Beck & Limbaugh: Sherrod story may have been orchestrated by White House

Um yeah, because the White House has looked so good during this story. Media Matters has all of the details for this grand conspiracy. Read More......

White House team praised firing of Sherrod yesterday, offers her job today

There's the decision making ability that Americans like to see. Rush to judgment and fire someone before all of the data has been released (which was released by a Teabagger hack) and then show concern the day after. Didn't we see enough knee-jerk decision making during the Bush years?

A short time ago, CNN reported that Secretary Vilsack called Shirley Sherrod to apologize and to offer her a job. Vilsack also made a public statement this afternoon acknowledging that he called Sherrod to offer an apology to ask whether she would consider finding a way forward. Vilsack said he accepts full responsibility and (repeatedly) said it was his decision. (Note from Joe: The speech was carried live on CNN and FOX, but not MSNBC, which seemed odd.)

What a difference a day makes.

Only yesterday there was plenty of back-slapping in the office.

One source, who is unhappy with the administration's handling of the incident, paraphrased Messina's remarks: "We could have waited all day – we could have had a media circus – but we took decisive action and it’s a good example of how to respond in this atmosphere."

But two other senior officials present at the meeting, who responded to a call to the White House press office, said the gist of Messina's words had been conveyed to POLITICO inaccurately, and that Messina -- a top political operative and senior manager -- was merely speaking in his capacity as Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and "cheerleader" to boost staffers' morale.

Messina was merely praising the White House staff for "communicating well, sharing well, basically rising to the occasion" on the Sherrod story, one official said. "It was an institutional or procedural point."

Now that the full story has come out the tone has slightly evolved.

A White House official confirmed that advisers to President Obama spoke to officials at the Department of Agriculture “and we agreed that the issue should be reviewed.” The official, speaking anonymously to reveal internal discussions, said Mr. Vilsack was amenable.

“There was a convergence there, but we did initiate the conversation,” the official said.

The last time I checked, any friendship is a two way street and not this kind of behavior. If Team Change ever wants to reflect on why so many on the left are turned off by them (not that they care) it's because of situations like this. Read More......

Obama administration may back track on firing employee after fake right wing outrage

After the Breitbart ACORN scam you would think Democrats might be suspicious of highly edited video footage that is fed to Fox News. The initial reaction by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to the edited Breitbart video was to force the resignation of Shirley Sherrod so the administration could avoid any problems with the right wing noise machine. It would be encouraging to see Vilsack change course, following a review of the entire story - not the edited version - and re-hire Sherrod. Why is it so often difficult for this administration to work with friends and appease its enemies?

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Wednesday he will reconsider the department's decision to oust a black employee over racially tinged remarks after learning more about what she said.

Vilsack issued a short statement early Wednesday morning after Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia, said she was pressured to resign because of her comments that she didn't give a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years ago.

Sherrod said her remarks, delivered in March at a local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were part of a larger story about learning from her mistakes and racial reconciliation, not racism, and they were taken out of context by a blogger who posted only part of her speech.

Vilsack's statement came after the NAACP posted the full video of Sherrod's comments Tuesday night.

Here's a bit more background by TPM on the story following Sherrod's firing. Read More......

It was a Muslim immigrant who saved the day in Times Square

From Alternet:

Yet one fact being ignored in the American media’s sensationalist narrative about the failed bombing is that the man who was responsible for police finding the bomb was Muslim. The UK’s Times Online reports that Aliou Niasse, a Senagalese Muslim immigrant who works as a photograph vendor on Times Square, was the first to bring the smoking car to the police’s attention:

Aliou Niasse, a street vendor selling framed photographs of New York, said that he was the first to spot the car containing the bomb, which pulled up right in front of his cart on the corner of 45th street and Broadway next to the Marriott hotel.

“I didn’t see the car pull up or notice the driver because I was busy with customers. But when I looked up I saw that smoke appeared to be coming from the car. This would have been around 6.30pm.”

