Tony's Rap

April 30, 2005 10:24 AM

Tony's rap. Blair, Bush, Blunkett and co, with a little help from Michael Jackson. By way of Counterpunch, where Alexander Coburn has unearthed a woodpecker conspiracy. Someone is being kept out of the news, he says, because it doesn't make a good story to have an extinct bird discovered by a member of the NRA.
posted by TimothyMason (15 comments total)

that gbjab thing is cute--why the woodpecker stuff tho?

(and who's the guy at the very end?)
posted by amberglow at 10:48 AM on April 30, 2005

Urban environmentalists have always been prejudiced
against hunters, because of the killing, or their utilitarian
view of the wilderness, or the behaviour of rapacious
hunters in the past (passenger pigeons, egrets, bison).
For example, Aldo Leopold 's legacy as an environmental
writer has suffered because of his descriptions of hunting.

For the most part, hunters and environmentalists want the
same thing, just for different reasons.
posted by the Real Dan at 10:58 AM on April 30, 2005

who's the guy at the very end?
This guy

why the woodpecker stuff tho?

An attempt to derail my own thread?
posted by TimothyMason at 11:07 AM on April 30, 2005

ahhh : >

go for it then, i guess. it seems more like 2 threads smooshed into one
posted by amberglow at 11:09 AM on April 30, 2005

But there is a connection.
posted by TimothyMason at 11:10 AM on April 30, 2005

but publicizing their dirty work undoes it, no?
posted by amberglow at 11:42 AM on April 30, 2005

Separated at birth?
posted by madamjujujive at 11:43 AM on April 30, 2005

Couldn't the NRA pretty easily "take care of" that silly endangered woodpecker so that Bush can go about bulldozing and drilling for oil?
posted by thedevildancedlightly at 11:45 AM on April 30, 2005

Plenty of NRA members are active conservationists, not to mention that most Fish and Game officials and biologists are themselves hunters and fishermen. I'm not at all surprised that a hunter would a) be the one to spot the rare birds or that b) he would know exactly what he saw and be able to describe it. I am surprised people are making such a big deal out of it.
posted by fshgrl at 11:51 AM on April 30, 2005

oo--he does look like Grimley : >
posted by amberglow at 11:52 AM on April 30, 2005

Along the lines of what the Real Dan said, there are plenty of red state hunters and fishermen who are fed up with the Bush Administration's savaging of environmental protections.

fshgrl: sorry it is a pronoun thing.
posted by mlis at 12:04 PM on April 30, 2005

publicizing their dirty work undoes it, no?

Not really. Politics is now thoroughly post-modern. Underhand moves and wiley strategems are out in the open where they can be admired for their cynicism. Think Mitterand, Berlusconi, Chirac.
posted by TimothyMason at 12:07 PM on April 30, 2005

Tony's Rap. Interesting. It credits a professional production company called itsjuice and has ten names on the credits, but it looks pretty rough. Either they were trying for a home-made look or they were in a hurry.
posted by TheophileEscargot at 12:21 PM on April 30, 2005

Wow. That was terrible.
posted by ddf at 12:53 PM on April 30, 2005

The only things missing from the bit on the Ivory Bill sightings is evidence of intentional suppression of the role of the individual in question, and the establishment of any credible demonstration that, if such putative suppression occurred, it is connected to either the role of hunting in his story or his connection to the NRA. Am I reading this right that the author is contending that "big environmental groups" impose "official environmentalist narrative[s]" of events by controlling the what news the New York Times and the Associated Press report, in order to improve the character of these stories for fundraising purposes?
posted by nanojath at 8:05 PM on April 30, 2005