"This is my country, Land of my birth"

How can society expect black boys to become men when parents have to give them a disempowering narrative like this?

"Thisis my country! Grandest on earth!"

If Trayvon Martin had been white and George Zimmerman were black. If you don't understand how deeply and viciously racist has been the official and right-wing reaction to the murder of Trayvon Martin, all you have to do is consider what would have been the official and right-wing reaction had the races of Martin and his killer been reversed. 

 I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country to have and to hold.

What diff'rence if I hail from North or South
Or from the East or West?
My heart is filled with love for all of these.
I only know I swell with pride and deep within my breast
I thrill to see Old Glory paint the breeze.

With hand upon heart I thank the Lord For this my native land,
For all I love is here within her gates.
My sould is rooted deeply in the soil on which I stand,
For these are mine own United States.

This is my country! Land of my choice!
This is my country! Hear my proud voice!
I pledge thee my allegiance, America, the bold,
For this is my country! To have and to hold.

Eye Weep for My Country.

"Real Talk" about what to do if you're stopped by the police in black and white

The Talk for Black Americans

Artist Michael D’ Antuono created a powerful painting portraying what many African-American parents experience when trying to explain to their sons the gross injustice surrounding the killings of Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice or the many other young black men killed by the hands of law enforcement.

The Talk for White Americans

 

• Don’t get into an argument with the police.
• Never bad-mouth a police officer.
• Remember, anything you say or do can be used against you.
• Keep your hands where the police can see them.
• Don’t run.
• Don’t touch any police officer.
• Don’t resist even if you believe you are innocent.
• If you complain at the scene, or tell the police they’re wrong, do so in a non-confrontational way that will not intensify the scene.
• Do not make any statements regarding the incident.
• If you are arrested, ask for a lawyer immediately.
• Remember officers’ badge numbers, patrol car numbers and physical descriptions.
• Write down everything you remember ASAP.
• Try to find witnesses and their names and phone numbers.
• If you are injured, take photos of the injuries as soon as possible, but make sure you get medical attention first. Ask for copies of your medical treatment files.

Must Reads:

When White Parents Have to Have  "The Talk" with their black sons

Police Brutality in black and white

Real-time photo evidence of a cop planting evidence on a victim
What NOT to do if you are black and stopped by the police.

Eye will close with some misinformation and faulty logic from the designated African American black attacker on Fox.

COOPER: In the black community, we need to have a conversation that’s unemcumbered by the radical left and progressives’ agenda that tries to use government coercion to address some problems. Here’s the reality: black Americans, like myself, we have an elevated risk of death that will come – not from law enforcement but that will come from other black Americans.
…According to the CDC, the second most likely contributor to that disparity is homicide. There is no other ethnic group that homicide ranks as high and the statistics actually show it’s black people killing other black people. …If no other ethnic group faces this risk, it is a sign that there’s a disparate amount of criminality happening in this one group.

Sound familiar?  Faux News.  All spin, all the time, unfair and unbalanced, distorting what you decide.  Just say NO to Faux News.

RedEye

RedEyes Weekly Rundown #OnlyInAmerica #StuckOnStupid

H/T Living Blue in Florida

 From the files of Only In America can African American (yes I said it) teachers be convicted  for cheating on standardized test, but armed citizens and police can't be tried, much less convicted, for killing black men, women, and children.  For the record I am not excusing cheating but this is what happens when school staffers are given bonuses of up to $5,000 and promotions for improved test scores.  For the love of money.... 

From the files of Stuck On Stupid , not to be outdone by their Alabama cohorts who want to arm every child,  the Iowa is granting gun permits to blind people.  This just in!  Kansas is going to allow concealed carry of guns without a permit.  Stupid as Stupid does...

All it took was the threat of some mega economic pain to make Indiana Gov. Mike (I went to Selma) Pence, and Arkansas Gov. Asa (Impeachment Manager) Hutchinson  back down from their little religious bigotry disguised as religious freedom bills.  Money talks and Bull Poop walks...

Speaking of victims of guns and boycotts, today marks the date of Martin Luther King's last public appearance before he was assassinated in Memphis, TN.  Rest in Power....

Peace,
RedEye

So, the #FergusonPD is a bastion of #racism but #DarrenWilson won't face Civil Rights charges.... Oh, OK #DOJ (RedEye Roll)

Justice report: ‘It’s not going to stop nothing’ http://t.co/xJDH4ApPep  pic.twitter.com/EBAUmbvqUx #DarrenWilson #MichaelBrown #FergusonReport
— Red Eye (@RedEyesPage) March 4, 2015

Just like last week's decision not to charge #GeorgeZimmerman in the death of #TrayvonMartin,  the decision not to file Civil Rights Charges against #DarrenWilson in the death of #MikeBrown comes as no surprise.

