Imus is *entertainment.* One other poster had it about right.

Imus's bosses...in fact, ANY media owner, would broadcast snuff-films in prime-time if they thought they could get away with it. They're in the "entertainment-for-money" business.

And imagine the audience they'd get. It'd be huge. And the prime demographic too: 18-35 year-old males. The advertisers couldn't ignore that.

I dunno how many of you work at for-profit businesses, but in a properly run for-profit business, at least in theory, ANYTHING that makes money is ok. As long as you can get away with it. Let us all now recall the story--I cannot verify it, but it did appear, in different form, in a couple of books about Lee Iaccoca--about Iaccoca, when he was working for Ford, and when his bean-counters told him it was cheaper to settle lawsuits resulting from Pintos that burst into flames in a rear-ender, than it was to fix the cars, he told his line-people "meet your quotas" and that was the end of it. Corporate-sanctioned murder, in a nutshell.

Anyone who thinks a for-profit owner won't do anything for a sufficient amount of money, is fooling themselves..and that, of course, is the problem, isn't it? There is NO line in the sand, and there probably never will be.

As long as Imus is worth more in dollars than his hassle-quotient is a bother, he'll be employed.

Snow was every bit as ridiculous as an obfuscator...but, he had some style.

My question is, when are they going to fire Perrino? She's making them look not-so-hot, wouldn't ya say? Her ability to argue that up is down, right is wrong, and black is white is just not up to the job.

I read your piece again, David, and I had to laugh. Your last paragraph was especially hilarious. Do you *really* think that classical music will someday have no audience?

do you really think people will one day stop going to performances of *Don Giovanni?* That they will ignore Beethoven's last String Quartets? That no-one will care about hearing the six quartets Mozart dedicated to Haydn? That the Beethoven Missa Solemnis will have no takers?

If you really think that... surely you don't really think that, do you?

My man, after *every, single* artist you know and love in pop music is as forgotten as last week's lasagna, Beethoven and Mozart, Bach and Copland, will still be packing them in. And the spiritual heirs to the artists you like may be packing them in too.. sure. But not the original artists. They, and their music, with certain exceptions, will be gone.

and I like a lot of pop music. I'm also a realist with ears.

quoth the article:

People in our party admire his consistency, his leadership and his personal dimensions," said McInturff. "And you had better be very, very careful about how you talk about the president around those things."

*******

Dear God. Does anyone here believe that? What fucking planet are these people living on? Apparently they haven't read a newspaper in six years...or they get all their news from Fox.

I regard this as a bad, bad sign. This means that something over 30% of the electorate...or over 30 MILLION adults, actually think the criminal now in the White House is a good man. What does that say about them?

I never could figure out Bush's appeal. I thought he was cruel, idiot frat-boy asshole from the moment I first saw him speak before the 2000 election. And the Vanity Fair article before that election made it clear just what sort of person he was. How is it that these 30 million-plus adults can maintain such a ridiculous fantasy about this asshole? I just do not get it. I really don't. We have a lot of badly deluded people in this country, and that cannot be a good thing. Bush is an amoral, opportunistic rich-boy who doesn't give a shit about the very people who think he's such a great guy.

I am utterly flabbergasted, folks.

anyone who thinks these criminals in the White House will have any scruples whatever about blaming the dems for this GOP war, and White House conduct of it, hasn't been paying attention.

Bush and Cheney would not hesitate to tell the Pentagon to quit sending body armor to the troops, and when more are killed, blame THAT on the dems too.

These guys are shameless murderers who are desperate to blame their incompetence on anyone who will stand still long enough to take it.

I'm quite sure Bush is ready to take the most drastic measures, and put the troops he has ordered into battle into the worst kind of circumstances, just so he can offload the blame onto the dems. If the dems have any brains at all, they'll start making it clear just who the traitors are. I hope they start right. now.

Bush and Cheney have only begun this particular exercise in treasonous sleaze. Just watch. It's gonna get a LOT worse.