EYE am willing to forgive Mike Bloomberg but EYE can't forget what Mike Bloomberg did

This sample ballot is misleading and incorrect.

Cue in Aretha Franklin-Willing to Forgive 
"Because you really, really hurt me this time".  Someone EYE love was racially profiled in New York City under the Stop and Frisk policy so this is personal to me.  

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.

As my wise Daddy once told me, I will support and defend you when you are done wrong, but I won't support and defend you when you do wrong and there is no right way to do the wrong thing.

 EYE don't condone the decision of the Alabama Democratic Conference to endorse Mike Bloomberg and this morning EYE wake up to the news the endorsement will bite them in the Donkey, which EYE suspect was the plan all along.

THERE IS NO AMBIGUITY HERE. IF YOU VOTE FOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG FOR PRESIDENT AND VOTE FOR “UNCOMMITTED” DELEGATES THINKING THAT THEY WILL SOMEHOW BE ASSIGNED TO HIM AFTER THE ELECTION, YOU ARE MISTAKEN.
Your vote for Bloomberg for President will count. Your vote for Uncommitted delegates will be ignored.
And yet, this the sample ballot distributed outside churches in Madison County today seems to indicate that you can vote for Bloomberg AND the ADC’s endorsed “Uncommitted” delegates. You can; the machine won’t reject your ballot. But it also won’t count the votes for the Uncommitted delegates.

There is a concerted effort to control African American voters in Alabama, and EYE guess we aren't supposed to notice we are fighting with each other while the DNC is standing on the sideline egging it on. 

Ironically Americans from across the nation converged on Selma, Alabama to re-enact Bloody Sunday but the struggle is not over. Then as now, we are struggling to vote.  Republicans suppress the Black vote, Democrats depress the black vote.  What to do and where to go?

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray.

EYE don't condone the Bloomberg endorsement but EYE understand the Bloomberg endorsement

By J.D. Crowe | jdcrowe@al.com

So, the white male-dominated Alabama media have their knickers in knots because Joe Reed's ADC endorsed former New York Mayor Micheal Bloomberg for President in the Democratic primary.  The same white male-dominated media who give Senator Doug Jones a pass for voting to confirm William Barr Attorney General of the United States of America and who bucked his party to vote with Republicans 53% of the time his first year in office and 36% of the time his second year in office.  The same Senator we have to wonder if he is going to pander to the right and throw his base under the bus every time there is an important vote.  But EYE digress.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.

With the prodding of Sen. Doug Jones, the national party ordered the Alabama party to change bylaws that ensured Reed’s permanent lock on the executive committee. England’s son, state Rep. Chris England, won a party election for chair, which most ADC members boycotted.
It seemed, for a moment, Reed’s hold on the state party had broken.
Then comes Bloomberg.

Let's recap 

This whole saga started last August, when Jones led a failed coup of the Alabama Democratic Party during its election of officers, including an unsuccessful attempt to unseat Chairwoman Nancy Worley. Worley was the preferred choice of the Alabama Democratic Conference (ADC), which is known as the “black political caucus” of the state party.
Since then, formal challenges about that election were filed with the DNC, which is now attempting to force the state party to hold a new election of officers and drastically change the structure of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) in a manner which would include less African Americans.

Fast Foward 

The two sides in a dispute over the leadership and governance of the Alabama Democratic Party will go to court-ordered mediation next week.
Representatives of factions loyal to Alabama Democratic Party chair Christopher England and former chair Nancy Worley should meet for mediation in Montgomery on Feb. 6. Meanwhile, Worley, who does not recognize the actions of the England group, has called a meeting of the executive board of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) on Feb. 7.

 Back to the future

Joe Reed, the chair of the Alabama Democratic Conference and vice-chair for minority affairs in the state party, said he believed the State Democratic Executive Committee's (SDEC) move in November to elect new leadership and remove Worley and vice-chair Randy Kelly violated a 1991 agreement governing the representation of African-Americans on the SDEC.

"I think it's time for us to go into federal court, because they're violating a federal court order," he said.

