American Spectator Publishes Another Dishonest Sherrod Hit Piece

WingnutsJuly 2010 • Views: 3,722

It should be no surprise to find American Spectator, the magazine that plays host to white supremacist blogger Robert Stacy McCain, running an absolutely vile 4000-word attack piece on Shirley Sherrod today.

Jeffrey Lord says Sherrod lied in her speech to the NAACP when she talked about the murder of a black man by a white sheriff, because she called it a “lynching.” Lord says this murder could not have been a lynching because the black man wasn’t hanged from a tree. Yes, really; that’s his disgusting point: The American Spectator : Sherrod Story False.

Last week after this story broke, I predicted that the right would now redouble their efforts to smear Sherrod. But this takes the nastiness to a whole new level. The American Spectator should be embarrassed to publish such a naked piece of race-baiting ugliness, but I know they are not.

And for the record, they also have no problem when one of their writers publicly labels Mexicans as “beaners.”

UPDATE at 7/26/10 10:44:45 am:

Some of the other writers for American Spectator are slightly uncomfortable with this approach.

Jump to bottom

95 comments

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:15:12am

Apparently the poor man was beaten to death on the courthouse steps while handcuffed.

Nowhere does the ugly term "lynching", by the way, imply that the victim must be hanged. Stoning by an angry mob would qualify, too.

I am going to steal Jeffrey Lord's lynch money.

Killgore Trout Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:16:03am

It seems odd to me that this bogus story about an obscure relatively low level USDA employee has opened the floodgates. I guess this is as good as anything.

Brother Holy Cruise Missile of Mild Acceptance Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:16:50am

re: #2 Killgore Trout

The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back as it were.

iceweasel Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:18:01am

So morally repugnant I cannot stand it.

BTW, they're wrong about the definition of lynching in any case:

A lynching is an extrajudicial mob killing. No one who worked to document the practice of lynching in the South limited the definition of the term to solely include those lynchings that occurred using a rope. Don't believe me? Here's the definition of lynching as described in the 1922 anti-lynching bill introduced by Republican Rep. L.C. Dyer that Lord pretends to know something about:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the phrase "mob or riotous assemblage," when used in this act, shall mean an assemblage composed of three or more persons acting in concert for the purpose of depriving any person of his life without authority of law as a punishment for or to prevent the commission of some actual or supposed public offense.

So Lord concocts a definition of lynching that would only include a narrow number of lynchings, which is a bit like setting the threshold for racism so high that nothing short of having a closet full of white sheets would make you a racist.

Source: Adam Serwer, Defining Lynching Down-- terrific piece, I recommend it all:

Now does three guys beating someone to death sound like an extrajudicial mob killing to you? Well Lord thinks it's merely "brutal fisticuffs" because under the definition of lynching he just made up, you need a rope to make it official -- I mean they didn't even set the guy on fire for crying out loud! It's almost as if instead of being a Southerner tortured by the knowledge of past racial injustice, he's someone who didn't know very much about lynching or segregation before he decided to call Shirley Sherrod a liar without bothering to use Google first. What's sad is that when the generation that actually remembers what living under segregation was like is gone, this kind of historical revisionism is just going to get 10 times worse.

Finally, how many times are conservatives going to try to smear this woman before some sense of shame or decency kicks in?

mikefromArlington Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:18:05am

When will the race baiting effort of the right be the story?

Do you think this is the intention? Purposely make it the story so then in 2012 they can turn around and say see, this is what Obama has brought you? American's attacking American's for being racist?

I wouldn't put it past them. I imagine Fox and the rest of the hate mongers love when the discussion turns to race as it tears into Obama's whole "there is only the United States of America" branding.

iceweasel Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:19:45am

re: #4 iceweasel

Those final two paragraphs are from the serwer article as well, should have been blockquoted, sorry.

Off to wrestle with packing, fight the good fight all.

Kragar Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:19:56am

"Jeffrey Lord says Sherrod lied in her speech to the NAACP when she talked about the murder of a black man by a white sheriff, because she called it a “lynching.” Lord says this murder could not have been a lynching because the black man wasn’t hanged from a tree."

Jeffrey Lord, Motherfucker.

