I refused to go near the Shirley Sherrod smear story on my blog the past few days. I did not want to give any…ANY…. free lip service to the lowest elements of the Republican Party. What many of us suspected all along has been made known from the White House to the national news broadcasts, and as such I think it is our duty now as bloggers, and Americans to speak out.
I speak for many who feel this is a sad way for everyone to act in this country. The past 48 hours was not the best of who we are as a nation. Of course, we know it did not have to happen had the mean-spirited and devil-ridden Andrew Breitbart not allowed the dark side to take hold.
What has happened to Shirley Sherrod this week is truly one of the most gut-wrenching and sad affairs that I have witnessed in some time. The conservative echo chamber of crap started a lie which Andrew Breibart knowingly spun with his cozy ‘partner’ Matt Drudge, which was then picked up and made into a non-stop story on FAUX News, only to be regurgitated non-stop by right-wing nut radio. Meanwhile official Washington could not (or would not) stand up to the conservative crap. The mainstream media could not seemingly differentiate fact from fiction until the crap was so thick in the newsroom that someone slipped and fell.
All this has left me truly dismayed at almost everyone. Everyone, that is, except for Shirley Sherrod. This is the lady that I wish could sit at my dinner table as a guest. She is the reflection of what is best about this country, the resiliency of the human heart, the courage to grow, and the strength of redemption.
On the opposite end of the spectrum is the floater in the toilet, Andrew Breitbart. He must…..MUST…. become a target. a lesson, a poster child for what can no longer be tolerated from the ruthless, amoral right-wing in this nation. Therefore the U.S. Department of Justice Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section must go after Andrew Breitbart. Now! There is no way not to know that he is guilty of defamation of Shirley Sherrod’s character.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
This was the most twisted story, and to know it was all edited to make one look bad. Did they think they could get away with the distortion?
Breitbart didn’t fire Sherrod. The White House pressured her boss to fire her as did the NAACP. Now they’re doing a u-turn. But, guess what… she has this questionable lawsuit out there with some very probable improprieties and now they’re as stuck with her as LA is with Rodney King and his expert driving skills. AND Ben Jealous was in attendance at the speech even though he tore her to shreds as if he was “shocked! Shocked I tell you!” that these words were ever spoken. Talk about getting yourself stuck in a web of your own lies.
If the MSM and the Obamabots want to bring back this story again and again to attempt to hurt Andrew Breitbart I say ‘bring it’. It will be hilarious to remind everyone how this played out, beginning with the despicable attack by the NAACP on the Tea Party and ending with the fact that Sherrod really did racially discriminate … before she changed her mind. On that one case. How many others didn’t get her full assistance and didn’t qualify for her poor people color-blindness bonus?
The fact is that Ben Jealous was not in attendance at the speech. But the facts really aren’t important to you are they Ferrell. But frankly you don’t matter. This will play out much in the same way as when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat. Andrew Breitbart messed with the wrong person. Ms. Sherrod is a woman of incredible integrity with a lifetime of public service during which she went up against bigotry and hatred every day. She was part of the largest class action discrimination suit in the history. Probably best of all she was not a well known public figure before the slander occurred which lowers the standard of proof profoundly. My bet is that Mr. Breitbart is about to lose a lot of money and he’ll be lucky if he doesn’t have to do prison time.
While we should investigate what happened here, I’m sure–if anything–Breitbart should face the same consequences Dan Rather did. To do otherwise would be racist, wouldn’t it.
Personally, I’ll listen to Breitbart’s comments objectively, since that is the whole point of an investigation. I hope the NAACP itself is also a focus of the investigation; I’m not comfortable with the number of people who cheer when Sherod makes the infamous comment. Furthermore, I think it is a little overdramatic to suggest Sherod is like Rosa Parks, or that she was a woman of “incredible integrity” who “went up against bigotry and hatred every day.” Really? Every day? I’m sure she is of average integrity, and by her own admission contributed to bigotry on some days.
Finally, I think its really telling that you claim Ferrell doesn’t matter. That’s typical of you mirror-gazing liberal elites. What is it like being “the man”? “Jonny Law?” “Big Brother?” The legacy of the sixties is that you’ve become what you claimed to hate. And I know I don’t mater to you either. Like Ferrel, I’m little and insignificant…until November.
Breitbart didn’t fire Sherrod, but he certainly dragged her name through the mud.
He had the tape for a few months before he decided to release it, and plenty of time to check it for accuracy. Why didn’t he do it sooner?
It’s obvious that he was waiting for the right time to use it. Last week, Tea Party Express leader Mark Williams was forced to resign after posting a very racist mock letter to Abraham Lincoln from Jealous, which read, in part:
“We Colored People have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!”
Williams did this in response to accusations by the NAACP that the Tea Party has racists. He claimed that it was “satire,” but all it did was prove that the NAACP was correct.
Breitbart posted the video of Sherrod in an obvious attempt to divert attention from Williams. It had the desired effect for a while: it stirred up more conservative hatred and phony outrage. Unfortunately for Breitbart, the truth ultimately came out.
I’m not surprised that many conservatives are defending Breitbart and continuing his character assassination of Sherrod. The more they do so, the more they show the rest of us that they are, indeed, racists.
Interesting that Sherod told Anderson Cooper that Breitbart wants to return blacks to slavery. Ther words of a true saint? But it illustrates why race relations cannot ever be improved–not in this generation, perhaps. If the only type of conversation that can go on is to list the terrible things white people have done, progress cannot be made. If the only analysis amounts to that whites and conservatives are divisive no matter what they say (unless it is to follow a pre-determined infantile script), then there is no possibility at all.