DOWNLOADS: (770)

PLAYS: (3007)

Embed

Andrew Breitbart brushed off an opportunity to apologize to USDA official Wednesday after he posted a selectively edited clip that appeared to show her admitting to using racial preferences.

A video posted on Breitbart's Big Government alleged that Shirley Sherrod withheld help to a white family based on the color of their skin. Based on that video, the NAACP condemned Sherrod and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack called for her resignation.

After obtaining and reviewing the unedited video, the NAACP apologized to Sherrod. Vilsack has said that he will reconsider her resignation.

Breitbart debated the handling of the video with Media Matters's Eric Boehlert on ABC Wednesday. Boehlert called on Breitbart to publicly apologize.

"Andrew had no idea what the context of the comments were but that didn't stop him from launching the smear campaign," said Boehlert. "That's what Andrew and Fox media does. It's contemptible. If he had decency, he would apologize to Shirley Sherrod and would stop with the race-beating that we've seen all summer."

For his part, Breitbart said that the posting of the video wasn't about Sherrod. Breitbart claims he posted the video to highlight the NAACP cheering for racist comments.

"What this video clearly shows is a standard that the Tea Party has not been held to," said Breitbart. "The NAACP, it shows people in the audience there, applauding her when she discriminates against a white farmer. That was the point that I was trying to make."

"What the NAACP is arguing about the Tea Party is that there are people in... there are people in the crowds of Tea Parties and they're rebuking the Tea Party on that behalf. And I'm telling you, that this is a standard. If you want to talk about people clapping racist behavior, that's exactly what you see in the video," Breitbart continued.

"I think he knows Mark Williams," Boehlert countered. "Mark Williams is a national spokesperson for the Tea Party, who was expelled for making racist comments. The NAACP called out the Tea Party for racist elements. There are clearly racist elements. You look at the Tea Party media. Glenn Beck is saying Barack Obama is orchestrating a race war. Rush Limbaugh is saying Obama is keeping unemployment artificially high to exact revenge on white America. There are clearly racist elements. This race-baiting is out of control and Andrew's smear on Shirley Sherrod is latest example," said Boehlert.

"This was never about Shirley Sherrod," Breitbart interrupted.

"So apologize to her," said Boehlert. "Post a correction. Apologize to her."

But Breitbart ignored Boehlert and stuck to his talking points. "This was not about Shirley Sherrod. This was about the smears that have gone against the Tea Party," he said.

Boehlert isn't the only one who has called on Breitbart to apologize. Conservative blogger Jonah Goldberg also thinks Breitbart should say he's sorry.

I think she should get her job back. I think she's owed apologies from pretty much everyone, including my good friend Andrew Breitbart. I generally think Andrew is on the side of the angels and a great champion of the cause. He says he received the video in its edited form and I believe him. But the relevant question is, Would he have done the same thing over again if he had seen the full video from the outset? I'd like to think he wouldn't have. Because to knowingly turn this woman into a racist in order to fight fire with fire with the NAACP is unacceptable. When it seemed that Sherrod was a racist who abused her power, exposing her and the NAACP's hypocrisy was perfectly fair game. But now that we have the benefit of knowing the facts, the equation is completely different.

One SFGate.com blogger thinks that Breitbart may even be in legal trouble. "Andrew Breitbart may be a target for the U.S. Department of Justice' Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section ("CCIPS") which is in the Criminal Division," wrote Zennie62.

Time for your weekly Driftglass and Bluegal podcast. From Driftie's place:

Better than radio. Cheaper than therapy.

"One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived."

-- Niccolo Machiavelli

“The reasons the Tea Parties were formed was
so Republicans wouldn’t have to face up to their shame.”

-- Blue Gal

Ain't that the truth. I call it turd polishing. Here's this week's podcast. Enjoy!

You can listen to past editions here and at http://dgbgpodcast.blogspot.com/, and the podcast is also available on i-Tunes. If you enjoy these as much as I do, donations are greatly appreciated. Please consider throwing five bucks in the hat.

From Raw Story -- Dem governor: Fox News outdid tea partiers in ‘marshalling anger’:

Pennsylvania's Democratic governor, Ed Rendell, told the hosts of Fox & Friends Monday that they "deserve credit" for the success of the tea party movement, and that the movement could well dissipate if the economy improves.

"You guys deserve more credit for marshaling that anger than the tea partiers," Rendell told hosts Gretchen Carlson, Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade, adding that he was "being serious" in making the claim and that "it's your right to do so."

