Ex-President [Expletive Deleted]

 

From September 15, 1973...

Mike Stivic:
Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate. Watergate!
Archie Bunker:
Don't say that no more, GODDAMN IT!
Edith Bunker:
You shouldn't swear like that.
Mike Stivic:
You shouldn't swear like that, Arch.
Edith Bunker:
Ever since this Watergate thing, it's GD this and GD that.
Archie Bunker:
That ain't swearing, Edith, GD. The first word there is God. How can that be a swear word? The most popular word in the Bible. The second word, that's damn, that's a perfectly good word, you hear that all the time, like they dammed the river to keep it from flooding, see? And even in the Bible you read where some guy is damned for cheating or stealing or having "insex" in the family. And who damned him? Who else? God. God damned him. Edith, beautiful words right out of the Holy Book. Don't show your ignorance!

The setting of linguistic standards for broadcast radio and television is a very fluid matter, and it runs in both directions - toward and away from absolute freedom of speech. In my high-school years, All in the Family pushed a lot of limits, using slang descriptions of ethnic groups and sexual orientations in the early 1970s that would be taboo on the air or in polite company in 2020. Their broadcast use of  the relatively mild expletive "Goddamn It!" also expanded freedom of televised speech in 1973, and even appended Archie's defense of the everyday expression of disapproval or exasperation. Slightly earlier, its use on the radio with the Grateful Dead's 1970 "Uncle John's Band" also broke broadcast barriers ("God damn well I declare | have you seen the like? | their walls are built of cannon balls | their motto is 'don't tread on me'" [a prophecy of the Tea Party?]) Now, however, because every mention of the words "God" and "damn" in combination will invoke the knee-jerk wrath of self-proclaimed guardians of American Fundamentalist Christianism, the networks have turned into cowards. As quoted in this NPR article "Bleeping Out Words" from 2009, the Standards & Practices department of All in the Family's old network CBS replied via email: "No gd on cbs." NBC also told NPR "As a general rule, we would not permit 'GD' to be used on our air. We would bleep one or the other...usually the first word." All of this network cowardice, despite the fact that the FCC does not consider "God damn" or its variants to be legally profane.

This is all to show that definitions of profanity change, so there is no reason that the "T-word" -- the family name of the person who is currently squatting in the White House for 70 more days -- should be heard on America's airwaves anymore. It can easily become the eighth word to join the Seven Words You Can't Say on TV, and I can stop using it here on my blog even though it's been used in almost every single post since 2015. Standards can change. The euphemisms You-Know-Who, or Mango Mussolini, or Adolf Twitler, or Cheeto Jesus, or Orange Julius Caesar, or Cadet Bone Spurs, or Putin's Puppet, or Putin's Puppy, or Short-Fingered Vulgarian, or Sore Loserman, or Diaper Don, or The Whiner In Chief, or Bunker Boy, or Trumpelthinskin, or The Groper In Chief, or The Dick Tater, or The ImPOTUS, or Tangerine Trash-Can Fire, or Lame Duck à l'Orange, or... , can all be used in place of the T-word without losing any meaning, or causing any confusion about the subject of one's sentence.

A Poll About @realDonaldTrump's Tweets Without an Obvious Answer

Trump's tweets from July 1, 2016 at 10:10 AM EDT.

This morning, for the third morning in a row, the official presidential statements in tweet form from the account of @realDonaldTrump have been used to attack "Crazy Joe Scarborough" and "dumb as a rock Mika" Brzezinski; he also threw in shots at NBC, Comcast, and CNN. Over ten percent of his tweets since becoming president have been targeting journalists, aimed at the "failing New York Times" and "Amazon Washington Post" as well as CBS and ABC. They are all, in his opinion, "Fake News," and his supporters are buying it. Only Fox News, Breitbart, Infowars, and The National Enquirer escape the wrath of his little twitterfingers.


So here's the question. With more news breaking every day about the pre-election collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to affect the November results, isn't it in his interest to do everything he can to discredit the messengers who are reporting #TrumpRussia breakthroughs every day?

