FOUR IS A MAGIC NUMBER, BUT SO IS FIVE

"...forget racism, what strikes me about our media elite [is] how profoundly stupid they are."
- Atrios, 4/13/07


Meant to weigh in on the Don Imus dust-up. Y'all hear this shit? Rich, powerful, unexceptional white guy-- crony of other rich, powerful, unexceptional white guys-- gets booted out of a job for talking like a cracker. And he's not even politically conservative? Bro got famous with booze and coke streaming out his nose!

Jesus, the way Frank Rich tells it, it's almost worth telling. Free speech under fire! In a slow post-holiday week, too. Rich Boy, learning from David Brooks, makes a show of admitting his own hypocrisy in order to distract from his other hypocrisies. But c'mon now, scribes and Pharisees: First off, I don't care whether Imus stays on the air or not, but what he said was uniquely fucked. Second, Imus has been airing significantly more hateful thoughts about people of (sorry!) much greater importance for years now, getting his rocks off with the fraternity and poisoning your discourse. Third, Imus's firing shouldn't have a chilling effect on free speech because Don Imus is uniquely, profoundly stupid.

Oh I know we're all actually sitting around in our parlors calling various women "nappy headed hoes." Wait, no, we're NOT. It isn't as if this phrase is something "everybody thinks" but most ppl are too politically correct to say. It's not even the kind of language a traditional bigot like South Park "n----- guys" Mark Furman or Michael Richards might find accidentally running out of their mouths. It's totally weird. About anyone. How did these words even get in a man like Imus's brain? The Rutgers basketball team's blamelessness helped them win over the media, but that isn't why the insult was so disturbing. Guy even looked all smirky and proud of himself as he was warming up to deliver his new phrase (vid).


Only reason I come around is for the double-dutch.
Lil Mama: Lip Gloss

Back in the reality-based community, this is how the "Gang of 500" who run our national political discourse like to talk about everyone all the time. Especially women, but especially Democrats. Over at The Daily Howler, Bob Somerby remembers Imus "always" calling Hillary Clinton-- i.e., the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination-- "Satan" ("Satan"!) and dubbing Al Gore-- i.e., the man who was right all along about the two biggest issues of our time, Iraq and global warming-- simply "the most evil man on the planet." A more dysfunctional press corps could hardly be imagined. If a major political commentator were to use either phrase to describe John McCain or Rudy Giuliani-- or, more revealingly, Jack Welch-- do you think frequent Imus guests like Tim Russert, Jeff Greenfield, and Chris Matthews would still show up on that honky's show? Yet they kept hanging with Mr. Imus, at least until all us meddling non-millionaires had to go and get our race/gender panties in bunches.

Fact is, these and other figures of the Washington Establishment share the same hateful views, which aren't far removed from batshit Ann Coulterism. Our pundits would rather be Howard Stern than Walter Cronkite; "liberal bias" is an outmoded and rarely applicable term these days not because of FOX, but because of a deep-seated animus among the likes of the Washington Post, New York Times, and NBC toward all signs of intelligent life-- particularly from anybody linked to icky slicky Blowjob Bill. Bummer everyone who actually wants a career writing about this stuff is too desperate to work for those pubs to expose their prospective employers' journalistic malfeasance, huh?


"My daddy mentions me in his New York Times columns."
Rich Boy: Boy Looka Here

So you may not know that prominent Iraq war critic and former Democratic aide Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball, has called Hillary Clinton "witchy," a "stripteaser", and, to him perhaps worst of all, "ambitious", even falsely claiming hubby Bill has called her an "uppity woman." You may not know Matthews' long history of unprofessional petulance toward Gore: calling the former veep Bill Clinton's "bath tub ring", or a man who "doesn't look like one of us... he doesn't seem very American, even", or someone who would "lick the bathroom floor" to be President and wears troubling, troubling suits ("My joke is, “I'm Albert, I'll—I'll be your waiter tonight'").

You also may not know that, beginning in 1997, ostensibly liberal New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd for years wrote columns from the point of view of Gore's "bald spot"-- including a pre-election column on Nov. 5, 2000 called "I Feel Pretty." Now she complains a lot about Bush and interviews billionaires who accuse Hillary Clinton of being "ambitious." Aww.

