When will the Democrats learn? When the school bully says your shoes look like shit and punches you in the face the solution isn’t to run home, throw out your shoes, yell at your mom for buying you crap shoes, drop 100 dollars on some new kicks and hope the bully won’t punch you in the face the next day. When you roll into school the next day, new shoes squeaking…the bully knows that he’s got you. Acting out of fear and self doubt won’t stop the bully.
Until yesterday: Democrats 1, Brietbart 1. Because of Breitbart’s heavily edited videos ACORN (later cleared of all wrong doing) was forced to shut down after being de-funded by congress, but Senator Landrieu stood up to Breitbart smears and exposed his in house propaganda team led by James O’Keefe.
Today, another Breitbart win. 2-1 Breitbart. Government looks like a big mess where people aren’t fired for being incompetent, delinquent or unqualified. They are fired due to the irresponsible, dishonest accusations of a right wing blow hard. The Obama Administration becomes an even more unattractive place for talented appointees who may be in the private sector. The honor of being nominated to serve the President’s administration comes with invasive vetting and anonymous holds all to be rewarded with a lower salary and an administration that will gladly throw you under the bus.
Shirley Sherrod, a now former USDA Official, whose father was murdered in the Jim Crow south by a white farmer who was never brought to justice, was actually advocating racial reconciliation. She was telling NAACP members assembled that day that race can’t be used to judge people’s fortunes and that when we are in positions of power we should be working on behalf of the poor. She was using her experience from 1986 with white Georgia farmers as a parable for those assembled to honor her at the NAACP of Coffee County’s 20th annual Freedom Fund banquet. It’s a simple, powerful story.
Sherrod says her comments were taken out of context. And the white farmer she helped, Roger Spooner, credited her with helping save the family farm.
“I don’t know what brought up the racist mess,” he told CNN’s Rick’s List. “They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my opinion.”
Spooner’s 82-year-old wife, Eloise, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that Sherrod “kept us out of bankruptcy.”
“Her husband told her, ‘You’re spending more time with the Spooners than you are with me,’ ” Spooner told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She took probably two or three trips with us to Albany just to help us out.”
She said she called Sherrod — “a friend for life” — this morning. “She’s very sad about it,” Spooner said. “She told me she was so glad we talked. I just can’t believe this is happening to her.”
via Storm rages over ousted black Ag official accused of racism – USA Today.
Here is video of Tony Harris interviewing Sherrod and also Eloise Spooner, the farmer who Sherrod helped. (By the way kudos to CNN, Harris and later Rick Sanchez who actually did a solid job interviewing Sherrod and the Spooners).
As you can see in the clip above, Ag Secretary Vilsack’s deputy pressured Sherrod to retire while she was no doubt returning to her office in Athens after working to save more farms. The NAACP is ashamed and has admitted their mistake in vilifying Sherrod on Breitbart’s word and according to NAACP President Ben Jealous, has contacted Sherrod directly to apologize (no doubt after Sherrod was interviewd by Harris or Sanchez). They have vowed not to trust Breitbart and Fox News. (Ask George W. Bush about fool me once). All this is a smart move and yet little comfort for a woman who was tireless worker on behalf of Georgia’s farmers. The damage has been done and the most dissappointing thing is that Obama’s administration has been set up to save face.
This week, the Obama Administration has failed the bully test miserably. In keeping Sherrod fired, Obama and his Administration are basically saying: Breitbart’s got a point there. Sherrod wasn’t sufficiently not racist in her speech against racism. As of this posting, she will remain fired.
“When I saw the statements and the context of the statements, I determined that it would make it difficult for her to do her job as a rural development director,” Vilsack said.
via USDA’s Shirley Sherrod: I Helped White Farmer – CBS Evening News – CBS News.
After this fiasco, it’s safe to say Breitbart, Beck, Carlson and the right wing smear mongers just saw Obama and Vilsack walk into the cafeteria with their new shoes on.