"In the end no action is ever taken that brings justice to black people."

Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere except the United States of America.

#FergusonReport 

"I would not hurt a fly but everyday I get out of my apartment, I know I am at risk of being killed by a racist because of my skin and the system will do everything to justify why I had to be killed."

In America race is an issue because it is an issue

If George Zimmerman had stayed in his car like he was instructed to do by the 911 dispatcher maybe Trayvon Martin would be celebrating his 20th birthday, and we wouldn't be observing the injustice of the century.  I said maybe because police could have killed Trayvon Martin  for being black in America.

By the way, although George Zimmerman is not incarcerated, he will never be free. For the rest of his rotten life, he will be known as the real thug who followed and killed an unarmed African American teenager based on a false and racist assumption. In fact, given George Zimmerman frequent acts of violence and run in with the law, it is only a matter of time before he kills or hurts someone else.

"Sadly, the blood will be on  jurors' hands.

 : a jury of six women, five of them white and none of them Black, found Zimmerman not guilty, sparking national outrage and protests. Seemingly unaware of the furor invoked by the decision, Juror B-37—who wished to remain anonymous but nonetheless conducted a public interview and signed (then canceled) a book deal—stated, “All of us thought race did not play a role.” This was the same juror who, during jury selection, referred to Trayvon Martin as a “boy of color” whose murder was “an unfortunate incident.”

Who can blame them for remaining anonymous?

The identities of potential jurors in the Florida trial of George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer accused of murdering teenager Trayvon Martin, will be kept confidential, the presiding judge ruled Wednesday.
Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder charges, contending he acted in self-defense.
Circuit Judge Debra Nelson also ruled that the potential jurors won’t be sequestered, and that during the selection process -- which is scheduled to get underway on Monday -- members of the jury pool will be referred to by numbers, not names.
"This is to be done in order to protect the prospective jurors from harassment and pressure from the public at large," Nelson wrote, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

"The blood will be on the American criminal injustice system filthy hands." 

A verdict that could have provided accountability, vindication, and healing did not happen. But we are a nation of laws. The outcome would have to be accepted if the trial was fair. The community would have to just move on if Zimmerman’s acquittal was based on the evidence at trial.
But that was not the case. Because the same suspicions and unexamined biases that Zimmerman harbored in one way or another coursed through the significant players in that courtroom: the defense attorneys, prosecutors, judge, and jury.

Know Truth.  Know Justice.  No Truth.  No Justice.

And we dare not rise up and protest because Riots.

Three years ago, Trayvon Martin left home for the store and never returned. We will never forget. You are our reason for being.

 Rest in power sweet child.

"They hate us for our Freedom" #RememberTrayvon #NoJusticeNoPeace #BlackLivesMatter

We've found "insufficient evidence" that America values black lives enough to hold vigilantes or police accountable for taking them.
— The Dream Defenders  (@Dreamdefenders) February 24, 2015

TRAVESTY, BREAKING NEWS: Today, the US Department of Justice has failed yet again to uphold its mission to ensure justice and public safety for ALL Americans. The DOJ announced it will NOT file charges against the known racist, violent vigilante George Zimmerman for killing 17-year-old Trayvon Martin on the night of Feb 26, 2012.
As we near the eve of the anniversary of Trayvon's death, we hold in our hearts and minds the devastating pain and suffering, and injustice that Black mothers and fathers, Black children and families have had to endure for generations and the all to familiar reality that we as Black people have no choice but to fight for our lives every single day.

This tragic event has sparked a movement that will not die, and birthed a new generation of young Black leaders who have filled the streets of America, demanding justice and shifting the consciousness of people across the nation.
Let us turn our rightful frustration into action, and grow a movement to hold the criminal justice system accountable. ‪#‎RememberTrayvon‬

We can blame the Roberts Court for gutting the civil rights laws.

Federal law surrounding racially motivated police shootings is unaccountably convoluted and hopelessly muddled. But one thing is clear: In their current form, our federal civil rights laws let cops pull the trigger with near-total impunity.

It wasn’t always that way. The law under which Holder could theoretically charge Wilson, now called Section 242, was passed in 1870 to secure robust legal protections for newly freed blacks in the South. Congress had recently passed amendments guaranteeing former slaves citizenship, equal protection of the laws, due process, and voting rights, which the states (including several under Reconstruction in the South) then ratified. But a number of viciously racist groups, including the newly formed Ku Klux Klan, had effectively negated these new rights, terrorizing black communities through arson, beatings, and lynching.

