There Oughta be a Law

There oughta be a law but apparently there isn’t. At least I believe this must be true because what just happened has happened before and I have seen no attempt at holding anyone accountable. I am speaking of Fox media propaganda (I cannot bring myself to say Fox News). If you watched the Rachel Maddow show tonight as I did (it is now the only hour of news I watch) you will know the latest Fox underhanded attempt to smear someone and get them fired. If you didn’t watch, you should, as Rachel makes it very clear what they did. Shirley Sherrod, a Black woman who was part of the Obama administration was shown on Fox as having claimed to discriminate against a white farmer when she worked in an Agricultural job in Georgia. Of course Fox couldn’t give up ranting and raving about this Black woman discriminating against a white farmers (“just because he was white”). Without giving her the benefit of the doubt, without any investigations whatsoever, without innocent until proven guilty, without even a semblance of fair play, she was immediately fired from her position in the administration and was even condemned by the NAACP.

As further review was carried out it became clear that Fox had made a deliberate, intentional, dishonest, and scurrilous attack on a completely innocent woman. They did this through the selective editing of a video, reportedly made recently, in which she is seen to imply or confess to having discriminated in such a racist manner. However, the videotape in question was made in 1986 before she was a member of the Obama administration and was working for a private organization. What is worse, Fox lifted her statement completely out of context to indicate she said and did something that was precisely the opposite of what she said and did. She said that when she was confronted for the very first time with a request to help a white farmer she paused for a moment to consider such an unusual request but then went ahead and helped him. In other words she overcame any racist attitude she might have had and did the right thing. There is now videotaped confirmation from the farmer himself that she went out of her way to help him and that at no time, in no way, did she ever act toward him in a racist manner. She acted properly in every way exactly the opposite of the false picture given by Fox. There is no doubt this was a deliberate attempt on the part of Fox to discredit her and attempt to stir up racial animosity. Should there not be a law against a major media outlet that purposely lies about someone and causes them to lose their job and also deliberately promotes racial hatred? I do not know if Sherrod will be reinstated, perhaps not. Fox did the same thing with Acorn, presenting through dishonest editing a totally false account of what transpired. As you doubtless know, Acorn was closed down quickly and as far as I know has not been reinstated. Fox also did the same thing with another Black member of the administration (whose name I cannot recall at the moment) that either resulted in his firing or perhaps in not getting the job he was nominated for.

Clearly what Fox is doing cannot be considered “news” or journalism, but is, in fact, simply right-wing propaganda. This is not a question of Fox simply making a mistake or accidentally getting something wrong. In all three of these cases the administration just took Fox’s word for something and immediately responded by doing what Fox intended. Although there is now pretty much common knowledge about Fox’s role as a propaganda organ for the far right, nothing seems to be done about it. I don’t know if anything even can be done about it. But at the very least the administration should stop automatically jumping through the Fox hoops. If there is some law that might be applied in this case it is not being applied, not that this administration is particularly concerned about the law or enforcing it, Dick the Slimy and his simple-minded puppet, who together engineered some of the greatest war crimes of all time are still free and boasting about their crimes. I sincerely wish Rachel would spend some of her talent and resources on an investigation of this issue. I have no doubt it would be devastating, but even so I doubt anything could be devastating enough to move Obama and Holder to act. They seem to be oblivious of the laws against war crimes.

There seems to be no doubt that Elena Kagan will be confirmed for the Supreme Court in spite of Republican opposition. There is little cogent reason for opposition other than she is someone Obama appointed and wants. Whatever Obama wants, Republicans oppose, it’s just that simple these days. In a last ditch attempt to prevent her confirmation one of the right-wing loonies has suggested she is really a Muslim man who is part of a plot to establish Shari’a law in the U.S., a peculiarly strange behavior for an East Coast Jew and ex Dean of the Harvard Law School. But you have to give the loonies credit for imagination.

The extension of unemployment benefits finally passed after two months of Republican opposition. There were 40 votes against it, and the bare 60 required for passage. So a vast majority of Republicans continue their seemingly suicidal attack on the working class, gotta have that cheap labor, you know, and also them groovy tax breaks for the filthy rich and the corporations. Someone asked me today how much longer things can go on like this. I said, “not long.” Cheers.

Once it smiled a silent dell
Where the people did not dwell;
They had gone unto the wars,
Trusting to the mild-eyed stars,
Nightly, from their azure towers,
To keep watch above the flowers,
In the midst of which all day
The red sun-light lazily lay.
Now each visitor shall confess
The sad valley's restlessness.
Nothing there is motionless --
Nothing save the airs that brood
Over the magic solitude.
Ah, by no wind are stirred those trees
That palpitate like the chill seas
Around the misty Hebrides!
Ah, by no wind those clouds are driven
That rustle through the unquiet
HeavenUneasily, from morn till even,
Over the violets there that lie
In myriad types of the human eye --
Over the lilies there that wave
And weep above a nameless grave!
They wave: -- from out their fragrant tops
Eternal dews come down in drops.
They weep: -- from off their delicate stems
Perennial tears descend in gems.

Edgar Allen Poe