Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Randi Rhodes: Afraid of Poets

Rightwingers are having a fit over a poet/rapper named Common who has been invited to take part in an “Evening of Poetry” at the White House. They’re livid because Common once slammed George Bush with a rhyme. Common performs rap and poetry. My first question would be—how in the name of God did conservatives ever find out about it? I know they monitor me, but don’t tell me that the rightwing noise machine is keeping tabs on poetry readings. The good part about that is that I bet they just HATE it. Fox News called Common “vile.” To be fair, I assume that most conservatives consider all poetry vile. Conservatives aren’t generally exposed to poetry… unless it’s scrawled on the wall above a urinal.

Osama bin Laden’s son, Omar bin Laden, says that his father was “summarily executed” in violation of the law. OK, anyone would be angry over the killing of their father. But when your father is Osama bin Laden, you honestly can’t really be very surprised. Osama bin Laden’s son hearing that he had been killed is like Evel Knievel’s son hearing that he had been in a accident. It goes along with the job that they chose. Omar bin Laden has been through a lot, not the least of which must have been some VERY tough times going through airport security with a name like that.

Incidentally, bin Laden’s son says that he was invited to the White House in the final days of George Bush’s presidency in a last-ditch attempt to find his father. He may be assuming too much. This being George Bush, he might have just invited Omar because he was extremely rich. Really, Omar bin Laden is a mega-billionaire from the Middle East. He’s actually part of George Bush’s political base. Omar did not accept the invitation to the White House, so he can’t really say if George Bush wanted to ask him to help find his father… or to make a generous contribution to the George Bush Presidential Library.

Today’s Homework | Discuss

MSNBC’s Martin Bashir asks former congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) if he would have preferred "the death of the president as opposed to bin Laden?” based on Tancredo’s assertion that “Mr. Obama is a more serious threat to America than al Qaeda”…

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