Republican Governors Playing Partisan Politics with Peoples Lives #COVID19

Governors in the red, republican, Confederate, slave states are showing they care more about appeasing Trump than they care about the people they were elected to represent, their states and their country by not ordering people to stay home.

Alabama Gov. Refuses To Issue Shelter In Place Order: ‘We Are Not California’ https://t.co/l6u2dtZ20f pic.twitter.com/0Kpv93lqRU

— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) March 27, 2020

People will die because of them. 

Someone's parents, grandparents, brothers or sisters will die. 

Sadly, people in those states are in for a very scary awakening.

Meanwhile in the Blue States...

The question facing us all now as citizens is whether or not the response of our country to a worldwide pandemic is being driven by the basic strategy of the Piranha Brothers. That is, whether or not the president* is withholding vital medical aid during a national health crisis for the purpose of muzzling criticism of his obvious incompetence, and for the auxiliary purpose of gaining political advantage in November’s election. If the answer to either of those questions is “yes,” then we have an unreconstructed monster running the country and there’s no telling what he might do next.

B-But built that wall...

B-But every life is precious.....

The quiet part is now out loud...

Now that America has an incompetent, dimwitted dictator as the head of the household, the Republican policy of plausible deniability has been ruined. The dunderheaded daddy of the GOP has exposed his party’s ultimate goal—maintaining their status as the sole beneficiaries of America’s corporate, economic and political profiteering

Corporate greed over human needs. People are dying.@AOC is right.

And we need #Medicare4All and #MasksNow — not a “president” who ignores recommendations, spreads misinformation and tweets jibberishpic.twitter.com/ohgjulQUCu

— Anti-Fascist AWK (@AWKWORDrap) March 27, 2020

Redeye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray.

It looks like Nathaniel Woods isn’t the only person Gov. Kay Ivey is willing to put to death.

Five Righteous RedEye Rants on #IndigenousPeoplesDay

EYE am pi$$ed about so many things on this day that EYE don't know where to start.  Warning, this rant is going to make some of you uncomfortable, and for that EYE offer no apologies.  If the rant fits, deal with it. If it doesn't apply to you, shrug.

RedEyeRant #1   Outside Investigators say the shooting of Tamir Rice not criminal because police officer Tim Loehmann acted properly within the constraints of his training.  You want to know how EYE know this is some straight up Bull Crap?  Because Dylan Storm Roof… the suspected killer of the Charleston Nine… was apprehended safely, given a bullet proof vest, and flown back to South Carolina on a private jet.  If law enforcement officers are trained to roll up on black men/women/children, shoot first and ask questions later that is a, strike that, the problem.

RedEyeRant #2  Cops Taser kneeling black councilman in Texas Town where Sandra Bland was arrested, and, it just happened to be the same cop that was involved in the arrest of Sandra Bland.  Coincidence, or a pattern of behavior?  See, this is what happens when you give some high school losers a gun,  a badge, and some authority.

RedEyeRant #3  Here we go again. A  Mississippi family wants answers after man dies in holding cell. EYE am sure they will get the answers they are looking for after the police investigate themselves. Snark

RedEyeRant #4  You didn't see it on TeeVee, or read about it in the mainstream press because it didn't involve a bunch of anti Obama, gun toting, Confederate Flag waving Tea Party people, or government issued, taxpayer funded military weapons, or Donald Trump, but Thousands of people peacefully assembled in Washington D.C. on the 20th Anniversary of the Million Man March to demand #JusticeOrElse or #NotOneDime will we spend. This is what happens when we dare complain about

RedEyeRant #5  The white, male, dominated media is responsible for this sad, sorry, state of affairs. Yes,  EYE said it.  When they can't make us look bad they don't show us at all.  They coddled, enabled, and mainstreamed the racism with their media driven racial stereotypes, now they are wringing their hands and trying to figure out how to put the Genie back into the bottle.  It's the media that are cowards when it comes to discussions about race.  IMHO it all started when the media forced President Obama to renounce, reject, and repudiate Reverend Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. The white male dominated media  refuses to allow to have an honest and open discussion about race because that would be too much like right.  If the media were liberal we wouldn't be in this mess.  

RedEye Rant Over and Out.  For now.