The past is prologue 

The feud began last August, when Jones made known he wanted Worley to step aside. But Worley ran for another term — beating back the entire slate Jones supported.
“He went after Nancy’s seat. He lost,” said Joe Reed, a civil rights veteran who heads the Alabama Democratic Conference, the state’s principal African American Democratic club, and Worley’s most powerful ally. “Doug’s slate lost. He came back. He got with Perez. They then came up with a scheme to challenge Nancy’s election.”
Two groups of Alabama Democrats did challenge the election results, and Worley’s handling of the meeting, in an official complaint lodged with the DNC. A detailed report found a series of rules and parliamentary violations and raised questions about the accuracy of the vote count.
In February, after that investigation, the DNC’s Rules and Bylaws Committee vacated the August election results and ordered the state Democratic Party to come up with new bylaws meant to increase representation of minority and members of the LGBT community among party leadership.

It's about controlling the black vote

But in Bloomberg, Reed has a special opportunity: A viable candidate who needs his help.
Bloomberg has bypassed the first four states, putting all his effort into Super Tuesday states, of which Alabama is one.

The Alabama Democratic Conference which represents the majority of the membership of the Alabama Democratic Party is under constant and sustained attack from the minority.  evidently, Mike Bloomberg offered a lifeline.

I have spoken to three black NYC political operatives who are quietly thinking about joining the campaign, which is gaining momentum, hiring nationwide, and paying top dollar. These aren’t mercenaries but self-defined pragmatic progressives who believe Bloomberg has the best chance at an electoral victory against Trump in November. I have spoken to a friend who says his black fraternity’s message boards—full of college-educated black men of diverse financial backgrounds, in various professional sectors, living in towns and cities across the country—are full of favorable talk about Bloomberg. As I’m writing this on a trip to Los Angeles, I was surprised to hear my friends here—a diverse group of fortysomething progressives in different professions and from different backgrounds—saying not only that they thought Bloomberg could win but they were inclined to support him."

"A lifeline is not pretty or perfect "

EYE am just saying

First Shots Fired in the Democratic Civil War! YeeHaw!!

Divided Alabama Democrats defy DNC in chaotic meeting filled with yelling and accusations

Alabama Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley and Vice-Chair Randy Kelly bought out the big guns and fired the first shots in the battle for control of the soul, EYE mean control of the Alabama Democratic Party.

Alabama Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Worley and vice chairman Randy Kelly filed a complaint on Wednesday with the Montgomery County Circuit Court asking for a temporary restraining order to block a scheduled meeting this Saturday, and also asking for an injunction against the breakaway ADP group.

Judge Greg Griffin has set a hearing for Thursday morning on the matter.

He will rule on possibly the oddest lawsuit in some time — one that asks the court to prevent a group of people from meeting in order to elect new ADP leadership, despite Worley and Kelly neither recognizing the legitimacy of the breakaway group nor the power of the Democratic National Committee to authorize the meeting.

Actually, Judge Greg Griffin will rule whether the minority has the right to rule the majority because that's what this war is actually about.  The 'breakaway group" sees this as Custer's EYE mean their stand, EYE mean chance to take their party back from Joe Reed and his bunch.

That’s at the heart of what started this mess in the first place. After Worley was re-elected in September 2018, several State Democratic Executive Committee members filed a challenge claiming that various issues should make the elections invalid. Among the complaints was an allegation that the ADP’s bylaws were seriously out of line with the DNC’s and failed to provide proper voices to a number of minority groups, including LGBTQ people, Hispanics, Asians and youth.

The complaint also stated that because of those flawed bylaws, the party was being controlled by vice chairman for minority affairs Joe Reed.

Actually, this mess started with Senator Doug Jones's failed takeover of the Alabama Democratic Party when the #SoreLosers convinced DNC Chairman Tom Perez the SDEC Minority Caucus were a bunch of lying, election stealing racist. 

The feud began last August, when Jones made known he wanted Worley to step aside. But Worley ran for another term — beating back the entire slate Jones supported.
“He went after Nancy’s seat. He lost,” said Joe Reed, a civil rights veteran who heads the Alabama Democratic Conference, the state’s principal African American Democratic club, and Worley’s most powerful ally. “Doug’s slate lost. He came back. He got with Perez. They then came up with a scheme to challenge Nancy’s election.”

Sometimes you have to laugh to keep from crying at the absurdity of politics.

