Fox news alerts concerned white people everywhere that there is a new common enemy (not apologizing) for their two minute hate. This time it is Rev. Wright Barack Obama Michelle Obama Eric Holder Van Jones Shirley Sherrod black farmers the new Black Panther Party Charlie Rangel Desirée Rogers Rev. Joseph Lowery AC-DC’s Back in Black Black Hole Sun The Man in Blackblack black BLACK BLACKITY BLACK BLACK! rapper Common:
Sarah Palin took issue with the White House inviting Grammy Award-winning rapper and actor Common, born Lonnie Rashin Lynn Jr., to a poetry event hosted by the first lady on Wednesday night.
During an appearance on Fox News’ “On the Record,” Palin said, “The White House’s judgment on inviting someone who would glorify cop killing during Police Memorial Week, of all times, you know, the judgment, it’s just so lacking of class and decency.”
The next part I simply find impossible to spoof:
In weighing in on the matter, Palin said despite her criticism she’s “not a proponent of stifling any kind of free speech.” She added, “I’m not anti-rap. In fact, like Bret Baier, I know the lyrics to ‘Rapper’s Delight,’ too.
The Sugarhill Gang, rap artist of choice for the wingnut set.
cleek
skiddlee beebop a we rock a scoobie doo
and guess what america we love you
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Cool, he has the same first name as me.
I owned DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince in college, but I knew enough not to claim that I listened to rap until I started listening to Ice-T and others.
ETA: Yes, I get excited when I see other people with my name. It doesn’t occur very often.
Dave
So Common talking about violence in a poem about how violence is a dead end=bad. But hey, lyrics promoting casual sex and cheating on your girlfriend are FINE. And, based on how Republicans act, seems to actually be the case.
Fred
Why quote snowbilly grifter Palin? Why not get a quote from someone more credible like Victoria Jackson or Chuck Norris.
Maude
Chris Wallace said on the radio this morning that he nad read up on this and yeah, the rapper had a very bad song and why is he at the WH (and did you know that the prez is black).
JonF
If this ends up with Vanilla Ice on FoxNews, then I might go to church on sunday to thank God personally.
Fred
Stefan
Damn right, Sarah, and if anyone understands the lack of class or decency, it’s you. Why couldn’t Obama have invited, for example, Kid Rock, a favorite of Republican politicians and the author of such patriotic, God-loving lyrics such as these, from his classic “Fuck You Blind”:
I’ll fuck u blind bitch
I’ll fuck u blind bitch
I’ll fuck u blind till you just can’t see no more
Back in school I knew this chick her name was Sara Bolerdies
and she thought she was the shit becuz she dated older guys
Dumb bitch fuckin whore always wanted to get laid
but never gave the pussy up to anybody in her grade
Played me like a sucker
like a bitch like a punk
that little pussy lickin finger fuckin ho ass cunt
Never once did she speak to anybody in her class
so one day I told her never let me get that ass
I’ll fuck u blind bitch
I’ll fuck u blind bitch
I’ll fuck u blind till you just can’t see no more
srv
NPR’s Marketplace shilling for underwriter Monsanto again.
Jay in Oregon
@Fred:
Better.
Montysano
The Palin word salad is just a bonus.
TooManyPaulWs
FOX News has no problem with Ted “Shoot all Libruls” Nugent and Johnny “I Shot a Man In Reno Just To Watch Him Die” Cash.
When I’m President, I’m getting Chuck D to write a new national anthem and force Sean Hannity to sing it every time he opens his show.
Fred
Failin didn’t even know Africa was a continent.
Nutella
If only they had invited someone who printed crosshairs on congressional districts, glorifying ligislator killing. Now THAT would have shown class and decency.
MikeBoyScout
That’s right Todd. Me and the Gang are calling u and your little worm OUT!
Joe Beese
I listen to Hannity on the car radio during my lunch break. Yesterday he played a clip of Russell Simmons claiming that he, Hannity, is more racist, homophobic, and “gangsta” than Snoop Dogg.
Sean seemed rather pleased at the idea of being considered “gangsta”.
taylormattd
That title is pure win.
Boots Day
I wonder if the right-wingers making a big deal out of this have actually heard or read the lyrics of the song in question. Common certainly does not exalt cop killers; rather, the song claims that the alleged cop-killer didn’t commit the crime. It’s like saying that Bob Dylan’s “Hurricane” glorifies thugs who shoot up bars in New Jersey.
I suspect that they haven’t bothered to find out what the song actually says. After all, everyone knows all those rappers are cop-hating, violent criminals.
MagicPanda
Speaking of Palin….
I haven’t heard anyone talk about it, but isn’t it true that Palin’s slide into media obscurity coincided with Dana Milbank’s Palin-free month? I mean… I’m sure it wasn’t the only reason, but I think the Palin-free month actually crystallized this notion among journalists that maybe they were feeding the freakshow and that they should back off.
Dana Milbank is a tool of the highest caliber, but I think he was at least partially responsible for doing some good here.