POLL
Are the non-stop media attacks from @realDonaldTrump the rantings of an elderly TV addict or a conscious attempt to kill the messenger?

— True Blue Liberal (@TrueBlueLiberal) July 1, 2017

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Saturday Evening Update:
The Tweeter In Chief ended this day the same way he started it, while also adding the phrase "Modern Day Presidential" to the language.

Trump's Tweets from 7/1/2017 captured at 8:30PM EDT.

Making Saturday Night Live Great Again!

I never believed in the summer of 2015 that Donald Trump was actually serious about running for president, and the fact that his kids couldn't figure out how to register as Republicans in the New York primary will always stand in my mind as proof of that. Some say it was just another attempt to increase the TRUMP brand's visibility, some say it was just an ego trip, some say it was part of a negotiating strategy with NBC over his Celebrity Apprentice contract, but I'm going to suggest another possibility: Maybe Trump was working with his employers at NBC to increase the appeal of a floundering Saturday Night Live franchise by giving it a joke presidential candidate to spice up an election year that was threatening to be a Bush vs. Clinton snoozefest.

The Alec Baldwin performances as Donald Trump gave SNL new life and high ratings as NBC employee Trump pretended to be offended, but the show reached a new height last night when the accidental president's press secretary Sean Spicer was portrayed by Melissa McCarthy. I've been watching SNL on and off since it began in 1975 and at the moment I can't think of anything funnier than this. I can't stop watching it.


Sorry Sean Spicer, but this is one of those defining performances. Just as no one can see Sarah Palin speak without thinking of Tina Fey's "I can see Russia from my house" imitation, no future press conference of yours will ever be seen without Melissa McCarthy's impression in the back of every viewer's mind.