Congress had already passed laws requiring Southern states to recognize their black citizens’ newfound freedoms. But violent groups like the KKK were often aided if not led by local governments and law enforcement. Blacks suddenly had a vastly expanded roster of rights, yet racist officials and crooked cops were colluding to ensure that they couldn’t exercise any of them. So Congress passed the Enforcement Act of 1870, part of which survives today as Section 242. As its title suggests, the act enforced the new amendments by making it a federal crime to deprive any person of his constitutional rights while acting “under color of any law.”

We can blame ourselves.

Truth first then justice.
We’re the ones that failed. Not us specifically, but the people who knew and understood the truth and common sense and had the format to speak out about it. We let another narrative take place so we can avoid calling what we are seeing what it really is.
For example:
We let the media tell us that GZ said the word punk instead of calling them racist for trying to clean something up that was so damn obviously racist.

And we dare not rise up.

For some reason African Americans are supposed to accept the decision of the secret grand jury without question.

 Even as verdict after verdict continues to excuse White authority figures of their wrongdoing, the Black community is expected to understand that police officers have a very hard job. The Black community is expected to understand that approximately 150 police officers are killed in the line of duty each year, the Black community is expected to understand that police officers are human too, the Black community is expected to understand that police officers are just doing their job and the Black community is expected to understand that even if a police officer is in the wrong, you are supposed to remain submissive and never talk back.

For some reason when African Americans peacefully assemble to voice their outrage, or, to plead for justice, it's called a riot.

  During questioning, she referred multiple times to "riots" in Sanford after Trayvon Martin was killed. "I knew there was rioting, but I guess [the authorities] had it pretty well organized," she says at one point. In fact, despite a great deal of salivating anticipation by the media both before and after the trial, there were no riots in Sanford, Florida.

 Trayvon belongs to all America and until you see him as your child too, we all remain in bondage.

RedEye's RoundUp

Before I type another word, I want to thank all of my followers, readers, lurkers, and contributors.  Your support continues to humble and amaze me.  If anyone is interested in becoming a contributor,  submit a righting sample to redeyeblog.Alabama@yahoo.com.  All points of view are NOT welcome.  Meaning, red, republican, right wing contributors need not apply.  This is a blue, hard left, progressive, liberal blog.  Truth, and nothing but the truth is spoken here.  The purpose of the blog is to be a voice for voiceless and to inform the public.  If you want to promote right wing talking points and misinformation do it on your own blog.  There is no Fairness Doctrine, remember?
Now on to the Roundup:

Black On Black Crime my Donkey!

Ongoing protests against police brutality have revealed how distorted the American discourse on crime is. The biggest myth animating this discourse is black criminality: the notion that black people commit more crime, and therefore deserve more heavy-handed policing

How about some Black on Black Justice?

 A Black People’s Grand Jury in St. Louis, Missouri, this weekend delivered a “true bill of indictment” for first degree murder against former Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the death of Black teenager Michael Brown. Black people “can and must take matters into our own hands,” said Omali Yeshitela, one of four prosecutors that presented evidence, not only of Wilson’s personal guilt, but the institutional culpability of the entire regional criminal justice system in the murder and subsequent whitewash of the crime.

I HOPE George Zimmerman's attorney turned CNN legal analysist, the jury, the prosecutors, the judge and the media are happy now.

You won't hear it on TeeVee or the so called mainstream media because it doesn't fit the media driven narrative, but Common's acceptance speech for winning a Golden Globe award for best original song was as the young people say, "Off the Chain".

Speaking of the mainstream media, would someone tell them they are the only ones' gushing over Christ Christi, Jeb Bush, and Mitt Romney?  Real people, not so much....

The House will vote Thursday on what Republicans are calling the "Save American Workers Act," a proposal that would make it easier for employers to cut their workers' hours and paychecks and eliminate their benefits. It's a "fix" to Obamacare that would change the definition of full-time work from 30 hours per week to 40. As the law stands, employers with 50 or more workers have to either provide insurance to 95 percent of their full-time employees or pay a fine. Republicans say that their proposal will create more full-time jobs.

Sometimes a loss is a victory

 While the Republicans continue to fight among themselves over who can do more to obstruct progress in this Country, the President continues to lead this country and carry out the will of the American people, and proves once again that there isn't a conservative in America who has ever read the Constitution.

Got popcorn?

The InJustice of the century, one year later #J4TM

#Trayvon Martin

Today marks the one year anniversary of the miscarriage of justice of the century,  when the 5 white and 1 Hispanic, all female jury,  acquitted George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. 

 What we do know is that the Trayvon Martin case says a lot about the state of our politics at the moment.  It’s not very post-racial and, yes, it is very tense and polarized.  Certain elements in the political process, including decision makers from state legislatures to Capitol Hill, are holding the gun.  People of color are in the cross-hairs.  And the only thing we seem to be armed with these days is a high unemployment rate and a sense that the future is not looking as bright.

One year later, the jury is still anonymous.

 To date, little is known about the mainly faceless jurors who deliberated for more than 16 hours before rendering George Zimmerman's fate. Five white women and one black Hispanic woman were on the main panel; four alternate jurors, two men and two women, were also selected. Juror B29 told ABC she believed Zimmerman "got away with murder" but that she had to "grab our hearts and put it aside and look at the evidence." Alternate juror E54 told WOFL he "supported the verdict." Juror B37, the first juror to speak, told CNN that Zimmerman was "justified in shooting Trayvon Martin" but that he "had good in his heart, he just went overboard." She initially planned to write a book about her experience but withdrew after major backlash against her comments.

One year later, violence against unarmed black people continues.

Spare us the invocations of "black-on-black crime." I will not respect the lie. I would rather be thought insane. The most mendacious phrase in the American language is "black-on-black crime," which is uttered as though the same hands that drew red lines around the ghettoes of Chicago are not the same hands that drew red lines around the life of Jordan Davis, as though black people authored North Lawndale and policy does not exist. That which mandates the murder of our Hadiya Pendletons necessarily mandates the murder of Jordan Davis. I will not respect any difference. I will not respect the lie. I would rather be thought crazy.

One year later, Rachel Jeantal blames herself for the jury's actions.

Immediately, I heard newscasters referring to her prior testimony, which I had watched on video, as combative and aggressive. And I felt my pressure start to rise.
These kinds of terms – combat, aggression, anger – stalk black women, especially black women who are dark-skinned and plus-sized like Rachel, at every turn seeking to discredit the validity of our experiences and render invisible our traumas. By painting Rachel Jeantel as the aggressor, as the one prone to telling lies and spreading untruths, it became easy for the white male defense attorney to treat this 19-year-old, working-class black girl, a witness to the murder of her friend, as hostile, as a threat, as the one who needed to be regulated and contained and put in her place.

One year later,  we still have Stand Your Ground Laws, as a matter of fact, Stand Your Ground  laws were  expanded in Florida.

One year later,  neither President Barack Obama, the media, or any racial incident has forced the nation to talk about race in any sort of serious way.

So yes, let's have a real discussion about race and racism.  I mean a real hope-to-die, get it all out in the open discussion.  It's times to drain the poison off, so that this nation can heal.  The whole world is watching.  I don't know about you people, but I don't plan to set my clock back, I plan to set it forward.

One year later, The Justice Department is still investigating the death of Trayvon Martin.

One year later and Trayvon Martin is till dead.

We are the ones that failed.

Truth first then justice.
We’re the ones that failed. Not us specifically, but the people who knew and understood the truth and common sense and had the format to speak out about it. We let another narrative take place so we can avoid calling what we are seeing what it really is.

"Trayvon belongs to all of  America and until you see him as your child too, we all remain in bondage."

Rest in Freedom Sweet Child, we will never forget you.

What is wrong with this picture?

@Here_ISound_Off And this is flip side, when a black man is armed and protects himself in Florida. A US Vet no less! pic.twitter.com/qO6hWEfwI8
— Mary (@MFL1956) February 17, 2014

One and Dunn

Now that Michael Dunn has been convicted of attempted murder of the three young men with Jordan Davis the day he was murdered in cold blood for loud music, his family will have to endure another trial. "The state attorney for Jacksonville, Angela Corey, said immediately after the verdict that she planned to retry Mr. Dunn on first-degree murder. Ms. Corey discussed "overcharges" and that she hoped jurors would explain why they could not agree on that charge, which could help her team in the new trial. Even without that new trial, Michael Dunn will be in prison for possibly 60-75 years. He is scheduled to be sentenced March 24th. And if Michael Dunn was afraid of a car full of teens playing rap music, his convictions give him new reasons to be afraid. Prison justice is calculated, covert, swift and severe.
The actions of George Zimmerman (the one who "won") and Michael Dunn (who is so-o-o done) show it's open season on young black men. The George Zimmerman trial taught racists how to kill a black teenager and legally get away with it. (George, by the way, now bemoans the fact that he can't live a "normal life," is homeless and thinks he is suffering from PTSD - a probable pitch for disability.) Not that I care, if only to say that he ought to be damn happy to live a life in obscurity, always looking over his shoulder, anticipating some dreadful event. Life, after all, is what he denied Trayvon Martin.
Jordan's mother, Lucia McBath, became an advocate with Moms Demand Action, fighting to end "Stand Your Ground" laws, "...also called “shoot first” laws because they empower armed vigilantism – are associated with a clear increase in homicides, resulting in up to 700 more homicides nationwide each year...".
Moms Demand Action notes that Stand Your Ground laws: embolden vigilante behavior and tripled the justifiable homicide rate; disproportionately affects communities of color; and, doesn't deter crime. All of which support the most egregious fact that when: "white shooters kill black victims, the resulting homicides are 11 times more likely to be deemed justifiable than when the shooter is black and the victim is white."
That's a fact that Michael Dunn quite possibly could have known when he reached for his handgun to discharge his magazine into the red SUV. He might have known his chances of getting away with it were pretty good. After all, he considered himself pretty smart, according to his neighbors, and he had learned the nuances of Stand Your Ground during the George Zimmerman trial. His neighbors describe Michael Dunn as a violent, perverse man so eager to make a buck that he was willing to screw his own parents, and as a man willing to kill somebody.
Jordan's father, Ron Davis, said simply though it wasn't in his nature to be stoic, he would do so for his son, Jordan: "[Dunn] is going to learn that he must be remorseful for the killing of my son, that it was not just another day at the office.”

