"Dems, It's Time to Dump Dixie" and let Republicans have "Free-Market Jesus Paradise".

I just read a terrific article about the political shift taking place in the South, and why the people in the majority population from those states support one  political party over another.




The South, in case you all didn't notice, is now the domain of the republican party. (At least when it comes to state wide elections)We can thank gerrymandering and inherent racial bias for this interesting political development.




As a result of this shift, the author of the article had some interesting advice for the democratic party.


"Dems, It’s Time to Dump Dixie

With Mary Landrieu’s ignominious exit, the Democrats will have lost their last senator in the Deep South. And that’s a good thing. They should write it off—because they don’t need it.

I don’t remember a much sadder sight in domestic politics in my lifetime than that of Mary Landrieu schlumpfing around these last few weeks trying to save a Senate seat that was obviously lost. It was like witnessing the last two weeks of the life of a blind and toothless dog you knew the vet was just itching to destroy. I know that sounds mean about her, but I don’t intend it that way. She did what she could and had, as far as I know, an honorable career. I do, however, intend it to sound mean about the reactionary, prejudice-infested place she comes from. A toothless dog is a figure of sympathy. A vet who takes pleasure in gassing it is not.

And that is what Louisiana, and almost the entire South, has become. The victims of the particular form of euthanasia it enforces with such glee are tolerance, compassion, civic decency, trans-racial community, the crucial secular values on which this country was founded… I could keep this list going. But I think you get the idea. Practically the whole region has rejected nearly everything that’s good about this country and has become just one big nuclear waste site of choleric, and extremely racialized, resentment. A fact made even sadder because on the whole they’re such nice people! (I truly mean that.)With Landrieu’s departure, the Democrats will have no more senators from the Deep South, and I say good. Forget about it. Forget about the whole fetid place. Write it off. Let the GOP have it and run it and turn it into Free-Market Jesus Paradise. The Democrats don’t need it anyway.

Actually, that’s not quite true. They need Florida, arguably, at least in Electoral College terms. Although they don’t even really quite need it—what happened in 2012 was representative: Barack Obama didn’t need Florida, but its 29 electoral votes provided a nice layer of icing on the cake, bumping him up to a gaudy 332 EVs, and besides, it’s nice to be able to say you won such a big state. But Florida is kind of an outlier, because culturally, only the northern half of Florida is Dixie. Ditto Virginia, but in reverse; culturally, northern Virginia is Yankee land (but with gun shops).

So Democrats still need to care about those two states, at least in presidential terms. And maybe you can throw in North Carolina under the right circumstances. And at some point in the near future, you’ll be able to talk about Georgia as a state a Democrat can capture. And eventually, Texas, too.

But that’s presidential politics. At the congressional level, and from there on down, the Democrats should just forget about the place. They should make no effort, except under extraordinary circumstances, to field competitive candidates. The national committees shouldn’t spend a red cent down there. This means every Senate seat will be Republican, and 80 percent of the House seats will be, too. The Democrats will retain their hold on the majority-black districts, and they’ll occasionally be competitive in a small number of other districts in cities and college towns. But they’re not going win Southern seats (I include here with some sadness my native West Virginia, which was not a Southern state when I was growing up but culturally is one now). And they shouldn’t try.

My friend the political scientist Tom Schaller said all this back in 2008, in his book Whistling Past Dixie. I didn’t want to agree with Schaller then, but now I throw in the towel. He was a man ahead of his time. Look west, Schaller advised the Democrats."  [Source] 

You could argue, of course, that this is all about the democrats choosing to support the black guy to become president. But I saw this trend long before Barack Obama came on the scene.


Nope, this is about white Southerners choosing sides. A form of political segregation if you will. If those Niggers are voting for the liberal democratic guy it can't be good for me.

The article continues:

"But it’s not just a question of numbers. The main point is this: Trying to win Southern seats is not worth the ideological cost for Democrats. As Memphis Rep. Steve Cohen recently told my colleague Ben Jacobs, the Democratic Party cannot (and I’d say should not) try to calibrate its positions to placate Southern mores: “It’s come to pass, and really a lot of white Southerners vote on gays and guns and God, and we’re not going to ever be too good on gays and guns and God.”

Cohen thinks maybe some economic populism could work, and that could be true in limited circumstances. But I think even that is out the window now."

It's all out "the window now". Maybe the author is on to something. Secession could be next.

