EYE know the #HardRightWingers didn't mean to actually help the American people, but thank you anyway

Democrats are smiling in D.C. that the Freedom Caucus, with the help of Club For Growth and Heritage, have saved Planned Parenthood & Ocare!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 26, 2017

Who would have thought?

The Freedom Caucus is a hard-right group of House members who were largely responsible for blocking the bill to undo President Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. The bill was pulled from the House floor Friday in a political defeat for the president.

24 million Americans were spared coverage, jobs, and life options. 

More States to Expand Medicaid now that ObamaCare Remains Law

Will #SweetHomeAlabama be one of those states? EYE doubt it.  

Gov. Robert Bentley recently made a trip to D.C. with a handful of other Alabama Republicans in order to support and influence the current efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
After meeting with HHS Secretary Tom Price, Bentley gave a statement, saying:
"After a productive discussion with Secretary Price I have been given steady assurances that Alabama, a state that stood strong and chose not to expand Medicaid, will be given much needed flexibility to adjust to and accommodate any changes in the Repeal and Replacement of the ACA."

Redeye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray....

EYE am willing to forgive you Governor Bentley, but first you must repent!

Dear Governor Bentley,
EYE saw where you threw yourself on the altar and pulled the "I'm seeking forgiveness from y'all and God for what I've done card the 
other day in an attempt to justify your remaining in office, despite being caught red-handed doing some un-Godly stuff with a woman who was not your wife.

Being the good Deacon and Sunday School teacher you are, EYE mean, were,  EYE know you believe in the Ten Commandments, by my count you broke numbers,1, 7, 9, and 10.  Thou shall not kill ( your refusal to expand Medicaid is killing people), Thou shall not commit adultery, Thou shall not bear false witness (lie), and Tough shall not covet (another man's wife).

EYE am willing to forgive your transgressions because the alternative is worse,  but first, you must repent.  Here's a list of things you can do to repent for your sins and earn the forgiveness of the citizens of Sweet Home Alabama.  

The first thing you can do is stop standing up to Obama and expand Medicaid.  President Obama has access to the best medical care our tax dollars can buy, as do you.  Medicaid expansion isn't about sticking it to President Obama.  Rather, it's about the working poor — those who, right now, are working and making too much money to qualify for Medicaid as it is but who are not making enough to afford health insurance, even after subsidies from the Affordable Care Act.

Second, you can rescind the Voter Suppression,  EYE mean Voter ID Bill now that we have proof it's keeping registered voters from casting their vote.  This voter purge is undermining our democracy, you have the power to restore the right to vote.

Third, you can rescind the bill that cut off funding for women's health clinics, reducing the number of women's health clinics to six, making it hard, if not impossible for poor women, not to be confused with affluent women, to have access to health care. As a result of this bill, thousands of women across Alabama are no longer be able to access essential reproductive health care, such as cancer screenings, birth control, and well-woman exams. This is a cruel bill is designed to rip health care away from those most at risk.

Fourth, you know that mean-spirited immigration bill you signed that put Alabama on the map that crashed and burned?  Now it's time for you to shut down the detention centers.  Actually, EYE am more afraid of you and the republicans than EYE am of Syrian refugees.

After the recent death of Mr. Teka Gulema in late January – an Ethiopian immigrant who passed away after spending nearly a year in serious condition while in detention – activists are again highlighting why Etowah must be closed. Gulema’s death comes on the heels of a two-week hunger strike waged by Bangladeshi detainees against the inhumane treatment they’ve been subjected to in Etowah. Activists have been highlighting that the conditions in Etowah can be deadly if not at least torturous.

Finally, please let the citizens of Alabama gamble with their own damn money, in their own damn state if they choose to do so.  attorney General Luther Strange has caused "economic devastation" to the residents of the Black Belt by unlawfully closing the Victory Land casino.

Fortunately, the Supreme Court struck down the keep gays from getting married bill so you don't have to worry about that, just say you're sorry you care more about keeping gays from getting married than you do keeping your marriage vows and move on.

2 Chronicles 7:14  says,  If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

RedEye

RedEye Around #SweetHomeAlaBAMA

Alabama is rolling in cash.with Tide lifting all boats

What's up with Governor Robert Bentley's decision to neuter Luther Strange?

