Olbermann Gets The Last Word On Shirley Sherrod

... for now:



But you can count on rightists to just keep moving forward with their nihilism. More and more of the Republican House extremists have joined Michele Bachmann's so-called Tea Party Caucus. Today's Salt Lake Tribune looked at it's own state's DC contingent-- and remember, Utah right-wing activists, already ousted mainstream conservatives (Cannon and Bennett most recently) when they didn't appear extreme enough-- to see who was jumping in and who isn't.

Rep. Rob Bishop hitched his wagon to the new Tea Party Caucus this week, though his Republican colleague from Utah, Rep. Jason Chaffetz, wants nothing to do with the effort... Chaffetz, a tea party supporter, thinks a formal caucus could choke the life out of the grassroots movement.

“The more you try to put structure around the tea party, the more compromised it will be,” he said through his Twitter page. “If any one person(s) tries to co-opt it, the tea party will lose its identity and effectiveness.”

At least 38 of his House Republican colleagues view the matter differently. They have joined the caucus, formally created Wednesday. No Democrat has joined.

Utah’s Republican candidate for Senate, Mike Lee, hopes to join a similar caucus in the Senate if he wins in November. Lee would like to team up with Sens. Jim DeMint, of South Carolina, and Tom Coburn, of Oklahoma, along with Republican candidates like Marco Rubio in Florida and Rand Paul in Kentucky, to form a Senate Tea Party Caucus.

He seems to have left out Sharron Angle, the teabagger candidate from Nevada. Is she too crazy even for kooks like Mike Lee? No one seems to have the definitive list of the extremists willing to be identified as members of Bachmann's crazy caucus. Some, like Houston whack-job John Culberson, seem to be in and out several times a day. As of tonight we've been able to confirm these lunatic fringe members of the Republican Party as falling in behind Bachmann: B.P.'s favorite congressman Joe Barton (TX), half a dozen other nutcase Texas racists-- Lamar Smith, John Carter, Michael Burgess, John Culberson, Louie Gohmert, Pete Sessions-- only one of the half dozen active Republican closet queens-- Trent Franks (AZ)-- would-be Michigan governor Pete Hoekstra, Gary Miller (CA), Rob Bishop (UT), Walter Jones (NC), Todd Akin (MO), Doug Lamborn (CO), Dan Burton (IN), Cynthia Lummis (WY), Roscoe Bartlett (MD), Gus Bilirakis (FL), Cliff Stearns (FL), 3 of the craziest of the Georgia loons (Broun, Gingrey and Price), Steve King (IA), Joe "You Lie" Wilson (SC), John Fleming (LA), both Kansas House members running for the Senate (Tiahrt and Moran), and one member of the Republican leadership: Mike Pence (IN). Of these Tea Bag Caucus members 5 voted for Bush's no-strings-attached Wall Street bailout: Pete Sessions (TX), Lamar Smith (TX), Joe Wilson (SC), Pete Hoekstra (MI), and Gary Miller (CA), all of whom take big bucks-- thinly veiled bribes-- from Wall Street CEOs and lobbyists.

Let's Hope Alan Grayson & Shirley Sherrod Get A Chance To Teach Obama How To Deal Effectively With Bullies

Right-wing bullies thrive on fear, cowardice and on political leaders like Barack Obama who don't want to make waves and would rather "split the difference." When I was just a wee lad in elementary school no one had explained the physics of muscles and fists to me properly. I was a safety crossing guard and there was this one big bully-- he towered over me-- who used to terrorize weaker, smaller students. He pushed some poor kid down at my post one morning and I walked over to him and pulled him off the guy. We got in a fist-fight... and he pulverized me. But he never bothered me again and he never made any trouble on my corner again. It's when you don't stand up to bullies, as Neville Chamberlain learned, that they feel empowered.

