From the files of It's okay if you are a republican in #SweetHomeAlabama

So much hypocrisy so little time

EYE am sure everyone is aware by now Governor Robert Bentley, EYE mean Ex-Governor Bentley negotiated a plea deal that required him to resign while dropping four possible felony counts to two misdemeanors. 

If Team Bentley had been required to turn over responsive e-mails, text messages, phone records, and financial records, how many GOP big-hitters might have been implicated? Our guess is "a lot." And that might have been the No. 1 driver behind the quick plea deal.
This much is certain: No deal should even have been considered until Bentley and his office had turned over all of the documents sought by the House Special Counsel -- and all individuals sought for interviews had testified under oath. I rarely agree with al.com on anything, but their editorial on the matter was right on target:

Bentley pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges. But the stakes are too high for the pursuit of justice to stop here. This impeachment investigative report creates as many questions as it does answers.
It implicates many people in Montgomery beyond the governor. At times, it seems like everybody knew everything but nobody did anything.
Allegations were made in the report that many surrounding Bentley were complicit in the cover up.
They too should be held accountable for their actions. We know from the commission report Bentley, Mason and others refused to cooperate with the investigation. Subsequently, we still do not know the extent to which their alleged actions constitute criminal behavior. What more would we learn from their private messages and emails?

And then there is THIS: 

Birmingham attorney Eric L. Welch Guster, a legal analyst on cable news shows, was on the same page. Here is Guster, from Facebook:

LAW, POLITICAL PARTIES and RACE -- ALABAMA STYLE: Bentley got probation and his side piece got protected. That's how this works and has been this way for generations.
The GOP protected their own even in the face of sex, thievery, lies & nationwide embarrassment. Robert Bentley will remain free WITH A MISDEMEANOR while other politicians similarly situated received prison sentences and NEVER had an offer of probation. There was enough evidence on Bentley that a 13-year-old could take this case to trial and win. There was no need for a plea, except to protect him and his beloved boo-thang.
They claim justice is blind but we know better. It sees color, political party affiliation and the ties that bind them all together.
I am done with this foolery.

EYE am done with it too.   

So let's compare the case of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman (D. Mobile), who is currently serving hard time in a federal prison in Louisiana because he was too liberal for Alabama, EYE mean, appointed a campaign contributor to a board.

The central charge against Siegelman, a Democrat elected in a heavily Republican state, boils down to this. As governor, Siegelman was looking to promote an election on whether or not the state should create a lottery. One generous contributor to the special lottery campaign fund was Richard Scrushy, the high-flying CEO of HealthSouth who wished to be appointed to a state hospital board. Bush-appointed federal prosecutors claimed Scrushy’s $500,000 contribution to the lottery campaign was the price to gain an appointment by Siegelman to the state board.

Meanwhile, the new Governor of #SweetHomeAlabama is the same as the Old Governor dressed in designer suits. 

As lieutenant governor, Kay Ivey has been strongly against the Affordable Care Act.
When the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of Obamacare in 2012, Ivey released a statement saying that keeping the law in place could lead to the end of the United States as we know it.
She said, “The Supreme Court’s ruling today, upholding major portions of Obamacare, perpetuates the illusion that taxpayers can and should provide healthcare for every citizen, in spite of the fact that the country is broke! If our elected leadership in Washington does not overturn this law, it will bring America down.”
She went on to say that America would “spend and tax itself into weakness and, God forbid, collapse,” just like “the former great powers of Europe.”
Ivey said that she instead supports an Obamacare alternative that focus on “restoring state flexibility, promoting free markets and competition while empowering consumer choice.”

Sigh

Congratulations to my friend & fellow "Camden Girl" Kay Ivey...just sworn-in as Governor of Alabama. The second woman gov in AL history. https://t.co/4r07XiEtfL

— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) April 10, 2017

The New Democratic Majority or, The New "Democratic" Party of Artur Davis? I Report. You Decide.

 

A Noteworthy Endorsement for Artur Davis

One of the things I like about cold, rainy weekends is I have the perfect excuse not to leave the house and I can sit at my computer all day without being distracted by my real life.  I had the perfect excuse for not working in the yard, cleaning the patio/ furniture and running errands this past weekend.  I put on a crock pot of Turkey and White Bean Chili and got the reading and begin to notice a disturbing pattern...The New Democratic Majority are most of the same people who supported Artur Davis for governor in 2010, and, they are saying some of the exact same things about Dr. Joe Reed and the ADC now that they said then.