#BlackLives Matter NOT in the United States of America

 

Losing Our Humanity.  We are no longer the United States, we are the divided states of rich and poor, educated and uneducated, black and white, gay and straight, hateful and hated.

1.5 Million Black Men are Missing. These ‘missing’ black men aren’t on the back of milk cartons and they haven’t been kidnapped. According to the Times, they’re missing from society because they’re either dead or in jail:

Unbelievable  Jail Sentence of White Girls who Hunted Blacks in Mississippi.   Here’s a video from the The Young Turks. Please advised there is footage of the murder and it very disturbing.

A Judge Just Let A Cop Walk After a Deadly Shooting of an unarmed women in Chicago.  Servin was off duty when he fired the shots. He encountered a group gathered in an alley while driving through in his Mercedes sedan. As he drove the wrong way down the alley after an altercation, he said he thought he saw one of the men reach for a gun and fired several shots over his shoulder at individuals who had their backs to Servin. Servin hit 22-year-old Rekia Boyd in the back of the head, killing her. 

Baltimore Man Dead Following Police Encounter was Stopped for Making Eye Contact with the Police.   "Running while black is not probable cause. Felony running doesn't exist, and you can't arrest someone for looking you in the eye. You have to believe he committed a crime and have an objective basis for that belief. They had none of that." 

 As I watch us losing our humanity daily, I am disappointed in my country. We are allowing extremists to set the agenda. The lunatics aren’t running the asylum; they have scaled the walls, busted down the doors, crawled out of the windows, and they are among us. Cindy Rose

RedEye

RedEye's Racist/Racism Rundown

'Traditional' voter? You mean American Indians? Go aheard GOP. Tell us how you're not racist. http://t.co/dYV2FwiF2F  pic.twitter.com/HzXDtX5slb
— Wisdom Rocks (@GetWisdomDude) June 17, 2014

Preview of what's coming to Alabama:  Videos: Bellhaven North Carolina Hospital closing may have cost a life.

Folks should be fighting the evil governors in their state to defend their healthcare rights. It gets to a point where the constituents will NEED to overcome their ignorance and use common sense when it comes to who is really serving their own best INTEREST.

Why "Take our country back" Is Only Racist When Republicans say it,

“Take back our country” actually is only racist when Republicans say it. As my friend Ed Morrissey pointed out not long ago, the phrase has been around for a very long time, and has been used by Democrats and Republicans alike. The difference is that, ever since the Southern Strategy, the Republican Party and the conservative movement have been devoted, in word and deed, to preserving a white status quo, Even people who don’t believe in Republican racism recognize this. The Republican Party is overwhelmingly white, and stands in opposition to an ever-more-diverse coalition that includes a significant minority of white people. As Hill said, when Republicans want to take the country back, they mean back to a time when white male supremacy was codified by law, and protected from on high.

37 Percent of Mississippi GOPers Would Back Confederates in Civil War. 

A new Public Policy Polling survey found that 37 percent of Republicans who voted in the Mississippi primary runoff election between incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) and state Sen. Chris McDaniel (R) said they would back the Confederate side if there was another Civil War.

Post racial my donkey.

Tweet of the Week

Tea Partiers still really angry that black people can vote http://t.co/7IHPMbEl49
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) June 26, 2014

 

 Parents are the First Teachers

Mississippi Burning " It looks like the rattlesnakes are starting to commit suicide"

McDaniel's supporters are now talking lawsuit, so anything that keeps this thing alive is pretty darn awesome.

One of my most memorable lines from the movie Mississippi Burning is when G-Man Rupert Anderson (Gene Hackman) says to G-Man Alan Ward  (Willem Dafor) "Looks like the rattlesnakes are starting to commit suicide" after they trick the weakest link into thinking the other is going kill him if he doesn't tell the truth in their investigation of the death of a young black man in 1964 Mississippi.

So, Chris McDonald (TeaPublican, MS) is mad because them there black voters, I mean crossover voters, cost him the election.  Boo Hoo

A Republican Party campaigning on making the Senate “conservative,” used black people liberal Democrats to preserve an incumbent Republican and defeat a conservative. The actual conservatives are the outsiders with the GOP establishment doing all it could to preserve its power at the expense of its principles...
Mississippi is a crystalizing election in that sense. Cochran is, for all intents and purposes, a marionette. His strings are pulled by staffers and lobbyists. They drop him onto the stage of the Senate and pull up a string to raise his hand. These puppeteers are so invested in keeping their gravy train going that they will, while claiming to be Republicans, flood a Republican primary with black people Obama voters to ensure their gravy train continues.