“I thought I should call 911, but my English is not very good and I had no credit left on my phone, so I walked over to Lance, who has the T-shirt stall next to mine, and told him. He said we shouldn’t call 911. Immediately he alerted a police officer near by,” said Mr Niasse, who is originally from Senegal and who has been a vendor in Times Square for about eight years.

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Newt talks about forming a coalition with blacks against Obama and Dems

At first blush it's absurd. Then again, it's not like black leaders have been very thrilled with Obama. They, like other core Democratic constituencies (gays, Latinos, enviros, women) feel that the President has abandoned them. I doubt they'd vote Republican. I don't doubt that many might sit home and not vote at all. Read More......

It's time for the ANC to stop singing violent songs

Thanks to the leadership of Nelson Mandela, South Africa managed to peacefully move from the apartheid regime to the democratic government. It's not hard to understand that hatreds can take a long time to overcome when you think about the history there. Compared to many other governments across the continent, South Africa has fared very well and has prospered. Attempts to diversify the economic benefits throughout the population have been slow which has led to considerable frustration. That said, it's probably a good time for the ANC to stop singing songs about killing white people or grabbing your machine gun.

The outside world already talks about the violence in South Africa and with the World Cup arriving quickly, having political leaders singing songs of violence is not going to improve the image. Then again, maybe the leadership doesn't care about the image. As I've said before, I spent a lot of time traveling throughout South Africa and never once had any issue with violence.

Tension between every group - black, white and Asian - was always obvious though. South Africa needs to start behaving like the fantastic country that it is and move forward. Besides, the "kill the white person" song is especially ridiculous coming from an ANC leader who was practically a baby when Mandela came to power. Maybe he feels like a tough guy singing it but for the rest of the world he looks silly. Think like Mandela and be bigger than the hatred.

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) has told its members to refrain from singing the anti-apartheid struggle song "Shoot the Boer".

It comes amid rising racial tensions following the weekend murder of white supremacist leader Eugene Terreblanche.

His supporters have blamed ANC youth leader Julius Malema for inflaming the situation by singing the song.

The ANC's Gwede Mantashe said the death had no political motive but the song had contributed to racial polarisation.

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Congressional Black Caucus frustrated that Obama doesn't give them the time of day

Same story as everyone else. There's a consistent move to keep the entire Democratic base - blacks, Latinos, women, gays, enviros, health care reform advocates, and more - at a distance. And there's no one senior in the White House who represents many of these groups.

A year ago, members of the Congressional Black Caucus openly wept at Barack Obama's inauguration. Slowly, that euphoria has given way to frustration that his administration has not done more for black America. Questions about how to elect him have been replaced by questions about how to prod him.

For many, it is the surprise of a political lifetime that they find themselves wrestling with such quandaries. Alternately puzzled and disgruntled, CBC members say key people in the Obama administration have taken them for granted, in the belief that black members of Congress have no stomach for a fight with the country's first black president.

"We concluded they were just kind of listening to us and that then they would go back [to their offices] and conclude that we would do nothing," Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.), the vice chairman of the CBC, said of one dispute. "Because they had concluded there's a black president in the White House and that, to some degree, the Black Caucus, you know, was constrained in expressing its desires. After a while, we said, 'Hey, we see what's going on and it's nothing.' "

Members point to the CBC's four committee chairmanships and 18 subcommittee chairmanships as proof of its clout in the House. But several members said they have few African American contacts with substantial sway in the White House.

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In defense of double standards

A really excellent analysis from Ambinder:

[I]t is certainly true that the Republican Party's recent history on race almost requires any reasonable observer to treat a racially insensitive comment by a Republican differently than a racially insensitive comment by a Democrat. And that's before we even judge the content and context of said comments, which, in the case of Reid and Lott, were quite different.

That is, the right answer to the assertion: "What would have happened if a Republican said the same time today? He would have been treated differently?" is to say, "Well, probably, yes, and that in and of itself isn't unfair. It's up to you to tell me why Republicans and Democrats ought to be treated differently, when they are different parties with different histories and different trajectories on racial questions." To reach back at this point and pull out Trent Lott gets us into the false analogy rathole...

