When faced with the question “What are the lessons from Shirley Sherrod fiasco,” this answer from a former Cheney hack is just priceless:
Does that make any sense to anyone who just watched the Sherrod affair? Although, let’s face it- beyond shooting someone in the face I’m unaware of any domestic policy that Dick Cheney was behind.
The very next comment is from Hans “BLACK PANTHER BLACK PANTHER BLACK PANTHER” von Spakovsky, and he informs us of the following:
One of the most serious issues in the Shirley Sherrod matter is being almost completely missed: the shocking applause and approval of the NAACP audience when Ms. Sherrod was relating how she treated whites worse than her fellow black Americans early in her career. When combined with the many outrageous remarks made by some leaders of the NAACP like Julian Bond in recent years, that approval makes one doubt that this organization that was founded to stop racism still believes in its original purpose.
He’s pushing the audience lie. And the wurlitzer plays on…
Chad S
I thought Cheney had all his former advisors sent to his “ranch” for organ/stem cell harvesting?
Comrade Kevin
@Chad S: WIN!
JCT
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
It’s just fucking hopeless, isn’t it?
SiubhanDuinne
I wish I had a bigger vocabulary so I could adequately express my contempt for these . . . these . . . these . . . see, I no longer have the words.
“Douchey fuckwads” just doesn’t do it any more.
Nick
@JCT:
sadly, yes. It was a galliant effort though
GregB
Oy.
Sherrod told the crowd the moral of her story, then she told her story and then she repeated the moral of her story.
Spakovsky is just helping to further Breitbart’s latest lie that he was trying to focus on the crowds reaction.
But these idiots are now claiming that Sherrod was railroaded and she is a good woman and there was nothing racist about her story. Se these puds are claiming that the crowd is racist by reacting to a story with a good message.
Fucking idiots.
Hunter Gathers
May I see your immigration papers please, Mr. Conda? What? You don’t have any? And your driver’s license is from a state other than Arizona? I’m afraid you’re going to have to come with me, Mr. Conda. No, I don’t care if you worked for Dick Cheney, Mr. Conda. Come with me please. Perhaps you can call Mr. Cheney at the county lockup to vouch for you, Mr. Conda, but until then, you’re going to have to come with me.
QuaintIrene
Julian Bond? First thought was, is this guy still with us?
Did a quick Wiki-search and if this is the worst von Spakovsky can come up with.
“Bond was a strong critic of the Bush administration from its assumption of office in 2001. Twice that year, first in February to the NAACP board and then in July at that organization’s national convention, he attacked the administration for selecting Cabinet secretaries “from the Taliban wing of American politics”. Bond specifically targeted Attorney General John Ashcroft, who had opposed affirmative action, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, who defended the Confederacy in a 1996 speech on states’ rights. The selection of these two individuals, Bond said, “…whose devotion to the Confederacy is nearly canine in its uncritical affection”, “appeased the wretched appetites of the extreme right wing”. Then-House Majority Leader Dick Armey responded to Bond’s statement with a letter accusing NAACP leaders of “racial McCarthyism.”
Not sure what ‘racial McCarthyism’ is supposed to mean. But I guess, something bad. Oooh , don’t tell Ann Coulter.
And anybody who raises the ire of Dick Armey is okay in my books.
Mark S.
Let’s not get into arguments over who enslaved who and who lynched who. Can we just admit there are racists on both sides?
Oh, and by the way, I don’t see race at all. I’m completely color-blind.
handy
Is he referring to this? One would have to be a deluded nut to conclude anything of the sort happened.
Davis X. Machina
Shift to Clinton wedding in 3…2….1
The US is the Saudia Arabia of Bright Shiny Things.
Keith
I have to give Anderson Cooper credit – while his first night of coverage barely mentioned Breitbart at all, he started last night with a segment called ‘The Truth Matters’ where he flat-out said all of Breitbart’s original claims AND his subsequent attempts at saying the audience applauded racism were completely false. You rarely see non-equivocation like that on the news any more, but Cooper was apparently sickened by the blatant lying and called it out right out of the gate.
FlipYrWhig
Does Conda think that Sherrod got in trouble for saying something (that could be misconstrued as) anti-_black_?
General Stuck
LOL Along these lines, from reading the unconquerable Melissa Clouthier this morning, I learned.