Thanks SNL.


~~~~~~~~~~
Update 2/5/2017 at 8pm:
The Trump/NBC conspiracy to Make SNL Great Again has officially succeeded.  According to Variety today, the show has its best ratings in 22 years thanks to Donald Trump's antics and attacks.

Another Typical Television Day of All Trump All The Time

At this rate of overexposure we'll be sick of him before he and Melania even begin to upgrade all the drapes and upholstery in the White House with solid gold threads.

The Twitter feed of @realDonaldTrump on the morning after the Indiana primary, May 4, 2016.

Enjoy!

"...Patty's only seen the sights a girl can see from Brooklyn Heights..."

After hearing the news about Patty Duke passing away today at the age of 69, here's the song I'll have stuck in my head for the rest of the day; it should be stuck in yours too.



Meet Cathy, who's lived most everywhere,
From Zanzibar to Barclay Square.
But Patty's only seen the sights
A girl can see from Brooklyn Heights — What a crazy pair!

But they're cousins,
Identical cousins all the way.
One pair of matching bookends,
Different as night and day.
Where Cathy adores a minuet,
The Ballet Russes, and crêpes suzette,
Our Patty loves to rock and roll,
A hot dog makes her lose control — What a wild duet!
Still, they're cousins,
Identical cousins and you'll find,
They laugh alike, they walk alike,
At times they even talk alike —
You can lose your mind,
When cousins are two of a kind.
(Sid Ramin / Bob Wells)

Network News Sums Up Woodstock for the Nation on August 18, 1969

Here's Walter Cronkite and the CBS News team. Be sure to watch the John Laurence commentary after the commercials for Carnation Slender and Friskies dog food:


Here's Frank Reynolds' ABC broadcast, in which Howard K. Smith's commentary sees Woodstock as a precursor of future overpopulation:


And here's a young Lem Tucker reporting from the scene for NBC:

It's too bad that there was no such thing as cable news in August 1969 so that Fox News could tell us how awful it really was.

The Last Nation on Earth to Be Lecturing About 21st-Century Invasion Ethics

"You just don’t in the 21st century behave in 19th century fashion by invading another country on completely trumped up pretext." --US Secretary of State John Kerry on Face the Nation, 2 March 2014

To show that this was the official unironic talking point of the US State Department, here was his statement when he moved from CBS's Sunday talking heads show to NBC's.

"You just don’t invade another country on phony pretext in order to assert your interests.” --US Secretary of State John Kerry on Meet the Press, 2 March 2014

"You" don't.

Only we do.

2016 GOP Clown Circus Update: The New Fat Clown Throws His Hat Into the Ring

VOTE FOR ME!!

It has seemed clear all along that the role of the fat egotistical clown played so well by Newt Gingrich in 2012's GOP Clown Circus would be filled by Chris "Krispy Kreme" Christie in 2016, and the Governor of New Jersey made his ambitions obvious at the end of last week when he vetoed a ban on .50 caliber sniper rifles, a ban which he had proposed just last April.  He announced his veto on a Friday evening when the local news outlets might miss it, but the gun rights groups keeping score on such matters definitely would not.

It's official. He's running for the GOP Presidential nomination and a place at one of the 8 or 9 podiums (podia?) on the traveling 2016 GOP Clown Circus stages.

While having the role of the fat egotistical clown filled is good news for Clown Circus aficionados, there was bad news on Friday as well. The Republican National Committee and its chairman who goes by the improbable name "Reince Priebus" announced that CNN and NBC would not be allowed to host episodes of the highly-anticipated 2016 Clown Circus because those networks are considering the broadcast of a documentary and a miniseries featuring presumed Democratic candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.  The RNC's real goal, of course, is simply to deny us the pleasure of seeing their clowns showing their true colors on two more networks.  If "Reince" could, he'd simply anoint Jeb Bush or Paul Ryan or Chris Christie with the title of nominee without any of the party's dirty laundry being aired for the entertainment and edification of America's voters.

Today's Fine White Whine

"It's not really a bunch of whining, it's just us telling them what we're going to do about it, that's all," the man who uses the alias 'Reince Priebus' whined yesterday.

"Them" in the above quotation are the CNN and NBC television networks.
"Us" is the Grand Old Political Party of which 'Reince Priebus' is the chairman.
What they're "going to do about it" is restrict those networks' rights to broadcast portions of the entertaining 2016 GOP Clown Circus if the networks continue with their plans to broadcast documentaries on Hillary Clinton.

"Waaaah Waaaah Waaaah," Mr. 'Priebus' concluded.

Mitt Romney to Polar Bears: "Your Freeloading Days Are Over."

I didn't see Mitt Romney interviewed by David Gregory on Meet the Press yesterday, but I've now seen a few choice quotes. Just as the most memorable line from his convention speech (for me) was this one: "President Obama promised to begin to slow the rise of the oceans and to heal the planet. [GOP conventioneers snickering and jeering] My promise ... is to help you and your family. [cheers] ", the most jarring line from the Gregory interview I saw was this one:

"I’m not in this race to slow the rise of the oceans or to heal the planet. I’m in this race to help the American people." -- Mitt Romney, August 9, 2012

It's obviously a memorized and well-rehearsed talking point.

Fuck you polar bears. Fuck you planet. Fuck you grandkids.

It's not a photo or video or song that comes to my mind when I think of this shortsighted profit-driven anti-environmentalism. When I think of the world after the ravages of human-influenced climate change, it's these lines from Section V, "What The Thunder Said," in Eliot's "The Waste Land" that come to mind.

Here is no water but only rock
Rock and no water and the sandy road
The road winding above among the mountains
Which are mountains of rock without water
If there were water we should stop and drink	335
Amongst the rock one cannot stop or think
Sweat is dry and feet are in the sand
If there were only water amongst the rock
Dead mountain mouth of carious teeth that cannot spit
Here one can neither stand nor lie nor sit	340
There is not even silence in the mountains
But dry sterile thunder without rain
There is not even solitude in the mountains
But red sullen faces sneer and snarl
From doors of mud-cracked houses                                 If there were water	345
And no rock
If there were rock
And also water
And water
A spring	350
A pool among the rock
If there were the sound of water only
Not the cicada
And dry grass singing
But sound of water over a rock	355
Where the hermit-thrush sings in the pine trees
Drip drop drip drop drop drop drop
But there is no water

#MittsMissingReturns (Part Seven) -- Romney finds one issue on which he's 100% consistent

He may flip flop on gun control and a woman's right to choose and support for Saint Ronald Reagan and global warming and his support for the US auto industry and ... and ... but there is one area where Mitt Romney is as solid as Gibraltar, his refusal to release his tax returns for any years before 2010.

Here he is being asked about them once more by Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News last night. Note especially the little facial contortion and chortle that I like to refer to as "Mitt's Lying Smile" at the 25 second mark when he says "hundreds of pages of returns". Look for it every time he is pressed on his tax and business secrecy.

I'm following the same precedent that was put in place by John McCain. Two years, and by the way, hundreds [smile] of pages [chortle] of returns for the Democrat [sic] operatives to go through and twist and distort and to turn in different directions and try and make a big deal out of. But, you know, the American people are not real concerned about tax returns. --Mitt Romney

It's not your job to tell us what we, the American people, may or may not be "real concerned about".  That may work in the CEO world where you can tell your employees what to think, but not in the political world where mere plebeians are allowed to question you.

