Category: The Dish

"I’m so glad they didn’t miss a lacrosse game over a little thing like gang rape," – Nancy Grace, CNN, courtesy of Howie Kurtz.

A reader writes:

Reading from this exerpt of Vonnegut’s man without a country, he ties in with many of the recent themes of your blog.  Like all true cynics (and the essential, unfortunatley subtle intellectual distinction between a cynic and a nihilist), is a love of something that, while riddled doubt and doubt’s realizations, burns more intensely than most ‘true believers.’  Cynics like Vonnegut have seen the true nature of frail human institutions, and hate the frailty but continue to love the institution.  Fundamentalists – of all stripes – decide to ignore the frailty, and as a result never  see the truth.  Vonnegut’s love for America seemed radical and very deep.  But he couldn’t help but temper that with doubt, and was unable to ignore the frailties.  That excerpt does what all great cynical writings do, build in the reader a sense of gloom but at the same time inspire a rage that motivates.  That glorious mix of exhilaration and depression.

A list of those who have said they will still appear on his show: Rudy Giuliani, Tom Friedman, John McCain, James Carville, Bill Maher, Mike Huckabee, Paul Begala, Tom Oliphant, Bob Schieffer, Evan Thomas, Jon Meacham. Interesting group, no? I’m waiting for Frank Rich’s column.

It’s classic Rove, as Josh Green explains here. Money quote:

The closest race of Rove’s career — the 1994 election for chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court in which Rove’s candidate actually trailed the morning after the election — hinged on the issue of voter fraud. As I discovered from Rove’s own staff while doing a profile of him in 2004, Rove himself pushed the voter fraud issue aggressively and ultimately won the race.

Of course Rove rigged the U.S. Attorneys system for partisan reasons. That’s his job, as far as Bush is concerned. And please don’t believe for a second that Bush isn’t up to his neck in this as well.

The security of the Green Zone:

The Christianist version. They blame Canada too:

I wish I’d taped the phone conversation I had today with the editor of the Sunday Times in London when I had to explain exactly what "nappy-headed hos" were. He had images of garden tools crowned with diapers.

An interesting defense. I think it’s legitimate to criticize both Imus and hip-hop, while recognizing that the color of the speaker does make an obvious difference in impact and intent, with respect to hate speech. When black culture deploys its own n-words about itself, it’s a form of self-abasement as well as self-defense. It’s sad and ugly, but it’s different than perpetuating contempt for minorities from a position of majority power and privilege. Neither is defensible, but one is less defensible than the other.

Where this breaks down, of course, is with respect to women. And the depravity of much of hip-hop culture on the part of men with respect to women is truly disgusting. It’s of a piece with rampant black homophobia. I don’t see why male, black hip-hop artists and producers and radio stations get a pass on women-hating and gay-bashing. Minorities should not get a pass on their own bigotry.

As for Sharpton, surely Imus hs a minor, but valid point. Sharpton deploys the vilest form of racist assumptions against whites in general, and gets away with it. He got away with it while accusing specific people of rape – people who turned out to be innocent. Again, since whites still enjoy vastly more cultural power than blacks, Sharpton’s bigotry is more defensible than Imus’s. But it’s still bigotry. (And, to give Sharpton his due, he has spoken out against the rhetorical depravity of much hip-hop.)

(Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty.)

Marc Ambinder takes issue with my own position on states’ rights, and Rudy’s.

A Picture taken 12 April 2007 in Paris, shows a defaced campaign poster of French right-wing UMP presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy . Official campaigning for France’s presidential election kicked off last 09 April, with rightwinger Nicolas Sarkozy and Socialist Segolene Royal narrowly leading the four main contenders. Written in black : "Remember May 2002, CIA, Sarko". By Joel Saget/AFP/Getty.