Decoding the code words

The gop infused, media enabled Tea Baggers control the United States House of Representatives. Ok, I'm over it. Time to move on. There is no reason for the Teabaggers to gloat because we liberals are not going to take our foot out of their butts and we are going to be on them like white on rice. You feel me?

Let's start with decoding the code words, separating the spin and the right wing talking points from the rhetoric so that we will be clear about what the TB's really mean when they say stuff.

ObamaCare= Thanks to the fact we are the government we(including our dependents) have access to quality, affordable health care for our families but our first act of business will be to make sure you the peeps( including your dependents) don't have access to quality, affordable health care. Meaning CONSUMERS CAN: (that's we the Peeps in case you don't know)Receive cost-free preventive services
Keep young adults on a parent’s plan until age 26
Choose a primary care doctor, ob/gyn and pediatrician
Use the nearest emergency room without penalty

Meaning INSURERS CAN'T:
Deny coverage to kids with pre-existing conditions Put lifetime limits on benefits
Cancel your policy without proving fraud
Deny claims without a chance for appeal

Now the real problem TB's have with ObamaCare is this(emphasis mine):

The most controversial aspect of the new law is its mandate that most Americans buy insurance coverage, with subsidies to make policies more affordable for low-income people.

Low income people=Them there black folks and illegal immigrants who want the government to take care of them because they don't want to work. They don't deserve no stinking access to healthcare. Nor do their children. They just want a gubbermint handout.

For all you teabaggers running around talking about ’socialized medicine’ and ‘ Obamacare’, when the GOP brings up giving you a voucher for your Medicare services, STFU.

Obama needs to move to the center=Obama needs to throw his base under the base. Bullpoo.

Too Far to the Left=pro affirmative action, pro woman's right to choose, pro labor, pro LBGT rights, pro civil rights.

Reduce taxes=give the rich a tax cut and shift the burden to the middle class.

Cut spending=cut spending on them there social programs like extending unemployment benefits and Food Stamps.

Socialist=The N Word

Muslim=The N Word

Illegal immigrant=any illegal that doesn't clean our house, look after our children/elderly parents, take care of our lawns or slave, I mean work for us republicans.

Creating jobs=Thanks to you we have a good gubbermint job with benefits,We have a job, the rest of y'all are tough out of luck because we sent all the jobs overseas and have them there illegals over here.

Me thinks the gop infused, media enabled, Tea Party might be in for a rough, rude ride....

What say you?

Redeye's Greatest Rants Vol. I

Redeye's WTF rant.

W=Where, Why, Who, When or What.

T=The

F=The F word,

One Redeye Rant leads to another Redeye Rant

Before I move on to a new rant, let me tie up some lose ends from my previous WTF rant.

I wasn't asking goppers and righty's WTF was wrong with the democratic party etc., but I'm glad they responded because their answers were very insightful, and now we know exactly W, T, F, we are dealing with. So now that we know, WTF are we going to do about it?

How did we get here?

How did we get here? How did we get to the place of taxing unemployment benefits and Social Security? How did we get to the place where the media became an unelected branch of the government? Three words, President Ronald Regan.

Race relations Sunday

In light of a previous discussion thread on the subject of racism and the Azalea Trail Maids "controversy" I am using this excellent platform God has given me to write this diary with the hope we can have an honest and open dialogue about race, racist, racism and prejudice.

Racism won't end until it's confronted. We can't confront racism until it is defined.

Why we must look back to move forward

Today is the beginning of the end of our long national nightmare. Two more days and we'll be free at last from the culture of corruption and cronyism. Free at last from Karl Rove politics and Scooter Libby justice. Free at last from a government that is not accountable to we the people. Free at last from a government that can lie to the American people without impunity. If we could be free of the white wing MSM media things would be perfect.

Don't say Goodbye, just go.

This diary is dedicated to mooncat who invited and encouraged me to blog at Left in Alabama before the stuff I was writting needed to be vetted, and to countrycat who encouraged me to start my own blog so I could have the last word.

