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Farmer's wife says fired USDA official helped save their land — The wife of the white farmer allegedly discriminated against by the USDA's rural development director for Georgia said Shirley Sherrod “kept us out of bankruptcy.” — Eloise Spooner, 82, awoke Tuesday to discover that Sherrod …
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NAACP STATEMENT ON THE RESIGNATION OF SHIRLEY SHERROD — (BALTIMORE, MD) - NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous issued the following statement today after a careful investigation into the presentation of former USDA Official Shirley Sherrod. — “The NAACP has a zero tolerance policy …


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.
Discussion:
Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, The Corner on National …, NewsBusters.org, Wizbang, The Daily Caller and Riehl World View

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 …
Discussion:
Washington Monthly, Talking Points Memo, Big Government, PostPartisan, The Plum Line, TPMMuckraker and Daily Kos

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:


Former USDA employee says White House pressured her to resign — Atlanta, Georgia (CNN) — A black former Agriculture Department employee, who resigned after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer, insisted Tuesday she “went all out” to help the man keep his farm …


Breitbart On Sherrod's NAACP Speech: ‘I Did Not Edit This Thing’ — The crux of the Shirley Sherrod controversy is what she said outside of the two-minute video clip posted by Big Government — whether she was, as she claims, telling a story about how she overcame racial prejudice …
Discussion:
Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Little Green Footballs, Talking Points Memo and The Daily Caller

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.


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.
Discussion:
Associated Press, Townhall.com, Mediaite, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, Riehl World View and YID With LID

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.
Discussion:
The Other McCain

Shirley Sherrod's Disappearing Act: Not So Fast
Discussion:
Don Surber, NewsBusters.org, RedState, Big Government, Right Wing News, Weasel Zippers and protein wisdom

Resigned USDA official says racial story misconstrued


USDA Appointee Forced To Resign After Edited Speech Released By Breitbart (VIDEO)
Discussion:
Think Progress, Salon, The Nation, Sister Toldjah, Hot Air, Political Punch, Talking Points Memo and Media Matters for America

It was the moment of greatest peril for then-Sen. Barack Obama's political career. In the heat of the presidential campaign, videos surfaced of Obama's pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, angrily denouncing whites, the U.S. government and America itself. Obama had once bragged of his closeness to Wright.
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Big Government, The Politico, NewsBusters.org, Media Research Center, NewsReal Blog, Ruby Slippers, Big Journalism, Salon, Ace of Spades HQ, Hot Air, Don Surber, Another Black Conservative, GayPatriot, EconLog, Sister Toldjah, Weekly Standard, Fausta's Blog, Pajamas Media, Confederate Yankee, Gawker, Right Wing News, Wizbang, Wonkette, Moonbattery, Questions and Observations, Conservatives4Palin.com, Nice Deb, Mediaite, The Sundries Shack, Hit & Run, Jules Crittenden, Real Clear Politics, Taylor Marsh, Sweetness & Light, Left Coast Rebel, The Moderate Voice, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Moe Lane, Dean's World, Stop The ACLU, The Corner on National …, Althouse, Michelle Malkin, Weasel Zippers, theblogprof, Breitbart.tv, Instapundit, Politics Daily, sara in italy, sisu, Gateway Pundit, Say Anything, The Future of Capitalism and The Right Scoop
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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.

Lessons From Journolist: Why Ross Douthat is Useful
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, Stop The ACLU, Big Journalism, Liberty Pundits Blog, Riehl World View and Mother Jones

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 …
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Opposing view on the Supreme Court: A big-government vision — After carefully reviewing Elena Kagan's record and testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, I must oppose her nomination. — OUR VIEW: Kagan deserves bipartisan backing, but won't get it

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan approved by Senate Judiciary …


GOP leery of Tea Party Caucus — With the official formation of a congressional Tea Party Caucus, Rep. Michele Bachmann has thrust an existential question before House Republican leaders: Are you in or are you out? — Indiana's Mike Pence, chairman of the Republican Conference, was adamant.
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Unemployment benefits to pass, but all alone — Democrats are set to pass an extension of unemployment benefits today. The presence of Carte Goodwin, Sen. Robert Byrd's temporary replacement, gives them the 60 votes necessary to break the Republicans' — and Ben Nelson's — filibuster of the bill.
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New Angle ad says society ‘fearful’ — Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle is out with a new ad Tuesday. — (CNN) - A new ad by Sharron Angle highlights the nation's massive deficit and states that “government is the problem.” — The television commercial, the second by Angle since …
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The Politico
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The Scariest Unemployment Graph I've Seen Yet — The median duration of unemployment is higher today than any time in the last 50 years. That's an understatement. It is more than twice as high today than any time in the last 50 years. — OK, you're saying, but what does this mean?


BP photoshops fake photo of crisis command center, posts on main BP site — UPDATE: Show BP you mean business, donate to AMERICAblog. If you like our hard-hitting activist journalism, then please donate and help us continue our work. Thanks so much. — (H/t to AK for spotting this.)
Discussion:
The Huffington Post, Alan Colmes' Liberaland, Grist, Mediaite, Breaking News …, Daily Kos and Gawker
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Chilling toll of Times Sq. ‘bomb’ — Thankfully, it didn't go off as planned. — A secret FBI test of a correctly made version of the Times Square bomb revealed that it “would have killed thousands of people” if it had been made to explode as terrorists had intended, law-enforcement sources told The Post yesterday.
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House Dems whack Cheney over oil spill — Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee traded partisan blows Tuesday over whether the Obama administration or the former Bush administration deserves more blame for the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill.