Oh yeah it blowed up.

Its worth noting that CNN, Wonkette, and Gawker were the only places that really looked into what happened, and CNN actually called Jay and Alvin Greene (who liked it!!). The New York Times and Newsweek were both fooled, and it isn’t like its not easy to trace it back to the source.

PS: You might want to check out some of Jay’s music because it’s lot of fun.

I’ll let Jasirix speak for himself here:

A few months ago, Tim Wise wrote a widely circulated article called, “Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black ” which challenged America to take a close look at the hypocrisy of the Right Wing. Now, a Pittsburgh rapper is accepting his challenge in true Hip Hop form. Jasiri X has released a video called “What if the Tea Party was Black.” The Hip Hop artist says that he got the idea when Paradise,a member of the pro-black rap group X-Clan, forwarded him a copy of Wise’s article. “I saw the article and I liked the concept,” says the rapper. So Jasiri hit the studio with producer Cynick Lethal while Paradise grabbed his video camera and they went on their mission to defeat the Right Wing propaganda machine.

LYRICS
What if the tea party was black
Holding guns like the Black Panther Party was back
If Al was Rush Limbaugh and Jesse was Sean Hannity
And Tavis was Glenn Beck would they harm they families
If Sarah Palin was suddenly Sistah Soaljah
Would they leave it with the votes or go and get the soldiers
Yall know if the tea party was black
The government would have been had the army attack

What if Michael Baisden was on ya FM dial
For 3 hours every day calling the president foul
Would they say free speech or find evidence how
To charge him with treason like see he’s unamerican now
What if Minister Farrakhan prayed for the death
Of the commander in chief that he be laid to rest
Would they treat it as the gravest threat or never make an arrest
Even today he’s still hated for less
What if President Obama would have lost the election
Quit his job so he could go talk to the left and
Bash the government for being off of direction
Fraught with deception
And told black people they want all of our weapons
And we want our own country and called for secession
Would he be arrested and tossed in corrections
For trying to foster aggression
Against the people’s lawful selection
Our questions

What if the tea party was black
Holding guns like the Black Panther Party was back
If Al was Rush Limbaugh and Jesse was Sean Hannity
And Tavis was Glenn Beck would they harm they families
If Sarah Palin was suddenly Sistah Soaljah
Would they leave it with the votes or go and get the soldiers
Yall know if the tea party was black
The government would have been had the army attack

What If black people went on Facebook and made a page
That for the death if the president elect we prayed
Would the creators be tazed and thrown in a cage
We know the page wouldn’t have been displayed all these days
What if Jeremiah Wright said that everybody white
Wasn’t a real America would you feel scared of him
If he had a militia with pictures that depict the president as Hitler
They would kill and bury that
Wait
What if Cynthia McKinney lamented the winning of the new president
And hinted he wasn’t really a true resident
With no proof or evidence
Would the media treat it like a huge press event
They would have attacked whatever group she represents
They would have called her a kook on precedent
And any network that gave her due preference
Would be the laughing stock of the news so our question is

What if the tea party was black
Holding guns like the Black Panther Party was back
If Al was Rush Limbaugh and Jesse was Sean Hannity
And Tavis was Glenn Beck would they harm they families
If Sarah Palin was suddenly Sistah Soaljah
Would they leave it with the votes or go and get the soldiers
Yall know if the tea party was black
The government would have been had the army attack

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/how-free-explains-israels-flotilla-fiasco/

I just don’t know where to start. The shameless plugging of the editor’s book, the idiotic (and overused anyway) usage of FAIL in the headline, the shocking lack of attention tot he details of the incident, the pandering nature of the artiicle to self-styles geeks, etc, etc. Wired has been bugging me with this sort of style for a long while now, yet this takes the cake. Usually their lazy journalism and cringe-inducing championing of “Geekdom” as a lifestyle and futurist BS just makes me want to bang my head against my desk, but this latest article actually makes me want to slap the writer in the face.

Some samples, I suppose, are in order.

To start with:

The organizers of the “Free Gaza” flotilla spent almost nothing on their campaign. The government of Israel poured millions into its botched raid on the ships — and now is in a worse position than when the flotilla launched. How did it happen? Part of the problem is that the Israeli government never bothered to read WIRED.

And then:

It was all so utterly predictable. In his book Free, WIRED editor Chris Anderson lays out a new media model that foreshadowed the flotilla meltdown.

And on and on the essay goes, glossing over the loss of life and seriousness of the situation to present us with more insight into how our digital lifestyle made this news visible to the world. Fair enough, but it’s done is such a hamfisted, self-congratulatory manner it makes me want to retch.

And…the conclusion to this mess?

While Israel is justifiably known as the world’s “Start-up Nation” for its technological dynamism and entrepreneurship, we are being beaten hands down on the PR uses of this new technology. We may be a start up nation, but we are bricks and mortar communicators. Our adversaries have cntrl-alt-del…

Reactions to some twitter people were as follows:

@dropkickpikachu good lord tell me that’s a satirical retweet please god

@shoegays The Gaza Flotilla massacre as told by Cory Doctorow

@lildanzig jesus christ that is AWFUL shit right there

@mydxmproblem lmao that’s deplorable

@shoegays “epic fail. nuke Israel from orbit with fire goonsire.” ~ wired

@leducviolet are u fucjikign kidding me???

@dropkickpikachu i want to kill myself

If nothing else I was shocked by the poor taste in which this article was written and how the tone ends up trivializing the whole affair. And I’m a fucking troll for God’s sake.

But wait, there more! Look what’s coming up, via @robbercat!

I’m GONNA COME ON DOWN WITH MY AR-15 AND SHOOT YOUR FUCKING ASS

Talk to Solomon about…PUMPY BEANIS (Warning: Awesome theme song):

Thank goodness there are nice people on the internet who put a stop to the shenanigans of bad men like him…

Demonstartors hold up a picture of Neda, the martyr of the new revolution

Well here is a bit of a break from the usual sarcasm and BS from this blog. If you want the latest news from Iran, turn to the Internet because the media in the US pretty much just wants to know who slept with who, or if Michael Jackson had a heart attack, or if your babies are still are in danger, ughgh. So, Al-Jazeera wins here with coverage culled from new media, including scenes of the basij just randomly gunning people down:

And here are several good news feeds for US/English-speaking people interested in the Iranian crisis/revolution/wtf:
Nico Pitney @HuffingtonPost:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/the-news/reporting/nico-pitney

Andrew Sullivan @TheAtlantic:
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/

The Lede blog @NewYorkTimes:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/25/latest-updates-on-irans-disputed-election-6/

PersianKiwi @Tiwtter has been…scarily…quiet the past couple of days:
http://twitter.com/PersianKiwi

Poor poor Neda(warning: dying, graphic:

And the Daily Show has been doing a good job, at least. Christ.