Edit~Jim Folsom lost, blame Hank Sanders Robo Call

There is an old saying in Alabama..if you throw a rock at a pen full of pigs the one that squeals is the one that was hit. Well, there's a whole lot of squealing going on about Alabama State Senators Mad as Hell Robo Call to DEMOCRATIC, I repeat DEMOCRATIC supporters. I emphasize DEMOCRATIC supporters because the non DEMOCRATIC supporters are squealing like pigs because gasp! Anderson Cooper discussed the robo call on AC 360 and showed Sweet Home Alabama for what it really is, I mean in a bad light, for all the world to see. Not only that... according to them, the race baiting robo call may have hurt Jim Folsom.

CNN reaches a lot of people, even in Alabama. Folsom only lost to Kay Ivey by about 45,000 votes. There's no way to know how many people came out to vote for Folsom because they got the call vs. how many were motivated to vote against him because they heard about it, but I'd love to see what kind of movement Folsom and/or Ivey's internal polls showed between October 15th, when the calls hit Alabama answering machines, and Election Day. I recall hearing of a similar robocall using highly charged language in the 2009 special election that sent Paul Sanford (R, SD7) to the Alabama State Senate. The call was on behalf of his opponent, Rep. Laura Hall, who is black, but it ended up on some of the wrong answering machines and fueled charges of reverse racism. GOP turnout was very high for a special and Hall lost badly.

Let's not re-write history. If I recall radio boy, aka Dale Jackson, sent out an email with the official state seal of the Alabama Secretary of State on it telling democrats they were to vote on Wednesday instead of Thursday, in addition to calling State Representative Laura Hall a racist coward  on his blog. GOP turnout was very high because Bob Riley's evil plan worked. Remember?

The Riley administration has carefully planned the special elections this year to minimize turnout, especially Democratic turnout. They set the special elections in Madison county after Alabama A&M and UAH had finished their spring semesters, and they set the House District 6 primary to fall right after the Memorial Day holiday - when people might be distracted, or otherwise stretching a holiday weekend out for another day

And let's not forget WHY we were having a special elections in the first place, because of the so called democratic culture of corruption and cronyism.

And sometimes prosecutions of Republicans by the Bush Justice Department reflects not even-handedness, but equally insidious corruption. That’s the point for my notes today.

If we had to pick one state in the nation where these evil tendencies are most obviously on display, then certainly it is Alabama, home to the nation’s highest profile and most abusive political prosecution. A major television network will shortly be exposing a number of lurid details surrounding the Siegelman case which point to corruption inside of the Justice Department. I have formed the view that the corruption on the prosecutorial side of the ledger greatly outweighs the corruption charged against the defendants in the Siegelman matter. The corruption inside of the Justice Department is exhibited on several different levels:

• The politicization of the U.S. attorney’s office
• The process of “targeting” political victims
• The corrupt manipulation of evidence
• The process of working to secure convictions through collaboration with “friendly” media

Yeah, we've got it all in Alabama. Lucky us. H/T mooncat

What Hank Sanders said!

Cooper asked Sanders what evidence he had that the Republican opponents would take Alabama back to Jim Crow days. Sanders said, "Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important."

If some white voters didn't vote for Jim Folsom because of Hank Sanders robo call, they probably weren't going to vote for him anyway. But what does this whole controversy say about white voters? Are they squealing because the robo call hit a nerve? Did it expose the dirty little secret about racism not only in Alabama but in America? Racism is that thing you did, not that thing you said. Remember?The way to eradicate racism is to expose it.

State Senator Hank Sanders is a grown a$$ man. He has the right (no pun) to say whatever he chooses, however he chooses. If some cats are "offended by it" tough titty said the kitty.

There is a real dilemma in communicating with masses of people. If we speak in a way that is acceptable to everyone, we move few. If we speak in a way that effectively moves many, we offend some others. I have worked for years to effectively communicate so I move many without offending many. I don’t always succeed.

Well, I cut a second robo ad. I did not back away from the word “hell.” I said, “I will stand until hell freezes over!” I said “Hell no, I will not go back!” One of the first responses to the ad came from a woman in Mobile. She said that she had not intended to vote, but after my robo call, she not only was going to vote, but was urging others to vote. She said that she was “also mad as hell.” Our perceptions, judgments, and responses are so different.

Lt. Governor Jim Folsom was asked to renounce, reject and repudiate State Senators Sanders and like a big man he refused to play the part of Plantation Overseer.