~~~~~~~~~
Catch up with previous installments in the #MittsMissingReturns saga by clicking below:

• #MittsMissingReturns [part one], July 3 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Two), July 6 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Three),  July 10
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Four) -- In a Nutshell, July 14 
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Five) -- In Which Mitt Romney Gives a Typically Squirrelly Response, July 16
• #MittsMissingReturns (Part Six) -- Herman Cain Weighs In, July 25

Retroactive Retirements, Etch-a-Sketches, and Neuralyzers -- so many ways for Romney to dodge responsibility

In case you missed it on Meet the Press this morning, here's the video of Mitt Romney Senior Advisor Ed Gillespie saying that Romney "actually retired retroactively" from Bain Capital in 2002, thereby trying to avoid responsibility for anything that happened while Mitt was CEO there between 1999 and 2002.

#Retroactively quickly became a trending hashtag on Twitter earlier today, with tweets about everything from Seamus Romney retroactively riding inside the car to Mitt Romney retroactively retiring from the Massachusetts Governorship immediately before the signing of Romneycare (one of mine).
 It took on the viral character of that earlier famous Etch-a-Sketch moment started by this remark from another Romney Senior Advisor, Eric Fehrnstrom, on CNN back in March:

Mitt Romney personally offered yet one more metaphor for this desire to induce amnesia in American voters who might notice his flipping and flopping -- the Neuralyzer used by Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in Men in Black:
 

The real issue here is why Mitt Romney is running from his whole history.

• Why is he running from his Bain experience when his experience as a businessman is his one (specious) argument for why he would be a better President than Barack Obama?
• Why is he running from his major accomplishment as Governor of Massachusetts, the health care act that helped insure many uninsured people and served as one of the models for the program he now refers to dismissively as "Obamacare"?
• Why is he running from Mormon experience as missionary and bishop in the Mormon church? Is he afraid of being connected with the White Horse Prophecy?

And to get back to the specifics of today's claim, if the Romney people on all the Sunday talk shows were saying that he was inactive in his role of CEO at Bain Capital between 1999-2002 because he was too busy working on the Salt Lake City Olympics, doesn't that work against him too?  Shouldn't any high-powered executive applying for the job of President be able to run a Utah Ice Show and a Boston Vulture Capitalism firm at the same time? Doesn't Barack Obama seem like he'd be able to add an Olympics to his portfolio with no problem?

Live from Tampa at Nine EST: "Leeches & Shaved Heads & Tear Gas, Oh My! -- Part 1"

The elite liberal media giant NBC has an interesting description for tonight's GOP Debate on my (elite liberal media giant) Time Warner Cable guide page.

According to independent listings and television ads,  NBC will be showing the Tampa debate between the final four clowns looking for the honor of losing to President Obama in November at nine tonight.  And while it may be extremely clever and poetically very accurate for the peacock network to title the debate "Fear Factor" and subtitle it "Leeches & Shaved Heads & Tear Gas, Oh My! -- Part 1", doing so certainly betrays their elite intellectual East Coast sympathies and aesthetics.