Peggy Wallace Kennedy says she will support Artur Davis for governor according to David Persons' report for the Huntsville Times (emphasis mine):

U.S. Rep. Artur Davis, D-Birmingham, may have gotten his first celebrity endorsement for the gubernatorial campaign. Peggy Wallace Kennedy expressed unqualified support for him when I interviewed her on WEUP-AM earlier this week.

"I certainly think he has a good shot and I certainly will support him," Kennedy said. "Mark (her husband) and I both will. He is a fine man and smart. He could go down as one of the greatest governors we've had."

Regular readers know some of us tried to tell some of them Artur Davis was not the second coming of Obama, but it was never about Artur Davis, it was about replacing Joe Reed with someone who is more ahem acceptable, because there is the perception the democratic party caters to black voters at the expense of white voters.  Our rich southern heritage teaches us the greatest insults to some whites is to be seen as the party of black voters.  Ask former governor Don Siegelman and any democrat/ elected official(s) who dared defend the rights of black folks.

 Regular readers know some of us tried to tell some of them Artur Davis was not the second coming of Obama, but it was never about Artur Davis, it was about replacing Joe Reed with someone who is more ahem acceptable, because there is the perception the democratic party caters to black voters at the expense of white voters.  Our rich southern heritage teaches us the greatest insults to some whites is to be seen as the party of black voters.  Ask former governor Don Siegelman and any democrat/ elected official(s) who dared defend the rights of black folks.

It took a long time for the basic pattern established in ’64 to be reflected up and down the ballot, but today white southerners are almost as loyal to the Republican Party as they once were to the Democrats. GOP presidential candidates customarily win more than 70 percent of the white vote in the South, success that in the past two decades has at last trickled down to the local and state legislative levels. This is particularly true in the Deep South, which encompasses South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. Exit polling was intermittent last November, but in Mississippi Mitt Romney gobbled up 89 percent of the white vote; with Barack Obama winning 96 percent of the black vote, this translated into a 55-44 percent Romney win in the state.
In this environment, Democratic success in the Deep South is mostly limited to district-level races in majority black areas. A number of African American Democrats represent the region in the U.S. House, with districts created and protected by the Voting Rights Act. But where white voters constitute majorities, affiliation with the Democratic Party is often the kiss of death for a candidate.

In a previous post, I asked who gets to decide is something is racism or someone is a racist, but I should have asked since when does the white, male, dominated mainstream media get to decide who/what/when/where racist racism occurs?  They are quick to tell African Americans to get past race, which is really code for STFU and let us decide when we are going to treat you fairly.

It's the story of modern day southern politics.

From the end of Reconstruction through the civil rights revolution, the South was an almost uniformly Democratic region. In 1936, for example, Franklin Roosevelt won more than 98 percent of the vote in South Carolina. Race wasn’t the only reason for the South’s shift toward the GOP, but it was the biggest single driver. In 1948, northern liberals inserted a civil rights plank into the national Democratic platform, prompting a walkout of southern delegations – which then coalesced around the third party Dixiecrat candidacy of Strom Thurmond. An uneasy truce between national and southern Democrats was reached after that election, but it was untenable. When LBJ signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the modern southern GOP was born. Nationally, LBJ crushed Barry Goldwater in the fall of ’64, racking up more than 60 percent of the popular vote. But Goldwater carried five southern states – winning 59 percent in South Carolina, 69 percent in Alabama and 87 percent in Mississippi.

We can pretend the split between the ADP and the ADM isn't racial, but deep down we know it's the truth. If it weren't there never would have been a split in the first place.

How can anyone go forward when the driver is stuck in "R" or reverse?~AF2010
 
How can Alabama Democrats go forward when the driver is stuck in "R" or reverse?~RedEye 2013

5 Must See Videos/Links 5 Days before the election

If you were meant to have a voice, you would have been born with a penis.  

Smear Campaign Against Teachers is Freakish

What prompted Karl Rove To Go Off  on a Fact-Free Rant about Don Siegelman and Jill Simpson?

