Hi Everyone:
Ever since I started this blog, I have been very diligent in giving actual facts involving my weekly topics. One can only truly understand a story in its entirety if you are informed with all of the facts. Today's blog is about what happens when facts are flushed down the toilet.
I am sure everyone has heard about what happened to Shirley Sherrod. Sherrod was an USDA official and was forced to resign from her position by the US Agriculture department over an edited version of a speech she gave. So how did this story go so wrong and get so out of hand so quickly? In order to examine what happened to her, one must look at the facts of this sordid incident. So here are the true facts of what happened:
1- Shirley Sherrod gave a speech at a NAACP gathering and the speech was videoed in its entirety.
2- Andrew Breitbart, a conservative blogger, took her speech and edited it into snippets to try to show a side of Sherrod that was untrue and blatantly a lie. Breitbart knew full well that the edited version would be taken out of context. After posting the edited version, he sat back and watched the s*** hit the fan. Obviously, due to Breitbart's own actions, he showed that he definitely had an agenda to disgrace at least Sherrod and most probably the Obama administration.
3- Fox news took the story and ran with it, showing the edited version of her speech. Fox news made it into big headlines about a black, female, Obama official with the USDA, who is a racist.
4- The NAACP through a spokesperson, said they were very upset and denounced her about what she had said in the edited version.
5- As Sherrod was driving back to her office, from a distance of 3 1/2 hours away, Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack called her and asked her to pull the vehicle over. Then Vilsack told her to resign immediately in writing via her blackberry.
6- During this entire time, Sherrod kept saying that what the video showed was taken out of context and distorted her remarks. She said repeatedly that the entire video of her speech should be viewed and it would show that the story she used was to promote racial reconciliation. Her requests for viewing the entire video fell on deaf ears for far too long.
7- The USDA and the White House finally watched the video in its entirety and realized that a terrible injustice had occurred and that her termination was totally wrong.
8- Tom Vilsack called Sherrod and apologized for his mistake of firing her and offered her a job especially tailored to her skill set from over 20 years with the USDA. Sherrod has yet to give her decision on accepting the new position.
9- The NAACP apologized to Sherrod.
10- President Obama called Sherrod and personally apologized to her in a 7 minute conversation.
11- Even though the USDA, the NAACP and the White House have personally apologized to Sherrod, very mysteriously, neither Fox news or Andrew Breitbart have apologized. I wonder why? Even more curiously, neither the conservative blogger or Fox news have retracted the story. I wonder why again?
12- Without a doubt, everyone rushed to judgement.
13- No one did any due diligence to fact check the blogger's video.
14- It used to be that before a story ran, news organizations would fact check a story prior to running with it to make sure the story was as accurate as possible.
So those are the real facts of this sorry tale, that should have never, ever occurred. So who are the winners in this incident? Absolutely no one!!!! I find fault with the USDA and the White House for not checking the facts and rushing to judgement. But, I find that the NAACP was at the top of the heap for issuing a statement against her when it was at their gathering that she spoke and no one there had any problems with what she said. They even had the whole video that they could have watched to determine that she did nothing wrong.
It is painfully obvious to me that the blogger had an conservative agenda and hasn't been heard from since. But what really pisses me off is that, Fox news has shown its true colors in its conservative agenda. It also appears to me that the conservative movement and Fox news is not interested in principled dialog, but rather resorting to slander, innuendo and out right lies. I really hope that Sherrod sues the idiot blogger and Fox news for slander and defamation of character. There is no way she won't win millions of dollars. Maybe then Rupert Murdoch and Fox news will return to the old ways of checking the facts of a story prior to running it. The blogger and Fox news should be ashamed and should pay dearly for their unprofessional ways. Hey Fox, just so you know, the ends do not justify the means, no matter what you do or say. Where is your retraction and apology? That won't happen because that would admit guilt and open them up for a whopper of a lawsuit. Maybe the court of public opinion will realize that a news media organization that doesn't get all the facts to tell the truth of a story will stop watching their lies and innuendos.
