't have a problem spending tax dollars rebuilding Iraq and Afghanistan, but they want to cut spending in America. Go figure.

The new tea party-backed freshman class came to Washington to cut spending. Period. And they’ve joined forces with old-line conservatives in the Republican Study Committee to form an immovable bloc on the issue.

As a whole, that dominant faction of the GOP doesn’t like government much. So if the choice is to keep the same government running at the same rate or to shut it down briefly, some are sure to pick shutdown.

Orange Boehner is finding it takes more than a big gavel to heard cats. Snickering

Cats are scurrying all over the damn place…and rumor has it they turned the GOP legislative plan into a litter box and told Speaker Boehner to put his fucking gavel to use and get to scoopin’!

Bring our troops and our tax dollars home. Cut spending on all war all the time.

Redeye's Week in Review

I spent most of the week in the right wing world trying to convince righty's the Huntsville Branch of the NAACP and concerned African American leaders are not threatening to dress up in white robes, light torches,get the ropes, rape white women, sell white children and force white men into slavery. Huntsville Times reporter Mark McCarter fired the shot heard around town, firing the opening salvo in the St. Valentines Massacre of Huntsville Madison County NAACP President Alice Sams. I mean,how dare them there uppity coloreds threaten the good white folks with legal action if they continue to operate a segregated school system? It's not the good white folks fault black parents don't care about their children's education. While the Civil War raged Huntsville City Schools Board members cut jobs and hired a consultant. Anyhoo,this is what happens when reporters interpret the news instead of reporting the news. They create
Weapons
of
Mass
Distraction
One thing I learned as a result of my unwelcome visit into their world, they can't handle the truth. They would RATHER believe a lie.

TeaPublican Governors are carrying out their marching orders to destroy unions and bring back slavery. But that's OK. Mission accomplished. They hoodwinked their base into voting against their self interest. A base that cares more about sending President Obama back to Kenya than they care about jobs, education, access to quality affordable health care, women's rights, civil rights and human rights. Teabaggers can dish out the violent revolution threats but they can't take violent threats.

Republicans are pro life only if it's a republican life. Democrats are on their own. Women, especially poor women of color were dealt a sucker punch from the white, male dominated gop congress. White,republican men don't want poor women to have access to a safe legal abortion or access to family planning, yet they claim them there baby making black women make babies just so the government can take care of them. I guess they want them to breed the next generation of slave labor.

The incarcerated have historically filled the dregs of the American workforce, an emblem of racial subjugation often invisible in the politics of labor and social policy.

Republicans love all war all the time.

The Republican Party has declared war on public servants in the United States the same way Middle East dictators have declared war on political dissidents. Members of the GOP like Scott Wilson, the governor of Wisconsin, want the people of Wisconsin to believe that the people who keep their communities safe, their houses from burning down, their kids educated and their trash picked up on time are nothing more than sniveling spoiled brats who should be thankful if they get to work for anything more than a dollar a day and a bowl of rice.

I told y'all folks don't let those Republicans get back in or it would be all bad. Do you hear me now?

I hear ya loud and clear.

"If you think Halloween is scary, don't vote on November 2nd and see how scary it will be"~Redeye

Welcome to my world~A very personal diary update

Last week I reported someone I loved was racially profiled by the police.

I had to calm down and do a lot of praying before writing this diary. Yesterday I received the kind of news every black mother, daughter, sister, aunt, grandmother, god mother, cousin dreads. Someone I love was racially profiled by the people who are paid to protect and serve us. Contrary to popular opinion, largely due to media driven stereotypes, all young black men are not thugs, pimps and criminals, nor do they all look alike.

The young man in question is the son of a very dear friend of mine. I've known him since he was an infant. His only crime was being a young black man between the ages of 18 and 24 years of age. He has filed an official complaint against the off duty officer. This is his side of the story. On Saturday, February 5th, Bed-Stuy resident, Kameron Walker, said he was assaulted by a group of men, as he walked down Halsey Street, between Thompkins and Throop Avenues.

Walker was heading home at approximately 7:00 pm after leaving nearby Royal Rib House restaurant where he went to get food.
Walker, a 28-year-old black man, said the white men surrounded him and he heard one say, "Let's get him." He immediately began to panic, thinking he was going to be robbed.

He was told to get on the ground and did as he was told. Walker said it was then that things turned ugly for him.
"Next thing I know, one puts handcuffs on me, kind of pulls me up by my waist, then puts me back down with my face in a pile of snow," said Walker.
He said, after he was cuffed, one of the men shoved his face forcefully into the snow, causing bruises and cuts on his cheek.

Immediately after that, the group pulled him up and started asking him questions, saying that they were looking for a violent man who fit his description.
"This is the first time that I realized that they were cops, even though they still didn't identify themselves," Walker alleged.
Eventually, they took his information and let him go. But Walker is extremely upset by the incident, and has retained a lawyer and is filing a CCRB (Criminal Complaint Review Board) notice against the City.

"You know, I'm really torn up by what happened. I've never been in cuffs before; I've never broken the law, and then, this happens," said Walker. "I just want them to know that's not how you handle things."
Kameron's lawyer, Edward Wilford, said police harassment is frequent in the city, but what Kameron can expect is that the city will probably just settle.

