Artur Davis only black member of Congress to oppose health care

Sad, but true!!!!

This is one "Democrat" I don't mind to see suffer defeat in November. Talk about voting against the interests of his community and what's worst, he is a self-hating bigot.

From what I understand this was a strategic move. Davis is running for Gov. of Alabama and didn't want to ruin his chances of becoming elected because of health reform. The votes needed for passage of the bill had already been accounted without Davis' vote. The thought is the Alabama conservatives can't use this paticular vote against Davis. So before everyone goes off on the deep end there was a reason .... may not have been a good one but judge for yourself.

Do you have any idea how much courage it takes to vote no on this issue as a Black man? This is the kind of person I want in the New Black Leadership. We need some new Blood and new energy in setting the Black Agenda. Tavis and the Rev should be giving him a call. I got tickets to the Dean vs. Rove Debate.

Cecil, the kind of person you want to see in the "New Black Leadership" is someone who voted against his constituency SOLELY for the purpose of making himself more acceptable to Alabama voters?

That seems in stark contrast to your view that Obama ignores his black constituency in order to make himself more likeable to whites and others. Now we have Artur doing the same for political reasons and this is your leader?

Flip-flopper or hypocrite. Either one works.

Artur is a disappointment.

@ Trinity and Cecil: "vis--the black conservative Democrat from Birmingham, Alabama who boasts an abysmal 45 percent Human Rights Campaign score--was elected on a campaign pledge to "improve health care" in his overwhelmingly black, low-income and un-insured west Alabama district. " "Davis' majority black congressional district in Alabama is one of the poorest in the country, boasts the state's highest HIV/AIDS rates and is the epicenter of the state's syphilis, gonorrhea and chlamydia epidemic, "among the highest in the country", reports WKRG."' So his district is very poor, mostly uninsured and has the state's highest HIV rate? And you all think its OKAY that he votes against helping them solely to look better to white folks? Is it also okay that he flipped his vote on hate crimes, just to look better to white voters, too? And condones legal discrimination against gays? Davis is a snake and stabs black folks in the back just like Harold Ford did. You all are shameless

Cecil Jones: He doesn't need to have courage to do it, he just need to be unsympathetic to other people's pain, a political opportunist, and religious to vote for hate. We don't need hate in the Black Leadership.

Cecil, wtf? This man is suppose to help the people in his district, right? Opposing health care reform is not the way to do it. I don't care if he is running for Gov or not; he is to govern for his district and he did not with his no vote. Travis Smiley isn't the leader of no one but his sponsors if not that.

Cecilooneytunia,

Being that you're married to a caucasian woman it's obvious to see your idiotic logic. But it's also sad.Davis wants to be gov of Alabama if I'm not mistaken and he is playing to the Tea Party southern whites who don't care about him to get their vote

He's a BIG FAIL and you're a BIG FAILURE

Good point midwest: The anti-migration and right-wing political spoof needs elimination.

The four requirements to be a ‘Black Person’ - We define the ethnic identity term “Black” as (1) people of African heritage, (2) who have knowledge of their rich history, (3) aspire to enhance the station of our community, and (4) aspire to personal excellence. Davis fails to meet the definition of a Black Man, as regards least one of the preceding criteria. He suffers the same failure regarding his assessment as a leader. Unfortunately, there are many among us who are perpetrating or faking the funk on the question of Blackness. Remember, you get the negro for free; you have to earn your Blackness!

Dear Cecil and Trinity, if Congressman Davis has to stoop this low and ignore the needs of his district then he does not need to be governor. Further, how do we know that once this guy becomes Governor he will not try to undermine the healthcare or any other piece of progressive legislation aimed at helping the poor, working class or African Americans. Hell he may as well be a Republican!! It is so insulting. And Mr. Davis is so selfish. I hope this bits him in his ASSpirations and lead to his defeat at the polls when the state primary rolls around!!

@ Leonard in Norfolk and Dalton For the record I am not in agreement with Mr. Davis I was just merely communicating information that I had. I totally disagree that he voted against the bill...so like I said before don't go off the deep end. Take into consideration there may be a bigger picture and WE on these blogs don't have all the facts or answers ... just opinions.

Davis and Ford seem to be twins separated at birth, but fear not for their futures. As Vice President Arnold was welcomed in Canada after his betrayal, so Fox and King Rupert or MSNBC and King Joe (as in Morning Joe) will welcome them warmly as fine examples of the New Negro. They will never starve. Clarence Thomas is their ideal and they will get over.

Trinity in this age of information we have all the fact. Fact is this guy voted against healthcare as a strategic move to win white votes in Alabama. He has sold his folks down the river and will continue to do so throughout his politcal career.