If ever there was an example of not using common sense, this story shows it in spades. No one involved in this story used any common sense what so ever and look what happened to a totally innocent person. Shame on everyone except Shirley Sherrod, you go girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Til next week.
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Highway Department
Hi Everyone:
I have a lot of respect for highway departments, especially in the winter time. Somehow they always manage to clear the roads of snow and make them passable. The area where I live is covered by both the town highway department and the county highway department. The county is responsible for the main road where my driveway is located. It is the only east west road in my county.
This east west road is located, for at least a part of it, along two reservoirs that supply New York City with drinking water. On the other side are the hillsides that supply water to the reservoir via streams and brooks. Whenever we have very heavy rains, the road floods making driving very dangerous. This has been a long standing problem with no attention paid to it. So what is this county highway department doing this summer? They seem to have good intentions to try to alleviate the flooding problem.
For a week, they had a grade-all vehicle, a dump truck and about 8 employees digging a trench between the road and the hillsides. The new trenches do eventually end up at different pipes that divert the water into the reservoirs. The first problem that I noticed is that the distance between the pipes is about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile apart. That seems to me to be a very long distance for the water to travel before reaching the pipes. I won't know if the long distance is problematic until we have a heavy rain storm.
The second problem that I noticed is more significant and without a doubt will become problematic. While they dug the trenches, they left numerous areas where they ended up making good size depressions with the overflow having to go up hill to continue. Just by looking at it, one can surmise, that during a heavy rain storm, the water will collect in the depressions and become deep because the water has to travel up hill to continue its journey to the pipes. But before the water can do that, it will undoubtedly spill onto the road and the flooding will continue, as if they had done nothing at all. If a novice like me can see the inevitable problem that will occur, why couldn't the highway employees see it? Somehow the supervisor(s) also missed this potential problem. Now I understand that maybe, just maybe they couldn't see the error of their ways when they were up close and personal to the areas. But all one has to do is drive by the areas and anyone can tell what's going to eventually happen.
Where was the common sense in spending all the time and money to accomplish basically nothing? The flooding will continue until someone takes a close look at the work that they did. Water flows down hill and will collect in low lying areas until it floods over. The next heavy rain will prove my point and the road will flood as usual. Then most likely, sometime in the future, they will be back to fix it correctly. If common sense was used the first time, it could have been fixed correctly.
Common sense rules.
Til next week.
I have a lot of respect for highway departments, especially in the winter time. Somehow they always manage to clear the roads of snow and make them passable. The area where I live is covered by both the town highway department and the county highway department. The county is responsible for the main road where my driveway is located. It is the only east west road in my county.
This east west road is located, for at least a part of it, along two reservoirs that supply New York City with drinking water. On the other side are the hillsides that supply water to the reservoir via streams and brooks. Whenever we have very heavy rains, the road floods making driving very dangerous. This has been a long standing problem with no attention paid to it. So what is this county highway department doing this summer? They seem to have good intentions to try to alleviate the flooding problem.
For a week, they had a grade-all vehicle, a dump truck and about 8 employees digging a trench between the road and the hillsides. The new trenches do eventually end up at different pipes that divert the water into the reservoirs. The first problem that I noticed is that the distance between the pipes is about 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile apart. That seems to me to be a very long distance for the water to travel before reaching the pipes. I won't know if the long distance is problematic until we have a heavy rain storm.
The second problem that I noticed is more significant and without a doubt will become problematic. While they dug the trenches, they left numerous areas where they ended up making good size depressions with the overflow having to go up hill to continue. Just by looking at it, one can surmise, that during a heavy rain storm, the water will collect in the depressions and become deep because the water has to travel up hill to continue its journey to the pipes. But before the water can do that, it will undoubtedly spill onto the road and the flooding will continue, as if they had done nothing at all. If a novice like me can see the inevitable problem that will occur, why couldn't the highway employees see it? Somehow the supervisor(s) also missed this potential problem. Now I understand that maybe, just maybe they couldn't see the error of their ways when they were up close and personal to the areas. But all one has to do is drive by the areas and anyone can tell what's going to eventually happen.