Barry Ragsdale, an attorney representing some of the defendants, said Worley and her supporters were "trying to delay the inevitable."
"It was probably inevitable we would end up here," he said. "To try to tell people they can’t go to a meeting or get together with like-minded folks to talk politics, that's not what Democrats do."

Uh...there is a difference between a get together with like-minded folks and trying to hijack the Alabama Democratic Party. 

Instead, however, there are those who want us to change our Bylaws to create a Diversity Caucus and manipulate the numbers to achieve unfair results because of a urinating contest between Senator Doug Jones and black Democratic leaders in Alabama over control of the ADP. You were drawn into this “shower,” by virtue of your position; this should not be. This demand on Alabama is not required of any other states. Except for the Vice President of Youth Affairs, Senator Doug Jones backed an all-white slate of officers for the SDEC when Blacks constitute 70% of the Democratic electorate in Alabama. They all lost. We should not be asked or expected to cooperate or accommodate racism to placate anyone. Your energy and influence should be focused on helping us increase the number of registered voters and voter turnout in the Democratic Party.

EYE report.
You decide.

ar

#DNC enabled #PlantationPolitricks in #SweetHomeAlabama

Cue in WAR!  What is it good for?

And the fight for control for the soul (pun intended) of the Alabama Democratic Party wages on.  At a critical time when Alabama Dems should be united in their effort to keep the Alabama Senate seat blue so Democrats can regain control of the Senate, General Tom Perez is leading the charge to alienate the traditional, loyal, democratic base in favor of Senator Doug Jones, who bucks his party and votes with  Republicans and who doesn't seem to care he's the Senates most vulnerable, incumbent.  

Which might be the plan.

If the DNC would stop trying to stymie change and rather embrace black women and Muslims and queer people of color as changemakers, we wouldn’t be living under Trumpism or even under Clintonian neoliberalism. Rather, we’d be living in a world in which more people (and more kinds of people) would be more free.

Here's the letter where DNC Chairman Tom Perez takes the side of the minority over the majority. 

Read it and Weep.

"This night is not the end this night is just the beginning" ~Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed shows us how to win elections in #SweetHomeAlabama

The votes have been counted and ALL the people have spoken in Montgomery, Alabama.  

Alabama's capital, a city once known as the cradle of the Confederacy and later the birthplace of the civil rights movement, elected its first African American mayor Tuesday.

EYE would like to thank those in the white male-dominated Alabama media for their remarkable restraint and not enabling the racism by advertising Steven Reed is the son of the most hated Black Man in Alabama until after the election.

Reed was already the first black probate judge elected in Montgomery County and was one of the first to issue marriage licenses to gay couples in the state. His father, Joe Reed, is the longtime leader of the black caucus of the Alabama Democratic Party. Woods, who owns WCOV-TV, is the son of the late broadcasting executive Charles Woods, a perennial Alabama candidate for more than 30 years.

And then there is this: 

Reed also expands on the legacy of his father, Joe Reed, a local politician who has served as chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference for decades. According to the Post, the elder Reed was elected to the Montgomery City Council In 1975—along with three other black elected officials, they were the first black politicians to hold office in Montgomery since Reconstruction.

Psst, DNC.  This is what happens when all the fingers on the hand work together.

Reed secured 67 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s runoff election, beating his opponent, local tv station owner David Woods by 16,000 votes, reports CNN.

So now comes the hard part.  Will the first African American Mayor of the Cradle of the Confederacy be allowed to actually govern or will he be another black/brown face that doesn't want to be a black voice?

The Washington Post reports Pressley said she's not interested in bringing "a chair to an old table."

“This is the time to shake that table. ... We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice,” Pressley reportedly said during the event. “We don’t need any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.”

Pressley's comments followed a tumultuous week of Democratic infighting, as establishment Democrats continue to clash with a new wave of elected progressives in the party.

 Time will tell the truth. 

Democrats have become consumed by nasty fights over racial politics, even as the 2020 White House contenders ramp up their outreach to the black and Latino voters who will play a critical role in determining the party’s presidential nominee.

Congratulations Mayor Reed.  EYE hope you can and will keep your winning coalition together and refrain from listening to those who advise you to throw your base under the bus. 

Updated: Get Your Fright On~ Halloween on the Alabama #DemocraticPartyPlantation

Myrtles Plantation And the Ghost of One Slaves Bloody Revenge

It's getting downright spooky on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama.