The Dangerman
@TooManyPaulWs:
I wonder if Sister Sarah knows the words to Ted’s “Little Miss Dangerous”, which, IIRC, is pretty damned close to glorifying pedophilia…
NonyNony
Let’s see – Sugarhill Gang was late 70s-early 80s. Palin would have been around 16 or so when the song was big.
Yup that fits the “If it was around when I was a teenager it’s good but anything after I turned 22 is just plain garbage” theme.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
Good grief. Common is almost wearyingly* “conscious” and positive. And wasn’t he on a McDonald’s or Coke commercial a while back? Christ, you don’t get much more All American than that.
*wearisomely, dummy.
Mnemosyne
I really think that one of the things that drives the right wing insane about Obama is that he consciously chose to be black and chose to join the African-American community. Since he’s half-white, he didn’t have to do that. He could have gone the Clarence Thomas or Harold Ford route by marrying a white woman and getting into politics that way.
Instead, he moved to Chicago specifically because the black community there is a strong political force (epitomized at the time by Mayor Harold Washington), married a black woman, and joined a black church.
They will never forgive him for making that choice.
JGabriel
Everytime I see a story like this, I’m reminded of Carmen 16, which begins:
Ah, the classics.
.
JGabriel
Modereratered. Please to be helping?
.
johnsmith1882
@Dave:
Exactly. On the spectrum of “gangsta”, Common comes in at 2 out of 10 glocks. The guy’s done PSA ads, for crying out loud. Palin and the right would get outraged if the Black Eyed Peas were invited to the White House. Let’s get it started in here? What, started? Socialism?!
ruemara
Fuck ’em. They use outrage to drag eyeballs over to their media. You spend time on them and all you get is worn out.
danimal
As I’ve seen elsewhere on the intertubes, this is not a new issue. After extensive Google-fu, I was able to identify a drug promoting singer who promotes assasinating law enforcement playing for a sitting president. The nation has been at risk for decades.
But at least the sitting president in this video isn’t black, and well, the performer, he did not shoot no deputy.
Amir_Khalid
@TooManyPaulWs:
Johnny Cash recorded a good number of songs about outlaws, and was known for leaning to the left. He recorded a pro-Native American album in the 1960s and his label Columbia Records wouldn’t promote it because it was too controversial. So I figure Republicans being gung-ho for him now is not unlike them fawning over Bruce Springsteen because they misread Born in The USA.
Mnemosyne
@TooManyPaulWs:
They don’t like Johnny Cash quite so much now that they actually listened to “Man in Black”:
cyntax
@TooManyPaulWs:
In terms of Cash, it’s because they fundamentally misunderstand the politics of a man who campaigned for prison reform. And don’t even let them know that his last few albums were recorded on the Def American label (who also recorded Slayer and Sir Mix-a-Lot among others).
NobodySpecial
You know who else celebrated cop killing?
Anyone who ever wrote about Robin Hood.
johnsmith1882
@TooManyPaulWs:
A Public Enemy remake of Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” would tear a hole in time and space.
fhtagn
That would be Sarah Palin who joined the Alaska Independence Party, whose founder Joe Vogler proclaimed to all corners of his ‘hood:
“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government”
“I won’t be buried under their damn flag. I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.”
“And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska.”
It makes for an interesting comparison, in my humble opinion.
Chyron HR
This is America. Speak English or get out.
Comrade Javamanphil
From the twitter tubes “‘Don’t retreat, Reload!’ -Sarah Palin SOUNDS LIKE THUG TALK TO ME” (From @TheNibaz)
reflectionephemeral
Facts don’t matter. They have no shame.
Here’s the best news I’ve read all day: “91.7% – Minorities Account for Nearly All U.S. Population Growth”
AB
@srv:
Oh, good grief, there’s a form letter. That explains this note I heard yesterday when I didn’t know the context:
marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/05/11/pm-letters/
Short version — I guess they’re not currently underwritten by Monsanto. Ironically, I was preparing organic vegetables at the time.
Tom
“The Sugarhill Gang, rap artist of choice for the wingnut set.”
At least she didn’t say she knows all the lyrics to the theme for “The French Prince of Bel Air.”
But, she had to come prepared with a rap artist she likes (via a google search of “inoffensive rap” I’m guessing) because you wouldn’t be able to reply “all of them” when asked “what rap artists do you like?”
fhtagn
That would be Sarah Palin who joined the Alaskan Independence Party, whose founder Joe Vogler proclaimed to all corners of his hood:
“The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government”
“I won’t be buried under their damn flag. I’ll be buried in Dawson. And when Alaska is an independent nation they can bring my bones home.”
“And then you get mad. And you say, the hell with them. And you renounce allegiance, and you pledge your efforts, your effects, your honor, your life to Alaska.”
It makes for an interesting comparison, in my humble opinion.
Mnemosyne
@Amir_Khalid:
@cyntax:
People who are publicly Christian would have a much better name in this country if they emulated Johnny Cash instead of Sarah Palin. But the Palin style of Christianity is so much easier — no loving your enemies, no giving to the poor, no visiting prisons, just making moral pronouncements and showing up at church every once in a while.
ruemara
@Comrade Javamanphil:
Heh, makes me want to log in. I love a good twitterstorm.
johnsmith1882
Agree with everyone regarding Cash. The right may like him, but he definitely wouldn’t like them.
