Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wednesday Morning Musings

It really has been an interesting 48 hours, especially when it comes to the issue of racism in America. Shirley Sherrod, the woman who was essentially fired from the Department of Agriculture for telling a story about mistakes she made a quarter century ago, has received an apology from the NAACP. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack is reviewing her situation, to see if she she should be rehired, which she should.

Here's a quick rundown of what has occurred the last two days.

-Shirley Sherrod was in the business of helping Southern farmers in 1986.
-According to her, she liked helping black farmers a lot more than white farmers
-However, she begrudgingly helped white farmers who needed assistance.
-The white farmers were very thankful, and they are friends with Sherrod now.
-23 years pass
-Sherrod was appointed by the Obama administration to serve in the Dept. of Agriculture.
-In 2010, she told this story to a local NAACP chapter, telling them that important to AVOID doing what she did, i.e. using racial preferences.
-The media got a hold of the video, and it seemed as though she was using racial preferences TODAY.
-Sherrod was forced to resign.
-And now, Tom Vilsack is reviewing the situation, because it seems she was treated unfairly.

The 24 hour media circus can be exhausting, but as I said yesterday, I believe Shirley Sherrod, and I certainly believe that she does NOT hold racist beliefs today.

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The Christian Science Monitor explores the liberal journalist organization known as Journolist. This is the organization I referred to yesterday that may be involved in shaping the media narrative in an inappropriate way. Although many organizations shape the narrative, i.e. the more conservative Fox and the more liberal MSNBC, there is one major difference: most people know that Sean Hannity is conservative and that Keith Olbermann is liberal, while a seemingly unbiased member of Journolist may be more insidious.

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Democratic Governors Association (DGA)...really???

Major Dem donors who wrote checks to the Democratic Governors Association funded a below-the-radar campaign that attacked Pres. Obama and other Dem all-stars, all in hopes of knocking off a strong GOP challenger.

If this is true, Democrats effectively wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on attacking Terry Branstad…and Barack Obama…together? Let’s be clear about this. First, it’s a stupid move because I imagine that Democratic candidates around the country would LOVE to have those monies, and second, Terry Branstad is no Barack Obama, which is a very good thing.

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From Robert Samuelson at Real Clear Politics

If you want a preview of President Obama's health care "reform," take a look at Massachusetts. In 2006, it enacted a "reform" that became a model for Obama. What's happened since isn't encouraging.

It's an interesting read, and it may foretell the future of the new health care law.

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