Patch has reached out to the local precinct and NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information (DCPI) for comment, but neither has yet to respond.

 This kind of behavior by those who are sworn to protect and defend must stop. This is what peter s. said in the comments;

If this story surprises you then you are very naive. This kind of thing is not uncommon. Unfortunately for all his efforts, Mr. Walker will not see justice. The only harassment incidents that get anywhere are the ones caught on video. Even then the police are usually exonerated or dealt with in a most gentle manner. They are free to return to their homes in the suburbs where their friends and families believe they are kind & loving heroes who serve the public with honor and professionalism. Only we get to see the monsters they become when they report for duty in our neighborhoods.

I hate to say it, but peter might be right (no pun), we saw what happened in Birmingham.

And this provides us all another real-time, real-world example of why we need our next U.S. Supreme Court Justice to be a Liberal, and for a host of Liberal appointments to our Nation's U.S. District and Circuit Courts. Period.

Amen and Amen.

Houston, we've got a problem.

Houston's mayor and police department were on the defensive Friday, two days after graphic video came out showing several police repeatedly kicking and beating a 15-year-old burglary suspect as he lay on the ground.

Birmingham has the same problem. But it's not racial profiling.

There is no justice like injustice. 

God help America.

An open letter to John Boehner~corrected

You knew it was coming.. H/T MES

Dear Mr. Speaker,

Is the gavel to compensate for something? They say that men want large cars to compensate for a small phallus, Freud would say that your gavel would be an attempt to compensate for a lack of sexual prowess. You would have to in order to walk around looking like a goldfish and crying more than a virgin at a prison rodeo.

Where are the jobs? That's what you in your wonderful John Wayne cowboy charm told the mindless masses as you convinced them to vote against their interests. To once again, pull up to the picnic table for the fish fry along with Opie and Floyd and have a mint julep with the honey suckle on the veranda at Tara waiting for the vapors. Yes, we love to gasp and swoon for the vapors...You promised jobs, because the axis of evil, Obama, Pelosi and Reid was going on a shopping spree with the Nations credit card trying to get the nation out of the quagmire that the Duke of Hazard and his band of Merry Thugs got the country into.

Now, you decide it's a good idea to penalize federal employees and cut their jobs in your effort to trim the deficit. So...to create jobs you cut jobs? How does that make logical sense? Aren't you a federal employee? So, couldn't you cut your job in your pathetic effort to cut the deficit? "So be it", is what you say. You remember how people were trying to compare Michelle Obama to Marie Antoinette because of a top she wore, even though she didn't make the "let them eat cake" statement? This is a let them eat cake statement if I ever heard one.

Maybe if you left the tanning alone, this is something you would know. Making more people unemployed will do what to the deficit? It will ADD to the deficit because these people will be filing unemployment insurance, along with people like me, who can't get a job. If they were making over $50k, what kind of job do you think they are going to get? Outside of a greedy corporate lobbyist, if they are in that field, but those people aren't going to be one's that's going to get screwed. It's going to be post office workers and other lowly people that no one thanks or cares about until election year.

30 days and what have you accomplished other than systematically attempt to repress women's reproductive rights and go back on your campaign promises. I thought you idiots said you were done with social issues.

Here is a tip, don't tell anyone, it's a secret: Don't start a pre-emptive war based on lies before you end the first war. That's really expensive. I don't recall anyone pissing and complaining about "spending" when the US government was outsourcing everything to Haliburton and Blackwater during the Bush retard years, but now the Nubian Sharia Law terrorist is in office, so now it's bad....They wasted billions of tax payer dollars, contractors sent to Iraq got $100k tax free. Sure, they ran the risk of being beheaded, but still it was tax free.

You are third in line to the presidency and I truly am fearful for the future. Every interview you give you can't even say that the President was born in America and he has a legitimate birth certificate. Any birther bill should automatically be tabled because you are a leader of a major party and not a group of lunatics. Or are you? I can understand your need to connect to your base, but some topics should really be mentally draining to a person over the age of 12.

Get a map explain that Hawaii is one of the 50 states in the union along with Alaska where caribou Barbie originated from. If Obama has to show his birth certificate yet again, then I need to see Palin's kindergarten, middle and high school graduation certificates. I'm not sure she can walk and chew gum at the same time...she's better suited for being a pop artist than a politician. Easy on the eyes, no talent, no substance, just a stylist and some makeup and a catch phrase. I don't see her dry humping a mic stand in a bathing suit with fringe singing off key, but maybe God will answer our prayers and get her off the political stage before she "refudiates" more historical facts.

Have fun when your limo breaks down in the potholes and there is no one to fix it on the broken down highways in Dept of Transportation, or no policeman when you get car jacked from the scores of unemployed that you decided to sacrifice for your political agenda. I hope your family doesn't get sick and need to use the ambulance, that goes back to my first point. They won't have "Obamacare" or should I say "Romneycare", they can have the hope and pray medical program. Where they pray to God and hope that he answers. You can have power outages because no one replaces the bulbs in the street lights and no one trims the trees...You get my gist.

We can use you for light, you practically glow in the dark.