Further, you may not know that Dowd wrote about seriously substantial issues like health care and Al Qaeda during the all-important summer of 1999, when the stage was getting set for the 2000 election. Wait:

July 28: Dowd described her recent lazer eye surgery.
August 1: Dowd reviewed the movie "Runaway Bride."
August 4: Dowd discussed a Talk magazine piece about the Clintons' marriage.
August 8: She interviewed Bob Dole on the prospect of being "first gentleman."
August 11: She compared the Talk magazine piece about the Clintons with an auction of Marilyn Monroe memorabilia.
August 15: Will Warren Beatty run for president?
August 18: Bush and the question of youthful drug use
August 22: Bush and the question of youthful drug use
August 25: Dowd reviewed a Showtime movie about Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas.
August 29: She ruminated on the life story of John McCain. "Never have so many men wanted to run," she mused, "to prove they are worthy to larger-than-life dads."
September 1: "I ran into Kato Kaelin the other night," she wrote—at the start of a piece about Monica Lewinsky's fashion business.
September 5: Dowd penned a review of the Paris, the new Las Vegas casino-hotel.


Airplane food was on the plane, airplane coffee too.
Karin Strom: Klaustrofobi
(plus great remixes over at Discobelle)

You may not even know that Frank Rich himself, the former theater critic who so skillfully bobbed and weaved on the Imus issue this weekend-- the devilish wag who makes you so happy in his Bush-bashing Sunday missives-- is the same dude who in 2000 called Gore "about as different from [Bush] as J. Crew and Banana Republic" under the headline "Survival of the Fakest", who mocked Gore's focus on actual policy ("Dingell-Norwood, anyone?") and pronounced the then-veep "the truly stupid one"; Rich is the shameless schmuck who even recently, in a column admitting An Inconvenient Truth is right, found it far more notable (troubling!) (phony!) that the film includes multicultural audiences, people who laugh at Al Gore's jokes, and the fact Al Gore once owned a gun. Did you know Rich helped make up the falsehood that Gore falsely claimed he and Tipper were an inspiration for the film Love Story, even though the story's author said the Gores really *were* an inspiration? Rich probably still thinks Al Gore said he invented the Internet. "Frankly, that's Rich."

Always focused on the big issues, today Rich Boy is miiighty concerned over Imus's canning. "If we really want to have this conversation" about the ugliness of the disgraced jock's words, Rich muses, "it also means we have to have a nonposturing talk about hip-hop lyrics, Borat, South Park and maybe Larry David." The fuck? I'm all in favor of Rich, Imus, Coulter, or any other moron having freedom of speech-- in the privacy of their homes, or on sidewalks and subway platforms (wild-eyed and spittle-flecked, haranguing passers-by)-- but the biggest difference between Imus's brand of humor and the stuff Rich mentions, aside from the fairly huge distinction between first-person speech and character-driven art, is that Imus's joke wasn't funny. At all. Who could defend it? As Different Kitchen notes, conservatives too are blaming the Imus brouhaha on rap. Do you think this man listens to rap? Does Michelle Malkin?



My dad models SN3 not HO scale but pretty close.
Tokyo Police Club: Cheer It On
(Ryan Dombal's take at Blender)

Borat looks at the world from the perspective of a casually offensive outsider in order to highlight our own casually offensive ridiculousness (part of the joke is the fact we even have to write all these big serious words about it, let alone the fact that kneejerk, joke-missing tuttutters like Frank Rich and David Brooks despise it)-- though, as Nick Sylvester notes, sometimes a blowjob joke is just a blowjob joke. South Park ventures into taboo territory on the premise that "either everything's OK, or nothing is"-- the freedom to transgress is what separates us from the Taliban (cancel Family Guy and the terrorists have won!). Larry David is pretty OK, I guess.

The rap question gets a whole lot more complicated. I've already touched on it in dealing with Devin the Dude's sometimes hateful new album, but I do get uncomfortable about the misogynistic/homophobic language and attitudes of yr fave rap clips. When Lil' Wayne is treating his objects like women, man, on the "It's Me Bitches" remix or on the really exciting so far Da Drought 3 mixtape, I squirm even as I can't help but be dazzled by his verbal acuity and charismatic delivery. In rap, you can kinda write stuff off as being spoken in character, but maybe it's just a music that-- like South Park, or more like the way rock used to be-- requires transgression to thrive. It's hard for rap to be good without being "bad"; that's why M.C. Hammer became instant kitsch (surely it wasn't the pants). Rap's moral ambivalence probably isn't going away anytime soon, but it doesn't have the least thing to do with the rich white guys at the top of the Washington, D.C. political journanimalism establishment being fuckwits.

