COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Retraction and Apology to Shirley Sherrod.



RETRACTION AND APOLOGY

I just found out that the tape featured above was edited unfairly and does not represent how Shirley Sherrod conducts herself today. That is unfair. I do not know all that happened, but the wife of the white farmer claims that Ms. Sherrod helped save their farm. That is enough for me.

I have erased my post because it is unfair that they should stay on the internet forever. I apologize for any hurt that my words have caused Ms. Sherrod and her family. I will leave my comments stand as a lesson to myself.
_______________________

Shirley Sherrod, an official at the United States Department of Agriculture has resigned after a speech she gave at an NAACP function in March was aired on Breitbart News and other conservative news outlets. In the speech, Sherrod, whose job it was to help farmers facing foreclosure of their farms, regaled a sympathetic audience with a story of how she had held back from helping a white farmer for reasons that she openly admitted on tape were racial in nature. The Dakota Voice quotes the video of Sherrod’s speech as follows:

The first time I was faced with having to help a white farmer save his farm. He took a long time talking but he was trying to show me he was superior to me. I know what he was doing. But he had to come to me for help. What he didn’t know, while he was talking all that time trying to show me he was superior to me, was I was trying to decide just how much help I was going to give him. I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farm land, and here I was faced with having to help a white person save their land.

So I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do.

Sherrod concluded her anecdote by saying that she sent the farmer to one of “his own kind” to get appropriate help. By “his own kind” Sherrod meant a white lawyer. The furor attending this speech led Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack To accept Sherrod’s resignation, according to CNN News.


Read The Full Story: USDA Official, Shirley Sherrod Resigns After Inflammatory Anti White Speech


130 comments:

  1. Friday, February 19, 2010


    USDA reaches $1.25 billion settlement in black farmer discrimination case
    Jonathan Cohen at 12:01 PM ET



    [JURIST] The US Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Justice (DOJ) [official websites] on Thursday announced [press release] a $1.25 billion settlement for African American farmers claiming they suffered racial discrimination in USDA loan programs. The settlement arises from the Pigford Case [CRS backgrounder, PDF], a class-action suit that was re-opened with the passage [JURIST report] of a 2008 Farm Bill [HR 6124 materials] to farmers left out of a 1999 settlement after missing a filing deadline and to thousands more who argued that the terms of the settlement were inadequate. Under the terms of the new settlement, individual farmers may demonstrate their entitlement to relief through a non-judicial claims process, and:


    claimants who establish their credit-related claims will be entitled to receive up to $50,000 and debt relief. A separate track may provide actual damages of up to $250,000 through a more rigorous process. The actual value of awards may be reduced based on the total amount of funds made available and the number of successful claims.


    In addition to the settlement, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack [official profile] said the USDA is implementing "a comprehensive program to take definitive action to move USDA into a new era as a model employer and premier service provider."

    The Virginia-based National Black Farmers Association was allowed to proceed [JURIST report] with this suit because the Farm Bill included a provision [AP file report] that expressly permitted new claims of improper discrimination in the allocation of USDA resources, including loans, disaster relief, and other resources. In 1997, black farmers alleged in Pigford v. Glickman [BFAA backgrounder] that they were being denied USDA farm loans or forced to wait longer for loan approval than were non-minority farmers. The case was settled, and the court approved a consent decree, which set up a two-track dispute resolution system.


    They call USDA 'the last plantation'--since I don't have audio I don't know what she is saying but it's probably something along the lines of 'payback time.' By the way if you need those emergency loans it's unlikely you'll make it longterm anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not to change the subject but...

    What motivated Dana Priest to shit in the national security punchbowl?

    ReplyDelete
  3. It's caused quite the little stir.

    ReplyDelete
  4. According to Rasmussen, the President is at 46.5 approval.

    Andrew Sullivan notes:

    At this point in his presidency, Ronald Reagan had 42 percent approval and was headed to a low of 37 percent. Clinton was at 42 percent, headed to a low of 39 percent. George W. Bush was at 76 percent approval. Truman was at 34 percent.





    76 percent. Those were heady days.

    Absent a 9/11, would there have been a second term? I wonder.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The loathsome Andrew Sullivan?

    Dana Priest is back with Round 2:

    In June, a stone carver from Manassas, Va., chiseled another perfect star into a marble wall at CIA headquarters, one of 22 for agency workers killed in the global war initiated by the 2001 terrorist attacks.

