Althouse: "For some reason, the stuff Fox and the Tea Party does is scaring the administration."

July 20, 2010

"For some reason, the stuff Fox and the Tea Party does is scaring the administration."

"I told them to get the whole tape and look at the whole tape and see how I tell people we have to get beyond race and work together."

Said Shirley Sherrod, from under the bus.

283 comments:

«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 283 of 283

Alex said...: It's so easy to sit back and just say Faux News, racist teabaggers.... then address the issues. Who the hell does the left think they're fooling?; 7/20/10, 5:31 PM
bagoh20 said...: One opinion that may be more universally present among both liberals and conservatives than any other is a desire for their side to produce a successful black President.

Conservatives would love a black conservative President more than just about anything else. I think they want one from their side much more than liberals did from theirs. It would accomplish more for conservatives.

But it is very important that such President be successful and post-racial. The libs blew their chance on both counts.; 7/20/10, 5:36 PM
Once written, twice... said...: And Fen you are just spouting your Fox News talking points which are filled with vicious lies. Many whites attended Rev. Wright's church.; 7/20/10, 5:37 PM
Paddy O said...: "so they try to make it about race every chance they get."

Fox News isn't the obvious example.

As we read lower down in this blog:

Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”

Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: “Listen folks–in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC..."

That's much more obvious, being that I found it just a few posts below this one.; 7/20/10, 5:38 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Jake:

Christ, Nixon's southern strategy! Did you get the talking points from Journolist 2.0?; 7/20/10, 5:39 PM
Paddy O said...: Fen, I think you're going to look great on Jake's Christmas card!; 7/20/10, 5:39 PM
Once written, twice... said...: Yes Paddy O, in Ann Althouse's world conservative white people are the most discriminated against people in the world. On that we agree.; 7/20/10, 5:43 PM
AllenS said...: Thanks for the kind words Mr. House. I visualize a world where me and you and garage go road hunting. If you know what I mean.; 7/20/10, 5:45 PM
Paddy O said...: Jake, no, no, no... clearly you are new here. In Althousia, men in shorts are the most discriminated against (discrimagainsted?) people in the world.

Followed closely by boring people.

She will let both types on her blog, but will judge them quietly yet conclusively.; 7/20/10, 5:47 PM
Fen said...: Jake: And Fen you are just spouting your Fox News talking points which are filled with vicious lies. Many whites attended Rev. Wright's church

Try again Libtard. I never said anything about black or white attendence at Obama's "church"

And, I see you're projecting by assuming that since your parroting Journolist talking points, but mine don't come from Fox. The quote is from Black Liberation theologian James Cone, Trinity booster and Obama champion:

Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.

Obama's church, but nothing to see here, move along...; 7/20/10, 5:47 PM
bagoh20 said...: Jake,

You're sounding trollish. This has been a tough summer for you, I'm sure, but get a grip. Fox News is the problem? One channel out of 100s on the dial, plus all the papers and left blogs coordinated through Jornolist-type corruption. Really you think it's just not fair for Fox to exist either? Very open minded.; 7/20/10, 5:49 PM
dbp said...: Jake said...

And Fen you are just spouting your Fox News talking points which are filled with vicious lies. Many whites attended Rev. Wright's church.

Any proof for this assertion? And by "many" what do you mean? 2-3 people or a whopping 10% of the congregation?

Further, what would it prove if there were a few whites? It is well known that there have been a few black Mormons while that church used to be (and possibly still is) racist. They believed that there were different levels of heaven for dark skinned people and that as you became more holy, you would lighten.; 7/20/10, 5:51 PM
bagoh20 said...: Jake this is gonna blow your mind, but THERE ARE BLACK CONSERVATIVES. Some have even been on FOX. I know, it freaked me out too.; 7/20/10, 5:55 PM
Fen said...: No, Jake and his kin dont count them as real black people.; 7/20/10, 5:59 PM
Big Mike said...: Big Mike, I am saying that there are some conservatives and conservative organizations (Fox News being an obvious one) who are not confident that they can beat Obama on the issues you identified so they try to make it about race every chance they get.

I am sure you believe what you just wrote, but ... It. Simply. Is. Not. True.; 7/20/10, 6:11 PM
Fen said...: Journolist: take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.