In a long monologue during which the news hosts sometimes had trouble getting a word in edgewise, Rendell said that the tea party movement paled in size when compared to the anti-war movement during the Bush era, and that the tea parties "have been successful because the mainstream media, the media all over the country, has given them too much credit. I think they're sort of following the anger, rather than creating the movement." Read on...

This was a pretty good debate with Cenk Uygur of The Young Turks and former Libertarian vice presidential candidate, now tea bagger Wayne Allyn Root. If you didn't watch it I posted this clown along with fellow wingnut Dana Loesch on Larry King talking about getting rid of Social Security. I bet most of those tea party protesters who look like they are old enough to be on Social Security and are out there with them don't know they want to take their evil Socialist entitlement program away.

Cenk tries time and again during this interview to get Root to admit that he's just a corporate tool of Dick Armey's and asks him why the tea partiers aren't out there protesting Wall Street. Root pretends he doesn't like what they've done either but spends most of his time changing the subject rather than actually answering Cenk.

It would be nice to see these wingnuts challenged by our sorry excuse for a "main stream media" as well as Cenk did here. They'd be marginalized in the manner they deserve to be rather than propped up as some sort of grass roots movement, which they're not.

This tea party movement is one part Dick Armey and company fake astroturf protest, one part angry McCain and Palin soreloserman, one part abortion clinic protester, one part white nationalist militia movement/gun rights nuts, one part ClusterFox/Glenn Beck brain dead watcher, one part anti-immigration Lou Dobbs/Tom Tancredo fan, one part southern racist that isn't done fighting the Civil War yet and one part Ron Paul/Libertarian.

What could ever go wrong with that special blend of tea? And you can argue that what I described here is not all of them, but I think it would be very hard to make the case that most of the people out there protesting at these tea bag rallies don't fall into one or more of those categories.

DOWNLOADS: (770)

PLAYS: (2548)

Embed

Ed Rendell points out that the media has been over-hyping these Tea Parties given the very small number of people that have been attending their rallies.

Rendell: I think David the first thing we have to define is what's the tea party itself. If you say it's the anger that people feel about the economy, etc. that's giving the tea party too much credit. We had two recent tea party demonstrations in Washington. One a week before the health care vote drew about 1000 people, the tax day rally by the organizers own estimate was 1500 people.

If I organized a rally for stronger laws to protect puppies, I would get 100,000 people to Washington, so let's... I think the media has blown the tea parties themselves out of proportion, that's number one.

That didn't sit too well with Marsha Blackburn. Sorry dear but he's right. Those numbers are small and the press has been over-hyping the astroturf movement for obvious reasons, like helping the Republican Party regain power. As we've already pointed out here there were huge anti-war protests that the media all but ignored. Now we get these tiny crowds showing up in D.C. and the media is hyping them with wall to wall coverage. It's pitiful.

John Amato: The Tea Party movement is an extension of the conservative movement. Every poll we've seen basically pegs them as sore losers.

DOWNLOADS: (175)

PLAYS: (499)

Embed

Countdown's Worst Persons with winner Rudy Giuliani for trashing President Obama's goal of reducing nuclear weapons:

Every time President Obama's goal of reducing -- and eventually, eliminating -- nuclear weapons comes to the fore, some on the right see grounds for mockery.

A year ago, for example, MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, with a child-like tone, equated eliminating nuclear arsenals with missiles that "can shoot dandelions," and altering the one-dollar bill to encourage Americans to "turn their frowns upside down." Yesterday, Rudy Giuliani followed suit, trying to once again pretend he knows what he's talking about.

"A nuclear-free world has been a 60-year dream of the Left, just like socialized health-care. This new policy, like Obama's government-run health program, is a big step in that direction. President Obama thinks we can all hold hands, sing songs, and have peace symbols."

Let's set the record straight here. JFK spoke often of eventually ridding the world of nuclear weapons. So did Truman. Ronald Reagan -- someone Giuliani may have heard of -- called for the abolishment of "all nuclear weapons," which he considered to be "totally irrational, totally inhumane, good for nothing but killing, possibly destructive of life on earth and civilization."

"[F]or the eight years I was president," Reagan wrote in his memoirs, "I never let my dream of a nuclear-free world fade from my mind." Read on...

Runners up Glenn Mitt-Romney-is-a-Socialist-Too Beck and David I-found-five-black-tea-partiers Freddoso.

DOWNLOADS: (1779)

PLAYS: (388)

Embed

Karl Rove often complains about liberal elitism but seemed to offer some elitism of his own Wednesday. In an interview with MSNBC's Savannah Guthrie and Chuck Todd, Rove said that Tea Party protesters were "unsophisticated people."