    The intent of the memorial is to publicly honor the courage of those who died in the line of duty, but it also conceals a deeper story about government in the post-9/11 era: Eight of the 22 were not CIA officers at all. They were private contractors.

    To ensure that the country's most sensitive duties are carried out only by people loyal above all to the nation's interest, federal rules say contractors may not perform what are called "inherently government functions." But they do, all the time and in every intelligence and counterterrorism agency, according to a two-year investigation by The Washington Post.

    What started as a temporary fix in response to the terrorist attacks has turned into a dependency that calls into question whether the federal work force includes too many people obligated to shareholders rather than the public interest and whether the government is still in control of its most sensitive activities. In interviews last week, both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and CIA Director Leon Panetta said they agreed with such concerns.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ironical. She was urging her compatriots to go to work for the "Gvummint" because you "can't get fired." I guess that was wrong.

    ReplyDelete
  7. "Dana Priest is back with Round 2"

    I saw that on my kitchen table.

    ReplyDelete
  8. On the one hand, contractors are more easily hired and fired than government employees.

    I know the military, which is the lion's share of the intel budget, quite literally cannot do without them.

    On the other hand, it IS about raking in the bucks for those corporations so involved.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Obama is beating the Pubs to death with their opposition to Extending Unemployment Benefits.

    Dems Jump to Six Point Lead in Gallup Generic Ballot.

    Republicans are the Stupidest Human Beings on Planet Earth.

    ReplyDelete
  10. On the other hand, it IS about raking in the bucks for those corporations so involved.

    Which is not to say it shouldn't be.

    They are business concerns, after all.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Whether Mr Sullivan is loathsome, or not, the popularity numbers of the Presidents at this point in their tenures are, shall we say, revealing.

    Obama is more than holding his own, when compared to his predecessors.

    My wife showed me her 401k statement, Team Obama has restored a lot of personal wealth, out here in the Heartland.
    Gotta give 'em credit, where credit is due.

    That there are racist, bigoted and irresponsible Federal employees, well, nothing new there.

    At least that white farmer, he was not sent to an internment camp, by the Federals for the duration of the crisis.
    As they have done to other US citizens, on a Race/ National origin basis, in the past.

    At least the Federals did not deny him any assistance, as they have done to others, based upon Race, in the past.
    At least the basis of the discrimination was not written in the Law, as it was in the past.

    She was just another errant Federal, that got hooked on her own petard.

    ReplyDelete
  12. 10% Unemployment, and, months before a crucial election Pubs decide they want to Filibuster "Extending Unemployment Benefits."

    Great Move.

    Clyburn ate Pence alive this weekend when he asked him if he wanted to "Pay For" extending the Tax Cuts for the Rich? All Pence could do was stammer.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "Republicans are the Stupidest Human Beings on Planet Earth."

    I know I'm looking forward to a crash and burn, if only to uphold my reputation as a soothsayer.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wretched:

    "In retrospect, starting the Belmont Club changed my life and though at first I was at first tempted to believe that it was singular or perhaps a rare experience, I am increasingly convinced that it was typical; that hundreds of thousands of people who lived the last ten years can say the same thing. Indeed one of the reasons it has experienced a measure of success is probably because many of its readers, without quite thinking about it recognize in its voice something of an echo..."

    Sentence really should end there.

    Echo indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  15. It looks like the only real job creation is coming from Washington, all federal jobs, being paid for with borrowed money, a net job killer.

    3000 and 2500 pages of new laws will add another burden to employers.

    Housing prices have a way to go and the direction is down.

    The banks have been hoarding cash and holding foreclosed properties. Anyone contemplating real estate has to be concerned that the bank held inventory, if put on the market will further depress prices.

    The feds have depressed interest rates so that savers effectively get nothing on their money.

    There is very little positive incentive for anyone to expand their business and there is every indication that higher taxes, more regulation and weak demand will punish employers that do expand.

    If a company needs to expand and they can outsource they will. Look at the federal example.

    It is the perfect storm on groundhog day.

    ReplyDelete
  16. one of the reasons it has experienced a measure of success is probably because many of its readers, without quite thinking about it recognize in its voice something of an echo..."

    The metaphor is flawed. An echo is a concert of one. He should have said a chorus.