Though I will admit I have no evidence he fucked his mother

Varek Raith Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:20:08am

re: #3 Dreggas

The proverbial straw that broke the camel's back as it were.

In Wingnuttia every straw, real and imagined, breaks the camels back.

HappyWarrior Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:20:27am

He should tell that man's family he wasn't lynched. Lynchings come in all forms. I was out of town on vacation when the Sherrod story broke and man I feel so bad for this woman. The actual family that she talked of credits her with saving their farm but these assholes don't care about that. All they care about is smearing her and the NAACP because the NAACP asked their precious Tea Baggers to call out the racism that exists in their movement. I feel so bad for Sherrod.

Varek Raith Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:24:11am

re: #9 HappyWarrior

He should tell that man's family he wasn't lynched. Lynchings come in all forms. I was out of town on vacation when the Sherrod story broke and man I feel so bad for this woman. The actual family that she talked of credits her with saving their farm but these assholes don't care about that. All they care about is smearing her and the NAACP because the NAACP asked their precious Tea Baggers to call out the racism that exists in their movement. I feel so bad for Sherrod.

The wingnuts claimed they were leftwing plants.
Then the man whose farm was saved turned out to be a veteran of the Battle of Midway.

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:25:44am

But this takes the nastiness to a whole new level.

There are no depths they won't plow, no boundaries they won't cross, and there isn't a hope in hell they'll suddenly self correct. This IS what they are, right down to the core. It isn't as if they're hiding it. In fact, they're flaunting it.

They're out and they're proud.

JRCMYP Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:27:09am

It's getting to the point that I can't even read about this anymore. At this point, it hurts my heart in addition to my head.

I'm am grossly naive. Do you know what I thought America's political problem was? I thought it was simply a hideous "team" mentality. But clearly, the team mentality is rooted in a disgusting basic difference in world view. I knew racism was still alive and well in America. I just didn't realize how far up the food chain it goes.

elizajane Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:27:12am

The Right won't let this go until they have destroyed the Sherrods. Riehl World View has a very long piece on Charles Sherrod's racism today, complete with video clips and lots of dark, dark hints about why the Sherrods might have named their daughter "Russia" in the 1960s. This entire family will be vilified until Breitbart is seen as having been fundamentally justified even if he did edit the clip. The impression will be that the Sherrods are Marxist, racist liars whom Breitbarth was right to expose, whatever tactics he "had to" use. Everything decent they ever did will be hauled out and used against them.

HappyWarrior Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:27:17am

re: #10 Varek Raith

The wingnuts claimed they were leftwing plants.
Then the man whose farm was saved turned out to be a veteran of the Battle of Midway.

Wow had not heard about that. Seriously it seems like the right will smear and insult anyone who gets in their way.

Charles Johnson Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:28:04am

And bottom feeder Dan Riehl is now attacking Sherrod's husband.

JRCMYP Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:29:09am

re: #5 mikefromArlington

I guess so. And that's incredibly depressing.

Killgore Trout Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:29:29am

re: #13 elizajane

The Right won't let this go until they have destroyed the Sherrods. Riehl World View has a very long piece on Charles Sherrod's racism today, complete with video clips and lots of dark, dark hints about why the Sherrods might have named their daughter "Russia" in the 1960s. This entire family will be vilified until Breitbart is seen as having been fundamentally justified even if he did edit the clip. The impression will be that the Sherrods are Marxist, racist liars whom Breitbarth was right to expose, whatever tactics he "had to" use. Everything decent they ever did will be hauled out and used against them.

Yeah, I saw that earlier but couldn't bring myself to actually watch the video. This is just sad and disgusting.

Kragar Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:30:29am

re: #15 Charles

And bottom feeder Dan Riehl is now attacking Sherrod's husband.

Perhaps they can track down all her extended family next. I'm anxious to see what her 3rd cousin twice removed has been up to.

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:30:59am

re: #15 Charles

And bottom feeder Dan Riehl is now attacking Sherrod's husband.

Holt, Riehl, Breitbart. It's a German thing!

[[[/]]]

Yes, for once in my life, I find it needful to use a sarcasm tag.

