I suspect Sec. Vilsack and maybe Obama knew the vid was edited before coercing the resignation

I'm an Australian and don't know why the f I'm involving myself; but going by Sherrod's comments that she was coerced into resigning immediately, and was not asked her side of the story; it seems to me likely that Sec. Vilsack would have investigated her video remarks more than is being presented.

To me it's hard to believe that the fear of the Republican smear machine was so reflexive that he wouldn't have developed a better picture of the situation before getting the White House (does that include the cabinet?) involved.

So if that's true, the reason he pushed her out was either the fear that the situation was looking too "Rev. Wright-ish" and intractable (as he later said if I remember); or that that fear was disingenuously used, to some extent, as cover for pushing out someone he had other problems with. Right? If Vilsack's apology was sincere and reasonably explanatory then it *was* honourable and I hope that becomes clear.

(I didn't even know what he looked like; I'd just read on this board that he is DLC and that a lot of you don't trust him. Other than that I have no knowledge about him.)

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to your Govt. and its international affairs. I tend to trust him and support him vicariously, even though, going by my reading here, he has let you down on transparency at certain critical points; the glaring one being last year re: the way the public option was undermined.

it's like archetypal battles between cartoon characters in the heavenly realms sometimes haha.

She is the one that told Ms Sherrod to pull over and text her resignation in. I'm just wondering if the two had any animosity or maybe Ms. Cook was expecting a promotion as a result? News reports here have sail that Vilsack has offered her another postion, not that he's offered her old position back.

Here's almost certainly how it happened:

Vilsack gets a panicked email from some undersecretary telling him that Fox has asked for comment on the USDA rural director from Georgia who says she's denied aid to white farmers. They're showing clips, and here's the transcript, sir. It's fucked UP! He flips his lid reading the 2 1/2 minute transcript, and tells the aid to shitcan Sherrod, probably not even asking who she is. He's in Ohio doing actual work for the USDA, not sitting around watching cable news all day, as some do-nothing motherfuckers I won't name seem to do, so that's that. He didn't fucking "investigate" shit, which is the problem. He looked at the transcript, recalled the zero tolerance policy on discrimination - probably because he spends in the area of 40% of his meetings trying to deal with the various discrimination settlement claims - and pressed the button on the eightysixing. He then told the undersecretary of whatever to let the White House point person for USDA know what action they were taking, since they'd certainly call soon if the shit was beaming on network. Undersecretary does so, White House point person says "Whew, good. Thanks for handling that with dispatch." And the fucking thing is in the hands of Ms. Cook.

End of story.

There wasn't a fucking strategy session. There wasn't some grand plot.

Have any of you people ever worked in an actual multilevel organization? The shit y'all come up with doesn't bear any resemblance to any organization in the known universe.

I'm not sure about the timing, but if the NAACP had chimed in, that would have made it more urgent (thinking the NAACP knew it's shit.)

If it were an alleged quote, not audio or video, it would have been an over reaction. But the clip that Fox played? It looked horrible.

Speaking of bad press and government workers, my agency just did one. No tape, no video. We found out about it Tuesday, had to track the person via computer usage which was done on Wednesday, discharged on Thursday. When the press is breathing down your neck, you move fast.

After Olbermann's sanctimonious diatribe tonight, wonder what MSNBC said about it before the whole video was released? The blogs were full of it and very few (TPM comes to mind) did not jump to conclusions.

The administration was frozen in fear that that consideration for changing postal deliveries from 6 days to 5 days would create angst across the country and was looking for an opportunity to divert attention as the previously planned and excuted blowing up of the Deep Horizon Well was no longer providing the diversionary pull that it was.

Then someone in the White House, probably Mrs. Obama, remembered a heart warming story from a NAACP meeting and knew immediately that the tape could be edited to turn it into reverse racism and send it to Bretbart.

