The Farmer's Wife

Yesterday we noted the Andrew Breitbart story about Shirley Sherrod, who told an abruptly-edited story in which she seemed to be regaling an NAACP audience with a tale of discrimination against a white farmer.

Events are unfolding quickly - the NAACP promptly condemned her, the USDA demanded her resignation, and then an investigation commenced.  Yes, that seems out of sequence to me, too, but these are libs we are talking about.

Apparently the full tale (which began twenty-four years ago) is one of racial reconciliation.  Per Ms. Sherrod, the USDA was no interested in hearing her side, and the NAACP never contacted her (although they have since taken their initial statement off their website; 'down the memory hole' is almost like an apology with lefties.)

Andrew Sullivan finds an incomplete list of villains:

Breitbart's Skilled Editing

...The virulence of the far right and the cowardice of the elites is creating a chilled atmosphere.

To which I would add, where is the trust?  The right has been ranting about the New Black Panthers for a year and we finally saw stories in the WaPo and NY Times in the last two weeks, while the Administration cover-up continues.  Why should Breitbart, Fox or anyone else have expected Ms. Sherrod to lose her job in one day with no internal investigation at all?  This wouldn't have happened if we still had a Journolist!

This is more than the "cowardice" of the "elites".  This is an Administration and its media enablers that lie and conceal whenever they can and throw in their cards at the strangest times.  As to the "virulence" of the right - where is the evidence that asking politely gets any response at all?  For that matter, how often is screaming effective?

As to Breitbart's "skilled" editing - time will tell.  From the AJC:

The AJC is working to recover the full video footage of Sherrod's speech to the Douglas NAACP. A production company, DCTV3 in Douglas, recorded the event at the local NAACP chapter's request and is waiting for permission to release the full speech.

"We broadcast it on cable," DCTV3 program director Johnny Wilkerson said. "Somebody probably picked it up and recorded it, then put it on YouTube. That's probably why the video looks so shabby."

Breitbart may have run with what he was given and been the (presumably witting) dupe of someone else.  Or, he may have edited it skillfully; Andrew knows, but I don't.  [MORE:  Breitbart tells TPM "his source sent him just the edited clips at first, but is in the process of sending the full video."]

THAT DEPENDS ON WHO IS SCORING... David Kurtz at TPM has the most ludicrous spin yet:

Not Looking Good For Breitbart

Not looking good for Breitbart?  How is it looking for the USDA and the NAACP, which seem to have been stampeded into an absurd posture on the basis of no facts and no internal review?  [Kurtz admits the obvious, denouncing USDA Secretary Vilsack.]

As to who it does look good for, props again to the Anchoress.

SHIRLEY, WE HARDLY KNEW YE:  The Examiner wants to bring us up to speed on an old, tedious lawsuit in which Ms. Sherrod took home a windfall in a settlement with the USDA days before taking her job with the USDA.  That is a great catch - carry on.

REPORTS OF HER WIDOWHOOD WERE PREMATURE:  The initial AJC story, excerpted at my first post, included this passage:

Sherrod said the farmer, Roger Spooner of Iron City, Ga., has since died.

That has been edited away, but not before spawning some comedy gold at CNN:

HARRIS: Shirley, stay right there. I have someone who wants to speak to this whole controversy. Her name is Eloise Spooner. She is -- wow -- Roger Spooner's wife, widow at this point.

SHERROD: Yes.

HARRIS: Widow at this point.

SHERROD: Yes.

HARRIS: Eloise, thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

ELOISE SPOONER, ROGER SPOONER'S WIFE: OK.

...

HARRIS: What did your husband think -- your late husband, think of Shirley?

SPOONER: He's not dead. He's very much alive.

HARRIS: Really?

SPOONER: Yes, he is. He's 87 and he's on inn his Peterbilt truck this morning.

HARRIS: Then I apologize for that. I got incorrect information from one of the newspapers writing on this. I apologize for that.

SPOONER: OK. It's all right.

What does it mean?  Well, no brainlock for AllahP.

