Didn’t See That Coming

I’ve been regularly checking the weather since it’s monsoon season.  It’s looked like no rain for today, but then this happened:

It was really loud.  Everybody eventually hid.  Murphy’s out now surveying the yard.  Dora is not interested in going outside at all.  It’s about an hour later and there is still some hail in the yard.  That’s amazing because it’s been over 100 every day for a while now.

Advertisement

Russian Drivers: Two Views

What with the meteor and all, here we go!

First here and the context.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-l4w-DIiXk

Here We Go! Reparations, Anyone?

I can’t believe Micale Berry didn’t latch onto this for his 950 Man Talk show today (especially after Chris Baker spent 2 hours talking about a Brit chick bagging 1K men).

Here’s the next meme — I thought it would be about the struggle of poor farmers.  NO NO NO NO NO.  It can’t be about that.  It’s about BLACK farmers and Reparations and La Raza and SNCC and every other nonwhite boogy man you can conjure all in one.  From Kathleen McKinley’s Houston Chronicle blog:

We are getting played on the Shirley Sherrod coverage. I did a little research last night and then sat back to watch what was being said about the latest on this case. Fox devoted the opening segment of their 6 o’clock news hour and while I noted Shepard Smith went out of his way to denounce Andrew Breitbart and show Shirley Sherrod as the exact opposite of what the shorter video seemed to imply.

Nightline devoted a segment with fawning coverage of her career as someone who assisted the poor and they didn’t hold back on cracking Fox and Breitbart. This morning they continued with an opening that I tolerated until almost 7:20 with George repeating what had been said last night and then some.

No one mentioned that Shirley Sherrod was a plaintiff in the Pigford vs Glickman case that had sued the USDA and that 1999 settlement has paid out right at $1 billion so far.(1) Nobody has mentioned that Obama allowed the justice department to reopen the 1999 settlement and allow another 73,200 plaintiffs to have a crack at that money that so far has been paid to 16,000 rural southern black farmers (original plaintiff estimate was 3,000.(1) No one mentioned that Obama has already authorized another $1.25 billion be allocated to compensate these new plaintiffs that total four times the number of black rural farmers (est. 27,500) that were identified when the case was filed 1997.(1)

Not a peep was said of the $13 million settlement Mr. and Mrs. Sherrod and their New Communities group received a few days before her July 25, 2009 appointment to her current position by Vilsak.(2) Note that New Communities is solely an enterprise of the Sherrods now as it has not been active for years.

And oh by the way, Mr. Sherrod is Charles Sherrod, a founding member of the Student Nonviolence Coordinating Committee which in 1966 had the reliable John Lewis as it’s chairman.(3) Remember John Lewis and his claims about being spit on a called the n-word a few short months ago? After John Lewis was replaced by Stokley Carmichael they renamed themselves the Student National Coordinating Committee and merged with what became the Black Panthers.(4)

Now here’s a kicker. One of the last active chapters of the SNCC/Black Panther group was in San Antonia and had an officer named Mario Salas who went on to assist in building La Raza.(5)

Now all of that may look like a bunch of tangential information until you realize that the original stated goals of the Rural Development Land Network, whose Vice Chair is Shirley Sherrod, was to “resolve to work toward reform of the land ownership patterns in this country”.(6), (7) Kind of sounds like reparations to me.

For the administration and especially Tom Vilsak to say they shot from the hip and over reacted when Obama, Holder and Vilsak have been shoveling money into the burgeoning settlements of a suit brought by Shirley Sherrod defies integrity, honesty and hopefully the law.

Oh my.

Someone please email this information to Michale Berry.  He’s behind the curve.  I can’t do it because he is afraid of me.

Please someone reading this blog send this VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT REPARATIONS to Michale Berry.  He was all hot and bothered about this topic when he was on the city council.  He would love to have his conspiracy theories confirmed.

What is this really about?  The USDA treated people differently in the past based on their skin color.  The people were finally able to file suit and win their case in court.  THEY WON.  IN COURT.  And there are some people out there — connected with Fox News and Andrew Brietbart, who think this constitutes reparations.

Fucking idiots.

