Thus as we get closer to the mid-term elections of 2010, the more the questions surrounding the Tea Party movement come to the surface and they seem to be coming with increased velocity. The politically astute can only ask one question: “As the questions surrounding the viability of the Tea Party Movement continue to mount, to what extent can the average citizen feel comfortable throwing his lot in with this, as yet, undefined and controversial movement?”

Building Bridges Radio: Your Community and Labor Report, National Edition
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg

Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report, National Edition
– Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg

The NAACP met with gay groups and will help us form a coalition to fight injustice.

The rush to judgment, public lynching of Shirley Sherrod speaks less to me about the stark avoidance of race, though absolutely that retreat is correctly the headline, than what it further exposes about the cowardice of conviction in the mindless process of media call-and-response where seeking face time and sound bites seems to be the pursuit rather than stranding for anything whatsoever. This sidebar is becoming the overarching theme.

Activists on both sides of the liberal-conservative divide have embarrassed themselves in the Sherrod affair, and we can all learn a lesson to be more careful.

Update: White House Press Secretary Gibbs just apologized to Shirley Sherrod. From TPM:

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today offered an apology to Shirley Sherrod on behalf of the Obama administration.

He said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is trying to reach Sherrod as well, to offer his own apology and to "talk about their next steps."

"I think without a doubt Ms. Sherrod is owed an apology. I would do so, certainly, on behalf of this administration," Gibbs said.

"Members of this administration, members of the media, members of different political factions on both sides of this have all made determinations and judgments without a full set of facts," he said.

We’re still waiting for an explanation for how the Administration (and who) made such a bad decision and why it wasn’t obvious to them in the first place. In the meantime, I hope someone takes the shovel away from Jim Messina, permanently. Via Alex Pareene at Salon:

Tea Party Express Founder and Chairman Accuses NAACP of Being Bigots for Denouncing Racist Elements Within the Broader Tea Party Movement, Ignoring His Own Well-Documented Record of Bigoted Rants and Raves; Meanwhile, New Black Panther Party ‘Scandal’ — Hyped for Months by Fox News and Other Right-Wing Media — Is Exposed As a Politically-Motivated Hoax

Why is the Post bending over backwards to paint the Tea Party in the best possible light, ignoring evidence to the contrary?

More info on the new progressive ‘One Nation’ coalition and a liberals’ Oct. 2 March on Washington