Comments

[Captain Hate]

Andrew Sullivan finds an incomplete list of villains:

Breitbart's Skilled Editing

Andi == bubu? That would explain a lot.

[Clarice]

How does it look for the NAACP which nodded in agreement at her admission of racism on the tape?

[Jeff]

I'm sorry but there is no "context" that those words are acceptable ... even if she finished up by saying that "later" she realized what she did was wrong ...
She told that story to "assure" the audience that she was "one of them" ... just another racist ...

[I Won]

Not looking good for Republicans.

[Danube of Thought]

No matter what she may have said after the Breitbart tape ended, the audience reaction up to that point is unambiguous and very telling.

But it's odd that she was talking about something that happened 24 years ago. What was her position at the time? Was she in the Reagan DoA?

[Janesquaredance]

So is Andrew Sullivan a jounolister?

[MaryD]

I can't help but think that Andrew Breitbart is way too smart to do the kind of editing he's being accused of. We shall see.

[Dave (in MA)]

I don't recall these jwhorenolister types being concerned about skilled editing in September of 2008.

[BB Key]

DoT
Read the Examiner article it gives great context and a back story to a much bigger issue that is currently pending in Congress

[BB Key]

April Ryan of Urban Radio asks Gibbs about the settlement every time he calls on her. The Democrats are trying to attach it to a bill that know will pass.

[inSTL]

A disturbing aspect of Sherrod's redemptive story is she still believes her job it to help the poor against the rich. She explains herself now as understanding it isn't a race issue, it is a wealth issue.

Great! This administration will help those regardless of race provided they don't consider them rich. That's some kind of equality.

[bgates]

On the same day that the tape comes out, she quits, but a day later her lifelong white friend surfaces to thank her for saving her family farm.

So why resign? Her job would have been safe. I mean, with all the layoffs you hear about, have you heard about anybody from the federal government losing their job? That's all I have to say.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

The DOJ and the USDA announced a joint settlement.

I do not know if there was any discrimination against these farmers on the basis of their skin color. However, Ms. Sherrod says that she was seeking USDA grants and loans to finance her growing of muscat grapes. Now, if you had to guess where 99% of USDA grants and loans go, would you think Muscat Grapes is in that 99% or eligible for the last 1%?

Secretary Vilsack still thinks Sherrod's USDA job was to create jobs in Georgia. Good grief.

[Gabriel Sutherland]

So why resign? Her job would have been safe. I mean, with all the layoffs you hear about, have you heard about anybody from the federal government losing their job?

CNN asked her this morning. Sherrod said she resigned because nobody in the administration would support her.

With fight like that, imagine the jobs that could be saved or created with her departure.

[Dave (in MA)]

Hi-Ho, the derry-o,
The rat takes the cheese.

[Ignatz]

If this is all there is to the story and this Spooner woman is credible then seems to me Breitbart made a fairly large mistake running with this, regardless of what Sherrod said or how the fools listening were nodding their heads.
Taking something out of the context it was presented in isn't any better when the right does it than when the left does.
How the Examiner angle about her substantial settlement right before her hiring shakes out remains to be seen.

The real scandal to me is that a low level bureaucrat in a third rate department as far down the food chain as Sherrod is, is still in charge of $114 billion in loans. How huge is this frickin government?

[verner]

Since Ms Sherrod has a part of 13 mil from the feds, I doubt she needs to work.

And if I were Chas Johnson et al, I'd be careful before I wrote Andrew B's obituary. Maybe it's just me, but she was mighty mean-spirited and strident in her description of the cracker farmer--even if it's a redemption tale, and she ends up "learning" something.

[Rob Crawford]

So is Andrew Sullivan a jounolister?

Do bears use Charmin?

[verner]

Do bears use Charmin?

Bad Rob Crawford. Bad boy!

[Rob Crawford]

If Breitbart was only given what he's run with, is that his problem?

Does it make it any better that she felt bad about her racism later? Does it make the reaction of the audience any better?