Maybe Harry Reid's comments are a resignable offense. Maybe they're beyond the pale. (I tend to think not: Reid was referring his excitement about a black presidential candidate; Lott was referring to his warm memories about a segregation's agenda). But a responsible argument for such a consequence can only begin with an analogy -- and not end with a false one.

At its most simple, it's why I can call myself a fag but you can't. Or why blacks can use the n-word but whites can't. It's not because of a double standard, it's because you are trying to compare apples and oranges, gays and straights, blacks and whites, as if they're the same thing. And they're not. And then, as Ambinder notes, there's context. Were you using the word to attack or to praise? And was the "praise" itself racist (a la Jimmy the Greek), or was it simply a poor word to explain something that is true and not racist at all?

Context matters. Read More......

A tale of two Jindals

In the post below, a reader thought that the conservatives had altered Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's portrait to make him look more white. So I did a little research. And in fact, that is Bobby Jindal's official portrait - the conservatives at the conference did not "whiten" it. Having said that, I'm having an awfully hard time finding any other photos of Jindal in which he's as light-skinned as he is in his official portrait. I can't find any. And I went through 20 pages of Google photos, or 360 photos.

Here is Bobby Jindal's official portrait:


Here is Bobby Jindal in a bunch other photos taken of him - the center photo is from his official portrait, the rest I grabbed off of Google, without paying attention to lighter and darker, just grabbed what was there.



Here are a few pages of Google photos so you can check for yourself:



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Obama responds to criticism in the black community

Politico:

President Barack Obama deflected criticism Monday that he has not been attentive enough to the African-American community, telling American Urban Radio Networks that he was unconcerned to see that kind of message coming from former supporters such as actor Danny Glover.

"If you want me to line up all the black actors, for example, who support me and put them on one side of the room and a couple who are grumbling on the other, I'm happy to have that," Obama said, adding that polls show African-Americans express "overwhelming support for what we've tried to do."

We've seen similar responses to the liberal base and the gay community. Namely, that only a few of us are actually upset with the President's, and the party's, leadership. I hope the President is simply spinning here, and not voicing his actual opinion that people aren't upset. Because they very clearly are. You can read the entire interview here. Read More......

Black caucus says Obama has done too little for African-Americans

What's most interesting about this story is two things. First, that blacks, another core Democratic constituency, are starting to be frustrated with the President, but second, that they're doing so publicly. It's thing to be ticked and to share it privately. It's quite another to go public with your concerns, which the Congressional Black Caucus is now doing. That usually means that you tried to work the privately behind the scenes, and you weren't successful. Read More......

UK police arresting people to collect DNA for database

Seriously creepy and the racial profiling is sickening. What is happening over there?

Police officers are now routinely arresting people in order to add their DNA sample to the national police database, an inquiry will allege tomorrow.

The review of the national DNA database by the government's human genetics commission also raises the possibility that the DNA profiles of three-quarters of young black males, aged 18 to 35, are now on the database.

The human genetics commission report, Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?, says the national DNA database for England and Wales is already the largest in the world, at 5 million profiles and growing, yet has no clear statutory basis or independent oversight.

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Nice job by the NFL this week

Not that I follow the NFL much, but great job this week. Owners and the NFL players union all rose up against Rush Limbaugh being a potential minority owner. After one owner spoke out and ripped him for being a hate-monger, the floodgates opened. They told him to take his money elsewhere. Limbaugh has gone into victim mode which has his knuckle dragging listeners in a frenzy. Nobody forced him to race bait so let him live with his words. It's nice to see people such a strong, unified push back by the NFL. Waaaaaahhhhhhhh.

Limbaugh blamed Smith, executive director of the NFLPA and an "Obama-ite," along with Sharpton and Jackson, whom he referred to as "race hustlers," for Checketts' decision to drop him. He said his sacking was an example of the political clout wielded by President Barack Obama's administration.