Dear Trinity: What information did we miss or were not privy too. Davis was given a pass by the House leadership not to vote for the bill and he choose it because he did not want anger whites he is trying to court leading up the primary vote. That is politics 101. Even a Republican can figure that one out!! Davis's goal is just as clear as the GOP's effort to ruin Mr. Obama's agenda and make him a one term president. One question which has always been shrouded in mystery is "what is a Black Conservative?" What period of American history and culture do they want to conserve?

Well, he has a right to vote anyway he wants on a bill, but, if he thinks that the white GOP folks who are the majority of voters in Alabama are going to vote for him as the new governor based on this vote, the Sahara desert will be lush and green by years end. Good luck to Ron Sparks on his bid to be govenor!

@Leonard in Norfolk and Karen .. I am not disagreeing at all. I don't pretend to know all the facts of what Davis'strategy is/was ....again just merely passing on information in order to have an intelligent conversation/debate.

I wonder how Davis will feel when he finds himself on the wrong side of history. Now that it's the law of the land, what does he propose to do, join in the ill-advised effort to repeal it? I seriously doubt that his vote will make much difference in whether he wins or not. I know that if I were one of his constituents in Alabama, I would not even vote for him as a dog catcher.

@Cecil, you scare me! Your logic might be funny if Chris Rock said it but you said and that makes it sad, unsympathetic and evil!

I had no idea so many people would be upset by the fact that I said, "It takes real courage to vote against this as a Black man." Harry Reid is my Senator and he voted "No" twice and "Yes" twice. Can we agree this bill has the power to divide us because Obama "Blew it." The opposition was told to "Put up or Shut up" and they put up some good ideas. Obama could have taken everything good offered by the GOP and passed whatever he wanted after the debate was open to new ideas. What scares me and I'm sure it scares Rep. Davis too is "The Unintended Consequences" of this bill. Voting No took great courage and that's all I said. Nothing "Looney Tunes" about telling the truth. Some "Black People" in here can't handle the truth. Attacking my wife is just racist and stoopid. She proved she loves us and throwing that love away would be wrong.

Now, now, just because he looks Black doen't mean he was raise to be Black. There are alot of Clarence Thomas's in the political arena, court houses, police stations, hospitals, businesses and just plain old walking down the street. At least you know,and I wonder how his Mother feels knowing this about someone she raise to be proud of who they are? "another one bites the dust!" Oh BTW Cecil anything the GOP offers has a catch 22 with it. Trojan horse ring a bell?

This is not too surprising. He is so cozy with the special interest groups that he couldn't vote any other way....disappointing but he has a right to his own agenda.

Just like he is showing that he is a coward in the Congress, I wouldn't be too cowardly to organize my community to get him out either. He's only in for 2 years if he's in the House. Which he is not in the Senate. There's only one black man in the Senate and that's Sen. Roland Burris D-IL. Get this guy out. Plain and simple. Help him find the darn door!!

SEND HIM BACK TO PRIVATE LIFE!

He ran in the Democratic primary for Alabama governor, and lost to a white opponent who supported health care reform, whereas he didn't. Good riddance to bad rubbish, is what I say. He deserved to lose.

To end my commentary on the courage of Artur Davis, I look back to the same courage of Cynthia McKinney. She raised heck about this government and she lost her seat and some credibility. Cynthia was right and lost. Cynthia was last seen floating on a boat in opposition to Israel's blockade of Gaza. Being right can be a lonely place for a while, but eventually the entire world will come to see who was right and wrong and if the had the courage to stand in the wake of all the hate and chaos. I love Cynthia. I respect Congressman Davis for his leadership in the wake of blind loyalty. Obama is wrong, but so few in the Black Community have the courage to stand up to him. Let's see who is right when the truth comes out? I'm not in the GOP and the only Trojans I use are Magnums.

It is my understanding that not one major Black Alabama organization supported his run for governor. This is one case were the voters know best.

If helping his people means keeping them beholden to the government and totally dependent on government then he voted wrong. However, if his intent to to encourage self dependents and pride then he voted correctly. What I see happening to the less fortunate is that the actions of government giving them more and more is making them slaves to the government and thus continuing to back the government and vote for whatever the government says. I ask, is this called freedom? America is a land of opportunity, I worked in the fields, I jumped in to clean out sewer systems, I washed pots and pans, I made beds and swept floor, I cleaned toilets, I'm white and I did this and saved as many pennies as I could so that I could go to college. I did good, took one heck of a long time, but even now my net income does not equal what many on welfare get, but that's OK. I'm happy with what I am doing and will never allow myself to be enslaved by government. So many seem so eager to get the free stuff from government, to price for this is not worth the freedoms taken away. I ask anyone who reads to to ask themselves this question, "How has you life improved since Obama was elected?" Not many of can say it is better unfortunately.