The three kinds of white racist.

The George Bush dereliction of duty video from 9/11 that just won't go away.

Dr. Margaret Flowers at the Supreme Court.

The Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads and the Polling Pollsters who Poll them keep saying "this is a really close election", my question why is it even close?  Are the American people willing to bite off their nose to spite their face?  I mean, really?

FreeDON Sunday # 2

Why are so many people convinced Don Siegelman is a victim of political prosecution, and what does that have to do with you?

Video The campaign to Free Don Siegelman

Dana Siegelman's Pardon Petition Drive Gains Momentum in D.C.

Why the hell is Don Siegelman still being persecuted?

9/11 Changed Everything All Right

It's that time of the year again.

Another media driven  "anniversary" of the day Bush and Dick used our grief over 9/11 to start a war. 

Another year of remembering that George W. Bush was the pResident on 9/11.

From this day forward I will remember 9/11 as the day former democratic Governor Don Siegelman returns to prison for a crime that isn't a crime and the day that justice died.

I wish I could say I'm surprised Governor Siegelman is returning to prison for a crime that isn't a crime, but my rich, southern, heritage prevents it.  The south has a history of using the justice system that is supposed to protect us to harm us.

That's just who they are, and it's just what they do.

And there is not a darn thing we can do about it because 9/11 changed everything. Sigh

"Though I've often disagreed with republicans, I actually never learned to hate them they way the far right who controls their party hate our President and other Democrats"~ President William Jefferson Clinton (D. Arkansas)

And they want us to sing God Bless America? No!  No!  No!   RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray for our government.

Herding Cats aka The Alabama Democratic Party

Alabama Democratic Party Cat Herding Update

The time to inform democratic voters the democratic nominee for the Supreme Court is a bigot is BEFORE the democratic primary not AFTER the fact.  It's kind of like trying to UN-RING a Bell.

There is a huge disconnect between the Big Cats and the Big Dogs within the ADP , which manifest itself in the Big Cats deciding who should represent the interest of Alabama's   poor/black/brown citizens. 

Instead of trying to un-ring a bell, why isn't the ADP organizing in support of former Governor Don Siegelman instead of offering prayers for him and his family?

Again- para quoting the late Civil Rights Activist Fannie Lou Hammer, you can pray until you are blue in the face but unless you get off your knees and do something, God isn't going to give you anything.

RedEye over and out....for now

RedEye's Week in Review

Fist Dap- What Would Jack Do. 

After wrenching President Obama's quotes out of context, Willard takes his misadventures on the road, proves himself to be an embarrassment ,but that OK,  he is going to restore Anglo Saxon relations with Britain,  and he's better than that guy.  Oh well, at least he's raising lots of money.

Fist Dap Legal Schnauzer

What a difference a Federal Judge makes.  U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson had the conscience, courage and conviction to release an opinion that shows the Siegleman defendants were wrongly convicted, (as if we didn't already know) as one of the defendants is released from from federal custody after six years, and another is probably headed to prison on August 3, 2012.

Wanted Alabama Democrats  with the courage and conviction to be the squeaky wheel, the future of the Alabama Democratic Party and Alabama's minorities are at stake. 

Governor Siegelman, you don't owe us an apology, we owe you one, for allowing this miscarriage of justice to take place.  Your only "crime" was being governor of ALL the people, not SOME of the people.

Fist Dap Politico

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.  All I am going to all the Righty's and some black church group, who have their knickers in knots because gay rights groups are blasting  Chick Filet because  the chain donated to an anti gay marriage group, is three words...The Dixie Chicks. 

Fist Dap The Daily Banter

Field Negro notes we are living in a violent world, but nobody notices unless it happens in a place where we least expect it. 

Update~Today in media enabled republican hypocrisy

Breaking News-the all white, TeaPublican controlled,  House Oversight Committee voted to Stop and Frisk Attorney General Eric Holder.  The TeaPublican controlled House of Representatives will vote next week, so we can expect the same outcome, despite the fact President Obama has exerted Executive Privilege on the grounds to release the documents would have significant damaging, consequences, and it grants the Attorney General immunity from prosecution.


I say release the documents and let the TeaPublicans be responsible for the significant, damaging, consequences. And since the TeaPublicans are so gung ho about investing stuff that happened under the Bush administration all of sudden, let's investigate 9/11 and the U.S. Attorney Purge.