"What is happening to the National Football League, what is about to happen to it, has already happened to Wall Street, has already happened to the automobile business," Limbaugh said.

Limbaugh said he was victimized in the media by "misreporting, lying, repeating the lies while also saying 'Limbaugh denies,' repeating the made-up quotes, the blind hatred."

NOTE FROM JOHN: Yes, Rush Limbaugh is the most misunderstood man in America. It's simply unfathomable that anyone would find him controversial. That is, except Colin Powell, Lindsey Graham, Rod Dreiher, John McCain's mother... Read More......

Fringe religious right black pastor warns religious right conference to stop giving fodder to racism

Well this is interesting. A well-known far-right anti-civil-rights activist went to the religious right's Values Voters summit and warned the attendees that they need to stop acting in a way that makes people think they're racists. Absolutely fascinating. Why would he need to lecture the religious right about the way they're acting, a way that makes mainstream America think they're racists, unless they weren't in fact acting like racists?

More importantly, at the same time that many Democrats are distancing themselves from accusations that the anti-Obama anger is race-based, we have a top religious right preacher seemingly freaked out enough about the charge that he's lecturing the audience at a top religious right conference to stop doing things that make people think they're racist.

That means the charge scares the religious right. It also means that think there's a kernel of truth to it, at the very least.

And for the rest of us, that means we shouldn't be afraid to call out the far-right running the Republican party for it's intolerance and bigotry. Read More......

Has Obama ever been racially profiled?

Jake Tapper asked the question. The answer was, not really, but he has had some incidents that he felt were based on his race:

One small, as-yet-unreported example: in the Fall of 2004, then-state sen. Barack Obama was his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate seat and an emerging national figure because of his rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

But there he stood, at a country buffet in Western Illinois, fielding a question from a white customer as if he worked there.

As recalled by a campaign staffer from that time, Obama was standing with three staffers, waiting for their table, when a white man came in and asked for a table for him and his three friends.

“The woman is about to seat me and my party of four, so I imagine you’ll be next,” the President said, trying to defuse any embarrassment by playing it off.

The man who’d assumed Obama worked at the country buffet seemed embarrassed, the former campaign aide recalled, who emphasized that this was not a big deal by any stretch.

Perhaps. But the same thing happened to me years ago with Bill Sessions, George W. Bush's FBI Director. I was at a fancy restaurant in downtown DC, frequented by the political crowd, waiting for a table, and Sessions walked in and tried to hand me his overcoat. Trust me, I was tempted to take it, and did, at the time, think he was kind of a jerk for doing it. Read More......

Obama to have Harvard Prof and arresting cop to White House for a beer

Personally, I find it a bit odd. But if it works to quell the uproar, then I guess that's a good thing. Still... What do you think? Is this helping us all put this behind us, or is it just feeding the flames even more? Read More......

Rachel Maddow corrects Pat Buchanan about race in America

She really gets rolling the second half. It's definitely worth a watch.

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New CBC study does, or doesn't, shed light on racism on the Hill

The Congressional Black Caucus just released a study which, they say, shows that white committee chairs in the House hire fewer black staffers than black committee chairs. (Of course, you could spin the study another way: that black committee chairs in the House hire fewer white staffers than white committee chairs.)

It's really not clear if there's a problem, or where the problem lies, until you look at the exact numbers:

The 31-person Democratic staff of the House Agriculture Committee and the 24-person Democratic staff of the House Rules Committee, for example, each have a single black aide. Conversely, the Homeland Security and Oversight and Government Reform Committees — both run by African American chairmen — have Democratic staffs that are 45.5 percent and 44.4 percent black, respectively.

When blacks are 13.5% of the US population, one black aide on an entire 31-person committee - i.e., 3% of the staff - strikes me as more than a bit scant, so the CBC has a point. But 45% of the staff on a committee chaired by a black member of Congress is black? According to the 2007 census data released last year, here is the minority make-up of America:

Washington -- Slightly more than one-third of the population of the United States -- 34 percent -- claims “minority” racial or ethnic heritage, a jump of 11 percent from 2000....