Why did Alabama Governor Robert Bentley last week remove authority to enforce gambling lawsfrom Attorney General Luther Strange?
That is the question of political intrigue that now envelops "The Heart of Dixie," which has been ranked as the sixth most corrupt state in country--and, with Bentley's help, is making a strong push for No. 1. Experience with Alabama politics tells us that a straightforward answer to our question probably is not forthcoming. So what's the real reason for Bentley's action last week, what is--to borrow a phrase from the late Paul Harvey--"the rest of the story"?

Psst Left in Alabama!  Do you want some cheese to go along with that whine?  Your non video synopsis of Saturday's ADP Yellowdog Presidential Luncheon  was one long whine. 

You didn't get to video.  You didn't get to take a picture with James Carville.  Brian Clemmons, the ADP Compliance Officer was the most memorable, but not in a good way. He talked about money and reporting. This guy was B-O-R-I-N-G, not really the subject, but his cadence reminded me of Ben Stein in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The food was mediocre.  Nancy Worley was complimented on being the “best state chair in the USA.  

Um,  this is what happens when the majority of voters who show up to vote hate President Obama more than they love themselves. 

When Alabama Governor Robert Bentley refused to expand Medicaid with the Affordable Care Act, the state lost millions of dollars in federal revenue.  At the same time, hundreds, if not thousands of Alabamians lost access to medical care.

The police chief says Tasing and beating of a white Alabama student is a black (pun intended?) eye for the University of Alabama. 

  Now, if it had been black students, you probably wouldn't even know about it yet....you know, because the black kids would have been told, by the white population, to just obey, do what you're told and none of this would have happened.

Uh, who knew there is a mural depicting African Americans picking cotton on a plantation hanging in the Courthouse in Jefferson County, Alabama.  Psst!  You might want to check out the murals hanging on the walls of ALL Alabama Courthouses.  So much for Justice for all. 

So, the students, faculty joined the University of Missouri (Mizzo) football team and stood up to racism, bigotry, and discrimination, and the usual suspects are having a complete and total meltdown. 

The possible death of a Black #Mizzou student on a hunger strike did not move Wolfe to action but the threat of a $1M football fine did.

— Rahiel Tesfamariam (@RahielT) November 10, 2015

It's all about the Benjamin's 

#SweetHomeAlabama Governor Robert Bentley (r. Tuscaloosa) says the "outcry" over the racism of closing the DVM offices is "race politics at it's worse."

Alabama one of the most corrupt states in the country

Project much Governor?    EYE think balancing the budget on the backs of Alabama's Black Belt, refusing to expand Medicaid, signing a Voter ID Bill , closing DVM offices in the Black Belt, robbing the public education budget, and cutting off state funding to planned parenthood, preventing poor /black women from having access to a safe legal abortion is playing race politics at it's worst, but that' s just me.

"Alabama is not George Wallace's state. I don't want it to be George Wallace's state." said Bentley. "I want us to be inclusive. I don't want us to look at the color of people's skin. I don't want us to look at whether they are male or female. We are all Alabamians and I'm their governor. I know most of them (blacks in the affected counties losing driver's license offices) are not going to vote Republican. But you are not going to win people over by not being inclusive."

Psst Governor Bentley.....look in the mirror and say that so you can see how race politics at it's worse looks.   

Blaming the victim is so GOP.

Brian wants to know "How would expanding Medicaid save money?"

Hundreds gathered at the Alabama State Capitol on May 31, 2014 to ask Gov. Robert Bentley to save lives and expand Medicaid in the state. They chanted, sang and told their stories. (Erin Edgemon/eedgemon@al.com)

Brian said:

How would expanding Medicaid save money? The Federal Government says it would pay for 100% of the expansion for the first three years of the expansion. Yes, Medicare has been expanded, but only the expansion is being paid for. After three years, the amount the federal government will pay for drops to 90%. 

How would expanding Medicaid save money?

EYE am glad you asked how Governor Bentley's refusal to expand Medicaid will cost the state of Alabama BILLIONS of dollars.