Now the administration has discredited FOX News and diverted attention from the near national panic that will occur when Americans realize they will no longer get their Penny Saver on Saturday but will get it on Friday instead.


Or it could be what you said.

Ms Cook claimed she was being pushed by the White House?

After Vilsack gives instructions to shitcan Sherrod, he tells the undersecty to inform the WH contact, which he or she does. "Hey, Big V already told me to shitcan the party involved, so no worries on your side." The WH contact says "Whew. Well, glad that's handled, and thanks for doing it so quick. One less thing on my desk, har har." Undersecty takes that as a signal to say the WH approves, and that he or she will get brownie points with WH if the shit happens sooner rather than later, thus the three phone calls and the supposed statement that WH agrees. For both the WH contact person and USDA undersecretary, there are little, minor, personal motivations (get shit off one's desk, look good to others, etc.). This is how stuff really happens in organizations, not these grand plots and other nonsense.

:applause: :applause:

done before in similar situations.

I've learned (and am passing it along in case you didn't know, either) that the USDA has a rep for chronic racism and for allowing it to continue even after suits were brought. I'd guess they were hyper-sensitive to that particular charge and in an attempt to show they 'meant business' ousted Shirley immediately. I further suspect the reason they pushed her, mentioning Beck, was so they could say "we've already demanded her resignation - she's gone - see? we're on top of it"

Don't forget, no less than the NAACP was calling for her resignation, too, and that probably carried some weight in the decision.

About Vilsack, I've heard disparaging things too -- DLC, Monsanto (and I hate Monsanto with every cell in my body) so I was predisposed not to like him. But watching his apology, I just get the sense he's being honest, is truly pained by how he responded, and is trying to make it right. Go to CNN's or MSNBC's site - I think they both have videos of it. Try to see the entire announcement with the questions afterward. Then you can make up your own mind.

I like that you're interested in our dramas - I enjoy reading your observations. :hi:

I'll check it out, thanks. Generally this incident seems to be having good effects.

Thanks, I've been to the US and my parents lived there for a while. My picture of Americans is informed largely by DU :hi:

:scared:

At least it's not mainly by FR hehe

70's? That was a better time (especially after VietNam ended). If I'm correct in my recollection, their memories of America are probably how I think of our country. I don't recognize it any more.

Don't you think the cultural divide in America is healing compared to last year though? The Tea Party movement seems to have lost a lot of steam.

economic climate is frustrating people and those who were anti-Obama all along may move further right in their state of mind. I don't know if the Tea Party actually had the strength it claimed and the media coverage indicated. And anyway, there are plenty of 'regular' Republicans who hate us plenty. Something that's new and frightening is the hatred between parties and the seeming acceptance of racism. Even those who are convinced THEY aren't racist, still find it okay to send racist jokes, make fun of Obama, etc. I just don't know where we're heading.

emails and jokes etc as well. I really want Americans and the world to know that most of the people under 60 here, and maybe most over 60, are not racist, xenophobic or homophobic and welcome diversity.

We have our Mel Gibsons and worse for sure though.

It was sad to see how Obama went from being admired by Republicans in 2007, to disrespected and demonised by half way through 2009, mainly by people who couldn't accept that Bush had failed them and were led by FOX and Limbaugh.

Hopefully it's the last throes of America's racist 'demons' like it seems to be here. Maybe things will settle down and improve after your mid-terms when Obama's had a complete half-term.

She wouldn't have been summarily dismissed over some trumped up "controversy" without an investigation.

And the Australian press and broadcasters would have faced a backlash over the bogus story.

what and what isn't hard for Australians to believe?

Ms. Depa's also a journo- and so is familiar with outfits like the Press Council and ACMA.

If you ask me Americans at the very least need a program like Media Watch that rakes the purveyors of various stories over the coals.

http://www.abc.net.au/mediawatch/

They fired the Prime Minister overnight, but can't comprehend some unknown bureaucrat getting canned.