"Look, these movements -- this Tea Party movement -- is largely novices, relatively politically unsophisticated people as a result sometimes their rhetoric is raw and angry," he said.

DOWNLOADS: (1864)

PLAYS: (321)

Embed

The Republican Party is pulling the strings behind the tea parties but protesters still have some things in common with Democrats, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

"The Republican Party directs a lot of what the tea party does, but not everybody in the tea party takes direction from the Republican Party. And so there was a lot of, shall we say, astroturf, as opposed to grassroots," Pelosi told ABC's Elizabeth Vargas Sunday.

"We share some of the views of the tea partiers in terms of the role of special interest in Washington, D.C," Pelosi continued.

"So, common ground with Nancy Pelosi and tea party movement?" asked Vargas.

"Well, no, there are some. There are some because they, again, some of it is orchestrated from the Republican headquarters. Some of it is hijacking the good intentions of lots of people who share some of our concerns that we have about the role of special interests and many tea partiers, not that I speak for them, share the view, whether it's -- and Democrats, Republicans and Independents share the view that the recent Supreme Court decision, which greatly empowers the special interests, is something that they oppose," explained Pelosi.

From Countdown Feb. 15, 2010 Special Comment: Tea Parties And Race:

I happen to be filling the few spare hours of this past week by re-watching my friend Ken Burns' Jazz documentary and was literally pulling my shoes on to head over to the hospital yesterday when it came to the story of the great Billie Holiday and the still-startling anti-lynching song "Strange Fruit."

Not long ago, my father, who abandoned baseball because his team traded his favorite players (Yankees; Steve Souchock, George Stirnweiss; 1948, 1950; yes, we carry grudges), mentioned to me that he'd seen Satchel Paige pitch at Yankee Stadium, for the New York Black Yankees. "It never occurred to me, it never occurred to anybody I knew, that he couldn't play for the other Yankees. We just assumed he didn't want to. That none of them wanted to."

Fatal racism, passive racism, self-rationalized racism. It all blended together for me yesterday, and it led me to think about the Tea Party group, who they are, who they aren't, and what they're afraid of. Read on...

DOWNLOADS: (975)

PLAYS: (1936)

Embed

Norah O'Donnell asks Vision America and Tea Party Convention sponsor Rick Scarborough if he's got any problem with Sarah Palin profiting from her speaking engagement at the National Tea Party Convention and the fact that she is using her PAC money to buy copies of her book rather than contribute to candidates.

Of course Scarborough just trusts Palin completely and doesn't see any problem with what she's doing. I don't think I've seen this much spin out of anyone on the talking head shows on cable news in a long time. When these Tea Bag Party protesters are going to wake up to being taken for a ride by the Republicans and Palin who's lining her pocket is beyond me. I doubt it's any time soon if they all just keep watching ClusterFox for their "news".

O’Donnell: But what I’m raising questions with you as someone who feels so strongly about this is whether the Tea Party is actually a movement for change of if it’s one where people are making a personal profit off of some people who want to make change. Let me just show you, Think Progress which of course is a progressive organization has reported that the event organizers of the Tea Party Express manager and Republican public relations firm Russo, Marsh and Rogers has padded its pocket with over one million dollars in money raised by the Tea Party group. Does that concern you that funds by people who want change are being used to pad consultants rather than to elect people that you want to change Washington?

Scarborough: Once again Norah I’m not here to defend or deny; I don’t have enough information to even make a judgement on those kinds of things but what I can say to you is that I am going to invest my time and energy and any finances that people are gracious to give me to do it to find as many Christians, as many concerned Americans as I can, inform them of what the issues are and get them to the polls to vote in the primaries and finally in the election in the fall and I’m grateful for this opportunity to look anybody that will listen in the eye and say hey join us. Join us for the cause of changing America.

O’Donnell: I know but Dr. Scarborough the points that I’m trying to ask is because of this for profit nature of the very event that you’re at, Michele Bachmann who’s been called the leader of the Tea Party movement or one of the leaders is not going to show up. Marsha Blackburn is not showing up. So there are already some issues that may prevent you from having the very people you need to carry out your revolution.

Scarborough: Sure…yeah. It won’t keep me from carrying out mine because both of them are allies and what we do and stand for the values we hold dear, as you I trust know, Democrats and the majority that sit in Congress right now are filing all manner of investigations upon anyone on the conservative side. There are legal issues that have been raised and even if these folks like Sarah Palin find in the course of law that they’re right it costs them hundreds of thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of distraction to prove their innocence so I fully understand why some of these conservative Congressmen pulled out. They’re not opposed to this. They just don’t want the hassle that ethics committees in Congress will cause them. I don’t have the struggle so here I am.