#100Days of media enabled deplorable, shock, awe, horror, and shame

Watch:   The white male dominated media is trying desperately to legitimize the deplorable disaster they enabled.  

We traveled to the reddest states that stood firmly behind Trump; to the states that swung from Obama to Trump and helped him win, and to blue states that stayed Democrat.
We traveled to listen, to hear how the first days of Trump's presidency have affected people's lives, thoughts and dreams. Here's what we found: hopes, fears and surprises.

Translation:  We traveled to the reddest states a found people to say what we wanted them to say to promote a media driven false narrative.  

Some people are surprised to learn who taxi driver Quinton Posey voted for. Finding a Trump voter in Alabama, even Birmingham, Alabama, is not hard. But Posey is gay. And black. Only 9% of African-Americans in the South voted for Trump. But Posey says Trump's promise of change resonated.
 he says, saying recent policies have created a "welfare state" where everyone expects a handout. Instead, he's hoping Republican values of personal responsibility can have an impact on urban communities changing themselves.
Hillary Clinton was never going to win his vote, he admits, as he blames her and former President Bill Clinton for mass incarceration of black Americans.
As for Trump? "I didn't consider anyone else," Posey says. "I thought, 'That's my guy.' 

EYE wonder how "hard" it was for the most distrusted name in news to find the one black, gay male who claimed they voted for Trump?   Did they advertise or was he referred by someone?  EYE am betting on the latter.  

It's funny what some people will say or do for 15 minutes of infamy.  Someone should tell Quinten Posey former President Bill Clinton is not solely responsible for the mass incarceration of black Americans.  He had lots of help, including the present pResident and #fake Attorney General who wants to bring back the good old days of mass incarceration of black Americans.  

While still short on specific policy changes, Sessions has made it clear that he plans to crack down on drugs and immigration while resuscitating the harsh sentencing laws that have given the United States the world’s highest incarceration rate.

Psst Quintin Posey!  You are black and gay, Trump is NOT your guy. 

At the Department of Justice, where former Attorney General Loretta Lynch last year delivered an impassioned speech telling transgender Americans, “We see you; we stand with you,” her successor, Jeff Sessions, wasted no time reversing course. The Justice Department in February withdrew guidance issued to schools on the treatment of transgender students, signaling that it would no longer consider their rights to be protected under a 1972 civil rights law."

 "I mean, what do we have to lose? Why not try something different?"  Um, THIS is what we have lost Quinton Posey, THIS is what trying something different gets us thanks to the mainstream media for misinforming voters like Y-O-U. 

Good luck with that. 

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

Lani Guinier and President-Elect Bill Clinton

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

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

Who is Lani Guinier?

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

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

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

Here is what they have to say about Jeff Sessions

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

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

Where are all of the Constitution Thumpers when African Americans constitutional rights are violated?

EYE should be celebrating a joyous and historic  time,  but EYE find myself Pi$$ed Off instead. 

After parading the Mothers of the Movement on stage at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia PA, and a reintroduction by her spouse  and former President Bill Clinton,  Hillary Clinton made history to became the first women to be nominated as President of the United States of America by a major party.

Eight years ago, Hillary Clinton famously said her first White House bid had put“about 18 million cracks” in the glass ceiling, one for each voter who’d cast a ballot for her in the 2008 primary.
On Tuesday, that glass ceiling finally came down.
Clinton was formally named the Democratic nominee for president at her party’s convention in Philadelphia, making her the first woman ever to top a major party’s ticket for the White House.
More than 200 other women have sought the presidency since 1872, but none have come this far. The female Democratic leaders gathered in Philadelphia this week have waited their entire lives to see one of their own reach this point, just a step away from the Oval Office. To them, Clinton’s nomination represents the culmination of decades of work devoted to tearing down the barriers women have faced seeking high office in America.

Despite having a black judge,prosecutor, and mayor all charges were dropped against all six of the police officers in the death of #Freddie Grey.  