Remember Trayvon Martin Today. Remember Trayvon Martin Tomorrow. Remember Trayvon Martin Forever.

H/T Chip via John S. Randal with links inserted for emphasis.

 Don't ever forget Trayvon Martin, born February 5, 1995. I know that by posting this photo, it will elicit a lot of emotion, both good and bad. I'm not posting it to create fights, to create arguments, I've already gone through much of that. I'm posting it because we need to see that Trayvon Martin was a son, a brother, a friend. When Trayvon was 9-years-old, he saved his father's life by pulling his father, who had been immobilized by burns to the legs, out of a fire in their apartment. Trayvon washed cars, babysat, and cut grass to earn his own money. Trayvon's former football coach said he was a shy kid and always walked with his hoodie and headphones on listening to music. Those who knew him said he was a kind and loving person. He probably wasn't perfect, I don't think any kids his age are perfect, he was after all just a kid. Please don't attack this post, please don't attack anyone who comments on this post. I'm posting this because I think we need to look deep inside and see that inside, our heart, our soul, we are all the same. Trayvon was just a kid, he could have been your son, he could have been your little brother. Peace and love to all...

"Trayvon belongs to all of America. And until you see him as your child too, we all remain in bondage."

Edit~"They don't die, they mulitply", and no, I'm not talking about roaches

Black Sports Online

There is the sentiment among some (not to be confused with all) that racism will die when the old racist die.

 There is also the sentiment among some (not to be confused with all), that if black folks would stop acting like thugs and be more like white folks they are more likely to be accepted (for lack of a better word) by white folks.

There is the sentiment among some (not to be confused with all) that America is post racial because some whites (not to be confused with all) voted for Barack Obama....twice.

Well, all you have to do is look at the picture above , and view this YouTube video of the University of Mississippi Students "Riot" over the reelection of President Obama to know that racism is alive and well, breeding a new generation of haters.

Racism. Intolerance. Prejudice.

Anyone can see it. It's just that few say it out loud.

Today's Must Read

On Reconsidering Race and Racism,Or, This Ain't Grandpa's America

This is what happens when a jury finds you not guilty of murder and second degree manslaughter

Will there be justice for Trayvon Martin?

 It would be great to live in a country that has outgrown its painful history of hatred and violence. Sadly, it appears that America may still have some growing left to do.

It seems like every year we get some brainiac who thinks it a good idea to do something incredibly tasteless, but this certainly ranks up with the worst.  The “costume” includes Trayvon in blackface, wearing a hoodie, with a big red blood stain on his chest.  The Zimmerman character sports a “neighborhood watch” t-shirt, and while posing for the camera, Zimmerman pretends to shoot Trayvon.

 

Boo!

If it's Sunday, it's time to Meet the Pest

Poor White Cash:  GOP and Food Stamps

The Republican Party is engaged in class warfare against poor and middle-class white Americans. It is a little-discussed fact but an ironic one worth noting, since those are the very same people who elect them.

According to the Blog-o-sphere, President Obama ripped the republiklans a new one at the Congressional Black Caucus Dinner last night, which might explain why the feed was bad on the only network (MSNBC) carrying the remarks live. I guess since PBO wasn't reminding the CBC He's not Black President Obama wasn't newsworthy.  But hey, everybody knows it's not the media's job to educate the public.  It's the media's job to uniform the misinformed.  They are doing a Heck of a Job.