Senator Thad Cochran survives, thanks to Democrats  but should democrats be happy about that?

Cochran's win helps quell talk of a newly resurgent tea party and returns us to a state of affairs in which political insiders can prattle on again about how nice and reasonable and cuddly the GOP is and how Democrats could get things done via compromise with the GOP if they'd only lead harder. Ron Fournier must be in heaven.

If  Mississippi democrats get out and vote in the general election like they did in the primary, democrats will win, despite what the Polling Pollsters and the Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads say, because It looks like the rattlesnakes are on suicide watch.

Now that we have proof Voter ID laws disenfranchised registered voters can we please repeal them?

Mt. Zion Church state history marker near Philadelphia, Mississippi

Fifty Years ago Freedom Summer organizers set out to change the state of Mississippi but they ended up changing our country after a summer of terrorism and fear.

Freedom Summer (also known as the Mississippi Summer Project) was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register as many African-American voters as possible in Mississippi, which had historically excluded most blacks from voting. The project also set up dozens of Freedom Schools, Freedom Houses, and community centers in small towns throughout Mississippi to aid the local black population.
The project was organized by the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO), a coalition of the Mississippi branches of the four major civil rights organizations (SNCC, CORE, NAACP and SCLC). Most of the impetus, leadership, and financing for the Summer Project came from the SNCC. Robert Parris Moses, SNCC field secretary and co-director of COFO, directed the summer project.^[1]

All that blood, sweat, tears, and sacrifice wiped away with a 5-4 vote, which cleared the way for red, republican controlled, confederate, slave states to enact Voter Suppression, I mean, ID laws.

Less than 48 hours after the Supreme Court struck down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, six of the nine states that had been covered in their entirety under the law’s “preclearance” formula have already taken steps toward restricting voting.

Now that we have proof  positive the Voter ID laws disenfranchised eligible, registered, voters it's time to repeal them.

With Alabama’s voter ID law debuting today, state Republicans are offering a big cash reward to anyone who helps them dig up some voter fraud. But finding voters disenfranchised by the law isn’t difficult, even without financial incentives.
Willie Mims, 93, showed up to vote at his polling place in Escambia County Tuesday morning for Alabama’s primary elections. Mims, who is African-American, no longer drives, doesn’t have a license, and has no other form of ID. As a result, he was turned away without voting. Mims wasn’t even offered the chance to cast a provisional ballot, as the law requires in that situation.

Must See TV

 "Freedom Summer," which premieres Tuesday at 9 p.m. on PBS. The "American Experience" film captures the idealism that inspired an interracial group of college students to journey to Mississippi for 10 weeks in the summer of 1964 to register African-American voters.

But it also reveals what happened when that idealism collided with the casual brutality of white Mississippians who saw Freedom Summer as a "nigger communist invasion."

Must See Video 
"Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around"

Must read Blog
The Tragic Success of Freedom Summer

Sentimentality has its place, but we risk losing sight of the hard-nosed political calculations that informed and drove the initiative. The architects of Freedom Summer were shrewd, pragmatic veterans of a brutal street fight. They didn’t need the help of 1,000 privileged, affluent white students—not, at least, to register voters. Nor were they asking for reinforcements. Rather, they wagered that if white students from prominent Northern families were arrested, beaten and illegally jailed—as they fully expected they would be—the federal government would finally recognize its responsibility to intervene in Mississippi.

It's past time for our government to intervene so we can have fair and free elections in America  again.

Honoring James Meredith on D-Day

At Hernando, Mississippi - 30 miles from his starting point - he saw an armed man aim at him and dived to the ground, but he was shot three times. Bleeding from the head, shoulder and leg he shouted: "Oh my God."

As thousands gather on Omaha Beach at the site of the D-Day invasion to honor those who fought and died and those who survived,  I would like to honor James Meredith, who on this day 48 years ago survived being shot during a march against fear in Mississippi.