Prosecutors in Baltimore dropped all charges against the three remaining Baltimore police officers charged in the death of Freddie Gray despite holding firm in their belief that Gray's death was a homicide.
“We do not believe that Gray killed himself. We stand by the medical examiner's determination that Freddie Gray’s death was a homicide," Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby told reporters this morning, delivering a strong defense for her decision to prosecute six officers involved in Gray's death.

At the motion’s hearing for State v Garrett Miller this morning, prosecutors announced they would not pursue the remaining cases related to the arrest and death of Gray, bringing to an end one of the most closely watched police prosecutions in the country. The gag order against all parties involved, including prosecutors and defense attorneys and their clients, has also been rescinded.

Then EYE find out Republican Presidential nominee,  Donald Trump is calling on the Russia to help him take down his political opponent.  Uh, isn't that like Treason...

We The Peeps dare not unite,  organize, rise up,  and exercise the First Amendment , because our Government will label the protest(ers) violent and roll out their tax payer funded, government  issued weapons of mass destruction and kill up a bunch of us.

"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

EYE will wait.

EYE guess it depends on what the definition of a "physical relationship"....IS #RobertBentley #Scandlous in #SweetHomeAlabama

#FamilyValues

"I never had a physical relationship with that woman, Rebekah Caldwell Mason" Sound familiar?  It should. It's the same parsing former President Clinton engaged in when confronted about his relationship with White House Intern, Monica Lewinsky. 

Again, if anyone had told me Governor Robert Bentley (Bible Thumper, R. Tuscaloosa) was a dirty old man EYE would have laughed in their face. But then it's always the Compassionate, Christian, Conservatives who are the biggest hypocrites.  But EYE digress.  

Mrs. Mason also denies she and Dr. "Love" Bentley ( good one Legal Schnauzer) engaged in a physical affair, claiming she's being picked on because she's a woman in a position of power and authority.  Hmm...EYE wonder where she got that from?    Mind you, these denials were made prior to the release of audio recordings made by the governors Ex.  What's that they say about Karma....

A clip of the audio recordings revealing Alabama Governor Robert Bentley’s illicit affair with a staffer has now surfaced online.
Yellowhammer was given exclusive access to the content of audio recordings captured by Dianne Bentley, Governor Bentley’s ex-wife, during which Governor Bentley makes sexual advances on and recalls sexual encounters with Rebekah Mason, his former communications director who has since become his most senior external advisor. Mrs. Mason’s husband, Jon, also serves in the Bentley administration as Director of Serve Alabama, the Governor’s Office of Faith-Based and Volunteer Service.
One of the recordings was captured while Governor and Mrs. Bentley were visiting their beach house.
Mrs. Bentley, who had suspected the affair, went for a walk on the beach, but left her cell phone behind recording the audio of what took place in her absence.

EYE don't know if Bentley and Mason engaged in a physical relationship or not.  And we may never know because the Governor's divorce files are cloaked in secrecy.  Remember?

There is one reason why the divorce records of Gov. Robert Bentley have been placed under seal, and one privileged reason alone:
They could embarrass the governor.
Chew on that a long, hard minute. The governor, the man elected by the people of Alabama to serve as our top dog and the head of our collective household, does not want us to see what will be included in that file.
It might – after all -- affect the way we think of him.

You think?  It's funny to see the Alabama Media who didn't report on the rumors of an affair because they didn't know what they didn't know, falling over themselves calling for Bentley's head on a platter.  That said, if Bentley is impeached, recalled, resigns, or is convicted, the alternative is not much better.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama Lt. Gov. Kay Ivey and a close circle of advisers are mapping out a transition plan in case Gov. Robert Bentley is compelled to resign from office, according to multiple Yellowhammer sources. The planning began in earnest last summer in the wake of Dianne Bentley, the governor’s wife of 50 years, filing for divorce.
After several months of relative quiet, the Lt. Governor’s office is back in preparation mode after audio surfaced of Governor Bentley having a romantic conversation with his senior advisor, Rebekah Mason.