Some
Have you ever went over a friend’s house to eat and the food just ain’t no good?
PurpleGirl
Re Johnny Cash: but, but, but he was a country singer. A country singer! Don’t need to listen to his lyrics. And he plays guitar really good.
/attempt at snark
Juicetard (FKA Liberty60)
@JGabriel:
Thank you, thank you, thank you….now I know what to write on the snowbilly grifter’s Facebook wall…
Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
heh indeedy.
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
I think for these loons the only musicians who should ever be invited to the White House are Lee Greenwood and Toby Keith.
jibeaux
Anyone remember the Chevy commercials playing CCR’s “Fortunate Son”, which cut off right after “some folks are born to wave the flag / oh, they’re red, white, & blue” and before “it ain’t me / it ain’t me”? Did I dream that?
Anyway, the more things change…
delphi_ote
HOW HAS NOBODY BROUGHT UP SCOOTER LIBBY’S BOOK?!
You know, the guy in the Bush administration who wrote the book about a bear raping a little girl in a cage? It’s obvious. These guys are such disgusting racist hypocrites.
Yevgraf (fka Michael)
“Wang dang sweet poontang”
jibeaux
@Juicetard (FKA Liberty60):
Per wikipedia:
Why was I not taught this in ninth grade? I would’ve stuck with the damn language! Sure, Spanish is more “useful” in most contexts, but an exact language for obscene acts is nothing to sneeze at.
Bulworth
What Obama should say:
“Yeah, I invited Common to the WH for some poetry slamming.
But who got Bin Laden?
Peace-out Bitchz”
dmsilev
I see that Palin is coming to terms with the fact that she’ll never be invited to dinner at the White House.
At least I *think* that large serving of word salad is a cry for help. Hard to be sure.
Old Dan and Little Ann
Rush idolizes Cash, but it’s more for their shared pain killer addictions.
Nemesis
@ruemara: Exactly the point.
WereBear
The hell of it is; her followers love this.
I figure they only think as well as she speaks.
Joe Beese
@Mnemosyne:
Well observed.
freelancer
The new Beastie album is sick, fyi.
What intemperate promoters of violence!
fhtagn
But I am saying just common decency in
the White HouseFox News —wouldn’t we like to see a reflection of all that is wonderful and great, ashining city on a hillreal news channel thatthe White HouseFox News is supposed to be, with events inside ofthat houseFox News that reflectthe patriotism and the decency and the influence of Americareality and honest reporting.”Oh Sarah, we all have dreams.
WereBear
@Some: Yes, the chicken tasted like wood.
Suffern ACE
@Chyron HR: The Capitol is on the hill. The Whitehouse sits on a filled in swamp down below. Damn founders. They could have put the house on 16th and Euclid, but I guess the Buchanan Memorial was sacrosanct.
Thomas
My mayor does an OK version of Rapper’s Delight:
Nutter Inaugural
It seems to be his go-to song.
rikyrah
that, and Marrying Michelle.
I really think a whole lot of folks can’t get past him marrying Michelle.
And, I think it’s part of why they don’t give his grandparents the respect they deserve in raising him..
because, IF they had raised him ‘ RIGHT’…
then, what’s he doing married to MICHELLE?
FormerSwingVoter
I… don’t get it.
They’re not even pretending to be motivated by anything other than pure racism anymore. “We are outraged that a black rapper was invited to the White House”. That’s it. That’s their argument. In its entirety.
I mean… really? Your life is worse because a black man is visiting the White House? That’s… that’s what your problem is? That’s what you’re going with?
MTiffany
Best! Title! Ever!
MochaDem
If I were first lady I would have a social secretary dedicated to finding reasons for Common to visit the White House. She would share an office with Idris Elba team. Priorities.
rikyrah
First of all, if he had gone the Clarence Thomas way, nobody would have heard of him, and he wouldn’t have been elected State Senator, let alone President.
Harold Ford, I will remind folks, didn’t bring Snowflake out of the basement until he had lost the election. And, I stand by my assertion that he will never hold elective political office again. Period.
it is, what it is, but where is Harold’s base.
Clarence Thomas, is considered by most of the Black community as an embarrassment, plain and simple. He’s a right-wing stooge, and has never garnered the respect of the general Black community, respect that even Condi Rice has, and nothing close to what Colin Powell has.
PeakVT
@srv: Marketplace isn’t produced by NPR. It says so right there at the top of the page you linked to.
Amir_Khalid
@jibeaux:
Was it Saul Zaentz, the Fantasy Records boss who screwed John Fogerty out of the rights to CCR’s song catalog, who sold that song for the commercial? Fogerty went on to write s song, Zanz Kant Danz, that depicted Zaentz as a thieving little pig.
Never saw that Chevy commercial here, of course, but the story reminds me of Microsoft using Start Me Up in ads for some version of Windows; they cut off the chorus just before the line “You make a grown man cry”.
fhtagn
@freelancer:
You know perfectly well that song is about Belichick drafting Ryan Mallett!