[Cecil Turner]

Sorry, I just don't see the "redemptive ending" theory as making this all okay. Sherrod admitted racial discrimination as a government official, which is illegal, right? The race-baiters at NAACP nodded approvingly. This is the same organization that can't find a problem with the NBPP and calls on the Tea Party to publicly disavow racism. At best, they've got an insurmountable hypocrisy problem. And her unwillingness to fight it tells me she knows it.

[lyle]

Ms. Sherrod doesn't happen to have a Yale law degree, does she?

[Janet]

Government employees have to take endless PC classes & then get quizzed on them yearly. Did she have to do that? Are appointments exempt from the crap they make everyone else do?

[Sue]

I do not care if Breitbart edited or not. Walk into any government building and tell me the attitude of this woman is not on full display. I'll give you a government office to walk into...the Dallas County Clerk's office. Make sure you have plenty of time on your hands when you go.

[matt]

apparently it is now coming out that Sherrod was forced out by the White House.

Soon we can ask "what did he know and when dod he know it?".

[Walter]

As I understand it, she was working at a non-profit at the time. Of course, the non-profit appears to have been a government subcontractor, so she was probably bound by some non-discrimination requirements.

[memomachine]

Hmmmm.

So instead of the NAACP being ruined under the bigoted racist leadership of Julian Bond ... the NAACP has *been* bigoted and racist all along.

Julian Bond wasn't the cause but merely a symptom.

Interesting.

[Janet]

The banquet she spoke at in the video was in July 2009 right? and she worked for the USDA?

[MarkO]

There was more than sufficient racism dripping from her words to a knowing audience. "Superior." "His own kind." [Now there's a dandy.]

Maybe, just maybe, all the attention on Obama's narrow little prejudiced world has the Administration on high alert. That would not be a bad thing.

[Janet]

It is about leftists living up to the standards they set for everyone else. Just like the Ft. Hood shooter giving those talks about Islam (not to compare Sherrod to him). It is shocking to hear the hate dripping from the leftists in public when others are afraid they will accidentally say some unPC thing.

[Bill in AZ sez it's time for Zero to resign]

heh - speaking of racism, here's a tweet by @RealSheriffJoe poking it with a stick

@RealSheriffJoe Tent City celebrates year 17!! It's gift will be a brand new section - Section 1070 – for anyone arrested on Arizona’s new immigration law.

[narciso the harpoon]

Meanwhile the Journolist players still try to create their own reality, as with this focus, in the LYN

[How to solve things]

Parts of the tape are definitely racist: not just "one of his own" and the rest, but also the audience. However, as I said on Althouse's site yesterday - before the AJC article - it wasn't clear whether she was going to say, "and that would be wrong". Obviously, such caution didn't meet with the approval of the barbar..., er, I mean 'partiers who now have made Althouse's site their home.

I've continually caught this site making various small mistakes that *help* the NYT whereas I try to *not* help them. And, the alternative to screaming isn't being meek, it's being smart: see my name's link.

I've been pushing that plan for almost three and a half years - since I tried to ask Obama something at one of his appearances - and I've gotten almost no help with it despite how effective it could be. In a way all of this is Darwinistic.

[narciso the harpoon]

Sorry wrong LUN, that was supposed to be Journolister Conason talking up some bogus
lawsuit against Hannah and what his name

[narciso the harpoon]

Really I've found you obsess on the birther issue, and you can't find anyone extreme enough for you on immigration, IMHO

[Ranger]

Wow, all this is really blowing up. NBC is running this and the New Black Panther story back to back. They are trying to build a 'much ado about nothing' narative, but I don't think that is the way it will play. The left has spent 40 years saying there are no mitigating factors when it comes to "racism" that turning around now and saying 'well, you have to understand the context' won't fly with people who have had the PC line shoved down their throats for years.

[Ranger]

Oh, and USDA is now saying they acted too soon in demanding her resignation and they should have waited. What a clown show.

[Pagar]

Are there actual people involved in the 06:13PM link? I haven't found a name anywhere.

