Our Summer Race War Heats Up  —  Hoo boy.  Conservatives apparently aren't going to back down from ever more overt appeals to racial resentment this summer.  BigGovernment.com “broke” a story yesterday about a speech given a few months ago by Shirley Sherrod, USDA Georgia Director of Rural Development, at an NAACP Freedom Fund dinner.

Official: No White House pressure on Sherrod  —  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack this afternoon took responsibility for firing an official, Shirley Sherrod, whose appearance on video recalling her behavior toward a white farmer drew charges of racism, and whose immediate firing drew suggestions …

The White House's Weak Back Hand  —  Update below:  —  Weak Back Hand  —  by digby  —  When our new overlord Andrew Breitbart says jump, the White House says, “how high?”  Kevin Drum: … Naturally, the administration panicked like a bunch of frightened little children:

Ex-Ag Official Says White House Forced Her Out Without Hearing ‘Truth’ About Video  —  Shown here is USDA Georgia official Shirley Sherrod.  (YouTube)  —  The Department of Agriculture official who resigned Monday over a YouTube clip said the White House forced her out of her job without bothering to hear her side of the story.

Not Looking Good For Breitbart  —  The 82-year-old wife of the white Georgia farmer who was supposedly discriminated against some quarter century ago by the black USDA official forced to resign this week — if the video released by Andrew Breitbart's Big Government and re-run by Fox is to be believed …

Breitbart's Skilled Editing  —  The quotes that former USDA worker Shirley Sherrod gave on the edited tapes disseminated by Andrew Breitbart are indeed indefensible, but is it not fair to provide some kind of context?  To wit: … And: … This reminds me of the Octavia Nasr case.

One thing about the NAACP video of Shirley Sherrod  —  ...that nobody is mentioning.  —  Look at the crowd reaction when she says this.  Is there shock?  Is there disgust?  Is there anger?  Nope, they are with her all the way.  —  That says more about the NAACP than anything Sherrod did.

Resigned USDA official says racial story misconstrued  —  The USDA's rural development director for Georgia says she was forced out of her federally appointed job after a “snippet” of a speech she gave in March appeared to show her admission to only half-heartedly aiding a struggling white farmer because of his race.

The Corruption Of Journo-list  —  The latest revelations from Journo-list are deeply depressing to me.  What's depressing is the way in which liberal journalists are not responding to events in order to find out the truth, but playing strategic games to cover or not cover events and controversies in order to win a media/political war.

Lindsey Graham's vote on Elena Kagan ensures primary challenge  —  South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R) announcement that he will vote in favor of Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court is likely to further incite conservatives already unhappy with him and, according to close observers …