EYE report.

You decide.

Stay tuned. 

Update~ Free Your Mind Friday, Facing an "Inconvenient Truth" #BlackHistoryMonth2016

As Super Tuesday draws near EYE have to face an inconvenient truth. Regular readers know EYE am conflicted about which democratic candidate will get my vote in the primary.  To be honest, at one time EYE considered not voting in the primary and supporting the winner in the general.  But that would be the cowardly thing to do.  EYE can't ask our elected officials and others to be brave when EYE am not willing to do the same.  So, EYE am facing my fears and voting with my gut. Despite some (not to be confused with all) of his supporters, EYE will vote for Bernie Sanders.

Who/What helped me come to this decision? The actions of a brave young activist named Ashley Williams 



And the tragic death of an activist named Viola Liuzzo.



Ironically EYE made this decision on the anniversary of the murder of Trayvon Martin.  The reason police shoot first and ask questions later is because they see black men/women/children as Predators/Thugs.  The 1996 Crime Prevention Bill created the environment of today.

“She said that ‘We need to bring them to heel.'” Williams said. “And in this quote she is pathologizing and demonizing and also criminalizing black youth and other youth of color in terms of how they participate in criminal activity or how they are involved in criminal activity. I found these comments really racist and inappropriate. And also untrue.

Let me be clear, my decision to vote for Bernie Sanders is not a vote against Hillary Clinton. EYE trust her, and if she is the democratic nominee I will support her %100, but on Tuesday, EYE must stand with the young people who are our HOPE for a FUTURE we can believe in.

"So all these folks now want to apologize for the role they played in making us the most criminalized population on earth. "

 The new generation of civil rights activists never accepted "trickle-down economics" from conservatives. Today they are rejecting "trickle-down justice" from the liberals" .~Van Jones on CNN

Ashley Williams demonstrated the power, not only of Black Lives Matter, but also individual acts of courage. With social media, a single voice can trigger an avalanche.

RedEye

Jesus....Please Save us From Your Followers in #SweetHomeAlabama #Hypocrisy

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley with Seth Hammett, then director of the Alabama Development Office, and Communications Director Rebekah Caldwell Mason at the Mobile Convention Center on Feb. 24, 2011 in Mobile, Ala. (Press-Register, John David Mercer)

Again, EYE could care less about the  salacious rumors  swirling around Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (R. Tuscaloosa) and his soon to be Ex, because EYE realize elected officials are human beings and therefore not perfect.  They can do what ever they want to behind closed doors as long as it doesn't negatively affect me and mine. 

EYE said the same thing about former President Bill Clinton, who republicans, enabled by the media,  impeached  for trying to conceal a consensual sexual relationship from his wife, daughter, and the world.  

It's the @#$%^& Hypocrisy!  Bill Clinton wasn't running around proclaiming to be a Compassionate, Conservative, Christian by day and a Hypocrite  by Night.

The official poverty figures for 2011 will be released by the U.S. Census Bureau this fall during the critical weeks before of the November elections, and, as the AP reports, a broad consensus of experts is expecting to see U.S. poverty levels reach their highest point since the 1960s when the war on poverty first began. At the same time, we are seeing story after story about the super-rich getting even richer, profiting from financial crises while the economy is plummeting, and stashing trillions away in off-shore tax havens.

Bill Clinton wasn't refusing to expand medicaid, prohibiting poor women ( not to be confused with affluent women) from having access to planned parenthood, signing the most restrictive immigration law, and destroying the public education system in the name of The Lord.

''I was elected as a Republican candidate. But once I became governor ... I became the governor of all the people. I intend to live up to that. I am color blind," Bentley said in a short speech given about an hour after he took the oath of office as governor.

Then Bentley, who for years has been a deacon at First Baptist Church in Tuscaloosa, gave what sounded like an altar call.