Where was the common sense in spending all the time and money to accomplish basically nothing? The flooding will continue until someone takes a close look at the work that they did. Water flows down hill and will collect in low lying areas until it floods over. The next heavy rain will prove my point and the road will flood as usual. Then most likely, sometime in the future, they will be back to fix it correctly. If common sense was used the first time, it could have been fixed correctly.
Common sense rules.
Til next week.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Hi Everyone:
Is it just me or are other people noticing that drivers on highways are getting worse and worse with each passing year? Just yesterday I was traveling on an interstate highway in New York and Connecticut, when I witnessed an exorbitant amount of people who do not use common sense while driving.
My first issue is with all the drivers, and there sure seems to be a lot of them, who do not signal prior to changing lanes. Even if there is tons of room to change lanes, it just makes common sense to signal first to let everyone who can see you, now know what your intentions are. Now when there isn't a whole lot of room to cut into the next lane, it is absolutely asinine to cut in , which shouldn't be done in the first place or at least signaling first. I mean it is so very dangerous to change lanes without using the dumb-guy blinkers.
The next issue that I witnessed yesterday occurred with at least 3 drivers. So there you are driving along at the speed limit, going with the flow, when someone either in front of you or to the side of you applies their brakes for no apparent reason. This actually occurred going up a hill as well as going down a hill. Again there is no common sense in putting on your brakes when not necessary. Around here, just that one car doing that can cause the start of slow down zone.
The last issue that I witnessed yesterday, as well as every day that I drive on any road, anywhere, are people talking on their cell phones as well as texting while driving. Something can happen so fast, when you are driving at highway speeds, to make you lose control and get into an accident. Why take the chance of having your attention diverted? As a side note, I see all ages using their cell phones. Obviously common sense is not being used. As I said in a previous blog, there should be some kind of common sense class that all people should have to take and pass, prior to getting their license. How many times have we each seen some driver that does something really stupid? I believe that in a perfect world, if each and every driver used common sense to the max while driving, there would be hardly any accidents, except mechanical failures.
Driving and common sense go hand in hand.
Til next week.
Is it just me or are other people noticing that drivers on highways are getting worse and worse with each passing year? Just yesterday I was traveling on an interstate highway in New York and Connecticut, when I witnessed an exorbitant amount of people who do not use common sense while driving.
My first issue is with all the drivers, and there sure seems to be a lot of them, who do not signal prior to changing lanes. Even if there is tons of room to change lanes, it just makes common sense to signal first to let everyone who can see you, now know what your intentions are. Now when there isn't a whole lot of room to cut into the next lane, it is absolutely asinine to cut in , which shouldn't be done in the first place or at least signaling first. I mean it is so very dangerous to change lanes without using the dumb-guy blinkers.
The next issue that I witnessed yesterday occurred with at least 3 drivers. So there you are driving along at the speed limit, going with the flow, when someone either in front of you or to the side of you applies their brakes for no apparent reason. This actually occurred going up a hill as well as going down a hill. Again there is no common sense in putting on your brakes when not necessary. Around here, just that one car doing that can cause the start of slow down zone.
The last issue that I witnessed yesterday, as well as every day that I drive on any road, anywhere, are people talking on their cell phones as well as texting while driving. Something can happen so fast, when you are driving at highway speeds, to make you lose control and get into an accident. Why take the chance of having your attention diverted? As a side note, I see all ages using their cell phones. Obviously common sense is not being used. As I said in a previous blog, there should be some kind of common sense class that all people should have to take and pass, prior to getting their license. How many times have we each seen some driver that does something really stupid? I believe that in a perfect world, if each and every driver used common sense to the max while driving, there would be hardly any accidents, except mechanical failures.
Driving and common sense go hand in hand.
Til next week.
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