Is it live, or is it Memorex:

Jake: there are some conservatives and conservative organizations (Fox News being an obvious one) who... try to make it about race every chance they get.

Jake, you're such a tool.; 7/20/10, 6:12 PM
HT said...: OK, let's recap what has happened here. Sherrod gave a speech in which she described an instance, 24 years ago, where she was treating people differently due to their race. She goes on to say that she overcame those feelings, etc., etc.

Breitbart posts the heavily edited video, saying that she was describing events that happened recently while employed by the gov't, and only with the parts about treating people differently due to race.

Right James. When I tried to watch online, it always stops at a certain point. I don't think I am ever able to see the whole thing. I'd like to. When I first *read* about this, it seemed outrageously unfair to her. When I saw the video, I must say, she does seem a teensy weensy bit proud about not doing more. And I mean, who knows if what she did was just fine or really was lacking. Was she playing to the audience? If so, just gross.

At any rate, the point in my mind is - forget for now about the reaction of the members in the audience. Yes, it's ridiculous. But to my mind, was her firing fair, is the question. Even with a zero tolerance policy, was her firing fair?

There might be more to come out of course, which could change things for me.; 7/20/10, 6:21 PM
Once written, twice... said...: The above twenty posts demonstrates why thoughtful liberals do not post on Althouse.

There are no thoughtful conservatives to respond to.; 7/20/10, 6:23 PM
dbp said...: "The above twenty posts demonstrates why thoughtful liberals do not post on Althouse."

au contraire

All the posts on Althouse are written by a thoughtful liberal. Ann Althouse has never, to my recollection, allowed anyone else to post on her blog.; 7/20/10, 6:30 PM
GMay said...: 'Thoughtful liberals' being an oxymoron. Emphasis on moron.

(Man this schoolyard shit is easy); 7/20/10, 6:31 PM
Fen said...: Jake: The above twenty posts demonstrates why thoughtful liberals do not post on Althouse.

Jake, you DO know that you're parroting Lefty talking points, right? I assumed you were intelligent enough to at least have an awareness that you're peddling bullshit spin. I never imagined that you actually swallowed it.

Please tell me you're not that stupid.; 7/20/10, 6:35 PM
Once written, twice... said...: Thank you for proving my point GMay.; 7/20/10, 6:36 PM
Big Mike said...: And thank you for so ably proving Fen's point, Jake.; 7/20/10, 6:40 PM
dbp said...: Thank you for proving GMay's point Jake.; 7/20/10, 6:40 PM
dbp said...: Thank you for having a slightly faster brain and typing fingers than me Big Mike.; 7/20/10, 6:43 PM
Fen said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/20/10, 6:45 PM
Fen said...: Poor Jake. You insult our intelligence with your bullshit propaganda, then whine that you have been treated harshly.

Here we go Jake: I posted a quote from Black Liberation theologian James Cone, Trinity booster and Obama champion:

Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy.

Your "thoughtful" response was to ignore it and bash Fox News as race-mongerers.

So here's another chance for you to respond "thoughtfully":

1) Do you think its newsworthy that Obama's church pines for the destruction of the white race?

2) Do you at least agree that, in light of this, Obama's associations should have been examined more carefully by the Mainstream Media?

3) Does it bother you that Journolists conspired to censor this line of investigation, and colluded with their peers to prevent the Wright story from getting oxygen and potentially damaging their preferred candidate for POTUS?

Or will your "thoughtful" response be to sweep all this under the rug and spew more false accusations of racism?; 7/20/10, 6:47 PM
pst314 said...: "I personally think it is fair to assume that any person of color that has some lofty position that they got there to some degree riding affirmative action."

I hate to feed a troll, but it seems like a good idea to not let such racist comments go unanswered, lest liberals try to paint us as being okay with racism.

Tidy Racist, why don't you STFU? And if I dare speak on behalf of people far more talented than me, I think that Clarence Thomas, Thomas Sowell, and Lt. Col Allen West would tell you the same. Go crawl back under your rock before you really turn me into a person of choler. :-p; 7/20/10, 6:57 PM
David said...: Well, she's right.

And the NAACP too.