The media is spinning the Obama promised transparency meme, so let's have some transparency and let the chips fall where they may.
RedEye


TeaPublicans are hypocrites, the media thinks we are stupid, and democrats need to nut up and call them out, or, bend over and take their gang banging like Girlie Men.

The gop infused, media enabled, TeaPublican controlled Congress is considering voting to hold Attorney General Eric Holder  in contempt of Congress because they are scared of their Batsh#t crazy base.  Want proof they are scared of their base?  The  the Attorney General is willing to turn over the documents they have requested, but then the media wouldn't have a wall to wall scandal involving President Obama to breathlessly report about during an election year.  Weapon of mass distraction from the real reason  the TeaPublican controlled Congress has contempt for Eric Holder.

 I have to give the republicans credit, unlike democrats, they don't threaten, they do it.  The media must think we have forgotten about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and  White Counsel and Supreme Court nominee Harriet Meir's.  This isn't about Fast and Furious, this is a media enabled weapon of mass distraction from the real issue.

The real reason the TeaPublicans want to repeal ObamaCare as they call it, is because gasp  blacks and Latinos  will benefit is the law is upheld.     What else would make people vote against their self interest?

The Voter ID laws and Voter Purges aren't about voter fraud.  You know how I know?  Because we didn't hear a mumbling word about Voter ID, or Voter Purge during the republican Presidential Primary.  TeaPublicans don't want everybody to vote.  Can you say weapon of mass distraction from the real issue?

Today's Must Reads

We all look alike to them

25 things black Presidents (and First Ladies)aren't allowed to do

Dear Lord, Save  Me from These Suddenly Conservative Bleeds

The Strange Career of Juan Crow

Blast from the Past

Siegelman Case-Rob Riley and Rove

Edit~Is Al Langford a Voice or an Echo?

Huntsville City School Security  Chief Al Lankford (L) Huntsville City School Superintendent Casey Wardynski (R)

Here

We

Go 

Again

The Huntsville School board claims to be intimidated by the people they are supposed to serve, the parents/tax payers.  The only time they want parental involvement is when certain parents agree with them. Parents who don't agree with them are met with metal detectors, or the television feed just happens to have a glitch just as public comments are about to start.

If anyone believes Al Langford is not following orders I have some nice ocean front property in Utah for sell.

Blair said he only learned of the incident when contacted by the media Monday.
"There are so many things going on at the board meetings," Blair said, "that I don't sit there and look for intimidation and threats."
Blair said he's always found Winn to be pleasant and cordial. He did say, however, that some people at the December meeting found Winn's minute and a half of silence uncomfortable.
"I didn't, but I think other people may have found it upsetting," Blair said. "It was kind of awkward."
When asked if he agreed with Lankford's decision to stop Winn from recording the meeting, Blair declined to discuss it.
"I'm not going to Monday morning quarterback the actions," Blair said. "We're there to do the business of the board, to move the school system forward. I'm not going to second-guess Al's decisions."

Un Huh. RedEye Roll  Blame it on the black guy.

I know from personal experience this is how the HCS systems deals with  taxpayers who don't go along to get along.  Mr. Winn should be glad he wasn't  arrested, charged, and convicted of harassment for trying to stand up for the rights of not only his student, but all students.

Today's Must Read
Trayvon Martin comes to the Huntsville City Schools
It seems to me that Dr. Wardynski also sees threats in things that just don’t seem threatening to me. For example, during his presentation to the board concerning his recommendation to put a fence and a “welcome center” (read: guard shack) around the new Lee High campus, he asked for several photos of the neighborhood surrounding Lee High to be displayed for the board and the public.

RedEye around Alabama the Stoopid

So, the same people who cost Alabama billions with their immigration crackdown are some of  the same people who want to keep public teachers from getting a raise and  reform education,  code for a racist dog whistle. H/Tarchangelsk

  
Take the following:
Charter schools are necessary in areas of chronically failing schools and under served children, [House Speaker Mike] Hubbard said.

