Letter From Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson

Just go read it all yourself, at the link: "Letter from Editor-in-Chief Tucker Carlson on The Daily Caller’s Journolist coverage."

Shirley Sherrod May Sue for Defamation: 'Andrew Breitbart Came at Me'

Check The Blog Prof, "Fired USDA bigot official Shirley Sherrod says that Breitbart website ought to be shut down":

Shirley Sherrod is a racist, classist, Marxist bigot. She told the NAACP a story of discriminating against whites as a USAD official to which the NAACP crowd drooled all over themselves. She then said that she reformed her bigotry to discriminate by class rather than race, but somehow suggested that those that oppose Obama's unconstitutional takeover of healthcare is racist. So much for her purported reformation.

And Dan Riehl really put on the game face. See, "In Defense of Andrew Breitbart." (Via Memeorandum.)

Taking Back Congress

At Rothenberg Political Report, "NEW 2010 House Ratings":

We reiterate our view that substantial Republican gains are inevitable and are increasing our target for most likely GOP gains from 25-30 seats to 28-33 seats. However, it is important to note that considerably larger Republican gains in excess of 39 seats are quite possible.

Here are our latest House ratings:
# = moved benefiting Democrats
* = moved benefiting Republicans

88 Total Seats in Play
12 Republican seats
76 Democratic seats

Check the link for the handicaps.

RELATED: Charlie Cook, "A Glimmer Of Hope For Democrats: A new poll suggests how House Democrats can keep their losses down in November."

The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy

From Fred Barnes, at WSJ:

When I'm talking to people from outside Washington, one question inevitably comes up: Why is the media so liberal? The question often reflects a suspicion that members of the press get together and decide on a story line that favors liberals and Democrats and denigrates conservatives and Republicans.

My response has usually been to say, yes, there's liberal bias in the media, but there's no conspiracy. The liberal tilt is an accident of nature. The media disproportionately attracts people from a liberal arts background who tend, quite innocently, to be politically liberal. If they came from West Point or engineering school, this wouldn't be the case.

Now, after learning I'd been targeted for a smear attack by a member of an online clique of liberal journalists, I'm inclined to amend my response. Not to say there's a media conspiracy, but at least to note that hundreds of journalists have gotten together, on an online listserv called JournoList, to promote liberalism and liberal politicians at the expense of traditional journalism.

My guess is that this and other revelations about JournoList will deepen the distrust of the national press. True, participants in the online clubhouse appear to hail chiefly from the media's self-identified left wing. But its founder, Ezra Klein, is a prominent writer for the Washington Post. Mr. Klein shut down JournoList last month—a wise decision.

It's thanks to Tucker Carlson's Daily Caller website that we know something about JournoList, though the emails among the liberal journalists were meant to be private. (Mr. Carlson hasn't revealed how he obtained the emails.) In June, the Daily Caller disclosed a series of JournoList musings by David Weigel, then a Washington Post blogger assigned to cover conservatives. His emails showed he loathes conservatives, and he was subsequently fired.

This week, Mr. Carlson produced a series of JournoList emails from April 2008, when Barack Obama's presidential bid was in serious jeopardy. Videos of the antiwhite, anti-American sermons of his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, had surfaced, first on ABC and then other networks.

More at the link.

I'll have something on The Daily Caller a little later.

Terry Moran on 'Nightline' — 'A Kind of Victory for Breitbart'

Too good!

Eric Boehlert is not pleased. See, ABC News, "Breitbart on Breitbart: Polarizing Blogger Speaks: In Exclusive Interview, Andrew Breitbart Describes Where He's From and What He's After":

In this year of American voter anger and discontent, Andrew Breitbart has found his moment.

"I get to be me right now," he said. "That's the best part of this entire thing. This, to me, is the beginning of the beginning."

And what is beginning is, he hopes, the age of Breitbart.

He's everywhere. On Fox News -- a lot. Hobnobbing with Republican leaders in New Orleans. Rallying the Tea Party faithful in appearances across the country. Launching the websites Big Government, Big Journalism and Big Hollywood.

He's also lobbing grenades of controversy -- like his most recent revelation this week of an old speech by Obama Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod, in which she confessed that she once, decades ago, was deeply reluctant to help a white farmer who needed her aid.