How bad do they look? Can't they admit error and apologize without blaming someone?; 7/20/10, 7:10 PM
Paddy O said...: "There are no thoughtful conservatives to respond to."

I think there absolutely are thoughtful conservatives and there absolutely are thoughtful liberals.

The trouble goes back to what Althouse noted before. So much of what political debate is about these days has little to do with thought or thoughtfulness. Indeed, for far, far too many it is not even about actual discussion.

Instead, conversation is a rhetorical battle, more about using cute tricks and playing verbal games.

When such people lose the dominant rhetorical position they show no grace or dignity or humor, but go on the attack. Because their goal never was actual dialogue. It is to score points to either further their political goals or, more sadly, to bolster their sense of self as an intelligent person.

It's more sad because confident, intelligent people really are interested in ideas and actual dialogue where people who hold differing beliefs can express themselves with interesting, often original, arguments for why they hold such a belief.

There are indeed people like that on both sides of the political divide here, and especially on different topics.

It is not, however, a happy place for rhetorical tiddlywinks, as boring talking-pointers from right or left tend to get their winks tiddlied rather quickly.; 7/20/10, 7:21 PM
Rich said...: OK, go and carefully watch and listen to the smoking-gun video that started this whole thing, here.

1. In the opening seconds the text appearing on the screen says in so many words that she admits to currently discriminating against people in her current USDA job:

"On March 27, 2010, while speaking at the NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet ... Ms. Sherrod admits that in her federally appointed position, overseeing a billion dollars ... She discriminates against people due to their race."

It's been pretty well proven, I think, that that's simply false. But we've heard that's not the point anyway, the point is the reaction of the crowd, laughing and applauding her remarks, showing the crowd's racism if not Ms. Sherrod's.

2. Except that doesn't work either. Watch and listen to the video, carefully. Starting at around 0:32, one person says "That's right, that's right" when Ms. Sherrod says the white farmer was trying to show he was superior to her. Then at around 0:40, she says "but he had to come to me for help," and a few people nod their heads and murmur something that I at least cannot make out. She gets a laugh from the crowd right around 0:50 with "while he was trying to show he was superior to me, I was deciding how much help I was going to give him." Might have been some race-based animus in that, but it's also possible it was a response to a more generic set-up of someone acting arrogant about to get his comeuppance.

And that's it. I honestly cannot find another instance of laughter, or head-nodding, or any other sort of agreement or approval, including when she says so many black people had lost their farm and here I was having to help a white man. Not a peep. Same with "I didn't give him the full force of what I could do," around 1:05. Not a peep.

I don't think the alternative explanation works either. Really -- where is the audience showing approval when she relates what she had done to the white farmer 24 years earlier? It ain't there.; 7/20/10, 7:32 PM
jayne_cobb said...: Just a heads up:

Jake is just a sock-puppet and has posted under about ten other names. For a list just check out the thread above this one (the one about Sullivan); 7/20/10, 7:43 PM
Trooper York said...: Where do you get off being all reasonable Paddy O?

You are just a big old poopyhead!!; 7/20/10, 7:51 PM
jayne_cobb said...: By the looks of it nobody is coming out of this smelling like a rose except, oddly enough, Glenn Beck.; 7/20/10, 7:54 PM
Penny said...: "Losing control of accounts is scaring the administration.

The new media aren't playing to soap opera audiences; they are not really a business."

True rh, but they're a damn good business model..."which nobody can deny". Right, jolly good fellow!

Don't most of us believe that money FOLLOWS value?

It's the REALLY old, American way!

Hopefully conservatives won't mind that liberals started this new-fangled "model" during the Bush administration?

What? You say it didn't begin that way? But..but I thought you said it did? You remember..."Give as good as you got"?

Those liberals were BRUTAL to Bush. And so this "business model" began.

Not your mama, but if she were here? She just might remind you to say "Thank you!"; 7/20/10, 8:06 PM
Paddy O said...: Trooper, stop picking on me! You, you meanie!