    ReplyDelete
  17. A Chorus in an Echo Chamber?

    ReplyDelete
  18. How about lip syncing with an air guitar?

    ReplyDelete
  19. The problem as I see it is, we're not "exporting" enough. Especially, in light of the fact that we're "importing" $300 Billion worth of oil every year.

    We're being out-competed by Germany on the "High End" Consumables (especially, cars,) and getting our ass kicked on the "Low End" by China.

    It's very unlikely that we'll "double" our exports as Owamba wants, so the answer is we'll have to cut our "imports," and that spells O. I. L.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Do you ever wonder if he reads this blog?

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thing about Wretchard is, he's a too smooth for his own good political operator.

    Everything is so carefully, delicately crafted.

    ReplyDelete
  22. It this a "Blog?"


    Damn, I thought it was a "Bar."

    ReplyDelete
  23. He read it when it opened. I used to read him as well.

    ReplyDelete
  24. No one will ever accuse us of caution.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yeah, if "Trojan" had to depend on this bunch they'd be out of business in a month. :)

    ReplyDelete
  26. Camp David is not good enough for His Worship. He goes where the family always goes, Maine, Martha's Vineyard, to all the traditional Obama estates.

    The only difference is he takes the 747 limo and another plane for the dog.

    However:

    WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama wants federal workers to cut down on business travel and commuting by car as he seeks to reduce heat-trapping emissions produced by the federal government.
    The White House was announcing Tuesday that the government will aim to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions from indirect sources like employee driving by 13 percent in 2020, compared with 2008 levels.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I've seen more chauffeured Lincoln Town Cars in my little strip than I've seen in ages.

    Do I care?

    No.

    ReplyDelete
  28. The helicopters, though, I could do without.

    ReplyDelete
  29. They've got to switch from Ford prodcts to some government motors brand.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Blago brothers taking the stand

    Deposed Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich is expected to finally step into the witness box at his corruption trial on Tuesday, though exactly when will depend partly on how quickly prosecutors finish cross-examining his brother.

    For most of the trial, co-defendant Robert Blagojevich faded into the background. But in a full day of testimony Monday, the sometimes emotional older brother told jurors he had no part in alleged plans to trade Barack Obama's former Senate seat for campaign funds or a Cabinet post for his sibling, and that he never put illegal pressure on potential political donors.

    Taking the stand in his own defense, Robert Blagojevich said that his brother's advisers told him not to link any efforts to raise money for the Rod Blagojevich campaign to the governor's official actions.

    Earlier, he had testified that he agreed to become the chairman of his brother's campaign in 2008 in an effort to get closer to his brother and to keep a promise they both made to their mother before she died: that they would help each other.


    Meanwhile I'm trying to find out what the court gave my aprtment house owing drug dealer. Will he spend more time behind bars than Bernie Madoff?

    Should know the answer this afternoon.

    Justice Is Blind

    ReplyDelete
  31. The fact he pled guilty intrigues me, his wife was in it up to her neck. They had just built a new house, and I bet it had a grow room. He told me on the phone it was for medical purposes on his doctors advice, though he looked to me in perfect health, reshingling part of a roof for me, crawling around up there. I'm the guy that could use the stuff for my back. I think he was shipping product to his brother in San Diego. But, there's a noble man, indeed, taking the whole hit for his wife, true love. If my musing are at all correct.

    ReplyDelete
  32. We need to build about 3,000 of these. Inbicon opens in Europe

    That one was co-located with a coal-fired plant. In my scheme we would use a smaller lignin-fueled power plant.

    I really believe this is where we're going. If we started this, Tomorrow, it would be a serious help to the economy. Unfortunately, we won't.

    ReplyDelete
  33. He's never coming back, is he?

    ReplyDelete
  34. The lawn people have thoroughly destroyed my day.

    ReplyDelete
  35. ah here it is---150 days in jail, 4 years probation, he could have gotten 10 years, the wife skips with nothing, get yourself a good lawyer.

    In other local news, the Idiot Idaho Fish and Game Department, having destroyed the elk herds, with nothing else to do, is recommending, against even the Ninth Federal District Court of Appeals out of San Francisco, Endangered Species Act Protection for the Giant Palouse Earthworm, which none of the early farmers I've talked to had ever heard of, much less seen.

    Well, you got to do something to earn your government paycheck right?

