a letter to don imus & msnbc re: the 'nappy-headed hos' incident

------ sent April 10, 2007 -----

Okay, let's please put all this into perspective:

I've been watching clips of Imus really for only a few months now - just what I get linked from various blogs I read - and the nature of his program is obvious. It's off-the-cuff, funny and loose. I saw the clip that has everybody in a tiff and I just wanted to contact MSNBC and hopefully Don Imus himself to be a voice of support.

Without a doubt it was a stupid thing to say. I'm sure he's recognizing that now, but his apology was obviously heartfelt and sincere and it's time people get over it.

Michelle Malkin and Ann Coulter make worse comments on a daily basis and never apologize for anything. In fact, Malkin wrote a book denying that the Japanese internment camps ever existed and Ann Coulter called John Edwards a faggot - neither one apologizing - and yet news outlets throughout the country give these two hateful 'commentators' a platform and soapbox to preach their individual messages of hate and vitriole.

Imus made a silly, stupid remark and now people are calling for his head when they need to recognize the real enemy here - and Don Imus is NOT the enemy.

Thanks for your time,

< my actual signature - which you'll never see here >

this time (a song)

purple ribbons, gold-leafed paper
wrapped around your swollen lies.
shadows of the truth just out of view.

startled fading fancy whys
glitter into life then dies.
woven through my days
for days & days.

stolen shards of wispy cares
dance beneath this ratty hair.
years they pass
& glimmers fade backstage.

hold me underneath.
i lose my breath, swallow sleaze.
your cold hands close my reaching eyes.


but all things will end in time.
next time will be this time.
all things will end in time.
next time will be this time.


phony whoas & bullshit sighs
fill your mouth & no one buys
your bad act
doesn't fool no one.

fool's gold & promises
senses that make no sense
shot down like swatted flies
this time.

how could i have been so blind?
so dull and broken, thought i shined?
how could i have been so played
last time?


but all things will end in time.
next time will be this time.
all things will end in time.
this time will be last time.
next time will be this time.

the swan song of karl rove-itics

so i had just finished watching the final video podcast of marcy wheeler and jane hamsher's coverage of the libby trial at firedoglake and was discussing the travesty that is media and politics in america today with my anonymous friend at my anonymous workplace when something very light and fluffy dawned on me: we are watching what i believe to be the end - yes, i said it - the end of karl rove-itics.

if you haven't seen frontline's story about karl rove called the architect , then please run - don't walk! it's an enlightening, albeit disturbing, story of how rove's particular political tactics had reached (at the time of the airing of this piece) success, due to and in fact because of it's use of dirty tricks and ideological polarization. not because rove himself believed his dirty tricks were for the greater good, nor for any actual personal belief in the ideology he pretended to espouse, but simply because he believed they would win elections. and win elections, they did. until november of last year that is, at which point they lost big time.

so now we're at a very interesting impasse: scooter libby has just been convicted (despite what fox noise says), ann coulter won herself another 15 minutes and ms clinton and mr obama are supposedly at each other's throats. so what does that mean? business as usual?

i don't think so.

i think the people have found a way to circumvent the horrendously sensational MSM here in the US of A, and that path is called (and of course, i'm far from the first person to say this) the blogosphere. people who want the answers finally have the means to get them and the resources that allowed marcy wheeler and jane hamsher to cover, without sound bites or commercials, the scooter libby trial in such a powerful way is more important to the future of politics and media in america than anybody may now see.

but history always speaks for itself. politics in this country have been on a roller-coaster ride since john hancock slapped his ... uh ... name on that declaration over two centuries ago, but for the past six years we've been in a down-slump that has made the entire world a more dangerous place to live.

this administration, led by the brilliant but misguided karl rove, has done exactly what he wanted it to do: won a couple of very important elections and succeeded in polarizing the entire political and media scene. but this polarization spread throughout the world like a forest fire and now we live in a world where one bombing a day is not bad!

at any rate, the signs are all around us: rove-itics are dead! now let's get to some really meaningful political dialogue and ignore the MSM until they start doing some actual reporting.

=SoS