Your meanness is forcing me to do somethin' I don't wanna do. To leave. To, to go out and just leave and go home and say, make a clean cut here and say "no way, Paddy, you're not puttin' up with these people!" And I'll tell you why I can't put up with you people: because you're unreasonable BASTARD people!; 7/20/10, 8:29 PM
Chad said...: It should be noted that this was a local NAACP dinner in Georgia. I also do not hear audience approval. Also, it turns out her father was killed by a white man. Her story of over coming her personal misgivings about white people is inspiring. The crowd at the NAACP seems to get it. This Brietbart person who misrepresented this episode comes off like a creep.; 7/20/10, 8:40 PM
roesch-voltaire said...: The fools on this site, including Ann Althouse. jumped on the Fox/Breibart band wagon before viewing the full video and for what ever reasons Glen Beck gets it right and defends Shirley Sherrod's narration of insight after looking at the complete tape.; 7/20/10, 8:40 PM
Unknown said...: Rich,

I think your analysis is spot on. The Breitbart version was clearly edited to smear Mrs.Sharrod. I'm not saying Breitbart did it, but whoever did is a vicious piece of racist shit. I don't agree with her politics, but she's no racist based on this evidence.; 7/20/10, 8:47 PM
AC245 said...: Not your mama, but if she were here? She just might remind you to say "Thank you!"

You're only a marginally better moby than Tidy, Penny.

You just use less offensive language, so usually nobody bothers to point you out.; 7/20/10, 9:00 PM
Anonymous said...: Redemption.

Now what?; 7/20/10, 9:31 PM
MadisonMan said...: I regret leaping to the conclusion that Sherrod was completely wrong in what she did. I should have waited for the whole story.

In my defense, I never thought Georgia Thompson was guilty.; 7/20/10, 9:38 PM
Chad said...: If any one is interested in the truth here is the best quality video http://www.naacp.org/news/entry/video_sherrod/.
The 16:40 minute mark is when she starts talking about the farmer.

This Breitbart fellow not only slandered Ms. Sherrod he also slandered the people at that NAACP dinner.

If Breitbart is a hero of Ann Althouse then I really question her judgement.; 7/20/10, 9:45 PM
Pastafarian said...: I'm not sure why people keep saying that Breitbart edited the video so that the redemption portion of the speech wasn't shown.

That's simply not true.

I watched the video, and at the end he includes the portion where she says something like (paraphrasing) 'but I learned that it isn't about race, it's about the poor being kept down, and so you shouldn't discriminate the way that I did in that case'.

It's right there in the video.

So she's a repentant racist. Good for her, she's an asshole that feels awfully bad about being an asshole; but she's still an asshole.

I don't want her in any position of authority. Even without her obvious racism ("sent him to one of his kind" and admitting that she found it difficult to deal with people because of their race), her imperiousness and arrogance are enough to disqualify her from any position of authority.

And then the whole issue of her $13 million lawsuit that names the guy that gave her this new job with the USDA; this is just remarkably disturbing.

You're defending this woman because some 80 year old woman is still thankful to Sherrod for the meager help that Sherrod deemed to give to them? Really? That's your evidence that she's not a racist?

This whole episode is really an eye-opener into the mindset of the modern progressive. The furious spinning and mobying in this thread give a microcosmic glimpse into a movement that's morally and intellectually bankrupt.; 7/20/10, 9:49 PM
Chad said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/20/10, 10:03 PM
Chad said...: Pastafarian, do you know that this woman's father was killed by a white man forty-five years ago when she was seventeen? Do you understand that she grew up and lived her first adult decades in the deep south during Jim Crow? Do you know she is sharing a story about her own human frailty and how she over came it twenty-five years ago?

I suspect you know all of the above, but your chose is to try to smear her even more with the "$13 million lawsuit" crap which you don't even have any details on.

Pastafarian, have you no shame?

Ann Althouse really needs to do an update on this story. Though I would bet she will duck it.; 7/20/10, 10:05 PM
Fen said...: So she's a repentant racist.

And isn't it sad how the Left has different standards on "repentant racists". All depends on the colour of their skin and their party affiliation.; 7/20/10, 10:06 PM
Chad said...: Pastafarian said of Ms. Sherrod that

"her imperiousness and arrogance are enough to disqualify her from any position of authority."

I take it she is a little too uppity for your taste?

