It is amazing that so many people can make livings by being professional liars.

Is agriculture a key component of commerce?

Is interfering with commerce an act of terrorism?

could racism be used as an aggravating factor in a terrorism charge?

Obama needs to bolt on a pair of truck nuts and make a statement first thing in the morning saying
just too simple things that can not be taken out of context

Shirley Sherrod is reinstated at her job as a result of realizing information was
from tainted sources.

Dear Brad,
Rachel did a great extended piece on this tonight and had on Ben Jealous from the NAACP who fully copped to being snookered and the need to be more discerning in the future. And he seemed like a person who actually may act on that thought.

Also saw that Glenn Beck said that maybe Sherrod should be given her job back.

And I then had the very pleasant thought that THIS time, as fucked up as this whole thing is again, which is plenty, that the truth coming out so quickly and so strongly from so many different angles is BECAUSE OF YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!All that tireless work, for the most part only acknowledged by your loyal elven followers, all that comprehensive reporting, all your tireless and thankless bugging of the New York Times to get the fucking thing right for cryin'out loud, and article after article over months and months and months, all the transcripts read and interpreted, all that resolute refusal that let the fucking thing go cuz it was just plain WRONG and UNTRUE!!---IT FINALLY HAD A FUCKING EFFECT!!!!!!!THAT WAS YOU, DUDE!!!!

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You are a real and precious dude. Making a difference.

@ David Lasagna #3: Yes. Exactly right.

Here is another classic case of a "moment" where Obama could define himself as STANDING for something or standing for NOTHING.

If, as suggested above, he does "the right thing" and gives Sherrod her job back (begs her to take it) that would be good. Normally, nothing special, but in this case, a major step.

If, as Rahm suggests, he just tries to "wait it out," knowing that the media will move on to the next crisis/event/celebrity and Sherrod will be forgotten, and Obama's treachery with it, then that too will define exactly what this administration is about. It will be forever defined as "just a bit less crappy than Cheney/Bush."

I really think Democrats are truly cowards. It is amazing. Fox Lies spews, and Dems cave. Over, and over and over. It is sickening.

Raw story has a good debunking of this piece of Breitbart malevolence along with the full video of the speech from which the misleading segment was cut.

The 2 minute 36 second extract is from a 4 minute 40 second section of the speech where Shirley Sherrod is explaining how she came to realize that the problem was discrimination against poor people rather than discrimination against blacks. Initially she had not helped the white farmer as much as she could have instead referring him to a white lawyer on the assumption that his own would help him. But his own did not help him, the white lawyer turned out to be lazy and ineffective and the county engaged in some skullduggery that prevented the farmer using chapter 12 bankruptcy. The case came back to Shirley Sherrod and from it she came to realize that poor whites had the same problems as poor blacks. By leaving out the completion of Sherrods argument the editor creates a section that really does make Shirley Sherrod appear racist.

The full speech is 43 minutes 15 seconds long, but the portion of relevance is 4 minutes and 40 seconds starting 16 minutes and 40 seconds in. By cutting it short the malevolent editor has managed to make it appear that Sharrod was saying something very different to what she was in fact saying. She was saying that she used to be prejudiced in thinking that all white people benefited from white privilege, but that this incident taught her that poor white people are treated by the system every bit as badly as poor blacks. By cutting out the end part of her story, the editor makes it look as if she is crowing over her having power to help or not help a white man.

Brad.

Ditto to what David Lasagna said in comment #3.

Maybe Andrew Breitbart is not as able to fool as many people as he once could because of your good work.

Yes! Yes! Yes!
Now will the MSM go back and take another look at the whole ACORN video thing?

Yay, Brad! Good on ya! Thank you.

My only thought Brad was wouldn't this be a good launching point to re-introdude the buried ACORN retraction.
As i was listening to Scarborough this AM talk of the knee-jerk response of this administration it was apparent he of course 'forgot' congresses reaction to the ACORN story. Also, another chance to cast dispersions on Breitbart's lack of integrity and hopefully shut him up for awhile.
Sadly, this will likely be just the beginning of what will probably be the ugliest campaign cycle we have ever seen thanks to Citizens United.

Brad who?

The scorecard so far...

The Lying Right Wing 3 Truth and Justice 0

The Lying Right Wing scored bigtime with ACORN, Van Jones and now Shirley Sherrod...

I think Truth and Justice needs to change it's lineup...the Truth and Justice QB in the Whitehouse seems to be timid in the face on The Lying Right Wing's blitz...Truth and Justice needs a better lineup...these guys are too cowed by The Lying Right Wing.

David Lasagna is correct. Rachel Maddow's coverage in a segment "Fox News fabrication works again" was spot on.