Speaking at the annual Congressional Black Caucus dinner, President Obama excoriated congressional Republicans Saturday night for risking a government shutdown, and vowed to stop their efforts to defund his health-care plan.
“It is time for these folks to stop governing by crisis,” Mr. Obama said at the Washington Convention Center. “Some want to shut down the government rather than provide people with health care!”
Referring to Republicans’ strategy to defund Obamacare, the president said he wanted to speak “as clearly as I can.”
“It’s not going to happen,” he said.

 The New Left is Coming!!!  The New Left is Coming!! Yippee Kayay!

Maybe Bill de Blasio got lucky. Maybe he only won because he cut a sweet ad featuring his biracial son. Or because his rivals were either spectacularly boring, spectacularly pathological, or running for Michael Bloomberg’s fourth term. But I don’t think so. The deeper you look, the stronger the evidence that de Blasio’s victory is an omen of what may become the defining story of America’s next political era: the challenge, to both parties, from the left. It’s a challenge Hillary Clinton should start worrying about now.

Why do republican hate America?

I've never understood the logic of putting in government positions people who really hate the very idea of government. There's something profoundly hypocritical about guys like Ted Cruz, whose raison d'etre is to hate government, and yet they cash their government paycheck just like the teachers and firemen and federal workers they excoriate even as they check their bank balances on their government-issued hand-helds. But if there's one thing they hate more than the idea of government, it's Democratic presidents in general, and Barack Obama in particular. And they hate Americans. They really, really, really hate every American that isn't funnelling large sums of soft-money into their campaign coffers.

Trust  us, there's nothing to see here.  Apples and oranges.  Now, please move on.

Now, there may be some among you who would seek to find some link between these stories, to see an underlying commonality in a story about members of a white North Carolina school board who see no literary value in the great American Classic Novel of African American alienation and residents and police officers of a North Carolina city who react to the pleas of a wounded African American man with fear and deadly violence.

InJustice American style

A Texas Court overturned former U.S. Congressman Tom Delay (r.Texas) conviction for money laundering,  a  Federal Judge in New Orleans overturned the conviction of four police officers tied to the shooting of unarmed citizens in the aftermath of Katrina,  George Zimmerman is acquitted for shooting an unarmed teen, and former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman is still in prison for a crime that doesn't exist under the law.

And they want us to sing God Bless America?

"For those of you who are tired of hearing about racism, imagine how much more tired we are constantly experiencing it." - Barbara Smith

How someone looks after their head has been slammed against the concrete with great force

 

Tallahassee Police Break Housewife Christina West Orbital Bone During DUI Arrest

Video Medical Examiner testifies to the extent of George Zimmerman's injuries

Compare and Contrast.

"For those of you who are tired of hearing about racism, imagine how much more tired we are constantly experiencing it." - Barbara Smith

I'm Back! Did you miss me?

 

In case you haven't noticed I've been away from blogging for a spell due to my real life colliding with my blogging life. But that's good thing because I needed a mental health break from the EVIL, INSENSITIVE, HEARTLESS world of cut throat politics. On the down side, I had to depend on the liberal media (snark) for news and information, which means I have to play catch up to find out what's really going on in the world.

Looks like there's a  lots of political intrigue going  in Sweet Home Alabama including a lawsuit filed, but not served against fellow blogger Legal Schnauzer.  You can read all about the intrigue yourself, but this comment  on Legal Schnauzer caught my RedEye:

True, a lot of life time tax payer Republicans have lost confidence and trust in the Alabama Republicans' political party line style of managing their government, and the Declaration of Independence addresses this specific loss of respect by the people, that they should throw off such a government, as a last resort.
Therefore, Murph is probably thinking it's about time us Little People got off our asses and found a strong independent candidate[s]. Why, because regardless the dissatisfaction among the Republicans, many are never going Democrat

So let me see if I have this right (pun intended), republicans are dissatisfied  but they are never going democratic....Why?  What's so bad/wrong/ with the democratic party?  Inquiring minds want to know.

According to Left in Alabama, the GOP failed in their attempt to replace a democrat with  republican and cost tax payers $320.000.00 to boot.  So much for GOP fiscal conservatism.

On a sad note,  Alabama State Representative Demetrius Newton has gone on to Glory. Rest In Peace thy good and faithful Servant. You will be missed.

Long before Demetrius Newton started his 27-year career representing part of western Birmingham in the Alabama House of Representatives, he was fighting against segregationist laws in courtrooms around the state.
Newton, 85, whose death was announced this morning, filed a number of lawsuits during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s that sought an end to segregationist laws - including separate waiting rooms at train stations, the inclusion of African Americans on juries, and the rights of protestors to march.