About Shirley Sherrod

There’s something that has been lost in all of the commotion about Ms. Sherrod and what Andrew Breitbart did to her:  she has obviously worked for years to help all types of people keep their family farms.  This is a long term mission for her.  Perhaps I noticed this because I have started my own little garden and I also remember what sank my grandfather’s farm.  In other words, family farms have been fighting for decades just to stay alive.   It also brings back memories of the dust bowl and the specter of agribusiness.
Ms. Sherrod has devoted her life to helping family farmers.   She has fought against banks. She has actually helped people in a tangible way.

That’s why I was so sad yesterday — so dejected.  If a woman like her could be dragged though mud by a person like Andrew Breitbart, then no one — no one is safe.  No good anyone does will be rewarded without the possibility of someone like Breitbart attacking.

What happened is clear.  Brietbart had a video in hand and published it on the Monday after all of the discussion about racists in the tea party people.  It was his attempt at exacting a piece of flesh.  It’s also clear that he didn’t give one whit about Ms. Sherrod.

The same bloggers who pounch on and/or make things up, pounced on the video and false characterization and I watched it, hoping that someone somewhere would ask the question — is this accurate?

Finally yesterday morning, I saw one hot link on memeorandum — it was from the Atlanta paper.  It had an interview with Ms. Sherrod.  I clicked that mother fucking link on every computer I could log onto.  Why?  Because it discredited everything Brietbart had said.  Everything.  I’m certain that there were many people like me who clicked on that link, knowing that it would rise to the top of memeorandum.  We may not be big blogger types or radio types, but we can push a story, too, even on a wingnut site like memorandum.

When did someone anywhere say WTF?  If you believe Kathleen, she did, as well as others who travel in her circles (she seems to only read the Corner).  But truth be told, Kathleen’s friends were the first ones on the bandwagon to call Ms. Sherrod a racist.  You will have to look at their blogs/facebook 😦 pages to see if they have apologized.  Here’s what Michela Berry had to say on his teenage facebook page:

Federal Official resigns after caught on tape making racist remarks against white farmer at NAACP event…Andrew Breitbart released the tape which shows Shirley Sherrod, USDA’s Georgia State Director of Rural Development, admitting that she did not help a farm with ‘full force’ because he was white. Interestingly the NAACP crowd was not outraged by the incident. NAACP put out a statement about Sherrod saying, “Racism is about the abuse of power. Sherrod had it in her position at USDA. According to her remarks, she mistreated a white farmer in need of assistance because of his race.”

Michela hasn’t corrected anything. I didn’t expect him to. He just lies and lies and lies.

At any rate, Kathleen claims to have been sole support for Ms. Sherrod.  Given what I have read about Ms. Sherrod’s view of FOX News, Kathleen might not feel so comfortable having a beer with her.

But let’s get back to the main point I have:  for years — decades — farming policy has been dominated by big agribusiness.  Family farms have struggled to survive — and I am not talking about “family” agribusiness farms — just simple family farms.  Capitalism would dictate that the large companies win — little family farms can’t compete — look at any industry and tell me that consolidation doesn’t happen when the market is left to itself.

It’s my hope that this mess will lead to a greater examination of what Ms. Sherrod was working on and perhaps bring some media attention to it.

As an addendum:  Kathleen doesn’t seem to have heard that Ms. Sherrod is no fan of Fox News and proclaims:

She said Fox showed no professionalism in continuing to bother her for an interview, but failing to correct their coverage.

“I think they should but they won’t. They intended exactly what they did. They were looking for the result they got yesterday,” she said of Fox. “I am just a pawn. I was just here. They are after a bigger thing, they would love to take us back to where we were many years ago. Back to where black people were looking down, not looking white folks in the face, not being able to compete for a job out there and not be a whole person.”

Still, Fox continued to push for an interview with her, Sherrod said.

“It was unbelievable. I am refusing to be on there. They have been calling me and calling me. I have refused to do an interview because they are biased,” she explained. “I don’t think Fox News does it fairly. It is worse so now. I have sat and listened to the way they cover the news even before this administration and I saw what was going on.”

Sherrod said this situation has worsened her view of racism in media coverage.