No, instead she told a story about her long ago human imperfection and laid her soul bare. What is so "imperious" and "arrogant" about that?; 7/20/10, 10:10 PM
Ralph L said...: so they try to make it about race every chance they get
People figured out he's black several years ago. The few people I heard complain about it were Democrats.; 7/20/10, 10:36 PM
Pastafarian said...: OK, “phil”, I’m interested in the truth; so I invested the time to watch this entire long, rambling, unbelievably boring speech.

And I’d like that 43 minutes and 14 seconds of my life back, asshole.

There is nothing here of any relevance that wasn’t included in the Breitbart snippet. Your insistence that we all watch this was pure obfuscation. It’s like the anthropogenic global warming fanatics asking if we’d all read the entire 2000 page IPCC report.

She opens with some scary stories of growing up black in the pre-civil-rights South; I guess this explains her antipathy toward white farmers. I do understand how she might come to hate white people; if I had to grow up black amongst a bunch of ignorant white Democrats, I might hold such views too. It explains them. It doesn’t excuse them. White racists usually have stories of wrongs perpetrated against them by blacks, too.

She explains how she eventually helped the farmer, when his feckless lawyer was unable to help him. She deigned to help him just a few days before the farm would have been “sold on the courthouse steps” in foreclosure. How beneficent of her, to stoop to help that poor cracker.

Is she as loathsome as someone like David Duke, or Robert Byrd, or Reverend Wright? No, not by a long shot. She is, after all, a repentant and at least partially redeemed racist. But from this talk, it appears that she does still view everything through the prism of race. But maybe she’s just playing to her audience.

She admits that she did, at least at one time, discriminate against someone on the basis of race, and she does it with language (“his own kind”) that makes clear that she still holds some of those same attitudes. She apparently has to fight against her antipathy toward white people in order to hold to what she considers higher moral ground: Fighting a class war instead of a race war. How noble. And she has an imperious and superior attitude toward lowly taxpayers.

Couple this with the fact that she sued the Agriculture Department, ironically enough for discrimination; and named the person who gave her this new job as a defendant in the suit; and she won $300,000 for “pain and suffering” when others didn’t win nearly as much; and I have absolutely no problem with her ending up under Obama’s giant aircraft carrier-size bus.; 7/20/10, 10:40 PM
traditionalguy said...: For what it is worth, my first opinion was a knee jerk one putting Ms Sherrod in with my last 10 years of experiences with various African American government officials who have moved here to Atlanta from Chicago and Jamaica. But after hearing the rest of her story, she now seems to be a natural born Georgian with all of the grace and intelligence you could want in a top government position. Now how do we get her job back for her that those "scared Democrats" took from her?; 7/20/10, 10:48 PM
Pastafarian said...: phil bleated: "I take it she is a little too uppity for your taste?"

Hey "phil": Go fuck yourself. Suck butter from my asshole. You imply that I'm a racist? Based on...the three comments you've read, that imply nothing of the sort.

You know what, I think you must be a rabid antisemite. You know why I think that? I just feel it in my left nut. You stupid son-of-a-bitch.

phil whined: "Pastafarian, do you know that this woman's father was killed by a white man forty-five years ago when she was seventeen? Do you understand that she grew up and lived her first adult decades in the deep south during Jim Crow?"

Yes, Phil, I do. I know more about this woman than I ever wanted to, since you wasted 43 minutes of my life listening to her drone on.

Bad things happen to good people. It doesn't excuse them becoming racists like her, or Holocaust-denying antisemites like you.

phil farted: "Pastafarian, have you no shame?"

Why, Mr. Olberman, I had no idea that you commented here at Althouse. Why do you hate Jews so, Mr. Olberman? Have you no shame, sir?; 7/20/10, 10:50 PM
Chad said...: TradGuy, thank you for being decent.; 7/20/10, 11:40 PM
BJM said...: @Alex Who the hell does the left think they're fooling?

Themselves.; 7/20/10, 11:49 PM
bagoh20 said...: What a day. What a mess. I think it was a great day, because everyone who played the race card today got burned, including me. Can we take it out of the deck now, like the joker, and play an honest game?; 7/21/10, 1:01 AM
Revenant said...: Also, it turns out her father was killed by a white man. Her story of over coming her personal misgivings about white people is inspiring.

Because normally people react to the murder of a loved one by hating the entire race the murderer belonged to?