[MarkO]

The NAACP (or the NCAA, or something) said Fox News snookered them. Drat. And to think that all along, the NAACP had the tape. That's snookering.

Reminded me of Snooky Lanson.

[Rob Crawford]

Are there actual people involved in the 06:13PM link? I haven't found a name anywhere.

That's lonewhacko, who crawls out of the woodwork whenever someone on the right makes a big enough splash in the media. His claim is that HE knows how to really, truly, effectively, Get Things Done.

Over at Althouse, he went on a little bender, declaring Breitbart "dumb", Tea Partiers "dumb", Glenn Reynolds "dumb" -- and yet, he has no impact on the news cycle. He's done nothing except bleat endlessly about how he really knows how to accomplish things -- while accomplishing nothing.

He's one of the sadder characters on the Internet.

[Rob Crawford]

I've been pushing that plan for almost three and a half years - since I tried to ask Obama something at one of his appearances - and I've gotten almost no help with it despite how effective it could be.

Here's the thing -- IF IT'S SO DAMNED EFFECTIVE, WHY HAVEN'T YOU HAD ANY EFFECT?!

[centralcal]

I think it is getting hysterical - per Ace, Beck and Krauthammer are sticking up for poor Mrs. Sherrod! Saying she should get her job back and be paid restitution.

Which side are the racists, again????

[Ranger]

Well, I may have misheard the news report. They may have been talking about the NAACP that is now saying they acted too fast. Well, if they did, they have only themselves to blame. Alinsky's rules, make them live up to their own standards. I seriously doubt they would have changed their view if the races had been reversed, even if the situation had been identical (unless person involved is a Democratic US Senator, then you get a pass for being a member of the clan).

[Janet]

She was appointed in July 2009. The video was made at a banquet in March 2010. LUN

The event she tells about happened in 1986.
"...approached Sherrod in 1986 -- when she worked with the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund"

I'm just clarifying for myself.

[Ranger]

Oh, and for those keeping track of the Blago story, big news today... chaos in the courtroom... Blago's defense team is split on letting him testify after his brother was destroyed on the stand under cross examination during his defense testemony. Court was recessed early so Blago could go home and think it over.

[Danube of Thought]

I feel sorry for this lady. I hope she gets here job back.

[Pofarmer]

"Her husband told her, ‘You're spending more time with the Spooners than you are with me,' " Spooner told the AJC. "She took probably two or three trips with us to Albany just to help us out."

Spooner spoke to her friend by phone Tuesday morning.

Sorry, I call bullshit on that story.

[Ranger]

I feel sorry for this lady. I hope she gets here job back.

Posted by: Danube of Thought | July 20, 2010 at 07:15 PM

I don't. She chose to get on the gravy train. When you ride the gravy train you have to play by the conductor's rules, and one of them is they can kick you off any time they want if you make riding the gravy train look bad.

[Rob Crawford]

I feel sorry for this lady. I hope she gets here job back.

Why? She's an admitted racist.

[bgates]

It's not too hard to imagine a sympathetic story out of which these segments were cut - a pretty typical 5-act sermon structured like this:
I. Discrimination is a sin;
II. There was a time when I was tempted to discriminate myself;
III. (the video)
IV. But on subsequent meetings with the farmer, I realized he was a man who was scared of losing what he had, just like the black farmers I had known
V. Once I overcame my own prejudice, I was able to help a fellow human being, and we lived happily ever after.

That's a common enough structure (I just heard a version of it myself Sunday) that within the first couple sentences, the audience will know what kind of story they're about to hear. That would explain the lack of shock, and even the head-nodding - "now she's at the part where she talks about her own experience with the common human failing. Yep, that's a flaw, alright. Yeah, I've had to fight off evil thoughts like that myself." They couldn't be surprised by a ritualistic confession of sin, if that's how it was presented. I don't know that it was, but it fits with the combination of the video and the farmer's wife's story.

[Jane]

Here is my conspiracy theory. The WH demanded her resignation because they didn't want anyone finding out about the billions of dollars they are spending on reparations to any black person who puts his hand out. And since she and her husband got more than most he had to get rid of her before anyone looked that far.

