Well maybe I am the f@ggot America, I'm not a part of a redneck agenda

First a followup from yesterday, and then the newer stuff, including a movie review for a very good film that I really should have heard about long before now.

The media blackout on Coulter basically continued today, but for a halfhearted effort from the NYTimes, which first compared her to Hillary Clinton (yes, they are both polarizing, Hillary for proposing a halfway decent healthcare plan and Coulter for being a bigot), and then attempted to apologize for all the speakers who preceded her at the CPAC meeting, failing to note that last year at this very venue she contented herself with just making raghead jokes. This was premeditated, no matter how dumb the media chooses to play it, when they play it at all.

I brought up Atrios yesterday, and today featured one of the best descriptions of his blog and methods from the also-excellent Ezra Klein. Discussing Atrios' world-famous "wanker of the day" award, Klein explains exactly what it does and does not represent:

Among other things, the lefty blogosphere was founded on a critique of the mainstream media that argued, contrary to popular belief, that the media was not actually liberal. The individuals who comprised it may have been tolerant on cultural issues, but years of sustained attacks from the right had cowed reporters into a hollow set of "objective" protocols that served to obscure truth rather than enhance it. Simultaneously, decades of sustained attacks on liberals had spurred "serious pundits" to underscore their independence by routinely attacking the left. The result was a media which may have voted Democratic, but was fairly hostile to progressivism.

"Wanker of the Day" is not an argumentative feature, it is a reinforcing one. It exists to repeatedly provide evidence for a critique of the media that is only now leaving the margins. Atrios's epiphany was that you had to actually prove it day after day, not merely argue it. Since this was a somewhat counterintuitive take on reportage, it had to be buttressed -- and not just once, but repeatedly. Now, you can argue about the language ("wanker") or even deny the feature's legitimacy, but it does have a point -- it's not simply rhetorical extremism or red meat.

And let us all say, amen.

BTW, in case anyone wondered about the US Attorneys reference I made yesterday, the same exact wanker media/good blogosphere dynamic is summed up perfectly here at Talking Points memo, which also has pictures of Mitt Romney with Coulter, and this little chestnut on the whole affair, sent in by a reader:

From TPM Reader RB:

As I read the reaction/fallout from Ann Coulter’s remarks at CPAC this week I’m annoyed by the entire progressive reaction to it and most of the many other outrages committed on a daily basis by the Republican Party.

Why doesn’t a progressive with an audience say something to the effect “This is who and what the once proud and honorable Republican Party has turned itself into. It is a party of hate, intolerance, incompetence, greed, treason, fanatical, hostile to science and reality, and totally corrupt. They have no honor and no shame. They’re fascists and a cancer on our great nation, plain and simple and this is just another example of that.”

You'll note the clever meta trick of publishing said reader comment on a progressive blog with an audience...and again, let us all say amen, brother.

So, on to the movie reviews. On the recommendation of one of my colleagues, I finally saw Idiocracy, by Mike Judge, the guy who created both Beavis and Butthead and King of the Hill, and wrote and directed Office Space. It stars Luke Wilson as a completely average American who is accidentally placed in hibernation for 500 years, during which time the stupid people in the world so completely outbreed their smarter brethren that the entire country is plunged into idiocy. This should not be taken as racist (maybe classist), more a comment on today's race to the bottom popular culture. Given Judge's past, it should come as no surprise that TV, along with global corporate greed, proves to be a popular target for Judge to parody. The satire is a bit loose, but the movie is sustained throughout by a clever and funny visual feel (everyone wears shiny clothing more littered with ads than your average NASCAR driver), and a selection of targets that few would want to defend (mostly corporate conglomerates and their incessantly stupid advertising, along with dreadful reality TV). It's certainly worth renting, and given its complete lack of notoriety should be easy to find in a video store.

One of the funnier points that the movie makes is that there is an unfortunate association made in popular culture between intelligence and feminization. Judge does this by having his idiots of the future call lots of things "gay", satirizing the same macho bullshit redneck culture attacked by Green Day in the lyrics giving us tonight's post title (from "American Idiot", just like last night) and personified by Coulter's remarks and her intended audience, who can think of few things funnier than a faggot joke.

One of the reasons I am proud to consider myself a liberal is that this shit does not fly with us. We don't make it a point of principle to constantly attack the "other", whoever they may be at the moment, and are willing to defend them, as Elizabeth Edwards, John's wife, did today:

Although her words did not hurt us, they may have hurt some in the gay community. We are all sick and tired of anyone supporting or applauding or introducing hate words into the national dialogue, tired of people thinking that words that cause others pain are fair game. And we are sick and tired of people like Miss Coulter thinking that her use of loaded words about the homosexual community in this country is remotely humorous or appropriate.

The same dynamic is always in play whenever homosexuality is brought up: idiots go on the attack against what they perceive to be an easy target, and those of us who aren't assholes are left to argue against them. In response to a former NBA player coming out of the closet, we had this lovely quote from former player Tim Hardaway:

"You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known," Hardaway said. "I don't like gay people and I don't like to be around gay people. I am homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States."