"It wasn't by me," Folsom said. "I have no responsibility for it."

Asked what changes he would make if he wrote the script, Folsom said he would not use any four-letter words.

State Senator Sanders robo call didn't hurt Jim Folsom, removing the Confederate Flag from the state capitol hurt Jim Folsom.

James E. Folsom Jr. was Alabama's governor from 1993-95 and the only governor so far to assume that office as a result of the felony conviction of his predecessor. He is also one of only two fathers and sons who served as governors of Alabama, the other being Edward and Emmet O'Neal. Folsom is notable for his removal of the Confederate battle flag from the state capital, and he appointed a number of African Americans and women to his staff. He also helped initiate the movement of the automotive industry to the Southeast when he helped bring a Mercedes-Benz plant to the state.

I have more R-E-S-P-E-C-T for State Senator Sanders, and Lt. Governor Jim Folsom than I do for Anderson Cooper and his merry panel of all white, except one, African American Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads.

It wasn't the Robo Call that hurt Folsom. It was the stoopid racist and the stoopid racism. Of course it's easier to blame it on the black guy.

Redeyes version of how did we get here and where do we go from here.

Democratic power brokers bet the future of the Alabama Democratic Party on a blog lost it last night. I was prepared for a big loss but am stunned by just how many Democrats voted for Bentley because they couldn't stand the fact Artur Davis was not the republican, I mean democratic nominee.

Based on everything I have seen and heard, here's how the thinking went among those who run the Democratic Party, starting a few months after the 2008 election:

1. Wow! Obama really motivated black voters. Imagine the possibilities if black voters turned out like that for state elections in 2010.

Translation: Black voters are stoopid. They came out and voted for Obama because he was black. Let's try and trick them by placing an acceptable (one that doesn't evoke a negative fear among whites) black candidate for state elections in 2010.


2. But a black candidate at or near the top of the ticket will alienate rural white voters -- true or not, the power brokers are convinced their rural white voters are closet racists, frightened of black candidates -- and that will be the end of rural Dems in the Legislature.

Translation: Rural white voters are not closet racist, they are out in the open racist. But all candidates have to is run as a nod, nod, wink, wink, conservative democrat to get the black vote then govern as a republican.

3. Artur Davis is not white and not rural. He must be defeated at all costs or he'll sink the white Democrats in the Legislature.

Translation: Artur Davis is not white and rural but he appeals to white, rural voters because he panders the right at the expense of the *ahem* traditional democratic base.

4. Must find a rural white guy for the top of the ticket to preserve those rural Democratic seats in the Legislature. [Jim Folsom was too smart to go along with this scheme in what he thought would be a very tough cycle. Sue Bell Cobb was too decent to get involved with the inevitable race baiting.] Ron Sparks was already running, he's rural and he's white so the power brokers hitched their wagon to his star.

Translation: Don't field a candidate based on the content of his character and his platform let's just race bait out in the open. Jim Folsom and Sue Bell Cobb were too decent to play along.

5. OK, Sparks is the guy to save rural Democratic seats in the Legislature, but what to do about the statewide candidates and rural/urban districts? The black vote has to be ratcheted up to 2008 Obama levels to boost those candidates. Here the power brokers settled on a two-pronged solution: Bingo and Joe Reed.

Translation; Now we get down to the real nitty gritty. This is about legislating morality and putting that uppity Joe Reed in his place once and for all.

6. Bingo. Create a pro-Bingo ticket from top to bottom because the power brokers know black voters love Bingo as much they do about Obama. And the people who want Bingo have a lot of money and are willing to invest it in political schemes. Special bonus, Bingo might even bring Democratic wins in the Wiregrass because those folks love nothing more than Country Crossing and the Bingo without which it cannot operate.

Translation: There you go again, misunderestimating the intelligence of black folks. Psst! It wasn't about BINGO the game, it was about BINGO the J-O-Bs.