There are 45.5 million Hispanics living in the United States, accounting for 15 percent of the U.S. population. Blacks comprise the second-largest minority group, with 40.7 million (13.5 percent), followed by Asians, with 15.2 million (5 percent).

While I'm not one to suggest that congressional committees need to match exactly how many whites, blacks, Asians, hispanics, women etc. are in the population, it would be nice if they at least got in the ballpark. At least as it concerns minority representation (which begs the question - even if you think that minorities should be represented, more or less, according to their numbers in the population at large, does the same apply to white representation?)

Whites are around 65% of the population, according to the 2007 census. African-Americans are 13.5% of the country. Yet, African American committee chairs are giving as much as 45% of their staff jobs to blacks. Is that understandable affirmative action that makes up for past discrimination, or does the racial hiring problem on the Hill cut both ways? What do you think? And does it change your view to know that, in fact, African-Americans have more representatives on committees overall than their numbers in the population? (Basically because the black committee chairs overcompensate while the white committee chairs undercompensate.)

Overall, the survey found that African Americans account for a percentage of committee staff — 18.7 percent — that is higher than the 12.8 percent of the national population that is black.

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Pay gaps growing for blacks and hispanics

Note the time frame of the growing disparity in pay. It's no wonder the GOP struggles to win over anyone other than angry white men because that's their target audience. They pound their fists on the table and trash any programs that might help level the playing field, convinced that somehow racism in the workplace doesn't exist. The facts say otherwise.

Blacks and Hispanics lag behind whites for higher-paying jobs at the largest rates in about a decade as employment opportunities dwindled during the nation’s economic woes and housing slump.

Census data released Monday show an increasingly educated U.S. work force whose earnings didn’t always seem to match up with its potential.

“The lesson of most economic downturns is minorities are the last hired, first fired. They lose jobs more quickly, and they will be the last to recover,” said Roderick Harrison, a demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank that studies minority issues.

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A black woman in the Capitol

My friend Chris writes:

I don’t know if you saw the news tonight, but a statue of Sojourner Truth was unveiled today at the U.S. Capitol. She’s the first African American woman to be honored with a statue in Statuary Hall.

She was born into slavery and then became a crusader for the abolition of slavery and for women’s rights. At the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in 1851, she listened to most of the speakers and then stood up to speak. People were horrified – a black woman, and former slave daring to speak? Here’s what she said:

Well, children, where there is so much racket there must be something out of kilter. I think that 'twixt the Negroes of the South and the women at the North, all talking about rights, the white men will be in a fix pretty soon. But what's all this here talking about?

That man over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud-puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman? Look at me! Look at my arm! I have ploughed and planted, and gathered into barns, and no man could head me! And ain't I a woman? I could work as much and eat as much as a man - when I could get it - and bear the lash as well! And ain't I a woman? I have borne five children, and seen most all sold off to slavery, and when I cried out with my mother's grief, none but Jesus heard me! And ain't I a woman?

Then they talk about this thing in the head; what's this they call it? [member of audience whispers, "intellect"] That's it, honey. What's that got to do with women's rights or Negroes' rights? If my cup won't hold but a pint, and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half measure full?

Then that little man in black there, he says women can't have as much rights as men, 'cause Christ wasn't a woman! Where did your Christ come from? Where did Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with Him.

If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down all alone, these women together ought to be able to turn it back, and get it right side up again! And now they is asking to do it. The men better let them.

Obliged to you for hearing me, and now old Sojourner ain't got nothing more to say.

--Sojourner Truth

The statue of her was unveiled today by Nancy D’allesandro Pelosi, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Michelle Obama, First Lady of the United States, and Hillary Clinton, former United States Senator and current United States Secretary of State.

God, I love this country. We do screw up, but good lord, when we get it right we really get it right.

Amen. Read More......