I wonder what they will call their new country. I bet they won't give me a passport.

Sadly, I will need one. My in- laws live in Louisiana for crying out loud.  

*Pic from theatlantic.com

Another black eye for the boys in blue.

Here comes another story of a police officer behaving badly without having to answer for his actions.


This one comes to us from the state of Washington, where officer Adley Shepherd, while trying to subdue a woman, used what most reasonable people would consider excessive force.






The officer is black and the subject of his beatdown was also black, so some of the usual suspects will be MIA with this story as it did not have the proper racial ingredients to make a grievance gumbo.






But it should make no difference. The actions of this officer, whether black, white, brown, or purple was wrong; and we can't allow police officers of any race-- or color--- to abuse their authority.






"Officer Shepherd reacted instantaneously to the kick by the suspect, who was wearing boots, with one punch to the suspect’s head which caused a fracture of an orbital socket,” the prosecutor’s office said. “While officer Shepherd may have had other options or alternatives, we have concluded that we would be unable to prove that officer Shepherd’s use of force was criminal”


The U.S. Attorney’s office will now pursue a civil rights investigation. However civil rights charges must meet a higher standard to warrant charges. Shephard could still face departmental discipline, up to being fired." [Source]


We will see what happens to officer  Shepherd in the future, but right now he is chilling on paid leave, while Miyekko Durden-Bosley (in pic) might never see out of her eyes the same way again.

Finally, a big shout out to fellow yawdie, Alia Atkinson, for showing the world that Jamaicans are fast in the water as well as on the track, and for becoming the first woman of color to win a world swimming title.

That look on her face says it all.

That was field Negro behavior on her part.




And they say that black folks can't swim.

CAPTION SATURDAY.

Who is the real "scumbag"?

I loved Kenny Smith's eloquent open letter to his TNT colleague, Charles Barkley. Barkley needed a history lesson and a reality check. And, judging from the letter, Smith gave it to him.


Smith wondered why white Americans look to Barkley's insights on matters of race when he is not a civil rights leader or a politician.


It's simple. Barkley is a buffoon who tells white folks what they want to hear. Chuck, they are laughing at you not with you. He says outrageous things and slams his own race under the guise of being brave and not being afraid to speak his mind.


Well sadly, there is nothing courageous about it, because it is the easier and safer position to take.


Barkley called the looters in Ferguson "scumbags", and he admonished them for rioting and breaking the law.


This from a guy who spit on a little girl, lost over 10 million dollars due to a gambling problem, threw a patron through a bar window, and he was also busted for DUI while cruising for sex with a prostitute.There is more of course, but my hands will get tired of all the writing I would have to do. And yet Chuck calls the looters in Ferguson "scumbags". Wow! Pot meet kettle.


Meanwhile, in Dayton, Ohio, some of Barkley's buddies in law enforcement were caught doing something really despicable.


"The world isn’t fully convinced that there needs to be retroactive thought process on who we allow to police our citizens, look no further than the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department in Dayton, OH.Not too far from where 12-year-old Tamir Rice was gunned down, five Ohio deputies of the force are being probed for some serious racially charged text messages, said to be made while on duty.

In a statement on Tuesday, Sheriff Phil Plummer said that two of the five deputies — Sheriff’s Capt. Thomas J. Flanders and Detective Michael J. Sollenberger — had been placed on indefinite paid administrative leave starting on Dec. 1. According to WDTN, Flanders is in charge of the Montgomery County Jail, and Sollenberger works with the internal affairs unit and is a member of the SWAT team. The three other deputies had not been identified by name, and had not been suspended. Sheriff Plummer said that the deputies sent racial messages on their personal phones between November 2011 and January 2013.

Some messages were sent while the men were on duty, and some messages were directed at African-American deputies, he said. “The N-word was used several times as well as other racial slurs and jokes,” Plummer noted. “Racism will not be tolerated in this office" [Source]

OK then Sheriff. If you say so.


Then there is the troubling development in the Tamir Rice story.


No, not that that the cops repeatedly lied until they found out that there was a video tape of the shooting, but the revelation that the rookie policeman who shot the child in that park was unfit to be a police officer.


“Due to this dangerous loss of composure during live range training and his inability to manage this personal stress, I do not believe Ptl Loehmann shows the maturity needed to work in our employment,” Polak concludes. “For these reasons, I am recommending he be released from the employment of the city of Independence. I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct these deficiencies.”


