What if Wednesday

What if someone watched the watchdogs?

Thomas Jefferson made a notable observation about the role of the newspaper in a democracy:
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. -- Letter to Edward Carrington, 1787.

What if Education is the next Civil Rights movement?

As the memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is unveiled this week, tens of thousands will assemble at the spot where 38 years ago, Dr. King delivered his "I Have a Dream Speech," and taught Americans a lesson in tolerance, equality, and perseverance.
But for millions of African-Americans, that dream has been deferred. Unemployment, which was 31 percent among black teenagers in 1963 and 32 percent among black teenagers in 1993, is now near 40 percent. Among all blacks, the rate of unemployment is nearly double that of whites.
But the biggest disparity -- which can be directly linked to joblessness and poverty -- is in education, where America as a nation has fallen behind 17 other industrialized nations. But among blacks, it's even more dismal, as our youth are more than 25 points behind whites in reading according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

What if Jon Stewart were President?

“The poors,” Stewart calls them. Obama needs to recognize that the world economy is shuddering to a halt because the global rich are so focused on wealth protection into a distant future that capitalism can’t find the money to function and grow. The time that his paltry stimulus bought the system has run out. As they did by going after Saddam instead of Al Qaeda, the political class is again setting off weapons of mass distraction—this time, by going after “spending” and the deficit instead of unemployment and the foreclosure crisis.

The time for muddling through—for saying you can see “both” sides of the argument—is past. Obama is so smart, right? Then he must know this, too.

What if The newest political strategy is to turn the African-American community against the first black president.

There are forces working very hard at making sure that President Obama is defeated in 2012. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they took an oath or signed a pledge to that effect.

The newest political strategy is to turn the African-American community against the first black president. The idea is to get black folks to scream at the President and to threaten to withhold our support come November 2012. Due to the very high unemployment rate in the black community, this could be an easy sell.

What if it's working?

Dear Mr. President,

Every four years one question drives those of us that are not blinded by religious pandering and single minded dogma to the polls. This question is the one question that outside of speeches, kissing babies, American flag lapel pins, standing on stage with the carefully set up all American family with the canned answers is the one thing that is important. "Am I better off today than I was four years ago?" I can say without hesitation, HELL TO THE NO, I am worse off than I was four years ago and millions of people agree with me. I fall into the category of the long term unemployed who can't find a job but who has the misfortune of being educated, therefore I am "overqualified" or "qualified" but not the "highest qualified" if we are talking about federal jobs, which usajobs.com should be labeled a complete joke web site. Oh, but you decided to implement a hiring freeze for federal jobs, didn't you? Smart.

What if republicans take control of our government again?

The Associated Press reports that a New Jersey Republican lawmaker resigned after his wife sent "an offensive and racist" email to the Democratic state Senate campaign of nine-time Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis.

What if people fall for Manipulative role-reversal at it's finest?

It's implied that blacks are now the "most racist people ever." This comes from a group of people who were responsible for rampant legal and extralegal discrimination against blacks, native Americans, Hispanics and other ethnic groups they didn't like. Whenever non-whites broach the subject of color-aroused mistreatment, the Freeper/Teabagger whites immediately accuse them of being racist pricks for even bringing up the subject of race in our newly post-racial society. Those people got themselves a darkie in the White House -- what more do they want?

It's the aggressor calling the victim an "aggressor" while painting himself as the "victim." Manipulative role-reversal at it's finest.

What if the winners are turned into the losers and the losers are turned into the winners?

The Huntsville City Schools Broad Civil Rights War~ Update

Civil War Stories and Diaries

 Let's recap.

In a 3-2 vote, the The Huntsville City School Board of misEducation fired the previous Superintendent, Dr. Anne Roy Moore, replacing her with retired Colonel Casey Wardynski, fondly refereed to as The Polish Hammer by the dumbest human being ever allowed to have a talk radio show. But I digress.

According to comments at al.com Wardinsky is doing the job he was hired to do. Keep the public schools segregated and go around the tenure laws.

Casey you have to break the mold and prove you're not afraid of minorities, democrats, liberals, aclu types and the entire entitlement crowd! Do that, and you'll be doing the job you were hired to do! Oh yeah, not to mention striking down all racial transfers. And that includes allowing not allowing whites to racially transfer either. If you don't like where your child goes to school, move to where they can be zoned into a school of your preference, that's what I had to do!

Remember my post, How to tell if your school district is infected by the Broad Virus? Casey Wardinksy is a Broad Fellow.

The Broad Superintendents Academy was started in 2002 by entrepreneur and philanthropist
Eli Broad to transform urban school districts into effective public enterprises. The Academy is a program of The Broad Center for the Management of School Systems.

The Academy identifies and prepares prominent leaders—executives who have experience successfully leading large organizations and a passion for public service—then places them in urban school districts to dramatically improve the quality of education for America’s students.

The Academy is run like an executive training program. Participants attend extended weekend sessions over the course of 10 months, while continuing to work in their current jobs.

Are Davis Hills Middle School teacher Jo Ann Thompson, Grissom High School Football coach Keith Henderson, and Hampton Cove Elementary School Principal Fillis McGhee, the first casualties of the Broad Civil Rights War? I report. You decide.

Principals are treated like pawns by the superintendent, relocated, rewarded and punished at will.

A rash of Astroturf groups appear claiming to represent “the community” or “parents” and all advocate for the exact same corporate ed reforms that your superintendent supports — merit pay, standardized testing, charter schools, alternative credentialing for teachers. Of course, none of these are genuine grassroots community organizations.

Culture of fear of reprisal develops in which teachers, principals, staff, even parents feel afraid to speak up against the policies of the district or the superintendent.

Ballooning of the central office at the same time superintendent makes painful cuts to schools and classrooms.