The Quote of the Day: Maureen Dowd Describes Hell in Less than 100 Words

Here's yet another reason to kill your television. In her column in this morning's New York Times, "The Biggest Loser," about the wrong-headed scheduling moves of NBC chief Jeff Zucker, Maureen Dowd describes the television norm against which Mr. Zucker has sinned by shuffling Jay Leno between traditional late night and primetime slots:

"… older Americans … have always watched the networks in a particular way. The kids come home, do their homework, the family has dinner. They’re in front of the TV by 8, and 8:30 is known as the dog-walking slot. At 9, it’s time for more comedy. As they get tired, they like to watch a fictional drama that leads into the real drama of the late local news. And then they like to laugh again so that those images of war or a local murder are not the last thing they see before bed."

Hell in 95 words, and one of the reasons explaining why so many Americans would prefer to work late at the office.

MSNBC does the right thing (for the obvious reason); all pressure now shifts to CBS

ALL ABOUT THE MONEY

It may turn out to seem like a Pyrrhic victory when some right-wing pressure group leans on sponsors to get rid of something we like on the radio (though we only listen to NPR, which doesn't have sponsors), but for now it's just a victory. It was for the money (or fear of losing it) that major American corporations, afraid of being tarred as sponsors of racism, caused another major American corporation, NBC Universal (a subsidiary of General Electric), to pull the plug on the cameras this evening.

It would have been nice if NBC has made the decision immediately, a week ago, for less mercenary reasons, but it still feels good to know that this insult against the Scarlet Knights, women, and African Americans, has finally been appropriately addressed. The online announcement included the key lines here:

The network’s decision came after a growing list of sponsors — including American Express Co., Staples Inc., Procter & Gamble Co., and General Motors Corp. — said they were pulling ads from Imus’ show for the indefinite future.

But it did not end calls for Imus to be fired from the radio portion of his program. The show originates from WFAN-AM in New York City and is syndicated nationally by Westwood One, both of which are managed by CBS Corp. For its part, CBS has not announced plans to discontinue the show.

If the sponsors don't get to WFAN to pull the plug on his microphone, then the pressure has to be put on athletes to follow Cal Ripken's example and refuse to deal with Imus or his sports-talk station. I don't think it will take even that much though. CBS will not want to look more racist than NBC. It's as simple as that, or it should be.

OBAMA & HILLARY ARE TIED

Later in the MSNBC announcement was this bit about Barack Obama's statement today on Imus and the young women of Rutgers:

Before the announcement was made, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) had appeared on the MSNBC program "Hardball," where host David Gregory asked the senator and presidential candidate if he thought Imus should be fired.

"I don't think MSNBC should be carrying the kinds of hateful remarks that Imus uttered the other day," Obama said.

He went on to note that he and his wife have "two daughters who are African-American, gorgeous, tall, and I hope, at some point, are interested enough in sports that they get athletic scholarships. ... I don't want them to be getting a bunch of information that, somehow, they're less than anybody else. And I don't think MSNBC should want to promote that kind of language."

Obama went on to say that he would not be a guest on Imus' show in the future.

So, based on the statement I made in my last entry, both Obama and Clinton gained a point today in my early calculations to see who I'm voting for in the New Jersey primary next year.

crossposted from BeatVisitor.com (a Rutgers football blog)

Al Roker proves me wrong, but where are his colleagues?

http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/10/116906.aspx

Yesterday I asked: "Where are the high profile CBS and NBC personalities? Are they working behind the scenes to cleanse the racism from their organization? Do any of them have the guts to actually speak out about this stain on the network that feeds them? "

Well, here's one, as far as I know the first one, Al Roker, and he does so with logic and without pulling his punches:

The “I’m a good person who said a bad thing” apology doesn’t cut it. At least he didn’t try to weasel out of this by hiding behind alcohol or drug abuse. Still, he said it and a two-week suspension doesn’t cut it. It is, at best, a slap on the wrist. A vacation. Nothing.