"There may be some people here today who do not have living within them the Holy Spirit," Bentley said. ''But if you have been adopted in God's family like I have, and like you have if you're a Christian and if you're saved, and the Holy Spirit lives within you just like the Holy Spirit lives within me, then you know what that makes? It makes you and me brothers. And it makes you and me brother and sister."

Attack the Messenger.  All EYE can say is thank goodness for social media and Bloggers because there is no such thing as a free press anymore.  Gone are the days when the media informed the public.  Now days the media tells us what they want us to know instead of what we need to know to make informed decisions.  They turn the good guys/gals into the bad guys/gals, and the bad guys/gals into the good guys/gals .

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP/WSFA) - The owner of Alabama's largest casino, four state senators and several top lobbyists have been indicted on federal charges accusing them of vote buying on a bill to legalize electronic bingo.
The indictment was released Monday as FBI agents made arrests at several locations across the state.
It accused the casino owners and statehouse figures of conspiring to make payments and campaign donations to affect "pro-gambling legislation."

And you wonder why Alabama is a solidly red, republican, conservative state?  It's the media.   Strike that, it's the white, male dominated mainstream media.  They are the driving force behind the narrative that democrats are unethical, thieving, corrupt, baby killing, drug dealing, dependent on welfare.  

If the cries of Montgomery politicians under indictment don’t generate sympathy, certainly the lamentation of unemployed workers in the Black Belt does. One effect of the bribe-induced Riley-Canary war on bingo in Alabama is the closure of bingo operations in Greene, Macon and Houston Counties, that employed literally thousands of workers, and brought millions of dollars annually to local government treasuries.

Project much?

The five commissioners who govern a rural Alabama county were arrested last week. What did the entire Bullock County Commission do to merit being charged with felonies? They violated theAlabama Competitive Bid Law, according to a statement from the state attorney general's office.
It's certainly possible that Bullock County's finances and procedures are a wreck--and that criminal activity was involved. Violations reportedly showed up when the Alabama Examiners of Public Accounts conducted an audit from October 2008 to September 2009. Irregularities also appeared on audits in 2006 and '07.
But a reasonable person, looking at the broad picture, could ask: Was the real reason these people were arrested that they represent a county that is mostly black, relatively poor, and largely Democratic? In other words, are political prosecutions still the tool of choice for the conservative elites who rule Karl Rove's Alabama--even with Barack Obama in the White House? Are such shenanigans still going on in other "deep red" regions of the country?

Sounds like a double standard to me.

Lost in all the sordid rumor and implication is a rock-solid fact.
Rebekah Caldwell Mason, a chief adviser to the governor of the state of Alabama, is paid by unknown entities with money funneled through an opaque non-profit. And that shadowy operation – it doesn't have to reveal its donors -- is set up by people connected to the state's most powerful and politically aggressive institutions.
Hell, that may be the most offensive thing in this whole bizarre chain of events.

You think? 

Back in the sixties, when the citizens of Alabama wanted to get a fair report on the progress of the Civil Rights movement in their state, they had to turn to the national media, and especially the network news, to get it. The local print and broadcast media would either grossly distort what was going on, or, more likely, they would simply report nothing.

EYE report.  YOU decide. 

So much #media enabled #GOP #Hypocrisy, so little time....

What we now know about the men who led the impeachment of Bill Clinton

If I understand the history correctly, in the late 1990s, the President was impeached for lying about a sexual affair by a House of Representatives led by a man who was also then hiding a sexual affair, who was supposed to be replaced by another Congressman who stepped down when forced to reveal that he too was having a sexual affair, which led to the election of a new Speaker of the House who now has been indicted for lying about payments covering up his sexual contact with a boy.

Yikes.

 Kettle, meet Pot.

The House managers have said shame and embarrassment is no excuse for lying. Well, the question about lying, that's your decision. But I can tell you, you put yourself in his position, and you've already had this big moral lapse, as to what you would do. We are none of us perfect. Sure, you say, he should have thought of all that beforehand. And indeed he should. Just as Adam and Eve should have. Just as you and you and you and you, and millions of other people who have been caught in similar circumstances, should have thought of it before.