6. Joe Reed. By late summer, polls were still looking puny for Democrats across the board, so the party leadership conveniently moved elections from January (post-bloodbath) to August so the architects of this disaster could be re-elected to another four year term, pre-bloodbath. First, remembering what Reed and ADC did to John Tyson in 2006, they changed the rules to allow Joe Reed (possibly with input from Hank Sanders) to add a big chunk of hand-picked members to the State Democratic Executive Committee. In return (but no quid pro quo, naturally) Reed (possibly with help from Sanders) was supposed to use his influence to deliver Obama-like turnout from black voters across the state ... in case Bingo wasn't quite enough. Because the power brokers know black voters love Joe Reed (and possibly Hank Sanders) as much as they do Barack Obama

Translation: Black voters admire Joe Reed and Hank Sanders as much as they admire Barack Obama. White voters hate Joe Reed and Hank Sanders as much as they love Artur Davis. First remember that Artur Davis voted against the health care reform bill and the hate crimes bill to appease white, rural voters and said out loud what white, rural voters said behind closed doors.

Brilliant, huh? It was a hare-brained, power-drunk, batshit-crazy strategy from start to finish, incredibly callous, patronizing, racist and insulting to the intelligence, tolerance and decency of Alabama's real democratic voters of all races -- and those voters did not fall for the okey doke. Sure didn't.

It wasn't about Bingo and Joe Reed. White pseudo dems tried to use Artur Davis to to induce Obama-like voter excitement among black voters. It didn't work. Get over it. Ron Sparks and Bingo did not bring home rural white voters because Ron Sparks was seen as a friend to black voters. Last time I looked, Macon County -- home of Victoryland turnout with 42% of registered voters casting a ballot yesterday is pretty good for a midterm. Last time I looked Macon County was majority black, so it must be true rural white voters didn't vote. And the Bingo related corruption scandal that anyone with half an eye could see coming 6 months ago ended up playing right into the republicans hands. I hope you are happy now.

White privilege and power have been setting the Democratic agenda and electoral strategy for far too long in this state. They drank their own Kool-Aid in the run-up to this election. It poisoned their thinking as it has poisoned our party. They chose to rely on manipulation, race baiting, short-sighted election year gimmicks and smearing real liberals and democrats in favor the rightwing/dixiecrats/moderates/conservatives and enabling and appeasing the right wing instead of using their time in power to promote responsible public policies. Although many of those voted down last night had little to do with this fiasco, the people at the top of the Democratic party got the result they richly deserved. Unfortunately it's the little people at the bottom who will suffer the consequences. You know, the people without jobs, homes, access to quality affordable health care. Poor single mothers and their children. Elderly citizens who have to decide between buying food or buying medicine. You know, the least of these.

You helped light the match that essentially burned our party to the ground yesterday. And now you ask "How do we rebuild the Alabama Democratic Party"?

Clean house from top to bottom. Get rid of the posers and the infiltrators. You're either with the democratic party or you're against the democratic party, that includes black/brown folks, women, our LBGT sisters and brothers, labor and public educators. You're either for all parts of the democratic agenda or you're for none of it. We elect leaders who don't think black voters are stoopid and who try and take advantage of them. We elect leaders who are not afraid to stand up to the right wing bully's. We elect leaders who don't take a blog, I mean butter knife to a gun fight. We elect leaders who will bring us together not divide us. That's how we get OUR party back on track Missy.

Redeye's Post Midterm Election Rant

Let me begin by saying this is the beginning of another American nightmare on Elm Street. America has shown the world we are not who we claim to be. But we survived Ronald Reagan, Bush Sr, Bush Jr, Newt Gringrich, Dick Cheney, George Wallace, Bull Conner, Jim Crow, Slavery, a Depression, a Recession, Katrina, and we will survive this too.

Although I am upset gop infused, media enabled Tea Party gained control of the house again, I am more upset at the white democratic party elite who once again showed they would rather lose than support a black man. I'm fighting mad at the so called progressives who enabled this coup. I'm mad at the party leadership, strike that I mad because there was no efffing democratic party leadership.

What part of "we want President Obama to fail" didn't you understand Mr. President Sir? What part of we are going to do everything in our power to take control of the house back didn't you understand Mr. President Sir? What part of the natives are getting restless didn't you understand Mr. President Sir? Why did you surround yourself with "centrist" and pander to the professional right at the expense of the professional left? If you govern as a lukewarm centrist...then you shouldn't expect your base to be motivated. It is as simple as that.

