courtesy AI, i learn that the indy star's expresso blog is back! linking to this post from friday, gary writes:

Biddle likened Monroe Gray's tenure as the Council's President to Zip Coon, a derogatory, racial slur on black men dating to the days of slavery. The post makes some very salient points on the state of Democratic black leadership in the city right now, but most would agree the Zip Coon analogy is way over the top.

needless to say, if one week before an election, gary welsh agrees with you but thinks you went "way over the top" then you went way, way over the top. like stratospheric. (and note that this version of rishawn's post was "revised"..."to better reflect the overall point." and it was revised at least twice, since the version in the google cache [archived here for your convenience] is worded differently and has the more-offensive title "Didn't coonery end with slavery?", but still bears the same disclaimer at the bottom. one can only imagine how awful it was originally.)

naturally, gary doesn't link to this unrelated post also by rishawn biddle, explaining why the star endorsed mayor bart peterson and other democrats. biddle's point is that while peterson has his flaws, his opponent greg ballard has no real platform and a childlike grasp of politics. literally the only thing ballard has going for him is that he's Not-Bart-Peterson. that might be enough for gary and the "bart lies" crowd, but for those of us who don't live on bizarro world, it's not enough. being Not-Bush wasn't enough for john kerry (though these days i suspect it would be), and being Not-Peterson will not be enough for greg ballard.

at any rate, what do we make of this? is expresso back for good? will rishawn biddle fans (if any such creature exists) once again have a regular place to ready his musings? will expresso regain its coveted link from the star's front page, which it lost back in august? perhaps it'll even get a link on indy.com, the star's brand-new website, which is basically intake with comments (and minus the blog squad, who have been evicted from their blogging home... in fact i'm surprised that link still works, as everything else that used to be at intakeweekly.com has apparently been erased)? inquiring minds want to know.

update: rishawn has revised his "coonery" post yet again, this time removing the zip coon reference. here is the passage as it used to appear:

Then there's the embarrassing spectacle that is Monroe Gray, whose tenure as city-county council president is being marked by a lack of decorum during council sessions, the videos of himself on YouTube and responses to allegations of corruption that wouldn't be acceptable to a child who claimed his dog ate the homework. His act, more Zip Coon than honorable statesman, epitomizes the lack of seriousness some Black politicians show in their work; it's just inexcusable.

the phrase "more Zip Coon than honorable statesman" has been excised from the post.¶

Damn it, couldn't they let the thing die?

I don't have time to make fun of Rishawn every time he writes something stupid, and yet I feel morally obligated to do so.

Sigh. ¶

You're funny. According to some, John Kerry being "Not Bush" WAS enough, but that Jeb helped his brother out. ¶