The Republic of T.

Steven D, at Booman, notes that Bill O’Reilly is still attacking Shirley Sherrod.

Bill O’Reilly, the first entertainer propagandist news analyst on Fox News to run the edited, out of context Breitbart clip of Shirley Sherrod, walked back his intense criticism of her today. He framed it as an apology. You decide if that’s what it really was, because frankly I call B*llsh*t on you Mr. O’Reilly for daring to call what you said an apology. Because by God it was worse than if you had done nothing at all:

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly offered a rare mea culpa Wednesday, apologizing for airing a controversial tape of a speech given by a black U.S. Dept. of Agriculture official that was edited to make it appear she was racist. […}

“I owe Ms. Sherrod an apology for not doing my homework, for not putting her remarks into the proper context,” he said on "The O’Reilly Factor," adding that his own words had been taken out of context by critics in the past. “I well understand the need for honest reporting.”

Sounds good right? Well until you get to this part:

On Wednesday, the host said that he “did not analyze the entire transcript, and that was not fair.” Still, O’Reilly called her a "longtime liberal activist" and said the language Sherrod used suggested that she “very well may see things through a racial prism." He said she belonged in the private sector, not working for the government.

It gets worse from there. Read the rest of Steven’s post for that.

Meanwhile, I was inspired.

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"It hurts me that they didn’t even try to attempt to see what is happening here, they didn’t care."

Shirley Sherrod – on her forced resignation from the USDA within hours airing of a heavily edited video of Sherrod speaking at an NAACP event by right wing media, in an attempt to portray her and the NAACP as racist. The full video of Sherrod’s speech showed otherwise.

Mr. President,

With all due respect, it’s time to man up. It is time, way past time for you to grow into the job you were elected to do, and promised to do. It is time to stand up and be the man we hope we elected. It is time to justify that hope, and the trust that was placed in you. It is time to pick up the mantle of history that has been entrusted to you and prove yourself worthy of carrying it forward.

Too much is at stake now. Too many people are beginning to think their faith in you was misplaced. What’s worse is you are proving them right.

Strike one was Van Jones.

Strike two was ACORN.

And now Shirley Sherrod had become strike three.

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Right now, there are about three or four things, news items and such, that I’d like to write about. Some I’ve wanted to write about for more than week. In the meantime, I’ve actually had to read what everyone else has written about those topics — as I’ve been trying to find time to write about them — and realized it’s taken me so long find time to write about them that if I managed finally managed to do so now, I’d pretty much just be repeating what everyone else had time to write while I didn’t.

And, as I’m writing this, I’ve already thought of something I’d like to write about the Shirley Sherrod story that I probably won’t be able to find time to write about until sometime next week — when it’s not likely to be news anymore, and almost nobody will be talking about it. I’d probably be better off just linking to what everyone else has (and will) write about in a couple of digest posts.

And I find myself asking, what’s the point? Is there a point in me writing what most people can and probably have read somewhere else? Is there a point in just posting a link and a blockquote? (Again, something most people can and will read elsewhere before they find their way to this particular blog?) Is there a point to me writing an extra thousand words or so — as I have many times — in the course of even trying to find an angle or an insight that’s even just kinda sorta unique? When it comes to blogging, is there value to just being a voice in the choir? Does it help?

Lately, I’ve also experience deja vu upon reading about a story or topic that’s caught fire, that I wrote about weeks or even months earlier. (Sometimes I attempt to resurrect those posts from oblivion, by linking to them in a new post.) I’m reminded of the philosophical question, “If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

Is there a point at which having something to say is really having nothing to say? Is it the point at which it’s already been said over and over again? Does only become something to say when a somebody says it? Or is it nothing to say when a nobody says it?

Is there anybody out there?

Where’s the Tea Party when you really need them? There’s a bit of investigative reporting from the Washington Post that ought to have launched a Tea Party protest, complete with signs, slogans, and speeches (from the likes of Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin, and Rand Paul — just to name a few.)

Tax dollars spend on a Mercedes? For someone on the government payroll? It seems right up their alley. Come on people. The placards and impassioned speeches practically write themselves.

So far, though. Nothing. Maybe they’re too busy demanding that the government hold BP accountable for the oil disaster in the Gulf.

Oh. Wait.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 12th through July 19th:

• Robert L. Borosage: Bipartisan Blight 2: Will Dodd Kill Consumer Financial Protection Agency? –
• Bipartisan Blight IV: The Shrinking Jobs Bill | OurFuture.org –
• Bipartisan Blight III: Evan Bayh Bye | OurFuture.org –
• Bipartisan Blight | OurFuture.org –
• Who’s obtuse and out of touch? –
• Arianna Huffington: The Unemployment Benefits Stalemate: Our Broken Politics on Full Display –
• As the Facts Come Out about Arizona, the Politicians Become More Shrill –

I write like
P. G. Wodehouse

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Apparently, according to this website.

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Like Michael Tomasky, this pretty much sums up my mood right now.

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It would be funny, if only it wasn’t reality. That’s what I thought when I came across this while perusing videos on my iPhone recently.

It’s a pretty good compliation of the recent insanity. It’s good political satire. If it was an obvious parody, I could laugh. But it’s not. And as good as it is, the video doesn’t begin to capture the breadth and depth of the present political insanity. (After all, there’s only so much one can cram into three minutes or less.)