Superintendent attempts to sidestep labor laws and union contracts.

Superintendent lays off teachers for questionable reasons.

Your school board starts to show signs of Stockholm Syndrome. They vote in lockstep with the superintendent. Apparently lobotomized by periodic “school board retreat/Broad training” sessions headed by someone from Broad, your school board stops listening to parents and starts to treat them as the enemy. (If you still have a school board, that is — Broad ideally prefers no pesky democratically elected representatives to get in the way of their supts and agendas.)

Davis Hills Middle School teacher Jo Ann Thompson is a victim of the Huntsville City Schools calendar. About nine years ago, someone had the big bright idea to build a "fall break" into the school calendar instead of instituting a year round school year, so the affluent could take a vacation,creating an unnecessary hardship for parents and teachers. Per LiA blogger countrycat

When this fall break business first started,
I had just stopped working full-time.
And I remember thinking at the time "What the heck will families with two parents working full-time (or more!) or single parent families do?"

Previously, my husband and I would trade off vacation days during spring break and school holidays - or send our daughter to some local camp or museum program for half days.

BUT, that worked because we both had relatively flexible work arrangements that included generous vacation time (I got 3 weeks and he had FOUR!) and we could afford the day camps.

Lots of people work full-time without vacation benefits or even sick leave. I have no idea how they cobble together child care arrangements for short breaks like this. I really feel for them.

Public School teachers and public school parents have the same problem. . If Huntsville City Schools had year round school, or, if all schools in the state had the same start date tax payers wouldn't have this problem scheduling vacations,  child care, etc.

This is an example of political parental involvement. The politically involved parents are the ones that pushed the Fall Break agenda, AFTER they fought a recommendation that all Alabama public schools have the same start date and end date. I guess they were against it because AEA was for it.

I'm surprised school board member David Blair voted to fire Hampton Middle School Principal Fillis McGhee based on allegations of falsifying documents in light of the fact during his previous tenure on the board he moved from the district he was elected to represent and lied about it. Looks like Fillis McGhee is a victim of Fall break too.

District 2 suffered low voter turnout for the runoff, with just 14 percent of the 29,737 registered voters in the district casting a ballot.
By 2 p.m., more than halfway through the 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. voting period, just 150 people had voted at the polling place at Covenant Presbyterian Church.
"I expected it to be slow, but not this slow," said Nick Leone, inspector at that precinct. "I'd anticipated about 500 voters."
Leone said he believes area schools' fall break played a part in the low voter turnout.
"The timing was bad," Leone said. "You have fall break, and a lot of people just aren't that interested."

If anyone believes the firing of Fillis McGhee is about falsifying documents, I have some swamp land in Alaska for you to buy. Lest we forget the Hampton Cove school was built and opened without a clearance from the DOJ  because  it just skipped the mind of the school board attorney.  Snark  In exchange for this little faux pax the School board agreed the school would be 20% African American.

He pointed to Hampton Cove Middle, another new school in a white neighborhood. There the school board agreed to aim for a student body that is 20 percent black. The black transfer students will bus in from north Huntsville.

FACT,The Huntsville City School system is under a federal court order to desegregate the school system.

In 1970, a federal judge ordered the official end of a dual school system in Huntsville. The order said no school in Huntsville should appear intended for students of a certain race. Yet, in 2003, 10 city schools are more than 90 percent black.

FACT, this is how the majority members of the present HCS board feel about desegregation.

David Blair says the court order is holding back progress, preventing city schools from experimenting with a system in which students choose a school based on what they want to study instead of where they live.

"I would love to see us challenge the desegregation order," said board member Jennie Robinson, who represents south Huntsville.

The Justice Department, which monitors compliance with the court order, recently refused approval for a second southeast high school. At Grissom, the only nearby high school, less than 4 percent of students are black.

The Justice Department's action limits growth near the Tennessee River, Robinson said. Plus, she said the court order ignores that there are more than two races here. Last year, Huntsville had almost 600 Hispanic students and almost 600 Asians. Most Asian students attended Grissom or its feeder schools.

She also said some studies show children learn better from teachers of the same race.

Board member Topper Birney said the city school board could better operate without federal approval for every new building.

Resegregation is a new word for a new circumstance.

"I don't see a problem with the demographics so long as they are the result of the unfettered exercising of freedom of choice," said Mo Brooks, a member of the Madison County Commission. "I don't think it's a case of east or south or west Huntsville excluding minorities so much as it's a case of minorities wanting to live in close proximity to their centers of influence, those being Oakwood College and Alabama A&M University."

Stay in your zone is code for stay in your place

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A leader in the Madison County Republican Party has written a letter to federal officials stating that disparities between white and black students in Huntsville's school system exist because "life is unfair."
"If there is unfairness, it is because life itself is unfair. The unfairness is not manmade," said Hugh McInnish, at-large member of the county's Republican Executive Committee.

This is war.  Let us march on until victory is won.

New Huntsville City Schools Chief is Judge, Jury and Executioner

I return from my vacation to find the new School Chief, Dr. Casey Wardynski re enacting General Sherman's march to the Sea, firing teachers and Principals left and right, armed with S. 310, the Students First Act, sponsored by Sen. Trip Pittman and Rep. Chad Fincher. Don't let the name Student's First fool you.

The Students First Act would allow school leaders to operate schools efficiently and effectively. Citizens demand elected and appointed school leaders be accountable to the public so they must have the authority required to operate schools to meet student needs.

Translation, school boards can fire and hire tenured teachers without going through that pesky old Teachers Union (AEA).