Now the libs are blaming her firing, which she said was insisted on by the WH on Fox news.

(Psst, I've got an idea, anytime the right brings up Obama's incompetence blame Fox news. It doesn't matter if they did anything, just make sure everyone blames them in unison. Over to you Chris.)

[Rob Crawford]

Hmmm... what we have gotten out of this is the NAACP setting a statute of limitations on racism:

Moreover, this incident and the lesson it prompted occurred more that 20 years before she went to work for USDA.

So, clearly, after 20 years we can let an act of racism slide.

[Clarice]

bgates, before the week is up you need to explain this to me our my entire column will be a question mark.

[LouP]

This WH just does not suddenly fire someone like we saw happen. There are far too many other examples where they dragged their feet until everyone forgot about it, or they were able to rationalize their position.

I smell a skunk in the woodpile in this whole story, and it's not Shirley Sherrod.

[Pagar]

"let an act of racism slide"

Rob, Thanks for your help on my earlier question, the insight you provided was helpful.

I think someone said Sen Byrd's acts were just a politician trying to get elected. So I guess acts of racism can slide as long as the Democrats think they are for a good cause.

[Rob Crawford]

They couldn't be surprised by a ritualistic confession of sin, if that's how it was presented. I don't know that it was, but it fits with the combination of the video and the farmer's wife's story.

So what?

She admits she slighted a man based on the color of his skin. If I were even accused of that, my career would be in danger. The accusation would follow me no matter what the final results.

If she was attempting to teach a lesson about the insidious nature of racism, then why not also serve as an object lesson in the penalties for being a racist?

[Rob Crawford]

bgates, before the week is up you need to explain this to me our my entire column will be a question mark.

Clarice, he's talking about the redemptive story -- "I sinned, this is my story, I was redeemed, you can be, too".

Unfortunately for that idea, the left tossed that idea out with their years of hounding Bush for being a "drunk". His history was a clear example of a redemptive story -- and I even saw multiple people pointing that out over the years -- yet the left harped on it as if it were an eternally disqualifying fact.

F' them. They've set the rules; it's their time to live up to them.

[centralcal]

Boy, the NAACP sure get "snookered" really easily by Fox News and Breitbart. I mean, AB and FNC snap their fingers, show a little video, and wham, bam - you're fired m'am!

It is gonna get really edgy the closer we get to election time.

[IrateNate]

caught dead to rights, and still they live in denial. Always amazing how libs attempt to discredit anything and everything which reveals truth, no matter how obvious.

If this cow Sherrod were not such a blatant racist, she would still be passing out taxpayer dollars to "her own kind" rather than deal with her inner turmoil of helping a white person...eeewwww.

[Extraneus]

My sentiments exactly, Rob.

So, can we find out just how much money has been doled out in reparations since Vilsack started to "reverse" the USDA's checkered past 18 months ago?

[Chicken....Road. Your duty is clear.]

Yeah, LouP, why would no one in the administration support her? Is racism suddenly radioactive, esp. with the Wright stuff cropping up again like roosters coming home to chicken out or something like that.
=============

[Rob Crawford]

Chicken....Road. Your duty is clear.

"Don't cross me," said the road to the chicken.

[bgates]

why not also serve as an object lesson in the penalties for being a racist?

For one, I don't believe for a second that the administration fired her because of their commitment to equal treatment under the law. (If anything, I'd bet they shrugged when they saw the excerpt, then canned her when the rest of the tape showed she went on to help the white guy.) For another, I don't want the only firing offense in government work to be an initial racist impulse followed by an apparent lifelong commitment to treating people equitably regardless of skin color.

If I were even accused of that, my career would be in danger.

Would it help if the man you had slighted came forward to say you were the best person ever?

[Bill Clinton]

Look it,

Shirley Sharrod didn't really believe all that stuff about the White Farmer acting "Superior", and that she didn't want to help him as much as a Black man because he was white. Or that he could go get better help from one of his "own kind." She just said all that stuff because she wanted to get appointed to the USDA and she wanted to be elected back to speak to the NAACP in the future. Why she is no more racist than that great American and former KKK Kleagle Robert Byrd.