    We'd all of us be better off if we just sent them a monthly stipend, and told them to go on a monthly ocean cruise.

    ReplyDelete
  36. They may be the World's largest energy users, but they're Not sitting around, waiting for the coal to run out. Huge Solar Installation

    Over a "Train Station?" Sheesh

    ReplyDelete
  37. And in one other item of local news some enviro group or other is protesting some wind farm on some local ridge as 'a threat to human health'--not the birds, but human health.

    And I thought they were all for the windmills, but, not so.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Republican candidates now hold a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, July 18, the widest gap between the two parties in several weeks.

    A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely Voters would vote for their district's Republican congressional candidate, while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Support for Republicans inched up a point from last week, while support for the Democrat fell two points.

    While solid majorities of Democrats and Republicans support the candidates of their respective party, voters not affiliated with either party prefer the Republican candidate by a 47% to 21% margin.

    Republicans have led on the Generic Ballot since mid-June 2009, and their lead hasn’t dipped below five points since the beginning of December. Twice this year, they've posted a 10-point lead. However, the results were much different during the last two election cycles when Democrats regularly had large advantages.


    Rasmussan

    ReplyDelete
  39. She should have listened to this song before she gave her speech.

    Life's a Bowl of Cherries? Nah

    Life's a Jar of Jalapenos

    It'll come back and burn your ass, tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  40. how the heck could lawn people destroy anyone's day?

    I could understand if it were a greenskeeper you were talking about but you lawn...?

    ReplyDelete
  41. :)
    heh that wasn't bad, Ash

    ReplyDelete
  42. The noise, Ash.

    And I've had my fill of noise lately.

    ReplyDelete
  43. It is terrible when the servants impinge upon your quiet solitude!

    ReplyDelete
  44. BP Standard vs Indusry Standard

    Download full background on the above graphic.

    Sources:

    Letter to Tony Hayward from Representatives Bart Stupak and Henry Waxman, June 14, 2010.
    The Wall Street Journal, “Unusual Decisions Set Stage For BP Disaster,” by Ben Casselman and Russell Gold, May27, 2010.

    Learn More from the Experts

    The BP Gulf disaster was a tragic accident, but also a preventable accident. It was the decisions made by BP officials regarding the design and safety oversight of the well prior to April 20 that eventually led the oil rig to explode and sink to the ocean floor. Join industry experts Dr. Michael Economides, Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of Houston and Bill Godsey, Scientist and Owner of Geo Logic Environmental Services, LLC of Longview Texas as they discuss how BP’s decisions contributed to the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion:

    ReplyDelete
  45. Windmills are a threat to human existence.

    Hundreds have had to move out of their houses to escape the noise/pulsing vibrations.

    ReplyDelete
  46. trish said...
    Not to change the subject but...

    What motivated Dana Priest to shit in the national security punchbowl?

    ---
    Didn't she win a prize for doing so before?

    Vague memories of a relative/friend abusing their security clearance?

    ReplyDelete
  47. "Didn't she win a prize for doing so before?"

    Dunno. So little attention have I paid to the WaPo the past five or so years.

    ReplyDelete
  48. "It is terrible when the servants impinge upon your quiet solitude!"

    Don't be a jackass.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Dana Priest

    "With two Pulitzer Prizes to her name, Dana Priest is one of the Washington Post's most celebrated reporters. Until Monday, when the Post ..."

    If you had a face like that, you'd probably be angry about just about everything, including your country.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Co-author:

    Until August 2008, when Arkin began working with Priest to create a massive database of the U.S.’s top-secret projects started in the wake of Sept. 11 — Arkin wrote the Early Warning blog on the Post website. A former Army intelligence analyst in West Berlin in the 1970s, Arkin, according to his Post biography, later did stints at Greenpeace International and Human Rights Watch — activist associations that might not pass the classic standard of journalistic objectivity that has been much debated in the wake of Post blogger David Weigel’s resignation from the Post.


    Arkin’s background was almost immediately cited by right-leaning blogs Monday as undermining the credibility of the series.


    “Without question an 'activist' can still perform journalism, even top-notch journalism,” Frank Ross wrote in Big Journalism, “but when the supposedly unbiased Washington Post trumpets a two-years-in-the-making exposé by a man their own paper regards as a left-wing activist as a straight news piece, the integrity of the ideas in the series and the paper that chose to publish them in such a clandestine way suffers. If the Washington Post is going to push such blatantly agenda driven reporting, can’t it at least fess up to it?”