Make no mistake: AEA wants to preserve the status quo and is targeting the very heart of Students First in an effort to remove “deference” from the employer decision. S.310 provides a full due process hearing before any termination decision can be made by a school board. The superintendent has the burden to prove that an employee should be terminated for cause. After the decision, a hearing officer would consider an appeal and give deference, or weight, to the school board’s decision which is based on the evidence presented at the hearing. In other words, the hearing officer can not substitute judgment or disregard the employer’s decision, but determines whether or not the school board’s decision is justified and proper.

Which brings us to the dismissal of the Davis Hills Middle School teacher Jo Anne Thompson, and Hampton Cove Elementary School Principal, Fillis McGhee.

Thompson, who according to my sources, is not only a fine person but is an effective language arts teacher at Davis Hills Middle School, was fired for, get this, taking time off during the first week of school to attend the Baptist Church national convention with her pastor husband as she's done for the past NINE years.

Wardynski previously told The Times that Thompson had gone on her trip despite being denied permission by both him and new Davis Hills principal Kirus Johnson. Thompson allegedly told Wardynski she had already purchased her airline tickets and that she'd been allowed to take the time off for the convention for the last nine years.

The allegations against Fillis McGhee are more serious.

The school board voted unanimously to cancel the contract of Fillis McGhee, who was accused of nepotism and fraud by Wardynski. Wardynski said that McGhee had used her position to secure a job for her sister and had falsified documents to get her 2-year-old niece in the system's pre-K program.
Wardynski also said McGhee falsified professional learning plans for several of her teachers, including forging the teachers' signatures on some of the documents. The principal also allegedly charged parents for an after-school tutoring program and had them make the checks out directly to herself.

Note I said the allegations against McGhee are more serious. Under the old law the school district would have to prove the allegations are true. Under the new law, allegations are enough to get you fired.

My sources confirm there is a special interest faction associated with Hampton Cove Elementary who do not want an African American leader at the predominately white school because she was approving too many majority to minority transfers.

Both Thompson and McGhee are fighting their dismissal and this will be the first test of S.310.

According to this comment at al.com Wardinksy is doing what he was hired to do.

Casey you have to break the mold and prove you're not afraid of minorities, democrats, liberals, aclu types and the entire entitlement crowd! Do that, and you'll be doing the job you were hired to do! Oh yeah, not to mention striking down all racial transfers. And that includes allowing not allowing whites to racially transfer either. If you don't like where your child goes to school, move to where they can be zoned into a school of your preference, that's what I had to do!

So now we know why Wardinsky was hired, and what he was hired to do.

Is Mo Brooks on crack?

According to Madison County Commissioner Bob Harrison's'(D) facebook page, Representative Mo Brooks (r.)compared President Obama's fiscal policy to a "crackhead hooked on crack". I guess it takes one to know one, but I digress.

This is the same United States Congressman who said he would do anything short of shooting illegal immigrants to solve the immigration problem.

This is the same United States Congressman who said "project children" shouldn't be allowed to attend south Huntsville Schools because they were inferior. As a matter of fact, Mo believes people who live in North Huntsville have a lower IQ than people who live in South Huntsville. Hard to believe his wife is employed by the Huntsville City School system, but I digress.

I didn't read about Mo's comments from The Huntsville Times, Flashpoint or even Left in Alabama, I read about it on Facebook. What I did read on Flashpoint point were the allegations Obama would have to kill Romney.

America is showing her true colors. Sitting United States Congressman call the President of the United States a liar, Tar Baby, Muslim Terrorist, a Dick, a Boy, and a monkey, without shame or consequence. IMHO Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions shot the opening salvo at the President's inauguration. Everyone tried to tell me I was making a mountain out of a mole hill, but I knew what was really going on. And since no one stood up then, we have what we have now.

Now the world knows who we (Americans)  really are. How do we look going around the world telling leaders they should step down because they are evil dictators? How do we look going around the world spreading freedom? Bring our troops home to liberate America from the bigotry and the bigots.

It ought to be against the law for elected officials and the media to disrespect the office of the President of the United States because he is an African American.

It ought to be against the law for the media to enable elected officials to disrespect the President of the United States because he is an African American.

And they want us to sing God Bless America?

"[The United States] government lied about their belief that all men were created equal. The truth is they believed that all white men were created equal. The truth is they did not even believe that white women were created equal, in creation nor civilization. The government had to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get white women the vote. Then the government had to pass an equal rights amendment to get equal protection under the law for women. The government still thinks a woman has no rights over her own body, and between Uncle Clarence who sexually harassed Anita Hill, and a closeted Klan court, that is a throwback to the 19th century, handpicked by Daddy Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, between Clarence and that stacked court, they are about to undo Roe vs. Wade, just like they are about to un-do affirmative action. The government lied in its founding documents and the government is still lying today. Governments lie."

Reverend Jeremiah Wright was right. Pun intended.

RedEye's Week in Review

In case you haven't noticed postings have been practically non existent this week. I am taking a semi, but much needed blog vacation. I will be checking in and posting periodically so please keep reading. commenting and posting those links. All I ask is you keep it clean. I am also taking a break from cable news and talk radio so I don't know what they've been talking about this week, but I can tell you what the best political team in the Blogosphere is buzzing about.

Movies do not imitate life. In anticipation of the movie The Help I read the book. Thank goodness I did because the producers chose to entertain instead of educate

The Bingo MisLynching kicks the Obama InJustice department between the legs. I would laugh, but it's so not funny.

Class warfare continues in the Huntspatch Sitty Schools. Thank goodness for the Hampton Cove Parents and Havalittletalk. Now if they would just go over and help Morris and UP before something terrible happens and we have another Lee High School bus tragedy.

Glad I missed the Snow White and Seven Dwarfs show, I mean debate last night.

I wonder when the red, republican, bigots are going to realize they're are being used?

Gotta Go..read on....read often.

