You can think the goverment shut down is about health care if you want to

It's about race and class.  It's about wanting the first African American President to fail.  It's the media.



  All gloves should be off now.

 "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)

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts and minds of neighbors in gated communities?

It's been 18 days and counting since 17 year old Trayvon Martin was gunned down by volunteer neighborhood watch Captain George Zimmerman, walking home from a convenience store inside his father's gated community in Sanford Florida.  His killer still has not been charged, and Sanford Police still refuse to release the 911 tapes.

The Failures of Integration: How Race and Class are Undermining the American Dream, a book written by Georgetown Law Professor Sheryll Cashin , are amplified in the case of Trayvon Martin.  African Americans work hard, play by the rules, pull themselves up by their boot straps striving to achieve the American dream.  They move into gated communities believing they will be insulated and safe from the underclass.  But they are not insulated, nor are they safe, because in the end they were born black in America.

What is the difference between a black man protecting his home, and a white man protecting his neighborhood?

  The black man protecting his home from a mob of drunk, teen aged, white males, was arressted, tried, convicted and imprisoned.  His sentence was later commuted.

  

The white man protecting his neighborhood from an unarmed, teen aged, African American male has not been arrested.    

Honestly Redeye, if I were black I don't know if I would have the courage to have children in this country.~

It's not easy being born black in America.  

It never has been.

I guess it never will be.

And they want us to sing God Bless America?

Monday Talking Points

Psst TeaPublicans, cut spending on all war all the time! I am sick and tired of TeaPublican after TeaPublican, all over the public airways talking about cutting spending on social programs (code word for we the people), but you don't hear them saying a mumbling word about the monetary cost, nor the human cost of all war all time.

Don't you wish some enterprising Talking TeeVee Pundit Head would ask them how much we are spending on the wars, and how many of our sons and daughters have lost life and limb fighting them? Don't you wish they would ask them about cutting spending on all war all the time?

Will Obama Throw a Grenade to Blow-Up Hidden Campaign Donations? I sure HOPE so.:)

Frustrated by limited, near-term legislative or regulatory options to increase disclosure of hidden federal election expenditures, President Obama is considering an executive order aimed at government contractors which would partially achieve that goal. If issued, this order will cause a political uproar--and stimulate immediate litigation to stay its effect.

The president is responding to the 2010 political cycle, when groups allegedly independent of candidate campaigns spent $300 billion in attempts to influence the outcome of federal elections. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, almost 50 percent of that total was spent by organizations which did not disclose their donors, up from 25 percent spent by entities with no disclosure in 2008.

Georgia on my mind...Lawsuit seeks dissolution of Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Johns Creek, Milton, Chattahoochee Hills because 'super-majority white neighborhoods' were created. Meanwhile the Feds allow Sandy Springs out of Voting Rights Act. Hmmm. I wonder why the Feds would do something like that? Never mind. WE know.

Congress passed the act in 1965 to stamp out illegal efforts to deny minorities access to the ballot box. It applies to all or part of 16 states, including Georgia.

In 2006, Congress renewed the act for 25 years.

Then in 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that jurisdictions could seek relief from the act’s Section 5, which requires them to gain federal clearance to change any election procedure, including small items such as moving polling sites.

For Alabama to be 2nd in the nation in Religiosity (Is reglisiousity a word?), they sure don't practice what they preach.

Alabama is second to Mississippi in the nation in the percentage of residents who say that religion is very important in their lives (74%) according to the Pew Research Center (though the state is fifth in the percentage of residents who say they attend religious services at least once a week at 52%).

I guess it depends on what the definition of Religiousity IS in Alabama and Mississippi. :)

Jesus of Nazareth, or Jesus Christ, continues to intrigue all sectors of society, all peoples, all races, both rich, not so rich and, most particularly, the underclass and poor. In an age that has come to emphasize money, materialism, outright greed, and admiration for the rich and powerful, he offers an alternative.

Yet Jesus is in an enigmatic and troubling figure. For many people in the world, he is seen as a kind of general love figure, the ultimate nice guy. After all, that is what the world wants to see in other people - niceness, tolerance, humanity, and kindness in others. Far from being solely concerned with being loving and nice to people, however, he is the ultimate litigator. One might see Jesus as an advocate of the underclass. Perhaps one could see Jesus as a socialist or communist, since in the Gospels, he seems to make a point of associating with and advocating for, the poor and working class.

