This country (The United States of America) is, presently, MESSED UP!  As much as it grieves me to say that, from everything I read and see there can be no other conclusion.  A good example to support this contention is the recent episode in which Shirley Sherrod of the USDA was summarily FIRED by Tom Vilsack (and presumably with a “nudging” from President Obama’s White House) – Vilsack, the former governor of Iowa, now director of the USDA – because of a PARTIAL video released by one of the “right wing” blogs and – OF COURSE – picked up by Fox “news” and played without the slightest attempt at verifying its authenticity.  Of course (again), the video was EDITED, but it fit the purposes of those on the right who have no answer to the NAACP’s request for the “Tea Party” – and, by association, the republican party – to purge their “ranks” of racist people – as evidenced by all the racist signs carried at “Tea Party” events (and racist comments by those associated with the republicans).

Well, it was just a matter of time until this touchy subject, RACISM, showed up at the top of the news.  I mean, even racists are sensitive to being called racists because they know that in today’s America that is one of the unacceptable areas for leaders to tread.  I’m often humored (in a sick kind of way) as I listen to people like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, and other right wing “talkers” defend themselves against charges of racism.  Some of the stuff that flows from their lips is so vile that it’s hard to imagine how they get any credibility with their audiences – except for the people who feel the same way.  Hence, you’ve got Sean Hannity last week claiming that he hadn’t seen any racist signs at “Tea Party” events.  Well, I personally watched clips of a rally in Washington DC – shown on Hannity’s own TV program – that had one racist sign after another depicting our sitting president as a monkey, or pictured with a bone through his nose, or another one that I still remember said something like, “There are lions in Africa, there’s a lying African in the White House.”  That sign was right in the front as Jim Demint, senator from South Carolina (republican, of course), urged the crowd on and claimed, at the time, that if they could defeat health care reform (which would benefit most in the audience he was speaking to) it would be “Obama’s Waterloo.”  If you are interested in some of the racist comments from Limbaugh, Beck, and some of the others check my archive because I’ve been calling them out on this garbage since day one of Obama’s declaration of his candidacy.  Suffice it to say that it’s interesting to me the republicans (and “Tea Partiers”) get any traction at all when they defend themselves against the charge of racism.  In fact, sadly, the way they defend themselves is by doing what they did to Shirley Sherrod.

From what I’ve seen and heard, Shirley Sherrod is an exemplary woman.  She’s been dedicated to helping poor people for well over 20 years.  She’s a reliable, trustworthy worker that the USDA should have been proud of.  Now, she’s a victim of the “right wing” vitriol – their attempt to “counter” the NAACP claims that there are racists in the “Tea Party.”  (of course, it makes sense to me that there are racists in every party – this is a HUGE country with only a few political parties – but, that’s a story for another day)  Before I get into the details of what happened to this woman and the implications for ALL of us (Americans) let me just add that this is another example of the mean spirited nature of those who call themselves leaders of the “conservative” movement in America.  To me, this kind of behavior has nothing to do with “conservative” or “liberal” – it’s just awful and it’s insensitive to people and it’s JUST PLAIN MEAN!  Hopefully, this good woman will get her job back – but, at this point I believe her experience represents what is tearing this great nation apart at the seems.

Let’s start with the republicans and the “liberal media” – you know, places like Fox “news” and all the outlets they funnel information from – without vetting anything – if it meets their needs (meaning, makes their “point”) they run it.  This video of Ms Sherrod was edited to show her making a statement – to the NAACP (remember, it was the NAACP which asked for the “Tea Party” to remove the racists from their midst – therefore, they’re the target, Ms Sherrod is just the convenient victim – in their wars in Iraq and Afganistan they’d call her “collateral damage”) – a statement which appeared to suggest she would provide more assistance to black farmers than to white farmers when doing her job.  The tape was edited in such a way that once it hit the Fox “news” airwaves (Oh my gosh, as I’m writing this I’m wondering, “do we have another White House which watches Fox?”) director Vilsack had her fired.  In fact, it was reported that she received calls while she was driving somewhere and urged to text in a resignation because “this was going to be on Glenn Beck’s show.”  I honestly hope that last statement is not true – but, if it is it would pretty much verify everything I’ve been saying (and complaining) about the Obama administration for the past year and a half.