Ahem

Faux News Distorting What You Decide Redux #FergusonGrandJury #SandyMcElroy

Before I type another word, let me express my gratitude to the Smoking Gun for being the media I wish we had instead of the media we have.  Thanks to them we know the #FergusonGrandJury was a farce and a fraud.  Thanks to them we know there were two witnesses who said #MichaelBrown didn't have hands up surrendering. One was not actually there. The other was #DarrenWilson

 Read all about How Fox News Ran with Bogus Testimony Given to the Grand Jury

On December 8, St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch released additional details about the grand jury documents his office made public last month after no charges were brought against Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. As a result, more details have come to light showing that the testimony of one particular grand jury witness was a sham—testimony that was repeatedly touted by Fox News' Sean Hannity and other pundits who defended Wilson and the grand jury's decision.

It ought to be against the law to give bogus testimony to the Grand Jury.

Oh wait.....

Bill Clinton, the 42nd President of the United States, was impeached by the House of Representatives on two charges, one of perjury and one of obstruction of justice, on December 19, 1998. Two other impeachment articles, a second perjury charge and a charge of abuse of power, failed in the House. He was acquitted of both charges by the Senate on February 12, 1999.^[1]

#ShutItDown 
#ICantBreathe
#NoJusticeNoPeace
#BlackLivesMatter

Saturday Must Reads: On Racial Demonization and Political Demonization

#ICantBreathe In Black & White --> (Cartoon by @AnnTelnaes) #EricGarner #p2 pic.twitter.com/mn9n7Iu75r
— Eric Wolfson (@EricWolfson) December 6, 2014

No More Mister Nice Blog

 I've long felt that, since the days of Reagan, conservatives have
thrived by modifying the "Southern strategy" demonization of blacks --
the demons now include Democrats, liberals, college professors,
Hollywood stars, feminists, gay people, immigrants, and other groups.
The rhetoric frequently circles back to race, of course -- especially,
needless to say, while we have a black president -- but the same basic
anger is stoked when the top Democrat is Bill Clinton or Nancy Pelosi.

When White Supremacy is respectable again.

So, now we're at the point where beginning to see signs that openly
racist messaging is on the verge of becoming respectable again. When
right-wing politicians start justifying the murder of black citizens by
white police officers regardless of the specifics of the case, we're one
step below the level of just calling for a system that acknowledges
white supremacy as the natural and "correct" order of things. We're just
one step away from openly saying that equality before the law is not
the goal, and never should be. Recent remarks by Rep. Peter King and Rudy Giuliani, plus the openly-expressed sentiments of countless white citizens, indicates that
we're dangerously close to a situation where white supremacy is just one
side of the political argument...again. And we have the Conservative Movement to thank for that.

 The information age is actually a media age. We have war by media; censorship by media; demonology by media.

In 2003, I filmed an interview in Washington with
Charles Lewis, the distinguished American investigative journalist.  We
discussed the invasion of Iraq a few months earlier.  I asked him, “What
if the freest media in the world had seriously challenged George Bush
and Donald Rumsfeld and investigated their claims, instead of channeling
what turned out to be crude propaganda?”

He replied that if we journalists had done our job “there is a very, very good chance we would have not gone to war in Iraq.”

It's the Media.  They think we are stupid.

Faking the Funk When the Facts Don't Fit the Narrative

@imthe_MAPP @Big6domino 'After this Chris Christie scandal, whoever voted for him, I sincerely hope you feel dumb ', Looking at you Shaq
— Red Eye (@RedEyesPage) January 9, 2014

We have to laugh to keep from crying to see the Mainstream Media Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads faking the Chris Christi funk because their media enabled narrative doesn't fit the facts. Seriously, I just heard a Talking TeeVee Pundit Head say New Jersey Governor Chris Christi could "recover from so called  Bridgegate", because the electorate has a short memory."

