If the Tea Party can not be brought under Republican control, it will not be allowed to survive. This is a *TWO PARTY* system and neither party will let this change.Two sides of the same corporate coin. I mean, I know there are lots of good democrats out there, but when it comes to actually implementing things the corporations still have a final say. You saw it with insurance companies controlling the outcome of the healthcare debate to insure no public option and mandates. You saw it with financial reform and the bailouts. Bleh.
"From now on, the Republicans are never going to get more than 10 to 20 percent of the Negro vote and they don't need any more than that... but Republicans would be shortsighted if they weakened enforcement of the Voting Rights Act. The more Negroes who register as Democrats in the South, the sooner the Negrophobe whites will quit the Democrats and become Republicans. That's where the votes are. Without that prodding from the blacks, the whites will backslide into their old comfortable arrangement with the local Democrats."It really isn't surprising. The R party hasn't had a new idea in decades. Since the office of President isn't currently up for election they can't use the wars to scare people so they use black people.
Obama and even Ken Salazar had no hand in it, just a minor second-tier functionary who was countermanded the second it was brought to the White House's attention. Any noises about the cowardice of Obama is simply a right-wing talking point, and those who repeat it, even if they seem left leaning, are simply right-wing tools. Ignore them, they are worthless. -- Slap*HappyLol, what? Are you under the impression that Ken Salazar is in charge of the department of agriculture, or that it's a sub-unit of the department of the interior?
"Help! Oh God...""Ma'am, what is it?"
"Oh Jesus, help!""Calm down ma'am, I need you to tell me--"
"Blacks!""What's that, ma'am?"
"Black people! Oh God...""What is your emergency?"
"I told you, black people! Jesus, help me....""That's it? Just... black people?"
"Yes, blacks, aaagh...""Where are the black people, ma'am?"
"In America... oh, help me!""We'll send a car right over."
Although I was surprised to see Anderson Cooper really go after Breitbart and the racist right last night in a segment entitled "The Truth Matters." Too bad the rest of CNN couldn't care less about the truth.I think CNN was hammering this on it's other shows too. Going after Breitbart by name and calling him, essentially, a liar. They were even saying later that he was "evading questions" and "not saying anything" in an interview they gave him. Good stuff.
Not surprisingly, Howard Kurtz, a media critic for the Washington Post and CNN, totally exonerated Fox in his article about Sherrod's firing today. Pathetic.Kurtz covers the media the way the beltway media covers politics. By cozying up to sources and saying nice things about them. He's ridiculous. Apparently his argument is that fox didn't start going after her until she'd already resigned. But what does that have to do with the fact that they went after her, and even ran breitbart's tape without even verifying any of it. Given the guy's history the tape may as well have been dubbed.
Conservatives Try To Bash USDA Anti-Racism Suit, Shirley Sherrodposted by saulgoodman at 10:23 AM on July 22, 2010 [1 favorite]
The USDA settlements with African-American farmers are a longtime bête noire of the right, which they deem a giveaway to a core Democratic constituency. It's not clear whether Brietbart's release of the video was specifically intended to hurt the chances of other African-America farmers to receive recompense from decades of discrimination that caused them to lose their farms, but conservatives immediately used the video to attack the settlement.
Commentary: What has Shirley Sherrod incident taught us?Meanwhile, Breitbart himself has relented to pressure and offered a "correction" on his blog, noting only:
So far, it's hard to find anybody or any institution connected to this incident whose image has been enhanced by it.
Not Sherrod herself, who despite growing evidence that her intent was to publicly confess a past wrong in order to make a larger point, is still guilty of having let race affect her professional judgment and performance.
Commentary: A knee-jerk reaction to Shirley Sherrod
But that's not the outrageous part. We've come to expect such slimy shenanigans from certain quarters. [And yet, we still overlook the lack of credibility of the sources and report on the controversy surrounding the "slimy shenanigans" as if they were news.]
The outrageous part is that the Obama administration and even the NAACP immediately knuckled under to the political con artists who are trying to stir up anger among white voters by portraying the administration as anti-white.
“While Ms. Sherrod made the remarks captured in the first video featured in this post while she held a federally appointed position, the story she tells refers to actions she took before she held that federal position,” the correction reads.Unbelievably, Breitbart is still maintaining that this story has something to do with racial prejudice (other than his own race-baiting), and much of the media is continuing to help propagate that brazen lie.
Poor whites are not in the same boat as poor blacks. Poor whites can change clothes and haircuts and look exactly like privileged whites. A poor white child can become a privileged white adult.That's pretty rich from the guy who said "... I suppose that calling somebody a child is, like lying, racism, and hypocrisy, something that only children care about." which is only possible if you don't even consider minorities as people who's views merit any consideration, Or perhaps if you don't even consider them non-children.
By contrast, poor black children can only ever hope to become rich black adults. At which point they are marginalized anyway. Obama was a privileged black child of a white educated mother. He went to top schools, etc. He became president. He is nonetheless a black President, unlike say Bush, who was simply President. -- Pastabagel
I thought Obama's strategy was supposed to be to ignore the news cycle. I'd be willing to bet he and his strategy people are pretty unhappy with Vilsack right now. -- immlassHahaha. I'm sure they were in the loop. There was that politico article talking about how Jim Messina had actually congratulated. "The Whitehouse Staff" for their "handling" of the situation.
I too wish we could stop blaming the President for what happened here. Here is who is clearly really to blame, in order ... 4. Vilsack, for taking disciplinary action before finding out the facts. -- bearwifeWell look, Vilsack may be a tool here, but he's a cabinet secretary. That means he reports directly to Obama himself, at least in the formal org chart of the government. He's very much a part of the "obama administration". You can argue that it's not Obama's fault personally
Perhaps you weren't around, but the Black Panthers put this idea to the test back in the 60s. The police simply assassinated them.The NRA has clearly become a rightwing nutbar group. As gun rights have become a popular cause on the democratic caucus, they haven't transitioned to being a 'mainstream' group like the sierra club or AARP and instead have doubled down on crazy.
The whole point of underhanded stunts like this is to set up politically unnavigable situations for their targets: i.e., to put them in situations that can only do political damage. And yes, it is possible if not easy to devise controversies that will necessarily have that effect, because there are so many different interests involved in how just about any set of events plays out.Well duh, it's called politics. Surely the Obama administration should be prepared to deal with it.
The whole point of that article is to confirm that no one in the White House above the level of Vilsack participated in the decision making process. Maybe Vilsack informed others in the White House about the decision immediately after the fact, but there's no evidence he consulted with any one else in advanceYou mean aside from the various news articles that indicate they were, and the fact the whitehouse has said that they were "informed" (which obviously would have involved them speaking as well as listening). The idea that Tom Vilsack did this all on his own with no involvement from the whitehouse is absurd. (these people would not be "above" Vilsack in any org chart, btw, he's a cabinet secritary right below Obama.)
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posted by nathancaswell at 8:50 PM on July 21, 2010 [3 favorites]