Something else you probably didn't know: Dick Cheney was a major-league Imus fan. Yeah, big time. Cheney's spokeswoman once explained, "He has the same sense of humor that Imus has. He thinks Imus is funny. He gets good guests on. And he asks good questions. It's not really strategic or complicated. Not everything we do has to work on 50 different levels." (She totally loses me with that last part.)


You dudes gotta stand in the mirror backwards cuz you can't face yourself.
My boy John Mayer, circa 1999

Look, the only reason this matters is because if we don't understand the forces that have driven our discourse for the past 10-plus years, we can't begin to push back against them. The same hateful millionaire world view will be inflicted upon Obama, Edwards, or Richardson should they defeat Clinton, just as it was upon "phony," "French-looking," "wind-surfing," "effete" John Kerry-- another recent Imus victim (vid). In any other profession, such malpractice would've put these pundits out of a job long ago.

When Chris Matthews made the following statement last month, which fearless speaker of controversial thoughts might he have imagined nodding in cowboy-hatted agreement?

"You know, somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean, I think there might be a giant, green, ugly, horny monster. A gigantic, gigantic monster of anti-Hillary, and anti-woman Hillary, anti-liberal woman Hillary, some real ferocious beast out there that says no matter what happens between now and Election Day, they're not going to let her win. Men, some women, are just not going to let this woman, this woman win the presidency. I don't know whether that monster's out there. All men I meet are afraid to talk like that. You only hear criticism of Hillary from smart, college-educated women. They're the ones that always have a problem with her now."

HEY PUNDIT CLASS, RAPPERS AREN'T THE ISSUE HERE.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO TOUCH MY GIGANTIC MONSTER?


...As for Wonkette, she doesn't deserve to live.
Husker Du: New Day Rising and It's Not Funny

Elsewhere: Kelefa Sanneh compares Nine Inch Nails' noisy new Year Zero to '90s cyberparanoia.

Eric Harvey ponders Grindhouse, "art-enjoyment-context," and the Washington Post's novel panhandling experiment involving acclaimed classical violinist Josh Bell.

My Love of Diagrams review over at Playboy; my Mice Parade review at Pitchfork.

CHOKE ON YR BLUE WHITE AND SCARLET HYPOCRISY

See spin. A few days ago Bob Herbert had me steaming over, among other things, political journalists' readiness to accept a political tactic that signifies "substance"-- in this case, John Edwards' decision to go into detail about his health care plan a million years before the election-- as genuine substance.

See spin run. David Broder for years now has made himself a seemingly unwitting punchline by always favoring sweet, glorious "bipartisanship" over, well, any actual stance on any actual issue. As I posted earlier, Edwards has lambasted his rivals for not taking the unusual (and potentially imprudent) step of detailing how exactly they will achieve universal health care-- assuming they, like Edwards and Barack Obama, support it. Naturally, the Dean is on the case!

BRODER: [O]f late, Obama's soaring rhetoric has left some of his audiences hungry for more substance from the senator. That was the case at a March 24 health-care forum in Las Vegas, where Obama promised to achieve universal coverage as president but had to admit that—unlike former senator John Edwards of North Carolina—he had not yet formulated a plan for getting there. And it was the case again Wednesday.

As I explained previously, there are perfectly good reasons for not going into specifics the way Edwards has done. And it's not as if Obama hasn't expressly stated his support for universal health care, something Edwards himself declined to do just four years ago. But one very smart reason for Edwards to talk about the substance of his plan is so he can talk about his own "substance," which had been a liability for him before (incessant Dem-feminizer Maureen Dowd calls him "the Brecht girl"). It's interesting and depressing that the most experienced, supposedly best qualified Washington pundits don't even seem to mention this fact.

Sort of like how they assume that Matthew Dowd not having a book out means he doesn't have a financial incentive to distance himself from Bush.


No, *I'm* laughing straight to the bank with this.
(Loudon Wainwright III: Motel Blues)

On the other hand, plenty of conservatives aren't even bothering to engage with the specifics Edwards has provided, preferring to party like it's 1992 (who wouldn't?). Matthew Yglesias catches David Boaz suggesting Edwards "supports a national health care system that would deny families the right to choose their own doctor." That's "straight-up false," Yglesias explains. "Nothing in Edwards' plan would do that."