Translation:
"White folks are getting tired of paying taxes for public education, and being forced to send their children to private school because they don't want their children fraternizing with brown kids"

White Alabama GOP leader issues white paper on President Obama's birth certificate on the white steps of the cradle of the Confederacy, as two Tea Party candidates  in the reddest of the red states, run on the platform of impeaching President Obama.  Can you say stuck on stoopid?

The reddest electorate in red-state Alabama arguably resides in Baldwin County, home to some of the state’s most conservative voters.
How red? Start with the fact that not a single Democrat qualified to run for any elected office in Baldwin County this year. If that doesn’t speak volumes, consider a recent exchange from a candidate forum in Fairhope.
The tone of the Tea Party gathering, sponsored by the Common Sense Campaign, was set by its opening speaker.
Roy Moore, running to reclaim his position as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, seized the microphone and delivered a fiery defense of individual liberty and states’ rights. 

Today's Must Reads
Voters should challenge campaign insults against Obama 

Fighting the vast right wing with pea shooters, Part One:  Books and Bookmakers

That was no gaffe.  That was a brand- new talking point.

PA 'Alabama'?

The keystone state has been in the news lately due to revlations of thePenn State child sex abuse scandal, which took me back to the 2008 Presidential primary and campaign when some parts of Pennsylvania were compared to Alabama.

President Obama lost the democratic primary to Hillary Clinton, but carried the state by a 10.31% margin over John McCain in the general election.

McCain did win more counties than Obama, but the counties carried by Obama were by far the most populated of the state, including Philadelphia and Allegheny, home of the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh respectively.[20]

Looks like Pennsylvania wanted to return to the days of slavery and Jim Crow too.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) - April 30, 2008 (WPVI) -- A state senator told a black pastor testifying at a committee hearing that, given the chance to cast secret ballots, his fellow legislators would vote to legalize slavery.

Like Alabama,then PA Attorney General, now Governor Tom Corbett filed a lawsuit against the Affordable Health Care Act.

Also like Alabama and Mississippi, Pennsylvania had it's share of prosecution of democrats. There are some who say this is the reason then AG Corbett couldn't find the time to investigate Penn State.

A few days ago Governor Corbett went on the Sunday talk shows, gave some press on Monday and Tuesday regarding Mike McQueary (still) coach at Penn St. Corbett kept repeating that McQueary didn’t meet the “moral obligations” of the shower rape and aftermath.

Before becoming (grown) Governor, Corbett was Attorney General and was on the case since 2009. He knows what was going on since then or should have known what was going on. As he talked to all the hosts he gave what now appears to be 1 version of what happened and it’s not the eye witnesses’ McQueary’s story.

McQueary is seen as a villain for not stopping what happened in the showers, but according to him, he did stop it. Will Corbett face any backlash? He should as he all but convicted McQueary on (possibly) false charges. We have to wait and see who is telling the truth. The eye-witness or the man in charge of the investigation.

Corbett also approved a a 3million dollar grant to Second Mile Charity despite the allegations and the ongoing investigation. That's 3 million of tax payer money going to a private source. Sound familiar?

Gov. Tom Corbett this summer approved a $3 million state grant to The Second Mile, the charity founded by suspected child molester Jerry Sandusky, despite knowing about the sex abuse investigation that later resulted in charges against Mr. Sandusky.

The grant is now on hold, said Mr. Corbett's spokesman, Eric Shirk.

The grant would have helped pay for the first phase of the "Center for Excellence" at The Second Mile, which Mr. Sandusky, a former Penn State University assistant football coach, founded in 1977 to work with troubled children.

The center was a grand dream of Mr. Sandusky's that he said would offer "a sense of [permanence] and a place for our kids to call 'home.' " It would have classrooms, a gym, athletic fields and dormitory space.

The sex abuse football-related scandal isn't the only Penn State cover up.

As news unravels around the grand jury report revealing charges against former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky for raping and sexually molesting underage boys, some former black Penn State students are now painfully reliving a scandal that occurred at their university ten years ago. In 2000, the year a janitor witnessed a boy younger than 13 (“Victim 8” in a grand jury report) “pinned against a wall” while Sandusky performed oral sex on him, black students and football players on Penn State’s campus began receiving hate mail.
The hate mail sent to black students had nothing to do with Sandusky’s proclivities, but the two incidences shared something in common: both were ultimately covered up by the university, even as both chain of events grew worse. Sandusky went on to molest and possibly rape more boys, according to a grand jury report (Sandusky denies foul play), and hate mail against black students became death threats.