 Remember when the Supreme Court overturned Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act because things had changed in Sweet Home Alabama?  The more things change, the more they don't.  Oh well, at least Alabama is still #1 when it comes to college football.

Did George Zimmerman and the media try to pull off a Weapon of Mass Distraction?  The reason I ask is because Zimmerman's domestic dispute was all over the mainstream media, but I didn't hear/see a peep about the The Medical Examiner in the George Zimmerman case preparing a $100 million dollar suit   He reportedly will allege that the medical examiner, the state attorney's office and Sanford Police Department were all biased against Trayvon. Bao was fired last week for undisclosed reasons.

"He says their general attitude was that he [Martin] got what he deserved," Attorney Willie Gary told Channel 9.
Gary said Dr. Bao was made to be a scapegoat and was wrongfully fired from the medical examiner's office. He said his client was prepared to offer proof that Martin was not the aggressor.
"He was in essence told to zip his lips. 'Shut up. Don't say those things,'" Gary said. 
Gary said prosecutors never asked Dr. Bao a question crucial to their case.
"He wanted a question that would have allowed him to explain to the jury with scientific evidence how there was no way Trayvon Martin could have been on top of George Zimmerman," Gary said.

Meanwhile in Florida  an African American Florida man was arrested and tried for, get this, walking on the wrong side of the road. 

A Florida man is suing the sheriff’s office in the county where he lives for throwing him in jail and putting him on trial for walking on the wrong side of the road.
According to First Coast News, Bobby Wingate, 36,  was walking along Oliver Street when he was approached by an officer asking questions. Andrew Bonderu, Wingate’s attorney, says his client responded to the officer’s questions by telling him he didn’t have time to talk.

On the national front, after President Obama's address to the nation regarding Syria the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads insist he do, I still oppose War with Syria.

All life is sacred. All of us are sickened by the images of dead children lined up in rolls on the ground. No one condones such atrocities. If the U.S. bombs Syria, even more innocent children, women and men will die. One cannot save people by bombing them.

Been there.  Done that.

"For those of you who are tired of hearing about racism, imagine how much more tired we are constantly experiencing it." - Barbara Smith

Call me a Cynic but...

 Fool me once....can't fool me again.  Actually I wasn't fooled the first time our government, enabled by the media, told us they had proof of weapons of mass destruction being used in another country against innocent civilians, so I'm sure you can understand my ahem skepticism this time.  President Obama is ready, willing and able to attack Syria based on ahem intelligence, but he's moving like a turtle when it comes to the Justice Department criminally prosecuting George Zimmerman.

At first I thought  the party of NO (aka TeaPublicans) would save us from attacking Iraq, I mean Syria, but then I remembered that republicans haven't met a war they didn't like.  They may vote against access to health care, education, food stamps, jobs, and other ahem social issues, but when it comes to bombing people they are full speed ahead.

 Where does your congressman stand on Syria?

If you are like me and only know what the Lapdog media wants us to know about Syria, click and read 9 questions about Syria you  were afraid to ask, beginning with:

What is Syria?

 Syria is a country in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It’s about the same size as Washington state with a population a little over three times as large – 22 million. Syria is very diverse, ethnically and religiously, but most Syrians are ethnic Arab and follow the Sunni branch of Islam. Civilization in Syria goes back thousands of years, but the country as it exists today is very young. Its borders were drawn by European colonial powers in the 1920s. Syria is in the middle of an extremely violent civil war. Fighting between government forces and rebels has killed more 100,000 and created 2 million refugees, half of them children.

I will close by quoting Rep. Allen Grayson (D. FL)

"We are not the world's policeman," he said. "We can't afford this anymore, these military adventures that lead us into wars that last for a decade or more. It's wrong. We need to cut it off before it even happens."

Update~ 50th Anniversary March is History-Now What?

The right to childhood should be protected

TheSkeptikOne: 50th Anniversary March is History-Now What?

 It's done, we marched, we shouted, we sang, we cried, we vented, some of us shared our memories of the first march, many of whom, like me, were alive, but too young to take part. Others who took part, wanted and desperately needed to recapture the moment. We needed to feel the energy. For whatever reason, we were compelled to be there. We needed to believe we were making a difference, again, and that people were listening to us, and that great things such as the 1964 Civil Rights Act were just around the corner, maybe this time signed by a Black President. That would truly be history and fulfillment of the dream as well as a direct answer to those determined to resurrect Jim Crow and nullify the rights of all minorities once again.