Alabama is one of fourteen states that have chosen not to expand Medicaid, the federal-state program that provides health insurance to low-income families. The Affordable Care Act provides support to expand Medicaid to include families that earn up to 138% of the federal poverty level. The federal government will pay 100% of the costs for expanding Medicaid beginning in 2014 through 2016, and then gradually decrease support to 90% beginning in 2020.
A new study by the nonprofit research group, the RAND Corporation, shows the decision rejecting the expansion will cost these 14 states $1 billion more in spending on uncompensated care in 2016 alone, plus $8.4 billion annually in federal payments, and leave 3.6 million people without health insurance. The study's authors found that expanding Medicaid is "in the best economic interests of states."

Of course EYE don't expect you to believe expanding Medicaid is in the the best econominic interest of Alabama, but it's true.

In Alabama, Medicaid expansion would mean health care for about 300,000 additional people, most of whom will otherwise remain uninsured. Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health estimate the expansion would generate nearly $20 billion in new income, which would mean $1.7 billion in additional tax revenue in state and local governments across the state.

EYE don't know what part of not expanding Medicaid is killing people you and our Doctor/Governor don't understand.

Experts estimate that expanding Medicaid in Alabama would save 550 lives each year. 

Alabama's governor, a doctor, rejected the Medicaid expansion option after the United States Supreme Court ruled that states can refuse to participate in that part of the new health care law. A recent poll shows that 64% of Alabama residents support expanding Medicaid to cover more low-income adults.

EYE thought Republicans were pro-life?

Oh, and if you don't believe the Equal Justice Initiative report, maybe you will believe this report by the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

In short, their analysis points to a win-win scenario for the state and Medicaid-eligible patients.
“Across the first seven years of Medicaid expansion, the net budgetary effect is positive throughout,” Becker said. “In a very real sense, the state makes money while expanding coverage to nearly 300,000 Alabamians.”
Under the PPACA, the federal government will cover 100 percent of health care expenditures from 2014 through 2016. During these first years of the program, Alabama would be responsible for a share of the administrative costs of the expansion. The federal matching rate declines after 2016, falling to 95 percent in 2017, 94 percent in 2018, 93 in 2019 and 90 percent in 2020. As a result, the annual costs to the state increase from $39 million in 2014 to $222 million in 2020 for a total of about $771 million.
However, during those same years, the federal government will spend an additional $11.7 billion more on Medicaid in Alabama.
“While this is a substantial increase in federal spending, it is new income flowing into Alabama,” Becker said. “Moreover, when physicians, hospital employees, pharmacists and other employees in the health care sector receive these new dollars, they spend them on gasoline and groceries and clothes. This second-round spending generates additional economic activity.”

Yes, Brian, Red States, not  expanding medicare  is actually killing people,  and costing the state  billions, but you already knew  that.

In an interview with AL.com, Greer asked "How important is a human life?"
"We have to fight back," she said. "It is not like we are asking for something unrealistic. (Health care) is a human right."

EYE hope this answers your question. 

Balancing the Budget on the Backs of Alabama's Black Belt

Obama, Alabama officials pledge aid for white storm survivors, black storm storm survivors not so much.

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.

Band Director Ryan Campbell watched his Sumter Central High School Tigers marching band strut last week on a field outside the gleaming new public high school in Sumter County.

"Where are the white kids?" a visitor asked.

"At the academy down the road," Campbell said, referring to private Sumter Academy.

And this is why Governor Bentley and the red, republican controlled state legislature robbed the public education budget to the tune of $80 million dollars.   This is why public schools (not to be confused with segregation academies) are failing, or should EYE say, being failed? 

If you're thinking of moving to Huntsville, or the State of Alabama I hope you don't have any k-12 school children. If you are not affluent enough to live in a neighborhood with the best public schools your tax dollars can buy, or afford to send your student to private schools, your children are tough out of luck, because of the sad, sorry state of separate and unequal education in Huntsville, and the state of Alabama. Over 50 years after Brown v. Board ordered schools to integrate Alabama is still the state of segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and it looks like segregation forever.

Officially, the news out of Alabama is this:

Alabama's Republican-controlled legislature and governor's office are committed to cutting the state's budget and the size of state government. That means the state will slice into the money available to a number of public agencies. And the Department of Public Safety, which includes the state's offices that issue driver's licenses, will simply have to take an $11 million hit. To make that math work, the agency will shutter driver's license offices in the state's most sparsely populated counties.