Targetpractice Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:31:11am

re: #13 elizajane

The Right won't let this go until they have destroyed the Sherrods. Riehl World View has a very long piece on Charles Sherrod's racism today, complete with video clips and lots of dark, dark hints about why the Sherrods might have named their daughter "Russia" in the 1960s. This entire family will be vilified until Breitbart is seen as having been fundamentally justified even if he did edit the clip. The impression will be that the Sherrods are Marxist, racist liars whom Breitbarth was right to expose, whatever tactics he "had to" use. Everything decent they ever did will be hauled out and used against them.

Precisely. At the end of the day, it's about saving the "credibility" they have deluded themselves into believing they possess, about saving Breitbart's ass, and doing so in a manner that hurts Obama and Democrats as a whole. They won't simply settle for dragging Shirley Sherrod's name through the mud anymore, now they want to destroy not simply her, but her family as a whole. Mark my words, before this is over, the Right will have found some way to even accuse her father of having put himself in front of that white man's bullet, instigating his own murder in order to further the drive for "reparations" or whatever sick shit they claim all blacks are after.

webevintage Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:34:24am

It is a shameful article and the comments...ugh.
What a cesspool the right has become.

I did see that 2 writers from American Spectator were a bit put out by the piece.
[Link: mediamatters.org...]

Varek Raith Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:34:36am

re: #14 HappyWarrior

Wow had not heard about that. Seriously it seems like the right will smear and insult anyone who gets in their way.

Yep.
[Link: littlegreenfootballs.com...]

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:34:53am

Stick in the eye for the wingnuts: after a week of prayer, contemplation, and discussing it with his best advisers, Obama decides to create a new Office of American Racial Reconciliation and Redemption (OARRR), and names Shirley Sherrod the first secretary of same, with cabinet status.

Watch the heads explode! Hear them popping from a distance!

[I can dream, can't I?]

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:34:56am

re: #13 elizajane

They won't let go of this whatsoever. Trashing the Sherrods is not enough. It's a drop in the bucket compared to their agenda of voting the far right wing back into power, and trashing anything and everything in their path.

This is minuscule. This is parsley. Destroying one innocent black woman and her family isn't even a blip on the moral radar for them. If anything, it's just target practice.

JamesWI Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:36:48am

I wonder if American Spectator would have called out Clarence Thomas back during his confirmation hearings.

"And from my standpoint, as a black American, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by a committee of the U.S. Senate rather than hung from a tree."

So remember kids, black man beaten to death while handcuffed on the courthouse steps, by a white mob = not a lynching, Sherrod is a liar. Being asked questions about sexual harassment/assault allegations = lynching. Got it? Good.

Decatur Deb Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:37:00am

re: #14 HappyWarrior

Wow had not heard about that. Seriously it seems like the right will smear and insult anyone who gets in their way.

Most of Sen. Max Cleland, noted for lack of patriotism:

[Link: t1.gstatic.com...]

AntonSirius Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:38:45am

The conservative movement is increasingly indistinguishable from a ratfucking operation designed to destroy the conservative movement.

SpaceJesus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:40:05am

it's amazing how these scumbags come scurrying out once the media attention starts to move elsewhere. it's like cockroach clockwork.

webevintage Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:40:35am

re: #13 elizajane

The Right won't let this go until they have destroyed the Sherrods.

BUT that is the idea.
That is what this is really all about.
Now AB may have done it to get back at the NAACP, but whoever paid him and gave him that tape wanted the Sherrods to be ruined because of the Pigford lawsuit against the USDA in which they were the lead plaintiffs (other black farmers were allowed to join later) that they won and which has not been paid out yet because the Senate can seem to approve the funding.
This is a judgment that has not be paid out yet.
Funding was included in the war supplemental bill last week but that has gone on (last I saw) to be filibustered.

Now they can talk about how she is taking the gov. for millions and they can yell about reparations and all other racist bull shit.

HappyWarrior Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:40:55am

I wouldn't even call them conservatives anymore honestly. They're reactionaries pure and simple to me. They want to go to a time where only their kind have a say. I'm just so sick of this crap about how Obama is this Marxist Muslim who is purposely ruining our country. They have shown they will go to any length to smear anyone who gets in the way of theri agenda.

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:41:41am

re: #27 AntonSirius

I disagree. The GOP is becoming exactly what it always wanted to be. It didn't change as much as it went from pupa to moth. It was unavoidable.