Comrade Javamanphil
@FormerSwingVoter: The entire goal is to remind the old white people that the guy in the White House is
BLACKnot like them and can we now please forget about that whole killing Medicare vote? Pretty please?WaterGirl
I’m almost afraid to say this because it may reflect badly on me, and certainly the nuns who taught me how to diagram a sentence may be very, very angry with me for saying it, but here goes:
That quote from SP comes closer to resembling a sentence that actually conveys meaning than anything I have ever seen from SP in the past.
Maude
@Amir_Khalid:
And when Bill Gates went to start Windows, it wouldn’t start. Should have left the grown man cry in there.
fuzed
O/T but this is classic:
wonkette.com/445799/will-killing-of-obi-wan-kenobi-encourage-more-terrorism
Bubblegum Tate
I wonder if they ever heard Common’s “Retrospect for Life.” ZOMG–blackity-black guy advocates NOT getting an abortion!
But if Obama really wanted to make wingnut heads explode, he’d have invited Brother J of X-Clan to the WH.
hilts
Sarah Palin is the poster child for trailer park trash. This babbling buffoon doesn’t know the first thing about class or decency.
She’s done more to lower the quality of political discourse than almost any other politician. She should do the nation a huge favor and just shut up and go back to counting her money.
Suffern ACE
@FormerSwingVoter: Well yes. You know, Congress is about to break for the summer. Which means our discourse is going to get very very stupid once again. The Right actually does quite well in the polls when they convince white voters that the president favors black people over all other people in the asssemblage of potential voters. Has too close of a relationship to the radical, bomb throwing types. If he doesn’t, well then those types will need to be invented.
He should have invited Oprah to this event. I don’t think Fox News would have dared gone there in any sustained fashion.
JordanRules
Thought’s I’d show some love to the guy because I think he’s a great artist. Here’s the one that put him on the map. It’s a great ode to the 2nd scariest thing in America behind a black POTUS:
youtube.com/watch?v=C99iG4HoO1c
Morbo
@Juicetard (FKA Liberty60): Hey, as long as you praise her in English you can say whatever you want on her Facebook in other languages.
daveNYC
I call bullshit, nobody knows all the words to ‘Rapper’s Delight’.
Maxwell James
Just call her Grandmaster Rogue.
Exurban Mom
@Chyron HR: For The Win!!!
Sad_Dem
So, how many poetry nights did Reagan have at the White House? I can guess about Bush II.
Martin
@rikyrah:
In case your point was missed.
hilts
OT
The next thing that will drive some people nuts:
Obama SEAL doll marks bin Laden killing
Company’s action figure features muscular president with assault rifle
h/t msnbc.msn.com/id/42996803/ns/business-small_business
David
What’s next? Elvis Presley moving rhythmically on television?
ChrisS
Another day and another week …
God forbid that they on Fox, or anyone in the Beltway Punditocracy spare some time for where we’re going to get another %50 increase in our energy production in the next 20 years as oil slips higher and higher as population and demand rise.
This shit is a trait of RWNJs, take any set of facts and lay them out and they will come up with a way to turn against them by invoking some philosophical bullshit or half-assed inference.
“A new healthcare system may reign in spending, but that’s not Obama wants to do it for, I can tell, he wants to control us through government, just like any good little nazi, I mean, liberal.”
Rinse. Repeat.
trollhattan
@Sad_Dem:
Are you kidding? Dubya was famous for his pretzel-and-things-that-rhyme-with-Nantucket nights. They generally ended with Ashcroft singing his latest song.
NobodySpecial
@hilts: Comments there are priceless.
ChrisS
@hilts:
God forbid.
Surreal American
I guess that means Grandmaster Flash is too hard core for La Palin.
arguingwithsignposts
@johnsmith1882:
Fixored
Surreal American
I like Will Smith. He raps happy.
lacp
Word Salad? Or Wingnut Tourette’s?
Professor
I understand that FOX News was appreciative of the rapper Common, about six month ago, for being a ‘conscious’ rapper
Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)
@Surreal American: Yo, homes! Smell ya later!
Suffern ACE
@daveNYC: I don’t even get the “hip hop hippity hop” part correct.
Stefan
I really think that one of the things that drives the right wing insane about Obama is that he consciously chose to be black and chose to join the African-American community. Since he’s half-white, he didn’t have to do that. He could have gone the Clarence Thomas or Harold Ford route by marrying a white woman and getting into politics that way.
Very good point, and I think Obama’s choice of Chicago as a base — or of public service in general — hasn’t really gotten the attention it deserves as an illustration of his canny strategery.
For example, Obama could have moved to NY, but the black political community there isn’t what it is in Chicago, and is growing weaker by the day as it’s getting displaced by other minorities. Or he could have moved to NY and gone for the money, in which case he would today be a millionaire senior partner at a law firm, or an MD at an investment bank or consulting firm such as Goldman or Bain.