 On June 5, 1966, equipped with only a helmet and walking stick, James Meredith began a 220-mile March Against Fear from Memphis, Tennessee, to Jackson, Mississippi. Mr. Meredith, an activist who had integrated the University of Mississippi four years earlier, organized the one-man march to encourage African Americans in Mississippi to register to vote and to challenge the culture of fear perpetuated by white supremacists in the state.

After attending local segregated schools and graduating from high school, Meredith enlisted in the United States Air Force. He served from 1951 to 1960.  Here part of what President Obama said at today's ceremony in France about those who served on D-Day.

They left home barely more than boys and returned home heroes. But to their great credit, that is not how this generation carried itself. After the war, some put away their medals, kept humble about their service, and moved on. Some, carrying shrapnel and scars, found that they couldn't. Many, like my grandfather, who served in Patton's Army, lived a quiet life, trading one uniform and set of responsibilities for another -- teacher, doctor, engineer, Dad. Our country made sure millions of them earned a college education, opening opportunity on an unprecedented scale. They married those sweethearts and bought new homes and raised families and built businesses, lifting up the greatest middle class the world has ever known. And through it all, they were inspired, I suspect, by memories of fallen brothers -- memories that drove them to live their lives each day as best they possibly could.

Whenever the world makes you cynical -- stop and think of these men.

Call me cynical, but men like James Meredith came home and had to fight for  basic equal, civil, and human rights.

 When blacks came home after the war, whites were prepared to "put them back in their place." Henry Murphy said that when he returned to the states and called his father in Mississippi, his father warned him not to come home with his uniform on. "He said that the police was beating black soldiers and searching them.

So on this day I choose to remember James Meredith and all the other blacks who came home from the war to fight another war.

None dare call it racist racism, but that is exactly what it IS

 

"Not every white person is racist, but the genius of racism is that you don’t have to participate to enjoy the spoils." The Nation

Somebody talk me down because I am FURIOUS at the 7 democRats who voted for Mary Sue McClurkin's evil, stupid, RACIST let poor black/brown women die bill.   Yes, I'm playing the "race card" that was dealt from the bottom of the race deck.

I expect republicans to do stuff like this, but it really burns me up when democrats go along with them. You rarely hear of republicans going against their base, also known as the people who elect them, voting with democrats on anything.   I have to hand it to the republican leadership, they run a tight ship, unlike the democratic mis leadership.

Not to be out done by Mississippi  who just recently ratified the 13th amendment, Alabama republicans, enabled by 7 democRATS, effectively stole the right of poor black/brown women, not to be confused with Alabama women who have the means, and access to health insurance,  to choose to have a safe legal abortion, condemning them and their children to a life of poverty and despair, if they are lucky enough to survive because the clinic that provided prenatal care was closed.  

Isn't it ironic republicans trust woman with a gun but they don't trust them with a choice?

As God is my witness I will never, I repeat never, vote for a candidate because they have a D behind their name again, or give another penny to the Alabama Democratic Party unless, and until, they purge the party of the infiltrators.

Today's Must Read
Why I am Pro Choice

When a woman is intent on ending a pregnancy to preserve the family that she already has, there is nothing that she won’t do.  My great-grandmother searched high and low for an abortifacient that would work and settled on a method, which is lost in the mists of time, that took her life. Her death left a hole in the family that could never be filled. My great-grandfather re-married twice. The woman who raised my grandmother and her siblings was a cold, emotionally distant woman who expected her grown children still at home to pay room and board before each eventually married. My great-grandfather was a strict disciplinarian who had trouble understanding the difference between necessary discipline and child abuse.

That is all.

I guess it depends on what the definition of a "hostile learning environment for students" IS

 Grissom High School JROTC cadets, instructors, and parents showed up in full force to defend their instructor against charges of bullying two female cadet members.

Yesterday I wrote about the legal lynching of  Shirley Taylor, the University Place Elementary School teacher who was fired by the superintendent after she was accused by the former principal, Towana Davis, of mistreating students, thereby creating a hostile learning environment.