Kragar Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:41:52am

re: #27 AntonSirius

The conservative movement is increasingly indistinguishable from a ratfucking operation designed to destroy the conservative movement.

The days of me giving a rat fuck abou the Conservative movement died when it they decided to make it abundantly clear they're a bunch of bible thumping morons.

JRCMYP Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:43:39am

It's all about winning.

jamesfirecat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:43:48am

You know, right now I'd normally make an "anti-semantic" joke but f*** that I'm too angry.

These people are scum for trying to turn this poor woman having her father murdered and nothing done about it AGAINST HER!

calochortus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:44:06am

It is not a coincidence that they went after a relatively obscure individual in the first place. They learned from anti-communist hysteria of the 50's. You go after writers and minor actors, they get blacklisted and their lives are ruined. You go after a big name star and suddenly the studios/networks stand up and demand evidence. This whole thing started to play the same way, but then the script changed on them. Apparently the wingnuts haven't caught onto that yet and are simply trying more of the same.
I trust the sane folks of the world will stick with it. And oh yeah, we (as in the government) should pay the settlement in the Pigford case too.

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:44:31am

re: #31 theheat

I disagree. The GOP is becoming exactly what it always wanted to be. It didn't change as much as it went from pupa to moth. It was unavoidable.

No chrysalis stage in between?

It's a miracle, I tell you!

JeffM70 Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:44:58am

It is extremely impressive in a perverse way to see how the right seems to keep finding a new bottom in the stupidity well.

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:45:31am

re: #36 Cato the Elder

Cato, you know they ain't much into "transitional" species.
//

jamesfirecat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:46:11am

re: #11 theheat

There are no depths they won't plow, no boundaries they won't cross, and there isn't a hope in hell they'll suddenly self correct. This IS what they are, right down to the core. It isn't as if they're hiding it. In fact, they're flaunting it.

They're out and they're proud.

I believe I just saw a No Shame parade go right past my house....

Gus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:46:11am

Latest interpretation of Andrew Breitbart.

JeffM70 Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:46:21am

re: #38 theheat

Cato, you know they ain't much into "transitional" species.
//

That smacks of evolution.

Shiplord Kirel Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:46:41am

re: #37 JeffM70

It is extremely impressive in a perverse way to see how the right seems to keep finding a new bottom in the stupidity well.

Once you decide the Earth is just 6000 years old, there is no bottom.

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:46:47am

re: #39 jamesfirecat

I believe I just saw a No Shame parade go right past my house...

No shame, no pride.

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:47:18am

re: #41 JeffM70

Naughty word in the GOP playbook.

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:49:06am

re: #39 jamesfirecat

I believe I just saw a No Shame parade go right past my house...

Since they're only allowed to make right turns, you'll be seeing them again very shorty.

Kragar Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:49:11am

re: #42 Shiplord Kirel

Once you decide the Earth is just 6000 years old, there is no bottom.

But how do we know that God didn't just make the universe in the last 5 minutes and just put all these so called memories in our head to fuck with us?

Feline Fearless Leader Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:49:47am

re: #42 Shiplord Kirel

Once you decide the Earth is just 6000 years old, there is no bottom.

There's a fantasy SF version of doing this sort of thing in the other direction:
[Link: en.wikipedia.org...]

3kids3dogs Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:51:13am

re: #9 HappyWarrior

He should tell that man's family he wasn't lynched.

He just did exactly that.

Feline Fearless Leader Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:51:16am

re: #46 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

But how do we know that God didn't just make the universe in the last 5 minutes and just put all these so called memories in our head to fuck with us?

That would make God a Loki-troll or a cat. You can choose which would be worse...

Targetpractice Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:51:20am

It needs to be asked often and loudly:

"Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator.... You've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

Youtube Video

Decatur Deb Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:52:28am

re: #27 re: #42 Shiplord Kirel

Once you decide the Earth is just 6000 years old, there is no bottom.

That makes me 1.1% Old As Time. Feels about right.

JeffM70 Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:52:51am

Of course MSNBC, in order to gain deeper insight into the racial aspects of this story, brings in Pat Buchannan.

Charles Johnson Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:53:37am

Riehl is also going after the Sherrods' daughter.

Decatur Deb Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:54:25am

re: #53 Charles

Riehl is also going after the Sherrods' daughter.