It seems that Nancy Pelosi is more of a man and leader than you and to think she had a smaller gavel than you, and she never cries. Boner, I am going to send you a box Kleenex. Hopefully if you sit in a seat you will disappear.

Wednesday Must Reads

The republiClowns are so NOT FUNNY.

Speaking of not funny republiClowns, I can only shake my head at Haley, Haley, Haley.

Ya know, I think a few Somali Americans should cut a few license plates with: MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD outlined in bright red letters, and ride through the streets of Mississippi.

I still don't understand the fear and loathing of black folks by white folks. It's not as if black folks have a documented history of doing stuff like this.

Wielding knives and guns, seven white men get out of the car, according to Taylor and witnesses from a state investigation of the case. One shoves Taylor in the backseat; the rest squeeze in after her and ride off. Her panicked friends run to tell the sheriff.

After parking in a deserted grove of pecan trees, the men order the young wife and mother out at gunpoint, shouting at her to undress. Six of them rape Taylor that night. Once finished, they drive her back to the road, ordering her out again before roaring off into the darkness.

Why do some white folks think they have the right to decide who black leaders should or should not be?

Watch Lawrence O'Donnell rip this republiClown a new one. Keith Olberman would have been proud.

The Shirley Sherroding of "Possibly Progressive People" by "white conservative media" and left leaning blogs

You know the drill.

A possibly progressive group holds a press conference

I'm pretty sure the folks who called the aforementioned news conference have good intentions, possibly even progressive intentions, but as most of us have learned, good intentions do not guarantee good outcomes. And poorly chosen words at a press conference not only can't be called back, they are a virtual guarantee of bad press.

I guess it depends on what the definition of poorly chosen words IS. Yes, that's a snark.

The media takes a snippet of the groups remarks out of context and distracts from the real purpose of the press conference.

What we heard in the statement and ensuing answers was more rhetoric instead of solutions.

What we heard were alarming veiled threats. The penultimate paragraph ended with the vow that "We are committed to this end and are willing to fight for (it) if necessary."

Then, to conclude, President John F. Kennedy was quoted as saying, "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible make violent revolution inevitable."

If those weren't veiled threats, they were a poor choice of words.

The pile on commences.

Sams ended her speech with a bold statement.

"Those who make peaceful revolutions impossible make violent revolution inevitable," said Sams, who quoted former president John F. Kennedy. When asked to clarify her remarks and how it applied to the context of the school system, she referred back to the original quote.

"You know what the quote means," said Sams. "I quoted the president (Kennedy). He was a peaceful president, so I did a quote. You can interpret it anyway you want to, I just quoted."

Voila! That's all the righty's need to call for a Race War. Thanks, Mark McCarter.

George Wallace said
February 15, 2011 at 10:48 am
I say bring it on. I’m down for a race war. Everyone can use their 2nd Amendment remedy and God will favor the righteous.

Let's take NAACP Alice Sams remarks in context. She wasn't making a veiled threat. She was quoting President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. I could see McCarter and others taking it as a veiled threat if the NAACP had a history of violent revolutions. The violent revolution Alice Sams is referring to metaphorically is seeking legal redress and remedies.

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954),[1] was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court that declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional. The decision overturned the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 which allowed state-sponsored segregation. Handed down on May 17, 1954, the Warren Court's unanimous (9–0) decision stated that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal." As a result, de jure racial segregation was ruled a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This ruling paved the way for integration and the civil rights movement.[2]

Speaking of rhetoric in abundance, McCarter needs to look in the mirror.

What we heard were assertions that the Huntsville City Schools, under the 10-year leadership of a black superintendent and with a diverse elected board, have regressed to become "a dual school system; one for black students, on the North end of town, separate, unequal and academically unsuccessful and one for the white students on the South end of town, marginally academically successful."

What we heard were complaints about "the extreme disparity in the test scores" between black and white students. Alarming, no question. Sixty-seven percent of white students passed at level IV and less than 27 percent of black students passed at that level.

To my question about the accountability students and parents should have rather than placing it on the school system, Sams merely said after a long pause, "I'm not an educator so I'm not going to answer that question."

What you heard is not what was said. The Huntsville City Schools didn't become a dual school system under the 10year leadership of a "black superintendent", it was dual school system long before she was hired. As for the "diverse" school board, one black member has one vote and is often voted against by the white majority. So, in essence, they are a token with no real power.

To your question about the accountability of students and parents, what about it? The students and parents don't run the school system. They don't appropriate funds. They don't set policy. They don't hire and fire teachers, administrators and support personnel. All they do is pay taxes and vote. How dare you try and blame black parents for the achievement gap and the sad sorry state of the Huntsville City School System. What revbobbob said all the damn way.

I re-headlined it: White conservative editor in Alabama minimizes concerns of black residents

mooncat has a nasty little habit of telling grown black people what they should or should not say and how they should or should not say it too. Can you say condescending?

Know your message and communicate your message. Activists earn positive news stories with well prepared* statements that go beyond simple complaints, with a willingness to engage members of the press and the patience to answer questions as long as the reporters will hang around. After all, when you're trying to earn positive media for your cause, you must first convince these people to tell your story. The press is not the adversary, they are the conduit to a larger audience. If you want that audience to hear your story, you have to convince them your cause is just and your ideas are worthy of coverage.
*"Well prepared" means parsing all the words to make sure your meaning is clear and not subject to misinterpretation and eliminating information that's off topic. It's a good idea to get two or three people of different backgrounds to proof the statement and make sure it conveys the proper message.

