By now most of us have heard of the debacle surrounding the firing on of a USDA director named Shirley Sherrod.  She was accused of being a racist by Andrew Breitbart who used an edited tape to fit his claim.  When the truth unraveled what we found was that Sherrod is actually a shining example of overcoming racial prejudices to help all people.   The story of her firing though is one of disgust and failure from several levels.  There are four groups to blame for this and I call them the “4 Horsemen of our Apocalypse” because if this continues we are all in for some pretty horrendous years.

1. The White House – I’m putting them first even though they were technically the last people to know about this because after being on Twitter and watching the news this morning, they are taking most of the blame.  And you know what?  Rightly so.  Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and those in the White House who initially got on the phone with Shirley Sherrod should be ashamed of themselves for being so cowardly.  Andrew Breitbart, Glenn Beck, Fox News and the rest of these clowns routinely make shit up.  Why follow their lead?  Why not do just a LITTLE bit of background investigation before flying off the handle and reacting?  And let’s get one thing straight, while I blame the White House and therefore the President by proxy, this is mainly about who the President has running certain things for him.  The President didn’t personally fire Sherrod.  I believe he didn’t even really know the full truth until the second time he was briefed that night.  The President had a meeting with the British Prime Minister yesterday and is today dealing with signing the Financial Reform bill.  Shirley Sherrod is probably a .5 on a scale of 10 for Presidential attention.  The fault with the President isn’t with Sherrod but by allowing his staff to be just a little too reactionary to Fox News type bullshit.  Sure it was a White House bus that ran over Sherrod but Obama wasn’t driving it.
2. The NAACP – I called this. I said that when the NAACP put out their bullshit resolution condemning racism in the Tea Party that they were falling for a trap.  And look, they fell into a trap.  Ben Jealous and the NAACP were so anxious to show themselves to not be hypocrites that they took the word of Andrew Breitbart at face value.  Ben Jealous comes out making statements supporting Sherrod’s resignation because she made racist comments.  But here’s the thing that took me a minute to realize:  Sherrod’s comments came at a NAACP event.  So Ben Jealous comes out and blames Fox News and Breitbart for “editing” the video and not presenting the whole story…BUT IT WAS AN NAACP EVENT.  Ben Jealous and the NAACP could have easily checked their own records and come to their own conclusion.  But no. They didn’t.  They allowed themselves to be controlled and manipulated by a Right Wing Nut Job and they fell for it 100%.  The way this unfolded was so ridiculous I said that Ben Jealous should commit seppuku for the shame he brought onto his family.  But I’ll settle for a resignation.  He has led the NAACP into a racial name-calling fight with an organization with no real structure and has just been made to look like a fool.  He needs to go.
3. The Cable News networks (minus Fox News) – I have a particular disgust for the media after this incident.  First there was the utter lack of discipline and fact checking.  Then after the truth finally broke, the media wants to sit back and pretend that they had nothing to do with pushing the panic button.  I heard Norah O’Donnell say this morning “We later found out the tape was edited.”  Later found out?  How did you not know that 2 minute clip was edited?  Sherrod is clearly in the middle of giving a speech, of course the tape was edited.  The Morning Joe crew after calling Sherrod a “reverse racist” now claims they only ran with the story after Vilsack fired Sherrod and the NAACP put out their first statement.  As if that excuses them from doing their job and reporting the truth behind what happened.  The story this morning is how the White House failed to fact check and fired an innocent woman.  The media has wiped their hands of any responsibility.  Sure the White House pulled the trigger but the media handed them the loaded gun and pointed at Sherrod and said “Shoot”.  Now they want to claim they are innocent.  The media today is now claiming they don’t understand why the White House would react to Fox News or Glenn Beck.  This ignores the fact that the other media outlets have gone to war for Fox News in the past.  This ignores the fact that CNN, MSNBC and others let Fox News dictate stupid stories (ACORN, New Black Panther Party, etc.) to them and then run with them.  The Cable News media forget that people in this country get their news from THEM and that their idiocy in following Fox News can cause poll numbers to drop and influence policy.  This is the danger of the 24 hour news cycle and the Cable News networks want to ignore any of their responsibility.  This Sherrod incident is yet another example.
4. Fox News -  The Puppetmasters.  Fox News creates a controversy, hammers it for months if not years, blasts other networks for not covering it then watches as the other networks get guilt tripped into covering it and the story implodes.  That’s what they did here.  Hell, Glenn Beck has come out calling for Sherrod to be reinstated.  If CNN hadn’t stumbled upon the truth (let’s not act like it was good journalism that helped them uncover it), Glenn Beck would have had Sherrod’s face up on his chalkboard with the word “racist” beside it.  But since they did, Beck did what Fox News always does and deflects the issue from themselves.  Now the story isn’t that they messed up but rather how this is yet another example of the White House rushing to cover their tracks…as if they are covering something else up.  But you know what?  This isn’t a shock.  This is Fox News.  We know this is what they do.  What kills me is how the 3 groups above that I wrote about fell for it again.  And this is why we are fucked.  When these 4 groups come together in this kind of fuckery, we the people suffer.