"I was struggling with the fact that so many black people had lost their farmland, and here I was faced with helping a white person save their land," Sherrod said in the video.

Sherrod resigned under pressure -- and then it turned out Breitbart had released only a clip of her speech that distorted her real meaning: that she had been wrong and learned from her error.

The controversy continues -- to Breitbart's delight. He says he considers it a victory to have panicked the Obama administration and precipitated a public apology from the White House.

If this is Andrew Breitbart's moment, there are good reasons for it.

RTWT.

More coming up in a bit ...

ADDED: AoSHQ links!

Racism Roundup — July 22, 2010

I should probably start a new series, a daily "Racism Roundup." I'm mostly kidding, but the way things are going, the Democrats will be working the race card tables all the way to the election, and then some.

From Ann Coulter, "Obama's Poll Numbers Down, Imaginary Racism Up."

And at Zombie, "Top Ten Racist Incidents of the Week."

White House Admits Screw Up on Sherrod Firing

At Politics Daily, "Shirley Sherrod Gets Apologies, Job Offer From Vilsack"

It's going to be another big day in partisan news, and I'll have lots more this afternoon.

Meanwhile, the left's push back accelerates. See Ta-Nehisi Coates, "On Lacking All Conviction." (Via Memeorandum.) Racism, racism, everywhere.

'One Nation Under God'

Via No Sheeples Here!:

Check Out Who's on JournoList

From Melissa Clouthier, "Journolist IS A Big Deal: Check Out Who We Know Is On The List So Far":

Think the list should be dismissed as irrelevant? Mark Levin published a list. I'm including them all here:

1. Ezra Klein
2. Dave Weigel
3. Matthew Yglesias
4. David Dayen
5. Spencer Ackerman
6. Jeffrey Toobin
7. Eric Alterman
8. Paul Krugman
9. John Judis
10. Eve Fairbanks
11. Mike Allen
12. Ben Smith
13. Lisa Lerer
14. Joe Klein
15. Brad DeLong
16. Chris Hayes
17. Matt Duss
18. Jonathan Chait
19. Jesse Singal
20. Michael Cohen
21. Isaac Chotiner
22. Katha Pollitt
23. Alyssa Rosenberg
24. Rick Perlstein
25. Alex Rossmiller
26. Ed Kilgore
27. Walter Shapiro
28. Noam Scheiber
29. Michael Tomasky
30. Rich Yesels
31. Tim Fernholz
32. Dana Goldstein
33. Jonathan Cohn
34. Scott Winship
35. David Roberts
36. Luke Mitchell
37. John Blevins
38. Moira Whelan
39. Henry Farrell
40. Josh Bearman
41. Alec McGillis
42. Greg Anrig
43. Adele Stan
44. Steven Teles
45. Harold Pollack
46. Adam Serwer
47. Ryan Donmoyer
48. Seth Michaels
49. Kate Steadman
50. Matt Duss
51. Laura Rozen
52. Jesse Taylor
53. Michael Hirsh
54. Daniel Davies
55. Jonathan Zasloff
56. Richard Kim
57. Thomas Schaller
58. Jared Bernstein
59. Holly Yeager
60. Joe Conason
61. David Greenberg
62. Todd Gitlin
63. Mark Schmitt
64. Kevin Drum
65. Sarah Spitz

Let's see, folks from the Washington Post, the New York Times, Time and Newsweek magazine. These are not children. These are people we're supposed to respect as objective, "smart" (a friend said this about the whole notion of "smart": I do get weary of the left needing to apply the word "smart" to themselves all the time. To make that distinction, "a smart...conversation" as opposed to all the stupid ones that don't involve them; because if they don't involve them, they are by definition stupid...), and fair.

Uh huh.

IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Kathy Shaidle's 10th Blogiversary

"Despite the lawsuits, the controversies and the occasional hatemail, blogging has been a highlight of my life over the past decade."

Kathy bears a close relationship (of the matrimonial kind) to my old-time blog buddy Blazing Cat Fur.

HAT TIP: Glenn Reynolds.

Manly Men

I wonder if Ms. Olga's gonna like this (via Instapundit):

In the beginning, women had to be protected, because they were the only way to propagate the species. Since men can't nurse, the dynamic was born – men hunted, women tended the home fires. Tended them extensively, since myths show that early hunters spent several days in seclusion following a kill in order to thank the Gods, and show respect for the animal's spirit through reflection and prayer. Someone had to cure the meat, and that fell to the women.