"and her little dog too."

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:54:40am

The moral equivalent of Jeffrey Lord's argument:

"I have just found out that [Mrs. X, a Jewish activist] lied when she said her father was 'murdered' in Auschwitz. He was not. He was merely worked to death. Liar!"

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:54:44am

re: #52 JeffM70

Nothing like a vinegar douche to put things in perspective. He being one of the douchiest.

Targetpractice Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:54:59am

re: #52 JeffM70

Of course MSNBC, in order to gain deeper insight into the racial aspects of this story, brings in Pat Buchannan.

Either that or to have on hand a living, breathing example of the depths of lunacy that the Right has sunk to.

Charles Johnson Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:55:04am

The right wing blogs are salivating over Riehl's "scoop."

Walter L. Newton Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:59:29am

re: #58 Charles

The right wing blogs are salivating over Riehl's "scoop."

What scoop?

calochortus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 10:59:42am

Do I understand correctly that the problem with Sherrod's daughter is that they named her "Russia" back in the 60's? Seems to me that means they actually support the Imperial government rather than the USSR.
OMG, they're secret Right Wingers!!!1!!1

HappyWarrior Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:02:58am

re: #60 calochortus

Do I understand correctly that the problem with Sherrod's daughter is that they named her "Russia" back in the 60's? Seems to me that means they actually support the Imperial government rather than the USSR.
OMG, they're secret Right Wingers!!!1!!1

Haha reminds me of the people who said that Obama's czars were proof of a "Marxist agenda".

Shiplord Kirel Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:04:27am

Suppose Sherrod actually was a commie in 1967? David Horowitz was a serious, very public commie in that year. I don't see wingnuts tarring him with that.

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:05:37am

re: #24 theheat

They won't let go of this whatsoever. Trashing the Sherrods is not enough. It's a drop in the bucket compared to their agenda of voting the far right wing back into power, and trashing anything and everything in their path.

This is minuscule. This is parsley. Destroying one innocent black woman and her family isn't even a blip on the moral radar for them. If anything, it's just target practice.

When you say "parsley", do you mean "paltry"?

Paltry is the chief garnish put on right-wing nut sandwiches.

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:08:05am

re: #63 Cato the Elder

No, I meant parsley i.e. insignificant garnish or detail.

"I'd like a paltry wingnut sandwich, and a diet Coke, please."

Kragar Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:08:32am

re: #60 calochortus

Do I understand correctly that the problem with Sherrod's daughter is that they named her "Russia" back in the 60's? Seems to me that means they actually support the Imperial government rather than the USSR.
OMG, they're secret Right Wingers!!!1!!1

Because we all know no one gave their kids wacked out names back in the 60s.

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:08:58am

re: #62 Shiplord Kirel

Suppose Sherrod actually was a commie in 1967? David Horowitz was a serious, very public commie in that year. I don't see wingnuts tarring him with that.

Well, yeah, but he converted.

And he didn't name his first-born son "Sputnik".

[[[/]]]

I may need to borrow some sarc tags if this keeps up.

calochortus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:09:23am

re: #61 HappyWarrior

When I was about 8 or nine years old, I recall being confused about the difference between communists and fascists (both bad, therefore must be the same.) My parents took the time to explain it to me-complete with nuances like "end results are pretty similar". I gather lots of people miss that part of their education.

calochortus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:11:17am

re: #65 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Because we all know no one gave their kids wacked out names back in the 60s.

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:11:30am

What do you call a liquid metallic robot that takes major hits to its credibility, instantly heals, morphs into a new form, and keeps on coming?

The Andynator.

Shiplord Kirel Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:12:25am

re: #66 Cato the Elder

Well, yeah, but he converted.

And he didn't name his first-born son "Sputnik".

[[[/]]]

I may need to borrow some sarc tags if this keeps up.

"Sputnik Horowitz"
I'd pay money to see that on a ballot, or even a theater marquee.

calochortus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:12:38am

re: #68 calochortus

Ooops that didn't post right. Should have included a "snort".

Couldn't have been my fault, could it?//

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:12:53am

re: #67 calochortus

Dear Ann Landers:

If my brother married a woman who grew up in communist Russia, but remained when Russia became more democratic, and then moved to America, does that still make her a commie? Does that make my brother a commie lover?

