So Many Ideas, So Little Time

I am BEAT.  This first week of classes has already taken it out of me, and I have a new game “Garden Defense” that I had to master, and the tomatoes had to be defended and the peppers and beans watered because we have no rain and did I say that I have a love/hate relationship with email?

First up, I must say that defending torture while Christian and Republican is no easy thing, but Kathleen McKinley is so pro-torture it hurts.

Second, will someone take a clue bat to Perry and Cornyn?   The Feds have already been successfully helping calm the wildfires.  Asking for cheap money for your friends is a bridge too far, idiots.  Whining about it is way too far.  PLEASE STOP EMBARRASSING US.  It’s enough that even a simpleton can see that you all are being hypocritical, but sisters please.

Third, while my state peeps are embarrassing me, my fed types are up in your face.  President Obama is and might I say has been doing this shit up right.  From day one.  Imagine if you will, had he only had to lead, instead of clean up and lead . . . that’s what the next four years are looking like.

Forth, I used to live across the street from an HPD officer who stole money from undocumented workers.  He got relieved without pay and then fired.  As I have said before, cops are just the flip-side of criminals.  That radio talk types fellate cops without question is a no-brainer.

Lastly, I love the way Obama has left the radio talker types spluttering.  I also love that this stupid poll is stupid.

I’ve got to finally email my mom all of the Easter pics and Mother’s Day is Sunday, and I have to take Tammy and Murphy into the vet, and it’s just now the time to plant more tomatoes, and I have so many ideas for my garden, and I am sleepy.

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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.

Another Haiti Post

I remember what Hurricane Ike was like.  It was scary because you knew it was coming.  It was scary because of the wind.  But everyone knew after hours and hours of wind and rain, it would eventually stop.  It was eerie around here when there was no electricity.  At least I knew that my house was still standing afterwards, in the dark.  For two weeks, I had my house and knew it wouldn’t fall down on me — even if the ceiling was crumbling in a couple of places.  I felt safe in my house.

The people in Haiti have no such security.  Either their houses were destroyed or they were unstable — the houses could fall at any moment.  They are by necessity out in the street.  The city was built to accommodate 50K, but 2 mil were living there.  They don’t have electricity.  They don’t have any way to communicate.

I turned off every media that focused on any violence in Haiti earlier today.  The PBS News Hour disappointed me in trying to push that point.  It’s wrong and sensationalizing.  Something Fox News Channel would do — like they did with the president’s stopping deportations.

My hope is that things will get better over the weekend.  There has to be a way for the U.S. military, the Red Cross and the U.N., despite their losses on the ground, to get their operations up and running.

Now for the shame.  Though no one I try to shame will ever admit it, I’ll do it anyway.

First to Kevin Whited.  Coward. Nothing on the Houston Haitian community or the earthquake.  As if it never happened.  Less than a month into the new city administration, Kevin is grousing.    Who could have predicted?

And then there is Kathleen.  Remember, she’s all for getting blacks (not Hispanics so much) into the Republican party.  Here are her contributions.  On her Houston Chronicle blog, it seems self promotion and the pasty work is more important than what happened in Haiti.  She finally posted something today — a false equivalence — seriously, Danny Glover vs. Pat Robertson?  But she adds this diddy that she claims she can’t get out of her head:

The devil went down to Hait, he was looking for a soul to steal.
He was in a bind ‘cos he was way behind: he was willin’ to make a deal.
When he came across this young man talkin’ to a frenchi who was all hot.
And the devil jumped upon a palm stump and said: “Boy let me tell you what:
“I bet you didn’t know it, but I own the frenchies too.
“And if you’d care to take a dare, I’ll make a bet with you.
“Now you have pretty good island, boy, but give the devil his due:
“I bet freeing you from the french against your soul, ‘cos I think I can make it better for you.”
The boy said: “My name’s Jean-Bertrand and it might be a sin,
“But I’ll take your bet, your gonna regret, ‘cos we’re the best island that’s ever been.”

Where the hell did she get that from?  I can’t find it anywhere.  Is there some email making the rounds?  Sorry, but that’s the most racist thing I’ve read in a while.