RTWT. Quite a feminist treatise, actually. For example:

Our divergent social roles aside, in recent modern societies, women were cherished, protected, treated with the utmost respect. Men rose when a woman entered the room. They scrabbled for a chance to share a dance. Duels were fought over their honor and attentions. Men were courtly, refined, intelligent, witty and, when in the presence of a woman, watched their mouths, their actions and their dress. Can you imagine a chevalier in jeans that hang off his ass and oversize sunglasses, calling you "be-atch" when he ends his text message? Sigh.

RELATED: "The Stigma of Being a Housewife."

Turning Back on Race

From Ben Smith:

The election of Barack Obama, America’s first black president, was supposed to be a sign of our national maturity, a chance to transform the charged, stilted “national conversation” about race into a smarter and more authentic dialogue, led by a president who was also one of the nation's subtlest thinkers and writers on the topic.

Instead, the conversation just got dumber.

The America of 2010 is dominated by racial images out of farce and parody, caricatures not seen since the glory days of Shaft. Fox News often stars a leather-clad New Black Panther, while MSNBC scours the tea party movement for racist elements, which one could probably find in any mass organization in America. Obama’s own, sole foray into the issue of race involved calling a police officer “stupid,” and regretting his own words. Conservative leaders and the NAACP, the venerable civil-rights group, recently engaged in a round of bitter name-calling that left both groups wounded and crying foul. Political correctness continues to reign in parts of the left, and now has a match in the belligerent grievance of conservatives demanding that hair-trigger allegations of racism be proven.

I blame Mel Gibson.

"Just another day at the office. Just another person smeared. Just another step backward in race relations. No biggie, apparently."

IMAGE CREDIT: iOWNTHEWORLD.

Sarah Spitz Apologizes for Rush Limbaugh Death Wish Comments on JournoList

Here's NPR playing some CYA: "Public Radio Publicist Apologizes For Controversial Remarks About Limbaugh" (via Memeorandum). And the Spitz apology cited therein:

I made poorly considered remarks about Rush Limbaugh to what I believed was a private email discussion group from my personal email account. As a publicist, I realize more than anyone that is no excuse for irresponsible behavior. I apologize to anyone I may have offended and I regret these comments greatly; they do not reflect the values by which I conduct my life.

IMAGE CREDIT: The People's Cube.

JournoListers Rejoice in Their Evil

I've said previously that I have mixed emotions on reading through the JournoList files being dribbled out at Daily Caller. Like everyone else, I'm pissed that reporters who hold a public trust are not just so blatantly left-wing (which we know), but that they feel so empowered by what's clearly an unchecked demonism among this body of supposed professionals. One reporter, Sarah Spitz of NPR affiliate KCRW, reveled in her ability to watch and standby cheering as Rush Limbaugh (hypothetically) died of a heart attack.

And while I've long known that Spencer Ackerman is pure evil (something I've chronicled at this blog), I'm increasingly astounded at the depths of depravity he reaches. Here's Ackerman at "Obama wins! And Journolisters rejoice" (via Memeorandum):

Let’s just throw Ledeen against a wall. Or, pace Dr. Alterman, throw him through a plate glass window. I’ll bet a little spot of violence would shut him right the fuck up, as with most bullies.

"Ledeen" refers to Michael Ledeen, a Iraq regime change proponent and neoconservative writer on the Middle East. A "little spot of violence" ought to take care of him for some obviously implied "war crimes" on top of the alleged "bullying."

Also quoted on JournoList is Henry Farrell, a GWU political scientist and blogger at Crooked Timber and The Monkey Cage. Farrell's a soft-and-squishy leftist, apparently:

I had to close my office door yesterday because I was watching YouTube videos of elderly African Americans saying what this meant to them and tearing up.

Yeah. Jeez.