Race at Alabama

In less than a week, two racially charged incidents that were witnessed by few but now have been discussed by thousands have prompted the president, faculty members and students at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa to publicly decry racism on campus.
On Friday, a member of a white fraternity shouted racial epithets from inside the group’s house at passing student Justin Zimmerman, who is black. The fraternity member, whose name has not been released, reportedly called Zimmerman a “nigger,” then called out, “come here, boy.”
Zimmerman alerted a faculty member, and the next day President Robert E. Witt sent a brief – and vague – e-mail to faculty, staff and students. In its entirety, the message reads, “On Friday evening, a member of the UA student body used a racial slur to refer to another UA student. The words that were used are offensive to our community, and are especially upsetting to African Americans. I want to emphasize in the strongest possible terms that The University of Alabama finds this behavior totally unacceptable, and appropriate disciplinary action will be taken.”

I report.
You decide.

There is Quid Pro Quo for republicans, then there is Quid Pro Quo for Democrats

On the outside looking in. That's how I feel everything I log on to Left in Alabama. I really miss not being allowed to post there. For years it part of my morning Political Junkie routine...Washington Journal to hear what the people were talking about.....Morning Joke, I mean Joe, to see what the righty's were talking about....Left in Alabama to find out what was really going on in the world and doing my part in trying to make a difference. Was I outspoken and opinionated? You betcha. Could I give as good as I got? Absolutely. Did I talk about race and racism a lot. Yes. Did I resort to name calling, personal attacks and insults when the substance of my arguments failed? No. Did I go along to get along? Nope.

As a matter of fact, I'm still trying to figure out exactly who or what got me banished from Left in Alabama but I feel the same way now as I did when my beloved mother explained why my siblings and I couldn't drink from the white water fountain.

Anyhoo, enough of the pity party. Paging LiA's resident righty, I mean Legal contributor! Old Prosecutor, you said-if you tell a legislator that "I will contribute X amount of money to your campaign in return for you voting yes on a specific bill" - that can be construed as bribery.

I have a problem with your expert legal opinion which can be expressed in two words... Citizens United

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 08-205 (2010), was a landmark decision by the United States Supreme Court holding that corporate funding of independent political broadcasts in candidate elections cannot be limited—because of the First Amendment. The 5–4 decision, in favor of Citizens United, resulted from a dispute over whether the non-profit corporation Citizens United could air a film critical of Hillary Clinton, and whether the group could advertise the film in broadcast ads featuring Clinton's image, in apparent violation of the 2002 Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly known as the McCain–Feingold Act.[2]
The decision reached the Supreme Court on appeal from a January 2008 decision by the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. The lower court decision upheld provisions of the McCain–Feingold Act which prevented the film Hillary: The Movie from being shown on television within 30 days of 2008 Democratic primaries.[1][3]
The Court struck down a provision of the McCain–Feingold Act that prohibited all corporations, both for-profit and not-for-profit, and unions from broadcasting “electioneering communications.”[2] An "electioneering communication" was defined in McCain–Feingold as a broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or thirty days of a primary. The decision overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) and partially overruled McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003).[4] McCain–Feingold had previously been weakened, without overruling McConnell, in Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007). The Court did uphold requirements for disclaimer and disclosure by sponsors of advertisements. The case did not involve the federal ban on direct contributions from corporations or unions to candidate campaigns or political parties.[5]

So, if corporations can make unlimited campaign contributions in the name of free speech, why can't people tell candidates they will vote for them if they share their interest? Certainly you don't believe corporations are donating million to candidates who don't share their interest?

What mooncat said

Let me relate to you an actual situation that happened last year. A member of Congress made a fundraising call to someone I know, obviously hoping for a contribution. The potential donor was very upfront that the health care reform bill was their top priority and said, "If you support this bill, call me again and I'll definitely support your campaign." Now, it's a federal campaign, so the amount is obviously limited to $2400 (or $4800 for primary & general) but it's pretty clearly a specific vote at issue.

I know the potential donor and the intent was not to bribe but to put pressure on a representative before an important vote and draw a bright line on a particular issue -- don't call me for money unless you vote for HCR.