He deserved to lose, and I'm sick and tired of hearing that when the government tries to help people who otherwise couldn't get health insurance they are making slaves of people. One of the excuses for that kind of attitude is being aagainst big government. The problem with that stance is that the arguments against "big government" are inconsistent. A lot of people against big government seem to have no trouble with the wars that are bleeding this economy. And now that the oil spill has occurred, a lot of people are singing a different tune. They want the government to help them out. There was nothing brave or noble about the stand Davis took. He was trying to ingratiate himself with people who don't even give a rat's behind about him, and would have voted for his Republican opponent for governor if he had won.

Keep the faith Cecil Jones and BCorp. The healthcare bill was a bad idea no matter what color you are or how much money you make. It's got nothing to do with becoming a slave. It has everything to do with market efficiencies and local decision making vs centralized, out-of-touch, inefficient bureaucracy. Here are three incremental changes we can make that would make health insurance more affordable and accessible to everyone by putting free market forces to work: 1) Remove state boundary restrictions and let people shop for their own insurance policies anywhere in the country. This would expand the market, increase supply, increase choice and competition, and expand the pool of insured which enables insurers to reduce premiums. 2) Enact tort reform to make it tougher to file meretricious malpractice suits. This would increase the supply of providers and reduce the costs of providing care. Those cost savings could be passed to consumers. 3) Provide indigent families with vouchers - analogous to food stamps - that they can use to purchase their own insurance policies. Nobody really knows how many people in the US lack health insurance, but the number used most frequently around Washington is the census bureau’s 40 to 45 million. In his state of the union speech, president Obama said “over 30 million”. So call it 45 million to be safe. Of those, many are not US citizens, many are young people recently out of school who have not yet entered the workforce, some are people between jobs, and some have enough money to afford to pay medical bills themselves. Therefore, the number of uninsured who should be considered is probably about half that, to be safe, call it 25 million. A household of course can consist of many different configurations, for example, one elderly widow, a single mother with children, or a working couple below the poverty line. Each household has its own health insurance needs to be covered by its own insurance policy with its own premium. To be safe, call it 2.5 people per household, or about 10 million households. If we were to implement a system similar to foodstamps in which qualified households were issued vouchers to buy health insurance policies, we would simultaneously cover the uninsured and keep the purchase decision where it belongs - with the consumer. If 10 million households get vouchers at an average cost of $8000 each, the total annual cost of covering the uninsured would be $80 billion, which is an order of magnitude less than the $830 billion the CBO estimates the healthcare bill will cost. This system of “healthstamps” would not only cover the uninsured, it would also help eliminate a cost driver – uninsured people getting free care in emergency rooms.

Davis is only one of the most recent politicians to align himself against something that is meant to help level the playing field for millions of Americans. In the past, there were others like him who opposed civil rights, women's rights, and the rights of working people. If they had had their way, we would still be dealing with things like child labor, holding women back from fulfilling careers that showcase their talents, and with Jim Crow which illustrated the most egregious aspects of anti-black racism. He went down to defeat, as he so richly deserved, because he chose to ignore the people whose interests he was elected to serve. He chose instead to try ingratiating himself to people who couldn't care less about him and would have looked for any reason to oppose him. It's called reaping what he has sown.

Reality check....no matter how he voted on the healthcare legislation....this dude has about as much chance of being elected Gov. of Alabama as I do....that is the reality of the situation.

After reading this information, I truly feel better about the political scene in Alabama: From a news source - Artur Davis, who spent $2.5 million on his campaign compared to Ron Sparks’ $1.8 million, was defeated so soundly that he announced that he is retiring from politics. “I have no interest in running for political office again,” Davis told the Birmingham News. “The voters spoke in a very decisive way across every sector and in every section of the state. A candidate that fails across-the-board like that obviously needs to find something else productive to do with his life.” ENOUGH SAID!!!!!

Took me moment in time to look at all of the comments, however I actually loved the commentary. It proved being actually cooperative to me with I am optimistic to every single one the commenters here! It’s in general kind whenever you be able to not just be informed, but in addition entertained! I am optimistic you had pleasing writing this write-up.

Awesome, I been looking for this information like from days. I been through lots of them to get my knowledge pool upgraded, well I must say, thi9s has really been awesome. Well I must say it will make my information really double. Good information like this is worth bookmarking and reading like 10 times! Thanks.

I like the valuable information you provide in your articles. I’ll bookmark your weblog and check again here regularly. I'm quite sure I’ll learn many new stuff right here! Good luck for the next!

And if you play computer online games, you may possibly also know her as Lt. Sandra Telfair from Command & Conquer three: Tiberium Wars. (I nevertheless play the "aged school" Command and Conquer...LOL)

Mario Kart 7 Family Fun For Everyone I was recommended this website by my cousin. I'm not sure whether this post is written by him as nobody else know such detailed about my difficulty. You're amazing! Thanks! your article about Mario Kart 7 Family Fun For EveryoneBest Regards Cassetta