Davis accused Taylor of creating a "hostile learning environment for students," in part by telling one boy in November 2011 that "he wasn't going to amount to anything or make anything of himself." The boy's mother wrote a letter to the school to complain after her son came home in tears.
Davis also received a letter from a HEALS health clinic staffer who complained about two incidents with Taylor that she witnessed. In one incident, when students were being dismissed for the day, she allegedly heard Taylor screaming at her students, among other things, that they'd "never amount to anything" and "can't do anything right."
In the second incident, when the HEALS staffer went to pick up a child in Taylor's classroom, Taylor allegedly humiliated the boy in front of his classmates by calling him "sick" and in need of medicine. With "more malice in her voice than I can describe in words," the HEALS staffer wrote, Taylor insulted the boy several times while he sat hunched over at his desk, crying.

When a female, Grissom High School, JROTC cadet complained to school officials after being verbally abused by the male instructor, which is currently under investigation by the Feds, school officials said when teachers verbally abuse students it's not Bullying.

An attorney for the Huntsville City Schools had this to say about a bullying incident at Grissom High School earlier this year:  "While you and I may agree that preaching at school that homosexuality is sinful and against the Bible, is not appropriate, this is not bullying."  Really.  How about when it's a teacher berating a student on the topic to the point that she leaves the room in tears? 

Then there is the case of the 15 year old Butler student who was beaten and striped in the schools bathroom, and who initially was denied an emergency school transfer for her safety.   In this case the superintendent and the school board called the incident horseplay, and placed the blame on the victim and the community.  To my knowledge, neither the principal ,or any teachers have been reprimanded, much less fired.

The student claimed she was beaten in the school bathroom by three female students. She said she had her shirt and bra stripped off and had to walk the hallway topless looking for help.
Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski said her transfer being denied was not accurate. He said in order to transfer a student for a safety reason, there must be proof of two things. There must be proof it was a violent crime and that the harassment continued afterwards, which, at the time, he didn't have either.

Finally, there are the public accusations of privatized abuse/torture at the Pinnacle Schools, a private, residential, drug treatment, program contracted by the school board, after they closed and sold the public Fletcher E. Seldon Alternative School.

“The academic programs of The Pinnacle Schools are designed to support students therapeutically by providing a safe learning environment in which their self-esteem is positively impacted by success in school.”

In my opinion, all three of the above incidents are more conducive to creating a hostile, unsafe, learning environment, than a teacher being overheard telling a student they would never amount to anything, or, for telling a sick child they are sick and need medicine.  Sounds like the HCS BOE has a different definition of a hostile learning environment for students for different folks.

Today's Must Reads
Time to End Zip Code Education
NAACP seeks to mount shakeup in U.S. Education
Mississippi school-to-prison pipeline continues to outrage

"The sum of our fears" Update

University of Mississippi students riot over Obama Victory.  Presidents re election greeted with anger at deep south campus. Raw video

After Obama victory Donald Trump rants on Twitter  "This election is a total sham, we are not a democracy."

"There is a mean spirit on the lose, not only in Alabama, but in America and that's what makes this election so important." Alabama State Senator Hank Sanders (D. Selma)

"Mitt's a liar but he's still better than Obama"  Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (r. Georgia)

Now that the election is over, I am going to admit I was afraid, strike that, I was very afraid,  republicans were going to gain control all three branches of our government, including the Supreme Court.  Although the  media infused, GOP still controls the House of Representatives,Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and President Obama, can keep them in check.  Hopefully they won't make it their life mission to destroy our country, and will allow President Obama the opportunity to govern he was denied in his first term.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

"This race has been particularly difficult, because the ugly racism that still haunts this country and compels the voting choices of a majority of white people was particularly aggressive this time around. I’d say it was worse in 2008, because last time, I think conservatives simply found it implausible that Obama could win, polls aside. Now that they have proof that Americans will vote for a black President, their rage has spun out of control. After four years of conservatives trafficking in race-baiting conspiracy theories, the majority of white people are still on board with their agenda, which is beyond depressing."

I have to give republicans credit, they almost pulled it off.  All that money, all that Benghazi, "You didn't build that," the birtherism, the racial dog whistles - all for naught. 

Will we the people ever form a more perfect union?

I HOPE so, but I FEAR not.

CNN exit polls showed women voting in greater numbers than men and heavily favoring Obama - in contrast with men, who preferred Romney.

 

RedEye tiptoeing away from the computer to go pray for our country and the world.

