appoint the UN Ambassador to a cabinet-level position. This was
certainly done by Clinton and has been done by Obama. Rice is appointed
the cabinet, neither iffs nor butts.
Pablo
Tony Agbali wrote:
> Seriously, am I missing something here? Is the US UN Ambassador a
> cabinet level position. I know all the secretaries of different
> departments are, including the Vice President and the Attorney
> general, but it is my first time of hearing that the US UN Ambassador
> is a cabinet level position.
>
> The last time I browsed through a booklet of American immigration on
> naturalization, this did not seem to be the case. I realized that
> since then what had changed was the inclusion of the secretary of the
> Homeland Security, as a cabinet position. I recently glanced this was
> not the case, as there was no indication of such, at least
> evidentially in the most obvious manner?
>
> The cabinet advises the President essentially about the government.
> Now, does the American UN ambassador advise the President in an
> independent manner from what the Secretary of State does?
>
> The political scientists, policy scholars, American studies folks help
> me out here. Am I missing something here, or I simply am ignorant of
> what a cabinet level position is within the American government, or
> changes therein?
> I would like to learn.
> --- On *Wed, 7/21/10, Pius Adesanmi /<piusadesanmi@yahoo.com>/* wrote:
>
>
> From: Pius Adesanmi <piusadesanmi@yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That Led
> To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, July 21, 2010, 2:06 PM
>
> Moses:
>
> Don't mind Abdul. He thinks he has found a reason to take a swipe
> at those who were irritated by his Massaphilia (apologies to Maazi
> Biko) during the campaign. I find his version of pan-Africanism
> entertaining though. It is the younger brother of Kwabena's give
> me back my black dolls pan-Africanism. Abdul's is what I call
> spelling bee pan-Africanism. Add "k" and every other thing shall
> be added. Once Obama starts talking about his "Afrikan policy",
> Mwalimu Abdul will call him the best thing to happen to the
> continent after Nelson Mandela.
>
> Pius
>
>
>
>
> --- On *Wed, 21/7/10, Moses Ebe Ochonu /<meochonu@gmail.com>/* wrote:
>
>
> From: Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video That
> Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical
> Context
> To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
> Date: Wednesday, 21 July, 2010, 17:31
>
> Abdul, your childish gloating is in very poor taste. It shows
> just how bitter you are that Obama actually won the election,
> in spite of your Uncle Tomish campaign against him. Bolaji is
> absolutely right about this issue. But I guess you must be a
> prophet and must have predicted that there would be a
> hate-mongering tea party movement that emerged precisely
> because of the election of a black man as president,
> regardless of what their leaders say. You also must seen ahead
> of time how the tea-party would make race baiting a central
> motif of their opposition to Obama. And, you must have also
> seen this particular incident in your crystal ball. The Obama
> admin makes the mistake of being goaded by right-wing mischief
> makers into dismissing one MID-LEVEL black appointee without
> reviewing the context of her pronouncement and, by your
> twisted logic, that makes Obama a KKK/Hitler incarnate to be
> feared and loathed by all Africans and people of African
> descent. What a logic! And by the way, since you only count
> Eric Holder as Obama's only high profile black appointee, I
> guess Susan Rice, a holder of the cabinet level office of UN
> ambassador, must not count as a black person in your book. Or
> Ron Kirk, the US trade representative. Or the Surgeon General.
> Or his other high-level black appointees. You're incorrigible,
> Abdul. I've never seen a black person loathe his own kind like
> you. But I know where your anti-Obama bile comes from. You
> revealed it here on this very forum. So I am not surprised.
> Obama's engagement with Africa leaves much to be desired, but
> as I remind people, he is president of the USA. He owes
> nothing to Africa. The significance of his presidency to us is
> only symbolic. Judging him by another standard is
> ludicrous--and mischievous.
>
> On Wed, Jul 21, 2010 at 8:24 AM, Abdul Karim Bangura
> <theai@earthlink.net> wrote:
>
> Ha, ha, ha, haaaaaaaa....He, he, he, heeeeeeee.....---:)
> When I, a member of the Democratic Party Executive
> Committee, predicted all this in 2008, I was called all
> sorts of unsavory monikers on this forum: "Sell Out,"
> "Closet McCain-Nut," "Uncle Tom," etc. Let's face it,
> Obama is failing Afrikans on the Motherland and in the
> Diaspora. His token appointment of Eric Holder in his
> cabinet for an agency that had lost most of its bureaus
> and power when Homeland Security was launched is a slap in
> the face of our Afrikan ancestors. The guy even prefers
> nominating gays to national positions and take the heat
> than to appoint Afrikans. And as we say in America, "I
> told you so."
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mobolaji ALUKO
> Sent: Jul 21, 2010 2:51 AM
> To: USAAfrica Dialogue , NaijaPolitics e-Group , NIDOA
> , naijaintellects , OmoOdua
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - 'Racism' Video
> That Led To Firing USDA Official Shirley Sherrod
> Lacked Critical Context
>
>
>
> Dear All:
>
> This is ridiculous.
>
> Obama might give her her job back, but Ms. Shirley
> Sherrod should not take it back, tut rather should sue
> the Obama administration for wrongful dismissal. How
> can a feeling she expressed 24 years ago as a
> non-government employee be manipulated by wicked
> conservative media against her today to force her out
> of a job? The rush to judgment without the context
> was trigger-happy and completely un-professional, and
> shows an administration too jumpy about race in this
> case and too ready to please the budding racists in
> the country, probably with an eye to the November
> mid-term elections.
>
> It is bitterly disappointing.
>
>
>
> Bolaji Aluko
>
>
>
> ---------------------
>
>
> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html
>
>
>
> 'Racism' Video That Led To Firing USDA Official
> Shirley Sherrod Lacked Critical Context
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html>
>
>
> *BEN EVANS and MARY CLARE JALONICK*
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html#>
> | 07/20/10 09:42 PM | AP
> Shirley Sherrod Usda Naacp
> Shirley Sherrod Resigns From USDA Post After Racism
> Controversy
>
> <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/20/shirley-sherrod-agricultu_n_653329.html#comments>
> WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is standing by
> its quick decision to oust a black Agriculture
> Department employee over racially tinged remarks at an
> NAACP banquet in Georgia, despite evidence that her
> remarks were misconstrued and growing calls for USDA
> to reconsider.
> Shirley Sherrod, who until Tuesday was the Agriculture
> Department's director of rural development in Georgia,
> says the administration caved to political pressure by
> pushing her to resign for saying that she didn't give
> a white farmer as much help as she could have 24 years
> ago when she worked for a nonprofit group.
> Sherrod says her remarks, delivered in March at a
> local NAACP banquet in Georgia, were part of a story
> about racial reconciliation, not racism. The white
> farming family that was the subject of the story stood
> by Sherrod and said she should keep her job.
> "We probably wouldn't have (our farm) today if it
> hadn't been for her leading us in the right
> direction," said Eloise Spooner, the wife of farmer
> Roger Spooner of Iron City, Ga. "I wish she could get
> her job back because she was good to us, I tell you."
> The NAACP, which initially condemned Sherrod's remarks
> and supported Sherrod's ouster, joined the calls for
> her to keep her job. The civil rights group said it
> and millions of others were duped by the conservative
> website that posted partial video of her speech on Monday.
> "We have come to the conclusion we were snookered ...
> into believing she had harmed white farmers because of
> racial bias," said the statement from NAACP President
> Benjamin Todd Jealous.
> A White House official, speaking on condition of
> anonymity, said President Barack Obama was briefed on
> the matter after Sherrod's resignation and stands by
> the Agriculture Department's handling of it.
> The website, biggovernment.com
> <http://biggovernment.com/>, gained fame last year
> after airing video of workers at the community group
> ACORN counseling actors posing as a prostitute and her
> boyfriend. It posted the Sherrod video as evidence
> that the NAACP, which recently passed a resolution
> condemning what it calls racist elements of the Tea
> Party, condones racism of its own.
> Sherrod said she was on the road Monday when USDA
> deputy undersecretary Cheryl Cook called her and told
> her the White House wanted her to resign because her
> comments were generating a cable news controversy.
> "They called me twice," she told The Associated Press
> in an interview. "The last time they asked me to pull
> over to the side of the road and submit my resignation
> on my Blackberry, and that's what I did."
> Sherrod said administration officials weren't
> interested in hearing her explanation. "It hurts me
> that they didn't even try to attempt to see what is
> happening here, they didn't care," she said. "I'm not
> a racist ... Anyone who knows me knows that I'm for
> fairness."
> The administration gave a different version of events.
> Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack – not the White
> House – made the decision to ask Sherrod to resign,
> said USDA spokeswoman Chris Mather. She said Sherrod
> willingly resigned when asked.
> In a statement, Vilsack said the controversy
> surrounding Sherrod's comments could, rightly or
> wrongly, cause people to question her decisions as a
> federal employee and lead to lingering doubts about
> civil rights at the agency, which has a troubled
> history of discrimination.
> "There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA,"
> Vilsack said. "We have a duty to ensure that when we
> provide services to the American people we do so in an
> equitable manner."
> USDA is sensitive to the issue because the agency has
> for decades faced charges of discrimination against
> black farmers who said they could not get aid that
> routinely went to whites. The department agreed to a
> final $1.25 billion settlement earlier this year in a
> class-action suit that has been pending for more than
> a decade. The payout of that settlement is pending in
> Congress, and Vilsack has made fixing past wrongs over
> civil rights a top priority.
> The current controversy began Monday when
> biggovernment.com <http://biggovernment.com/> posted a
> two-minute, 38-second video clip in which Sherrod
> describes the first time a white farmer came to her
> for help. It was 1986, and she worked for a nonprofit
> rural farm aid group. She said the farmer came in
> acting "superior" to her and that she debated how much
> help to give him.
> "I was struggling with the fact that so many black
> people had lost their farmland, and here I was faced
> with helping a white person save their land," Sherrod
> said.
> Initially, she said, "I didn't give him the full force
> of what I could do" and only gave him enough help to
> keep his case progressing. Eventually, she said, his
> situation "opened my eyes" that whites were struggling
> just like blacks, and helping farmers wasn't so much
> about race but was "about the poor versus those who have."
> Sherrod said Tuesday the incomplete video appears to
> intentionally twist her message. She says she became
> close friends with the farmer and helped him for two
> years.
> In the full 43-minute video of her speech released by
> the NAACP Tuesday evening, Sherrod tells the story of
> her father's death in 1965, saying he was killed by
> white men who were never charged. She says she made a
> commitment to stay in the South the night of her
> father's death, despite the dreams she had always had
> of leaving her rural town.
> "When I made that commitment I was making that
> commitment to black people and to black people only,"
> she said. "But you know God will show you things and
> he'll put things in your path so that you realize that
> the struggle is really about poor people."
> Sherrod said in the speech that working with Spooner,
> who she does not name, changed her entire outlook.
> "She's always been nice and polite and considerate.
> She was just a good person," Eloise Spooner said. "She
> did everything she could trying to help."
> ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100720/pl_yblog_upshot/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy/print
> [POST UPDATED, SEE BOTTOM]
> An employee of the Department of Agriculture has
> resigned
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_upshot/pl_yblog_upshot/storytext/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy/36955538/SIG=12eqca3hs/*http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/07/20/agriculture.employee.naacp/index.html>,
> after conservative media outlets posted video Monday
> of her describing a time in the past when she hadn't
> used the "full force" of her abilities to help a
> farmer because he was white.
> In the video, Shirley Sherrod, who is black, recounts
> having been asked to help a white farmer avoid
> foreclosure. She says she was torn over how much to
> help him because so many black farmers were also
> struggling, and decided to do just enough to be able
> to say she'd tried:
>
> I didn't give him the full force of what I could do. I
> did enough. ... So I took him to a white lawyer. ...
> So I figured if I would take him to one of them, his
> own kind would take care of him.
>
> Sherrod spoke to CNN on Tuesday, explaining that she
> told the story of her actions — which, she said,
> occurred 24 years ago when she was working for a
> nonprofit, not the USDA — to illustrate how she has
> since realized that everything is not about race but
> "about those who have versus those who do not have."
> She says she later became friends with the farmer and
> his wife.
> Even so, Sherrod resigned after conservative media
> activist Andrew Breitbart posted video of the story
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_upshot/pl_yblog_upshot/storytext/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy/36955538/SIG=12pujechr/*http://biggovernment.com/abreitbart/2010/07/19/video-proof-the-naacp-awards-racism2010/>
> and Fox News picked it up. She told CNN that she tried
> to explain to USDA officials that the incident was in
> the past, but said "for some reason, the stuff Fox and
> the tea party does is scaring the administration."
> In a statement quoted by CNN, Secretary of Agriculture
> Tom Vilsack said of Sherrod's actions:
>
> There is zero tolerance for discrimination at USDA,
> and I strongly condemn any act of discrimination
> against any person. ... We have been working hard
> through the past 18 months to reverse the checkered
> civil rights history at the department and take the
> issue of fairness and equality very seriously.
>
> NAACP CEO Ben Jealous was also quick to condemn
> Sherrod's actions, though
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/yblog_upshot/pl_yblog_upshot/storytext/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy/36955538/SIG=130un4384/*http://biggovernment.com/publius/2010/07/20/naacp-statement-on-resignation-of-shirley-sherrod/>.
> In a statement Monday posted on Breitbart's Big
> Government site, he said:
> [NAACP HAS NOW RETRACTED ITS CRITICISM, SEE UPDATES BELOW]
>
> Her actions were shameful. While she went on to
> explain in the story that she ultimately realized her
> mistake, as well as the common predicament of working
> people of all races, she gave no indication she had
> attempted to right the wrong she had done to this man.
>
> In response, Sherrod told CNN that it was "unfortunate
> that the NAACP would make a statement without even
> checking to see what happened. This was 24 years ago,
> and I'm telling a story to try to unite people."
> Watch her interview with CNN here:
>
> *UPDATE: *Sherrod has now come forward and said that
> the White House forced her to resign. The wife of the
> white farmer has also come forward to defend her. Read
> our update here
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/news/yblog_upshot/pl_yblog_upshot/storytext/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy/36955538/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100720/el_yblog_upshot/resigned-usda-worker-white-house-forced-me-out>.
> *UPDATE: *The NAACP has now retracted its criticism of
> Sherrod, saying it was "snookered" by conservative
> media. Read our latest update here
> <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/news/yblog_upshot/pl_yblog_upshot/storytext/usda-official-resigns-amidst-race-controversy/36955538;_ylt=ArH.2yTNwDh7.uT18.9B4Vnk7r5_;_ylu=X3oDMTFoaTFocHUyBHBvcwM5BHNlYwN5bl9zdG9yeV9wcmludF9jb250ZW50BHNsawNvdXJsYXRlc3R1cGQ-/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100720/pl_yblog_upshot/naacp-retracts-criticism-of-resigned-usda-official>.
> ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
>
>
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