(shakes head)

She finishes with this:

Danny, Pat? I’ve got a newsflash for you guys. Satan didn’t do this and gobal (sic) warming didn’t do this. This is called nature. So get over your stupid theories.

I don’t get it.

It seems fairly straight forward to me.  There is a Haitian community in Greater Houston.  The earthquake is a big deal.  Perhaps these Republicans got burned during Katrina and can’t seem to bring themselves to even look at what happened in Haiti.

It will take a lot of work by people with more expertise than me to get Haiti together and healthy and safe.  Is there so much going on that Kevin and Kathleen can’t even suggest a place to give on their very influential blogs?

So which is it?

Either she can spell her own name or not:

Kathleen McKinley
Houston

RIGHTWINGSPARKLE HAS MOVED!!! I WILL BE BLOGGING UNDER MY OWN NAME AT KATHLEENMCKINLY.COM !!!!

I guess she finally got an allowance for hosting fees or maybe she got it for Christmas.  I haven’t decided if I have the desire or energy to follow the link.  While in years past it has been fun messing with her, I’ve got other things on my mind.  I enjoy blogging, but the political side — especially wingnuts — has gotten more tedious than ever.  Wingnuts are very touchy people in general.

We’ll see.

No Wonder Kathleen {{hearts}} Sarah Palin

They are the same people.

Back when Kathleen quit blogging and then decided to start again, she deleted all of her comments.  She’s getting ready to do the same thing again.

Palin is pushing back on the very point she used to stay in the news.

They both lie and use their femaleness to try to make themselves to look better.

Don’t Like It at All

I spent today in my pajamas and terry housecoat — much like most wingnut bloggers do — and I don’t like it at all.

Sure, I played games and noodled around on the internets, but gees it is BORING.  I danced around for a while, swirling my warm terrycloth housecoat about me, and I played peek-a-boo with the pups.  I cleaned the house so far as I was allowed and then UTTER BOREDOM.  Honestly I don’t know how my mom did or people my age now do it everyday.  If I had this much time everyday, I’m pretty sure I would have invented a Star Trek level transporter by now.
This wasn’t a vacation day, but rather a stay at home day because the dentist said, but it made me think, if you don’t have a job and you don’t have to clean your house or take care of your yard, what is left but to noodle around on the internets.  And dear god that is very unsatisfying, given how touchy people are.  I guess it’s different if you are just trolling the nets for people to mock or criticize.  I seem to remember that both Ron Green and M.J. Khan had that complaint about Pam Holm in their debate:  all she and her conservative colleagues can do is criticize.  It took her far, right?  Perhaps Cory and Kevin could take a clue from that last electoral decision.

Or not.  😉

Tear Down This Wall

I work with people from all over the planet — every continent and almost every country.

Not a single one of them credits Ronald Reagan with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I lived in (not as a tourist) a former Soviet Republic.  Twice.  No one there credited Ronald Reagan with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

I visited Gdansk.  I didn’t see any monument to Ronny.

But this freaking meme will not die.

Even Gorbachev and liberal historians agree that Reagan was the driving force behind ending the cold war. Why would you want to deny it? So strange to me.

Completely unsourced and untrue.  I lived with people who lived through it.  I didn’t just visit them or read some book.  I lived with them.

What nonsense this woman spews.  She doesn’t even know what she is talking about.

On The New Hour tonight, West Germans admitted that while they paid for reunification monetarily, the people of East Germany paid in other ways, painful ways.

I will always remember my colleagues.  There were some good aspects of their system.  Ones that they missed.  Before independence, women weren’t assaulted.  Just go and search you tube for Russian prisons.  And now parts of the former Soviet Union have “leaders for life” — that’s progress if you don’t care about the people who live under those rulers — or don’t even know where those places are.

Election Night ’09

I voted after work.  Sometimes I vote early, other times I like to vote on election day.  People like me must drive turnout predictors crazy.  By 3:30, 114 people had voted at my precinct.  While there was no waiting, all six voting booths were pretty much occupied while I was there — with my handy League of Women Voters guide (cue wingnut cry — why is it just for women!!!!!).

