Leif announced he wanted to start a blog. I'm not sure what he wants to blog about, but there's a good chance it'll be about how awesome he is.

I suspect Leif and Owen collaborating would be the best worst idea ever.

Or the worst best idea.

How hawks see the world interesting BBC video with a hawk with a camera strapped to him.

Jebus, could they have effed this whole situation up more badly?

-- USDA chief makes "profound" apology to ex-employee Shirley Sherrod, offers her a job working on civil rights.

Maybe this will wake some people up about blinding striking out any time the lunatic fringe starts making a stink about something?

And I see some of my right-leaning friends still harping on it. I'm not sure that's the hill you want to plant your flag on.

And on the other hand, the kneejerk tendency of the Dems to kowtow and fold to hysteria and lies, without even getting the whole story, makes me want to barf.

I take it you're talking about the firing of Shirley Sherrod from the USDA. Since she's here in Georgia, we've been seeing extensive coverage. I just saw an interview with the white farmer she spoke of and his wife, who still say 24 years later that she saved their farm.

What was the deal with her firing? I missed the story. I've been busy with stuff and have dropped out of the news. I've only seen the accusations, I don't know the full story.

could they have effed this whole situation up more badly?

::ponders::

No, not really. Governing administration of one of the world's superpowers flinching at, fleeing from and sacking a dedicated civil servant over a 2-minute video mendaciously edited by a Drudge protege who'd pulled exactly this kind of shit before? Short of sending Vilsack out to break her kneecaps in person, I can't think how they could have effed it up any worse.

USDA chief makes "profound" apology to ex-employee Shirley Sherrod, offers her a job working on civil rights.

Maybe this will wake some people up about blinding striking out any time the lunatic fringe starts making a stink about something?

Man, I heard that story on NPR yesterday, and it gobsmacked me. She got fired because of an out-of-context tiny snippet of a video from a speech she made almost 20 years ago, in a different job? You're damn right she deserves a "profound" apology as well as her job back as well as gold-plated hookers and cocaine. Or her drug of choice.

She was speaking at an NAACP event and told a story about how, after some ugly events in her own past, including a relative being lynched, she was initially reluctant when she joined the USDA and realized that she was being asked to help white farmers keep their land, but how she ended up having her eyes opened to her own biases and completely revising her approach/perspective.

The part of the video flogged by Breitbart was " reluctant when she joined the USDA and realized that she was being asked to help white farmers. "

Cue denuciations from the NAACP, firing by the USDA, much weeping and rending of clothes on Fox.

TNC (and lots of others) have the full video up now. Well worth watching.