Alabama progressives should be leery of the Jones-Ragsdale tag team, veteran political activist Jill Simpson said on her Facebook page yesterday. Simpson noted that three individuals who helped unmask Fuller -- herself, attorney-blogger Donald Watkins, and yours truly -- came under attack from right-wing forces aligned with Jones and Ragsdale:

Let's recap:
A faction of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDLC), led by U.S. Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL) met in Montgomery, AL  where the Jones faction approved new bylaws in a major step toward replacing current party leaders Nancy Worley and Joe Reed.

Seventy-eight of the approximately 250 SDEC committee members attended.
They adopted the new rules on a voice vote with no audible dissent. They voted to meet again on Nov. 2 to hold the new election for chair and vice chair.
Four representatives of the Democratic National Committee were at today’s meeting, including Harold Ickes, a member of the DNC’s Rules & Bylaws Committee. Ickes said his role was to monitor. He has been involved in the year-long dispute between the DNC and the state party.

The Alabama Republican Party is eager to unseat Jones to help the GOP hold on to control of the U.S. Senate and if Black Democrats don't vote for him that's exactly what will happen. 

Black voters made up 29 percent of the electorate in Alabama's special Senate election, according to exit polling. That percentage is slightly more than the percentage of Black voters in the state who turned out for Barack Obama in 2012. And a full 96 percent of Black voters in Alabama Tuesday supported Jones, including 98 percent of African-American women. "Black women led us to victory. Black women are the backbone of the Democratic party," Democratic National Committee chairman Tom Perez tweeted Wednesday morning, "and we can't take that for granted. Period."

And yet that's exactly what they are doing.   

But here is the Political Play of the Decade: For Democrats to have any realistic hopes of taking control of the U.S. Senate from Republicans they need to hold on to Jones seat. So control of the U.S. Senate is in the control of Alabama's Black block vote and we are damned if we vote for Doug Jones and damned if we don't.

Ain't that a dip?

Psst! Nancy Worley EYE know the tremendous pressure you are under and EYE appreciate your fighting spirit b-but...

Although you have been successful in the past at keeping the angry white males and the women who love them at bay I sense a force that is bigger, meaner, powerful, and more determined than ever before controlling this latest effort to take the ADP back to the Party of George Wallace.

Be afraid.....

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray.

Life on the #DemocraticPartyPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama Episode 3

Alabama Public Enemy #1 and #2

Cue in PUBLIC ENEMIES THEME SONG TEN MILLION SLAVES

According to some (not to be confused with all) in the white-male dominated Alabama media, the two individuals pictured above are responsible for snatching brown children away from their parents and putting them in cages, all forms of racism, poverty, and sexism in #SweetHomeAlabama.  They are incompetent and the reason Democrats can't win elections.  They are the reason Alabama is #1 in college football and last in quality of life.  

So the war for control of the #DemocraticPartyPlantation continues appropriately in the Cradle of the Confederacy when the White Wing convenes a gathering to approve DNC mandated bylaws that will throw the Black Wing to the back of the bus and remove and replace the Party Overseerer I mean Leadership by any means necessary.

B-But it's not racial.....

Stay tuned for another episode of Life on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama

Episode 2 Life on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama

Lawyers, start your billing.

Cue in  Deliverance

EYE can't figure out if the person(s) advising Senator Doug Jones is/are political masterminds,  Republican operatives, or both.

“93% of black women that voted in the state of Alabama voted for Doug Jones... That’s the power of the sister vote.” - Birmingham City Councilor Sheila Tyson pic.twitter.com/lTgP7saCxx

— Kira Lerner (@kira_lerner) December 13, 2017

EYE have to give them(?) credit for being political mastermind(s)  they found a candidate black and white democrats could vote for, formed a winning coalition, and turned a red seat from the reddest of the red states blue.

Money and mobilization matter, campaigns matters, issues are important, and voters are listening. Doug Jones was assisted with a massive coordinated mobilization apparatus deployed on the ground in Alabama. A compilation of national grass-roots organization that partnered with local chapter groups like the NAACP. The turnout of African-American voters in Alabama cannot be overstated. 29 percent Black voter turnout, and Black women in particular, is credited with delivering the victory for Doug Jones.