Alice Sams doesn't need anyone to tell her what well-prepared means, and she wasn't trying to earn positive media whatever that means. The purpose and intent are to put Huntsville City School leaders on notice that black children will no longer be left behind. How's that for a choice of words? In this case and in most cases regarding fairness to black folks, the media most certainly is the adversary. McCarter chose to ignore the substance of Sams remarks by taking a snippet out of context in a veiled attempt discredit the legitimate concerns of "possibly progressive people".

Psst, Possibly Progressive People! The next time you want to call a press conference call me. I'll be happy to write your press release, statements and field questions from the media. In other words, I'll make sure you are "well prepared".

This is the media we have instead of the media we wish we had. They can dish out the violent revolutions but they can't take them.

We were lied too

The nimby pamby, tree hugging, latte drinking, Birkenstock wearing, hybrid car driving, long haired hippy, anti war protesters were right (no pun). Defector admits to WMD lies that triggered Iraq war

The defector who convinced the White House that Iraq had a secret biological weapons programme has admitted for the first time that he lied about his story, then watched in shock as it was used to justify the war.

No stuff Sherlock?

The admission comes just after the eighth anniversary of Colin Powell's speech to the United Nations in which the then-US secretary of state relied heavily on lies that Janabi had told the German secret service, the BND. It also follows the release of former defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld's memoirs, in which he admitted Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction programme.

So let me see if I've got this right (pun intended), our sons and daughters were sent to Iraq to look for WMD that was not there and they are still there. Billions of our tax dollars were spent looking for WMD that was not there and are still being spent there. Our sons and daughters lost life and limbs based on a big WMD L-I-E.

OK, let's flip the script as the young people say. President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said they had proof of tons and tons of WMD in Iraq and Saddam was about to use them on us.

Remember Cindy Sheehan?

Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan (born July 10, 1957) is an American anti-war activist whose son, specialist Casey Sheehan, was killed during his service in the Iraq War by the Mahdi Army on April 4, 2004. She attracted national and international media attention in August 2005 for her extended anti-war protest at a makeshift camp outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch—a stand which drew both passionate support and angry criticism. She ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2008. She is a vocal critic of President Barack Obama's foreign policy, saying: "I don't think much has changed since the Bush administration."

Only in America would the mother of a dead United States soldier be subjected to treatment like this from her fellow Americans.

I received an email today that had this subject line: "Throw the Bitch in the Ditch." The writer accused me of "throwing dirt" on Casey, himself and his son who all have served the country. I have NEVER said anything to disparage the honorable service of Casey or the others who have signed up to be in the military, only to be abused by the leadership of this country. This writer didn't even blink an eye at calling the mother of a war hero "bitch." I wonder how the email writer feels about his own leadership "throwing dirt" on the service of actual military men like: John Kerry; Jack Murtha; Max Cleland, and yes, even John McCain? I have never questioned people who try to stay alive fighting in the dishonorable wars of the old men. Who I appreciate even more, though, are the people of courage who resist killing innocent people and become conscientious objectors. I wish Casey had. I am hoping that would have happened. He told everyone before he left for Iraq that he didn't think he could "kill anyone."

This is the human cost of the big Weapons of Mass Destruction L-I-E. Read it and weep. republicans need to be reminded daily they supported the big lie lock step when they start talking about big government spending and reducing the deficit on the backs of the poor and the middle class. The mainstream media needs to be reminded daily they enabled the big lie when they start talking about John Edwards lying to supporters about an extra martial affair. The birthers need to be reminded daily our sons and daughters are dying and being maimed for life on foreign soil when they argue President Obama is perhaps not eligible for the office he holds.

Where in the World is the real President Barack Obama?

We're broke? Who knew? Maybe if we bought our troops and our tax dollars home from Iraq and Afghanistan the country wouldn't be broke and President Obama wouldn't be trying to reduce the deficit on the backs of the elderly, college students, the middle class and low income citizens. Also known as the people who voted for him.

What the heck is wrong with President Obama? Has someone kidnapped the Barack Obama that ran for President and replaced him with a clone? Because it looks like to me he is more interesting in winning the approval of the wing nuts than he is the people who put him in office.

President Obama is pandering to people who think he is an African Interloper at the expense of the people who voted for him. People who think he perhaps not eligible for the office based on the right wing media enabled birth certificate conspiracy. When is President Obama going to realize there is nothing he can do to appease these people?

.... House Speaker John Boehner (R-Va.) doesn't want to talk about it. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) doesn't want to talk about it. But their Republican allies in state legislature don't mind talking about it at all.

The opening of 2011 state legislative sessions has been accompanied by a spate of birther-related bills, the clearest indication yet that the controversy surrounding President Barack Obama's place of birth will continue to simmer throughout his reelection campaign.
Lawmakers in at least 10 states have introduced bills requiring presidential candidates to provide some form of proof that they are natural-born citizens, a ballot qualification rule designed to address widespread rumors on the right that Obama was not born in the United States.
This is more than just annoyance about idiotic jokes at CPAC, this is about 10 legislatures advancing actual legislation in response to insane conspiracy theories.