One day I hope that we get to the point in politics where our elected (Or aspiring to be elected) officials can hold a press conference and just admit when they did or said something ridiculous.  You know, come to the mic saying “Yeah for a minute there I was suffering from Shitmouthism where I was spewing feces uncontrollably out of my mouth.  I’m here to say I’m sorry for that and that the Doctor has given me some antibiotics and I’m going to make a full recovery.  Sorry for sounding like such an idiot.  Please forgive me.”  I know it will never happen but I just don’t understand why it’s that hard.  Like when Pat Buchanan can’t figure out why black people might be upset when he said that this country was built by white males.  I refuse to believe he’s that stupid that he can’t see the error in that statement, so why not just admit that you caught a case of “feces of the tongue” and move on?

But alas, that’s not what happens.  It’s much easier to blame the people offended by the outrageous comment than to admit that at the very least you didn’t make your point in a clear, concise and articulate way.  Take Kentucky US Senate hopeful Rand Paul.  You’ll remember him from the mind boggling way he stumbled over Rachel Maddow asking him simply whether he would support the Civil Rights Act.  It’s a simple question that anyone hoping to run for anything outside of Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan would know to answer simply with a “Yes”.  But not Paul.  Instead he foolishly tried to take an academic approach to answering this question suggesting that states should decide themselves and for some reason comparing human civil rights to the rights of people to go into a restaurant with guns.  Completely idiot.  And when called on this BS instead of just admitting his wording was not only ill advised but just flat out stupid, Paul pulled out a trick from the Mitt Romney playbook with the “I would have marched with MLK.”  Obviously you don’t get it man.

But it gets better.

After blowing off Meet the Press and several other media outlets by putting himself on a self imposed media hiatus, Rand Paul did what most wayward sons do after blowing all their money and he went home to momma:  Fox News.  Instead of making a simple mea culpa for his mistake of going on a show with a liberal (but extremely fair and patience) Rachel Maddow and answering a simple question in such a convoluted and idiotic way, Paul blamed liberals.  Liberals?  Dude, Koko the gotdamn gorilla would have given a better answer in sign language than you did.  And Rachel Maddow, while liberal, was almost painfully fair with you.  She gave you plenty of opportunities to dig yourself out of your self made hole but each time she reached down to pull you up, you knocked her hand away and then pulled more dirt over top of yourself.  Here’s part of what Paul said on Fox News.

“I would vote for the Civil Rights Act,” Paul responded. “I think the Civil Rights Act was necessary to right a great wrong, and yet I’m vilified for even having any kind of audacity to at least discuss any of it. I think that’s really — it gets away from having any kind of, you know, any kind of real discussion on television. You know the most common answer I’ve been told to give when I’m on national TV now is, ‘don’t answer the question, keep repeating some answer you want to give.’”

I’m sorry but people get a little sensitive when the topic of Civil Rights gets discussed.  You want to have a discussion about how in some cases  States and private businesses have a right to discriminate and I’m sorry, while it is your right to want to have that discussion, its my right and the right of many other people to tell you to go to Hell.  See I know the real issue here.  The real issue here is you and your father have built political careers on “less government” and things like the Civil Rights Act throw a wrench in that.  You want to pretend that the Federal Government doesn’t have to step in sometimes to right wrongs done by states and corporations.  Part of the problem is that as a white male in a situation like this, you know that the type of discrimination covered in the Civil Rights Act would never happen to you and so honestly you don’t care.  You’re not a racist Paul.  No calling you a racist would be letting you off the hook.  No, you’re just that guy who sees discrimination happening but won’t step out of your own comfort zone or risk political capital to fight it.  And that’s why you answered the question the way you did on Rachel Maddow’s show.  It wasn’t that a “liberal tried to trap” you.  It’s not the “Liberal Media” trying to destroy you.  This was just you expressing that you’d put political aspirations and ideology over Civil Rights and common sense.  Some of us think that’s horrible and we let you know.  Now I just wish you would admit that instead of pretending the liberal media is out to get you.  Own up to it.  It’s not like you’d lose.  You’re in Kentucky for Godsake.  They’d probably give you a medal.