That was pretty moving, I know, but what gets me is that while MSM journalists are prone to tilting their news stories as part of an inherently unscientific endeavor, political scientists genuinely aspire to scholarly objectivity --- they're supposed to be "scientific." Farrell, for example, co-authored "Self-Segregation or Deliberation? Blog Readership, Participation, and Polarization in American Politics" in the March issue of the American Political Science Association's Perspectives on Politics. Now more than ever, it's hard to take this research seriously --- research on "blog polarization". It's hard to expect even a modicum of impartiality in the discussion when the very subjects of the analysis are identified by JournoList members as political enemies who should STFU and be hurled through plate glass windows. Note too that there are a number of other university professors on JournoList as well. All the participants seem so energized in their ribald excoriations. And it's not so much that they shouldn't feel the way they do, but that both journalists and scholars are writing and producing in expectation of even-handedness. Thus, we're seeing the veil pulled back on an intellectual violence perpetrated against citizens and fellow scholars consuming "professional" works in the hope of enlightened understanding. As such, there's a totalitarianism that's fundamental here, which taps into the larger STFU culture we've endured since "The One's" ascension.

I'll have more later. Meanwhile, folks can read more along these lines at John Guardiano essay, "JournoList Equals Liberal Fascism." He notes:

We always knew that most liberal journalists were biased. Now we know that many of them are dishonest -- and that, like their leftist forbearers in the Soviet Union, they reserve unto themselves the right to lie and to cheat to further their political ends.

Well, liberal journalists AND the political scientists and professors.

Breitbart Responds: It's About the NAACP

I'll have more on JournoList later ("Liberal journalists suggest government shut down Fox News"), which is generating mixed emotions so I need to just take a breath.

Meanwhile, Andrew Breitbart discussed the latest developments in the NAACP/Shirley Sherrod Case on Hannity. Via Big Government, "Breitbart: It’s Not About Shirley Sherrod; It’s About NAACP Attacking Tea Party":

Stop Picking On Lindsay Lohan

From Rebecca Macatee, at WSJ:

Both of my legs are covered in ghastly, purple bruises. I'm not a soccer player, and I don't have an abusive boyfriend. You might say I'm a party girl.

My bruises come from clumsily crashing onto a concrete New York City sidewalk. I'd been out with some girlfriends, was wearing too-tall stilettos and a few glasses of champagne had disturbed my sense of balance.

After taking that tumble, I laughed a little too loudly, reassured some good Samaritans that I was okay, hopped right back up and continued on with my night. It was a fun evening with my girls—there was no alcohol poisoning, no random hookups, no brushes with the law. I made it home safely and into work on time the next morning.

Aside from a friend's Twitter posting about my fall, there was no evidence of the trouble I'd been up to the night before. There were no viral videos of me hitting the pavement, no photographs of me flipping off aggressive paparazzi, and no hearsay reports of how "wasted" I had been at the club.

But I'm not Lindsay Lohan, the actress who yesterday began a 90-day jail sentence for violating the terms of her probation, set in 2007 after she pleaded no contest to charges of drunk driving and being under the influence of cocaine.

I didn't star in a feature film when I was 11 years old, or support my family financially before I'd even hit puberty. I don't have a father who talks publicly about my intimate struggles in order to make a few bucks. Paparazzi don't stalk me 24 hours a day to capture my every mistake. And tabloids don't dominate newsstands by exaggerating my wild partying. In other words, there's not a cruel cultural obsession with rejoicing in the apparent unraveling of my life and career.

Of course, my behaviors are not nearly as extreme as Ms. Lohan's ...

RTWT at the link.

IMAGE CREDIT: "Lindsay Lohan Covers Complex’s August/September 2010 Issue!"

PREVIOUSLY: "Lindsay Lohan in German GQ."

Saint Shirley Sherrod Uncut — Fired Georgia Ag Chief Won $13 Million Minority 'Social Justice' Settlement Against ... USDA!!

Here's the full video. I'm still reviewing the clip, but skip ahead to around 16:00 minutes and counting to get the Saint Shirley story on helpin' out dem po' white folk.

And there's a lots more to the story of Saint Shirley. At Fox News, "Official Ousted From Ag Department Had Taken USDA to Court, Won":

Days before she was appointed to the USDA post last year, her group reportedly won a $13 million settlement in a longstanding discrimination suit against the USDA known commonly as the Pigford case.

The Rural Development Leadership Network announced last summer that New Communities Inc. -- a group Sherrod formed with husband Charles, who is a civil rights activist, and with other black farmers -- had reached the agreement. The RDLN said the USDA had "refused" to offer new loans or restructure old loans to members of New Communities, leading to the discrimination claim ....

