Jon Stewart waded in to the contrived controversy last night on "The Daily Show," pointing out the lack of reading comprehension and hypocrisy on the part of those criticizing the Obama administration's invitation of the rapper to the White House.
Much of the criticism of Common stems from a 2007 spoken word poem in which conservatives allege the rapper encourages the shooting of police. In actuality, the poem argues against violence, Stewart concludes after reading it in its entirety. [more]
that got my attention because i noticed something similar in 2004, when swiftvet john o'neill attacked john kerry. in an interview on nightline, o'neill displayed what might very well have been poor reading comprehension as he cited a passage from kerry's book as "evidence" that the senator's heroism was exaggerated. check out my analysis here.
along slightly different lines, you might also want to review my comment on glenn beck's reading of a famous poem, here. it's timely, too. it's about illegal immigration.
now i'm starting to wonder if sub-par reading skills have anything to do with the tempest in the tea potty. have you noticed how some t-buggers seem to think we're getting taxed "without our consent", as the declaration of independence puts it? you'd have to reject (or misread) the constitution to reach that conclusion. article 1 section 8 clearly empowers congress to "lay and collect taxes...."
is it possible that not only bush's second term but much of the flak obama has taken are due to poor reading by voters?
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