Signed,

Confused & Concerned Sister
//

Decatur Deb Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:20:26am

re: #68 calochortus

Drs. Bambi XXXX, Ph.D:

[Link: www.google.com...]
[Link: www.google.com...]

[Link: www.google.com...]

etc.

Targetpractice Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:22:44am

re: #69 Cato the Elder

What do you call a liquid metallic robot that takes major hits to its credibility, instantly heals, morphs into a new form, and keeps on coming?

The Andynator.

"Listen, and understand. That Andynator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until your life is utterly ruined."

Decatur Deb Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:24:12am

BBL

Cato the Elder Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:24:22am

Is this as good as it gets for the so-called loyal opposition in America?

Because once you've stooped to this level, with no major ~~refudiation~~ repudiation in sight from major members of the GOP, I can't honestly see how they're going to claw their way back out of the racist, nativist, religionist hole.

At least not before November.

lawhawk Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:25:07am

It's a witch hunt....

The night is black
Without a moon.
The air is thick and still.
The vigilantes gather on
The lonely torchlit hill.

Features distorted in the flickering light,
The faces are twisted and grotesque.
Silent and stern in the sweltering night,
The mob moves like demons possesed.
Quiet in conscience, calm in their right,
Confident their ways are best.

The righteous rise
With burning eyes
Of hatred and ill-will.
Madmen fed on fear and lies
To beat and burn and kill.

They say there are strangers who threaten us,
are immigrants and infidels.
They say there is strangeness too dangerous
In our theaters and bookstore shelves.
Those who know what's best for us
Must rise and save us from ourselves.

Quick to judge,
Quick to anger,
Slow to understand
Ignorance and prejudice
And fear walk hand in hand...

theheat Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:27:08am

re: #76 Cato the Elder

Simple: They aren't. Ain't happening. Not in the cards. Pipe dream. Fantasy. Wishful thinking. Defies the laws of gravity.

"Nuke 'em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."

William Barnett-Lewis Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:27:36am

re: #77 lawhawk

Depressingly appropriate.

Shiplord Kirel Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:28:44am

Riehl will go after son Kenyatta next.
Under British rule, Jomo Kenyatta, later first president of Kenya, had been tried and convicted of being a leader of the Mau-Mau. Kenyatta always denied involvement with the group, even many years later when there was nothing to lose by confessing. There is good evidence that the testimony against him was perjured.
White supremacists in this country are aware of this connection and have used this against black Americans who use the name, including Medgar Evers's son, Darrell Kenyatta Evers.

calochortus Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:35:24am

re: #73 Decatur Deb

I knew a Bambi in grad school. Long story short, she apparently is now a Dr. Bambi, PhD, too.

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:35:31am

re: #2 Killgore Trout

It seems odd to me that this bogus story about an obscure relatively low level USDA employee has opened the floodgates. I guess this is as good as anything.

Seriously, what if he were right? What if Shirley Sherrod were a horrible, horrible racist?

What would that prove, exactly?

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:36:29am

re: #4 iceweasel

So morally repugnant I cannot stand it.

BTW, they're wrong about the definition of lynching in any case:

Source: Adam Serwer, Defining Lynching Down-- terrific piece, I recommend it all:

Now does three guys beating someone to death sound like an extrajudicial mob killing to you? Well Lord thinks it's merely "brutal fisticuffs" because under the definition of lynching he just made up, you need a rope to make it official -- I mean they didn't even set the guy on fire for crying out loud! It's almost as if instead of being a Southerner tortured by the knowledge of past racial injustice, he's someone who didn't know very much about lynching or segregation before he decided to call Shirley Sherrod a liar without bothering to use Google first. What's sad is that when the generation that actually remembers what living under segregation was like is gone, this kind of historical revisionism is just going to get 10 times worse.

Finally, how many times are conservatives going to try to smear this woman before some sense of shame or decency kicks in?

Emmett Till wasn't hanged.

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:37:18am

re: #7 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

"Jeffrey Lord says Sherrod lied in her speech to the NAACP when she talked about the murder of a black man by a white sheriff, because she called it a “lynching.” Lord says this murder could not have been a lynching because the black man wasn’t hanged from a tree."

Jeffrey Lord, Motherfucker.