    Priest knows something about being a target. Her reporting on the so-called black sites — secret prisons established by the CIA in foreign countries outside the purview of U.S. laws — won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize but was denounced by critics as jeopardizing national security.


    Arkin could not be reached for comment. But in the past, his opinions have been a source of controversy, such as the time he called the U.S.’s volunteer Army “mercenary” in a column, drawing the ire of Bill O’Reilly and an ambush interview by one of his producers.

    Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0710/39945.html#ixzz0uG2xsJ8v

    ReplyDelete
  51. Oops, that was somebody elses face:

    She has standard issue traitor face.

    Could have been attractive if she wasn't one.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Though you do remind me, Ash, of a memorable exchange upon the Special Event occasion of the husband's first manicure/pedicure:

    "Dude, I haven't done my own nails in ten years."

    ReplyDelete
  53. I'd sure like an audition with auditions-auditions.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Just got dozens of anon e-mails from the Bar:

    The one with the Chinee Characters.

    Opened one, hope it isn't infected.
    Reported them all as spam.

    ReplyDelete
  55. "Priest knows something about being a target. Her reporting on the so-called black sites — secret prisons established by the CIA in foreign countries outside the purview of U.S. laws — won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize but was denounced by critics as jeopardizing national security."

    That was her?






    Jesus Christ.

    The fun never ends, does it?

    ReplyDelete
  56. Rangers are getting pedicures these days?

    ReplyDelete
  57. "Republicans are the Stupidest Human Beings on Planet Earth."

    Which of course excludes the Human Beings in the International Space Station.

    ReplyDelete
  58. I started getting some weird fucking email last year.

    Since I stopped checking, it's stopped coming.

    ReplyDelete
  59. "Rangers are getting pedicures these days?"

    Laugh if you want.

    ReplyDelete
  60. ...or cry, as the case may be.

    ReplyDelete
  61. " Which of course excludes the Human Beings in the International Space Station."
    ---
    And the author of the original comment, but you already knew that.

    ReplyDelete
  62. I *knew* you were going to say that.

    Clue: There's Ranger World and then there's Black Passport World.

    ReplyDelete
  63. In Black Passport World, nobody's ironed a shirt themselves since the Carter administration.

    ReplyDelete
  64. Is there a rationale?

    I am at a loss.

    (but then, you have often found me in that condition in your presence, and have rarely lent a helping hand...)

    ReplyDelete
  65. Drama Triangle, from BC comment

    Don't have time to check it out right now:

    Hopefully it will explain social interactions at the EB and Supper Club.

    ReplyDelete
  66. mind games

    I always liked to deconstruct
    "Arsociety" rants.

    Rufus does well when commenting on Pubs/conservatives.

    ReplyDelete
  67. The covert purpose for each 'player' is to get their unspoken (and frequently unconscious) psychological wishes/needs met in a manner they feel justified, without having to acknowledge the broader dysfunction or harm done in the situation as a whole. As such, each player is acting upon their own selfish 'needs', rather than acting in a genuinely responsible or altruistic manner.[citation needed]

    The game is similar to the melodrama of hero, villain, and damsel in distress (such as Dudley Do-Right, Snidely Whiplash, and Nell Fenwick).

    ReplyDelete
  68. "Is there a rationale?"

    Um, needing to impress with the little details.

    Frightening, but it matters.

    ReplyDelete
  69. I can feel a spell of
    "poor me"
    coming on.
    Never shoulda asked.

    ReplyDelete
  70. Oops
    Spoke too soon:
    Now I'm jubilant.
    But overwhelmed with guilt.
    Poor me indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  71. Sounds like a Stereotypical View of men.
    (not being able to groom themselves)

    Does a pedicure make any difference when you never wear sandals?

    ReplyDelete
  72. "Sounds like a Stereotypical View of men."

    No, it's not that at all.

    It's a State Department thing.

    ReplyDelete
  73. Hopefully it will explain social interactions at the EB and Supper Club.

    We get Supper?

    ReplyDelete
  74. I know I'm impressed to find that the Rangers get pedicures.

    No wonder we can't win a fucking war, anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Best comment of the day:

    "Thank you, Dana Priest, for totally crashing my retirement plans."