Skin-tight pants and MySpace hair!!!
(Cub: New York City)

JARVIS COCKER IS NOT ON A COUCH EATING BON BONS (Pitchfork interview by Scott Plagenhoef)



"Fuck the Kooks."
(Lucky Soul: Add Your Light to Mine, Baby)

UGK Feat. Outkast: International Players Anthem (stream via Sean Fennessey)


Can't you see he's cryin'?
(Leonard Cohen: The Stranger Song)

Mikrofisch: The Kids Are All Shite (download via Idolator)


I don't lie awake at night with thoughts of river depth.
(Ludacris and The Jackson Five: Woozy/ I Am in Love)

Reviews: Cloud Cult in Pitchfork, Adult. in Playboy.com


Year's best vid so far? Get excited not innocuous guys.
(Dizzee Rascal: Sirens)

LOVE YOU GIRL BUT I'M ADDICTED TO DEM HOES

As if you have a choice.

Not the kind of blog for excuses instead it's a look back at The Week That Wasn't ok? Business.

Matthew Fluxblog and I went to a show with polite Englishmen and awesome barefoot drummers (plus birthday cake within salivating range). I neglected to post anything. Do you see?

The Cold War is over, kids! Some ppl said I don't like Cold War Kids because Cold War Kids are blog-hyped evangelical Christians even though my review specifically says that isn't (informal English for "is not") why (oh but it's so "truthy") and even though CWK say they're "definitely not" evangelical Christians, "especially not in terms of the band" whatever that last part means (if they deny it three times I will feel really bad though) OH MY LOVE WE BOTH GO DOWN TO HECK TOGETHER (FEAT. T.I.) [KOMPAKT; 2007]


John Darnielle can really rock Saddam Hussein's ass.

Tom wrote great stuff about Snow Patrol, whom I like too (my latest unenthusiastic review notwithstanding), but he also made me contemplate seppuku-- look out below SO many wrongness levels ("This is why Karl's so badass"). David Gregory don't ever dance again or else I will blog about you. So help me I will blog about your ass, Gregory, you don't even know.


Yeah but Newt Gingrich doesn't care about Spanish people.

Started reporting an article for BW about labels giving away their back catalogues even as majors fight all free-giving (or even scrapping pointless DRM douchebaggery) but then I decided to quit. Had in mind Slabco, which served a plunderphonic niche that was largely unfilled and now makes money recording for commercials; next up indiemp3 notes that Bubblyworld is also opening the vaults. Idea was (and other ppl thought of this first) that it makes sense for smaller labels to do this because otherwise their music would be out of print and why not at least let fans hear it? More to come, I'm sure.

C'MON, CHECK

That Was Fast: The new Timbaland/M.I.A. track leaks. Kelefa Sanneh writes smart things about the Tim album. Especially dig the "Bounce" detail. But the reason "Give It To Me" isn't as good as the great Timbaland singles is 'cause nobody really wants to listen to songs about producer beefs. Still pretty good though.


Matthew Yglesias makes typos not errors of judgment.

MY RESPECT

Thanks to Michelangelo Matos for reminding me I may not have been wrong to think of the Pierces as luxe indie-pop for the "Sex & the City" crowd, but I was definitely wrong to dismiss them for it.


Heroin my wife my life??? NOPE boring.

YEEA DAT'S RITE C'MON

I also wrote a couple of things this week: Land of Talk review in Pitchfork, Ponys review on Playboy.com. And went to a Justice listening party.


I don't want ppl to find poop in their stairwells here guys srsly.

STOP YOUR BUSINESS


Lucky Soul are my honey lover to the max.

YES NEW ART BRUT yes Taco Bell make a run to the border. Deerhunter really do sound better on vinyl (I can even understand the lyrics on "Lake Somerset" the way I can on that non-album version making the file-sharing rounds)-- though I wonder how many ppl will skip side two. And why is this even an argument anymore? OK THNX BYE.

THIS IS WHAT OSCAR WILDE ACTUALLY BELIEVES

What is it, "can't con an Honest John"? More often, seems to me honesty itself is the con. Like the cowboy-hatted used car dealer who whispers, "Trust me," while his gold tooth sparkles. Remember Honest Iago? By now, ppl should be pretty much accustomed to pop stars playing fast and loose with authenticity tropes (and not just because of my feature on the subject). Above all, journalists should be expecting this bullshit from, like, politicians. I mean OMG are you kidding?