RedEye's Tuesday Must Reads

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

Let us be frank and state the obvious...a reality that so many in the mainstream media are loathe to admit: The Tea Party GOP and its highwayman want to destroy President Obama because he is a Democrat. But, they despise him because he is Black.

GrannyStandingforTruth is back and decoding the code words! Hmmmm. I wonder if she met with AL State Senator Hank Sanders (D.Selma)?

Well folks after returning back from my trip back South, I am beginning to hear more and more talk about slavery and proposals for some new voting laws coming from those white folks on the right. It appears that those folks are longing for the good ole days when they could sit on their asses, drink mint juleps, and fan flies all day while they once again profiting off those of a darker hue's free labor.

\
Jeff Sessions, The Magical Elf and His Aversion to Reality

Alabama heart throb and vile lisping piglet, also called the “top ranking Republican” on the Senate Judiciary Committee, has made a new delusional claim about the debt ceiling debate debacle.

No more Mister Nice Guy Warning, contains *ahem* strong, raw language, but it needed to be said.

How to tell if your School District is Infected by the Broad Virus. See if any of these sound familar.

Schools in your district are suddenly closed.

Even top-performing schools, alternative and schools for the gifted, are inexplicably and suddenly targeted for closure or mergers.

Repetition of the phrases “the achievement gap” and “closing the achievement gap” in district documents and public statements.

Repeated use of the terms “excellence” and “best practices” and “data-driven decisions.” (Coupled with a noted absence of any of the above.)

The production of “data” that is false or cherry-picked, and then used to justify reforms.

Principals are treated like pawns by the superintendent, relocated, rewarded and punished at will.

Sudden increase in number of paid outside consultants.

Read On! Read Often!

Alabama is #1!

No, not the Auburn University Tigers or the University of Alabama Crimson Tide Football teams, but the great state of Alabama is numeral Uno in people using Food Stamps.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) - Alabama has made it's way to the top of a national list and it's not good news.

According to recent numbers released by The Food and Nutrition Service, Alabama is now the state with the greatest number of residents receiving food stamps.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or "SNAP," shows that in May of 2010, just over 808,000 people were collecting food stamps. This year, that number jumped to over 1.7 million. That's an increase of 118 percent.

And before some of y'all start blaming them there illiterate Aborigines and them there shiftless illegals who just want the Guvermint to take care of them, the majority of the people are the working poor and the unemployed.

In 2010, the total number of people on the SNAP food stamp program was a little over 40 million, and in the first five months of this year, that number has grown over 10%. Continued unemployment, and lack of jobs in the economy have led more people to require food stamps to supplement their monthly bills, especially as price inflation continues to grow at a faster pace.

As food stamp usage by the American people reaches an all-time high here on the final day of May, reliance upon the government program should continue to grow and quickly surpass the already 44 million users who need the benefits to buy food staples for their families. This growth in a program that cost the government over $64 Billion in 2010 will add to the fiscal burden already being experienced by Washington who needs to find ways to cut spending.

In the case of Sweet Home Anti Guvermint Spending Alabama, nearly 1/3 of Alabamians receive food stamp assistance.

The state Department of Human Resources reports there were a record 1.43 million Alabamians in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. The number was higher than normal because 43 of Alabama's 67 counties were receiving disaster assistance due to the deadly tornadoes in April.

I wonder what Mo Brooks and our other Congress Critters are doing on their summer vacations?

As the market closes on one of the worst weeks we've had in years—down more than 10 percent in the last two weeks, with at least $1 trillion in stock market wealth destroyed since the budget deal was reached—we also learned with Friday morning's jobless numbers that, according to Bloomberg, the share of the population holding a job fell to 58 percent, the lowest since July 1983. The headlines are screaming, the charts and graphs are horrible, and people are scared.

Yet Congress is gone on vacation. They're on a scheduled five-week recess, not back until after Labor Day. As Jerry Seinfeld would ask, Who's the marketing genius who came up with that idea?

Yep. We're #1!
SMH

Edit~"The thing to remember is that just because folks are mad and broke doesn’t mean they’re stupid"

Thank You Keith Owens!

In Pundit World, particularly TV Pundit World it seems, the common wisdom appears to be that if President Obama doesn’t somehow manage to accomplish the near impossible task of reducing the level of unemployment from its current level of 9.1 percent down to somewhere in the 7 percent range, then his chances for re-election are seriously at risk because no president since Depression-era President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has ever won a second term with unemployment higher than 7.2 percent.

As I watch and listen to Mike Huckabee lie about Obama Care being rammed down our throats blah, blah, blab, blab in a paid for commercial on TV, and the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads, in their designer clothes, perfect hair, access to health care, 401k's, and bright smiles blabbing about Obama's poll numbers and what the republicans candidates are saying (WTF cares?), I'm thinking to myself, they (the media, tea party, republicans) must think we the people are stoopid. I mean really!

Contrary to popular and misinformed opinion democrats and the majority of the American people aren't mad at President Obama because democratic policies aren't working for them. We're mad because President Obama pandered to the right at the expense of his base. We're mad because President Obama surrounded himself with advisers who don't know their Donkey from a hole in the ground. We are mad at President Obama for letting Yes We Can get hijacked by HELL NO YOU CAN'T with the media driving the getaway car.

I for one am happy the TeaPubliKlans caused America to lose it's AAA credit rating because America will experience what the majority of Americans experience every day.

No, what makes America look unreliable isn't budget math, it's politics. And please, let's not have the usual declarations that both sides are at fault. Our problems are almost entirely one-sided - specifically, they're caused by the rise of an extremist right that is prepared to create repeated crises rather than give an inch on its demands.
The truth is that as far as the straight economics goes, America's long-run fiscal problems shouldn't be all that hard to fix. It's true that an aging population and rising health care costs will, under current policies, push spending up faster than tax receipts. But the United States has far higher health costs than any other advanced country, and very low taxes by international standards. If we could move even part way toward international norms on both these fronts, our budget problems would be solved.