If I wanted to feel the pain of budget cuts I would have voted for John McCain and Sarah Palin.

I wonder when the TeaPublicans are going to wake up and smell the Tea?

Paul Krugman noted some of the cuts that jumped out at him, including deep reductions in aid for pregnant women and women with young children, NOAA, NASA, energy efficiency programs, scientific research, counter-proliferation, FEMA, environmental protections, community health centers, and Centers for Disease Control. Summarizing the Republican philosophy, Krugman concluded, "Don't start thinking about tomorrow."

This is the Batsh*t crazy the Batsh*t crazies voted for

Now we know what life will be like if the House Republicans get their way: Financial aid for college will decline, food-borne illness will spread more easily, Head Start programs will shrink, and Big Bird might be out of business.

After a difficult week of negotiations, the House Appropriations Committee on Friday evening released a detailed list of spending cuts that would reduce non-defense federal expenditures by about $60 billion* between now and September, when the fiscal year ends.

In so doing, House leadership addressed the concerns of Tea Party activists and newly elected Republicans, who were angry that previous spending plans didn't shrink the size of government sufficiently. But that is an awful lot of money to take out of the budget in such a short time, particularly if none of it can come from either the Pentagon or the large entitlement programs (Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security) that comprise the majority of federal spending.

President Obama needs to ask former Alabama CD7 Congress Critter now white collar criminal defense attorney Artur Davis how that pandering to the right at the expense of the base thingy worked out for him.

The American people are hurting. Strike that. The American people are suffering. We can't take anymore pain.

Redeye's Sunday Shorts

Are the American people skeered to protest like the Egyptian people? Unlike the second amendment loving TeaPublicans, the Egyptian people staged a peaceful,persistent, nonviolent protest and they WON.

U.S. corporate media coverage of the unfolding events in Egypt provide little or no window into the true social and political dynamics of the country – who the actual popular actors are in this history-shaking drama. The author describes the people and movements behind the revolt.

TeaPublicans aka CPAC celebrates Black History month with a minstrel show. They tell me they thought Rep. Allen West (TeaPublican token, FL) was one of the waiters. Snicker

West is one of only two black Republicans in the House.
"You endured the relentless and hostile attacks from the liberal left, such as being called racist," West told the conservative activists. "Perhaps they should see who is standing here as your keynote speaker."

How can you tell the good democrats from the ones who are just republicans wearing blue t-shirts? Well, reaching across the aisle and voting with the republicans (not to be confused with the TeaPublicans) is a sign. H/T gradyw

The modern gop is armed and dangerous. I'd be careful about working with them. BTW, how come democrats, or so called democrats, are always the ones reaching out to republicans?

Attempting to repeal insurance reform would be bad enough. Attempting draconian budget cuts during a halting recovery from a deep recession would be bad enough. Making fools of themselves by wasting time reading selections from the Constitution while doing absolutely nothing to create jobs would be bad enough. Launching a war on women would be bad enough. Whining about deficits while proposing policies that would actually increase them would be bad enough. The entire Republican approach of knowing nothing and doing nothing, unless it is to attempt a return to the prevailing values of the Thirteenth Century, is so corrupt and irresponsible that it would defy credulity, were we not already so accustomed to it as to take it for granted. But it's even worse.

Just because the media said the Gulf coast beaches are safe for swimming and the seafood is safe for human consumption in the aftermath of the BP oil spill doesn't mean it's true. Video

Incensed over BP ads claiming that the spilled oil is gone and the Gulf's beaches are clean, Hurricane Creekkeeper John Wathen of Alabama set out to document the truth.

Welcome to my world redux. Cops beat the Crap out of Rutgers student.

Imagine this. You are asleep in a basement apartment with your roommate. You are both Rutgers students. One of you is white, the other an Arab American, and you are both 19. One of you has a father who was a cop. Police in New Brunswick, NJ have a warrant for a different student living in a different apartment in the same building. You have no police record. You are not identified on the warrant. It's 4:30 in the morning. Guess what happened next:

Redeye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray for our children and our country.

Redeye's Week in Review~Alabama

Lock and load, cross hairs, empty the clip. Republicans are pro life,pro guns and anti health care. Go figure.

And how did the new and improved Alabama Democratic Party respond to gop hate? With a whimper. Snicker

If gay people go to redneck bars in Opelika, AL they get what they deserve. Gay people are twice as likely to be the victims of hate crimes than black people. Still can't understand why former AL Congress Critter Artur Davis voted against the Hate Crimes bill. Snark

Boss Hoggs Haley Barbour out, Gooberner heck of a job Brownie Bob Riley in.

Congress Critter Terri Sewell is hard at work. So is Congress Critter Mo Brooks. Psst! Where are the jobs?

Welcome to my world~A very personal diary

I had to calm down and do a lot of praying before writing this diary. Yesterday I received the kind of news every black mother, daughter, sister, aunt, grandmother, godmother, cousin dreads. Someone I love was racially profiled by the people who are paid to protect and serve us. Contrary to popular opinion, largely due to media-driven stereotypes, all young black men are not thugs, pimps and criminals, nor do they all look alike.