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There are times when you wonder a politician actually believes what he’s saying, is just seeing how much he can get away with saying, doesn’t know how reality-challenged he sounds, or doesn’t care. In Mitch McConnell’s case, his statement that "there’s no evidence whatsoever that the Bush tax cuts actually diminished revenue" is probably a bit of all of the above.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 10th through July 11th:

• It’s Friday so I must be channeling Paul Krugman –
• Obama Must Push for Jobs Creation, Not Deficit Reduction –
• Report: Wealthy Reap Rewards While Those Who Work Lose –
• Headless bodies and other immigration tall tales in Arizona –
• A defense of fairness act –
• We have abandoned the Haitians | editorial –
• Laffer Riot — programs from the conservative idea factory –
• Rand Paul: America’s Poor Are Lucky to Have it so Good! –
• Putting America Back to Work with Green Jobs –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 8th through July 9th:

• Who's Afraid of Progressive Taxation? –
• Walking Away Rich –
• Time to Backlash at Public Employee Bash –
• Up Against the Tanning Bed, Whitey! –
• BREAKING: Defense of Marriage Act found unconstitutional by district court –
• Tim Geithner, Government Employee. –
• BP slated to claim $600 million in ethanol tax credits this year –
• Can’t Call It Progress: African-Americans Are Earning Less Than Their Parents Did –
• We’re in a Recession Because the Rich Are Raking in an Absurd Portion of the Wealth –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 7th from 11:00 to 19:00:

• These Aren’t The Good Old Days –
• When Life Gives You Lemonade, Conservatives Make Lemons –
• Ian Fletcher: The Myth of the Global Economy –
• When Will America Be Free From BP? –
• Van Jones Rails Against 'That Little Idiot Box': Fox News –
• “Acting White” Just Standard Bullying, Racialized. –

In American politics, especially in post-9/11 politics, what most desperately needs saying is often banished to the realm of the unsayable. It’s either too impolite or too impolitic to utter. This tends to apply more to the left than the right. Almost nothing’s unsayable for right-wingers, and almost everything they say is justifiable. (Just ask them.) The problem is that being impolite or impolitic doesn’t make what the unsayable untrue, or any less in need of someone to say it. But it ensures that no one on the left will say it.

Fortunately, Dean Baker didn’t let that stop him from recently dubbing the GOP "a party of unemployment."

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 6th through July 7th:

• Why aren’t tea parties demanding that the government hold BP accountable on behalf of taxpayers? –
• As Dalai Lama Marks 75th Birthday, A Look at His Views on the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Tibet –
• Emma Ruby-Sachs: Lingle Vetoes Hawaii Civil Unions, Threatens Tax Base And Equal Rights –
• Republicans Want as Many Unemployed People as Possible, Because They Think It Will Get Them Elected –
• Jim Hightower | Six Ways to Reassemble Amercia’s Democracy –
• Parental happiness and the welfare state –
• Chris Geidner: Answer the Question –
• George Will struggles to recognize madness –
• Afghanistan: Why Do We Stay? –
• Time to Put the Deficit Commission Out of Our Misery –

Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for July 4th through July 6th:

• Picking Up the Slack –
• BP Oil Spill Fouls Water, Land and Air –
• America needs to make its bad jobs better –
• Pass the Damn Unemployment Benefits! –
• What the Tea Parties Miss: Some Regulation Is Key to a Well-Functioning Society –
• Michael Tomasky: The United States of Wal-Mart –
• Op-Ed Columnist: Punishing the Unemployed –
• A Radicalized GOP Might Take Over Our Government: Do Voters Realize What’s at Stake? –

It probably seems like I’m “a day late and a dollar short,” with a post about Ireland’s economic disaster days after the New York Times story about the high cost of austerity measures in Ireland echoed all over the progressive blogosphere. But I’m not. It just took me a few days to recover from the intense deja-vu.

See, back in April, the Heritage Foundation ranked Ireland #5 in its “economic freedom” index for 2010. That, of course, warranted some investigation.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for June 30th through July 1st:

• Failure at the G-20 –
• Defining Values — if a Democrat votes against exstending unemployment insurance, on what possible basis can they identify as Democrats? –
• BP: Beyond Prosecution –
• Regulators Made Sure Goldman Sachs Got All of its Bailout Money –
• Editorial: Who Will Fight for the Unemployed? –
• Money isn’t real — but people are. Why do our leaders think the opposite? –
• Unhinged on the right –

Every time I write one of these posts, I think — or, rather, I hope — it will be the last one. Maybe that’s because I harbor two apparently unrealistic hopes: (1) that no more children will be hurt, abused, or killed by the people who are supposed to care for them, and (2) that people will stop putting our parenting in the same category as people who do hurt, abuse, and kill their own children.

Like I said, these are unrealistic hopes. Maybe someday the reality of child abuse will be like a nightmare that fades from memory and into the distant past. But not today. And maybe someday, people will stop calling all that we do as parents — from making dinner to helping with homework, etc. — as abuse, because it’s part of being a parent, and because We’re doing it. Maybe someday. But not today

Certainly not with Pride season upon us, when the AFA finds out there’s a kid kicking off a pride parade.

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Here are some of the people writing about some of the stuff I wish I had time to write about, for June 24th through June 25th:

• Your Lousy Congress –
• The world wasn’t better in the past — but I was. –
• The Other Offshore Disaster –
• Arbitrary and Capricious, Indeed –
• Sucking the Teat –
• Sen. Stabenow: Republicans “willing to take the people of this country down with them” –
• America Detached from War –
• Ritual Sacrifice Failure — GOP getting squeezed by owners on both ends –
• The GOP has forgiven Joe Barton, but here are six reasons not to forget him –
• Michael Tomasky: Are Republicans putting elections ahead of economy? –