Alternatively, he could have moved back to Hawaii, where he would have had the native son advantage and local base that he didn’t have in Chicago, and potentially, but not inevitably, wound up as Governor or Senator from Hawaii — but in that case he would have had to have identified as “mixed race” rather than black to fit into Hawaii’s more multi-culti scene.
Suffern ACE
@Professor: Just like they thought that Daisy Kahn and her husband had a good idea to build something or other near the World Trade Center site.
They turn on you so quickly. One would think they aren’t really your friends…
The Populist
I work and own a business in the entertainment business. I once worked for a company that distributed Common’s albums (in my younger years) and he’s always been a guy preaching positivity and the value of educating yourself.
I’ve hung out with the guy and he’s the real deal, a very nice, very intelligent man who not only is talented writing rap tunes but a good actor too. I am surprised Hollywood hasn’t been able to find something for this guy that lets his talents shine.
This smear cracks me up because Common has ALWAYS been held up as a beacon of what hip hop CAN be. He doesn’t talk trash, he doesn’t rap about committing crimes or taking the easy way out by shooting people. He talks about ways to pick oneself up and prosper. God I hate the GOP. They even have held this guy up as a beacon of positivity at one time.
Idiots all of them.
fordpowers
My favorite beastie boy line ever:
and the level of stupid out of Sarah Palin actually hurts.
arguingwithsignposts
If Obama really wanted to make wingnut heads explode, he would have invited Rage Against the Machine.
The Populist
@Professor:
Yes, they did. If you can catch an interview with this guy, seriously, he speaks with intelligence, he’s charming and he’s a really good and REAL gentleman.
God, I guess it’s do whatever is possible to make Obama out to be trash. So basically, Ted Nugent = great but Common = thug.
Can somebody ask GHW Bush why Easy E, the man whose groups wrote songs like Fuck the Police and Gangsta Gangsta (which talked about street gang life in a way that glamorizes it to some extent) was a registered republican and showed up to a white house event (he was invited!).
LOL, whatever. Clowns, all of them.
The Populist
@arguingwithsignposts:
LOL, yet Tom Morello is one of the few people in the music biz who talks it like he walks it. The guy gives time and money to many worthy causes.
harokin
I know the lyrics to “Rapture.” Do I win anything?
Josh R
Sarah’s got more whines than Jamaica’s got mangos.
hilts
@arguingwithsignposts:
If Obama really wanted to make wingnut heads explode, he would have invited Chumbawamba.
cyntax
@Mnemosyne:
Well said.
But that would involve cleaving to all that “what you do to the least of these” stuff that those types of “Christians” aren’t that keen about.
If they were Buddhists, they’d be unclear about the importance of compassion in their doctrine.
The Populist
@hilts:
How about Ice Cube. One minute, he’s a bad boy rapper talking about street life and the next he’s playing cuddly father in kid’s films.
LOL…it’s all an act. No different than a Chuck Norris bloodbath film or Ted Nugent’s bullshit.
I did catch the Apprentice recently and I used to think Lil’ Jon was another crazy rapper dude with zero clue. God, he’s another guy who’ sharp as a tack. Most rap dudes are smarter than average people give them credit for. My one problem is that many go for the lowest common denominator and kids emulate it.
The Populist
@cyntax:
Johnny Cash! Yes!! Even Merle Haggard would work.
Willie Nelson is also a very interesting man who makes a lot of sense on many issues.
Malron aka eclecticbrotha
And lets not forget that flaming communist Eric Clapton, who sang:
I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.
I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.
All around in my home town
They’re trying to track me down.
They say they want to bring me in guilty
For the killing of a deputy,
For the life of a deputy.
But I say:
I shot the sheriff, but I swear it was in self-defense.
I shot the sheriff, and they say it is a capital offense.
Sheriff john brown always hated me;
For what I don’t know.
Every time that I plant a seed
He said, kill it before it grows.
He said, kill it before it grows.
I say:
I shot the sheriff, but I swear it was in self-defense.
I shot the sheriff, but I swear it was in self-defense.
Freedom came my way one day
And I started out of town.
All of a sudden I see sheriff john brown
Aiming to shoot me down.
So I shot, I shot him down.
I say:
I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.
I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy.
Reflexes got the better of me
And what is to be must be.
Every day the bucket goes to the well,
But one day the bottom will drop out,
Yes, one day the bottom will drop out.
But I say:
I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy, oh no.
I shot the sheriff, but I did not shoot the deputy, oh no.
But, since the song was originally written by some weed smokin’ darkie furriner I guess it doesn’t count.
The Populist
@trollhattan:
As long as I don’t have to hear that overrated hack Lee Greenwod. Eh…crap. Just because one can write a patriotic sounding song doesn’t mean we all need to love this person like he’s a god or something.
It’s the same when the Bushies would talk up Toby Keith’s craptastic music. If the world was fair, the Dixie Chicks would still outsell a tard like Toby Keith.
khead
@NonyNony:
That Was Yesterday
The Populist
@Malron aka eclecticbrotha:
Wasn’t that a Bob Marley song though? Talk about somebody I’d rather have kids listen to than the crap the right seems to try to pass off as “good.” Bob Marley spoke the truth. Idiots like Lee Greenwood and Ted Nugent just suck.