If only the city of Cleveland had done their due diligence like they did in the city of Independence, Tamir Rice might still be alive today.

Lennon is dead, and so is Rumain.

It's not only Ferguson, Missouri and New York City. There is a lot of stuff going on with black men all over this country. "Post racial" my ass.


I blogged about Lennon Lacy back in October, I wondered then----- as I am wondering now--- why his case didn't get more national attention.


Maybe things will change now that America's former sweetheart, Katie Couric, has decided to do a report about young Mr. Lacy's death.


"While Ferguson, Mo., erupted after a grand jury failed to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of 18-year-old Michael Brown, another story was playing out some 900 miles away from the cameras — and the outrage.

On the morning of Aug. 29, Lennon Lacy, a 17-year-old African-American high school football player from Bladenboro, N.C., was found dead in the open field of a mobile home park, hanging from a swing set.

When Lennon’s mother, Claudia, arrived on the scene, she felt in her heart that he had not committed suicide. “When I looked at him I knew — I said — I said to myself — I said, ‘He didn't do this... He couldn't have.’"

Local police ruled it a suicide, and the autopsy report recorded the cause of death as “asphyxia due to hanging.” The autopsy report also noted that Lennon “had been depressed over the recent death of his uncle.” Lennon’s brother Pierre disputes that, asking, “How do you psychologically evaluate a dead person? He was just too happy for life.”

The Lacy family says the police rushed to rule Lennon’s death a suicide despite their many unanswered questions such as the shoes Lennon was found wearing – they were a size and a half too small.  They say all they want is a thorough investigation before any conclusions are reached.

The president of the North Carolina NAACP, the Rev. William Barber II, says, “The call was made so quick. And what concerns us about that is that if Lennon Lee Lacy was white and was found hanging in a … predominantly black trailer park that was known to have some drug involvement and other things, we just don't believe that it would have been this quick rush to say it was a suicide. It would have been a very, very, very intense investigation.”

The North Carolina NAACP hired an independent pathologist to examine the autopsy report – in the report, questions were raised about the way the body was handled and whether or not it was feasible for Lennon to hang himself from the swing set.

In light of the pathologist’s report, the NAACP requested that U.S. Attorney Thomas Walker of the Eastern District of North Carolina take over the case.

The Bladen County District Attorney’s office said in a statement, “While the investigation is ongoing, and no final determinations have been made, to date we have not received any evidence of criminal wrongdoing surrounding the death.”' [Video]


The local police ruled the death a suicide.


Young Mr. Lennon was dating a 31 year old white woman.


"Suicide"?  Ok then......


Finally, another day another unarmed black man killed by the police.


Sadly, this is becoming an epidemic.


I take you to Phoenix, Arizona.


"PHOENIX — The facts surrounding Rumain Brisbon's death — the ones that could be agreed upon as of Wednesday evening — follow a narrative familiar to a nation still reeling from the racially charged police incidents in Ferguson, Mo., New York City and elsewhere.


In Phoenix on Tuesday evening, a white police officer who was feeling threatened used lethal force on an unarmed black man. The incident left the officer unharmed and Brisbon, 34, dead with two bullet wounds in his torso at a north Phoenix apartment complex.


Phoenix police quickly released a detailed account of the killing for the media on Wednesday morning in what officials said was an effort to promote transparency, especially in light of the unrest that has played out in Ferguson and New York City following the deaths of unarmed Black men at the hands of White officers. But portions of that account have already been challenged by some witnesses and community activists who say that the officer's use of force was excessive and that Brisbon's death was unwarranted.


Shortly before 6 p.m. on Tuesday, officers were in the area
of Interstate 17 and Greenway Road for a burglary investigation when a resident of an apartment complex told them that men inside a black Cadillac SUV were engaged in a drug deal, said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman.


Police checked the license plate that the tipster provided and found it was registered to a resident in the 15,400 block of North 25th Avenue, where there was also a pending report of a "loud music disturbance."


The loud-music call was canceled, so the officer went to the SUV to ask questions of those inside, Crump said.


The officer said the driver, later identified as Brisbon, got out and appeared to be removing something from the rear of the SUV. The officer told Brisbon to show his hands, but Brisbon stuffed his hands into his waistband, Crump said.
The officer drew his weapon and Brisbon ran toward nearby apartments, Crump said. A short foot chase ensued.