[Rob Crawford]

Would it help if the man you had slighted came forward to say you were the best person ever?

In the modern age? In corporate America?

Not one bit.

[qrstuv]

She SMILED when she said she didn't help him as much as she could.

She says it "was revealed" to her that "it" -- presumably her job -- was about "the poor versus those who have," rather than being about "black versus white."

Watch it.

Listen to the responses of the NAACP members in the audience.

If she is not a racist, the word has lost all meaning.

[Ranger]

Would it help if the man you had slighted came forward to say you were the best person ever?

Posted by: bgates | July 20, 2010 at 08:14 PM

Ask the Federal Judge from the deep south that was tarred as a racist for giving a light sentence to a teenage kid who burned a cross into someone's yard. Even though he had the local NAACP leadership swearing up and down that he was the most racially sensitive guy in the world, the Dems in the Senate killed his elevetion to the Appellate Court under GWB because of he might have closet racist tendencies.

They set the standard for this, make them live by it themselves and see how they like it.

[flicka47]

"Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund"

There's more to it than this

In the 1980's apparently a group of (black?) farmers including the Sherrods had a co-op involving over 6,000 acres in Georgia. Gov.Maddox cut off the use of Federal funding from USDA(for whom & why,I haven't a clue.I would have to guess SOME Georgia folks were still getting the funding,or why the suit?) and in time they lost their property.

The original settlement was in the late 90s(?). This second settlement was for those not covered in the first.

Not to be rascist mind you,but how many white farmers have been included in either of these settlements?

That might explain why she got dropped like a bad blind date....

[JM Hanes]

Whether the tape was edited responsibly or not, Breitbart just delivered the NAACP a dose of their own medicine. Indeed, a cynically selective video more closely resembles the kind of cynically selective "reports" on which the NAACP based their own Tea Party attack. The consternation there must have been unprecedented. When have they ever had to deal with any remotely serious pushback before? They demanded that Tea Party leaders publicly excommunicate putative racists in their midst. -- and then suddenly found themselves stumbling over their own petard. It might have proved a salutary experience, had the focus not shifted back to Breitbart. I hope that doesn't end up derailing what's shaping up as a much larger story of corruption, but I'm not optimistic.

"She took probably two or three trips with us to Albany just to help us out."

I won't attempt to comment on the relevance of my own experience, but my ex and I spent big chunks of the year on a farm near Albany, Georgia in the 70's and 80's. It was the most openly, appallingly, racist area I have ever lived in. I refused even to consider raising my children there.

[Extraneus]

Does anyone wonder whether a higher percentage of whites or blacks are racists, even after the election of Barack Obama?

Bring on the evidence, I say. Why speculate? Let's determine the answer empirically.

(Supporters of AA don't count in this experiment. Although they're racists, too, I mean the other kind, like Shirly Sherrod, Minister [cough] King Samir Shabazz, etc.)

[Rob Crawford]

When have they ever had to deal with any remotely serious pushback before?

As an organization... from their beginning until relatively recently.

The individuals running it? Thirty, forty years?

[Ignatz]

--If Breitbart was only given what he's run with, is that his problem?--

It is if part of what he does is properly holding lefties to a high standard of journalism that he then won't match himself. He could have found this Spooner woman with a little effort and then he probably would have approached things much differently.
My concern at the moment isn't this Sherrod woman because we don't know yet what her entire role was. She appears to me to be a sympathetic character but who knows?
My concern is Breitbart unnecessarily painting a bullseye on himself and making himself less effective.

[Ignatz]

--Not to be rascist mind you,but how many white farmers have been included in either of these settlements?--

None, because the suits were about black farmers being denied USDA loans because they were black.
Whether or how many of the plaintiffs were actually discrminated against I don't enough about the issue to comment.

[Jane]

They set the standard for this, make them live by it themselves and see how they like it.