Update~Awkward Annal's of American Politics on Labor Day

As you can see from the comments I am being accused of "technically repeating libel/slander in regards to this post regarding the Romney Campaign slogan/them.  Although I don't agree with the premise or the argument , I am editing the post to read;

Did you know one of the themes/slogans adopted by the Romney campaign, "Keep America America" is a variation of  Keep America American, once a slogan of the Ku Klux Klan?  The question is did Team Romney know his campaign slogan was once used by the KKK?  Awkward.

It is being reported by the Huffington Post that Romney’s campaign slogan “Keep America American” was the driving theme of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. The slogan was the rallying cry for groups seeking to intimidate and terrorize black, Jewish and gay people all throughout the United States.

That said, did Romney/Ryan technically repeat Libel/Slander when they said President Obama ended the work for welfare requirement?  Are the Birthers technically repeating Libel/Slander when they claim the President wasn't born in America, implying he is not an American?  I guess it depends on what the definition of technically repeating Libel/Slander IS, because it looks like the republicans can technically dish out Libel/Slander, but they can't take it.

The same genius who came up with the KKK slogan for Romney must be the same genius who thought the Alabama, Mississippi and Florida delegations  Democratic National Convention kickoff party should be held at Historic Rosedale Plantation in  Charlotte, North Carolina.   Oh well, at least it wasn't held in the slave quarters.

This photo of Historic Rosedale Plantation is courtesy of TripAdvisor


 How do they expect us to move forward when there is always something there to remind us?

Martin Luther King Jr spoke for workers and unions.  His last campaign was a labor fight.

See Mama Sally Jump Through Hoops to Vote in the United States of America

In response to my previous post, Why Mama Sally can't vote, my favorite Righty's  offered this ahem solution for my friends 100-year-old maternal grandmother;

Redeye, just read your blog where you talk about your friend’s maternal grandmother possibly not being able to vote in Mississippi. Have your friend, your friend’s mother, your friend’s grandmother, or do it yourself(as long as you get permission to do so) go to the following website: http://www.msvoterid.ms.gov/ , or they can call 1-855-868-3745 and they can help her get an ID free of charge, and it even looks like if she needs transportation, they will arrange it for her.
Also according to the State Department, if she does not have a birth certificate and the state can’t find one, the state must issue her a Letter of No Record. The Letter of No Record then can be sumbitted with other forms of evidence (census record, early school record, family bible record, baptismal certificate) to form proof of citizenship to stand in for primary evidence of U.S. Citizenship.

My question is, why does a 100-year-old woman, or anyone for that matter, who has been voting for years, have to jump through hoops to vote in the United States of America in 2012?

There is no evidence that black/brown/elderly/disabled/college students are showing up at the polls committing "voter fraud", yet Mama Sally's story is proof they are the ones who are adversely affected by the republicans Voter ID laws.

And they want us to sing God Bless America?

Today's Must Read
Voting Wars

Why Mama Sally Can't Vote

This is a true voter suppression story, the names have been changed to protect the innocent~RedEye

God willing, one of my dearest friends maternal grandmother will turn 100 years old on October 23, 2012, which means she was born on October 23, 1912.  Keep these dates in mind as the story continues.

Mama Sally (not her real name) had to move to from Tennessee, the state of her birth and where she spent all of her life, to the state of Mississippi where she will spend the remainder of her time on earth with her loving grand daughter and her family.

Mama Sally has a social security number, receives medicare and owns property in Tennessee.  She stopped driving at age 60, so she hasn't had a drivers license in 40 years.  Still, as she says, in her right mind, she's voted in every election since the Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965.

Mama Sally won't be allowed to vote in Mississippi because the state of Tennessee doesn't have a record of her birth, and voters are required to produce a certified copy of their birth certificate in order to obtain a Voter ID card.

Mama Sally's vote is being suppressed.  And for those who say instead of whining about Mama Sally's plight help her obtain an ID card, I ask how the heck are we supposed to help her get a birth certificate that doesn't exist?

Fist Dap The Christian Science Monitor

Why we must fight like hell to protect the right to vote today.

 

H/T Ivan Ivanovich Renko via Jack and Jill Politics

Getting a check cashed is not a right.
Driving a car is not a right.
Getting into the club is not a right.
Buying a mojito is not a right.

When there appears to be the very least chance of interference with their 2nd amendment rights, wingnuts go pluperfect crazy.  Why the hell shouldn't we raise hell to protect our more fundamental rights--THE fundamental rights--of citizens of this republic?

