Archive for the ‘internet/free speech’ Category

…that nobody is mentioning.

Look at the crowd reaction when she says this. Is there shock? Is there disgust? Is there anger? Nope, they are with her all the way.

That says more about the NAACP than anything Sherrod did. The NAACP didn’t reject Shirley Sherrod that night or last week because they never had a problem with what she said.

If Andrew Brietbart didn’t put out that video they would still be behind her. The only reason why Ben Jealous et/al have rejected Sherrod is because what she said to them behind closed doors in the past has been exposed to the general public. It is the same as Barack Obama and Rev Wright, if those videos of Wright didn’t exist he would be a regular guest at the White House today.

It would be very interesting to find people in that crowd and ask them if they had a problem with what she said when she said it.

Update: Totally missed this Instalanche because I was out having lunch with a friend and deep in an e-mail when I came back. Welcome all, have a peek around. Here is my examiner column on the subject. If you are a Red Sox fan take my Yankees poll, see why the media obsession with Sarah Palin is strictly business, Read the best quote ever concerning personal liberty that you’ve never heard of and read about Paul of Tarsus: 1st century Feminist!

Joy is going to kill me!

Update 2: Commentator Mantis in a previous post for the defense.

Update 3: Hey! My first memeorandum thread of my own!

Update 4: More developments here.

Update 5:+ 5 1/2 Full tape out included in the Update 4 link. Well that explains the lack of reaction of the crowd doesn’t it… at least except for the laughter when they think she isn’t going to help him.

…on Morning Joe today.

They played the Shirley Sherrod video today and the following exchange took place between Pat Buchannan and Margaret Carlson:

Carlson: “There is more racism of it (racism) on one side than the other.”

Pat: “Which Side?”

If I’m Breitbart I’m playing that clip and the end of every new video I release in this series.

When he says he has video. Believe him.

This is why the Democratic Party is scared. This is why the NAACP is scared. This is why black conservatives, previously marginalized as “Uncle Toms” by these progressive bullies, and shamefully, the NAACP, are coming out of the woodwork to join and, in many cases, lead the Tea Party movement.

Here is the video:

And at Hotair a little more:

Actually, if Sherrod had a different ending for this story, it could have been a good tale of redemption. She almost grasps this by initially noting that poverty is the real issue, which should be the moral of the anecdote. Instead of having acted on this realization — and perhaps mindful of the audience — Sherrod then backtracks and says that it’s really an issue of race after all. It certainly was for Sherrod, who admits that “I didn’t give him the full force of what I could do.” Notice that the audience doesn’t exactly rise as one to scold Sherrod for her racism, but instead murmurs approvingly of using race to determine outcomes for government programs, which is of course the point that Andrew wanted to make.

Will the NAACP try a copyright claim to stop this. If they are smart they won’t.

I suspect Breitbart has plenty of stuff like this in the bank like obits written for very old people ready to play the cards when the time is right. He must be murder to play poker with. Who wants to be the first to call a bluff of his? Not me.

Memeorandum thread here.

Update: CBS News has picked this up. Would there be any chance at all of any CBS network reporting on racism AT the NAACP? Sometime after the second of never.

The NAACP has to be really regretting this now but not as much as Shirley Sherrod is.

The Agriculture Department announced Monday, shortly after FoxNews.com published its initial report on the video, that Sherrod had resigned.

“There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA, and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination against any person,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a written statement. “We have been working hard through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered civil rights history at the department and take the issue of fairness and equality very seriously.

Be afraid oh NAACP, be very afraid.

Update 2: Stacy comments:

Let’s make sure we all understand the principle involved here: Obama spends 20 years in Rev. Jeremiah “G–D— America” Wright’s church, and that’s no big deal. A low-level USDA appointee says bad stuff about white people and under the bus!

Score

Update 3: What a difference a full tape makes, egg on lots of faces, but if the NAACP had the tape all along isn’t it odd that they rushed to judgment on a woman who apparently deserves an apology?

What do I like best about the Anchoress’ post about C. S. Lewis and C. K. Chesterton? It give me an excuse to repeat my favorite quote of all time!

It’s from Chancellor Kent when asked if he would sign a temperance pledge:

“Gentlemen, I refuse to sign any pledge. I never have been drunk, and, by the blessing of God, I never will get drunk, but I have a constitutional privilege to get drunk, and that privilege I will not sign away.”

How can you not love a quote like that? The instinct to overprotect to the point of oppression is anathema to the whole idea of America.