All Politics is Local

What if the Security Officer forces parent to stop recording Huntsville board meeting issue is being used as a media enabled weapon of mass distraction from the fact HCS superintendent Casey Wardynski used a photo of a young man wearing a hoodie to justify  building a $600,000  fence around, and installing a guard shack, I mean welcome center, at the new prison, I mean  Lee High School?

The four students from Lee High School who filmed a fight in a school bathroom and posted the video to YouTube did so as a gang initiation, Huntsville's superintendent said.
Dr. Casey Wardynski said the fight, which came to light Jan. 20 after the video went viral, wasn't an ordinary skirmish between students.

"It was a gang initiation; these students went to lunch together afterward," Wardynski said.

Not so, says the certified gang expert

"We have gangs in our schools," McDuffie said Monday. "That's not a hidden fact. It's here, and we know it's here."
McDuffie declined to call the incident at Lee "gang-related," though.
"It has all the earmarks of a gang-related incident, but we can't say for sure," he said. "The reason we can't pinpoint it is that there's no concrete evidence."

What if the reason parents were met with metal detectors at the last school board meeting is because they got wind the Concerned Parents of North Huntsville (i.e. black) were being encouraged to to attend to the school board meeting to protest black students being forced to wear orange jump suites, I mean uniforms to schools?
 
Huntsville/Madison County NAACP Branch

May 3.There is an important school board meeting for the Huntsville City Schools on Thursday, May 3rd at 5:30 p.m. The main issues are the building of the fence and guard shack at the new Lee High School and other impending changes for next school year including changes that MAY result in a proposed stoppage of transfers to other schools in the district as well as why schools in the North side of town... will wear uniforms while the south will not. Your presence and voices are needed. Our children need strong, intelligent cheerleaders. . Your attendance will be greatly appreciated. The meeting will be held at 200 White Street Huntsville, AL 35801.  This information is via Concerned Citizens Of North Huntsville organization.

What if Al Langford is the fall guy?

When asked if he agreed with Lankford's decision to stop Winn from recording the meeting, Blair declined to discuss it.
"I'm not going to Monday morning quarterback the actions," Blair said. "We're there to do the business of the board, to move the school system forward. I'm not going to second-guess Al's decisions."

Does David Blair think tax payers are stupid enough to believe Al Langford has decision making authority and the power of the purse?  Does David Blair think the tax payers haven't noticed longtime, African American teachers/principals/administrators employed by the Huntsville City Schools are being fired/demoted and being replaced by friends with no training or experience?

In the army we call that whining.

In the civilian world we call that Intitimidation.

Today's Must Read

Principal  Signs Contract, Then Looks at Map

3 Black Alabama Legislators Defend Racism, After They Opposed Racism

Sigh.  Poor Alabama State Senator Scott Beason (racist, Gardendale).  In a pathetic attempt to defend himself against allegations of racism, three House Negroes  are defending the indefensible.  The only problem is,  two of the three black legislators are on VIDEO speaking at a press conference in OPPOSITION to Scott Beason. Ooops!  h/t CM

 This situation is proof White people fail to see how racism harms white people, as well as black people.  Instead of accepting responsibility for his  words and actions, Beason resorts to the Plantation Mentality and finds 3 black people to defend him against his own words and his own actions. What gets me is they honestly believe they are credible, and we the people are stoopid.

Judge Myron Thompson said Scott Beasons' motives were racially and politically motivated for becoming a whistler blower in the alleged vote-buying scheme to pass pro-gambling legislation in Alabama.  Key word, motives.  What Scott Beason said was racist.  I don't care how many black legislators come forward to defend him.  Watch how to tell people they sound racist.

I don't care what Scott Beason IS, I care about what Scott Beason DID.

Today's Must Read

5 Right Wing Governors Gutting Schools to Fund Prisons, Tax Breaks for the Rich...and a Bible Theme Park.  Yes, Alabama made the list.

Gov Bentley and Company "Feeding the cradle-to-prison pipeline"

Sweet Home Alabama Governor Bentley and his red, republican controlled legislature propose giving more power to local school boards allowing  them the opportunity to implement innovative strategies currently restricted by state law.   In other words, allowing local school boards to give state law the middle finger.

I thought school boards were elected by the people to make policy for the school district and it's powers and duties are set by state law?