So why can't we do that? Because we have a powerful political movement in this country that screamed "death panels" in the face of modest efforts to use Medicare funds more effectively, and preferred to risk financial catastrophe rather than agree to even a penny in additional revenues.

The real question facing America, even in purely fiscal terms, isn't whether we'll trim a trillion here or a trillion there from deficits. It is whether the extremists now blocking any kind of responsible policy can be defeated and marginalized.

Psst President Obama! Do something! And I don't mean travel around the Midwest in a bus making speeches. Your people are losing HOPE. If you are one term President it will be your own damn fault. Bring the Professional Lefty's in.

Psst President Obama! Independents are really republicans who are ashamed to call themselves republicans. They are not, and will never be your friend. You stand for everything thing they oppose. You need to stop listening to the gaggle heads and listen to us Professional Leftys. You need to surround yourself with some real Political Scientist and kick the clueless consultants and their enablers to the curb.

Go back to your Community Organizing Roots. Community organizing is how ordinary people respond to out-of-touch politicians, enabled by the main stream media and their failed policies.

Bring our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan before more lose life and limb for nothing.

Restore honesty and integrity to the Justice department and end the political prosecutions.

The thing to remember is that just because folks are mad and broke doesn’t mean they’re stupid. Sure Obama has made his fair share of missteps, and he has for sure worn out his welcome with the adult in the room business, let alone his over willingness to negotiate with folks who hate his guts. But in the end he is still so far ahead of every last one of the Republican challengers in his potential ability to manage this crisis that it’s not even a fair fight.

We are mad and broke, but we are not stoopid. And neither are you.

RedEye's Reccomendations for the "Super Committee"

Here are the names of six people who should be appointed to the Super Committee who are not namby, pamby, Wusses. These are Congress people with a proven track record of standing up and speaking out against injustice and unfairness. In other words, they won't compromise with the hostage takers. They will stand up to them and fight for rights of the little guys and gals.

Publicly, most lawmakers say they have no desire to be named to the so-called super committee tasked with finding an additional $1.5 trillion in cuts to the deficit by Thanksgiving. But behind the scenes, some are already beginning to jockey for seats on the 12-member bipartisan panel, which many see as a historic opportunity to overhaul the Tax Code and entitlements.

In the Senate, some potential candidates will soon begin to interview with leaders, who under debt-limit legislation will have the power to appoint members to the committee, comprising an equal number of Democrats and Republicans and balanced representation from the House and Senate.

And unlike other presidential blue-ribbon commissions and ad hoc panels, this joint select committee has the teeth to do something big to slash the deficit.

RedEye's A Team

1. Senator Bernie Sanders I. Vermont
2. Congressman Dennis Kuchinnich D. Ohio

3. Congresswoman Maxine Waters D. California

4. Congressman Charlie Rangel D. New York

5. Senator Al Franken D. Minnesota

6. Senator Amy Klobuchar D. Minnesota

RedEye's B Team

1. Senator Barbara Boxer D. California

2. Senator Barbara Mikulski D. Maryland

3. Senator Bob Menendez D. New Jersey

4. Rep. John Conyers D. Michigan

5. Rep. Emanual Clever D. Missouri

6. Rep. Keith Ellison Minnesota

7. Rep. Luis Gutierrez D. Illinois

8. Rep. Donna Edwards D. Maryland

9. Rep. Barbara Lee D. Callifornia

10.Rep. Alcee Hastings D. Florida

Now you know the TeaPublicans are going to appoint the meanest, toughest, SOB they can find to serve on the committee, so democrats need to be ready to Bring. It. On.

If I missed anyone feel free to add to the list. The only criteria is they must represent the democratic wing of the democratic party. NO conservadems. No more sugar coated Satan Sandwiches.

RedEye's Racist, Racism, Week in Review

The woman weeping in this picture is Rebecca Glover. She is the aunt of Henry Glover.Police shot him then burned his body in a car. Five officers are on trial. Photograph: Gerald Herbert/AP

Federal prosecutors and civil rights lawyers say that Katrina laid bare a culture of corruption, racist violence and a code of silence in the New Orleans police department (NOPD). They describe a force in chaos: while some officers were dedicated to saving lives, others armed themselves with their own automatic weapons and behaved like vigilantes; senior officers spread false assertions that martial law was declared and encouraged the shooting of looters.

At least 10 people died at the hands of the police. Some civil rights lawyers suspect the real figure is much higher. All the victims were African Americans.

The trial closed under the radar of the American media this week. I wonder why? Snark

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Five police officers on trial in the shooting deaths of civilians in the chaotic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina were portrayed Tuesday in closing arguments as criminals or heroes.

“It was unreasonable for these officers to fire even one shot,” said Assistant US Attorney Theodore Carter, who reminded jurors of video footage that showed they unleashed “54 seconds of gunfire.”

The trial, which began five weeks ago, focuses on an incident on September 4, 2005, as two families whose homes were devastated by Katrina’s flood waters were crossing New Orleans’s Danziger Bridge.

In what prosecutors have described as a “hail of gunfire,” two people were killed, both African Americans, and four were wounded.

The mainstream media also ignored the Fire Department of New York's dirty little secret. But that's OK. Snark

A former FDNY official shed light on a troubling back-room practice that helped white firefighter candidates get hired despite having criminal records.

President Obama celebrated his 50th birthday this week, despite Republican opposition. Yep. After holding a gun to the heads of the American people and forcing him to cough cough compromise with Satan, the republicans still weren't happy. They had to call him an ol'boy and a Tar Baby.