Though I will admit I have no evidence he fucked his mother

I had a college fencing coach named Jef Lord. I hope to God this is not the career he went on to.

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:37:53am

re: #10 Varek Raith

The wingnuts claimed they were leftwing plants.
Then the man whose farm was saved turned out to be a veteran of the Battle of Midway.

Sinverguenzas.

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:39:59am

re: #18 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Perhaps they can track down all her extended family next. I'm anxious to see what her 3rd cousin twice removed has been up to.

/

Holy Shit! THIRD COUSIN TWICE REMOVED OF USDA EMPLOYEE CHARGED WITH JAYWALKING IN 1993!!!!

("Sherrod Evades: 'I'd Have To Call My Aunt And Check. I Might Have A Cousin Ronnie, But I'm Not Sure'")

Targetpractice Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:40:15am

re: #76 Cato the Elder

Is this as good as it gets for the so-called loyal opposition in America?

Because once you've stooped to this level, with no major ~~refudiation~~ repudiation in sight from major members of the GOP, I can't honestly see how they're going to claw their way back out of the racist, nativist, religionist hole.

At least not before November.

The GOP's leadership seems to have come to the consensus that it's time to start assimilating the third parties into the Big Tent, if only to pick up more votes for November. Problem is, in doing so, they're creating the perfect environment for a very painful and very public schism in the future, very likely in the run-up to 2012. Either that or a wholesale exodus of liberal and moderate Republicans from the party, leaving it a withered husk that will go the way of the Whigs.

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:41:27am

re: #35 calochortus

It is not a coincidence that they went after a relatively obscure individual in the first place. They learned from anti-communist hysteria of the 50's. You go after writers and minor actors, they get blacklisted and their lives are ruined. You go after a big name star and suddenly the studios/networks stand up and demand evidence. This whole thing started to play the same way, but then the script changed on them. Apparently the wingnuts haven't caught onto that yet and are simply trying more of the same.
I trust the sane folks of the world will stick with it. And oh yeah, we (as in the government) should pay the settlement in the Pigford case too.

Interestingly, the same thing happened in the Salem Witch Trials. The world never changes much.

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:42:52am

re: #60 calochortus

Do I understand correctly that the problem with Sherrod's daughter is that they named her "Russia" back in the 60's? Seems to me that means they actually support the Imperial government rather than the USSR.
OMG, they're secret Right Wingers!!!1!!1

Are they entirely sure that's not a tribute to Rush Limbaugh?

Crimsonfisted Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:45:50am

re: #67 calochortus

I am confused too as an 8 year old! I truly don't know how to define the difference. What is a good resource to learn the nuances? I cannot debate anyone unless feel strong in my facts, and I am not strong on the definitions that are thrown around so casually lately. I need clear, distinct, definitions that really demonstrate the difference. I know the terms are not interchangeable, but people seem to do it all the time. I do not want to be like that.

So much disinformation, so little time, and the truth can be found......?

SanFranciscoZionist Mon, Jul 26, 2010 11:47:19am

re: #65 Kragar (Proud to be Kafir)

Because we all know no one gave their kids wacked out names back in the 60s.

I went to pre-school with a kid named 'Lichen'.

Shiplord Kirel Mon, Jul 26, 2010 12:48:06pm

re: #91 SanFranciscoZionist

I went to pre-school with a kid named 'Lichen'.

I had a student named Geoff a few years ago. That's not unusual, except that he and presumably his parents insisted on pronouncing it "Jee-off" rather than "Jeff."

WINDUPBIRD DISEASE [S.K.U.M.M.] Mon, Jul 26, 2010 1:51:35pm

re: #77 lawhawk

upding for anything from Moving Pictures :D

Mentis Fugit Mon, Jul 26, 2010 2:56:16pm

re: #36 Cato the Elder

No chrysalis stage in between?
It's a miracle, I tell you!

A chrysalis is just a butterfly pupa. You're confusing larvae and pupae, I suspect.

If you're looking for an analogy without a pupal stage, it's hard to go past maggot to blowfly.

Mentis Fugit Mon, Jul 26, 2010 3:16:11pm

Curse my faulty memory - there is a pupal stage.

Cockroaches, on the other hand...

Spy Mode Auto

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