Sorry, but I don't want my local school board to have the opportunity to implement innovative strategies currently restricted by state law.  There are so many, many things wrong with  my local school board it's not funny.   I can just imagine the innovative strategies they will implement.

Today's Must Reads

Pushing Kids Out

Blacks are disciplined at far higher rates than other students

The Cradle to Prison Pipeline:  America's New Apartheid

Teach for America Explained

Sunday Shock, Shame and Awe

Southern Heritage,the Tea Party and the problem of Wal-mart.

There is a glaring hypocrisy within the Republican Tea Party, for which I must now take my white Southern brethren to task. You say Big Government is evil. Ok, I get that and I tend to agree. But if this so, what the hell makes Big Business so good? It is just as powerful as government and just as evil. In fact, government, for all its excesses, is not actively destroying our environment or wastefully exhausting our resources, but Big Business is. Why is that ok?

Justice AmeriBama style
African-American residents of central Alabama are organizing to protest the six-month jail sentence that a white former state trooper has just begun for one of the seminal killings of the Civil Rights Movement.

A candlelight vigil open to people from across the country and other possible events are in the works, residents said this week.

The motivation for all this organizing is the fact that James Bonard Fowler, 77, began serving a half-year sentence on Dec. 1 in Geneva, Ala., for the Feb. 18, 1965, fatal shooting of Jimmie Lee Jackson, a 26-year-old African-American church deacon, father and Vietnam veteran.

Jackson was taking part in a peaceful civil rights protest in his hometown of Marion, Ala., when Fowler shot him in the stomach. Jackson died eight days later in the hospital, his death prompting the Selma to Montgomery marches, which ultimately led to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Meanwhile a peaceful Georgia Prisoners Strike is way under the radar.

The peaceful strike begun by inmates of several Georgia state prisons continued for a second day on Friday, according to family members of some of the participants. Copyrighted news stories by AP, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and local TV stations in Macon and Atlanta quote state corrections who say several institutions were placed on lock down beginning Thursday in anticipation of the inmate protest, on the initiative of wardens of those prisons.

"Don't call me a racist you N word" Read, watch and then tell me: was this lady being racist or was she just venting frustration? The floor is yours.

The Sunday Talking TeeVee Knucklehead meme is that President Obama is moving to the center to insure his re-election. Don't fall for the Okey Doke. The so called center are really republicans and if they have a choice between a real republican and you..you know the rest. Ask your Harvard buddy and ex Congress Critter Artur Davis how pandering to these people at the expense of you base worked out for him. Contrary to Knucklehead opinion, these people didn't bring you to the dance.

A GAMBLE REPUBLICANS WERE WILLING TO TAKE.... Political parties are traditionally motivated by fear of public revulsion. To take steps that make the party's members look like monsters is rarely a good idea.

So it was interesting this week to see congressional Republicans overwhelmingly reject the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would pay health care costs for 9/11 rescue workers, sickened after exposure to the toxic smoke and debris. In the House, more than 90% of GOP lawmakers opposed the bill. In the Senate, a unanimous Republican caucus found the bill so offensive, they wouldn't even give it an up-or-down vote.

Fear of appearing sociopathic probably should have led to a few more Republican votes. After all, it's not exactly a compelling message to take to the electorate: we'll fight tooth and nail for tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, but we'll also reject health care costs for 9/11 rescue workers.

And why would Republicans take a risk like this, especially over legislation that was both affordable and paid for? Because they're probably confident most Americans won't hear a word about this.

The fact that the 9/-11-related legislation was defeated was news. Period. The fact that it was defeated as part of the larger Republican strategy to tie the Senate in knots made yesterday's vote even more newsworthy.

But not at ABC, CBS or NBC. Last night, all three evening newscasts failed to report on the fact that Republicans had voted down a previously bipartisan bill designed to provide medical coverage for Sept. 11 emergency workers. At the major networks, that development was not considered newsworthy.

That's pretty remarkable. But the larger point here is that Republicans are now practicing an unprecedented brand of obstructionism and they're doing without having to pay much of a political price. Why? Because the press is giving them a pass

The Tea Party's war on public education and public educators continues.

Alabama legislature in "special session" is taking on ethics reform. Of course this is the first time the GOP has ever had control in Montgomery so they are "making hay while the sun shines" so to speak. One of their so called ethics bills is directly aimed at taking away the AEA's pac automatic deductions and I/we here in Alabama need some help.

Shocking, Shameful and Awful.