James Rucker
ColorofChange.org
21 July 2010

The Obama administration just caved in to the right-wing smear machine, firing a Black USDA official after she was smeared by far-right blogger Andrew Breitbart and his friends at Fox News Channel.¹

Sherrod’s dismissal was based on a selectively edited video that made it appear she was confessing to discriminating against a White farming couple. In reality she was telling the story of how working with that family to save their farm helped her to lose her racial preconceptions.²

It took less than 24 hours for the lies to be debunked. But by that time, it was too late — Sherrod was forced to quit. And even now that the truth is known, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is refusing to reinstate her.³ Worse, Vilsack has President Obama’s support.⁴ This kind of political cowardice is beyond shameful.

Please join us in calling on the White House to immediately give Shirley Sherrod her job back, and to stop bowing to the will of right-wing propaganda artists. And please ask your friends and family to do the same — it takes just a moment:

http://www.colorofchange.org/shirley

The smear

On Monday, Andrew Breitbart (a blogger who works closely with FOX News and has a long history of launching deceptive, racially charged smear campaigns) posted a deceptively edited video of USDA employee Shirley Sherrod speaking at an NAACP function. The video shows Sherrod telling a story about how she once was asked for help from a White farmer, and how she didn’t “give him the full force of what I could do” to help him, because of his race.⁵

Breitbart touted the video as evidence that the NAACP and the Obama administration tolerated racial discrimination against White people, saying that it showed Sherrod’s “federal duties are managed through the prism of race and class distinctions.” Breitbart’s doctored video and false storyline moved quickly to FOX News, where on-air personalities called for Sherrod’s firing.⁶

The truth is that Sherrod was telling a 24-year old story about her work for a non-profit organization whose mission was to help Black farmers. Discrimination against Black farmers was rampant, and she described how she was first reluctant when approached by a White farmer named Roger Spooner for help (Sherrod also says that her father was killed by a White farmer 45 years ago). But after seeing that no one wanted to help Spooner, she worked to save his farm, and eventually became good friends with his family.⁷

Yesterday, Roger Spooner said that Sherrod saved their farm and kept them out of bankruptcy. He told CNN, “I don’t know what brought up the racist mess. They just want to stir up some trouble, it sounds to me in my opinion.”⁸

A disturbing pattern

Sadly, the truth didn’t matter at all. Soon after Breitbart’s fake video surfaced, Sherrod says she was pressured by the White House to resign. Sherrod was never given a chance to tell her side of the story and says that the Obama administration was “not interested in hearing the truth.”⁹

Once the truth became known, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack issued a statement saying that whether or not the smear campaign against Sherrod was based in lies, it was necessary to fire her because the “controversy” would make it hard for her to do her job.¹⁰ The Obama administration is essentially saying that they will always back down in the face of dishonest, race-baiting smear campaigns launched by right-wing propagandists. They’ve ended the career of someone who did nothing wrong, and by handing a victory to the people who launched this deception, the administration is encouraging them to launch even more smears. All to avoid “controversy.” It’s pathetic, it’s shameful, and it has to stop.

It’s not the first time this has happened. Several members of the Obama administration have lost their jobs or been demoted, and nominees to cabinet positions have either stepped down or withdrawn their nominations after becoming the target of smear campaigns launched by FOX News and Breitbart.

It’s bad enough that we have to fight the constant smear campaigns and appeals to racial paranoia from FOX and the right-wing media. But it’s completely shameful and outrageous for the Obama administration to throw innocent public servants under the bus just to avoid having to fight back against the lies.

If enough of us call out the White House and tell them to stop running scared from FOX News, they might listen. Please join us in standing up for Shirley Sherrod, and demanding that the White House do the right thing now:

http://www.colorofchange.org/shirley/

Thanks and Peace,

— James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Milton and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
July 21, 2010

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References:

[ 18/07/2010 – 07:31 PM ]

GAZA, (PIC) — Palestinian premier Ismail Haneyya invited Libyan leader Muammer Al-Gaddafi to visit Gaza Strip to get acquainted with the humanitarian conditions and to contribute in breaking the siege imposed on it.

Haneyya, during a reception of the Libyan activists who were on board the Hope aid ship, lauded their country’s role in support of the Palestine cause and for sending relief convoys.

He stressed that the Gaza Strip was still under siege and all attempts to display it otherwise were Zionist media propaganda in a bid to legitimize the blockade.

The Palestinian people despite the siege were able to maintain their steadfastness, the premier underlined, calling for more relief and solidarity convoys to break the siege on Gaza and to unveil the Zionist misinformation of alleviating it.

What do newly declassified documents about weapons grade uranium and dual-use technology diversions from the US reveal about the role of espionage in building Israel’s secret arsenal? Did Israel’s proposed nuclear weapons sales to apartheid South Africa signal they are still for sale if the partner and price are right? Do FBI and CIA cover-ups of investigations into Israeli nuclear espionage signal official US government approval or political acquiescence? Did cooperating with Israel’s policy of “strategic ambiguity” ever make sense for the United States? Is the era of
‘nuclear opacity” now coming to an end? Are Israel’s nuclear weapons of strategic benefit to the US? The following panelists tackled these questions.

Continue reading →

London Review of Books
Vol. 32 No. 14 · 22 July 2010

Tariq Ali on the recent killings in Kashmir

A Kashmiri lawyer rang me last week in an agitated state. Had I heard about the latest tragedies in Kashmir? I had not. He was stunned. So was I when he told me in detail what had been taking place there over the last three weeks. As far as I could see, none of the British daily papers or TV news bulletins had covered the story; after I met him I rescued two emails from Kashmir informing me of the horrors from my spam box. I was truly shamed. The next day I scoured the press again. Nothing. The only story in the Guardian from the paper’s Delhi correspondent – a full half-page – was headlined: ‘Model’s death brings new claims of dark side to India’s fashion industry’. Accompanying the story was a fetching photograph of the ill-fated woman. The deaths of (at that point) 11 young men between the ages of 15 and 27, shot by Indian security forces in Kashmir, weren’t mentioned. Later I discovered that a short report had appeared in the New York Times on 28 June and one the day after in the Guardian; there has been no substantial follow-up. When it comes to reporting crimes committed by states considered friendly to the West, atrocity fatigue rapidly kicks in. A few facts have begun to percolate through, but they are likely to be read in Europe and the US as just another example of Muslims causing trouble, with the Indian security forces merely doing their duty, if in a high-handed fashion. The failure to report on the deaths in Kashmir contrasts strangely with the overheated coverage of even the most minor unrest in Tibet, leave alone Tehran.

[Read more]

lukefromdc | July 10, 2010

At about 4:30 PM, One DC’s block party for housing rights morphed into a takeover of Parcel 42, complete with the erection of a tent city.

While the block Party for Housing Justice continues, activists quietly prepared to seize Parcel 42, a plot promised by Fenty for affordable housing, but on which no action has been taken until now.

At about 4:30PM, a march set out form 7th and S, rounding the corner to 7th and R outside Parcel 42’s fence. At the same time, the direct action team approached from behind, entered the parcel, and erected tents and even a “library” consisting of two bookcases full of books.

As of 5:30 PM on July 10, police have taken no aggressive action, though some suspect that they might try something after sundown.

One DC is demanding that Mayor Fenty deliver on his broken promise to transform this empty, stone-strewn field into affordable housing.

More info