The ground operation was well organized and well funded. The conventional norms still enlisted the help of the Party’s elite headliners including Barack Obama and Joe Biden who recorded robo-calls. Campaign events featuring Senator Cory Booker, Representative John Lewis, and athlete Charles Barkley were particularly important for drawing attention to what was at stake in this election.

Shortly after the election EYE started getting the feeling maybe we were punk'd because Doug Jones went from the lawyer who convicted the murderer of the Four Little Girls killed in The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, AL and the crusader for women's rights  to a so-called "moderate" who was going to represent ALL the people of Alabama.  Nod Nod Wink Wink

DOUG JONES: I think that this election shows that people across this country want to see people work together. When the people of Alabama elect a senator who runs on a platform of trying to find common ground and reaching across aisles, I think that's a message that both political parties should take heed.
SIEGEL: NPR's Debbie Elliott joins us from Montgomery. And Debbie, this is Jones' first elected position. What can you tell us about him?
DEBBIE ELLIOTT, BYLINE: Well, it's the first time he's run for public office, but he's no stranger to politics. He's been active in Democratic Party circles for some time. He's a former federal prosecutor appointed by President Bill Clinton. He's best known for reopening the 1963 Ku Klux Klan bombing of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham where four black girls were killed. Here's Jones after he won a murder conviction in that case in 2001.

Fast forward to the escalating Civil War being waged within #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama.  The minority is determined to rule the majority by whatever means necessary.

No good deed goes unpunished on the #DemocraticPlantation in #SweetHomeAlabama.  

Black voters told me over and over that Tuesday’s turnout is not a fluke — and doesn’t have to be an aberration. The same coalition of voters that turned out in Alabama on Tuesday, they said, can turn out and swing elections across the country. Democrats in other states can nominate candidates who have been working in the communities for decades, like Jones, or candidates that are not afraid to advertise on billboards in black neighborhoods. The winning candidate elsewhere could also be someone who isn’t willing to moderate his or her progressive views, they said.

EYE regret Doug Jones listened to those who advised him to throw the people who bought him to the party bus off and under the bus.  Really EYE do. 

History to the contrary, too many white Democrats refuse to learn that Blacks can win elections. Less than a week after Black voters were hailed for having “saved America” through a record turnout in Alabama to defeat Roy Moore’s bid for the U.S. Senate in December, pundits were advising the Democratic Party that it should reward its Black supporters by shoving them to the back of the political bus yet again. Bill Scher’s Dec. 20 article in POLITICO was typical of this bad advice. He suggested that in 2018, Democrats should run candidates like Doug Jones, who won a narrow victory over Roy Moore but polled lower than Moore among white voters.

Stay tuned. 

An Open Letter to Nancy Worley

SDEC Vice-Chair responds to the "Whining Whiners" with "factual information"

Dear Madame Chair,

It's me RedEye.  I am writing this letter today to let you know I recognize the tremendous pressure you are under to throw African Americans under the bus and to apologize for all the bashing and worse you endure for being an ally to Black Democrats in Alabama.  Our rich southern heritage tells us there is nothing worse in #SweetHomeAlabama than for a white person to align themselves with #TheBlacks.

A number of SDEC members, DNC officials and interested parties told me on Monday that tremendous pressure is being placed on ADP leaders, including Worley, to do the right things and stop standing in the way of the proper changes being made. Worley has privately agreed to cooperate with most actions, but it’s unclear how far her cooperation will extend, specifically when it comes to the rewrite of the bylaws.

The white male-dominated media pushes the #fake narrative that it's about incompetence but we know that's not true.  If you were incompetent and if you were really awful at your job you wouldn't have the support of the African American community.  And for that, you are vilified and crucified.

How can they claim their latest move to remove and replace you is not rooted in racism?  Are we supposed to ignore the fact they are accusing the minority caucus of cheating to win?  Are we supposed to ignore the fact the DNC is enabling them to Bully you?  Are we supposed to ignore the fact you are the only person standing in the way of limiting the power of vice -chairman for minority affairs Joe Reed who represents us?

In reality, Worley and Kelly are still very much in control of the party, and in those positions, they have the ability to stall, if not outright block, almost all efforts to remove them or rewrite the party’s bylaws in a manner that would limit the power of vice-chairman for minority affairs Joe Reed.