I agree with mooncat-In my book, anybody who admits to hostage-taking deserves to be called a terrorist. The Tea Party Repubs earned that moniker, same way Republicans earned their reputation as racists. The only thing I would add if I were allowed to post at LiA, is anyone who votes for the racist TeaPublicans (my word) are racist.

Is There A State Democratic Party Anywhere In America In Worse Shape Than Florida's? Uh, Yea....how about Sweet Home Alabama? The Alabama Democratic Party is enabling the Alabama GOP via the media, to disband the Alabama Democratic Conference under the guise they are cough cough corrupt. Never mind the ADC get out the vote for a straight Democratic ticket in every election and a lot of cough cough elected officials wouldn't be in office without the black/block vote. Nope, the political reality is ADP is tired of being known as the N-word party so the N's have to go so white voters will come back to the party of George Wallace, Strom Thurmond, and Jesse Helms. Today's republicans are yesterday's democrats.

Bigots have the right (pun intended) to be bigots on the Internet. You either believe in Freedom of Speech or you don't. I will not moderate (censor) comments because I don't agree with them or because they "offend" me. That is the tone I believe in. That is the tone our sons and daughters in the military fight and die for.

On that note, I would like to welcome The Locust Fork News back online after a three-week unplanned hiatus due to a hacking attack. Is that what they do when they don't like what you're saying?

Michael Bloomberg / $30 million from Bloomberg + $30 million from Soros + $60 million from NYC = help. Not a white man's burden or a waste of money.

WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!
NYC to blow $127 Million on programs for black and Hispanics aged 16-24 only.

Sounds more like the white man not wanting black and brown Americans become productive citizens because then they can't call them lying lazy, shiftless, drug dealing, pimps and nappy-headed ho's to me.

For the record, NYC isn't blowing $127 million on the program, it's investing 60 million in the future of our country.

RedEye over and out.

"We got 98% of what we wanted and the market tanked"

Blame Obama. That is the republican plan in a nutshell. They are counting on that segment of voters who hate Obama more than they love themselves, to get out and vote the drunk frat boys back into office, so they can drive the country back into the ditch.

The republicans are also counting on democrats being so stoopid they will vote for a republican to get back at Obama.

I will tell you right (pun intended) now, it will be a cold day in hell I before a vote for a TeaPublithug. The only way I will vote for a TeaPulithug is if they are pro choice, pro civil rights, equal rights and human rights, pro union, pro universal health care, anti war and pro public schools.

To be clear, the republican strategy is to blame President Obama for their miserable failures. They must think we are stoopid.

Let them eat sugar coated Satan Sandwiches!

What just happened?

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

Now they call for "leadership"

Can't Make This Up: After Staying Silent Until Budget Deal Passed, AFL-CIO Now Issues a "Call for Leadership and for Action"

The result was as painful as it was predictable.

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

Hope is not a plan

When everyone says a deal sucks it sucks.

Our Congress Critters protected their modest wealth.

Happy Birthday Mr. President, enjoy your birthday cake while the rest of us choke on a sugar coated Satan Sandwich.

What is a Satan sandwich exactly? According to a 2004 Urban Dictionary definition, it’s Dressing up a successful right-wing hostage-taking situation as an act of political compromise.

Un Huh.

Not playing the "race baiting race" card

Sending the Azalea Trail Maidens as Alabama's one and only official representative to the Inaugural Parade of the First African American President is not playing the race baiting race card.

Calling the first African American President of the United States a Kenyan born, Muslim is not playing the race card.

Calling the first African American President of the United States a Tar Baby is not playing the race card.

Calling the first African American President of the United States your boy and an ol'boy is not playing the race cards.

No really racially charged words here. No Siree.

Nope, those are terms used to disrespect the first African American President of the United States of America but they are not meant to be racist.

I declare, some people just go around LOOKING for reasons to be offended.

Just look away

Look away

Look away

Jesusland

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

Democrats likely need a strong turnout among black voters in Alabama to elect Sparks to the governor's office and Folsom as lieutenant governor.

When asked about the calls Friday, Sparks said, "If you believe there is not racism in this state, then you are not living in the same state I am living in."

Republican governor candidate Robert Bentley said the calls are an attempt at race-baiting, and Sanders and Sparks should apologize for them.

Translation-It's not race baiting unless we say it's race baiting.

Nod, nod, wink, wink.

President Obama should fire everybody except Michelle

The Presidents' staff/cabinet are miserable failures. They need to be replaced with people who are not afraid to allow him to govern because he is an African American man.

He is the President of the United States of America. President Obama can only appropriately address the issue of jobs, education social problem from the standpoint of policy. I am dismayed those advising him advised him to go the route of compromise, which we the people see as capitulation.

I never believed Obama was going to be the the black people's President and only the the black people's President, because I believed him when he said there were no red states or blue states but the United States of America. But, his advisers were so afraid that if he showed any sympathy or empathy to the plight of blacks it would look like he was giving blacks "special treatment".

I believe some whites were actually afraid President Obama was going to exact some kind of revenge for slavery and Jim Crow. So, in their zeal to shape the first African American President in their image, they turned him into a token with no power. Someone they could point to and say America is post racial. As if the emasculation of black men in America needed more assistance. But I digress.


If President Obama doesn't do something to rescue his historic election future African Americans don't have a chance of being elected President of the United States of America because they will use his Presidency as an example.


One of the first things President Obama did was allow the media to make him distance himself from old guard black leaders and distance himself from vocal black folks. Yes, the old guard black leaders are out dated in a certain way, but they made it possible for Obama to be were he is today. He could have benefited from their experience, advice and counsel.