Bret Baier and Fox News did figure out something that Michael Steele, Mitch McConnell, Eric Cantor and John Boehner couldn’t figure out:  How to beat the President in a one-on-one situation.  See, between the Q & A time with House Republicans and the Health Care Summit, the President has basically been eating the Republican’s lunches right in front of them.  But Fox News & Baier figured out the perfect strategy: Just don’t let the President speak.  See Republicans in Congress have made the simple mistake of letting a man who is a hell of a lot smarter than they are, explain and defend his positions in a calm and intelligent manner.  Well Fox News and Baier are no fools and since the 3rd time is a charm…they came with a new strategy:

1.  Ask the President a talking point laden question

2.  As the President is in the middle of explaining it, act like an incredible douchebag and interrupt him

3.  After not letting the President speak complain that he didn’t answer your question

4. ????

5.  Profit!!!

No seriously.  This is what Bret Baier did in his exclusive interview with the President.  Contrary to what that idiot Mika said on Morning Joe this wasn’t “a good exchange”.  This was a “journalist” pushing an agenda and employing the Sean Hannity method of interviewing.  In the end I still think the President won because Baier just came off as a douche.

Seriously, this is why the “Global Warming” debate is pointless now. Because idiots like this speak. Global “Warming” doesn’t mean just getting warmer or that cold weather won’t be felt in certain places on Earth. It’s like these fools on Fox & Friends get their talking points from Sarah Palin’s Twitter Feed.

The intolerance and hypocrisy of Christians sometimes can be completely unbelievable.  I’m not an atheist, I’m a Christian.  But that doesn’t change my first statement.  For all the talk we do about “radical Islam”, history shows that when it comes to be tolerant of other cultures and religions, Christians missed that day of Kindergarten.  Just listen to the smugness of Brit Hume as he says that Tiger Woods should convert because being a Buddhist doesn’t offer the same kind of forgiveness as being a Christian.

Who says this kind of stuff out loud for millions of people to watch?  And the really sad thing is…Hume probably thinks he’s giving legitimate advice to Tiger Woods.
*********Update**********
MSNBC sees Fox News’ Brit Hume and raises them a Pat Buchanan

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Seriously, the fact that they let Buchanan speak on this shows that MSNBC is just as sensationalized and bad at reporting as Fox News. Pat Buchanan, as pointed out by both hosts, has no real knowledge on the subject himself and allowing him to speak on it is just bad journalism. We all know why this was done. Everyone knows Pat Buchanan can’t help himself from saying something idiotic or intolerant. And intolerance is a ratings booster.

I haven’t written anything in a while but there has been too much f*ckery going on this past week on the Idiot Tube aka the American Media so I will get both of them out w/ one blog posting.

Once again, we are allowing ourselves to fall into the media trap and further confusing the whole notion of the ‘chicken vs. the egg…..which comes first?’. Is the American Media the fault for all the senseless news that we are being barraged with or are they simply honoring a demand from us ‘the  village idiots’?  Let us look at the Tiger and the Salahi cases. (google both of these if you haven’t heard of them but I am sure you have)

Case #1: The Tiger Woods Fiasco

Cheating:

Why the shock of the possibility that the man is cheating on his wife? Are we now going to act like cheating has boundaries? Newsflash: IT DOES NOT! Rich/poor/educated/black/blackasian/gay/midget/albino….we are all human and there is an innate human need to seek something ‘better’ or search for ‘greener grass’.  But there is also ‘common sense’ that says…at some point you have to stop searching and deal with what you have.  But we also have established that Common Sense is not that Common. Therefore, Mr. Woods is just another guy who failed in that aspect of being human.

***Sidenote*** Cheating sometimes the time is inevitable, part of life (reasons stated above). The other times, there are contributing factors that we refuse to discuss.  If you have EVER been cheated on, have you asked yourself….’did I do anything to drive this person away?’ or do we always rush to judgment and blame the cheater. If you get cheated on by all of your partners, you might want to check yourself.

I don’t condone cheating but for the simple fact that it happens so often and sometimes by the people we least expect might mean that we need to change our conversations from blame-passing to some really deep thinking.