Oh really now?  I for one haven't forgotten how House Republicans impeached President Clinton for trying to conceal a private, consensual, sexual, encounter. Nor have I forgotten how they are constantly trying to impeach President Obama because he wants all Americans to have access to quality, affordable, health care.  It seems to me that using your office to punish people for political revenge is...what's the word I'm looking for(?)......horrifying.

"The truth is Christie was never the Straight Shooter that political reporters and pundits made him out to be. Not even close,"

I'm talking to you Shaq.
 

Yes, Rodeo Clowns have freedom of speech too

"Though I often disagreed with republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right who controls their party seems to hate our President and other Democrats"~ President Bill Clinton

 Dale Jackson is defending the Rodeo Clown who mocked President Obama.  Surprise!  Surprise! Surprise!  (Said in my best Gomer Pyle voice).  What's funny is Dale, who moderates comments on his blog,  is defending him on the grounds that we are about to live in a society where "Freedom of Speech" is seen as a negative thing.  RedEye Roll

Hold on to your teeth.  I agree with Dale.  I repeat, I agree with Dale.  The Rodeo Clown has the right to mock, demean, and disrespect the President of the United States of America.  It says more about him and his character, or the lack there of,  and the character, or lack there of,  of those who condone this type of behavior than it does about the character of  President Barack Hussein Obama.

Proceed.

  “We are caught up right now in a culture – and you see it every single day – where as long as we are negative, as long as we are vicious, as long as we can tear down our opponent, we don’t have to worry, so we don’t. “This is a very deep problem,” he added. “I’m being totally candid with you.”~ Newt Gingrich

"NRA to African Americans: You'll need guns to protect yourself from the government"

This is a  a photo I snapped on March 4, 2007 of the late civil rights activist Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth being pushed in his wheelchair across the Edmund Pettus Bridge for the annual reenactment of the voting rights march in Selma, Alabama by the future President of the United States of America Senator Barack Hussein Obama. Also pictured are former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and civil rights activist Al Sharpton.

When I first read this headline;   NRA to African Americans:  You'll need guns to protect yourself from the government, I scoffed, but as time, rhetoric, and events progressed I thought, if any group has reason to protect itself out of fear of the government it's African Americans.  Para quoting the late Fred Shuttlesworth, it looks like black folks have to fight for the right to breath again.

In an attempt to kill Section Five of the Voting Rights Act, attorneys from Shelby County, Alabama told the U.S. Supreme Court it was not 1965 anymore, and they were right (pun intended), it's 2013, and things didn't get better in Sweet Home Alabama with the election of the first African American President....they got worse. The Simple Minded Savior describes present day Alabama to a T.

 I was born and raised in this God forsaken state and it IS still stuck in the 50's and 60's. It's not a stereotype and why anyone would want to visit here is beyond me. Oh yeah, they can come visit and see what main attraction? The CIVIL RIGHTS MUSEUM...Some parts of the interstate still have a confederate flag flying high and proud so what's he talking about? And the fact that one of the State Legislators called Black people "ABORIGINES" on tape and it was part of a trial transcript makes no never mind. Yeah, you're right, Alabama has not one racial problem, it's a beacon of hope, a melting pot of sorts for the nation. This State, Alabama, should be held out as the example of how loving a state should be. *sarcasm* If Jesus came back right now and came to an Alabama suburb, he would be labeled a dead beat liberal hippie and crucified a second time.

  Sitting Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia thinks voting rights are a gift the government gave black people.  A gift black folks didn't earn and don't deserve. 

Today was the day that the Republican challenge to Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was argued before the Supreme Court. Arguments were fiery, but this particular quote from Justice Scalia was one worthy of Jim Crow. If ever there was a reason to preserve Section 5, Scalia articulated it. Via TPM:

Roberts and Kennedy led the questioning challenging the Voting Right Act. Justice Sonia Sotomayor led the questioning defending it.
Justice Antonin Scalia attributed the continued congressional reauthorization to a perpetual “racial entitlement” and suggested that it will be renewed into “perpetuity” because members of Congress would never let it lapse for fear for political repercussions.
“I don’t think there is anything to gain by any senator by voting against this Act,” Scalia said. “This is not the kind of question you can leave to Congress. They’re going to lose votes if they vote against the Voting Rights Act. Even the name is wonderful.”