Although you have been successful in the past at keeping the angry white males and the women who love them at bay I sense a force that is bigger, meaner, powerful,  and more determined than ever before controlling this latest effort to take the ADP back to the Party of George Wallace.

In February, at the urging of U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, D-Alabama, the DNC voted to invalidate the 2018 election of Worley as Chair over concerns with how the state Democratic Executive Committee is selected. The national Democratic Party wants more seats set aside for minorities other than Blacks and changes to the party’s bylaws, as well as new elections for chair and vice chair.

Quoting The Gambler Kenny Rodgers maybe it's time to fold our cards and let them have the ADP and us real democrats/progressives form our own darn party.  

Imagine an Alabama Democratic Party without black folks. Intentional or not, that's what you are asking for when you say it's time for Joe Reed to step aside. If the party is tired of one, the party is tired of all. United we stand. Divided we fall. That's the lesson Alabama democrats should heed.

Thank you for all you've done.  Thank you for all you have endured.  EYE will understand if you are tired of fighting with us and for us.  Job well done.

Your friend,

RedEYE

Edit~For the first time in decades, state Democrats have a real shot at victory. But can they put their hatred of Joe Reed and his bunch aside and capititalize?

Poor Alabama Democrats, (and EYE use that term loosely), thanks to the Alabama Republican Party being exposed as the corrupt crooks they are,   Alabama Republicans have handed the Democrats a golden opportunity to make a comeback.  Ye Haw!

Governor Robert Bentley, who modeled himself as a Christian candidate dedicated to family values, has found himself wrapped in an adulterous sex scandal. Speaker Mike Hubbard, who ran a campaign based on weeding out corruption in the state house, was recently convicted on 12 felony counts of corruption. And Chief Justice Roy Moore, whose only job is to uphold the values of the Constitution, was suspended—again—for ignoring the ruling of the supreme court and violating the separation of Church and State.

 There's only one big, black, problem for Alabama Dems......

Joe Reed, party boss of the State Democratic Executive Committee (of which there are roughly 50+ vacancies), and Nancy Worley, chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, have managed to deal out as much damage to the Democrats as the Republicans have—if not more. Their ineffective leadership and shameful obstruction have led to a disorganized Party and a brutally apathetic voter base.

If the Democrats want to take full advantage of the Republican train wreck, they'll have to do more than vote. They'll have to actively take the party back.

RedEye's translation:  If the Democrats want to take full advantage of the Republican train wreck, they'll have to do more than vote.  They'll have to actively take the party back from Joe Reed and his bunch.

I was pleased to learn the Alabama Democratic Party, under the capable and effective leadership of Acting Chair Nancy Worley, and Minority Affairs Chair Dr. Joe Reed, were able to Stonewall the latest attack  on African American influence within the SDEC.

There is an organized, media ... enabled, effort to take the Alabama Democratic Party back to before.

This poses the biggest problem for black voters today, which is that Democrats running for state or national office aspire to win black votes without appearing to be beholden to black voters. This is especially true of the three Democratic presidents since Kennedy and Johnson. Black support was crucial to the elections of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton (each received over 80 percent of black votes), but both distanced themselves from policies that might seem to disproportionately help black people.

Back to a time when the Alabama Democratic Party didn't cater to blacks at the expense of whites. 

The Alabama Democratic Majority was formed because the Alabama Democratic Party was seen as the party of black citizens (like that's a bad thing) and it drove white men out in droves. I remember being at a local Democratic County Meeting where the topic was how to get white men to come back to the democratic party. I said then, and I say now, the only way to get white men to come back is for the Alabama Democratic Party to turn it's back on it's core principals and beliefs. In other words, turn into the Alabama Republican party.

A time when African Americans didn't have a seat at the table.

To combat the continuing absolute racism of the Alabama Democratic Party, some of us created another Democratic Party, the National Democratic Party of Alabama (NDPA), went through a difficult struggle, and elected the first blacks to office in Alabama as Democrats! But the ADP fought as a fully segregated party for almost 10 years as the NDPA came to hold over 100 elected offices,more than any other state!!! Then and only then did the ADP want us, and we forgivingly moved into the ADP. But of course its leadership remained fully racist and we have been struggling to change that ever since. But racists continued to run for and hold office as Democrats. It never fully changed. That makes it clear why people are still very suspicious of attitudes in the ADP.