B-But it's not racial, it's just a coincidence the DMV offices slated for closing are in the Black Belt.  If it was really about saving money Governor Bentley would expand Medicaid.  But if he did that people who need access to health care the most might benefit.

Alabama’s Seventh Congressional District in the center of the state. It includes a region called the Black Belt, which has some of the poorest counties in the Southeast and the nation.

A recent national study on county-by-county health rankings published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that several counties in Davis’ district had high poverty, inadequate access to primary care doctors and a large numbers of uninsured residents.

Sumter, Hale and Greene counties had less than half the number of doctors recommended for their size populations, and 13 percent to 16 percent of the residents were uninsured, the survey showed.

Saving money my Donkey.  If it were about saving money they wouldn't be appealing  the Victory Land verdict.  Heck, they wouldn't have closed Victory Land in the first place.

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. We all wish that overwhelmingly black Greene and Macon Counties had bulldozers clearing land for new automotive and electronics plants, or for high-powered biology labs or computer engineering firms, but that’s the progress of the next generation. Right now, those counties are absolutely dependent on the entertainment and gaming business for their economic survival, and Obama’s what-me-worry attitude about Canary has placed that survival in jeopardy. Even in the white-majority Wiregrass, it’s probably safe to assume that Country Crossing employed a fair number of African-Americans in its service sector jobs. Had Bob Riley needed to worry about a U.S. Attorney with integrity in Montgomery, he would likely not have earned his Mississippi Choctaw bribes by shutting down the bingo halls, and the Legislature would probably have put a bingo referendum on this November’s ballot.

This is why EYE weep for the residents of Alabama's Black Belt, our state, and our country.

You’re either going to treat us right, or we’re going to withdraw from you our economic support,We intend to boycott Christmas, but not Jesus,”said Farrakhan. “So on Black Friday, we won’t be there.”‪#‎JusticeOrElse‬ #NotOneDime

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. 

B-But They Looked So Happy Together....#SweetHomeAlabama #Hypocrisy

Governor Robert Bentley and First Lady Dianne Bentley watch the Inauguration Parade in Montgomery, Ala. on Monday January 19, 2015. , Mickey Welsh / Advertiser

Don't get me wrong, EYE am not gloating because a 50 year marriage is ending, EYE am gloating at the exposure of the rank hypocrisy of Alabama Governor Robert Bentley, soon to be ex First Lady Dianne Bentley, and the Alabama media  who enabled them to lie to the citizens of Alabama.

According to a Facebook post by Donald Watkins, the warm, fuzzy, hand holding, and smiles in Montgomery, AL  on Jan. 19, 2015 were as phony as a three dollar bill.  EYE blame Dianne Bentley for enabling this charade too.  She should have informed the voters Bentley was a Bible thumping, cheater before the election. 

The First Lady was prepared to end the marriage last Fall after she discovered the Governor's extramarital affair. The Governor convinced her to wait until after the November general election before filing her divorce complaint. The Governor won his race by a landslide. The couple then separated in January.

The Governor spent the New Year's holidays in New Orleans with his paramour. They basked together in the warm glow of their professed love for each other. The First Lady spent her holidays in Alabama.

Let the Alabama Media Group tell it, the only clouds on an otherwise perfect day were A small group of protesters affiliated with Birthplace for Justice 

The group sang "We Shall Overcome," chanted "black lives matter," and then turned their back on Bentley as he spoke.
A person associated with the group said protesters were upset the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade was cancelled in favor of the inauguration parade.
"We protested today because in addition to it being the inauguration, it's Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day," said member Michael Eric Grant in a statement. "We're fighting to keep his dream of unity and justice alive. We hope that Gov. Bentley will carry out his oath to office with a similar commitment."

So, for the past three years the republican Governor of Alabama has been having an affair with an unnamed (so far) reportedly younger paramour  right under our noses and not a peep in the press.   EYE wonder why?  Snark

Mainstream media organizations are afraid to report the details of Governor Bentley's secret love affair. Such reporting will likely cost the print media corporate advertising dollars and sponsorships, as well as revenues derived from legal notices published by the state of Alabama. It is well known that Bentley is mean-spirited, reckless, and vindictive. He is known to retaliate against individuals and entities that do not support this love affair. Additionally, they have a conflict of interest because nearly all of them endorsed Bentley's bid for reelection last November.