Local station KHOU has been keeping tabs on the returns (I’ve been looking for Kuff, but he hasn’t shown up there yet.)

Locke and Parker are neck and neck.  I guess I could live with Locke, but I voted for Parker.  My man Ron Green is keeping ahead of the wingnut Pam Holm.  Here’s hoping that continues, and that his lead grows.

The three elections that will show that the GOP is on the upward turn look like a mess (I don’t click on Politico).   If exit polls show that national issues (Obama) weren’t import factors in people’s decisions, then does that mean that the president is irrelevant or is it a defeat because he wasn’t the most important factor?  This is all so stupid.

And not to let my wingnutty (double post ha ha) peeps down — the Texas Republican Party has decided that one Justice of the Peace switching parties is a “wave” and spreads unfounded rumors that President Obama’s approvals in the state is at 20%.  Nice try!

From KHOU’s latest update, Jo Jones is beating the white (!) man who has tried twice against her.  That must make Michael Berry mad.

That’s the Ticket!

It’s a very good thing that our friend Kathleen is only in charge of a household and a blog and not the economy or the war effort in Afghanistan (or even foreign policy as I pointed out earlier).

On the economy, she has a post up about the deficit.  Her source is a blog post at the  American Enterprise Institute which has a pretty graph that was cooked up supposedly using OMB numbers, but there is no link to any specific OMB report(s).  The graph makes George W. Bush look pretty bad, given that it also includes the Clinton surplus.  But it makes projections for the Obama administration look horrible.  But that’s the point, right?  There’s no indication whether Obama’s ban on accounting gimmicks (piker, indeed) is calculated into the Bush numbers or whether the sunset of the Bush tax-cuts-during-two-wars are part of the graphic.

But unskeptical Kathleen runs with it:

Maybe THIS is why we protest now and not under Pres. Bush?

She’s still fooled by gimmicks.

In the long run, spin can only go so far. People can look out their doors and see what is happening to our economy.

Really?  In the Woodlands?  In my neck of the woods, we are holding our own.

The Labor Department will release the September unemployment report on Friday. It’s probably no coincidence that Pres. Obama is out of the country that day, deciding on a whim to go help out Michelle get those 2016 Olympic games for Chicago.

She just had to get in a dig about the Olympics.  I’m surprised that she didn’t go as far as Bill Kristol and telegraph possible travel to Afghanistan to the Taliban.

And today she realized that she’s just done with the Afghanistan war and has become a peacenik.  Oh, not really.  She’s just throwing a temper tantrum and wants to take her ball home.  She was never really into the NATO led military action in Afghanistan anyway.  She got her charge from the mostly US led actions in Iraq (which is telling). Again she sees President Obama as reactionary.  On top of that she doesn’t understand the chain of command and that bypassing General Petraeus (one of her heroes!) is not the way this sort of thing works:

When the news got out that Pres. Obama had only talked to the U.S. Commander in Afghanistan ONCE in the last 70 days, they quickly put together a conference call. This is a President that has no interest in war. Who doesn’t believe in ANY war.

He has no business leading one.

I see.  That last comment is followed by another surprising comment — given that Kathleen supported the surge in Iraq and would presumably remember how long it took in 2007 to get more troops into Iraq.  But no:

43 U.S. troops have died since Gen. McChrystal called for reinforcements.

How many U.S. troops died while the surge was is process?  How many Iraqis died in 2007?  Her memory is so short she should be tested for Alzheimer’s.  The last insult?

we need to bring our boys and girls home

I watch The News Hour every day and This Week every Sunday.  I see the military personnel killed in Iraq and Afghanistan each time they pay tribute to them.  I stop what I am doing and pay attention — pay tribute.  They are not boys and girls.  Kathleen is not old enough to patronizingly call them “boys and girls.”  Perhaps she feels free to write that sort of thing because no one in her family, including herself, have ever served in the military.  To her it is just a game, or a petty way to make a political point.