 A time when the democratic party was the republican party.

Seriously, where is my democratic party? The party of Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Hubert Humphrey and other proud, unashamed liberals?

The party that stood up for women's rights, civil rights and human rights?
The party that didn't throw the traditional base under the bus just to be elected?
The party that was the home of progressives and liberals?

EYE have a question for Alabama Democrats, would you rather lose and blame it on Joe Reed and his bunch, or are you going to take advantage of the republican train wreck and win?  Time will tell the truth.

“I am not a member of any organized party – I am a Democrat.”~Will Rodgers

The Martin Luther King Holiday is over, back to life, back to race baiting in #SweetHomeAlabama

Kyle Whitmire

Alabama Media Group's Kyle Whitmire shows what's wrong with Alabama, and why republicans are in control of all three branches of government.

Reed and ADC have effectively taken over the Alabama Democratic Party's executive committee and turned it into an overtly racist organization. There are whole swaths of Alabama not represented on that committee because Reed and his followers refuse to appoint otherwise highly qualified representatives on the committee from those districts.
The Alabama Democratic Party doesn't represent the state, but more importantly, it doesn't even represent Democrats in the state. It has turned into a barren plantation, abandoned by its owners after they salted the soil so nothing could grow there, but where the field hands keep tilling the dry dirt because the straw boss never stopped making them. And if anyone shows up at the gates offering real help, they're quickly chased away.

Nothing could be further from the truth, but blame it on Joe Reed and his bunch. 

Last year, then-party chairman Mark Kennedy and other key employees resigned from their positions, leaving to form the Alabama Democratic Majority, a group whose stated goal is to break the GOP legislative supermajority in the 2014. At the time, Worley – who was then interim chair – complained about ADM's staff taking items and information that belonged to the Democratic Party, not to them, such as login information for software accounts, paper supplies, and even allegedly their website, to which Worley says ADP no longer has access.

Many have characterized the strife as racial, with some pointing to Dr. Joe Reed as the culprit. Dr. Reed, who has long been a top politico in State affairs, has opposed every diversity amendment that has thus far come before the body. Dr. Reed is the minority chair of the party, and is also the chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference, an activist group whose endorsement can mean more than half of the African American vote in many districts around the Yellowhammer state. 

While Dr. Reed claims that his objections are mostly technical – including the fact that women are included when they already comprise half the body – some say that his opposition is only an effort to prevent African American influence in the SDEC from being diluted, even  if at the expense of other guaranteed minority representation in the body.

Using the media to promote negative negative racial stereotypes in par for the course in #SweetHomeAlabama.  

The function of the ADC was never to inspire or support black Democrats. It was built to control them like slaves on a plantation, and Reed was the straw boss — the slave the overseer gives just enough authority to make him feel important. The straw boss doesn't challenge the status quo. He protects it. 

This is why Senator Richard Shelby (R. Tuscaloosa) is running ads saying he's standing up to Obama,  Congressman Mo Brooks (R. Huntsville) is using the public airways claiming Obama is the most racially divisive President since Slavery, and Judge Roy Moore is on TV again.

Psst Kyle Whitmire and the rest of the Alabama Media Group Editorial Board....  Joe Reed represents a constituencyy.  Joe Reed doesn't demand support from his constituents.  He earns it.  You attack him, you attack us.

Joe Reed is known as a “fighter for fairness” for black representation. In 1975, Joe Reed led the efforts to get equitable representation for blacks on the Montgomery City Council. His efforts resulted in four (4) blacks of nine (9) being elected. He served on the Montgomery City Council for 24 years. In the Democratic Party today, Alabama’s black representation exceeds all other states in the nation. For over 40 years he has led the effort to get more blacks elected and appointed to public office, including federal marshals, federal and state judges, members of the boards of registrars, legislators, county commissioners, city councils, and school boards. Due largely to his leadership, today Alabama has more black elected officials than any state in the nation. He drafted two (2) plans that increased black representation in the Alabama House of Representatives from 13 to 27; and in the Senate from 3 to 8 in 1982, and 1992, respectively. He also drew a reapportionment plan that provided for 25% (two of eight) majority black districts on the State Board of Education. Alabama is the only state in the nation where the Legislature reflects the state’s population of blacks and whites. Dr. Reed’s congressional plan also led to Alabama’s gaining a black congressional seat.