The general manager of Cartoon Network resigned after a publicity stunt went wrong and caused a panic in Boston. He did the right thing. Don Imus should do the right thing and resign. Not talk about taking a two-week suspension with dignity. I don’t think Don Imus gets it.

After watching and listening to him this morning during an interview with Matt Lauer, Don Imus doesn’t get it. Maybe it’s being stuck in a studio for 35 years or being stuck in the 1980’s. Either way, it’s obvious that he needs to move on. Citing “context within a comedy show” is not an excuse.

He has to take his punishment and start over. Guess what? He’ll get re-hired and we’ll go on like nothing happened. CBS Radio and NBC News needs to remove Don Imus from the airwaves. That is what needs to happen. Otherwise, it just looks like profits and ratings rule over decency and justice.
(http://allday.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2007/04/10/116906.aspx)

THANK YOU AL, but where are your white colleagues? Without a broad multi-hued opposition, we'll continue to see comments like those at the bottom of your blog entry -- the typical boilerplate racist defenses of Imus and non-sequiturial and nonsensical attacks on Al Sharpton and gangster rappers (I didn't read them all, but you just know that some "wit" has already decided to call you "Reverend Al Roker").

crossposted from BeatVisitor.com

UPDATE 11 April 07:
PLEASE READ THE FIRST COMMENT BELOW FROM ANONYMOUS FOR ANOTHER UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE ON "IMUS IN THE MORNING".

This Is No Longer About "Don Imus", It's About the Racism of CBS and NBC

When Don Imus said to Al Sharpton this afternoon, "I can't get anyplace with you people," it became more obvious than ever that he lives in a world that is sharply divided between black and white. "You people" can only be taken one way. The other key statement from his interview with Reverend Sharpton is that he has no intention of resigning. It's also clear, after 40 years in the business, that he's not changing his stripes. He is who he is, and he's not leaving on his own.

The FCC (according to reports on CBS News tonight) will take no action because no nipples or f-words were involved.

So, with neither resignation nor government action imminent, the ball is now totally in the court of CBS (owner of his radio outlet) and NBC (owner of his television simulcaster). They either need to pull the plug on his microphone, or they are officially condoning racist slurs and the ability of old men to comment on the appearance and sexual habits of very young women.

This evening MSNBC administered its first wrist slap, but a two-week hiatus in the simulcast cannot be considered a punishment

And by the way, "You People" does not just include the "You People" of whom Al Sharpton is a member. There is also the sexist component of the term "nappy-headed hos" that has millions of women understandably upset. Here is an easy to follow campaign organized by the National Organization for Women that will help you send letters to the appropriate people at CBS and NBC.

Where are the high profile CBS and NBC personalities? Are they working behind the scenes to cleanse the racism from their organization? Do any of them have the guts to actually speak out about this stain on the network that feeds them? THAT probably would lead to a firing. This is America in 2007, where you can say anything you want about people younger and darker and weaker than you, but leave your bosses alone.

Where are the high profile professional athletes? How quickly would WFAN-AM in New York drop Imus if Derek Jeter and Eli Manning and David Wright refused to interact with that sports radio station until the I-man was gone? I'm pleased to see that Cal Ripken is the first guest to cancel a scheduled Imus appearance, so maybe that wall is breaking too, but it is amazing to see, over and over again, how people get more cowardly when they have more to lose.

If the NBCBS overlords don't drop him soon the Rutgers football Scarlet-White Game on April 21 will become the "April 21 Anti-Imus Rutgers Stadium Rally."

--------------------------------
UPDATE: Now CBS Radio has suspended Imus for two weeks "due to the events of the past week." (i.e., the protests, not the hateful comments about Rutgers women made on April 4). If he comes back onto CBS radio and MSNBC simulcasting in 2 weeks, it means that NBCBS is knowingly rehiring a racist, and the protest, at least on this site, will be twice as loud.

and in Sports news . . .

Can you find the one remaining Imus fan in Rutgers Stadium? (Click to Enlarge)

Is there ANY reason that Don Imus and his two stooges haven't been fired yet for their recent racist remarks on the radio and on MSNBC??
Another inevitable empty Imus apology ("Sorry, we were all drunk and senile again") should not be enough.