What backlash does the the press ever face on Oz? There's no serious alternative press in Oz that can keep them in check.

and not based on some bogus, trumped up story.

A more accurate comparison would be to look at what happened with Godwin Grech.

As someone who's all too familiar with the press in both countries I can tell you first hand that there's a magnitude of difference between the two. What happened in this case is only one minor illustration of that difference.

The American corporate media will outright lie about anything and everything under the sun- and repeat those lies long after they've been exposed. That's a far cry from what I've seen here.

Check out the Press Council's adjudications for example:

http://www.presscouncil.org.au/pcsite/adj.html

There is FOX news-type propaganda here but it's a smaller factor, and elicits groans and boos from a bigger majority of the people.

Even Triple J discussed the case (there's nothing remotely similar to Triple J for young people in the states).



Goes to show that:

1. Some nations still hold ethics in high regard; and

2. There are (at least here) potential consequences for stories like the one that smeared Ms. Sherrod and set the Obama administration up for a fright and fall.

Serious question.

Welcome to DU!

:hi:

(EDIT: I see you've been here longer than I have...lol.)

but I don't think this thread will have very far-reaching ramifications anyway :hide:

fox broke it and then msm ran with it. he is in a position being the first blak president. there was an example given with robisson? first black baseball player. how he had to be particularly and especially sensitive to all the "white" folk and not make waves. it is the same with obama

the adm has had a tough road to walk with racist and allegations of racism because of first black pres position.

i want obama to go after them
what happened was wrong

but we need to better understand and appreciate obama's position too.

we, as the white privilige, create this.

together; but from what I see and read here, he's got people in his own party (especially in the Senate and maybe his administration) undermining him (some of them intentionally); and his biggest mistake has been protecting people in his party who don't share his goals and good intentions.

I know he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, but if he doesn't publicly stand up, on your behalf, to the underminers in your Dem party I don't know who will. I'm sorry if I put Vilsack in that category unfairly; I haven't watched his press conf yet.

It was pretty clear they felt like dopes for not taking the time to do their homework on this before taking action. I would have thought they had caught on by now to the Faux News/Breitbart campaign to take down members of the Obama Admin, but suffice to say it is clear they get it now. Finally.

One would have thought that the last several go arounds, too.

I guess we'll see what happens the next time the right wing fabricates some deal and goes "boo."

He was given his marching orders post haste. Make her go away. She's hurting our message.

because it didn't want to see months and months of Fox News propaganda focusing on this stupid, made-up story.

Here on DU, I saw the statement that Sherrod made in the context of more of her speech. It was very apparent that the content, the meaning of her speech was in favor of racial tolerance and opposed to discrimination.

Breitbart, who broke the story that made Sherrod look so bad is known for falsifying videos by cutting them so as to completely misrepresent what the videos are really about. He is a propagandist, a falsifier of videos of the worst kind. He should not be on any news station.

And it is typical of people who run large organizations to entrust the detail work to lower level employees. My theory is that that is what was done here. Low level employees think first about how they can protect their own job -- and so over-react. That is what happened here. Someone who did not want to, could not afford to lose his or her job handled the research for Vilsack's department and accepted the Fox News/Breitbart version of the speech without checking further.

Strangely, the NAACP which is the organization that held the event where the speech was made, also did not adequately research this. Vilsack and others in the Obama administration seem genuinely embarassed over this. It is possible that a lower level employee in Vilsacks' department did see the video but just did not say anything. I doubt that Vilsack would have been involved in reviewing a video himself.

And it's happened many, many times. Van Jones comes to mind.

They won't stand up for principles but cravenly give in to any right wing pressure.

You're a DUer?

one of his children. Fox is Un-American and subversive - shut it down

My current opinion, for what it's worth, is that it's likely that Obama was kept out of the loop as much and as long as possible by someone in the White House who was one of the main agents who pushed for the resignation. It's hard to doubt White House involvement when you listen to Sherrod's interviews.