Yeah that worked so well with Robert Byrd. Democrats get redemption. Everyone else, not so much.

[Clarice]

ranger, that was Judge Pickering.

[Ranger]

Yeah that worked so well with Robert Byrd. Democrats get redemption. Everyone else, not so much.

Posted by: Jane | July 20, 2010 at 08:46 PM

Well, Brooks actually has a very timely warning for those who have been foisting this on us, and plan to keep on doing it (its not specificly about this situation, but it fits):

If the reforms fail — if they kick off devastating unintended consequences or saddle the country with a maze of sclerotic regulations — then the popular backlash will be ferocious. Large sectors of the population will feel as if they were subjected to a doomed experiment they did not consent to. They will feel as if their country has been hijacked by a self-serving professional class mostly interested in providing for themselves.

If that backlash gains strength, well, what’s the 21st-century version of the guillotine?

[Ranger]

ranger, that was Judge Pickering.

Posted by: Clarice | July 20, 2010 at 08:48 PM

Ah yes. I will feel sorry for this woman when the Dems decide to put him on the court he deserves to sit on. Until then, they have no grounds to complain what was just done was unfair.

[qrstuv]

I think the entire affair highlights why the Founders included both speech and press in the same Amendment.

I've heard talk of punishing these "journalists" for failing to be honest. I disagree entirely. This would be imposing a rule on "the press," which in its 18th century meaning refers to the printing press.

Freedom of the press means freedom to do what you like with your printing press, including renting it.

Restrictions on political ads are restrictions on renting one's press to others, which is clearly forbidden under the First Amendment.

Those who say that corporations cannot run certain types of ads in the media are in effect saying that the freedom of the press belongs only to those who own the press.

Back to speech--clearly the owners of the press can and do say what they like. Why not us too?

[Danube of Thought]

It's my understanding at this point that there was no WH involvement in the forced resignation. I don't believe I've heard anywhere that anyone above Vilsack was involved.

I'm wondering if Breitbart would have released that tape if he'd known a little more of the background. And I'm also wodering whether at this moment he's proud of what he's done.

[JM Hanes]

Rob C:

"As an organization... from their beginning until relatively recently. The individuals running it? Thirty, forty years?"

An embarrassing, unforced error on my part! If I ever run for office, that uncorrected lapse will surely come back to haunt me.

I was, indeed, stuck in the relatively recent past, leading up to the reprehensible anti-Bush campaign ad and the exploitation of James Byrd's daughter, along with the ascension of Julian Bond and the prominence of like minded travelers.

[qrstuv]

DoT,
I think it depends on what you think the story is.

I listened to the audience.

[Danube of Thought]

Hot Air has her whole 43-minute speech.

[Jane]

I don't believe I've heard anywhere that anyone above Vilsack was involved.

Sherrod said she got 3 calls from the WH.

The next chapter of journolist is coming out at midnite. Members including journalism professors were lobbying to have FOx license revoked so they didn't have to deal with it.

[narciso the harpoon]

Ah, Julian Bond, the original coiner of the "American Taliban," sorry Markos you're just a copy cat

[Jane]

Breitbart said it was never about Sherrod, it was about some administration person saying that the way to win the elections was to make sure everyone thought the tea party was racist, and he warned the NAACP if they did what Obama wanted, there would be hell to pay. He has had the tape since March.

[bgates]

The (almost) whole tape is up.

make them live by it themselves and see how they like it

By "them", do you mean Congressional Democrats, or Shirley Sherrod, Fred Barnes, or anybody else whose [sic] you think you can get through a plate-glass window?

[Clarice]

The Wh Was involved' it wasn't involved' She resigned; She was forced to resign; The decision was Vilsack's; the President endorsed it.

The NAACP was for her removal' It's now not for her removal.

My head is spinning.

[Clarice]

Oh, she's a racist; no she's just a Marxist; A Marxist who says blacks should all g to work for the USDA because they can't be fired.