If Robert Bentley had been a democrat the media would have been on this like white on rice.  EYE sure do miss the good old days when the media prevented candidates and elected officials from lying to we the people, instead of enabling them. 

If Mrs. Bentley can be remembered for one thing as First Lady, she hopes that the people of Alabama will remember her stand for Christ. After all, the Bentleys feel that they have been called “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) and always strive to remain in God’s will.

Un Huh. 

A RedEye Repost: Yes, Governor Siegelman, not expanding medicare is killing people, but you already knew that

Charlene Dill didn’t have to die.

If  this headline  accompanied the photo above, what do you want to bet the media, and every republican in the state, would be calling for the former Alabama Governor's  impeachment, or worse? 

From the files of IOKIYAR (It's OK If You Are Republican)

Next time you see someone like Americans for Prosperity’s Jennifer Stefano shouting about the ridiculously generous benefits for Medicaid under Obamacare, you might want to picture Charlene Dill in your head. Charlene Dill was a 32-year-old woman who had three kids, was separated from her husband, and, with a combination of part-time jobs, was barely scraping by. She got booted off Medicaid because her princely $9000 a year was too much income — she couldn’t afford a divorce yet, so the program took her estranged husband’s income into account. And that was a problem, because Charlene Dill had a heart condition that could be managed with medication, which she couldn’t afford without Medicaid. And so on March 21, Charlene Dill died of heart failure while demonstrating a vacuum cleaner at a home in Kissimmee, Florida. She would have been covered by Medicaid if Florida had agreed to expand the program under the Affordable Care Act, but Florida’s legislature has so far blocked it, because Obamacare is bad, and handouts make people lazy.

Yes, Red States,  not expanding medicare is actually killing people, but you already knew that.

Alabama residents protested in front of the Capitol on Saturday to demand that Gov. Robert Bentley (R) expand the state’s Medicaid program. The move would provide health insurance coverage to 200,000 low-income residents who fall into a coverage gap in the Affordable Care Act.
More than 40 organizations under the umbrella group Save OurSelves: A Movement for Justice and Democracy, or SOS “presented 13,653 signatures to the Capitol doorstep in a coffin carried by six pallbearers,” the Montgomery Advertiser reports. Individuals told personal stories of waiting years to access coverage, with some eventually dying from lack of health care. A recent study conducted by Harvard researchers estimated that as many as 17,000 people will die directly as a result of their states refusing to expand Medicaid.

How many more people have to die?

Inflammatory Rhetoric Begets Inflammatory Rhetoric~ Update

State Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery

Newsflash!!  Alabama House Republicans pass the keep poor/black WOMEN from having access to a safe legal abortion bill while the Alabama Senate passes bill allowing free, lifetime permit to carry pistols in vehicles.

Fresh after giving conservatives/ republicans a Wedgie because he dared call  out United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas,  Alabama State Rep. Alvin Holmes strikes again!

A debate Tuesday over a bill to ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected turned to race after Rep. Mary Sue McClurkin, R-Indian Springs, compared her bill to Brown vs. the Board of Education.

But during the debate, Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, said that his Republican colleagues would support abortion if their daughters were impregnated by black men.

Media enabled weapon of mass distraction from the real issue here we come! Yee Haw!
It's easier to talk about what Alvin Holmes said instead of what Alvin Holmes was talking about which is Alabama State Rep. Mary (Fetus are Organs) McClurkin's bill to end access to safe legal abortions for poor women in Alabama.

On Tuesday, a panel of Alabama lawmakers advanced four stringent anti-abortion bills that would prevent women in the state from exercising their reproductive rights. The proposed legislation would ban abortions after just six weeks; force women to wait 48 hours before getting an abortion; make it more difficult for minors to end an unwanted pregnancy; and impose more emotional trauma on women who choose to have an abortion after discovering lethal fetal abnormalities.

Note I said the bill to end access to safe, legal  abortions for poor women in Alabama.  Women like Mary Sue, not so much.