    ReplyDelete
  76. "Yessir, Mission Accomplished, Sir, Pointe Du Hoc Taken."

    "We would have wrapped it up a little sooner, Sir; but our Pedicurist was runnin late."

    ReplyDelete
  77. "No wonder we can't win a fucking war, anymore."

    This is Blue's opportunity to enhance his Afghanistan narrative.

    ReplyDelete
  78. 'Course, the mani/pedi was in Bogota, where we're actually fucking winning something.


    Ooooooh, the irony.

    ReplyDelete
  79. Narrative, huh?
    Being generous.

    Why a pedicure if you always wear shoes?
    ...readiness in case of a communal bath?

    ReplyDelete
  80. "Why a pedicure if you always wear shoes?"

    Good question.

    Maybe she was *really* attractive.

    ReplyDelete
  81. ColUmbia,
    Now I get it:

    Barefeet de rigueur.

    Correctamundo?

    Still wonder if they get them in cold climes, and why.

    ReplyDelete
  82. My imagination is taking over my "mind"

    ...better get to work.

    ReplyDelete
  83. I was going to post a sympathetic:
    Based only on the video posted here, Ms Sherrod, appeared to react to perceived racism coming from the white farmer. Later at the end of the video she said that she learned that it wasn't about black v white but about being "poor v. those who have".

    But then, I watched the video again and realized that she deserves to be scat canned. Did you see how she backpedaled when she caught herself saying to the NAACP, "It's not about black versus white"?

    Not only is she very conflicted racially, but she sounds like she has socialist tendencies, too.

    ReplyDelete
  84. I agree with Rufus on the Repub's anti-unemployment compensation extension stance. Politically, it is a stupid, stupid position to take.

    I am dismayed that a certain Redhead desires to see the humiliation of the GOP and damn the cost to the nation.

    Go ahead, let BHO, Pelosi, Reid, the NYTimes, WAPO and Dana Priest have their unfettered way and see what happens.

    ReplyDelete
  85. Go right ahead.
    Be my guest.
    Have at it.

    Just run the damn thing into the ground...

    ;)

    ReplyDelete
  86. An addict has to hit rock bottom before he can get better.

    We haven't hit bottom yet.

    ReplyDelete
  87. Speaking of backpedaling, Uncle Joe (Biden) was spinning his way out of the guarandamnteed lot s of troop withdrawals come next July.

    Honestly, for my part, I think we should get out of Afghanistan. It's not going well there. Some allies and administration officials do not think Barack has the resolve or inclination to "win". I see no upside.

    Two soldiers from my neck of the woods have been killed there in the past two weeks. One was buried here today. The other's body is making its way home.

    ReplyDelete
  88. "I am dismayed that a certain Redhead desires to see the humiliation of the GOP and damn the cost to the nation."

    As soon as they come to their senses, I will embrace them with open arms.

    ReplyDelete
  89. West Virginia has decided to have an election for Senate this fall, which they didn't have to do I quess under there way of doing things, but it is another possible pickup for the GOP.

    ReplyDelete
  90. We don't need all this transactional analysis, and least not without some transpersonal analysis first coming to the realization that our persons are the result of the interaction of a body and a psyche and a forgotten spirit with its environment and all this kicking, scratching, biting, tearing, ripping, stabbing nightmare is the result of a failure of memory of our greater Self and that our egos are a broken off fragment of that greater Self and that birth is disasterous sleep and a forgetting and that death its antidote is an blissful awakening and a remembering but I'm preachy again.

    ReplyDelete
  91. It appears our boy, Breitbart, has done a very bad thing.

    He cut that tape to leave off the part where she realized she had done wrong, helped the farmer out, and became a friend of the family.

    All borne out by the farmer, himself.

    It is, actually, a tale of soul searching, and redemption.

    Brightbart has ruined a woman's life, for no good reason. I know I will never trust him, again.

    ReplyDelete
  92. I read a really long article well written somewhere early this morning that kinda had me convinced we best stick it out in Afghanistan but I'm sticking with my opinion of no opinion, being unable to see the future. When we leave the inevitable struggle will be won by the Taliban, it argued, they will be enthused, and hot to trot, so to speak.
    -----

    Elana Kagan is a disaster for the Supreme Court.

    ReplyDelete
  93. Despite being defended by the white farmer she allegedly discriminated against, former U.S. Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod will not get her job back.