Justice Scalia's words undermine the very core of our democracy.   And if that's not scary I don't know what is.

Secession, the Media, Milestones, and Cults

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley (r), and Alabama Senator Richard Shelby (r) touring the tornado devastation with President Barack Obama (D)  in Tuscaloosa, Alabama following a press briefing.

Side bar with a sigh

If you look closely at the photograph attached to this diary of a VIP group walking with President Obama, I count nine individuals....Two in the front row, three in the middle row and four in the back, one of whom is barely visible as a pair of grey-trousered legs and the corner of a face. Two of them -- counting the President -- are non-white, one more may be.
The proportion of non-white persons in Alabama's population is about 29%, so 22%, or better 33%, persons of color (2 or 3 out of 9) would not be far out of line with the state population.
According to the same source, the proportion of persons in the population of Alabama who happen to be female is almost 52%. Female persons in the VIP group including President Obama: precisely zero.

Hell No they ain't fergittin!

I guess we shouldn't be surprised the reddest of the red states want to secede from the union in wake of the reelection of President Barack Hussein Obama.   Remember when CNN's Anderson Cooper and others accused Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders of race baiting when he said he didn't want to go back to the days of slavery and Jim Crow in a robo call to democratic voters in 2010?  Well, these are the same states who fought a war to keep slavery, instituted Jim Crow after they lost.  Yep, they were so sure the tried and true  southern strategy was going to work for them again.

Also, this is the same media who had people believing Mitt Romney was going to win, who enabled Bush and Dick to take us to war based on dead wrong intelligence, and house republicans to impeach President Bill Clinton for trying to conceal a consensual sex act from his wife, daughter and the country.

President Obama should handle the secessionist movement the same way my mother handled me when I decided I wanted to secede from the family unit because I didn't want to abide by the rules.  Out of the kindness of her heart she packed some of my clothes, two peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and an orange in a brown paper bag and wished me well.  I seceded down the road to my best friends house and hung out there all day, but when it started getting dark her mother told me it was time for me to head on home.  Then I remembered I'd  run away from home and didn't have any place to go for food, shelter and comfort.

So guess what I did.....I say let those who want to secede go.  They don't need a military to protect them.  Interstate highways to travel on.  Hospitals when they get sick.  Post offices to receive and deliver their mail.  Public works and sanitation.  Airports, train and bus stations.  And god forbid they have a hurricane, tornado, wild fires or a flood.  They might leave, but they will be back with a new attitude.  Trust me.

On a personal note, I can't let this day pass without noting a milestone, November 13, 2012 marks the third anniversary of the day Political Ideology Trumped Family and Friends ,and my front page privileges were revoked at leftinalabama.  It still hurts I am banned from participating in the Informed.  Involved.  Progressive. discussion at the place where it all started for me, where I dared be a voice for the voiceless.  So I will will mark this milestone the same as before, by respectfully asking my privileges be reinstated at Left in Alabama.

Cults demand their adherents break with friends and family; political parties shouldn't.

Today's Must Read
Open Letter to the GOP:  Here is Why You Lost

"Though I often disagreed with republicans, I actually never learned to hate them the way the far right who controls their party seems to hate our President and other Democrats" President Bill Clinton

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Democrats highlight America for Americans

Listen.  That giant popping sound you hear are the heads of republicans and Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads exploding after the electrifying and inspiring opening night of the Democratic National Convention.  So much for the lack of enthusiasm for President Obama meme.

After the peanut throwing, name calling, mean, vindictive, spectacle that was the Republican National Convention, I am so thankful the world got the see real democracy.  Real patriotism.  Real Americans.

It was fitting the ghost of Ted Kennedy rose to haunt Mitt Romney from the grave.