No doubt. Just ask Lee Atwater. You can’t scream “Nigger” any more, but you sure as shit can doctor videos for You Tube.
Personally, it would for me. Perfect harmony that I sought for years via living happy through better chemistry. I would settle now for blasting wingnuts into space. And tell them they are aimed at a planet of white conservatives, but leave out the part about the giant maneating black ants.
Awww now. Isn’t that sweet. Obligatory libtard troll protection. Or, it’s all technically true we wingers are racist, but collectively nonsense.
No, it’s not. Not with teatard jackasses running around with signs of The President of the United States of America dressed in full witchdoctor garb.
But my fav
She has been reading progressive blogs, especially during the primaries.
Derelict
I say, let them push that line as hard as they can. Anyone who hears it and has at least seen a newspaper front page or overheard a newscast will instantly say “Huh?!?” The only possible conclusion anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of the whole affair can draw from that line of defense is, “Oh, so you’re really just an unreconstructed racist asshole.”
dms
First of all, this “audience lie” is a bigger one than purported and not as esoteric as the “well the audience was primed for her story” claim. Breitbart was on the morning shows claiming that people applauded her apparent racism.
Once again, I reviewed the two tapes that appeared on Breitbart’s site on 7/19/2010. There is no applause during either. None.
So, either Breitbart is lying (what a surprise) or he was in possession of or had viewed the entire tape when he made the applause claim. The applause occurring in the entire tape has absolutely nothing to do with any racists acts or statements.
DFH no.6
Sleazeballs like Cesar Conda are the Kapos of the American Fascist Party (yeah, yeah — Godwin. So fucking what).
wasabi gasp
Reality could probably use a nap, anyway.
Violet
And meanwhile the old, white base of the GOP gets smaller and smaller. And the next generation, which isn’t as white, looks at that kind of stuff and goes, “I really don’t want to be associated with a group that does that kind of crap.” Demographics are the one thing against which they cannot win.
Meanwhile, I saw a “Ron Paul for President 2012” bumper sticker on a car today. Paultards are already gearing up.
Kryptik
God, just…Green Balloon Juice.
I’m ready to just break down and cry right now, how fucked up this whole damn thing is.
Cliff
Just f’n Love how those Townhall A$$holes ad:
Who is right ‘Arizona’ or ‘Obama’
does not actually give you a choice.
How F’n typical.
A$$holes!
PaminBB
Re: the Clouthier quotes:
Abe Lincoln was a Founder? Is this one of those Conservapedia factoids?
mikey
Until people are willing to come out and say that the concept of white men in America being victims of racial discrimination is laughable, we’re going to be dealing with this stupid “argument”.
Yes, there might be some people who don’t like you simply because you’re a white man. Hell, I’M a white man and I don’t like you. But you have all the money, all the power, you are NOT a minority, and therefore you cannot actually be the victim of racial hatred. It’s just a silly twisting of the words to minimize the treatment of ethnic minorities in America, and to attempt to take all the meaning out of the term ‘racial discrimination’.
It’s bizarre and frightening that they might actually get away with it. But they haven’t yet…
mikey
jl
@dms: That was my thought too, it was another obvious and blatant lie by Breitbart, or he is so sloppy (edit: drunk?) he simply does not know what he is doing.
If the link commenter handy provided is the original Breitbart production that was posted, there is a smattering of laughter when Sherrod describes her emotional reaction to her initial perception of Spooner’s racial attitude. When she talks about her initial decision (that she soon after reversed) not to help him as much as she could, there is dead silence in the audience.
Everyone in the media should follow Cooper’s example and state the truth of the matter. Even Smith, even on Fox news, said that he did not use the clip and tried to ignore it because he did not consider the source trustworthy.
But I read earlier today that some ABC, either on air or on its internet site, did a career bio of Breitbart, as if he were some kind of respectable person!
Tonal Crow
@SiubhanDuinne:
I humbly suggest “these GOPers”, pronounced “gah-purz”. We need to update the language to account for the underlying changes in meaning. I also suggest “GOP” (“gahp”) as an epithet, similar to “sh*t”, but having the advantage of not disparaging a natural substance that helps plants grow.
Mark S.
@General Stuck:
LOLWUT?
Jesus, FDR (God bless that communist) at least had the decency to hide the fact that he couldn’t walk. Obama, on the other hand, never missed an opportunity to show up in public with his blackness.