Liberal New York Times columnist Bob Herbert is probably a fine man, but he's the latest Washington pundit to fall for this shtick (or else he's in on the con). On Sunday, Herbert published a piece headlined "Campaign Candor," praising the honesty and policy substance of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. Now, I supported Edwards over John Kerry in the 2004 primary, and I feel just awful about the cancer of his wife, Elizabeth (by all accounts an amazing woman), but these days the guy spends more time telling people how honest he is than actually being honest. "I just find it easier to be more candid now," this candid man candidly told the Times last month, even though he wasn't being candid (login info). Earlier, when asked by Nantucket millionaire Tim Russert whether Hillary Clinton was being "open and honest" herself, Edwards replied, "I don't know the answer to that question. Honestly. I don't know what's inside her head and her heart about this. I can't tell whether there are political calculations going on. I just don't know." Hey, did he mention he was being honest? Now that's honesty!

Just as Herbert mistakes an Edwards talking point about candor for the real deal, he also gets tripped up by the Edwards campaign's emphasis on its own supposed policy substance. Yeah, Edwards is the only candidate thus far to detail the specifics of his health care policy, standing up (laudably) for universal coverage. However, announcing this plan was likely at least in part a political tactic. There's no reason presidential candidates should have to go into such detail on health care nearly two years ahead of an election; indeed, liberal blogger Matthew Yglesias has even argued that vague rhetoric is probably better in a general election, citing the example of Bill Clinton, who used just that. Americans tend to support universal health care in theory, but they tend to oppose specific proposals. However, by making his own proposal so early, Edwards has been able to use the issue as a political cudgel against fellow Democrats. "They've probably got a bridge they want to sell you, too," he said (no doubt honestly) about his rivals at last weekend's health care forum, calling for, hey, more specifics. (In reality, Barack Obama has pledged to back universal health care, as well.) But you know Herbert: Edwards "has, in fact, put together what is probably the most coherent plan for universal coverage of all the candidates thus far," he enthuses.


Ppl find poop in their stairwells here guys srsly.

In the music crit vacuum, one continues to come across artists all too glad to vouch for their own authenticity. Rappers seem especially prone to this, ostensibly because the illusion of authenticity is exactly what their audience, suburban or street, likes to think it's buying. "This is reality rap/ I really go through it," rapper Prodigy of Mobb Deep assures us on his forthcoming Return of the Mac, which is actually a pretty awesome album-- but if he's so hard, why does he have to keep reminding us? A couple of tracks later: N-word, N-word, N-word, "I rap what I live." Like just in case you're wondering, man, Prodigy has a gun, definitely isn't white, and is totally going to shoot somebody. Um, you better watch out. OK? Then there's Young Jeezy, who I'm told kept making noises about keeping shit real at a listening session for last December's The Inspiration (Pitchfork review), a pop album that only sounds better as other guys not named Lil' Wayne keep killing rap (the one-two-three of "I Luv It," "Go Getta" and "3 A.M." still just towers). Pretty soon, if you haven't already, you'll probably hear "White Girl," Jeezy's new single featuring USDA, from the forthcoming Young Jeezy Presents USDA Cold Summer. Apparently the title is slang for coke. "I wanted to do it mixtape-style 'cause I wanted it to be something for the streets," Jeezy recently told MTV News. "It's a street album, just raw." MTV News is totally street.


These nice young go-getters are so gonna go get 'er DO YOU SEE???

All of which leads us, naturally, to the junior senator from New York. Two things here: No, she's not my preferred candidate, but at the same time most of the dirt against her is overblown. The New Republic's recent feature (subscription req'd) purports to look at "the real reason she won't apologize," and most talking heads act as if there's a whole bunch of uncertainty about her position on the war, but there's not. As early as 2004, again with Jack Welch neighbor Russert (who sells books touting his blue-collar Buffalo roots), Clinton said, "If we had known then what we know now, there wouldn't have been a vote." If anyone should apologize here, it's the pundits and rival candidates complaining about what she hasn't said without acknowledging what she has said previously. Meanwhile, a recent New York Times Magazine piece breaks down her body language (Can reporters mind-read? One nod for "disbelieving," two nods for "empathetic"). Its language oozes fakeness-- Clinton "shapes" her image, she's "trying hard," she's got an operating "conceit," she's giving us her latest "unveiling"-- much like the "reinvention" media buzz surrounding Al Gore's every wardrobe decision. Such trivialities govern our discourse when it comes to leading Dems, particularly those associated with big blow-job Bill (think of the children!). John McCain has taken new stands on a wide range of issues, but he's still typically described as an honest, admirable, maverick hero. And a Straight Talker-- honestly!