Only in America can the good guys/gals be defeated by the bad/guys and gals. I fear for the future of our country. I hoped and prayed there were more good guys/gal than there were Tea Partiers. I hoped and prayed there more people who loved their country more than they hate Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. Orange Boehner has already stated there will be no compromise with President Obama and pledges to repeal the health care reform bill and DADT.

I hope all of the don't criticize President Obama/give him time crowd is happy today. Maybe if you hadn't muzzled the Professional Left we wouldn't be in this mess.

The White House spent more time telling its allies to sit down and shut up than it did demonstrating in clear terms why the Stimulus, Health Care Reform, and other critical initiatives were important and right, and let the GOP define them instead as bad. When the economy was still in the doldrums yesterday, then, independent voters didn't want to hear it and plenty of solid Democrats didn't either, sick of being told that the things we campaigned for together two years ago really weren't that important.

republicans owe their victory to the white, I mean right wing media As long as we don't have "Pro-democratic" (liberal) radio in every major city in the US. Republicans are going to keep on ruling this country.

I'm almost afraid to watch President Obama's press conference. I mean, what is he going to say? We must come together in the spirit of bipartisanship? Tried that, it didn't work.

He will say words, of course!
And whichever words he spouts will reek of his lunatic devotion to bipartisanship -- a vessel torpedoed so many times it no longer floats. It rots among the little fishes, bereft of steam, a party boat for Davey Jones and those tiny white crabs that polish sunken skeletons at the bottom of the sea.

One-third of the Democratic Party is 'Blue Dog' and reliably votes Republican. Two-thirds of the Democratic Party are centrists, corporatists, and friends of big business and are terrified of being different than Republicans, or being criticized by Republicans.

The Democratic crew are actually delighted with this split Congress. They get to sit back and variously allow or assist the GOP in making complete clowns of themselves and their Party, and then run on a reform platform in 2012.

So it will be gridlock, shout down, screaming, shutdown, maybe even impeachment for the next two years. And then the Democrats will all mount white horses and come charging back, bringing change and hope.

Meanwhile the Fed will print half a trillion extra dollars in a shadow stimulus move, and the big banks and corporations will vacuum this up and add it to the Trillion they are sitting on now.

No one is in charge of anything in DC; no one is managing or running anything. They are just looting the middle class and looking out for their own futures.

Let's stop tiptoeing through the tulips, last night is proof postive The Dixiecrats have risen again!

Wilmer J. Leon III argues in an essay at Truthout that the Republican uprising of 2010 is just an extension of the Dixiecrat movement that split the Democratic Party in 1948. Leon, a political scientist at Howard University, says Tea Partiers are Dixiecrats dressed up in new clothing.

No one should be surprised that modern-day Dixiecrats would rise up just two years after the election of America's first black president.

I hope this is a WTFU call to the democratic elite and so called progressives. You don't take a butter knife to a gun fight. You take a flame thrower. If you lose the fight at least let the other side know they've been in a fight.

Democrats can't blame this loss on black voter turnout. They lost because white people have turned rather decisively against the Democratic Party, because it has black people in it. White democrats want the black vote, but they don't want the black people.

The Republicans and their media friends have been relentlessly hammering on the president with messages that the president is not on white America's side. That's what the stealth birth certificate is about. That's what the 'he's really a Muslim' thing is about. It's why they talk about the New Black Panthers and ACORN all the time. And this stuff doesn't work very well with whites who live in racially and religiously diverse regions or areas of the country. It seems absurd to us, actually. But out in truckstops of Indiana, or the Wal-Mart parking lots of rural Kentucky, they're convinced that the Democrats are just looking out for minorities.

Question?

I don't think we should take too many lessons out of this election about policy or campaign finance. What we have to turn around is this perception that the Dems are not on white people's side, because if that persists then we're not going to able to win national elections and the House will stay in Republicans' hands.

How do we do that? That's the difficult part. I guess it starts with gaining a thorough understanding of how the Republicans were able to create that impression.

Answer; Address the lack of diversity in the mainstream media, reinstate the fairness doctrine and repeal the media consolidation act. I said it then and I'm saying it now, it's the stoopid media.



Redeye rant over and out..for now.