I hope you read Alan Grayson's post at Daily Kos yesterday. Watch the video (above) he put up in response to a right-wing asshole offering to pay someone to assault Alan. Alan's response: "I punch back." It's why the Republican's hate him and fear him more than any other Democrat. ANY. OTHER. DEMOCRAT. He should start a school for his fellow congressmen. A couple weeks ago, one called me, a decent progressive, whimpering how he's being challenged by a conservative in his primary and asking that Blue America give him some money. I suggested instead that he go sit at Alan Grayson's feet for a few weeks and learn how to be a man and a Democrat. Alan should be the head of the DCCC instead of these weak, corrupt vacillators who think winning a campaign is collecting a bunch of tainted corporate PAC contributions, hiring some Inside-the-Beltway hacks to do 30 second TV spots that no one cares about and sending setting up some pointless phone banks for incumbents who vote with the Republicans as their default positions.



One person who Grayson won't have to give lessons in self-defense to is America's new sweetheart: Shirley Sherrod. Greg Sargent hit the nail plum on the head in yesterday's Washington Post when he pointed out that her reaction is going to drive the right bananas:

Check out this nugget in an interview that Shirley Sherrod did with Joe Strupp, in which she comes right out and claims Fox News is using her as a "pawn" in a racist plot to undo the gains African Americans have made:

She said Fox showed no professionalism in continuing to bother her for an interview, but failing to correct their coverage.

"I think they should but they won't. They intended exactly what they did. "They were looking for the result they got yesterday," she said of Fox. "I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person."

This is pretty incendiary stuff. Sherrod is clearly not going away, and now she appears determined to force a larger conversation about the Breitbart-Fox News axis's broader efforts to stoke white resentment towards the nation's first African American president.

Of course, if the White House's goal is to avoid racial controversies, this blast from Sherrod isn't going to make it any easier for them to take a stand and resolve this.

But let's have that conversation about what Breitbart and Fox are really up to, say I! Looking forward to Fox's coverage of this.

Obama can still have his Mr. Cool image and not get walked all over by Fox and the right wing hyenas who are never going to treat him any better than they've been treating him no matter how much he kisses their asses. They will continue to root for him to fail, continue to look to trigger his Waterloo, continue to do everything they can-- in Congress and in the media-- to undermine America for their own selfish interests. It's time to take a stand-- it's past time to take a stand. Obama should fire Rahm Emanuel and beg Alan Grayson for advice. Or Shirley Sherrod. And he wouldn't go wrong listening to the Democratic candidate running for Congress in western Ohio's 8th district, Justin Coussoule who learned a lot about dealing with bullies as a cadet at West Point. Coussoule says the Army confirmed something he'd known his whole life. "Leaders of character choose the harder right over the easier wrong, and they do it even when no one else is watching." Coussoule's view that public service is synonymous with selfless service isn't new, but it is reassuring given the fact that so many, including Boehner, seem to have forgotten the basics. "If Democracy is worth dying for, then it's sure as hell worth fighting for. We have to support those who take this battle seriously." Blue America does and we are very, very proud to have Justin on our roster of progressive congressional candidates this year. "If you want to defeat the enemy," he once told me, "you attack their generals. And this race is a chance to defeat the top Republican general."

What Does The Shirley Sherrod Case Tell Us About Ourselves?

I always thought Rahm Emanuel was the 4th Stooge

When I woke up yesterday CNN had an elderly Georgia farmer's widow on the phone talking about how some lady named Shirley Sherrod had saved their farm and there was something about picking tomatoes, which she pronounced tomaters, and then I remembered it was primary day in Georgia and I ran downstairs to tweet a last minute incantation for Regina Thomas in her courageous battle against stinky-- and loaded-- Blue Dog John Barrow. Then, over the morning, I saw a billion tweets about Ms Sherrod. I'm sure everyone knows the story now about how Andrew Breitbart, apparently Obama's Director of Personnel, had managed to find some tape, pull a piece out of context and get Ms Sherrod-- an assertive African American woman (3 strikes in Breitbart-world)-- fired by that walking Profile in Courage, former shady DLC head, current corporate Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The next time I went upstairs Rick Sanchez had apparently resurrected the elderly Georgia farmer-- he is definitely not dead-- and he and his wife were waxing poetic about the fabulousness of the Ms. Sherrod who Andrew Breitbart and his pack of lying right-wing hyenas had somehow persuaded Vilsack too sack. As of this writing Obama hasn't sacked Vilsack or even reinstated Mr. Sherrod. Reading Digby, one would think Obama is waiting for a call from Breitbart about what to do next.