How fortunate that reality doesn't work that way. Especially since over half of the murders in America are committed by black people. :); 7/21/10, 2:18 AM
jamboree said...: I'm racialed out. I've put in my good soldier years talking and talking about it. I've decided I'm retired. I used to find it endlessly fascinating and now I am bored out of my mind with it. I'm never considering this crap again on any level.; 7/21/10, 2:52 AM
Opus One Media said...: Alex said...
It's so easy to sit back and just say Faux News, racist teabaggers.... then address the issues. Who the hell does the left think they're fooling?"

and now that the full story has come to light...care to retract you putz?

You on the right wing get played like a dime store banjo...what's it like to be pawns while your masters pull your strings and you sing your songs.

You know you got it all wrong. Every last bit of it and now you wake up and maybe, just maybe, there will be one among you who says..."I've been taken....damn you Faux Noise and the Tea Party and that asshole Andrew Breitbart for trying to ruin an innocent".; 7/21/10, 5:47 AM
Opus One Media said...: Fen said...
So she's a repentant racist."

unlike you.

isn't it sad that there are folks on this earth when they see a sunrise they figure the sun is rotating around the earth, that chariots are pulling the sun through the sky and that because blacks have different pigments they can't be trusted to tell the truth.

Racist pig come to mind?; 7/21/10, 5:50 AM
Opus One Media said...: AllenS said...
Thanks for the kind words Mr. House. I visualize a world where me and you and garage go road hunting. If you know what I mean."

Yes I do. I'd be honored. We can disagree to the n-th. You are a, as Ferris's high school secretary says "a righteous dude".; 7/21/10, 5:54 AM
Opus One Media said...: GMay said...
"(Man this schoolyard shit is easy)"

as you wallow in it 24/7 I'm sure it is.; 7/21/10, 5:56 AM
Fen said...: HDHouse: ..."I've been taken....damn you Faux Noise and the Tea Party and that asshole Andrew Breitbart for trying to ruin an innocent".

Actually Libtard, the blame for her getting canned rests with the NAACP and the Obama administration.

[So she's a repentant racist.]

unlike you.

Yes, you little race-mongerer. I can't repent for something I've never done.; 7/21/10, 6:10 AM
Fen said...: HDHouse is still scouring for a distortion he can scream over and over again while sticking his fingers in his ears.; 7/21/10, 6:11 AM
Opus One Media said...: @fen...

the cause of something usually rests with the event that kicked it off.

i'm sure in your shallow little world it is easy to push blame on anyone or anything else but you really need to get past that and grow up.; 7/21/10, 6:13 AM
Fen said...: HDhouse: the cause of something usually rests with the event that kicked it off.

Right. The NACCP was hit with this because they falsely accused the Tea Party of racism. Now they and all their acolytes are whining

i'm sure in your shallow little world it is easy to push blame on anyone or anything else but you really need to get past that and grow up.

Sherrod wasn't the target, the NAACP was. They had the full tape, they denounced her anyway. And Team Obama threw Sherrod under the bus because they're hypersensitive re Obama's racism.

Stop blaming others for your failures.; 7/21/10, 6:41 AM
Pastafarian said...: I'm sorry,tradguy, Madman, et al, but I don't really understand how this longer video exonerates Sherrod.

Imagine if the colors were reversed. Imagine if a white man were standing there giving a speech, and told a story of a "teachable moment" when he first started out in public service and discriminated against a black farmer, took him to "his own kind" for help, and then finally decided to help him.

It wouldn't matter if, earlier in the speech, this white man had told stories of growing up in a black neighborhood where his father had been killed by a black gang. It wouldn't matter (much) that this white man now appeared to be repentant and that he'd told the story nominally as a cautionary tale to prevent others from making his bad decisions.

I still wouldn't want such a man in a position of authority over a billion dollars of government money.

Sherrod seems like a decent woman. But she's a decent woman who admitted to discriminating against someone based on their race, and who still uses terms like "his own kind". And she apparently considers public power and money to be something that she can dole out on whim, within her own little fiefdom. This isn't a great choice for a government administrator.