Suffern ACE
@hilts: Oh as if they’d even bother to read the lyrics and give two hoots about poetry night if ‘I get knocked down but I get up again’ was the theme. They could invite cocaine user Bruno Mars, I’m guessing, but not a Black Bruno Mars…throwing grenades…being lazy all day…refusing to call out his girlfriend on the few pounds she should loose to keep him…spooky lyrics are those.
Chumbawamba lyrics would be parsed to the same extent Aimee Mann’s have been in this sorid affair.
The Populist
Ever notice how many right wingers LOVE Bob Dylan? I’ve never quite understood the love they give him. I have a friend who runs a business, he’s as right wing as they get, and he LOVES Dylan. Plays the songs every chance he gets. I hear it and ask him why he loves Dylan so much and the response is always, love the stories. My guess is he was a young man who maybe had liberal tendencies and then, like many of his generation, fell in love with making tons of money and buying into GOP concepts.
I guess rightie love of Dylan is no different than far right wing Christians who preach the gospel yet do not live anywhere NEAR the lifestyle Jesus said they should.
cyntax
@The Populist:
Willie’s awesome. Quite the song writer too.
Gotta wonder about that sheriff who busted him for pot in Texas, that doesn’t seem like the kind of collar you get a lot of kudos for.
The Populist
@cyntax:
Yep, agreed. Didn’t Bush II invite Limbaugh to the white house a bunch of times? So that is okay but Common = bad.
Wow.
Southern Beale
The Daily Show clip pretty much revealed the whole hypocrisy of this fauxtrage. Of course with Palin on board the Villagers will all be clutching their pearls and overlooking facts and everything else. But really this is just another manufactured controversy designed to distract Americans from the fact that Republicans want to kill Medicare and Social Security and unions and all that and it’s best ignored, or if it can’t be ignored, it must be MOCKED, loudly, often, with much pointing of fingers and snorting laughter. And anyone in the Village, any of the serious people who try to make this into something, also must be MOCKED, loudly and often, while the grownups (Obama, Reid, Pelosi, etc. etc.) tell these people to STFU we have REAL problems to worry about, not the phony ones they keep dredging up.
There.
The Populist
Okay NOW I know why the GOP noise machine is going after the President and his “radical” invitees to the white house:
The GOP are now floating their new deficit reduction bill – From the NYT:
While the net reduction in spending is $30 billion, the impact on many domestic programs would be much more pronounced because the Pentagon received a $17 billion increase in its budget. Committee officials said spending that was not related to security would decrease by about $46 billion. The overall proposal is $121.5 billion less than what President Obama sought in his original budget this year. Labor, health and education programs, a priority of the president and Congressional Democrats, would be cut by $18.2 billion, coming in at $41 billion less than the amount recommended by the White House.
Representative Norm Dicks of Washington State, the top Democrat on the spending panel, assailed the Republican proposal as irresponsible, saying it would necessitate “draconian” cuts to college aid, early childhood education, food safety, law enforcement, public health and national infrastructure.
“It’s clear from what we’re seeing in the economy that if these cuts were enacted, they would lead to a severe setback for economic growth by shedding more government jobs and further depressing state and local government spending,” Mr. Dicks said.
The Populist
@Southern Beale:
Yep, just saw the article (and posted a segment of it) where the GOP are floating their new deficit reduction plans. Argh.
The Populist
@Southern Beale:
Also judging from the tepid response this is getting, maybe most people just want the GOP and Obama to keep working on the jobs issue. Maybe some of us are growing up.
hilts
OT
The GOP’s New Constitutional Amendment: Give States Veto Power Over Federal Laws
h/t tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/05/the-gops-new-constitutional-amendment-give-states-veto-power-ove…
srv
@PeakVT: I stand corrected, it was distributed by PRI, not NPR, but isn’t anymore.
Nutella
@The Populist:
It’s almost like it doesn’t matter to Palin and her ilk what Common does or what he says or what the content of his character is. Must be something else they’re judging him on.
ChrisS
@The Populist:
My winger buddy loves him some Bruce Springsteen. Despite the fact that, oh, let’s say every song is an attack on the powers that be. I think he loved the superficial patriot-angle to Born in the USA (which came out during our formative years) and hasn’t been able to figure out how to walk back from it since Bruce isn’t exactly on board with the right wing.
Mostly, IMO, all of these upper middle class white guys so tenaciously self-identify with tougher-than-nails working poor heroes that they think that Springsteen and Dylan are singing about them.
Suffern ACE
@The Populist: What on earth could the Pentagon possibly need $17 billion more for?
The Populist
@hilts:
God…why do we need a federal government at all then? Shit these people make no sense.