"Witnesses indicated to us that the suspect was verbally challenging to the officer," Crump said.Brisbon refused to comply with the officer's commands to get on the ground, and the two struggled once the officer caught up with him, Crump said.


"During the struggle, Brisbon put his left hand in his pocket and the officer grabbed onto the suspect's hand, while repeatedly telling the suspect to keep his hand in his pocket," he said. "The officer believed he felt the handle of a gun while holding the suspect's hand in his pocket."

A woman inside an apartment opened a door at that moment, and the officer and Brisbon tumbled inside, Crump said. Two children, ages 9 and 2, were in a back bedroom, he said.


The officer could no longer keep a grip on Brisbon's hand and, because he feared that the suspect had a gun in his pocket, fired two shots, Crump said.
The item in Brisbon's pocket turned out to be a bottle of oxycodone pills, he said.


Crump said the officers are aware of the delicate nature of the case and are asking the community to allow investigators to gather all the facts." [Source]


There is nothing too "delicate" about it Mr. Crump. A man is dead because a police officer who should be properly trained to handle these types of situations panicked and let his "color arousal issues kick in.


This is the new normal in America.


I guess this is one way to take care of the prison overcrowding problem. Just kill the perp before he goes to trial.








         

"I can't breathe".

Those were Eric Garner's last words.


I wonder how many of the  right- wing nuts and their apologists (I see you Charles Barkley) will say that Eric Garner was a "thug" as they did with Michael Brown.


My man was selling cigarettes and trying to get his hustle on to feed his family and he ended up dead.


I am curious as to what good body cameras on police officers will do when we all watched Eric Garner being choked to death by an overzealous police officer in live and living color. (Pun intended.)


Although I suppose that if the event was not filmed we would be hearing, as we did with Darren Wilson, that this evil terrifying black monster had to be taken down before he killed all the police officers at the scene.


Now, understandably, black folks and people of conscience are upset at this latest instance of injustice in these divided states of America. I mean isn't it ironic that the man who filmed the killing of Eric Garner was indicted but his actual killer was not?


On the other side of the divide are people like the United States congressman who declared that Mr. Garner caused his own death because he is "obese." This kind of reaction is typical of certain people here in America. It's never the fault of the police officer when it involves a black defendant. Because, well, we know how those blacks are. Even when they are being killed by police officers who are unfit to do their jobs.


"Earlier, Garner’s visibly upset stepfather, Benjamin Carr, said the grand jury decision “don’t make no sense.”


“'I mean, I don't understand it,' he said. 'They lock a man up for a damn dog fight. They don't lock this son-of-a-bitch up for killing somebody.”'


Well Mr. Carr, one is a black man and the other is a dog. If you understand the pecking order of lives in America it makes a lot of sense.














 










 


 

It's not only in Ferguson.

I wanted to take a night off from blogging about Ferguson, but it's hard when I see stories popping up all over the place that keep reminding me about the state of law enforcement and underserved communities all over the country.


Whether you choose to believe Dr. Michael Eric Dyson or Bill O'Lie-ly, there is no denying that there is a perception that policemen are out of control all over the country. And the more you read stories like this one, the more you realize that those perceptions are grounded in reality.


I will start in Milwaukee, where the autopsy was just made public in the Dontre Hamilton case.


"The white Milwaukee cop who killed a mentally ill black man shot at the victim’s back from above him, an autopsy indicated.


Officer Christopher Manney fired 14 bullets at Dontre Hamilton, but no gunpowder residue was found near Hamilton's wounds. That means the two men were not close to each other, said Hamilton family attorney Jon Safran.
The autopsy, released Monday, also showed Hamilton had no drugs in his system when he died on April 30.


A prosecutor has yet to decide whether to file charges against Manney." [Source]


Officer Manney, like Officer Wilson, will not be charged. He was doing what he was charged to do, and the citizens of Milwaukee are grateful for his service.


The citizens of New York City are waiting to see if the police officer who caused the death of Eric Garner will be indicted by a grand jury.


We will see if Officer Daniel Pantaleo hits the kill- a- Negro jackpot like Darren Wilson did.


"Trust your eyes.


That was the message from Eric Garner’s son to the Staten Island grand jury, which sources said could decide as early as Wednesday whether to indict the NYPD officer who killed his dad with a chokehold.