I guess that makes me a racist, in the eyes of "phil" and HDHouse, upon whom all irony is lost, as this whole affair was started by their own shrill screaming of "racist" at the Tea Party.; 7/21/10, 6:50 AM
Anonymous said...: Fen said,

You're not bothered by a "despicable political card". you're bothered that your side got beat playing their own game.

BINGOOO!!; 7/21/10, 7:05 AM
HT said...: Pastafarian, you are unforgiving in that case. Discrimination was a way of life in many if not most places, in the state where I am now.

Especially if someone is repenting, and is demonstrably not discriminating anymore, it would seem you'd have to forgive them.; 7/21/10, 7:16 AM
Pastafarian said...: HT, I haven't seen such a demonstration. The fact that she still uses terms like "his own kind" seems disturbing to me.

Again, the woman isn't Hitler. But imagine if the colors were reversed.

I might forgive an older white person who still used language like that, because they grew up in a different time...but I wouldn't want them doling out $1 billion in federal money.

And we haven't really touched on the fact that she was appointed to her current position by the guy named in her successful suit against the USDA. That wreaks of corruption, and that wreak might be the reason that she was so swiftly sacrificed.; 7/21/10, 7:31 AM
Pastafarian said...: Did anyone else read that Sherrod claims that people from the Obama administration called her 4 times asking her to resign? And that they actually called her on her cell while she was driving and asked her to pull over right then and there and resign over the phone?

So let me get this straight: The argument from liberals on this thread is that this woman is an innocent smeared by Breitbart. But the Obama administration, according to this same innocent woman, demanded her resignation.

So why did the Obama administration do that? Are they incompetent? Are they spineless? Why would they sacrifice an innocent woman like this?; 7/21/10, 7:37 AM
A.W. said...: I said substantially the same thing at patterico, but...

Well, I find the claim by the NAACP that they were tricked to be interest. Mmm, yeah, so they are saying they jumped to conclusions without all the evidence. Okay, let’s pretend for the sake of argument that this is true. So why did they assume it was true? I think the fact they assumed it was true is very telling.

See for instance, when I came home from the D.C. Tea Party protest and read on althouse where some people claimed that they had called a congressman the n-word and spat on him, I immediately doubted it. I hadn’t been there at that moment, but I had been around those people for a good 5 hours and it just struck me as out of character. These people were positive, overflowing with patriotism, talking substantively about serious issues of government power and I might add, generally not rowdy enough to do that sort of thing even if so inclined. And I might add there was no sign of any bigotry there, and there was a surprising amount of diversity there giving lie to Olbermann’s claim that only white people supported the movement. In other words, the allegations struck me as out of character. So I immediately said I didn’t think it happened, and these days I am sure it didn’t happen.

But the powers that be at the NAACP didn’t have that reaction, now, did they? They believed very readily that there was racism in their organization. Why would that be the case, unless they already knew that there was racism in the NAACP, and figured that this was just but one example of it?; 7/21/10, 8:03 AM
Opus One Media said...: Fen said...
"Right. The NACCP was hit with this because they falsely accused the Tea Party of racism."

Did you take an idiot pill this morning? The Tea Party threw out the Tea Party Express for RACISM ... can't you read? Stop being a lacky - be a man for a change.; 7/21/10, 8:06 AM
Opus One Media said...: Pastafarian said...
"Did anyone else read that Sherrod claims that people from the Obama administration called her 4.."

get it right butthead. 3 times and from her home office in Georgia.; 7/21/10, 8:07 AM
A.W. said...: HDHouse

> and now that the full story has come to light...care to retract you putz?

What on earth are you talking about? Are you claiming that the NAACP has released the full tape. Because that is objectively false. There are clear edits in that tape, too. So all we have seen is the NAACP’s edit.

The woman is still a racist, even in that edit. Yeah, later she decided that poor whites deserve some of her help too, but never decided that she was wrong for being racist. And the NAACP still applauded her racism and yucked it up, which is worse. I mean isolated racists exist, but the NAACP should not be welcoming and encouraging it.

> that because blacks have different pigments they can't be trusted to tell the truth.