[Jane]

Well according to her, I saw the tape, she got 3 calls from the WH - she identified the person and her position and on the third call, the person (Brenda something) told her the white house wanted her to pull over (she was driving) and resign.

Of course the WH is lying, They always do. I hope she fights back.

[daddy]

While the MSM rallies around trying to figure out how best to destroy Breitbart for that video, I hope JOMer's have been paying attention to the latest ">http://volokh.com/2010/07/19/chronicle-review-admits-bellesiless-story-is-false-blames-student-not-bellesiles/"> fraud perpetrated by 'not discredited enough' "Arming America" author and Professor Michael Bellesiles.
That link is Volokh, this one is ">http://althouse.blogspot.com/2010/07/chronicle-review-admits-bellesiless.html"> Anne Althouse.

Regardless where you read about, please read about it and lets give this scumbag the final boot out of respectable society he should have earned with his previous gross lies and bias.

[narciso the harpoon]

"They were for her removal, before they were against it" we know the drill

[Ranger]

I'm wondering if Breitbart would have released that tape if he'd known a little more of the background. And I'm also wodering whether at this moment he's proud of what he's done.

Posted by: Danube of Thought | July 20, 2010 at 09:09 PM

All Breitbart did was present a narative. He didn't fire her, or, as far as I know, call for her to be fired. He played the media, the NAACP, and the administration at their own game. The person who should be wondering if he is proud of all this is Obama and the NAACP, who are on such a PC hair trigger, that they will fire someone without even investigating the situation fully.

Breitbart's goal is to show how rotten the system is. In that, he has been very effective. The NAACP demanded that "racist elements" within the TEA party be purged based on lies about the TEA party. Breitbart simply showed the NAACP that they should look deeper before jumping to conclusion.

This may also be a rope-a-dope by him.

[Jane]

He came across like a hero on Hannity - completely unafraid.

[narciso the harpoon]

It's Bellesiles he created phony gunownership
registry to prove a point, at least Ellis only
made up part of his own life, not any relevant historical data

[Ranger]

An additional thought... If, as the NBC news tonight indicated, the debate over the next few days is going to become "is the Obama administration racist or not" even if the MSM always comes down on Obama's side, the fact that this is the current debate means that Obama has lost total control of the political dynamic this summer. Given that Obama in effect opened up this entire issue by deciding to wade into the Cambridge police incident, he has no one to blame but himself.

[Clarice]

There is a certain symmetry isn't there: The NAACP demanded the tea party be purged based on lies and then the NAACP demanded the someone in the WH Demanded Sherrod be purged based on a partial video which showed her making racist statements with NAACP approval but they only had half the story.
She's a marxist, not a racist.

There's another bit of good news--Obama wants federal employees to stay home and work from there and you know what that means. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/federal-eye/2010/07/obama_urges_federal_workers_to.html>go home and stay there

[daddy]

And ">http://www.nzherald.co.nz/religion-and-beliefs/news/article.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10659994"> these are the guys we want NASA to pat on the back for their great contributions to Science:

"For more than 200 million Muslims in Indonesia, Mecca just moved..."After a thorough study with some cosmography and astronomy experts, we learned they've been facing southern Somalia and Kenya," said Ma'ruf Amin, a senior MUI cleric."

[Clarice]

**the NAACP demanded and someone in the WH demanded **

[Clarice]

Holder(B.A.,J.D.Columbia) opened it up, too, ranger, demanding an open dialogue on race and then letting the Civil Rights division run roughshod over the notion of equal justice.

He has lost control over the race issue to his detriment. And he's lost control over the immigration debate which is also killing him.

[Ranger]

And the new mantra is "context matters!" Ok, fair enough, but that is what everyone supporting Judge Pickering said, and it didn't matter then, so why does it suddenly matter now. If the Dems really want to turn the corner on "context matters" then they should appoint Judge Pickering to the Appellate Court. Then I will believe them. Until then, they can live by the crappy rules they wrote.

Also remember that all this is playing out on the same day we have documented from the journo-list archives lefie pundits admitting to deliberately taking comments out of context to paint people on the right as racists.