Stereotypes are a pet peeve of mine. I see the damage that stereotypes do and how it leads to demonetization of innocent people. Stereotypes are fed to Americans like apple pie and hot dogs and some people tend to gobble them up as if they are the truth and nothing but the truth. And white folks tend to cling to every stereotype of blacks as a reality of who black people are as a whole.

This is a true story with names redacted to protect the innocent.

Earlier this week XXXXXXX was attacked by four ZZ police officers. It was 7:30 PM and he was walking home from a restaurant a few blocks from his house. He said he heard footsteps behind him and he started walking faster because he thought he was about to be mugged.

They came from him from behind, pushed him face down into the snow, never identifying who they were. They knocked him around pretty bad, bruising his face and handcuffed him. By then he figured they were police officers and he asked them what was going on. They said he fit the description of a suspect, young black male, 6 ft. tall. Now mind you XXXXXXX lives in ZZZZZZZ, ZZ, so that is the description of mostly every young male. They searched him saying they were looking for a gun, of course, he didn’t have one. He only had his keys and his ID. Once they didn’t see a gun they let him sit up (all this time his face was on the ground in the snow.) They asked him where he lived and worked, when they found out he worked for a TV station, he said their whole tone changed. He said they became polite and started apologizes for any “inconvenience.” Then they let him go.

Needless to say, he was very upset, not understanding why this would happen to him. I told him he could have been Barack Obama walking down that street in Brooklyn and the same thing could have happened to him. Unfortunately, some things never change.

The lawyers at his TV station are looking into it because everyone at his station knows what a good kid (well man) he is.

I realize that it could have been worse, so I thank God that it is only a few bruises. But I am hurt, mad, and I feel like kicking some ZZZ cops butt right now.

I really can’t talk about it without getting too emotional, so forgive me for not calling, we will talk later. In the meantime thanks for letting me vent.

Please keep XXXXXXX and all of our children in your prayers.

This is the America black children and black parents live in. President Obama had the perfect opportunity to address this issue following the arrest of Dr. Henry Louis Gates but he chose to have a beer summit instead.

Am I the only one saw the the whole thing as some surreal manifestation of the superficial nature of race relations in A-merry-ca? The staging, the forced camaraderie, and --I am sure--- the perfunctory nature of the discussion. Isn't that how we interact with each other on a daily basis?

Quoting GrannyStandingforTruth

Never in a million years did I think I would live to see a black man become President of the Divided States of America. Nor did I think I would live to see Jim Crow and lynching revived under the leadership of a black President either, but well there are some folks in America that are longing for those nostalgic days.

Welcome to my world.

An Open Letter to President Obama

Sharing an insightful open letter To President Obama from one of my young friends. Young voters like this writer are the reason President Obama won in 2008. They voted with HOPE for CHANGE they could believe in. Mr. Obama would be wise to listen and not let them down if he wants to win again in 2012.~Redeye

Dear Mr. President,

I have to give you credit for going yet again into the snake pit and attempting to have an intelligent conversation with an individual who doesn't understand the concept of gravity, lunar orbit, the tides, basic astronomy, or much of anything for that matter. He is one of the more sane "journalists" if we use Glenn Beck as the gauge of sanity. You truly have the patience of Job trying to be diplomatic with people who day and night gin up insane theories about you inciting the Egyptian revolt and installing the new leader along with the communists and the Muslim brotherhood, as if somehow you and the justice department can look in the crystal ball and know who will follow in Mubarak's footsteps. Every time you tried to explain those pesky things like facts, Billo wanted to take us back to land of make believe. It's almost as if Billo was suffering from ADHD from the fidgeting and shuffling, and the easy distractions. You would think the man was on coke. But coke would help a person with ADHD right? O’Reilly is vulgar, immature, and mentally disordered suffering from the mental fidgets. I swear his attention span only lasts no longer than 8 seconds. You just sat there with a smile on your face in amusement, if I could take a stroll in your mind...

I know that you are beginning your re election campaign and you have to get the paranoid fools that watch cluster fox back on the Obama express, but dude, they still think you are a Muslim hell bent on destroying America. Sarah Palin is still yapping her nonsense that you aren't handling Egypt properly and that the American people are calling the White House at 3am and they are getting the answering machine. She doesn't realize that we can't interfere in a sovereign countries revolt or the installation of their leader. Unless we want to get him killed or wage the region in further upheaval. But, she would have to have some knowledge of history, especially Middle Eastern history. Since she is such a Reagan lover, she would remember how he wanted to have peace and disarmament with the Soviet Union. This is person who thinks the soviets won the space race, so I don't expect too much...

If there could be a photo for propaganda in the dictionary, the Fox logo would be there in bold print. Apparently you, the Communists and the Muslim Brotherhood are setting up a Caliphate in the seat of evil in ancient Babylon. I hate that you didn't take Mr. Fair and Balanced to task for blatant lies, but I understand why you didn't. Billo's style is always ask ques. that seem neutral on it's face, but the ques. are loaded and in partisan code. If you aren't thrown by the ques. and start to give credible lucid, sane answers, he starts to try to throw off your flow with "yeah, yeah, I understand all that, all right, all right..." Kind of stupid to try that on a lawyer used to cross examining... I can see how if you are in the room with him or not a quick thinker this can be quite intimidating. Remaining calm, firm, and not letting him overpower you in your answers, which is clearly what you did is the best way to handle a bully like Billo the clown. The calmer you are, the angrier he gets and the dumber he sounds, which gives cluster fox the red meat fact less info. the viewers thrive on.