By your standard, politicians are guilty of bribing voters when they say I will vote to repeal ObamaCare if you vote for me, and voters are guilty of bribing candidates/elected officials when they say I will vote for you if you vote to repeal ObamaCare.

Are campaign contributions only considered a bribe when it involves Democrats like former Alabama Don Siegelman

The question this case raises (as did the Siegelman case) is - when does a campaign contribution become a bribe?

However before we get to that, remember that Beason testifed (sic) he was offered a $1,000,000.00 per year "consulting" contract in return for his vote which, if true, would clearly be a bribe.

To the main question - most State (and the Federal) bribery statutes define bribery as offering a pecuniary benefit or a "thing of value" to a public official(sic) with the intent that the official's (sic) vote or action will be "corruptly" influemced (sic).

The line between campaign contribution and a bribe is a fine one. Generally to be a bribe, the government must prove a "quid pro quo" -that is the contribution must be given in exchange for a specific vote. Federal Courts have held that money "given freely without the promise of a specific action in return is not a bribe even if they are intended to "build a reservoir of goodwill that might ultimately affect one or more of a multitude of unspecified acts, now or in the future".

What was the crime in the Siegelman case?

I guess it depends on what the definition of Quid Pro Quo IS. There must be one definition for republicans and another one for democrats.

I look forward to your reply.

Tuesday Talking Points~Edit

Profiling and smear jobs R'Us. God Bless America!

First, a SWAT team in Arizona shoots and kills a decorated Marine because they thought that he was a drug dealer. The man was unarmed.

And then, just to show that Northern states aren't immune from this type of ignorance; the po po in Massachusetts shoots and kills an unarmed 68 year old grandfather in a drug raid. He was not a target of the investigation. (This happened awhile ago, I swear I can't keep up)

Finally, (and this one pisses me off) former NFL star,Warrick Dunn, was profiled and stopped by the po po in Hotlanta because they thought he had the "characteristics of people transporting guns and drugs."

GrannyStandingforTruth writes;

I swear I thought that these days had ended and we were living in post-racial America. Yup, blacks would stop singing We Shall Overcome and toast to peace and equality with our white brothers and sisters. All stereotypes would be discarded and replaced with positive uplifting of one another. We'd start working together on making America a better place for ALL people to live in peace with one another. Well...at least that was the fantasy everyone was, simultaneously, having when President Barack Obama got elected.

So, you know there is something rotten in the cotton if right leaning Left in Alabama smells a dirty, two faced, Rat in Sweet Home Alabama.

Some no-bid contracts are outrageous, wrong and obviously deserving of prosecution.
Others are just fine.

Psst President Obama and Attorney General Holder, African American elected officials, Activist, and White Liberal/Progressive Democrats are under attack in Alabama. We need HELP down here.

Obama has taken his share of grief from the national black community over national policy issues such as the failure to attain a public option or single payer health care component in the “reform” legislation. Others have complained of his progress in advancing outstanding civil rights issues, and some even criticized Michelle Obama for not working a black designer into her dress selection on Inauguration Day. The complaint of Velma Hart, who told Obama she was “exhausted of defending you,” has become something of a symbol for such black discontent. While this criticism is noteworthy, and not without merit, and it has been noted that his shortfalls are disproportionately borne by African-Americans, I am more concerned here with Obama’s impact on areas unique to Alabama. Of necessity, those pertain more to matters of patronage and appointment than to policy. On these matters, Obama’s record varies from questionable to terrible.

Only in America is it OK for the Westboro Baptist Church gang to protest at funerals but not OK for people to dance at the Jefferson Memorial. The Terrorist have truly won.


What's that you say? The Alabama Media is covering up the fact Tornadoes prove Spencer Bacchus is World-Class Tool? I'm shocked! Shocked I tell you. NOT.

But for now, this much is clear: Spencer Bachus stuck by his "conservative principles" and voted to cut federal spending at the expense of accurate weather forecasting in Alabama and elsewhere. That could cost thousands of American lives in an age where tornadoes seem to be hitting with increasing frequency and ferocity. (See Missouri, Joplin.) Spencer Bachus needs to pay a political price for his arrogance and shortsightedness.