“I think it is race. You think we have come a long way in terms of race relations in this country, but we keep going backwards,” she said. “We have become more racist. This was their doing, Breitbart put that together misrepresenting what I was saying and Fox carried it.”

And reading this, Kathleen says:

This is what happens when one is constantly on the defensive, and trying to control the narrative. Pres. Obama and the left need to stop worrying about Fox News, the blogs, and radio talk show hosts, and DO THEIR JOB.

I guess because Kathleen nor Michela read anything but Fox sites they missed that interview.

John Faulk Duct Tape Fetishist and other Republican Oddities

Where to start?  Let’s start with John Faulk.  He’s a good guy, right?  He’s white.  He’s a guy.  That means his campaign will do something like this:

In little type you can read, “paid for by Faulk for Congress Campaign.”

That’s just dandy.  I had another Republican suggest the same about me back in the day.  It must be some sort of movie charged fantasy they all have, like how they all thought 24 was real.  Those white kids are living the dream of duct taping other people.  It’s fun, don’t ya know 😉  Sick is what I call it.

Michael Berry figures out how to find old speeches (poor simpleton learns himself something) and now not only is MLK a Republican, but Barbara Jordan is as well.  Sigh.  Yes he went there.  My guess is that he has never heard of Miles Davis, never heard of the justified anger African Americans have had about their past.  Why would he?  He’s a white man running a white man radio station complaining about non-whites for 4 to 6 hours a day, while making others do his work for him.  He got a vacation out of it didn’t he?  Ride that gravy train Michael!1!!1!1!  In the fall Michael will get lots of money from duct tape John Faulk.  Lots of money.

Republicans, Tea party people, you are making Michael Berry rich.  Do you realize that Michael Berry and Pat Grey and Glenn Beck smashed your tea party point last march?  All of the money you give to John Faulk will go to Michael Berry and Dan Patrick.  The advertising dollars (all of the dollars almost) will go to them.  In a sense, you are voting for them, not your candidate.  And they are all white guy all of the time.

Remember duct tape.

Priorities: Republican and Democratic

I know it’s just one poll, but I found this result revealing:

Now, thinking some more about you preference for who controls Congress…
(ASK ONLY OF RESPONDENTS WHO PREFER REPUBLICAN CONTROL OF CONGRESS (Q11:1))
Q15a Which one or two of the following reasons best explains why you would prefer the Republicans to be in
control of Congress? (RANDOMIZE LIST. ACCEPT UP TO TWO RESPONSES.)
TABLE RANKED BY HIGHEST PERCENTAGE
6/10  3/10+
To reduce government spending ……………………………….. 39 42
To repeal the new health care legislation^ …………………. 28 29
To keep taxes down …………………………………………………… 17 24
To protest the policies of Barack Obama ……………………. 15 11
To stop Democrats from controlling Congress ……………. 12 10
To promote moral values …………………………………………… 10 16
To strengthen national defense …………………………………… 9 10
To protest against special interests …………………………….. 4 4
Other (VOL) ……………………………………………………………….. 1 2
All of these (VOL) ……………………………………………………….. 9 6
None of these (VOL) …………………………………………………… 1 1

The Republican voters top priorities?  Money, Money, stick it to Dems, stick it to Obama with a dash of god-bothering “moral values”.

Notice the difference:

(ASK ONLY OF RESPONDENTS WHO PREFER DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF CONGRESS (Q11:2))
Q15b Which one or two of the following reasons best explains why you would prefer the Democrats to be in control
of Congress? (RANDOMIZE LIST. ACCEPT UP TO TWO RESPONSES.)
TABLE RANKED BY HIGHEST PERCENTAGE
6/10+  3/10+
To look out for working people ……………………………………………… 45 39
To support the policies of Barack Obama ……………………………… 29 28
To support the new health care legislation^ …………………………. 19 31
To prevent Republicans from controlling Congress ………………. 17 10
To continue current economic policies ……………………………………. 8 7
To protest against special interests ……………………………………….. 7 10
To support policy in Iraq and Afghanistan ……………………………… 6 6
To continue in the same direction in Washington ……………………. 5 6
Other (VOL) …………………………………………………………………………… 1 2
All of these (VOL) …………………………………………………………………… 1 1
None of these (VOL) ………………………………………………………………. 1 2