Will you get independents and tea baggers that watch fox to come back to reservation? I don't know...You have so much ignorance to counter act and so much of it launched from fox. You were diplomatic and as usual you extended the olive branch to a bunch of morons who understand nothing who are set about your destruction. We can only hope the misinformation stops if only people would read and stop getting info from Bachmann, Beck, Palin and Gingrich. Billo has claimed that this interview is the most watched in the history of the world...since he takes so much credence in the Bible, how could he possibly know what was the most watched in the history of the world or the amount of the population at any period of time for this to be the highest watched in the history of the world, ever. Bill later read some of his emails as is his custom, and one of his viewers complained that Bill was shilling for Obama, painting him as a moderate and giving him free advertising..HA HA. See, Bill inserted that email to justify his non-ideological spin because he knows how to play the game too. Bill responded with his patented answer that "The Factor Is not and never has been, an ideological program." "I ask the President questions, he responds and you decide. I don't engineer anything. No...He doesn't engineer anything. "Tiller the baby killer". "I'm going to let you go", "Pinhead or Patriot". Yeah...I see his point, it's not ideological.

Never forget Mr. President, The Gop/ Tea Baggers/ Fox/ Birch society/ Beck watchers see a witch in every tree and a communist/ Muslim everywhere (they don't know the difference), but you are the head of the communist / Muslims. They want you gone no matter what you do, no matter how great the economy is, even if you single handed cure cancer, aids, fix the environment, you will never be good enough. You will always be "radical and a socialist" which is absolutely absurd...Even though renewal of the patriot act is coming up, I bet money it will be extended from the people who are so afraid of our rights being taken away. You need to get the folks that's on board who doesn't drink grain alcohol out of a mason jar and doesn't worry about an imaginary "seat of evil" in Babylon and the caliphates, leave them behind. Let them go back to their world. Try not to give fox anymore credibility, this station is packed full of loons, fools, psycho's and pathological liars. It has more comedic value than comedy central. Just remember what you are dealing with every night, and try to break the hypnotic spell of propaganda idiocy that is fox news.

The politics of the Super Bowl

I was fortunate to attend Super Bowl XLV (45) this year and yes my team won! I say fortunate because that's what you have to be in order to actually attend the Super Bowl and not watch it for FREE on TeeVee. It's an expensive event made for people with lots of disposable income. You could very well fund a third world country with the amount of money spent on the Super Bowl. I'm not one of those people but fortunately I know people who have it like that and are willing to share their wealth with the least of these.

Speaking of sharing the wealth with the least of these, I finally got around to watching Bill O'Reilly talk to President Obama like a boy and President Obama talking to Bill O' Reilly like he was mentally challenged. That's all I'm going to say about the interview that never should have happened. Psst President Obama, you can't reason with unreasonable people. You just can't.

I never liked Pepsi Cola and it has nothing to do with the stereotypical angry black woman Super Bowl ad. It's because the product taste like cough syrup. Plus that, the commercial was so not funny. Darth Vader was funny, and it portrayed dads in a positive light.

Leave Christina Aguilar alone! She wasn't the first one to botch the National Anthem and she won't be the last. I'm one of those people who don't believe the National Anthem should be sung as a solo. Everyone should join in.

I sure do miss the good old days when the half time shows at the football games were marching bands and not a concert. But since it has turned into a choreographed extravaganza I'm not mad at Will i.am for using his performance to call out President Obama and remind him about the least and the left out while he partied with the rich and famous in the White House.

I've enjoyed my vacation from the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and politics but it's time to get back to work. I'm roaming around the Internet playing catch up. I'm back so stay tuned.

Redeye's Week In Review

New year. New look for Redeye's front page. H/T to my friend pwsquare for the awesome refurbishment and graphic design. Stay tuned for more exciting changes. Thanks again for all who read, lurk, comment and encourage me to keep on pushing with the HOPE we WILL overcome someday. Join the conservation. Don't be skeered. :) Posting will be light this weekend. I will be attending the Super Bowl cheering for the Packers of Green Bay. War Damn Packers! Check out What conservatives could learn from the NFL.

All Politics is local

The saga of the sad, sorry, state of public education continues. White folks held a community meeting. Black folks held a community meeting. White folks want to segregate. Black folks want to integrate. And never the two shall meet. So much for One Huntsville. Seriously, if you are poor and you receive a quality education in Huntsville, it will be in spite of the Huntsville City School system not because of the school system. And that's a crying shame.

RedEye Around the State

More democRATs deserted the sinking ship known as the Alabama Democratic Party this week. The ADP came back swinging......with a press release. That will teach em. It's stuff like this that makes folks like me become Independents. While the gop was out registering voters and getting them to the polls, the ADP was trying to figure out how they can get rid of Dr. Joe Reed. Meanwhile, the Confederation of Democratic Women are trying to infiltrate the State Democratic Executive Committee aided and abetted by the same Cats who won't give yours truly a seat at the Left in Alabama table. Go figure.