Jesus, save us from your followers. :)

Saturday Links I Like

The Scottsboro Boys and the Scott Sisters. It's not a minstrel show...It's about race and class in America.

A group of about 30 people gathered on Saturday afternoon in front of the Lyceum Theater to protest a matinee of the new Broadway musical “The Scottsboro Boys,” which retells the story of nine African-Americans between 12 and 19 who were falsely convicted of raping two white women in Alabama in 1931. The show, written by the celebrated team of John Kander and Fred Ebb and directed by the Tony-winning director Susan Stroman, uses the minstrel tradition to tell the story of how racism infected the judicial system.

“The trials were treated as if the boys were in a minstrel show” because it was such a farce, she said of the production. “The actors actually deconstruct the device in front of the audience,” and in the end, rebel against it.

The Rude Pundit on censoring the N word out of Huck Finn. Warning....it's very Rude.

Watch out for some nasty dangerous white boys: John Boehner and Darrell Issa. Click here for the full article.

Public Employees are under attack because they are public employees.

"Look Over There!"

How do you get regular people to "look over there" with all of that going on? Simple: launch a big campaign to blame the librarians, firefighters and other public sector workers for the hard times. "Don't blame US," Wall Street says, "Look over there!" Blame the economy's victims for economic crimes. And, do you know what? This is a strategy that is proven to work every time.

The Daley Show

I felt nearly as sick earlier this week, when I started hearing the Daley as chief of staff rumors, as I did when Obama sealed his fate just before taking over the White House by announcing that Rahm Emanuel would be his first chief of staff. Emanuel has been an unmitigated disaster for Obama and, worse yet, for the Democratic Party, and I really hope Daley will improve things but, I don't expect any miracles-- unless one interprets "improve things" to mean that Obama will get more credit for the yeoman's work he's been doing for Wall Street, Corporate America and the permanent, albeit shrinking, ruling class at the expense of society.

Happy reading!

What I learned on the Sunday Talk Shows

Once upon a time I subscribed to Pundit Pap, a weekly, online analysis of the Sunday Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads. This is my version.

This is gop plan if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections;

1. Repeal the health care reform bill.

2. Repeal the stimulus bill.

3. Maintain Bush's tax cut for the rich so they can/will hire people.

Translation;
The rich have access to health care, get richer, and the rest get the shaft.

Been there done that. It's all class warfare all the time.

It's not class warfare. Don't you dare call it class warfare. The Republicans may relentlessly pursue policies that favor the wealthy and hurt everyone else, but it most emphatically is not class warfare. The arbiters of appropriate political discourse will be most put out if you call it class warfare. You will not be welcome in the Village. You will not be invited to appear on the Sunday talk shows.

The gop solution for America is to Privatize It

The teabaggers and right wing party want to privatize the whole government! That is exactly what all this hollering about less government is really about. It is not just about cutting taxes for the rich, it's about making the pot sweeter for the future CEO's of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CORPORATION nicknamed Uncle Sam. This is what their future plans for America are if they get back in power.

Call it a conspiracy theory and go back to sleep.

Once upon a time, if The Birmingham News got out of line, the Birmingham Post-Herald was there to offer a contrary perspective. Likewise with The Huntsville News, and the historically Democratic Decatur Daily used to circulate more widely in Huntsville. (Things were less helpful in Mobile, where the Mobile Press and Mobile Register were co-owned by Newhouse even before their 1997 consolidation.) Even in the absence of alternate news sources from the Internet, these correctives kept a significant number of voters aware of alternate perspectives and narratives. But we now live in the age of the one-newspaper town.

The gop is pro life as long as it's in the womb. After that all bets are off and baby you are on your own.

On Fox News Sunday, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) called for a nationwide moratorium on foreclosures, saying “it’s absolutely imperative that we keep people in their homes.” House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) disagreed strongly, however, saying he was “just perplexed” at Wasserman Schultz’s answer, and that “people have to take responsibility for themselves.”

Thought for the day courtesy of chris_i_am

"There is nothing that we cannot face together! There is nothing we cannot overcome together! There is nothing we cannot accomplish together! For together we are strongest! For together we are whole! For together we ARE VICTORIOUS...!"

Yes we can have HOPE for CHANGE we can believe in!

VOTE!