All of this (naturally) was done “on the fly” with apparently NO ONE taking the time to verify what these people with the VIAL history of manipulating the “news” were saying.  I believe the guy who put this EDITED tape up on the internet is the SAME GUY who used an EDITED tape to take down ACORN, another situation where helping the poor was “torpedoed” by republicans!  How many times is this guy going to get away with this type of libelous, vile stuff?  And worse yet, and I’m very serious here, is Glenn Beck now so powerful that our White House makes decisions based on what is going to be reported on that NUT JOB’S TV show?  If so, we’re ALL in big trouble! 

Once the entire video of Sherrod’s speech was made public it was apparent that her message was EXACTLY the OPPOSITE of what Fox “news” was reporting.  Now, for me, the surprise would be if anyone is surprised by that.  Certainly, Vilsack, the NAACP (who blasted Sherrod – despite the FACT the speech was given to THEM!), and the White House should step back and take a good look at their decision making process if they’re at all being influenced by Fox.  If that is the case, those of us who consider ourselves “progressive” (liberal) – and were called “f__king retards” by President Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel – we’re all in BIG trouble!  The battle for the HEART of this great nation is still RAGING, and – as I’ve stated MANY TIMES on this blog – President Obama and the democrats are TOTALLY risking TURNING OFF so many progressive voters that they open the door to republicans in November.  I can hear Rahm Emanuel right now blaming the “progressives” when it is him who needs to take a good look in the mirror to see where the direction he’s pushing this president is leading us.  I mean – worried about something showing up on Glenn Beck’s show – YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!

I believe it’s way past time for President Obama to purge some of these “Washington regulars” from his inner circle.  To me, this is a WAR – and, there’s nothing more important to the future of this nation than that the republicans are defeated.  Yes, we need two parties – and, historically it’s been republicans and democrats – but, these people have gone past the point of reason.  They (republicans) are so beholden to the right wing special interests that there’s no going back for most of them.  You never hear of ONE republican standing up against the vile racist rhetoric (or signs) coming from one republican “leader” after another.  And, why President Obama continues to “kiss up” to them is beyond me.  CONFRONT THEM!  Cause them to have to say NO to everything in a way that there can be no question to the American people who’s causing the problems.  The fact that we’ve got a political party that has PUBLICLY stated their MAIN GOAL is that the President of the United States would FAIL – is not only beyond my ability to comprehend (if the president “fails” – don’t we all fail with him?  shouldn’t we want our president to succeed?) – this is also UNPRECEDENTED! (at least in my lifetime)  I’ve been watching politics in America closely since the early sixties and I’ve never seen a situation where the other party wanted a president to fail.  Yes, Richard Nixon resigned to avoid impeachment, but there were republicans as well as democrats who considered his behavior unacceptable.

To me, the damage done by George W Bush was FAR more serious than what was done under Richard Nixon.  Nixon did some good stuff and was not a man who couldn’t work with democrats (despite his “enemies list”).  George W Bush dismantled the government while funneling jobs and contracts to his “friends,” he lied America into a disastrous occupation of Iraq, he allowed the perpetrator of 9/11 to escape, his vice president “outed” a CIA agent (think about that one – to me, doubly despicable!), he led the destruction of our economy (including causing the HUGE deficits that everyone seems to be so upset about and republicans are trying to “stick” on Obama – like everything else), and – speaking af doubly despicable – he, along with his VP authorized WAR CRIMES!  (plus, both Cheney and Rumsfelf PROFITED from an occupation that cost our military almost 5000 lives and countless debilitating injuries).  And, now you’re hearing republicans wanting to return to that tax-cutting for the RICH approach to government.  Let’s bolster the RICH so that money will “trickle down” to the rest of us.  If Americans buy into the “trickle down” theory again, they deserve the results!  As I stated earlier, the situation with Shirley Sherrod says it all as far as what’s wrong with America these days.  The republicans will create their own “facts” in order to manipulate their “low information” audience into blindly voting for them and believing falsehoods about “liberals,” and the democrats seem to be afraid to actually CONFRONT them!