Sherrod's settlement was a drop in the bucket in terms of the money the federal government has paid out in Pigford claims to other black farmers over the years. The suit claimed the USDA racially discriminated against black farmers by not giving them fair treatment when they applied for loans or assistance. The case was first settled in 1999, resulting to date in more than $1 billion in compensation
payments from the federal government.

In addition, the Obama administration has called for another $1.15 billion to settle claims for other black farmers -- Congress has not yet granted the money.

However, the case has attracted some scrutiny.

Former Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer told Fox News that while those who were discriminated against "should be reimbursed," there are other hangers-on trying to game the system.

Interesting (RTWT). But note what else Secretary Schafer had to say:

"The problem you have with the class-action lawsuits is a lot of people jump in that may be on the fringe, that maybe don't deserve it, that sounded good because their neighbor got a check ... (It) is very expensive, very time consuming ... It probably in the long run is going to be cheaper just to settle the whole thing -- so some people will get paid that probably don't deserve it. And to me, I don't like that kind of thing. I like to settle it on merit."

Look, this is a massive social justice payday. The feds have been doling out enormous wads of money in a modern agricultural racial reparations regime. And it's basically totally off the radar. Who needs 40 acres and a mule when you got the "Minority Farm Settlement" program?

Look at this press release:

Minority Farm Settlement

Justice Achieved - Congratulations to Shirley and Charles Sherrod!

We have wonderful news regarding the case of New Communities, Inc., the land trust that Shirley and Charles Sherrod established, with other black farm families in the 1960's. At the time, with holdings of almost 6,000 acres, this was the largest tract of black-owned land in the country. Now with a cash award of historic proportions, the group will be able to begin again ....

In 1985, as the land was being lost, Shirley entered the RDLN program. Previously, she had worked behind the scenes, but as she participated in RDLN, she began to realize her capacity as an up-front leader. She invited the Federation of Southern Cooperatives to sponsor her in the RDLN program, earned her master's degree with a thesis that continues to provide a blueprint for her ongoing work with black farmers and others, helped orient all succeeding groups of RDLN Leaders, and became vice chair of RDLN's Board of Directors. As you all know, Shirley is Georgia Lead for both the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund and the Southern Rural Black Women's Initiative. She has also chaired the board of the Farmers Legal Action Group, which has been active in the minority farmers law suit, along with the Federation and other groups. FSC and SRBWI hosted RDLN's National Network Assembly in 2006, during which Network members had a chance to immerse themselves in Civil Rights history, with the guidance of Shirley and Charles (the first field director of SNCC), Albany singers and others, and to visit the economic development projects that have grown out of that Civil Rights history.

And at the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund:

The Federation’s Shirley Sherrod Now Heads USDA's Rural Development in Georgia — Sherrod is the first African American to hold this position in Georgia.

FREE AT LAST!!

We be talkin' some sweet affirmative action, yo!

See also, Washington Examiner, "Shirley Sherrod's Disappearing Act: Not So Fast" (via Instapundit).

RELATED: At LCR, "Shirley Sherrod: "Fox News and Tea Parties Scaring Obama Administration."

Secretary Tom Vilsack Defends Firing Shirley Sherrod

At Fox News, "Forcing Ga. Official to Resign Over YouTube Clip was the Right Call, Agriculture Chief Says."

But check CNN, "NAACP 'snookered' over video of former USDA employee." And from the NAACP, "NAACP STATEMENT ON THE RESIGNATION OF SHIRLEY SHERROD."

And at Atlanta Journal-Constitution, "Couple says fired USDA official helped save their land; USDA won't rehire." (Via Memeorandum.)

Erecting a Mosque to the Martyrs: Scott Wheeler, Executive Director of National Republican Trust

A follow up to my previous entry, "Sarah Palin Tweets Fuel Ground Zero Mosque Controversy."

Plus, I've been picked up at The Week, "Sarah Palin's 'Ground Zero mosque' jab."

Just Another Step Backward in Race Relations

I'll have more on this in a bit. Meanwhile, William Jacobson reflects on Clifton's observations on the JournoList race-bait scandal at Another Black Conservative.