Black People and Race:

Now some black people went from f#ck Tiger and his non-black claiming self to ‘Fuck Tiger- that’s what he gets’. WTF!!! He wasn’t claiming 100% black PreGolfClubSaga and he won’t be PostGolfClubSaga.  Kobe is still Kobe. Ice T, Ice T. Magic Johnson won’t change tomorrow. Find something else to focus on. Takes too much to hate one people who aren’t as black as you.

Iconic Figure/Endorsements:

Once again if you are upset because Tiger was supposed to be a good role model for your kids – Newsflash: your kids are already FUCKED (couldn’t hold that one back). If they were on their way to being screw ups/cheaters/bad golfers etc, it is YOUR fault as a parent, not Tiger’s. Stop looking for someone else to blame and focus on your own household.

Message to Tiger:

Do whatever you have to do to fix your home, avoid the interviews and please don’t feed into this bullshit. You are still are great golfer and continue to perfect your game.  You will be loved for golf and I still won’t care about your personal life unless you start  f*cking little kids with golf clubs.

Case #2: The White House Party Crashers:

This one is pretty simple….

For the Secret Service:

SHAME ON YOU. You FAILED. This is the POTUS (just learned this term few weeks ago…..now I am forcing myself to use it) we are talking about, not crashing a Hugh Hefner bunny party. That being said….let the Secret Service and Dept. of Homeland Security figure out how to do better. Hopefully the POTUS will use this opportunity to address HIS OWN protection.  Do we want the Secret Service to come give a bunch of statements about what they will do to fix this situation? I hope not, because it’s the SECRET service.  I do not NEED to know what they do and despite the media’s watering tongues for info, you shouldn’t either….Just keep the (Vice)POTUS and their families out of harms way.

Message to the Salahi’s:

I hope your asses join the Balloon Boy family in jail for between 3-5 years…..no more – no less.  The justice system needs scapegoats to teach American’s a lesson.  The attention whoring needs to stop somewhere.  There is only so much you can do to chase your 15 mins of fame.  Stick to youtube, twitter, sex tapes and faux-reality shows.  When you start depleting resources of the public (ex. Mobilizing and entire state’s police/fire/EMT services) then you should be punished for it.

In Conclusion:

Hopefully this is an example to the rest of us on how the American Media is turning us into a bunch of idiots — from the ones that sit and watch RIDICULOUS reality TV Shows, actually dial in to vote for contestants, actually go out and audition and even worse subject ourselves to it  — that getting an education and living a ‘normal’ life is not a thing of the past. 15 minutes of fame is exactly what it is because all that tabloid money won’t buy you happiness. Don’t get me wrong….I have no problem w/ youtube, sensible reality shows, tabloid news etc, we all need a little comedy in our lives (I know I do) but when you are turning to supposed ‘NEWS CHANNELS’ and this is what they are throwing in your face and you sit there and watch it…….please GO PLAX YOURSELF!!!!

I heard a rumor that today was ‘World Aids Day’. If you turn on your Idiot Box today, tune to CNN and actual real life issues like deadly infectious diseases, wars/world peace, hunger crisis, undereducated kids etc aren’t been discussed ……TURN THE SHIT OFF!!!

***I am actually upset I took 15 mins of my day to write and post this but: 1. I don’t claim to be a real journalist and 2. my little blog post does not compare to the fellatio fest of the American Media hype***

I think Glenn Beck’s tears are like manna for Jesus.  The real tears.  Not the forced, “I rubbed Vicks Vapor Rub Under My Eyes”, tears…but the real ones from Glenn Beck.  Its almost poetic.  Seriously, who wouldn’t get all choked up watching that little white boy give his coke to the tired black football player.  Wait a minute….is that socialism?  Or that Kodak commercial with the inspiring music.  Who knew commercials were so deep?

Let’s be real, this is just more proof that Glenn Beck is certifiably insane.  First off, the reason Beck has such a connection to those commercials is because they were probably first aired around the same time he was strung out on drugs.  Ever watch a commercial with someone on drugs?  They think everything is deep.  To them, Billy Mays wasn’t a salesman but a wizard of the dark arts who’s magic potion “Oxyclean” could magically get rid of not only their vomit but the smell.    And when Beck says this was a time when we were “together”, I really have to wonder just how long he was on those drugs.  Maybe its my “unique” experience as a black guy but seriously, we haven’t really ever been together Glenn.  Black folks were getting their asses whooped heavy back then by the police.  Also, is it me or is Glenn Beck an example of when “Analogies Go Wrong”?  I mean come on.  Glenn Beck did drugs.  Him saying “You smell like pot, your friends poured beer on you, you’re out late past your bedtime” seems like it would have been called “Mission Accomplished” for him a few years ago.  I’m just saying.