"Her decision 'rightly or wrongly" will be called into question" because some right wing hitman put out an edited tape that makes her sound as if her point is the opposite of what it is, so she had to be fired.

They are telling wingnuts everywhere that all they have to do is gin up a phony controversy (especially about a black person, apparently) and the administration will fire them so as not to shake confidence that they are "fair service providers."

This is sheer cowardice.

We're going to have to be more careful about the character of the candidates we nominate for big jobs in the future. A blue t-shirt, a bunch of corporate cash and some kewl slogans just cannot be enough any longer. Which brings me to a column I read in the NY Times yesterday by David Itzkoff about Family Guy, or at least about an episode of the show that was banned by Fox. Partial Terms of Endearment was produced for the 2009-10 season, never shown and about to be released (also by Fox) as a stand-alone DVD, sure to make Murdoch plenty of money. Humor me for a moment and read the statement by the NAACP, which had backed Vilsack's moronic reaction to the Sherrod case:

The NAACP has a zero tolerance policy against racial discrimination, whether practiced by blacks, whites, or any other group.

The NAACP also has long championed and embraced transformation by people who have moved beyond racial bias. Most notably, we have done so for late Alabama Governor George Wallace and late US Senator Robert Byrd-- each a man who had associated with and supported white supremacists and their cause before embracing civil rights for all.

With regard to the initial media coverage of the resignation of USDA Official Shirley Sherrod, we have come to the conclusion we were snookered by Fox News and Tea Party Activist Andrew Breitbart into believing she had harmed white farmers because of racial bias.

Having reviewed the full tape, spoken to Ms. Sherrod, and most importantly heard the testimony of the white farmers mentioned in this story, we now believe the organization that edited the documents did so with the intention of deceiving millions of Americans.

The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers mentioned in her speech. They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.

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

Finally, she was sharing this account as part of a story of transformation and redemption. In the full video, Ms.Sherrod says she realized that the dislocation of farmers is about “haves and have nots.” "It’s not just about black people, it’s about poor people," says Sherrod in the speech. “We have to get to the point where race exists but it doesn’t matter.”

This is a teachable moment, for activists and for journalists.

Most Americans agree that racism has no place in American Society. We also believe that civil and human rights have to be measured by a single yardstick.

The NAACP has demonstrated its commitment to live by that standard.

The Tea Party Federation took a step in that direction when it expelled the Tea Party Express over the weekend. Unfortunately, we have yet to hear from other leaders in the Tea Party movement like Dick Armey and Sarah Palin, who have been virtually silent on the “internal bigotry” issue.

Next time we are confronted by a racial controversy broken by Fox News or their allies in the Tea Party like Mr. Breitbart, we will consider the source and be more deliberate in responding. The tape of Ms. Sherrod’s speech at an NAACP banquet was deliberately edited to create a false impression of racial bias, and to create a controversy where none existed. This just shows the lengths to which extremist elements will go to discredit legitimate opposition.

According to the USDA, Sherrod’s statements prompted her dismissal. While we understand why Secretary Vilsack believes this false controversy will impede her ability to function in the role, we urge him to reconsider.

I'm not sure how many teachable moments we need to understand cancers on the ass of American society like Andrew Breitbart and Fox broadcasting. But what does this all have to do with Family Guy?

The creator of the show, and the producer, is Seth MacFarlane and he didn't criticize Fox for refusing to air the Partial Terms of Endearment episode. Instead, he told the Times that the decision reveals more about mass audiences-- i.e., the American people (also voters, of course)-- than about the networks.

“People in America, they’re getting dumber,” Mr. MacFarlane said. “They’re getting less and less able to analyze something and think critically, and pick apart the underlying elements. And more and more ready to make a snap judgment regarding something at face value, which is too bad.”

Which makes even more chilling the decision of the Obama Administration to curry favor with the extreme right by taking out the budgeting to save 140,000 teachers' jobs in order to get Republicans to vote for another year of futile, catastrophic war in Afghanistan.

Maybe they can take a look at the context to which they were dancing Andrew Breitbart's racist tune and just fire Vilsack-- and then we can talk about the war after: