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President Obama said Secretary Tom Vilsack rushed to judgment when he dismissed Shirley Sherrod from the Department of Agriculture amid charges of racism. "He jumped the gun, partly because we now live in this media culture where something goes up on YouTube or a blog and everybody scrambles," Obama told consumer correspondent Elisabeth Leamy in an exclusive “GMA” interview.

WASHINGTON – An embarrassed White House apologized on Wednesday to a black Agriculture Department employee who was ousted for her remarks about race, acknowledging that officials did not know all the facts when she was fired. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the dismissal of Shirley Sherrod an injustice and a mistake. He said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack was trying to reach her to extend the administration's apology.

A black former Agriculture Department employee, who resigned after a video clip surfaced of her discussing a white farmer, insisted Tuesday she "went all out" to help the man keep his farm and said she resigned under pressure from the Obama administration. Shirley Sherrod, who resigned Monday as the department's director of rural development for Georgia, told CNN she had four calls telling her the White House wanted her to resign. "They asked me to resign, and in fact they harassed me as I was driving back to the state office from West Point, Georgia, yesterday," she said. The last...

Former Department of Agriculture official Shirley Sherrod says she was forced to resign last night under orders from the White House over racist comments she made at an NAACP dinner in March that were revealed by Big Government yesterday morning. The Associated Press reported Sherrod's claim this morning:Shirley Sherrod says she was forced to step down by the White House even though her comments, in which she says she withheld support for a farmer because he was white, were really part of a story of racial reconciliation. In an interview, Sherrod said the White House's wishes were relayed by an...

WASHINGTON – The White House is contradicting the NASA administrator's claim that President Barack Obama assigned him to reach out to Muslims on science matters. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden recently told Al-Jazeera network that one of the charges Obama gave him was "to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science and engineering." Some conservative activists criticized the remarks. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Monday that such activities are not among Bolden's assigned tasks. He said administration officials have spoken with...

CNN fires ME editor over tweet 08/07/2010 Octavia Nasr mourns death of Shi'ite leader Fadlallah. NEW YORK — CNN has fired an editor responsible for Middle Eastern coverage after she posted a note on Twitter expressing admiration for a late Lebanese cleric considered an inspiration for Hizbullah. Octavia Nasr later apologized for her tweet, but CNN's senior vice president for international news gathering, Parisa Khosravi, said Wednesday that Nasr's credibility had been compromised. The Atlanta-based Nasr worked at CNN for 20 years, starting as an assignment editor on the international desk. Her job was mostly off the air, but she...

President Obama embarked on a what seemed to be an insane strategy last year. Shortly after passing the Stimulus, he had his minions on the Hill, Reid and Pelosi, launch full throttle into two of the most controversial legislative issues ever to face Congress. The House passed Cap-and-Trade climate change legislation in June of 2009. The Senate failed to take up the bill because of lack of support among many Midwest Democratic Senators. Undeterred, President Obama had Pelosi start the process of ramming Health Care Reform through the House. After much twisting of 'Blue Dog' Democrats arms, the House passed...

Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff, is expected to leave his job later this year after growing tired of the "idealism" of Barack Obama's inner circle.

*snip* This morning the President accepted my resignation as Commander of U.S. and NATO Coalition Forces in Afghanistan. I strongly support the President's strategy in Afghanistan and am deeply committed to our coalition forces, our partner nations, and the Afghan people. It was out of respect for this commitment — and a desire to see the mission succeed — that I tendered my resignation.

President Obama announced Wednesday that he has accepted Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan following a scathing article in which he and his aides were quoted criticizing the administration for its handling of the war. In doing so, Obama nominated Gen. David Petraeus, the head of U.S. Central Command and the former commanding general in Iraq, to replace him. The president stressed that while the decision was a difficult one, it does not represent a change in the course of the war. "This is a change in personnel, but it is not a change...

The war in Afghanistan is bigger than one general and is bigger than one President. It was not easy for President Obama to realize the general he personally picked did not leave up to the standards for leadership. It was not easy for him to appoint the hero from the evil Bush years that gave us the success in Iraq: General Petraeus. But Obama, The Commander-in-chief, made the right decision. Now the US President has to find the courage to recall the other member of the dysfunctional team: the US ambassador to Afghanistan Eikenberry, who is equally responsible for the...

BREAKING: Fox News is reporting that Helen Thomas has announced her retirement effective immediately from the Hearst Corporation, and as a member of the White House Press Corps. In the video above, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs today called anti-Jewish remarks by Helen Thomas “reprehensible”: “I think those remarks were offensive and reprehensible. I think she should and has apologized. Obviously those remarks do not reflect the opinion, certainly, I assume, of most of the people in here, and certainly not of the administration.”

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said today that journalist Helen Thomas' recent remarks about Israel were "offensive and reprehensible" and "certainly" do not reflect the views of the Obama administration.

The raft of boycotts being imposed on Arizona over its immigration law could up end hitting Hispanic workers as hard as anyone. Hispanics make up a huge chunk of the state's hospitality and service sector workforce -- and with city governments and organizations pulling the plug on travel and conventions in Arizona, state officials point out that Hispanic workers stand to lose. They say it makes little sense for officials protesting the Arizona law out of concern that it would subject Hispanic immigrants to racial profiling to register their dismay by targeting the tourism industry.

National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair to Resign, Fox News Confirms

In his latest White House Rose Garden PR plan, President Obama stressed how much the US was doing to help Mexico stop the inter-gang drug violence south of the border. Repeating the long-disproved notion that US-supplied guns are behind the Mexican drug cartel violence, Obama pledged new resources to solve a non-existent problem. (Note of Obama: Guns do not kill people – Too much Mexican hot sauce can kill, however) Obama wants us to ignore the fact the Communist Chinese made Norcico AK-47s were smuggled through Mexican ports as freely as a lukewarm Corona flows through the intestines of a...

The DUmmies are realizing what the Rev. Jeremiah Wright is now saying: Barry USED me like a five-dollar hooker and then threw me UNDER THE BUS! Read about it here, in this THREAD, "Ex-Obama pastor: 'Obama threw me under the bus.'" Of course, some of the Obamassiah True Believers think Jerry done Barry wrong by hurting him politically, but most of the DUmmies are ready to join Rev. Wright on the pavement. So let's all join the crowd under the chassis, where the comments are in Roadkill Red, while the commentary of your humble guest correspondent, Charles Henrickson, recalling...

On 60 Minutes earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton commented that the American economy is making it more difficult for her to do her job because other nations are telling her that “we always look to you because you have this great economy, and now you’re in the ditch.” Bill O’Reilly saw “a little jab” at the President in those comments, blaming the White House for her job troubles, but guest Dick Morris took that premise a bit further, suggesting the remarks, coupled with her silence on health care reform, were a deliberate attempt to undermine the President...

One of New York City’s most famous and influential Jews, former mayor Ed Koch, longtime Democrat — and longtime mayor (he governed New York for eleven years) — is showing distinct signs of buyer’s remorse. And anecdotal evidence gathered by him — and me in my sojourns around New York and New Jersey — suggest that Hiz Honor’s emotional trajectory is fairly representative of a growing disenchantment among Jews who voted for Obama. The “falling out of love,” the term Mayor Koch used in an August commentary where he began expressing doubts, has been gradual. First there was the handling...

He may be the world's foremost mixed-race leader, but when it came to the official government head count, President Barack Obama gave only one answer to the question about his ethnic background: African-American. The White House confirmed Friday that Obama did not check multiple boxes on his U.S. Census form, or choose the option that allows him to elaborate on his racial heritage. He ticked the box that says "Black, African Am., or Negro."