The visual caption depicts the typical Andrew Breitbart edited splice job as "Omission Accomplished."

She reveals how the Faux "News" Network falsely claimed that Shirley Sherrod was caught on tape boasting about abusing her position at the Department of Agriculture to deny benefits to white farmers. Sean Hannity, for example, said "she was caught on tape appearing to tell an audience that she had used her position to discriminate against white farmers."

Bill O'Reilly demanded her resignation.

Maddow revealed that Sherrod was speaking about an event that occurred in the 1980s--long before she joined the Obama Dept. of Agriculture; that, contrary to representations on the Faux "News" network, she was not boasting about a racist denial of benefits to white farmers but was speaking about her initial reaction. What Breitbart and friends left out was that Sherrod went on to explain that her real obligation was to help the poor. She in fact saved the white farmer, who said that “in no way in the world” could she be described as a racist.

Critically, Maddow covered Obama’s cowardly surrender on Van Jones, ACORN and now Shirley Sherrod “before the story can even make it into the mainstream media.” (Maddow left off the pre-election Obama in which he threw Rev. Wright under the bus). Maddow said the administration was “feeding a dog at the table thereby encouraging that dog to beg at the table."

Maddow went on to note that Fox is not a "news" network. To the contrary, as Robert Greenwald so aptly demonstrated in "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism," Fox is simply the propaganda arm of the billionaire-funded hard right.

After the administration caved, Rachel reveals, Fox rewarded Obama by asking whether “the White House essentially railroaded an innocent woman.”

If we had any real enforcement of the Federal Communications Act of 1934, Fox would have lost its license to broadcast years ago for failing to serve the public interest, which is a condition of its license to broadcast.

If possible, Brad, please add the embed for the Maddow segment.

Oops, I see you added the Maddow segment as an update.

i liked the line,do the right thing and give her her job back

i want to know more about this

karenfromillinois

I heard on Bill Press this morning that if offered Ms. Sherrod is considering not accepting her job back...frankly today I'm ashamed of the Whitehouse and it's chief executive...it's like the right wing is still calling the tune that Obama dances to.

bluehawk,
i too am upset with the wh for buying into these lies without bothering to hear her side of the story but reading my local paper and seeing the brainwashing that fox news has accomplished,i do understand why the wh just doesnt want to deal with one more made up story

however what i was wanting to know more about(i screwed up the paste i guess) was the election official being found burned to death in the trunk of his car in monroe tn last sat night...he had only been on election board since april

For those interested, there is our earlier piece, 'High-Tech Lynching' of Van Jones Signals McCarthyism Alive and Well.

In an update, we pointed to James Rucker's 09/08/09 observation on Democracy Now that the administration's silence would only serve to embolden the witch hunters at Fox.

The Obama administration's latest capitulation to the hard right calls to mind the words from Pete Seeger's "Where have all the flowers gone:"

"When will they ever learn?"

Isn't this what I've heard Obomber call a "teachable moment" - OK, let's see if we have a learnable president

czaragorn @20

Brilliant....I agree..

Hello Brad,

Time for the ending of Omerta amongst the lamestream media. Fool me once etc. In their case they never learn ala the comment from Earnest A. Canning about Pete Seeger's song "Where have all the flowers gone?" When will they ever learn? Answer after the place down below freezes solid. To the right wing it is easier than taking candy from an infant. If something works why change to something else.

Hey Brad you better cool it.

You keep talking and you are going to get "Breitbarted" something fierce dude.

Oh wait, you're white! You should be fine.

Brad, your humility. Why didn't you let everyone know that VR wrote a letter two weeks ago to the Maryland AG asking for Breitbart's indictment for violating ACORN's privacy rights? http://www.velvetrevolut...GANSLER-COATS_OKEEFE.pdf And why didn't you tell us that VR sent a press release out about this today? http://www.prnewswire.co...es-privacy-98911904.html Come on Brad, quit holding back. We have a right to know! You should be given an award for getting this right months ago and exposing Breitbart as simply a not so bright common criminal.

STILL, i've heard nothing linking Breitbarts' editing of this video to the editing of the ACORN video. Why won't they make this connection? Are they THAT loathe to re-open the ACORN sham?

BetterThanNoSN: Not sure the scope of the MSM you are referring to but, at the outset of the Maddow video, Rachel makes the link between the ACORN and Sherrod Breitbart scams.

Hitler had a name for this --- the Big Lie technique. Tell a lie big enough, loud enough, and often enough and some people will begin to assume that it must be true, or at least that "where there's smoke there's fire."

Thanks Ernest, i was speaking generally about the lack of coverage of what looks like the missed bigger story. How thru editing, the same right wing blogger had first duped congress and then the administration. A congressional Dem with stones ought to skewer Breitbart.