Candidate Obama was race neutral, aka race neutered. What good is being elected the first African American President if you have to pretend you are not an African American? Alothough he wanted to be seen as race neutral he continously made it race specific when he lectured black people desperately in pursuit of white approval. Instead of telling black folks they should act more like white folks he should be talking about what institutional racism and the system are doing to black families and communities across this nation and enacting polices to solve the problem.

And please get the First Lady Michelle Obama out of the garden and into the West Wing. It's time for her advisers/staff to go for the same reasons. She is a woman of style and substance.

It's not to late to change course Mr. President. It's "Yes we can". Remember?

Still trying to get over the shock and shame

H/T Jerry Brice

Just when I think our Congress Cowards can't sink any lower they drag Congress woman Gabby Giffords from her sick bed to vote for the sugar coated, Satan Sandwich. But Gifford wasn't the only victim that day. They couldn't drag the little girl in the picture to the vote.

Isn't it ironic Giffords voted FOR a deal brokered by the same people whose rhetoric is responsible for her present condition? Isn't it ironic these same people win again? This is not Change we can believe in. This is more of the same old stuff.

Listen to Athenae

I feel about this the way I feel about people who keep grizzly bears and gorillas and tigers as pets. They keep animals that outweigh them as pampered house guests, feeding them raw salmon and steak and putting cute little collars on them and shit, and then are ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED when their "best friends" get bored one day and eat their faces.

I mean, COME ON. Did you really not think you'd be lunch at some point? It's one thing to know it and have a death wish. People jump out of planes. People do all kinds of shit they know is dangerous as hell and it's kinda sexy to live that far on the edge, but only if you know. If you've got yourself a degree in Advanced Self-Deception and you think it is going to be okay to keep a zoo animal in your living room because it owes you something for naming and putting a little hat on it, I don't even know what to do with you. That kind of idiocy exhausts me down to my bones.

Listen to Field Negro

O, this is not change that I can believe in. I understand that there is a degree of politics involved here, so you had to kick the can down the road after 2012. But did you have to let the wing nuts pick the can to kick, the shoes you will use to kick it, and which one of your feet you will kick it with? No wonder your base is fit to be tied and the leader of the CBC is calling this proposed debt ceiling bill a "Satan Sandwich". (Tea party sandwich, "Satan sandwich, what's the difference?)

They hate us for our freedom

The ruling elite didn't even have the decency to throw in an extension of unemployment benefits as a sweetener to cowed Democrats in Congress. I guess they figured they could use that as a backup if too many House Democrats decided to follow their consciences... instead of their Conservative Consensus president who already lost them their majority last year and is guaranteeing they won't win it back in 2012. That won't be necessary though, will it?

And, NO. Trotting Gabby Giffords out for spin is NOT going to distract us from the fact the President and the Democrats made a deal with the devil and divided the party. Giffords health care and pension aren't going to be cut.

It's not going to distract us from the fact Democrats provided the boat for the TeaBaggers to sell us down the river. And for what? Or should I say for whom? Not the little girl in the picture. Not the elderly. Not the disabled. Not the single mothers. That's for sure.

Mo Brooks voted with the Congressional Black Caucus?

That's right (pun intended), number One TeaBaggers Mo Brooks joined with the Congressional Black Caucus and voted HELL TO THE NO on the sugar coated Satan Sandwich, aka the debt deal.

Congressional Black Caucus chairman Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) isn’t a fan of the proposed deal to raise the debt ceiling.

Cleaver told Roll Call Sunday that the deal was a “sugar-coated Satan sandwich.”

“You have been quoted, coming out of your caucus as calling this agreement a ‘sugar-coated Satan sandwich,” MSNBC’s Chris Jansing noted Sunday. “Was that indeed your quote? Is that how you feel about this deal?”

“Very accurate quote,” Cleaver admitted. “What you see is antithetical to everything the religions of the world teach: take care of the poor, take care of the aged. Look at the phone calls I’ve gotten. They are seven-to-one in favor of a balanced deal, and also preserving Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security. And I’m concerned about this because we don’t know the details. And until we see the details, we are going to be extremely non-committed.”

The Congressional Black Caucus released a letter Sunday urging President Barack Obama instead of making a deal with Republicans to raise the debt ceiling.

Meanwhile little Miss Designer Pump wearing Representative Terri Sewell (CD 7) voted against the Congressional Black Caucus and FOR the sugar coated Satan Sandwich. Here is here statement courtesy of her ardent fan mooncat over at right leaning, Left in Alabama.

"Today, I voted in favor of the Budget Control Act of 2011. While it is not a perfect bill, this bipartisan measure prevents this nation from going into default and protects Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security – essential programs relied upon by our nation’s seniors and middle class families. The bill that passed today removes the cloud of economic uncertainty from our global markets and ensures that this nation will meet its fiscal obligations. I voted in favor of this bill not because I am a Democrat, but because I believe in the Full Faith and Credit of the United States.
Legislation is the art of compromise and there are plenty of provisions in this bill that are unsettling. The drastic cuts coupled with no revenues I believe threatens our economic recovery. However, the bill does provide a significant down payment on our nation’s debt and creates a process for reducing the deficit.
As we continue working toward strengthening the economy, the burden cannot simply fall on our seniors, students, middle class families and the most vulnerable. The solution must include shared sacrifice from us all.
Ultimately, allowing America to default on its obligations was simply not an option."

Mo might not have intended to vote with the Congressional Black Caucus but I have to give it to him for looking out for his constituents .

One of his reasons is what would happen to the defense budget if the bipartisan committee created by the deal fails to reach another agreement on spending cuts by the end of the year.
“You're looking at a 20 percent cut in FY '13 in our (national) security, and I cannot agree to do that”, Brooks said after a meeting of House Republicans.

