[Guest post by DRJ]
The Senate cleared the way to extend jobless benefits, with a little help from former Senator Robert Byrd’s replacement and the GOP Senators from Maine.
Meanwhile, Senator Jim Bunning was ahead of the curve on this issue, and all it got him was bad press.
— DRJ
[Guest post by DRJ]
Updates on the Shirley Sherrod story:
The Washington Examiner explains why we shouldn’t be so quick to forget about Shirley Sherrod.
NAACP and Glen Beck agree: People rushed to judgment on Sherrod.
The [EDIT: or maybe A] white farmer and his wife strongly defend Ms. Sherrod.
How did the white farmer know Sherrod’s anecdote was about him? Maybe he wasn’t the one … but if he is, did he recall “acting superior” or was he the only white farmer she helped?
— DRJ
UPDATE: My thanks to Dustin who provided a link to the NAACP website that posted the full Shirley Sherrod speech. As Dustin notes, this section at 21 minutes is most relevant and evidences Sherrod’s racial reconciliation theme:
“Working with him made me see that it’s really about those who have versus those who don’t. You know, they could be white, they could be black, they could be Hispanic … and it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people, those who don’t have access the way others have.”
She also discussed the history of slavery that impacted poor whites and poor blacks, which she said led to racism created by elites to divide the poor.
UPDATE 2: Dustin watches the rest and summarizes it here and here. Like Dustin, I’d like to know what was in the edited section of the NAACP video.
UPDATE 3 — The AP reports President Obama agrees with the decision to oust Sherrod:
“A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said President Barack Obama was briefed on the matter after Sherrod’s resignation and stands by the Agriculture Department’s handling of it.”
Your media betters, scheming to spin the news:
I do not endorse a Popular Front, nor do I think you need to. It’s not necessary to jump to [Rev. Jeremiah] Wright-qua-Wright’s defense. What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a rightwinger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear. Obviously I mean this rhetorically.
And I think this threads the needle. If the right forces us all to either defend Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them — Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists. Ask: why do they have such a deep-seated problem with a black politician who unites the country? What lurks behind those problems? This makes *them* sputter with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.
Luckily, some JournoListers disagreed, because casually smearing people as racists is wrong they disagreed with the effectiveness of the strategy.
It’s all at the Daily Caller.