Who Is To Blame
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” – old Italian proverb [as near as anyone can tell].
There is no doubt that Breitbart & company deserve all the blame for ACORN. The media should have done some fact checking, but things spun out of control quickly, and the GOP piled on in a flash.
This time, people held off. It would appear that while Bill O’Reilly featured it, the story about Shirley Sherrod did not appear on the “hard news” daytime schedule on Fox. Everyone seemed to be considering the source, after getting burned by the ACORN mess, and waiting for some confirmation.
They got their confirmation from the Obama administration and the NAACP, who attacked Mrs. Sherrod’s character without having the courtesy to listen to her side on the story.
Then the media ran with it, and didn’t halt until an elderly lady from Georgia called CNN and told them that the story was wrong.
Breitbart, O’Reilly, Beck, Limbaugh, et cetera ad nauseum are “scorpions”. That they manufacture stories to slander innocent people isn’t news, it’s “olds”. This is how they make their money, so they aren’t going to stop doing it. Even the M$M has figured it out.
The Beaten Dog Democrats™ in the White House need to have Alan Grayson teach them how to respond to attacks. Apologies after you defame and fire someone does not make that person whole, and does not give confidence to people who might vote for you.
16 comments
The Grayson OR the honorable Governor Chairman Dr. Dean who took his comments to the source. Why isn’t this guy in the administration?
“Fox News did something that was absolutely racist,” Dean said. “They had an obligation to find out what was really in the clip. They had been pushing a theme of black racism with this phony Black Panther crap and this business and this Sotomayor and all this other stuff.”
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/7/25/887372/-Dr.-Howard-Dean-Destroys-Fox!-Thats-What-Im-Talking-About!
Breitbart features videos edited to make people of color look bad. As Miss Molly used to say – it sounds better in the original German.
Obama is a mediator, not a leader. He doesn’t want leaders in his administration, he wants people who compromise. If no one else is around he compromises with himself.
He will only attack liberals, because he doesn’t worry about them pushing back.
I have worked for people like him, but not for long. You can’t trust them, and they won’t support you when you’re right, but they’ll take the credit for your work.
Mr Duff, you have thoroughly established your “conservative” credentials by failing to respond to the post and creating your own reality which you then respond to.
1. I didn’t say that Beck reported on the story.
2. I specifically said that the hard news people at Fox News did not cover the story until after the White House screw up.
3. Glenn Beck’s lies and distortions are manifest, and widely documented, which is why he must provide his own sponsors for his show. Business advertisers have withdrawn their commercials because of his blatant race-baiting rants.
4. There is nothing illegal about Marxism in the US. “Red Baiting” is an anachronism from a bygone era, and has no relevance to the topic under discussion.
As we used to say on Usenet -Try read with comprehension.
You didn’t address my post, but went off on a tangent, Mr. Duff. Just for you – the post was about the total failure of the Obama administration in the affair.
Type fact checking Glenn Beck into the search engine of your choice and receive the deluge.
After Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush as Presidents, Marxists don’t bother me in the slightest.
“I have worked for people like him, but not for long. You can’t trust them, and they won’t support you when you’re right, but they’ll take the credit for your work.”
Oh yeah! Same here!
“After Nixon, Reagan, and George W. Bush as Presidents, Marxists don’t bother me in the slightest.”
or Socialists or Communists (see if anyone accurately knows what the difference is, since Faux et al have oft used the two interchangeably) for that matter! 😉 😀
Been following this disaster on TP. They’ve had lot’s to say on the subject!
OT: Whilst at LM, I did a series on the 2004 Fallujah massacre. Seems those rotten eggs are finally coming home to roost! I said the USA decided to test out some new chem weapons. Seems they did.
New study claims increases in infant mortality and cancer in Fallujah greater than in Hiroshima.
For reference:
US forces ‘used chemical weapons’ during assault on city of Fallujah
There’s that moral high-ground again. About as high as a deep grave.
I think most of the medical problems are related to the high rate of depleted uranium used in the “bunker busters” and other penetrating ordnance. The phosphorus burns itself out, but DU is forever, and US troops are experiencing the same sorts of problems. It becomes a fine dust after impact and is like diamond dust in that it is extremely hard and irritating when it enters the body through breathing or ingesting food or water contaminated with it.
As usual, there were no long-term studies on the effects of using it in weapons, all they knew was that it was effective against armor and hardened targets.
I have never understood how the “Red baiters” can support Israel. One can only assume that they don’t know about Israeli society, because it is probably the last viable example of Marxists, Communists, and Socialists in the classical sense of the terms. You would think they would know that Karl was born a Jew, and like Ahmadinejad, his father converted for economic reasons. Surely they know that Trotsky was born David Braunstein.
Of course I suffer from the belief that if it works for the people in any particular society, it’s really not up to me to judge their choices.
I guess the other 50,000+ references didn’t mention anything about his lies about history, the US Constitution, the law, and the economy?