And yet, and yet... Well, Clinton ain't easy. According to current polls, she's the front runner, so the benefit of the doubt is piled high in her favor; no longer is she required to prove why she's the best candidate, but rather, her detractors must be able to show why someone else is better. Apparently. (Good a time as any: Pilooski's "Nobody But Me" edit from a few months ago is still great.) In an article in the American Prospect, Garance Franke-Ruta recently suggested (and her colleague Ezra Klein spelled out) the argument that men who don't support Hillary Clinton are probably sexist. Again, all due respect all around, but: DUBYA TEE EFF???!!! I would passionately support Clinton against a Republican, whether poll leader Rudy Giuliani (less progressive than you think) or anyone else, but I find her willingness to seize upon baldly pandering conservative notions (flag burning amendments, cracking down on sex/violence in entertainment) and the simple political fact that she's more moderate than is required to win in this environment, yet perceived as more liberal, both to be compelling reasons to support another potential nominee-- specifically Barack Obama (or possibly, um, that dude from New Mexico with all the experience and the alleged woman problem). Just because a bunch of people (or a bunch of donors, who are like people, only wealthier) say Clinton's great doesn't mean I have to fall in line. A bunch of people in Iowa didn't even like John Kerry, but voted for him because they thought he was "electable." (Yglesias, from whom I probably stole some of these ideas, has more.)

Photo: Attila Hardy

A more troubling trend these days than artists packaged as "authentic" are those whose music is suffused with its own importance. I already ranted at great length about the new Arcade Fire album; these unfun Dexy's lookalikes are hardly the first rock 'n' roll artists since the discovery of reverb to seem more significant (and require more obeisance) than they actually deserve. In recent years, even rappers have bought into this false glamour, Sean Fennessey writes for Vibe. 50 Cent and Timbaland have paid undeserved homage to Coldplay, he points out, and I seem to remember lots of cool dudes saying nice things about my boy John Mayer (aww, that's him above). Mr. Cent even borrowed a hook from Mr. Paltrow. In addition, Young Buck has turned to "Lose Yourself"-esque rock agression for the finale to his new album (a track Sean streams). Dudes, rock doesn't inherently matter. The future of our democracy does.

Unless the rock in question is by Daughtry, who's totally a band not a singer/songwriter even though his band is named after just him and in fact the album was recorded with session musicians not the touring band. IT'S NOT OVER! *swoon*











P.S. Eric Harvey has an essay at Pitchfork on Rear Window an' stuff.

UPDATE: Note to the Baltimore Sun: I love Christian music when it doesn't suck. Whoops! Also, do your research.

AIN'T NO PINKEYE, IT'S THE LIVING DEAD

In 1999 and 2000, as the Washington press corps worked out their unbridled disdain for Bill Clinton on then Vice-President Al Gore, the proudly vapid Paris Hilton demimonde of the Potomac-- aka Maureen Dowd, aka MoDo-- penned a series of columns featuring imaginary conversations between Gore and his own bald spot. "Everything these days is making me a little crazy," the Grey Lady's gay old lady imagined Gore saying. Then she made up a quote by John Kerry that everybody probably still thinks Kerry said ("Who among us...?").

Now, a long 7 years later, as most liberal pundits still sit on their dainty thumbs in hopes of a paid guest spot on Chris Matthews, The New York Times continues to pull crap like this on its home page (as of 9:06 a.m. on March 21):

Star in New Role, Gore Revisits Old Stage
By MARK LEIBOVICH and PATRICK HEALY

Al Gore's return to Capitol Hill on Wednesday is akin to a recovering alcoholic returning to a neighborhood bar.

Get that? Dudes just likened America's leading vote-getter in the 2000 presidential election-- the one guy who was right about *both* Iraq wars AND global warming when empty-headed vessels like MoDo girlfren Michiko Kakutani were still memorizing scripts-- first to an actor (a phony!), then to a "recovering alcoholic." Meanwhile, an actual recovering alcoholic (some of my favorite people are recovering alcoholics!) continues to lead us into national embarrassment in Iraq and at home. And I thought the *blogosphere* was supposed to be petty and hate-filled.

Now just try to imagine the Times (or the Washington Post, or the Jack Welch Network) making a similarly disparaging analogy about virile Republican saints John McCain or Rudy Giuliani. We'll be waiting, Brooksy.

NP: The Clientele: God Save the Clientele (more via HypeMachine)