This is from the April 4 edition of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning (I've copied this transcript from the Media Matters for America site where there's also a video record of this racist outrage):

IMUS: So, I watched the basketball game last night between -- a little bit of Rutgers and Tennessee, the women's final.

ROSENBERG: Yeah, Tennessee won last night -- seventh championship for Pat Summitt, I-Man. They beat Rutgers by 13 points.

IMUS: That's some rough girls from Rutgers. Man, they got tattoos and --

McGUIRK: Some hard-core hos.

IMUS: That's some nappy-headed hos there. I'm gonna tell you that now, man, that's some -- woo. And the girls from Tennessee, they all look cute, you know, so, like -- kinda like -- I don't know.

McGUIRK: A Spike Lee thing.

IMUS: Yeah.

McGUIRK: The Jigaboos vs. the Wannabes -- that movie that he had.

IMUS: Yeah, it was a tough --

McCORD: Do The Right Thing.

McGUIRK: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

IMUS: I don't know if I'd have wanted to beat Rutgers or not, but they did, right?

ROSENBERG: It was a tough watch. The more I look at Rutgers, they look exactly like the Toronto Raptors.

IMUS: Well, I guess, yeah.

RUFFINO: Only tougher.

McGUIRK: The Grizzlies would be more appropriate.

PLEASE WRITE TO MSNBC HERE: viewerservices@msnbc.com and Imus@msnbc.com
More contact information on their Contact Page. I don't have cable TV, so I'm telling them why I'm boycotting all other NBC outlets. What you want to tell them is up to you.

I posted this same transcript late last night on BeatVisitor.com, but the more I think about it, the more angry I get, and the more I want to get the message out that this is totally unacceptable in the mainstream American media. It is certainly more offensive than any imaginable televised wardrobe malfunction, but this morning WNBC (New York) has a poll on their article about this incident in which only 27% of the respondents say that what Imus said deserves punishment.

Imagine that we were talking about Rutgers football instead of women's basketball.

Imagine we run across a newspaper from 1917 in which the great Paul Robeson of Rutgers is being described as ugly and "nappy-headed"and being compared to the "cute" Princeton backfield of Mitt Buffington, Peter "Pippi" Longstocking, and P.T. Boatwright the Fourth. Of course we'd call it a sad remnant of America's shameful racist past.

BUT WHAT IS DON IMUS DOING ON NATIONAL RADIO AND TV IN THE 21ST CENTURY???

Just asking, True Blue Liberal (Rutgers College Class of 1978)

Congratulations to the beautiful Rutgers Women for making it to the NCAA Championship Game. Next year the title is theirs!

--------------------
ADDED CONTACT INFORMATION, 6 April 07 @ 8:30 pm: Because MSNBC keeps on disclaiming responsibility for anything broadcast by Imus, here's the contact information for his radio station
WFAN (A CBS Company)
Email: fanmail@wfan.com (use a catchy subject line)
Main Phone Number: 718-706-7690
On-Air hotline to talk with our hosts: 718-937-6666Contest Line: 800-821-6611
Mailing Address:
WFAN-AM
34-12 36th Street
Astoria, NY 11106
So he's simulateously appearing on a CBS outlet and an NBC outlet? Is this racist somewhere on ABC too?

ADDED CONTACT INFORMATION, 7 April 07 @ 9:30 am: Here's a list of the 96 radio stations on which he appears around the country (ZERO in the proud state of New Jersey!) in case you want to write to your local Imus outlet.
In the Boston Herald this morning, the response to the local station is noted:

Phil Redo, vice president and market manager for Greater Media Boston, which owns WTKK (96.9 FM), said the Boston station hadn’t received any complaints.
“I can’t defend it because it’s indefensible,” Redo said of the remarks. “I’m glad that he apologized and he should have. It was a stupid comment. It was a terrible thing to say.” [emphasis added]

Even just one email or phone call to these local stations (cc'd to local sponsors) should have some ripples. If you hear a response to any of your complaints, please let me know in the comments.