Bury Me Broken

Slate writer fails at humorous rappers and bloggers comparison

Josh Levin attempts to be clever in his comparison of Rappers and Bloggers but falls well short of the mark. The first mistake Levin mistakes is considering P. Diddy and Nelly as anything other than businessman. Bloggers are committed to their particular slant or analysis of the news while P. Diddy and Nelly are concerned only with their bottom line.

One thing that bloggers and rappers do have in common is the attempt to carve a unique niche. For rappers it is apparel, social networking and nomenclature, for bloggers nomenclature is the only category shared. Bloggers’ social network derives from mutual admiration; the dedication of a man to his craft and his particular analysis is the reason bloggers are interconnected. Rappers rarely show mutual admiration although I could show you scores of rappers that do e.g. Outkast, Goodie Mobb, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Wu-Tang and Nas to name a few.

The “sampling plus a new riff” connection to rappers and bloggers was clever but you then shot yourself in the foot with the following statement:

Of course, the molecular structure of dead-tree journalism and classic rock is filthy with other people's research and other people's chord progressions. But in newspaper writing and rock music, the end goal is the appearance of originality—to make the product look seamless by hiding your many small thefts.

[T]he appearance of originality connotes deception and dishonesty while rappers have introduced a new generation to the music of a generation before and bloggers are forthright in sourcing the original. The appearance of originality was the cornerstone of Armstrong Williams and his propagandist efforts and we see where that has landed him.

You are correct in equating rap music and blogging as “populist, low-cost-of-entry communication forms” but are way off in “that [they] reward self-obsessed types who love writing in first person.” Blogging and rap music are grassroots in nature; they are the common man, everyman and voice given to the previously voiceless. They have won converts so quickly because John Q. Citizen identifies with what they are saying as opposed to your self-enamored characterization.

I failed to see your parallel between rappers self-congratulatory rhymes and rhyming about “the towering difficulties of succeeding in the rap game.” Maybe you should have reworded it to say “their success in spite of the towering difficulties of the rap game.”

Finally, I chuckled at a couple of things in this piece but that is because I am able to digest watered down, mainstream, fast food attempts at cleverness while making deadlines. You probably don’t have the time or energy to honestly state the origin of self-congratulatory and put down rhymes in the origin of rap music and its roots in party emceeing to hype crowds and the Black youth insult game “the dozens.” Only bloggers have that type of time and collage making energies.

posted by niteskolar @ 8:35 PM 0 comments

Why We Opposed Gonzales

From Daily Kos

The New York Times explains it well:

The confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as attorney general yesterday was depressing. The president deserves a great deal of leeway in choosing his own cabinet. But beyond his other failings, Mr. Gonzales has come to represent the administration's role in paving the way for the abuse and torture of prisoners by American soldiers and intelligence agents. Giving him the nation's top legal post is a terrible signal to send the rest of the world, and to American citizens concerned with human rights. . . .

Mr. Gonzales was a bad choice for attorney general because of his record, not his ethnic background.

It was Mr. Gonzales who asked for the original legal advice from the Justice Department on the treatment of prisoners in the "war on terror." There was no need to go through that exercise; the rules were clear. But Mr. Gonzales gave the president the flexibility he wanted, first in the Justice Department memo outlining ways to make torture seem legal, and then by offering the Orwellian argument that the president can declare himself above the law and can order illegal actions like detaining prisoners without a hearing and authorizing torture.

Republican senators made much of the fact that the White House repudiated the original memo on torture - after it became public. But this is not just a matter of historical interest. Mr. Gonzales testified that he agreed with the substance of the original torture memo, and he still takes the view that the president can declare himself to be above the law. In written responses to senators' questions, Mr. Gonzales argued that intelligence agents could "abuse" prisoners as long as they did it to foreigners outside the United States.

Republican senators argued that it was unfair to say Mr. Gonzales was personally responsible for the specific acts of torture and degradation at Abu Ghraib. That would be a fair defense if anyone were doing that. The Democrats simply said, rightly, that Mr. Gonzales was one of the central architects of the administration's policy of evading legal restrictions on the treatment of prisoners. He should not have been rewarded with one of the most important jobs in the cabinet.

Ms. Gail Collins and the NYT Ed Board state it well, as they have throughout on this issue.

posted by niteskolar @ 5:42 AM 0 comments