Democratic Governor Duval  Patrick said it's time for democratics to grow a spine and start standing up to the right wing attack machine who are trying to bully the President out of office.

Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley said Yes we can blame the GOP for the unemployment numbers they are now crying crocodile tears over.

Sweet Home Alabama born and bred Lilly Ledbetter made the equal pay for equal work real.

San Antonio,Texas Mayor Julian Castro highlighted the RNC war on the truth. Note the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and the are focusing on his 3 year old daughter's hair flipping.

Democratic New Jersey Cory Booker bought the house down warning delegates democracy is a spectator sport.

Tonight former President Bill Clinton will remind us The Republicans Built the National Debt they now claim to be so concerned about.

But the star of the show was First Lady Michelle Obama who told the world success is not about how much money you make,  it's about the difference you make in peoples lives.  

All I'm going to say is, anyone that votes for the Romney/Ryan Ticket, you are who you vote for, and you get what you vote for.  You won't be hurting President Obama, minorities, women, labor, LBGT, and democrats.  You will be hurting yourselves.

GOP View of Rights Fist Dap Jobsanger

RedEye's Talking Points~Update

H/T jobsanger who reminds us of an ugly truth via Yellowdog Granny

About that black folks are going to vote for Willard "Mitt" Romney because the black pastors are against same-sex marriage meme.... the majority (not to be confused with the one or two they put on TeeVee) of black pastors aren't stupid.  Informed, intelligent, tolerant, black pastors recognize and respect the separation of church and state. This is the bottom line regarding marriage equality...you have every right (pun intended) to be opposed to same-sex marriage....you don't have the right (pun intended) to force those who don't share your opposition to do so.  If you are against gay marriage, don't be gay and get married.  End of story.

H/T Black Agenda Report Managing Editor Bruce Dixon who says it's time to "let pharaoh go" 

There is a huge disconnect between the mainstream media and the 99%.  This is the same media that enabled Bush and Company to take us to war based on dead wrong intelligence, raid the surplus to give the rich a huge tax break, spy on Americans without a warrant, out an undercover CIA agent, impeach President Clinton for trying to conceal getting a BJ, and all the votes not to be counted in Florida in 2000.  The same media who is enabling the lynching (yes lynching) of former Senator John Edwards for trying to conceal an affair and child.  Why do we know more about Bill Clinton and John Edwards male members than we know about the war or the economy or anything else that's important to real people? It's the media we have, instead of the media we wish we had.

Marissa Alexander H/T Abagond

Tale of two separate and unequal Stand Your Ground defenses in the sunshine state of Florida.  Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville FL was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot into the ceiling when her abusive husband threatened to kill her.  She claimed a Stand Your Ground defense, but it was rejected by the Judge.  Ironically the prosecutor, in this case, is Angela Cory, the same prosecutor who is prosecuting Trayvon Martin's killer, George Zimmerman. Why do they think black people are animals?

H/T Geek Pavaler  education is the hope of the republic

All Politics is Local Remix.  Alabama TeaPublican's attempt to re-segregate the public school system failed thanks to effective lobbying and several prominent republicans coming to their senses.  Meanwhile, in Huntsville, rich parents are in a tizzy because the state legislature chose tourism dollars over fall break.  Not a peep about the school district funneling tax dollars to a private, residential, drug treatment program.  Not one word about poor/black/brown parents being forced to buy uniforms for their students.  Not one word about poor/black/brown schools being staffed with non-certified teachers.   But why should they care?  After all, "their"students/schools are doing just fine.  The students/school pictured below....not so much.

The Huntsville Times

Today's Must Reads

CNN Racist Depiction of The Black Church and Gay Marriage

It's a Democracy, Not a Theocracy:  How the Black Church Gets it Wrong

The Black Church:  How Corporate Media and the Prosperity Gospel Make Legions of Ready Dupes

Charters have nothing to do with Community Control of Schools

Why the U.S. Can't Compete Educationally