Somehow, he perceived this as the proper Christian response, as would Ann Coulter as well, which is even scarier. The intelligent comeback came from former players Charles Barkley and Reggie Miller, respectively, and credit to them for saying it:

“I played with gay guys, I’ve got gay friends. I don’t care if a person is gay or not, only God can judge a person. But any jock who thinks he’s never played with a gay guy is sadly mistaken. Any team you’ve been on, at some point, you’ve played with a gay guy.”

“It’s a lack of education. For everything we’ve overcome as African-American athletes with a lot of the racial discrimination, I believe he needs some type of counseling or help to overcome his phobia. This is another black eye that David Stern has to deal with.”

I'll note that even though times may be changing slowly, they are changing. It may not men much to hear these words from someone randomly on the street, but these are prominent (hall of fame caliber) athletes, albeit in one of the two more liberal major sports (the NBA, because of the large African-American player percentage, along with Hockey, because of the European/Canadian influence). Even one of the most conservative institutions in America, the military, is seeing a change in perceptions. According to a 2006 Zogby poll:

Nearly one in four U.S. troops (23%) say they know for sure that someone in their unit is gay or lesbian, and of those 59% said they learned about the person's sexual orientation directly from the individual, a Zogby International poll of troops who served in Iraq and Afghanistan shows.

More than half (55%) of the troops who know a gay peer said the presence of gays or lesbians in their unit is well known by others. According to the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, service members are not allowed to say that they are gay.
...
According to the new Zogby data, however, nearly three in four troops (73%) say they are personally comfortable in the presence of gays and lesbians.

Thankfully, with Democrats now in charge of Congress, Rep. Marty Meehan's bill ending the "Don't ask, don't tell" policy will likely come to the floor, even though the assholes at the Pentagon aren't pleased and say that it will be divisive. in a sense, they may be right. it will end up dividing the assholes and bigots from the rest of America, and about time. There is simply no place left in reasonable discourse for out and out bigots, and it's about time we started pushing this as strongly as possible.

Don't wanna be an American idiot, Don't want a nation under the media

To quote Atrios: Owwww! The Stupid! It BURNS!!!! Parental advisory: Today's stupidity will force me to curse repeatedly.

From today's Chicago Tribune, Mary Schmichdiscussing the new TV show "Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?":

But as for what star is closest to the Earth? Get real. The average person does not need to know that.

Yes they do. It's the fucking sun! It's what powers the entire planet, and allows us to live. How big an idiot are you, first to not know, and then to mock people for not being more ignorant than your average kindergartner?

From today's Conservative Political Action Committee meeting, at which nearly every Republican presidential candidate spoke, we have Ann Coulter, who I'll note was introduced by Mitt Romney himself:

I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.” Audience members said “ohhh” and then cheered.

That's actually not the idiocy, since Ann Coulter is always like this. No, I'm talking about the complete media blackout. You may not have heard of this, since while it was mentioned on several liberal blogs and Editor and Publisher magazine, it literally wasn't mentioned by a single newspaper or news agency in the country, even though the NYTimes, Washington Post, and AP all filed stories on the day's meeting. From E&P, who seem to actually still believe in journalism:

The New York Times failed to mention the crack about Edwards in observing tonight: "The conference drew thousands of attendees, many of whom waited in a long line out the door for a late-afternoon appearance by Ann Coulter, the conservative author and commentator."

The Washington Post covered the conference but did not mention Coulter at all. Neither did the Associated Press, which also attended.

Seriously, what the fuck? John Edwards got a week of bad press for hiring two bloggers who have in the past taken on the Catholic Church for its support of pedophiles and backwardness with respect to birth control, and all of those news sources were more than happy to run with the story. A speaker at the biggest collection of Republican candidates to date makes a faggot joke in front of the assembled media, and they decide it's not newsworthy? Seriously, what the fuck is wrong with this country?

I could actually go on about several other idiocies tonight, given the continuing whitewash of the Walter Reed fiasco by the military (the guy they appointed to take over the facility, General Kevin Kiley, did nothing after being told that patients were sleeping in their own urine).
There is a story in the WaPo about the firing of 8 US Attorneys that completely misses the fact that many of them were fired because they were investigating higher-ups in the administration. Did you know that Carol Lam, the former US Attorney for San Diego who busted Rep. Duke Cunningham, is currently investigating the former #3 official in the CIA for corruption? You won't find that little tidbit anywhere in the newspaper tonight, needless to say, because John Solomon, their new "investigative" "reporter", turns out to be neither.

Seriously, I wish there was a God so it meant more when I say "god help us all"..

Jungle Cat/American Idiot/Talking Points Memo (Friday Cat/Concert/Better Know a Blog Blogging #4)

Friday Catblogging

Karina, believing herself camouflaged, lays in wait for the legendary balcony squirrel.

Friday's Concert Clip

If you had asked me a few years ago who the musical conscience of our generation would be, I would not have really considered answering Green Day (note: my generation doesn't include Bruce Springsteen, who would otherwise qualify). Still, American Idiot really may be the most popular album from Generation X/Y/Next to really come out strongly against the war in a way that's still fun to listen to. The album may not have the gritty punk ethic that some of their more hardcore fans prefer, but it's damn catchy.