Unlike little Miss Sewell who represents Alabama's black belt.

Today, Alabama's Black Belt includes some of the poorest counties in the United States. Along with high rates of poverty, the area is typified by declining populations, a primarily agricultural landscape with low-density settlement, high unemployment, poor access to education and medical care, substandard housing and high rates of crime.

What's up is down. What's down is up.

A RedEye Rant

To say I am pi$$ed off about the debt ceiling capitulation is an understatement. I postponed my rant until I could compose a complete sentence without using cuss words and calling our *ahem* President, and the Democratic *ahem* leadership. a bunch of dirty names. Until I can compose my thoughts with clarity, read what other Professional Lefty, Effing Retards, have written about this low down, dirty, deal of death.

This is what we get for trying to reason with those who can't be reasoned with.

Meanwhile, you gotta hand it to the ever-present Tea Party contingent of the GOP for "staying the course", or whatever they call it these days. They have a goal, and it is to use this current (manufactured) crisis to not only hang a failure over Obama's neck like so many dead Albatrosses and send him packing come November 2012, but also to drive the country over the fiscal edge right now and into a genuine depression, one that may or may not rival that of the Great Depression that kicked off in late 1929 and didn't let up until sometime near the end of WWII. The whole idea behind this plan is to trigger a moment of weakness in American history where they can finally present and implement their socioeconomic policies and make their ideology the "gold standard" among Americans.

Can you say Punk'd again?

So why won't the president call Republican and bankster bluffs and shut down the phony debt ceiling crisis? Why won't the Republicans take yes-may-I -have-another-tax-cut-for-the-rich for an answer? And why won't president Obama stand up and fight for the poor and working people who voted for him in their tens of millions, who have made his career possible.

Because he wants to be the first and the last African American President in the history of these United States of America that's why.

I have a theory about all this debt ceiling bullshit. And some of ya'll might accuse me of being a conspiracy theorist. But I'll be that.
This time.

Do ya'll remember back to last year when the senate minority leader Mitch McConnell made a rather disrespectful comment towards the President after the Dumbocrats got their asses handed to them during the midterm elections?

I believe the comment went like, 'The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president'.
Their "single most important thing" is to get this half Negra out of the house that Whitey built; with the "built" being done by slave labor.
So I think that this "debt ceiling" is a part of that plan.

Another Horse Head in the President's Bed.

Republicans threatened to crash the economy, on purpose, unless a series of radical demands were met. Democrats made an effort to lessen those demands and make them less painful than intended. The result, not surprisingly, is rather ugly, which is to be expected.

The debt-reduction framework isn’t a compromise; it’s a ransom. If one were to draw up two lists — one with all the concessions Democrats made, the other with the concessions the GOP made — the one-sided image would be striking. Of course, that’s what happens when one party has a gun to the head of its hostage — in this case, the nation and its economy — and the other party wants to prevent their rivals from pulling the trigger.

Ransom paid.

Anyone who characterizes the deal between the President, Democratic, and Republican leaders as a victory for the American people over partisanship understands neither economics nor politics.

The deal does not raise taxes on America’s wealthy and most fortunate — who are now taking home a larger share of total income and wealth, and whose tax rates are already lower than they have been, in eighty years. Yet it puts the nation’s most important safety nets and public investments on the chopping block.

I want my Effing Hope for Change we can believe in back instead of Deja Voodoo All Over Again!

As the Senate draws closer to passing the Obama Compromise, I have the same sick feeling of helplessness I felt when our Congress Cowards gave George W. Bush a blank check to take our troops to war in Iraq. Us hard core, professional lefty, tree hugging, Birkenstock wearing, Latte drinking, hybrid car driving, liberals tried tell everyone Bush was using 911 as an excuse to go to war in Iraq. We tried to tell everyone there was no WMD in Iraq. We tried to tell everyone Saddam had nothing to do with 911. We tried to tell everyone there was no exit and our troop would be plan sound the alarm. But did they listen? Noooo. We were called anti Bush, anti Troops, anti American and told to STFU and stop whining for the good of the country. Never mind that we were right (pun intended), there was no WMD in Iraq and our troops are still there.

Well here we go again. Us hardcore liberals are trying to sound the alarm about the Obama Compromise and again we're being told to STFU.

Open wide and eat your Grand Crap Sandwich

The Republican Party was able to enact more conservative cuts on the government with a Democratic President and Democratic Senate than they were with a Republican President, House, and Senate. That’s how much of a massive failure the debt ceiling “deal” is.

It is a massive failure, not only of progressive politics, but of American politics. The legislation will hobble the economic recovery while hurting the poor and middle class. Anybody who believes in progress for America should loudly vote against this monstrosity.

Everybody should share the blame here.

The Republican Party, for its dogged dedication to policies that enrich the already rich at the expense of ordinary Americans.

Congressional Democrats, for being listless and directionless and spineless at practically every opportunity. Given the reigns of power by the American people, they dithered and dithered and watered legislation down. While in the majority, they allowed the GOP to wield far too much influence, while also making the party’s own conservative wing overly influential. Those choices helped lead to a loss of power in 2010, and even weaker leadership in 2011.

I for one am not surprised.

Barack Obama signaled that he was going to be a weak president on January 11, 2009. That is when Obama, nine days before his inauguration, told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos that he was going to take a "look forward, not backwards" approach on the apparent crimes of the George W. Bush administration.

Obama, unfortunately, followed through on that pledge, and it helped Republicans claim the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2010. The House takeover, in turn, led to last night's debt-ceiling deal, which a leading columnist calls a "disaster"--and a "political catastrophe" for Democrats. The deal probably will make the nation's economy worse, not better, and it provides more evidence that Obama is headed for a failed presidency.

Stay tuned for more ranting.