What’s that?  We still have troops in two countries?  While that at least registered with the Dem voters, it seems that the Republicans have shifted their priorities so that the wars don’t even show up on their radar anymore.  I’m even more surprised by this given what a bloody month it has been in Afghanistan.  But hey, it’s all about the money — their money.  It’s not about helping out working people or the wars.  And just to note, the pollsters read the respondents a list of issues to pick from, so the Republican respondents consciously didn’t choose the wars or supporting working people as priorities.

via

Some Video Links Plus Added Rants

I don’t get this. He doesn’t really say anything and his pronoun references are completely vague.  It looks like someone in the GOP lower levels is trying to push the NJ gov for prez.  What about Rick Perry!!!!1!!1!1!

Sarah Palin gets put on the spot.  I can think of quite a number of people more qualified to yap about the oil spill.  Michael Berry isn’t one of them.

White male Seattle idiot police officer punches a young black woman in the face. Commenters say she deserved it.  It’s hard to watch.  I don’t think I could have stood there and just recorded it. Cops can just be criminals with guns.  One Bellaire cop shot a pro baseball player and got off — nothing happened to him.  Michael Berry blamed the baseball player’s mother for the shooting.  FAIR ENOUGH?

Related:  Pasty white boy gets ruffed up by 68 year old.  The same people showing there “balls” about a cop punching a 19 year old black girl get misty-eyed and cry Assault!!!!  Assault!!!!! when it’s one of their own.  These people are insufferable.

Lastly, I am SICK of pasty white people telling African Americans that this that or the other is their problem.  As I have said again and again, why can’t all of the pasty white concern trolls take a look at their own poor white folks and fix that?   Michael Berry and Bill Bennett need to quit acting like they’re black and get with taking care of all of the poor whites.  Wouldn’t that be novel?

Pasty white guy wants drug testing.  Who is going to pay for that?  Does the Utah Senator have some interest in a drug testing kit company?  Does the Utah Senator have a problem with people who are down on their luck?  I’d like to see him submit to a drug test on the teevee first.  Dick.

Lastly, I’m about ready to build a Mexico City style wall around my damn house.  Someone put the nicely bundled vegetation I had ready to go for next month’s green pick up by the city in my recycle cart, destroying the very expensive new freaking green yard waste bag I had ready in the process.  Whoever it was left my recycle cart in the middle of the driveway, too.  Oh, and whoever it was, cut up my Lantana, too.

Dicks — all of them.

Today and Tomorrow

Today is the anniversary of the Battle of San Jacinto.  There are some who want to stir up shit on this day, but truth be told, it’s nonsense.  I’ve only ever run into one person from Mexico who was pissy about demographics.  And I work with more people from Mexico than the average person.  So that means I KNOW.  Take that.

I was off today.  While listening to lies all day, I cleaned the backyard and “dressed” my hanging tomato plants.  I also found spots for my remaining cucumber and sunflower plants.

I thought about what it means to be a Texan.  I was born here and have lived here all but a year and a half of my life.  When I was a little girl, my family went to the San Jacinto Monument for picnics and to remember.  While the rest of my family is totally wing nutty, I’m not.  I love my city and my state.  While I was overseas, I always said I was from Texas.  It just where you are from.  It’s what pissed (and still does) off so many people from here to have George W. Bush claim to be a native son.  He wasn’t.  It still pisses me off that Barbara Bush lives here and can say nasty things that reflect poorly on us.  It pisses me off the Perry is still the governor.

(Let’s just see if Michael Berry really reads this:  Michael, how does it feel to say the N word on the air?)

Tomorrow is Earth Day.  As I said earlier, I will plant some seedlings.  I hope to also get the peppers and carrots into new planters — not sure if that will happen.  I need to plant the oregano and parsley. . .in other words, every day is Earth Day around here.

And while I’m at it, no one has ever died working on a solar panel — nor have any birds or other animals.  What was that CRAZY Carter guy onto when he put solar panels on the White House.  Have you ever wondered why you can’t afford to get solar panels on your house?  Especially ones that send energy back to the company you pay a ridiculous amount of money to for energy?  Could Chris Baker or Michael Berry address that for once?

