I want to second Eyeball's assessment. The Republican party adopted the Southern strategy in the sixties--essentially a paen to bigotry from the party formally most associated with priveleged elites as a way of dividing the electorate and skimming off the fat. The other in those times were blacks foremost--Latinos, Asians, homosexuals and Jews, as the in-reserve boogymen. The success of that strategy is manifest--I think every Republican presidential candidate since has carried the South. Where animosity towards blacks and Jews and others primarily existed as the representative of the economic impotence of poor and working class whites, it is not surprising that Arabs (muslims) , with their position at the mouth of US oil sources , can easily pass for surrogates. I see a lot of the same structures used against both African Americans and Muslims/Arabs on the Fox pundit shows. Hannity's favorite trick is to stock his program with conservative blacks and Arabs who are often no more than paid shills. Walid Shoebat, who many suspect was never a muslim or a member of the PLO, stands out in this regard. In the black context, Hannity often hosts black ministers or preachers or Republicans who will bolster his view--essentially, that black people who continue to lobby for equality and an end to the legacy of slavery and Jim Crowe--are n******'s.

And with that, Happy Easter you crazy Kristians!

To wax philosophically for a moment here. I think that there is something essentially thanatos about young men (and perhaps young women, but having never been one, I can't really say). I have no firm studies on this, except the alarming rate of car accidents of that age (a statistic I did my part for), and the sadly high rate of enlistment for men in their late teens and early twenties. To the extent it has somthing to do with poverty or class is merely how high the ante is-or in other words what the alternatives are to life-risking behavior.

I meant Thanatos in the most non-psychological way, just a short hand for the unscientific idea of the death wish. I think its not exactly a thrill, more like you said, fun. But that fun is most fun when the risk is greatest. The thrill of pushing the envelope creates an inherent self-destructiveness. Having known a few children of privilege, I see a lot of that risk taken in the form of using drugs while operating in the professional or academic world.

On the issue of rims and hip hop culture, etc. I've lived in West Oakland for a long time, and I have to say if there was a way to get rid of the majority of hip hop culture, I would be all for it. I think white people are generally afraid to critique it and its excesses-- the obsession with style and accoutrements and possessions--to the exclusion of developing realistic goals. Obviously, for instapunk to get into the idea of n's vs. non, is the height of offensive absurdity. But that doesn't mean there is n't a lot of soul searching that urban communities (I include asians, latinos, etc.) need to do. One of the most overlooked things about hip-hop is that it is a corporate produced lifestyle, born and bred in white-run corporate board rooms. It has little do with people of color, but its sold to them with non-white spokespersons. It is a self-destuctive culture of waste and materialism, and has few positive attributes. There is real hip hop out there, its happening in little clubs and venues and on the streets, and it has very little do with twenty inch rims.

"I don't necessarily blame Todd -- he might have been describing rather than defending the media's favorable treatment of McCain -- but the point is the same."

I'm not defending Todd, but I think it important to make this point clear. Todd is billed as MSNBC's "political director", and is essentially brought on to analyze the story itself and the metaverse of media. The fact that he isn't very critical of the media is certainly something you can peg him on; he actually, as Glenn rightly pointed out, disseminates active media disinformation by his lack of criticism. But he is not a journalist, and I think that's an important point, and his analysis was correct if uncritical. McCain does have enough bullshit in the bank with journalists to get away with this kind of thing.

I want it. Publish in your next post...

Considering the grief he gave me when I once (tangentially) mentioned that McCain had been shot down while carrying out a bombing mission over Vietnam, I find it curious to note his absence in today's thread. If I remember correctly, LWM contended that he was absolutely sure that McCain was not responsible for any deaths in Vietnam. Where for art thou, LWM? Hath thee no backbone to criticize thine peers on thine favored issue?

mmm, that's funny, I'd always suspected that LWM and Timberman were the same poster, but what do I know (or, in fact, care)

Yes, I have no idea to what extent this goes on here. At a certain point the permutations (the fact that you Bucky, might very well be LWM, who is in fact Celery, who is in fact Glenn) does suggest the need for dramamine). Who knows, though I would hope that people treat these posting areas more seriously than that.

"But you are being incredibly dishonest. There is no other way to put it. You called McCain a war criminal. I told you that he had never been adjudicated as such by any competent legal authority, international court or body. It was a confession obtained by torture at the hands of his NVA captors. You apparently approve of torture, as well as being completely dishonest. Now you are saying I suggested he never flew missions over Vietnam."

Voila.