Roger Moore
@hilts:
Because if there’s one problem we have with our government, it’s that it’s too easy to get anything done.
cyntax
@Suffern ACE:
High-ballistic toilet seat lids?
hilts
@The Populist:
Speaking of Bob Dylan, he is cited more often than any other songwriter in legal opinions and briefs
“Last year, Justice Antonin Scalia brought up Dylan when he scolded his high court colleagues for declining to rule yet on the evolving question of when employees have an expectation of privacy in using company email, arguing that ” ‘The times they are a-changin” is a feeble excuse for disregard of duty.””
h/t latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bob-dylan-law-20110509,0,7507838.story
The Populist
@Nutella:
Hmmm, oh maybe the color of his skin. Argh. I wish it wasn’t true but it does seem to look that way.
ChrisS
@Suffern ACE:
Didn’t they lose a helicopter during the OBL raid? Pakistan got the parts, so know it’s back to the drawing boards to come up with a new super-secret helicopter.
Jesus, didn’t every 7th grade government class teach the basics about guns and butter?
Make the wealthy wealthier and spend everything else on keeping them wealthy to the detriment of the 95% of Americans. God bless these dolts.
MattR
@hilts: It is not surprising that I see things a bit differently. My suggestion is to repeal the 10th ammendment.
The Populist
@ChrisS:
Good point. Springsteen is another guy that my rightie friends love. The Beatles too.
Problem for my friends is that they can sugarcoat it (one friend was listening to an Xm Radio station that played a Dylan song, the DJ mentioned the fact Dylan wrote it for labor rights, etc and my friend rolled his eyes and said that the song was more subjective and was not about that at all — whatever).
They love the storytelling, they love the fact Dylan and Springsteen DO sing about America and working folks. They want to hear what they want to hear I guess.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@lacp:
Word Salad with e-coli on the lettuce.
The Populist
@ChrisS:
A lot of them are smart guys. Problem is they get so blinded by greed that they lose sight of what these policies and all this spending is doing to America as a whole. One day NOBODY will be able to afford their products if we keep heading in the direction that the Koch Bros want for all of us. How will that work out for them?
Roger Moore
@MattR:
Can we do away with the 11th while we’re at it? I wouldn’t mind repealing the 2nd, either, though that one’s obviously a fantasy.
Nutella
@Suffern ACE:
There are still some Muslim countries we haven’t invaded yet. Onward!
Tim O
That Sugar Hill Gang are so well spoken! I think Sinbad is awesome too!
johnsmith1882
@arguingwithsignposts:
Yeah, that’s what I meant by that, the good kind of tear in the fabric of space/time, like, it would be so fantastic, beings from other dimensions would have to listen in. I’m a big, big fan of both Woody and Public Enemy. Both spoke truth to power, and both, to me, represent the absolute pinnacle of their respective genres. Here’s another one: Pretty Boy Floyd with beats and samples courtesy of Terminator X and the Bomb Squad.
ChrisS
@Nutella:
$17B just gets you party invitations. We needed to vastly upgrade the energy infrastructure in the US. Nobody could figure out where we would get the trillion or so it would cost. Bush decided that we’d be better off spending a trillion or two on killing people in foreign lands and making rich people richer.
Shoemaker-Levy 9
Somebody please explain to me why rap is awful, whereas country music, every song of which is about drinking heavily and fucking your wife’s sister, is okay.
On second thought, no explanation needed. Carry on.
Tone in DC
@Suffern ACE:
They could have put it in downtown Silver Spring, at Georgia and Thayer!
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@JonF: @arguingwithsignposts:
ladies and gentlemen, mr. mojo nixon
this land is your land now with mojo world
sherifffruitfly
HAHAHAHAAHAH!
Brachiator
@Shoemaker-Levy 9:
Because in country music, you cry about it, maybe feel a little bit guilty, while rap would celebrate it. Mind you, in a country music song, you don’t actually stop drinking or fucking your wife’s sister, but hey, a little whiny misery apparently makes all the difference in the world.
Aneurysm
I love your quote of the Beastie Boys lyric.
Gravenstone
@The Dangerman:
I always preferred Jailbait off Intensities in Ten Cities for that purpose.
“Don’t put thos handcuffs on me, officer. Don’t put ’em on me. Put ’em on her, and I’ll share her with ya.”
David
JGabriel:
Thank you for this reference. Brilliant!
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Gravenstone:
showing the growth of ted nugent as an artist, who can forget damn yankees paeon, “coming of age”
Little sister hits the stage
She can’t help it
she’s coming of age
Little junior, he’s
all in a rage
Did you notice
she was comin’ of age?
If looks could kill
I’d be dead on the floor
You got me all tied up
honey, beggin’ for more
cmorenc
@Brachiator:
It also helps a large segment of the population to see one as singing truths about the normal temptations and hardships of regular life and the other as offensively sociopathic dysfunctional crap that one is performed mainly by white people and the other is performed mainly by black folks.
I have to admit that I don’t care at all for hip-hop or rap on simple aesthetic grounds; it’s like a bad marriage between street poetry and disco, and that doesn’t help with hearing “normal temptations and hardships of regular life” in the words instead of “sociopathic dysfunctional crap”. Compare and contrast the blues, which contains many of the same lyrical elements, but set to and accompanied by infinitely more pleasing musical elements. By similar token, purportedly “country” music that strays too far from its musical roots over into pop turns nauseating.