The answer is no.  It wouldn’t make for good radio.  Good radio is sound effects, fart noises, silly parody songs and banging on BLACK PEOPLE especially the President.  That’s what makes good radio.

Oh, and how many times a white guy can say nigger on the radio.  That’s the most important part of good radio.

Pat Shinn Rocks (Sort Of)

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Pat Shinn “noticed” that on one of the other radio shows that the host thought that the U.S. doesn’t manufacture anything anymore, so he made it his trivia question.  It was a no brainer that someone got an out of date book for answering.  I called Lores “sniffles” Live last week to ask her to consult Pat Shin about whether the U.S. manufactures things anymore.

I’ve thought about putting together my own little sound track of Lores sniffling on her show, but I will have to put it off until we have a rainy day.  I don’t have a staff working for me like Michael Berry.  I’m just a regular person who blogs for the fun of it.

Later in his show, Pat Shinn decided to kind of equivocally buy into the idea that CAPITALIST can’t be democrats or vice-versa.  It’s a shame.  While he beat back the inflation scare on one call, be bought into another caller’s ideas about manufacturing being in decline.  Why have the trivia question then, Pat?

Which brings me to Chris “I wanna kill people at the border” Baker, who doesn’t seem to understand the difference between political systems and economic systems.  Clue bat for Baker:  Anarchy is a political system; Marxism is an economic system.  Perhaps his boss (who pays him well) could point him to a little education.

How about an example?  Anarcho-syndicalism.  Baker denied that something like Anarcho-capitalism existed, but it does.

I wonder who might be brave on this radio station and point out just how many tax credits/deductions their listens could get this year on their taxes.   I also wonder who will venture to tell their listeners that THEIR TAXES HAVE NOT GONE UP.

My bet: NONE.

Wishing Your Life Away

Sometimes it really hits me how my work schedule makes time go by very quickly.  Usually it’s when I run into a former student and ask him or her how she or he is doing.  So far, the whole garden thing has slowed down life at home for me — watching the plants grow and the lemon tree slowly bloom — and balances the fast pace of work.

For a while now, Lydon Johnson of KTNH has signed off his screeds in the morning with, “hurry up November.”  I understand that he is a sore loser from 2008, but wishing his life away doesn’t really seem to make much sense.

I feel the same way about the whole “winning the news cycle.”  Yesterday (and Michael Berry still had it up today) talk radio was all about what a congressman said at a hearing.  Only people who spend time chasing their own tails will remember it.  I doubt that Michael Gallagher will, since his touchstone for race issues is still O.J. Simpson.  It’s gone from memeorandum.

I’ve listened to talk radio for years.  However, things have changed.  There’s really no reason to check in on Limbaugh anymore.  He’s wishing his life away by buying into the last time someone talked about him.  He didn’t use to do that.  Hannity is still speaking in the same speech patterns he has for years and yearning for the next election.  Mike Gallagher is still an ass and tries to “win the morning” with his indiscriminate baiting.  Bill Bennett doesn’t even work a full week and the local station is using his air time to yammer on about something on some blog or World Net Daily or Human Events.  Local hosts are not much better.  Michael Berry has rewritten history wrt his political life in this city, and Chris Baker continues to lie about where he lives, while yearning to kill people at the border.  Lores “constant sniffles” Rizcalla is slowly meeting her co-workers, but she just keeps telling everyone that she’s Egyptian.  And don’t even get me started on Dan Patrick.  Today he called Karl Rove a “good man” and described W as having “grace.”

And the Woodlands Tea Party people will have Chris Baker mc their tax protest week after next.  Their taxes haven’t gone up.  If they paid attention during the last year, their taxes are probably down.

But don’t tell them.

For the first time in my life, I may be just about done with national talk radio.  Local radio, I’ll still keep tabs on them.  It’s pretty fun.

There is more to life than the news cycle.  The next national election is months away.

I’ve got a new book to read and more important things to focus on in the short term.  And the short and long term last longer than 24 hours — unless you are talking about pea spouts.