"Why did Bush knock down the towers?"  That's a line in a rap song by Jadakiss, apparently blaming W for 9/11. I'd never heard of Jadakiss, but the song is making headlines -- like this Washington Post article -- for obvious reasons.

Now, all evidence points to Jadakiss being an idiot.  Bush didn't knock down the towers.  But in the United States I'd like to live in, you can write a song and not have a right-wing radio conglomerate step in to protect the man whose pocket they're in. But not in this era.  "Some stations" are apparently bleeping out the word "Bush." Each of the stations I've seen cited as bleeping it is owned by ClearChannel. Yet no one in the articles I could find has even asked ClearChannel if it's their policy to cut out the President's name.

When I've argued with right-wingers about previous outrageous ClearChannel behavior I always hear the same lame-ass argument that "it's not political, it's about not offending the listeners." Well, do you think a lot of the hip-hop demographic is going to object to some crack about Bush? The man won't even speak to the NAACP. And hey, if someone wants to write a good-enough-to-be-popular hip-hop song called "John Kerry killed my Mom," then by all means bring it on.

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