Now what indeed?  Let me say right now, If President Barack Husein Obama doesn't turn talk into action after his speech at the Lincoln Memorial today I'm going to be pi$$ed.  I never expected President Obama to be the President for/of Black Folks and only Black Folks, but never did I dream he would be the President for/of everybody except black folks.  It's time for President Obama to channel his inner African/American and do something about the condition of a race of people who are under constant attack.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dr. King was not referring to people when he made this statement, he was referring to a system of, institutional racism.

 In other words, I've seen and heard instances where the phrase "content of their character" is often used to implicitly reinforce one's prejudices and preconceived notions of a particular group. During my brief lurkings at the Free Republic, I ran into constant examples of people denigrating a certain segment of black Americans as criminal-minded and predisposed to general thuggery, only to claim that they were merely looking at "the content of their character, as Dr. King would have them do."

The Trayvon Martin case is the perfect example of when white people judge black people. George Zimmerman, his defense (sic) team,  and the all female, 0% African American jury viewed unarmed teen Travyon Martin as a threat.  Compared to Antoinette Tuffs, who viewed heavily armed Michael Brandon Hill as a human being.


We still have a long way to go to reach the American Dr. King preached about about.  The Trayvon Martin case is another reminder that black life still has no value in America. He is our generation's Emmett Till. 

I agree with these reflections of a Clark Atlanta University student posted on facebook : "We need to step it up, get out there & stand up for what we believe in....because its one thing to talk about it but we need to BE about it!"

Martin Luther King, Jr  believed that radical activism, even at the risk of arrest, was more important than moderation and compromise. Principle over popularity.

Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around,  because we have a mighty long way to go before the dream becomes a reality.

*Long Sigh*

"I'm marching to save my own life, and the lives of millions of other Black people who will not be able to attend this march"

Memorializing the Freedom Riders

Joseph Postiglione, Freedom Riders' bus after attack in Anniston, Alabama, 1961. Courtesy of Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. - See more at: http://www.southernspaces.org/2009/memorializing-freedom-riders#sthash.CUJdcdJM.dpuf

Joseph Postiglione, Freedom Riders' bus after attack in Anniston, Alabama, 1961. Courtesy of Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. - See more at: http://www.southernspaces.org/2009/memorializing-freedom-riders#sthash.CUJdcdJM.dpuf

 Joseph Postiglione, Freedom Riders' bus after attack in Anniston, Alabama, 1961. Courtesy of Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

Why I Will Not Be Marching to Commemorate the 1963 March on Washington

I am still emotionally reeling from the death of Trayvon Martin and devaluation of Black life in our society. I am outraged at Black unemployment rates hovering above 12% and hundreds of thousands of hard-working Black Americans who live in poverty while working at poverty-wage paying jobs. I am tired of the constant attacks on our rights and policies put forward by radical right-wing legislators that codify inequality and put our lives in danger. I am marching to demand an end to injustices that are having a very real impact on my life today. In a sense, I am marching to save my own life and the lives of millions other Black people who will not be able to attend this march.

Hide your children and your wife.....George Zimmerman is on the prowl for a new gun

Let us March on until Victory is Won!

See you Monday.

Hump Day Hypocrisy Diary

 

Breaking News!  Recent Polls suggest calling someone a republican is insulting.  I wonder why?

The independent political polling company NSON Opinion Strategy [1] recently published the results of a case study in which 250,000 randomly selected American voters were asked a series of questions. The details of how and where the study was conducted have yet to be released but the results are clear: 87% of Americans consider the word “Republican” to be synonymous with greed, racism, and violence.

Bradley Manning exposed war crimes, torture, abuse, soldier laughing as they killed civilians...leaks not responsible for any deaths and is sentenced to 35 years in prison.  George Zimmerman  profiles, stalks and shoots There is more than a whiff of injustice.and kills an unarmed teenager  is walking around free.  And they want us to sing God Bless America?  There is more than a whiff of injustice.

Taxpayers who thought they had guaranteed rights that don't exist in black and white.  So, African American taxpayers  thought they could transfer their children out of predominantly black, underfunded, failing schools, to school non failing public schools, or private schools under the Alabama non Accountability Act, and white taxpayers thought they could take their gun anywhere, anytime,  including schools and athletic events under Alabama's  new gun laws.

  NOT.

In one area, the law says gun owners with a concealed carry permit are allowed to carry weapons to athletic events, regardless of whether they're hosted professionally or by a school. However, the law also gives property owners the right to ban firearms in places where there are strong security measures, such as guards.
The discrepancy has left many asking which part of the law supersedes the other -- are gun owners allowed to carry at athletic events that have additional security measures, like to a football game in Jordan-Hare or Bryant-Denny, or not?
The matter may have to be decided in court.

Since the Alabama courts are controlled by republicans look for the hypocrisy, I mean confusion, to continue.

Long Sigh