A RedEye  must read.

RedEye's #SweetHomeAlabama Rundown #BloodSuckers #DMV #VoterSuppression #BlackBelt #DebtorsPrison #ArturDavis #ParkerGriffin

B-But Black on Black Crime....It's not about the Blood-Sucking Judge, it's about the Blood-Sucking SYSTEM.  So, the Concern Trolls have their knickers in a knot because Circuit Judge Marvin Wiggins offered  people the option of donating blood to pay their fines, or go to jail for non violent offenses.  Instead of concentrating on the fact people were put in the position of paying with blood  they chose to concentrate on Judge Wiggins.  Sigh

Arrestees that are too poor to afford the bond money - $500 for each misdemeanor charge - must remain in jail until the following Tuesday, when they appear via video conference from the jail at the city's only weekly court session, according to the lawsuit.
Last Friday, the U.S. DOJ filed a "statement of interest" in the case, in which they agreed to help provide the court a framework to assess the plaintiff's claim of an unlawful bail scheme.
The statement of interest does not take a position on Varden's claims. But U.S. DOJ Acting Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement that the "criminal justice system should not work differently for the indigent and the wealthy."
"Bail practices that create a two tiered system of justice by treating the indigent and the wealthy differently undermine fundamental fairness in our nation's criminal justice system," she stated.

Sirrus XM radio host Joe Madison constantly reminds his audience to go inside the story and to listen with a third ear so let's do just that.   Judge Marvin Wiggins is a judge in the 4th Circuit in Alabama. He has served in this position since January 19, 1999, following his election in 1998.  Judge Wiggins was also removed  from the Alabama State University Board of Trustees by Governor Robert Bentley last year.  Hmmm

Maybe Judge Wiggins was trying not to end up like his fellow 4th Circuit Judge Jo Celeste Pettway who was suspended without pay after a complaint was filed against her for get this...emphasis mine

The complaint alleges Pettway was slow to rule on small claims cases, did not follow the law, has a disorganized court and is biased towards defendants – or debtors – in the small claims cases.

Can you imagine being suspended for 90 days without pay?   As my Daddy used to say we are all just one pay check away from poverty.  But maybe that's the plan...

Everybody is wrong about the Alabama DMV office closings  & why it matters.   It's not about the Voter ID card, it's about registered voters being required to obtain a special ID card in order to exercise their right to vote.  There is no right way to do the wrong thing.  Congress should restore the Voting Rights Act, and the Alabama State Legislature should repeal the Voter ID Bill.  Problem solved. 

If the Alabama Democratic Party can forgive Parker Griffin, they have to forgive Artur Davis.  They just do.  There are some in the ADP who refuse to see that Artur Davis is being punished more harshly than other party switchers.  Again,  other than the obvious there is not a dimes worth of difference between Artur Davis and Parker Griffin.  Allow me to refresh the memory of those who are trying to rewrite history with a stroll down Memory Lane.

Read all of our coverage of Parker Griffith's party switch 

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wants Parker Griffith contributions back

Parker Griffith: Democrats 'do not share my values' 

Artur Davis: It's ironic that Parker Griffith joining party that bashed him in 2008Republican

candidates for Congress speak up after Parker Griffith's switch to GO

Griffith's switch to GOP 'a pleasant surprise,' Rep. Mike Hubbard says

State Democratic party feels 'betrayed' by Parker Griffith, asks for campaign donations back

U.S. Rep. Robert Aderholt welcomes Griffith to the Republican fold

A look at Parker Griffith's voting record

Political Web site says U.S. Rep. Parker Griffith, D-Huntsville, will join GOP today

EYE think EYE have figured out what is wrong with the Alabama Democratic Party...they are really Dixiecrats.  They had no problem with Artur Davis when he pandered to the right at the expense of the traditional democratic base when he was running for Governor, but now it's a problem.  It's also why he will probably win in court.  If the ADP were smart, and EYE am not saying they are, they would let him back in and let the voters decide is fate.  Again.  

All told, Davis is requesting the court uphold his assertions that the term "asset" is unconstitutionally vague and his denial was an unfair double standard.

It is what it is.  It just is.