    .Sherrod "kept us out of bankruptcy," said Eloise Spooner, 82. She and her husband Roger Sooner, who own a farm in Iron City, located in southwest Georgia, approached Sherrod in 1986 -- when she worked with the Georgia field office for the Federation of Southern Cooperative/Land Assistance Fund -- seeking assistance.

    Sherrod, who is black, was asked to resign Monday night by USDA Deputy Under Secretary Cheryl Cook after videotaped comments she made in March at a local NAACP banquet surfaced on the web indicating that she did not work as hard as she could on behalf of white farmers.

    "The comments, taken out of context or not, hinder her ability to be an effective rural development director for Georgia," said a U.S. Agriculture spokesperson who wished not to be identified. "Because of that videotape, it would be very hard for her to to be an effective messenger."

    The NAACP, which released a statement Monday critical of Sherrod, backtracked Tuesday, saying they were "snookered" by Andrew Breitbart, whose website biggovernment.com released the edited video. Breitbart did not respond to a request seeking comment.

    ReplyDelete
  94. RETRACTION AND APOLOGY

    I just found out that the tape featured above was edited unfairly and does not represent how Shirley Sherrod conducts herself today. That is unfair. I do not know all that happened, but the wife of the white farmer claims that Ms. Sherrod helped save their farm. That is enough for me.

    I have erased my post because it is unfair that they should stay on the internet forever. I apologize for any hurt that my words have caused Ms. Sherrod and her family. I will leave my comments stand as a lesson to myself.

    ReplyDelete
  95. Luxury shopping mall opens in 'beleagured' Gaza
    Thomas Lifson

    If Israel's blockade on shipping weapons and war materiel to Gaza were really so terrible, would Gaza have celebrated the opening of a new luxury shopping mall last weekend? To be sure, numbers of people are kept in tents to provide photo ops for the anti-Israel media, and to provide "victims" to fire up Jew haters. But the realitry is that Gaza enjoys abundant supplies of necessities through channels obligingly kept open by The Zionist Entity, including the building materials necessary for a shopping mall filled with luxury goods.


    Journalist Tom Gross provides pictures of the shopping mall here. Arutz Sheva quotes him:


    Gross, who has previously posted pictures of fancy restaurants, shops filled with goods, and even an Olympic-size swimming pool during the "Israeli siege," pointed out that Gaza enjoys a higher standard of living than Turkey, which recently sent citizens on a flotilla to Gaza in violation of an Israeli naval blockade of Hamas. Noting that life expectancy and literacy rates are higher in Gaza than in Turkey, while infant mortality rates are lower, he asked, "Have they considered that perhaps the humanitarian flotillas ought to be going in the other direction, towards Turkey?"

    Gaza's standard of living depends on welfare provided by others, including US Taxpayers. President Obama just increased US donations, in fact.

    from American Thinker

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  96. Two soldiers from my neck of the woods have been killed there in the past two weeks. One was buried here today. The other's body is making its way home.

    Tue Jul 20, 06:30:00 PM EDT

    It's war.










    The trick I think, whit, is to be above it all, looking down. With sadness, amusement, knowing. Whatever.

    Both sides are so full of shit.

    So full of shit and seeking some desperate advantage.

    It needn't mean being cynical, however.

    It can mean being free.

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  97. We do know what that feels like, don't we?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiLTwtuBi-o

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  98. Unfortunately, Ms Sherrod was hung out to dry by both the Administrationa and the NAACP.

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  99. The trick I think, whit, is to be above it all, looking down. With sadness, amusement, knowing. It can mean being free.

    The bodhisattva, an enlightened being who, out of compassion,forgoes nirvana in order to save others.


    I've got to get some audio, I'm missing some good music, I'm sure.

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  100. I don't think Ms Sherrod deserves to be scat canned as I stated earlier. I still think she backpedaled when she caught herself saying to the NAACP that it isn't about black versus white.

    It isn't about rich v. poor either. But I am willing to overlook minor slips...I say the Obama Administration should reinstate the woman and she should have nothing more to do with the NAACP.

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  101. I think the NAACP has outlived it's usefulness. I actually sent them some bucks, not very big bucks, long ago. Time they shut down, or if not, we should be allowed to form a National Association for the Advancement of Nordic People, without criticism, or being called racist. Tain't fair, the way it is, these days, what with La Raza, and all.