Kryptik
@Mark S.:
No one would have problems with brown people if they weren’t so damn proud and open about it, you know? What they do in private is ok, but can’t they just be decent enough to keep their brownness down in public? I mean, GAWD.
MattF
It’s just pieces of several different lies patched together. I suppose the theory is that if you tell three or four lies at the same time, it’s harder to refute than telling only one. The “that makes no sense” argument is quite irrelevant.
They’re desperate– they’re looking now for the miracle lie, the all-purpose holy grail of dishonesty. The lie that always works, the lie that fixes their weakness, erases their unholy desire to be like their enemies, forgives their awful shame.
Omnes Omnibus
@PaminBB: US Grant too. Also too, that is.
Corner Stone
@Kryptik:
No shit. At this point I’d take a Catholic Church, or I/P or crack v meth thread.
Shit, anything.
Tonal Crow
@Omnes Omnibus:
Conservopedia says that GRANT was a founder? Are you SURE they didn’t cite Nathan Bedford Forrest instead?
That's Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN)
I can’t decide whether the name “Hans von Spakovsky” sounds more like an undead Eastern European count, or one of the protagonists from Revenge of the Nerds.
Veritas78
We need to prefix every mention of notorious racist Breitbart’s name with “notorious racist”. As in, “notorious racist Andrew Breitbart…” Because that’s the central takeaway, more than the craven fear of Fox News by Obama’s operatives.
So much for dimensional chess. Handed lemonade, we now make lemons.
jl
Let’s see what ABC does tonight on its profile of Breitbart. The promo on their internet site does not look promising:
Andrew Breitbart on How He Got His Start
EXCLUSIVE: Blogger Behind Shirley Sherrod Video Talks About Matt Drudge, Arianna Huffington
By TOM McCARTHY
July 21, 2010
http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/andrew-breitbart-matt-drudge-arianna-huffington/story?id=11219422
ABC story found via TPM
Shame on Obama?
Josh Marshall | July 22, 2010, 9:45AM
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2010/07/shame_on_obama.php#more?ref=fpblg
monkeyboy
One of the things about the Sherrod affair is that it seems her bosses jumped at the opportunity to fire her, and even now she is not being offered her old job back but instead a new job in Agriculture.
Many organizations have employees that some peers or bosses don’t like but are very hard to fire. That is forced downsizing is sometimes likes because it provides an opportunity to get rid of them. Various bad qualities include “not pulling weight”, “deadwood” or “not a team player” which includes “voicing criticism” and “dis-loyalty”.
I would guess Sherrod is not being offered her old job because there was or now definitely is bad blood between her and her bosses.
lacp
I think Cheney’s domestic policy is spreading through the Gulf of Mexico.
Elizabelle
Kevin Drum has an interesting blogpost up on this topic, on trying to understand the mindset of the American conservative.
“Help Me Understand the Right. Really.”
http://motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2010/07/my-empathy-problem
And yes, having seen “Inception” last night, recent life does feel like Groundhog Day in a political world that FoxNews programs.
meander
“Although, let’s face it- beyond shooting someone in the face I’m unaware of any domestic policy that Dick Cheney was behind.”
I think you’ve forgotten about energy policy. Remember the secret task force? Or the legislation that loosened drilling safety requirements and made the BP disaster more likely? And then there was legislation and regulations that are allowing fracking to f*ck-up water supplies all across the U.S. — first in the West and now in the East. The exemption from water quality and environmental laws for natural gas drillers has Cheney’s fingerprints all over it.
JCT
This whole thing gave me a serious sad on so many levels.
Luckily there’s the brutal Wonketeers to help cheer me up — today they tore that reprehensible blob of slime mold, Newt Gingrich a new one over his piling on with the Grifter re: the new site of the Cordoba House in Lower Manhattan.
If you need a laugh — check it out.
Bill Murray
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): I thought he was the leader of the 5th Panzer Division during the Battle of the Bulge, but it turned out that was Hasso von Manteuffel. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the Wehrmacht from the SS
Greg
Some sort of memo must have gone out today because over at NRO, which had been pretty sympathetic to Sherrod this morning, all of the entries are now “Breitbart is being railroaded! He made a wholly understandable error in complete good faith and has apologized and he is not a racist like all of the liberals and he is a MUCH better journalist and has much more integrity than Dan Rather who is a big fat unrepentant liar pants”. I had to stop reading because I was afraid I was going to hurl my laptop at the wall.
matoko_chan
i think Breitbart was pranked.