You probably wouldn’t be interested in the fraud investigation of the “gold scheme” he promotes. [FWIW: Gold is a hedge against inflation. Since the “austerians” are pushing things into a deflationary cycle, gold is a bad idea.]
Netanyahu supports settlements. The settlements are structures like kibbutzes, which are communes, i.e. communist by design. Communism is an economic system, not political, and fits most readily with pure democracy on a small setting.
Hamas was democratically elected to lead the Palestinian people, but that doesn’t seem to matter to you. They actually won a clear majority, as opposed to Netanyahu, who has cobbled together a coalition in a very undemocratic process.
ACORN has been investigated multiple times over the claims regarding registration fraud and was never found to have done anything illegal. Most of those investigations were actually instigated by ACORN monitoring its own process and reporting problems to elections officials.
OTOH, the Republican effort has resulted in convictions for fraud by Republicans in Florida and California. Those convictions were for actual violations in the election, not in registration. That doesn’t include the Republican convictions for violating election laws by their phone bank operations in New Hampshire, or the voter intimidation claims against Republicans in Florida.
I glad you find the ignorance and misinformation of Beck so blissful. Perhaps it will alleviate the pain of what is about to happen in the UK because of the Tory policies.
go get ’em, shirley!
Welcome back, Hipparchia. I was getting concerned, but didn’t e-mail because I assumed that your machine might be down and the reason for your absence.
As for Mrs. Sherrod’s action, can I get an AMEN. He made the mistake of self-identifying as a journalist which makes the case much easier.
i was reading this. if i were an attorney, i’d sure be volunteering.
thanks, and my apologies for not letting people know what was going on. the internet withdrawal symptoms were fierce, to the point that i even forgot a bunch of my passwords, so even if i could have borrowed a computer, how was i going to send emails to people to let them know we’re all still alive and kicking [and purring and barking] here at chez hipparchia? i should have figured out a way though, but even buying the replacement computer turned into a multi-week saga, involving many people, some of whom i was not especially polite to, so possibly it’s just as well that none of my friends had to put up with me at the time.
Hey hipparchia! I haven’t been around very much lately… but I did notice you seemed to be somewhat absent! I sent you lots of good thoughts. 🙂 I really hope all is well now.
I mentioned in comments in ‘The Endgame?’ thread about The Daily Show doing a sketch about that whole Sherrod debacle (July 26th episode). I hope she sues Obama et al also! But I doubt that will happen. *shrug*
You had mentioned having problems with your machine, so it didn’t come as a complete surprise.
She has an excellent case against Breitbart, especially since he has failed to apologize and make the proper noises. His subsequent appearances are going to give his attorney fits when the jury sees them. Juries are very forgiving if there is a prompt mea culpa and a quick trip to rehab, but tend to get nasty to people who don’t own up to their problems.
Her job was an appointed position, Kryten, so she can’t sue over that, and the government lawyers know about the quick apology thing.
heya, kryten! thanks for the good thoughts, they were sorely needed at a couple of points, as there were multiple trips to the vet for the dog, and a couple of trips to the mechanic for the car [and no way to
whineblog about any of it with a defunct computer]. except for the old computer, the rest of us are doing better now.thanks for the daily show link, that i hate people and the environment was priceless. the rest of it is great too, actually.
Very glad to hear that things have improved hipparchia! And I truly hope they continue to improve. I understand that particular boat all too well! 🙂
That was one of the best Daily Show episodes I’ve seen all year (so far!) 😀 I loved that bit with Wyatt Cenac, and John Oliver! 😀 Really well done! And Jon even managed to sum up the Obama stand on the BP disaster in about a minute! 😉 😀
The special guest, William Rosen, talking about his book was very interesting also! I love a dead-pan funny guy! 😀 He had Jon is high humor most of the time. 🙂
“Beard Bro’s”! 😆
(Is that enough ‘smilies’ for ya?) 😉 😆
Good luck h! Stay sane, and remember to have a laugh now and then. 😉
Oh! Regarding: “Her job was an appointed position, Kryten, so she can’t sue over that, and the government lawyers know about the quick apology thing.”
Here, she could sue the Gov because she could prove she was unjustly fired (or, terminated without just cause). But I forget sometimes that the “little people” in the USA have no rights, even though there is apparently some worthless piece of paper that may vaguely allude to the people having some vague rights or something like that. But it’s all so vague to the point of meaningless, so can’t be enforced in any way, and the Justice system is there to protect the rights of the wealthy and the people in positions of power. Sorry. I’ll remember next time. 😛 😉
Among the many crimes of Republican administrations has been the shifting of government jobs from civil service to appointed positions. If she had been civil service they wouldn’t have dared move without knowing exactly what happened, and they would have had to provide cause for the termination. Someone on civil service does have rights, but appointed positions are “at the pleasure of the President” and there are no guarantees of any kind.
The civil service system was implemented specifically to get politics out government functions at all but the highest level. The Republican Presidents have brought the “spoils” system of political patronage back.