If Alabama chooses to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, the state could gain about $1 billion in new tax revenue, according to a pair of University of Alabama at Birmingham health care economists in a study released today.
In the most likely scenario, some 300,000 more state residents would be covered under an expansion, according to David Becker and Michael Morrisey at the UAB School of Public Health.
UAB, which has the largest hospital in the state and one of the largest public hospitals in the country, released the report this morning saying the research was a "win-win" for the state and Medicaid-eligible patients.
"Across the first seven years of Medicaid expansion, the net budgetary effect is positive throughout," Becker said in a UAB press release. "In a very real sense, the state makes money while expanding coverage to nearly 300,000 Alabamians."

So here's the deal, a bunch of people, who if they choose, have access to a safe legal abortion are trying to keep black/ poor WOMEN from having access to a safe legal abortion.  These same people are anti access to affordable health care because Obama,  anti access to quality public schools because Obama,  and anti welfare just because.

But let's talk about what Alvin Holmes said out of context so we won't have to talk about the substance of what Alvin Holmes said.

Mission Accomplished.

It's the Media, they think we are Stupid. Monday Edition

With all the media "outrage" over a blotched website, I'm wondering where is the media outrage for the millions of people being denied Medicaid in the Red Republican Confederate Slave States of America?  I guess it's easier to help the republicans de-fund, delay, and repeal the Affordable Health Care Act by people who have access to quality, affordable, health care than it is to focus on  people who finally have access to quality, affordable health care.

We certainly can't look to the Democratic Party to exhibit any political courage. Nope, Democrats (and I use that term loosely) care more about keeping their jobs than doing their jobs. But here's the rub, republicans have figured out that hating Obama Care is not the way to win elections.

The Legal Lynching of The Legal Schnauzer will not be Televised.  What do you want to bet if this were a right wing, conservative blogger, who wrote about President Obama being a Kenyan born Muslim Socialist Interloper there would be wall to wall, 24/7 poutrage?

This is Carol, Roger's wife. On Friday, we provided a brief update on the Nov. 14 hearing on "permanent injunctions" in the Legal Schnauzer first amendment case. And not surprisingly, it was indeed a kangaroo court, though possibly even worse than we had anticipated. We reported that Shelby County Courthouse officials turned away the majority of the people who attempted to appear at the mysterious and strange proceedings by claiming it was closed to the public. However, some supporters were able to gain access to the previously undisclosed location.

Here we go again....... the white, male, dominated, mainstream, media trying to justify the use of the N word by white people.  Attention White People.....go see the movie 12 Years a Slave for a clear understanding of why YOU CAN NOT USE THE N WORD EVER.

“White America don’t get to dictate how me and (Shaquille O’Neal) talk to each other and they have been trying to infiltrate themselves saying, ‘Well you guys use it, it’s in rap music.’ No, that’s not the same,” Barkley said. “As I tell my white friends who I love like brothers … they’ve asked me, When is it appropriate? I say well when you use it around the wrong brother the next thing you’re going to hear is the clock side to your d**n head. That’s when it’s inappropriate.”

We The People can't win for the media.  

Correction! Rich AL State Representative Phil Williams says " we need to begin a dialogue on what it means to be poor"

 I mistakenly  identified Phil Williams as a State Senator in my original post.  Never let it be said I won't correct mistakes when they are pointed out to me.  Thanks for the catch Brian!~ Redeye

No, Representative Williams, we need to begin a dialogue on what it means to be rich.

State Representative Phil Williams ( r. rich) explains why he is voting NO on the September 18th vote to, as he calls it, raid the Alabama Oil and Gas Trust fund in order to fill a $200,000,000 dollar short fall in Medicaid.

One of the reasons the pro-life, pro family, Representative is against it is because he thinks we need to have a dialogue about what it means to be poor because the CHIPS program provides free health insurance to a family of four who earns $62,000.00 per year.  


Now I don't know where he got that figure, but I would like to see him raise a family of 4 on $64,000.00 per year.

Again, considering the polices of the modern republican party, this is very true.  Their main policy is to make the rich richer at the expense of everyone else.  Anyone who is not rich and is still votes republican is voting against their own  interest...and therefore is a sucker.


I will be voting YES on September 18th  to raid the Alabama Oil and Gas Trust Fund to fill a short fall in Medicaid and CHIPS, because Medicaid and CHIP provide health coverage to children, pregant women, parents, seniors and individuals with disabilities.