Who in their right mind would try to slur the daughter of a black man killed by a white farmer over a cow, and a civil rights activist that stood off the Klan with a shotgun from her own front porch?
This has got made-for-TV-movie written all over it.
Roger Moore
@Omnes Omnibus:
And Andrew Jackson. Or, if you think about coins, FDR.
Mark S.
@Roger Moore:
And JFK. They still make half-dollars, right?
matoko_chan
The Shirley Sherrod Story….tonight! on CNN or NBC? how about FOXfamily?
And Breitbart gets to play the villian.
He was pranked and he can’t admit it….too funnie.
matoko_chan
you guys gotta watch that…..he is going crazy…..hes raving about the movie Crash.
keep digging dude.
Keith G
Nothing new here. As some refuse to believe, this is war. And no, this does not mean screaming on TV every night or preachy exhortations from the West Wing.
I do believe it does mean planning for inevitable insurgent activity. Something they should have done before Monday.
This isn’t obsessive or compulsive, its politics as it has been practiced for generations. I hope they can learn on they move.
And Another Thing...
@monkeyboy: Interesting observation.. The woman who called Sherrod 3 times on the phone, had her blackberry her resignation, told her the White House wanted her to resign is Cheryl Cook, Rural Development Deputy Under Secretary, presumably her boss, as Sherrod was a state director in that part of the agency.
I’d argue that it’s wise of Vilsack to offer her a different position with a different boss. Ms. Cook’s going to have plenty issues to do with without maintaining a reasonable working relationship with Sherrod.
Interesting that you would assume there’s some kind of problem with Sherrod, for which there doesn’t appear to be evidence, rather than believing what Vilsack said which was that he reacted without proper investigation.
Kryptik
@matoko_chan:
Tell me you’re joking.
They managed to make Max Cleland, a man who lost all but an arm by JUMPING ON A GRENADE TO HELP HIS FELLOW SOLDIERS into a coward, Anti-American terrorist sympathizer. Successfully so, at least enough to smear him out of his Senate seat.
The only thing that saves you from the venom on the right is being sufficiently crazy, and furthermore the right(-wing) sort of crazy.
Breitbart probably went after her precisely BECAUSE of all those things, as it meant the water is polluted even further, the race issue made even more toxic, and hey, it keeps those goddamned brown people even more down enough to keep them from voting for Dems like they always do.
Mnemosyne
@monkeyboy:
My now ex-boss only screamed at me for not stapling fast enough and that was enough for me to quit. I can only imagine what it was like to have your asshole boss screaming at you that the White House was demanding your resignation.
Mrs. Sherrod seems to be a lovely, forgiving woman, but that’s the kind of thing you forgive AFTER that person is no longer your boss.
And Another Thing...
@matoko_chan: In a rational world, who would try to smear a woman with her background. But he probably knew nothing of her background and why would he waste the time, he thought of her as ammunition to shoot at the NAACP. I don’t think he thought of her as a person.
I’m close to Sherrod’s age and for me civil rights was a very important issue and I paid attention and had fights with my parents over the issue… And I know very little of what Sherrod had to deal with in her Georgia county and lots of other places..
Adam Serwer has a great post up on the subject. I followed one of his links to Taylor Branch’s book about civil rights and it is just blood curdling stuff.
http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/adam_serwer_archive?month=07&year=2010&base_name=sherrods_tale
And you’re absolutely right, it should be a movie…can you say Oprah Winfrey.
matoko_chan
@And Another Thing…:
oh that is genius.
may i touch the hem of your garment?
Nick
@Kryptik: Max Cleland, btw, the reason why Democrats are so afraid of the right.
Cleland’s defeat showed that no matter how audacious and disgusting a right wing lie can be, it can and often does work, even when aggressively challenged and especially when the political winds are moving away from you.