    I think we shouldn't have any groups just advocating the advancement of their own group. That's no way to unify a country.

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  102. The Greek fiscal crisis is going to come to the United States next year via the vulnerable state governments of (at least) California, Michigan and New York. Look for these states to descend once more on Washington DC with their tin cups seeking additional federal subsidies, disguised as stimulus payments. <But...with Republicans in control of both Houses (bet on it) they will meet a frosty reception on Capitol Hill. While Obama will try to pass the subsidies, the GOP will turn them down. The American people - from the other 47 states - will ask why they should reward state irresponsibility with federal dollars.

    Faced with a cutoff of additional federal aid, these state legislatures will be unable to balance their budgets and bond buyers will back off their paper. Ratings agencies will downgrade their bonds to junk status and bankruptcy will ensue.

    From there, the fiscal crunch will extend to states throughout the nation and the reduction of state expenditures will assume critical importance at just the time that a slew of Republican governors and state legislators - who have pledged not to raise taxes - will take office.

    One area they will look at closely in their efforts to rein in spending will be education. Look for the school choice and voucher movements to get a massive shot in the arm as governors and legislatures seek to find lower cost ways of improving educational quality.

    Another key focus will be on reforming state pension systems. The recent crash of 2008-2009 cost the average state pension system 30% of its assets. Already, this crunch will force legislatures to slash current spending on education, highways, law enforcement, etc. to accommodate the needs of their pension systems.

    Dick Morris

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  103. "The bodhisattva, an enlightened being who, out of compassion,forgoes nirvana in order to save others."

    Good gig if you can get it.

    : )

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  104. All you have to do is give up everything.

    :)

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  105. Funny,

    T and Melody haven't been here much lately.

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  106. Not as much fun around here without them is it?

    That was a beautiful thought, Appalachian Spring.

    Not enough pink, too much blue. All ying, no yang.

    Present company excepted, of course. :)

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  107. I was all over this place four days ago. Don't you remember? Or should we forget? Some people drunk text, I drunk blog...

    ReplyDelete
  108. I've always had an easier time with men.

    : )

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  109. Me, too. There was only one or two girls I hung out with growing up and the rest were guys. It's always been that way.

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  110. I would probably say that I even prefer working with men.

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  111. No, whit.

    I had a Mustang along side of me driving into town a few weeks ago.

    Just for the looks of it, I would have followed for a few more lights had I the time.

    Husband rented one recently.

    Worth every penny.







    But we need a truck.

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  112. "That was a beautiful thought, Appalachian Spring."

    You know we'd all be much improved if we sought these as a matter of course.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Although, in the same breath I could man bash until I'm blue in the face.

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  114. Doug,

    I am not married.

    If all goes according to plan, I will be next June.

    My former spouse was not Asian.

    My two children have dated and have friends of every major race.

    ReplyDelete
  115. "Although, in the same breath..."

    They're odd, frustrating, mysterious human beings.

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  116. Trish this is my 96 Mustang GT, still runs, has about 120 K miles on it, we took it to Montana the other day.

    ReplyDelete
  117. By the report, T, it was truly awesome to highway drive.

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  118. I've got a Mustang convertible, handed down to me from my daugher. I look really cool in it, though if it rains I have to head for cover as it has no back window in it, and I'm not putting any money into it. The annual restored car get together is going on here this week. Boy, some of those old cars, I mean really old like the twenties and thirties, even older, are truly beautiful, they take such pride in them.

    ReplyDelete
  119. http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2010/07/forty_acres_a_mule_sherrod_sty.html

    The Pigford case and Ms. Sherrod. You ought to read this, it's very illuminating. I've followed the Pigford case, and I didn't know it had gotten this bad.

    Free money!

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  120. whit said...
    I don't think Ms Sherrod deserves to be scat canned as I stated earlier. I still think she backpedaled when she caught herself saying to the NAACP that it isn't about black versus white.




    Seems to me....

    Ms Sherrod should leave the public sector. Where there is smoke there is fire...

    Enough of her comments were disgusting enough to me... REGARDLESS of this ONE specific situation she displays a bias that would fit better in private sector than to be in a position of power in the USA government.

    I suggest she apply at Rev Wright's old church, she'd fit in there just fine...

    ReplyDelete