To no one's surprise, Alabama's right-wing mainstream press has been trying to provide cover for Bachus and his Republican buddies in Congress. Mary Orndorff, of The Birmingham News, reported on May 8 about the gap in satellite coverage.


Meet the The Walleyed, Rock-Stupid, Egomaniacal, Inadvertently Hilarious Flock of Nattering Republican Boobs Who Think They Can Beat Barack Obama in 2012 If Democrats pussyfoot around and let one of them steal the 2012 election too, we will get what we deserve.

Rick Scott has a campaign “secret weapon” of his own: he’s making it tougher for Democrats to even participate in the election in the first place. Most notably, the governor and his GOP allies are restricting groups’ abilities to launch voter registration drives.

“This law has created, really, a draconian, very broad, ambiguous bureaucracy that is going to make it impossible for volunteers to continue our voter registration work,” said Deirdre Macnab, who heads the Florida branch of the League of Women Voters, a non-partisan group that advocates for political participation.

Comment of the Day;

Republicans firmly believe that voting is a privilege, not a right.

And the only people who should qualify to vote are:
White - preferably male.
Over 40.
A FOX viewer.
A Rush listener.

Overall - Low information voters.

And that's how we get low information state politicians, and Congressmen and Senators.

God help America.

Update~Tuesday This and That

I had to include this must read in today's edition,Obama's unkept promise to Alabama's blacks.
H/T to my pure Anglo-Saxon, save for distant branches of Scots and German friend Publius IX.

The election of Barack Obama was guaranteed to have far reaching, and long lasting implications for Alabama politics. The first election of an African-American President could not be anything other than a paradigm-shifting event. On the one hand, Obama’s presence on the ballot seems to have brought out the worst in white Alabama.

It's the vicious, never ending cycle of POVERTY, and the stereotypical myths stoopid!

Daniel Patrick Moynihan, then an assistant labor secretary in the Johnson administration, introduced the idea of a “culture of poverty” to the public in a startling 1965 report. Although Moynihan didn’t coin the phrase (that distinction belongs to the anthropologist Oscar Lewis), his description of the urban black family as caught in an inescapable “tangle of pathology” of unmarried mothers and welfare dependency was seen as attributing self-perpetuating moral deficiencies to black people, as if blaming them for their own misfortune.

Moynihan’s analysis never lost its appeal to conservative thinkers, whose arguments ultimately succeeded when President Bill Clinton signed a bill in 1996 “ending welfare as we know it.” But in the overwhelmingly liberal ranks of academic sociology and anthropology the word “culture” became a live grenade, and the idea that attitudes and behavior patterns kept people poor was shunned.

Democrats who try to break the cycle of poverty either get investigated, prosecuted and convicted for being "corrupt" or they are ignored and ridiculed by the party Elite.

None dare call it racism.

This is an ongoing problem with falling in bed with right wing radical groups: their support and energy is helpful to you, and their fundraising can be strong, but then you are placed in the uncomfortable position of being completely incapable of responding properly to overt racism.

Repeat after me, this is the gop plan for balancing the budget

End education, take away seniors income and give it to CEOs,take food and shelter away from the poor; give the power back to the CEOs instead of doctors to decide who should live and who should die, more deregulation, and outsourcing of jobs. And the rich live happily ever after.

No justice, you know the rest....

The Justice Department is going to defend John Ashcroft and argue that NO ONE has the right to sue ANY Attorney General EVER?

It's the stoopid media!

The paradox that exists in the media is the never ending relativism that does not allow for crucial facts to be agreed upon, thus no REAL policy can be agreed to. The media recognizes two main perspectives (right and left) puts the "talking heads" into either category, and never gives proper authority to one side based on their arguments or knowledge. Rather the media just makes it a "perspective", in which everyone has a perspective, and both left and right have a justified opinion on an issue, no matter how factually wrong they are. Every issue is interpreted as someones opinion, and all opinions are justified.

But were does this paradox lead us? To where this country is now. With little to no legislation being passed, no real change, and no hope that there will be any progress because no one can recognize what the facts are. If we want to change the political system, we need to agree on facts.

About those secret donations....

Donors to nonprofit groups that are spending millions on political ads this election have escaped public scrutiny because their donations don't have to be disclosed. But can they escape a hefty tax bite?

Oh what a tangled web we weave...