Po Moe didn't answer his mail before he was a Congress Critter and he isn't answering his mail now. Psst! Call his office. They have a perky sounding young lady answering the phone who will at least phone and take your name and email address.

RedEye on the Nation

According to the gop the American people voted to get sick and die in November. Thank goodness the Senate Democrats will save them from themselves. Not only are they trying to repeal the Affordable Health Care Iraq, they are trying to screw with the Iraq strategy and redefine rape.
I'm still trying to figure out why the majority of the people voted to give the keys to car back to the drunk frat guys and gals so they could drive the country back into the ditch. Funny thing is, the majority of the people who voted for them aka their base, voted against their self interest. The sooner democrats get that message across the better off our country will be. Amen.

RedEye International

Is President Obama the victim of bad intelligence? Everyone is trying to figure out what did he know and when did he know Egypt was about to erupt. Our trusty mainstream media when prancing over to Egypt and got a rude awakening. I mean what did they expect wading into a group of angry people with their TeeVee Cameras and production crews like they were ready to film a made for TeeVee moment. They must have thought they were in America or embedded with our troops in Iraq or Afghanistan or something.

RedEye Week in Review over and out for now. Have a safe and peaceful weekend.

Blame black parents for the sad,sorry state of public education in America

It's black parents fault their children attend crappy public schools. If they would get off their lazy behinds and volunteer at the school or attend PTA meeting they would have good schools in their neighborhoods. They wouldn't have to use fraud and deceit to enroll their children in good schools.

If black parents would just get involved they could hire the best Administrators, teachers and principals, instead they would rather whine and play the victim card.

It's black parents fault the schools in their neighborhood are underfunded and under staffed. It's black parents fault their children are more likely to go to prison than to college because they don't discipline them at home.

It's black parents fault their children can't read because they don't read to them at home. It's black parent's fault they aren't involved in their child's education. Yet when they get involved they are arrested,convicted and jailed for their involvement.

I guess it depends on what the definition of parental involvement IS.

I agree the lack of black parental involvement is responsible for the sad, sorry state of public education in America. Surprised? Pick your teeth up off the floor and read why it's imperative Black parents get involved politically.

The following is a Redeye blast from past that pertains to the present because it impacts the future. Click the link above for hyperlinks and to read the comments.

Please, Black Parents Get Involved.
by: Redeye
Fri Sep 11, 2009 at 18:28:05 PM CDT

Parental Involvement is the key. I don't just mean attending PTSA meetings or attending Parent Teacher Conferences, do that too, but become POLITICALLY INVOLVED. The POLITICALLY INVOLVED Parents gets the worm.
Gone are the days when all parents and guardians had to do to ensure their student had access to a quality education was work and pay taxes. Gone are the days when all parents had to do was go to PTSA meetings and Parent Teacher Conferences. Gone are the days when all parents had to was provide students with food, clothing, shelter and school supplies send them off to school and they would learn something.

It is imperative parents be politically involved because if they are not, school administrators and teachers think they don't care about their student. And if they think you don't care, they darn sure won't and don't care.

Attend School Board meetings. When school board elections come around get out and vote as if your child's educational future depends on it. Same thing if the school Superintendent
is elected. Once elected make an appointment and get to know them like you would your doctor, your lawyer and your pastor. Let them know you like they know their mother or father. Your student's educational opportunities are in their hands. They are the ones that hire and fire the teachers who will mold your students mind and shape their lives. This is very important.

If the recent controversy over President Obama's back to school address didn't convince you to get involved I don't know what will. Just because the Superintendent is black like you, and there is a black face on the school board does not mean your students best interest will advanced. The parents who organized and called their school board representative, the Superintendent, and school principals are the reason your student didn't get to view President Obama's back to school address. You pay taxes just like they do. The school board, the Superintendent and the Principals work for you just like they work for them. Your students have the same rights, but you must become POLITICALLY INVOLVED to protect those rights.

I am still outraged HCS teachers could "opt out" of watching the speech because the African American Superintendent wouldn't stand up to the right wing bullies and do what was right instead of what was political.

I'm still outraged students at one Alabama school were fighting, passing notes, talking and doing everything but watching President Obama's back to school address while the black teacher and the black Principal stood around talking about them knowing all the lyrics to rap songs. They better be glad my child didn't come home from school and tell me that foolishness was going on. There would have been hell to pay. Trust me.

Take a cue from the PACT Parents. They organized and became a united front complete with websites and tee shirts. Their concerns will be addressed because of it. Elected officials know these people VOTE. They know they are politically active and involved.

Those in charge think you don't care if you are not politically involved. They shrug and say there is little or no parental involvement, and offer that as an excuse for everything from low test scores, school closings, teacher hiring/firing to unruly school behavior. They aren't talking about PTSA meetings and parent conferences. They are talking about getting off your Donkey's and becoming POLITICALLY ACTIVE. You have to show them that you care just as much about your child as they care about theirs.

Don't have time now, but look for upcoming diaries on how to organize and become politically active in your child's education. If you already are politically active, I welcome and encourage your input.

Children are our future. Education is the hope of the republic.

Get involved!