“I'd tell them to go to the video and see what the officer did, and believe that what he did was a crime,” 18-year-old Eric Snipes told the Daily News. “I want him to get indicted.”


But Staten Island won’t burn like Ferguson if that doesn’t happen, he said.


“It’s not going to be a Ferguson-like protest because I think everybody knows my father wasn’t a violent man and they’re going to respect his memory by remaining peaceful,” Snipes said. “It’s not going to be like it was there.”


Wrong Eric, it could be exactly "like it was there".






  

Profiles in courage and cowardice.

Some of you reading this are old enough to remember the heroic actions of Tommie Smith and John Carlos during the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. What they did took big ones. Athletes back then were not afraid to take a stance on social issues and stand up for what is right. Names like Arthur Ashe, Jim Brown, and Muhammad Ali comes to mind.


And while we are at it, let's not forget the actions of white Australian runner, Peter Norman, who got the silver medal that day and supported his fellow athletes with their struggle.


So we fast forward to 2014 and the latest racial dilemma here in America.


Several players from the St. Louis Rams did something that was very courageous yesterday, and they deserve all the credit in the world for risking their popularity and endorsements to make a social statement for all of America to see. (Gotta love wide receivers.)  


I am glad to see that the NFL will not do something stupid like punish them for their actions. This, in spite of calls from the St. Louis Police Officer's Association for them to apologize. (BTW, there is a white police officers association and a black one in St. Louis.) 


"The SLPOA is calling for the players involved to be disciplined and for the Rams and the NFL to deliver a very public apology. Roorda said he planned to speak to the NFL and the Rams to voice his organization's displeasure tomorrow. He also plans to reach out to other police organizations in St. Louis and around the country to enlist their input on what the appropriate response from law enforcement should be. Roorda warned, "I know that there are those that will say that these players are simply exercising their First Amendment rights. Well I've got news for people who think that way, cops have first amendment rights too, and we plan to exercise ours. I'd remind the NFL and their players that it is not the violent thugs burning down buildings that buy their advertiser's products. It's cops and the good people of St. Louis and other NFL towns that do. Somebody needs to throw a flag on this play. If it's not the NFL and the Rams, then it'll be cops and their supporters."'


So don't go to their games or buy their jerseys, Mr. Roorda. That's how you and the members of your organization can protest what the players did. Not by trying to censor them or punishing them for exercising their right to speak.


And speaking of having the right to speak, maybe that's not such a good idea for coons like Charles Barkley. This dude has been jigging since he came to Philly from Alabama and started chasing unattractive white women in the clubs around town. He actually messed around and married one of them. (Sorry Chuck, I had to put you out there.)


So anyway, he felt it necessary to weigh in on the events of Ferguson, recently.


"Shortly after the Ferguson grand jury decision was announced last week, Charles Barkley went on Philadelphia’s 97.5 Fanatic radio station with host Mike Missanelli, where he shared his reaction to the decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of Michael Brown. And just as he has done in the past, the NBA all-star did not censor himself.


“The true story came out from the grand jury testimony,” Barkley said, indicating that he believes Wilson’s version of the events and that the shooting was ultimately justified. “We have to be really careful with the cops man, because if it wasn’t for the cops we would be living in the Wild, Wild West in our neighborhoods,” he continued. “We can’t pick out certain incidentals that don’t go our way and act like the cops are all bad.”


“Do you know how bad some of these neighborhoods would be if it wasn’t for the cops?” Barkley asked.


“I can’t believe anything I hear on television anymore,” Barkley said later. “That’s why I don’t like talking about race issues with the media, because they love this stuff.”


“They don’t jump to conclusions when black people kill each other,” he added. Echoing some prominent conservative pundits, Barkley noted that the media doesn’t go “crazy” over the “epidemic” of black-on-black crime. [Source]


Yawn, the black on black crime meme again.


I expect this straw man to appear when wingnuts talk about police brutality, but not from someone like Barkley who should know better.


But, then again, we are talking about Charles.


“There is no excuse for those people to be out there burning down people’s businesses, burning up police cars,” Barkley concluded. “That serves no purpose whatsoever.”'

Of course there is no excuse to be "burning down "businesses", but..... I can understand it.


Charles, you would be able to understand too if you didn't spend so much time locked away in the house.


I understand that you are afraid of losing all the corporate love you built up over all these years. It has been good to you. But remember, all the money in the world can't cover up cowardice.