Honestly, Glenn Beck is hilarious not because he’s trying to be but because he’s a living, breathing example of how idiots can direct this country.  People actually believe this guy.  Sad, scary and hilarious all wrapped up in one nutcase.

What’s this?  A Fox News host who is intelligent and sets republican congressmen straight when they try to use asinine talking points?  It’s amazing.  But its not just that Shep Smith is on Fox News, but its also the fact that he has done something I’ve rarely seen done on more “liberal” stations like CNN or MSNBC.  Smith has confronted the myth that the Public Option is “Government run Health Care”.  No, the Public Option is a “Government run Health Care OPTION”.  Option means you have a choice in using it.  If this was “socialized medicine” as some conservatives like to say, then there wouldn’t be a choice.  Oh, and that other fear of conservatives…that this will lead to a single payer system.  Come on.  The only reason why that is a legitimate fear is because conservatives know that a lot of the American people support a single payer system and going to that system would dry up a lot of money these political figures get from insurance companies.

Yeah yeah yeah, I know…its been a while since I did a WTF Wednesday.  Well, no time like the present.  So sit back and enjoy this middle of the week compilation of craziness.

Let’s get started.

C-Span Leads to Suicides
I’m convinced that if more people watched C-Span and saw the absolute calamity that goes on in Congress, our suicide rates would double.  Yesterday in the middle of watching a Law & Order SVU marathon, I flipped over to C-Span 3 to watch the vote on the Public Option amendments to the Senate Finance Committee’s Health Care Bill.  6 hours later I was left staring at the screen in complete disbelief of what I had viewed.  Let me give you a taste of what I saw that helped melt my brain:

1.  In order to refute a democratic senator’s claims (not really claims, but facts) that the U.S. has lower health care (in terms of mortality rates), republican Senator Ensign said that you can’t compare our current system to Europe because if you take out gun deaths & automobile accidents, we’re basically at the same level.  No, I’m not kidding.  He really said this.  Just watch.

Hey, Senator Ensign, just a little FYI…there are people, who when shot or in an accident, live long enough to get care at a hospital. Not even accident or gun shot is immediately fatal. Also, why stop at gun deaths & auto accidents?  Lets take out cancer too.  Oh…and its funny seeing a republican say “gun deaths” don’t count (because we love our guns) but then republicans are so against gun control.

2.  Senator Conrad, one of the 3 democratic senators to vote against BOTH public option amendments did so not because he doesn’t believe in a public option, but he wants a different kind of public option.  Now call me silly, but if you agree with the idea of a public option, instead of voting ‘no’ on both amendments, wouldn’t you vote ‘yes’ and then work to get closer to what you want.

3. Max Baucus is an idiot.  Twice, not once but TWICE, he said that he likes the idea of a public option, that he liked both amendments, but he was voting ‘No’ because he didn’t think it would get 60 votes on the floor of the senate.  Huh?  You voted ‘No’ because you think (you don’t know, you just think) you can’t get the votes.  That is unbelievably stupid logic to me.  You vote ‘Yes’ here and then you work on the 10 or less democrats still waffling to get them to vote ‘Yes’ as well.  I mean, come on here.  This is ridiculous.

NY Times Getting News From Fox News
In a case of “not getting the point” the New York Times seems to have learned the wrong lesson from Fox New “breaking” the ACORN story.  Instead of realizing that the ACORN story was really a more localized issue (there are thousands of ACORN offices and this story only talks about 4 – 5 of them) and that’s why it wasn’t covered on major reputable news networks and media outlets, the NY Times instead is deciding to get its “news” from a network that is dominated by personalities like Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.  Unbelievable.  If the NY Times wanted to actually do its job and be a reputable news source, instead of assigning an editor to watch the tabloid-like Fox News, instead they would do their own investigation into ACORN’s activities and cover the millions of people (black & white) aided by ACORN across the country.

Jon Stewart on Fox News’ Claims of Obama Indoctrination of Children

And that’s all I have to say about that

Westboro Baptist Church is Proof of Just How Crazy Some Religious Folks are

LOL @ the guy with the camera asking “In hamburger form?”