We'll go with three videos from the album, none of which are the über-ubiquitous "When September Ends", itself not even one of the more memorable songs on the album. Instead we'll go with video clips of

• The title track, American Idiot, from which I got the title of one of my first posts at this here blog.


• The nine minute-long medley track Jesus of Suburbia. Did I mention that this is actually a concept album? Yup.


• The song Holiday, the most clear anti-war song on the album, as evidenced by it's intro when played live and the lyrics.

By the way, one of the most frustrating experiences in looking for song lyrics is the numerous ads and popups most of those sites run (the popups can be blocked by FireFox, of course). Let me strongly suggest LyricWiki to y'all to alleviate this problem. It's run by Wikipedia, so you can trust it.

Better Know a Blog

Today's blog is Talking Points Memo, which started as the blog of Joshua Micah Marshall. He began his career as a writer at The American Prospect, whose blog we featured last week. Unlike the bloggers we've covered previously, he is not a flaming liberal by temperament, rather more of a moderate, though developments over the past few years have certainly driven him to occasional shrillness. Given his journalistic background, his take on things is often a bit more factual and a bit less pure opinion then some out there, especially in the sources he links to. As a result, his blog is rarely the place you'll find partisan outrage, but it is a great place to find links to scholars and journalists covering important stories on both foreign and domestic policies. Among the idiosyncrasies is an occasional campaign to get politicians on the record for important issues, first used on the effort to fight privatization of Social Security. Today, he's been figuring out where Republican Senators stand on escalation (7 against, 9 wavering). Needless to say, all the Democrats are against and the CT for Liebermanites are for.

One unique feature of TPM, as it's known, is a series of expansions into new territory in the blogosphere. First was TPMCafe, a discussion forum with "tables" covering foreign and domestic policy, from some of the leading voices on the left. This led to a spinoff of it's own, Election Central, which featured polls and campaign items leading up to the elections, and has kept functioning in that role since. Another side project, TPM Muckraker, is one of the more innovative projects in the blogosphere. Two full-time researchers collect stories of how money influences politics, both legally and illegally. The latter is a Republican specialty; at last count, 29 Congressmen, administration officials, and key lobbyists have a place on the Grand Old Docket. It also features the Daily Muck, a recounting of news stories in the morning's papers dealing with the day's most blatant corruption and malfeasance.

For those who want serious discussion of policy and politics, this is the blog for you.

Television dreams of Tomorrow. We're not the ones who're meant to follow.

Proving that great minds think alike, or not, Dmitry and I had our question raised by the illustrious David Foster Wallace in a more condescending form:

TV is not vulgar and prurient and dumb because the people who compose the audience are vulgar and dumb. Television is the way it is simply because people tend to be extremely similar in their vulgar and prurient and dumb interests and wildly different in their refined and aesthetic and noble interests.

(found at ben.casnocha.com via Marginal Revolution via Brad Delong)

I disagree with this quote most-heartedly. TV is not vulgar in the sense of offensive, regardless of the ridiculous censorship rules imposed by the FCC. As Tom Lehrer explained some 40 fucking years ago, "Dirty words are fun". As for sex and nudity, which will take out DFW's prurient comment as well, they are a good thing that we are biologically conditioned to enjoy. Let's leave repression for medieval peasants named Dennis, shall we? If you think that sexuality is in any way unnatural, we'll have Alex in to guest post on the topic of the sex life of Bonobos, the primates that love to party. DFW may have meant TV is vulgar in the older sense of the word, "of the common people", but if so the point was obvious to begin with.

Ok, then why is TV so dumb? Remember that there are some criminally good programs on TV right now: The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, The Office, Scrubs, Veronica Mars, Battlestar Galactica, Weeds, Dexter, The Wire (taking this one on faith based on about thirty positive reviews from random strangers), etc. No, TV is very conservative, and the highest rated shows are frequently dumb because people like familiar programming, networks LOVE familiar programming, and originality is only occasionally rewarding to viewers but always risky for the network. See the demise, with no small influence of the networks, of Arrested Development, Firefly, Deadwood and a bunch of others. Many people fear change, and will continue to watch endless reruns of Murder She Wrote and Everyone Loves Raymond and laugh along with the laugh tracks forever, but with several hundred networks out there, it just takes some looking, and a huge cable bill, to see some good programming.

On a random note, when it came to buying Hanukah presents, my wife and I both secretly went for cartoon t-shirts (an Uglydoll for her, Cheat Commandoes for me had it been in stock; she went with Colbert Nation as a backup). Why do smart people enjoy cartoons and all sorts of youthful type stuff? Because they're fun. One can enjoy post-modern literature and the Cartoon network, although preferably not simultaneously. These things are fun, and if kids are the only ones smart enough to realize it, then maybe most adults are fools....no, that's too harsh. Most adults are wise, using their hard-earned smarts to behave responsibly in all sorts of ways, like voting for a former alcoholic with no grasp of world politics because they think he'd be more fun to have a beer with than his opponents, decent men who just don't have the charisma and fratboy charm it takes to make decisions about the global economy and international relations....