ThresherK
And here I thought the most embarrassing rapping granny was in “The Wedding Singer”
@The Populist: Maybe your friends need a dose of Bob Roberts, a folksinger they can agree with. Don’t tell them it’s a mockumentary; they may just swallow it wholesale.
Gravenstone
@hilts: Conveniently ignored in their fantasy world, what happens should such an amendment go through and a Republican administration/Congress is in power? Betchabygawd that little amendment would cause a bit of heartburn then.
Surly Duff
Fuck Common. We need to focus on the true threat facing our youth – Elvis Presley and his gyrating hips. That man’s shaking pelvis is the cause for the high teenage pregnancy rate, and ultimately the reason that little Palin couldn’t keep her knickers on.
Sputnik
I wonder if Sarah also gets Jiggy wit’ it?
Brachiator
@cmorenc:
An additional irony is that the audience for both rap and country includes a lot of white people. But for the stern hypocritical moralists, perception beats reality every time.
I really can’t take this stuff seriously, but I also find it amusing that it’s OK for country music to celebrate “outlaws” while rap is accused of celebrating criminals.
Don’t particularly agree or disagree, but this is an interesting comparison. Either way, it may be that rap has largely seized the mantle once held by rock music. I recall catching the tale end of a Grammy broadcast, which showed a performance by an all star collection of rappers and everyone in the audience, including Taylor Swift, was rocking out with the rappers.
The Populist
@Brachiator: Rap is the new rock. Look at all the rappers who want to work with old rockers!
Joel
Terrorize the jam like troops in Pakistan…
SFAW
Quitta from Wasilla would be “down” (as the hipsters say) with the sweet, lilting voice of Nina Gordon:
youtube.com/watch?v=NG2EGOB9-lc
Or perhaps, in a nod to all her Asian-American friends, she’d prefer the HNIC invite the Wu. After all, anyone with 36 Chambers (of) Music must be a latter-day Yo Ma-Ma.
urbanmeemaw
@Amir_Khalid: Johnny Cash opposed the Vietnam War.
Mr Stagger Lee
@MochaDem: Speaking if Idris Elba (Stringer Bell forever!) He is himself is involved in a controversy, playing a Norse God that has made aryans bat-sh*t insane, in the movie Thor)
I enjoyed Common in the movie, Smokin Aces, I bet Sarah would have loved that small Black Hit-Lady with the .50 cal rifle who was blasting the place.
Lawnguylander
@cmorenc:
I’m not going to tell you to like rap or hip-hop but how can people make generalizations like this about a type of music they clearly know nothing about and not feel embarrassed by having done so? I don’t enjoy listening to the blues but that’s a reason for me to stay quiet on the subject because I know as much about it as you know about hip-hop, which is to say, next to nothing. A “marriage between street poetry and disco?” That’s just ignorant. What % of hip-hop songs sample disco songs? What makes rap lyrics necessarily “street poetry?”
SFAW
I thought I heard somewhere that Fitty’s new release is going to be a tribute to the BeeGees. Oh, and the reason Biggie got aced was that he was about to start his pet project – a duet album with Donna Summer – and Tupac’s pals hated him even more for that. But outside of that, I guess you’re right.
El Conquistador
Best title and opening paragraph I have ever read.
Ever.Ever.Ever.
El Conquistador
Best title and opening paragraph I have ever read.
Ever.Ever.Ever.
Xenos
@The Populist:
And they disregard the rest.
rumpole
I read that title with water in my mouth, and now have to clean the monitor. Brilliant.
SFAW
“Lie-lie-lie
Lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie”
Repeat and fade …
You were quoting “The Fox-urgh”, right?
niknik
The President is NEAR!
Larry
@toomanypaulws
Well, you wonder why I always dress in black,
Why you never see bright colors on my back,
And why does my appearance seem to have a somber tone.
Well, there’s a reason for the things that I have on.
I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down,
Livin’ in the hopeless, hungry side of town,
I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime,
But is there because he’s a victim of the times.
I wear the black for those who never read,
Or listened to the words that Jesus said,
About the road to happiness through love and charity,
Why, you’d think He’s talking straight to you and me.
Well, we’re doin’ mighty fine, I do suppose,
In our streak of lightnin’ cars and fancy clothes,
But just so we’re reminded of the ones who are held back,
Up front there ought ‘a be a Man In Black.
I wear it for the sick and lonely old,
For the reckless ones whose bad trip left them cold,
I wear the black in mournin’ for the lives that could have been,
Each week we lose a hundred fine young men.
And, I wear it for the thousands who have died,
Believen’ that the Lord was on their side,
I wear it for another hundred thousand who have died,
Believen’ that we all were on their side.
Well, there’s things that never will be right I know,
And things need changin’ everywhere you go,
But ’til we start to make a move to make a few things right,
You’ll never see me wear a suit of white.
Ah, I’d love to wear a rainbow every day,
And tell the world that everything’s OK,
But I’ll try to carry off a little darkness on my back,
‘Till things are brighter, I’m the Man In Black.