R. Porrofatto
Here’s what makes these people out and out racists: They believe that it’s not only plausible, but likely that an African-American administration official would proudly boast about deliberately treating whites worse than blacks (or as one conservative put it — Sherrod talked as if doing so was “a feather in her cap”) to the appreciative glee of a black audience at the NAACP, because this is what they believe goes on behind closed doors at NAACP meetings — the celebration of their hatred of whites only waiting to be exposed by a brave Brietbart. These are the people who are quick to believe that it’s not only credible, but likely that Michelle Obama is on a videotape somewhere screaming “Whitey!” because that’s what they think black leaders do. They believe insane things because their bigotry inclines them to believe it, nothing more or less.
ciotog
@R. Porrofatto: They believe we’re just as racist as they are, in other words, just directed at whites rather than members of minority groups.
El Cid
The real racists are all those blacks who organized blacks to go vote in the 1960s, because they should have been organizing whites too. So every time a black audience applauds the sorts of voting rights campaigns that the Sherrods took on, it’s racist. If only there were non-racist like Ronald Reagan.
Mojotron
hes raving about the movie Crash.
he has clearly lost his mind.
that American Scene/CBS clip is painfully maddening. Just non-stop bullshitting from Breitbart.
edit: Holy crap- just got to the Crash part, hahahahahaha
monkeyboy
@And Another Thing…:
If you read what I wrote, I didn’t assume there was a problem with Sherrod. If a boss had a problem with Sherrod that may have been the boss’s problem, not Sherrod’s. Her being offered a new job, not her old job indicates that somebody had a problem.
Elizabelle
monkeyboy: thanks for your info on Sherrod new job offer. I think it was you who answered me on an earlier thread. I was curious why she wasn’t going back to her old job …
Steeplejack
@Davis X. Machina:
I’m not a hater, but I do wonder–how in the fuck do you spend $2 million on a wedding? Anybody’s wedding? (Note: outside of European royal families where the alternative is a ruinous war between the Triple Alliance and the Entente Cordiale.)
Thrutch
Regarding the lack of appropriate terms for right wing, racist enablers; might I suggest Retrograde Ejaculates? Having just finished reading Set Oculus’ post “You’ve Got it all Backwards” in http://scienceblogs.com/isisthescientist/ “On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess” BTW do not read the later post by Isis if you have damaged ribs – it hurts
matoko_chan
Cole….just what is it that Breitbart and the right think to gain by pushing the meme that the teabaggers are not the racists, the NAACP is? Do they think a single youth or minority voter has changed sides as a result? Do they think “the other guys do it too” is going to win them support from youth and minorities?
The only people that believe the TPM is not racist, are the teabaggers themselves….and Breitbart already has them.
In that video clip where Breitbart raves about the movie Crash and…..how can any sapient watch that and not get that the guy is just flailing like mad?
Williams frankly racist outburst and the TP Federation’s subsequent expulsion of him proved there are racists in the TPM, and racists in leadership positions even.
What is the point of this exercise? That the TPM is being unfairly tagged as racist? But youth and minority voters KNOW the teaparty has a lot of racist membership–its OBVIOUS–for fifty years conservatives have practiced memetic selection for racists. Now they know they need to turn it off…..and they can’t.
tick…tick…..tick…
redoubt
@That’s Master of Accountancy to You, Pal (JMN): “Hans von Spakovsky” sounds like bigot, because his life’s work has been to deprive non-white citizens of their voting rights, first here in Georgia and now in Virginia.
redoubt
@matoko_chan: Not Cole, but: This is about firing up the base. Nothing more or less. (These are people who already lock their car doors and clutch their purses when they see people who look like me.) This is, to be even cruder: a setup for a November hate-f***k by the right wing.
Dave in ME
He looks like an illegal immigrant – have his papers been checked recently?
Bill Murray
@redoubt: Bush put him on the FEC too — via recess appointment — Nominated December 15, 2005, recess appointed January 4, 2006. After his recess appointment expired he was renominated but was not approved for 2 and a half years until his nomination was withdrawn
Pug
@PaminBB:
Of course Lincoln was a founder. So was Ulysses S. Grant. At least that’s what they teach down here in Texas.
Oh wait . . . I forgot those guys were Yankees. Never mind.
Craig
The NAACP audience cheered and applauded racism….Fox News put on a full-court press of the edited video and got Sherrod fired…..blah, blah, blah.
It’s all bullcrap political point-making by cynical pundits and media sources to whip up distracting emotions from their Pavlov-ian supporters.
-
“lack of appropriate terms for right wing, racist enablers”
people playing the “playing the race card” card?