This is why we must fight to protect our vote today.

This is why we must fight to protect our vote tomorrow.

This is why we must protect the right to vote forever!

Today's Must Read

The right to vote today.  The right to vote tomorrow.  The right to vote forever.

Primary Election Day Lost in Translation Photo Blog

Alabama Voters bow their heads in prayer before the start of the Alabama Republican forum on March, 12 in Birmingham, Alabama.

RedEye's Translation
Compassionate, Conservative,Christian Alabama Voters bow their heads in prayer before the start of the Alabama Republican Fear and Bigotry Forum on March, 12 in Bombingham, Alabama.

Like Grits?  You Just Might Be A Republican Candidate

Crashing Vors Translation
You May Be a Redneck If
Walter Uhlers Translation
Republicans Court the "White Trash" vote in Alabama and Mississippi

Today's Must Read
Other crazy things that Republican presidential forum attendees told NPR
Excerpt:

By now, you may have read the NPR story where attendees of last night’s Republican presidential candidate forum in Birmingham told a reporter that they still believe Obama is a Muslim and that there’s a magic secret part that everybody knows in the Constitution that says you have to be the son of two naturalized citizens to be elected president.

RedEye's Tranlsation-The Alabama  Public Education System at Work

"Ripped from today's headlines"~Update

Oops! Ex Gooberner Haley didn't follow the law when he released rapist and murders.  In Mississippi, identities of pardon applicants must be made public.

Remember the Scott sisters of Mississippi ,who were released from a prison after serving 16 years for a petty crime, on the condition one sister donate a kidney to the other?  Well, the Scott sisters didn't get a full pardon.  "I guess if I had been a murderer, he would have pardoned me."~Gladys Scott

Today's Must Read-Discrimination in Presidential Pardons

The title of today's post is ripped from the Law and Order television series. Join me as we go inside today's headlines.

M-i-s-s-i-s-s-i-p-p-i  Burning?   Ex Mississippi Governor Haley "Boss Hogs" Barbour  pardoned nearly 200 prisoners, 4 or whom are convicted killers, on his way out office.  Barbour didn't publicize the pardons, (I wonder why?) but defends them on the grounds they had good behavior while pouring drinks and serving food at the Governors Mansion.

Huh?  Convicted killers worked at the Governors mansion?  Why?  Because it's F-R-E-E labor or slavery by another name.  Barbour freed his slaves.  The only problem is, some of these slaves are also convicted killers and Barbour may have violated the states constitution. 

I thought republicans were for law and order?  Snark  It's too bad Troy Anthony Davis didn't live in Mississippi...all he wanted was a new trial.  But I digress.

This illustrates what's wrong with the Convict-Lease System  republicans use to take the country back to the days of slavery and Jim Crow.  Convicts get job training and jobs while they are incarcerated but  can't hold once they are released, because they are convicted felons with a record.  Meanwhile, there are no such job training programs  for unemployed, law abiding citizens.  Inmates  jobs and training, law abiding citizens, nothing.   What's wrong with this picture?

It should come as no surprise the majority of Mississippi' voters passed a voter ID bill in November to disenfranchise minority voters so folks like Barbour can keep getting elected.

White man fighting Obama candidacy ask black Jefferson County Judge to step aside due to racial bias.  Sweet Home Alabama...where the skies are blue and the people are bible thumping, suckers who hate President Obama in the name of the Lord.  Enough said.

A GOP Civil War is breaking out in the State of  Alabama, it's TeaPublican vs TeaPublican in Alabama's 6th Congressional district.  Y'all can bet your Donkey's it's going to get U-G-L-Y.. got popcorn?

Meanwhile, on the democratic side, C.L. Holley goes where skeered white democrats fear to go.  Tired of waiting for Alabama democratic party insiders to field a candidate to run against republican Congress Critter Mo "I'll do anything short of shooting them" Brooks, C. L. Holley stepped up to the plate to offer CD-5 DEMOCRATS (not to be confused with progressives) an alternative  in November. I admire and applaud his courage.  For those who say he can't win I say Poppycock!  If we vote for him he will win.  Yes we can fire Mo Brooks!

Today's Must Read-The Expatriate: Santorum's Red Roots

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