Right, who are you going to believe? Sherrod or your lying ears?; 7/21/10, 8:12 AM
Chad said...: It also needs to be said that Breibart lied about the NAACP. First his video labels the dinner as taking place in Washington D.C. by the national organization. The truth is it happened in Georgia put on by a local chapter. Breitbart can not even be trusted with basic facts.; 7/21/10, 8:14 AM
Pastafarian said...: You're right, HDHouse, it wasn't 4 times. I must be a butthead racist.

From the article:

"Sherrod said she was on the road Monday when USDA deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her and told her the White House wanted her to resign because her comments were generating a cable news controversy."

Not the home office in Georgia; the White House. According to your unimpeachable innocent Sherrod.

So is the Obama administration incompetent, or cowardly, or both?; 7/21/10, 8:15 AM
Chad said...: Where Breitbart really lies about the NAACP is when he said this video shows that the members who attended this dinner whooped and applauded racist speech. Those who actually watched the full unaltered video know that is a lie. No such thing occured.; 7/21/10, 8:19 AM
A.W. said...: Hahaha, it gets even better. Let’s recall the letter written by Mr. Jealous. He says a lot about how discrimination against anyone is bad (agreed), that they concur with her forced resignation (so do I), and then he says:

> “We are appalled by her actions, just as we are with abuses of power against farmers of color and female farmers...

And: “The reaction from many in the audience is disturbing. We will be looking into the behavior of NAACP representatives at this local event and take any appropriate action.
We thank those who brought this to our national office’s attention.”

Now Jealous is saying, “I have been snookered, bambozzled,” and so on (that’s not a literal quote). Only there is only one small problem with that story.

Ben Jealous was there. As gateway pundit points out, she thanks the president of the NAACP, and its board of directors for being there.

So their story is... “we were misled, about a speech we attended.” Well, okay if that’s the story you’re going with...

http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/07/breaking-naacp-president-was-in-attendance-when-audience-cackled-at-plight-of-white-farmer-video/; 7/21/10, 8:23 AM
Pastafarian said...: phil, that seems a rather trivial point.

Breitbart's only dishonesty here was in the forward, in which he states that Sherrod states how she "discriminates", in the present tense. She does no such thing in this speech; instead, she states how she discriminated, in the past.

And, as Althouse pointed out in her original post, what Breitbart is doing here isn't really journalism, it's Alinskyesque "punching back twice as hard".

But I'm sure that you'd prefer that the conservative movement continue, as it always has, to bring knives to gunfights; to take the ethical highground in debates while progressives use every underhanded trick in the book.

Jesus Christ, you actually accused me of racism IN THIS VERY THREAD, phil. This entire controversy started with bogus sweeping claims of racism against the entire Tea Party movement, and you accused me of racism because...I guess because I criticized a black woman.

It's a shame that this woman lost her job. Take it up with the people who demanded her resignation -- the Obama administration, according to this woman herself.; 7/21/10, 8:25 AM
Pastafarian said...: phil, there is some voicing of approval from the crowd when she states that while this farmer was (paraphrasing) 'trying to assert his superiority', she was actually 'deciding how much help she would give him'.

If I were in an audience listening to a white man say these things about a black taxpayer, I can assure you that I wouldn't laugh or clap at this.; 7/21/10, 8:28 AM
Ray said...: "Ah but see the popular line these days is that racism = prejudice + power and thus because supposedly black people have no power, they can’t be racists.

Yes, they have the nerve to say that under a black president. Its an idiotic and obvious double standard."

Ah, I didn't realize that the power of all black people had been increased by the election of an individual quasi-black person. I must start oppressing people while it lasts.

As a corollary, it follows that the power of all whites has been increased with the election of white individuals for the last two hundred years, and thus all claims of institutional power disparities made prior to 2008 are valid, correct?; 7/21/10, 9:01 AM
Big Mike said...: It's a shame that this woman lost her job. Take it up with the people who demanded her resignation -- the Obama administration, according to this woman herself.

Yes, Pastafarian, and here's the rub. Unless Sherrod is a Schedule C appointee who serves "at the pleasure of the President" then she is legally entitled to ask for a hearing where she can present her side of the story. If she was normal Civil Service then not only is the Obama administration clueless, but lawless as well.; 7/21/10, 9:40 AM
Michael McNeil said...: Thanks for posting that, Jayne.; 7/21/10, 9:41 AM