For two weeks now, I've been biting my tongue about former CBS host Don Imus and comments he made on a broadcast regarding the Rutgers women's basketball team. The phrase "nappy headed hos" has been thrown around far too much, and as a journalist, I'm the last one who wants to give him any more unnecessary publicity.

Now Imus, who also works with WFAN-AM/New York is reportedly suing the corporation for $120 million. In the draft of suits, allegedly Imus argues that the network expected his content to be both controversial and irreverent, and that his comments did not violate FCC rules.

I'm a journalist, and I love the First Amendment. Because of it, I'm able to say what I've got to say, publish articles that people take offense to, and blog on this and other websites. But people need to expect that when they say things that are deviant from society's norms, an audience will get riled up.

I'm a college student, and an editor at my campus newspaper, and because of a story I ran and a source I used, it is likely that someone will be sued. I knew it going in, and Imus knew that his commentary about the women of Rutgers would cause some backlash. Did he think that he would get fired? That's unlikely. But unfortunately in this society, words have recourse.

I'm from Kansas City and have been following the Imus controversy through the sports columns of Jason Whitlock. My boyfriend said that he has made some of the most profound commentary on race and has emerged into this arena level-headed and with a fresh perspective. I agree.

Like Whitlock, I think we need to really, really open our eyes. As a black woman, I'm not threatened by Imus and don't feel like less of a person.

The women of Rutgers are still good basketball players and likely still good people. One ignorant comment did not change their season or personalities. I feel like by talking about this issue so much, we've just worsened the actual comment and magnified it.

If we're going to target one guy for an inappropriate comment, we should be targeting all of rap and hip hop for comments made in a similar vein. I'm not pissed off about Imus; I am simply disinterested.

Don Imus — please just shut up. I can't take another second of you in the spotlight, really. So you're out of a job, but you just got hours and hours of free publicity in exchange for espousing racist and sexist views on air.

I can't help but wonder what would happen if Imus tried to create a media circus and nobody came. Imagine a courtroom not crowded with reporters and interested individuals. Imagine if his face wasn't on our televisions and his voice didn't echo on the radio constantly…Imagine if Imus went back to what he was before — an insignificant, meaningless shock jock. I'd be happier.

So would everyone else.

Juana Maria Summers

I don’t know, but like some spellbinder straight out of a Tolkien book, President Bush has worked his magic again.

Democrats were failing to muster the required votes in the House to override Bush’s veto of a war-spending bill last week, and given the sad state of anti-war assertiveness within Democratics on the Hill, it seems Bush’s desired no-strings-attached funding may not be beyond hope.

Despite polls vastly supporting the Democratic positions in the war-torn nation — polls like the April 26 Gallup questionnaire indicating 57 percent of Americans support setting a timetable for removing troops from Iraq, whereas only 39 percent supported Bush’s proposal to keep troops in as long as necessary to achieve victory — the Democratic leadership still appears weary to stake a stand against the administration policy of indefinite deployment.

As Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin told The New York Times, "There is virtually no one in our caucus who does not want to be associated with trying to get us out of this war. The only thing that is slowing some of them is the fear that somehow they will be accused of doing something that will put the troops at risk. The desire for political comfort is still overwhelming the best judgment even of some Democrats."

Translation: The Democrats are so afraid of making any politically exploitable misstep on Iraq or looking soft on national security that they are failing the American people and the troops.

Nothing “supports the troops,” to use the inane slogan the administration PR geniuses coined so effectively, more than getting them out of harm's way in an endless, goal-less conflict which has catastrophically increased instability in the region and continues to aid terrorist recruiters in finding new members.

I am with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. The Democrats should revoke the war powers granted to the president and send Bush a memo straight from the majority of Americans: The game is up. Add an end to this open-ended debacle and do what is truly best for the troops. Stop making their enlistments and tours of duty in Iraq longer.

The only thing Democrats would surrender by setting a withdrawal date from Iraq, after all, is another failed policy by what history will surely remember as one of our worst administrations.

In The Fray Contributor

It's time for you, the little guy, to take a minute to try to make the world a better place. Then tell two friends. And have them tell two…

First, on June 26, the ACLU hopes to deliver a 10,000-signature petition to Congress urging them to:

1. Restore habeas corpus and due process.
2. Pass the Restoring the Constitution Act of 2007.
3. End the torture and abuse in secret prisons.
4. Stop extraordinary rendition: secretly kidnapping people and sending them to countries that torture.
5. Close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay and give those held there access to justice.
6. Investigate wrongdoing and ensure those who broke the law are held accountable.
7. Restore American values and the rule of law.

I know it's a tall order, but a girl can dream. So please, go sign it (via Boing Boing, of course).

After you do that, take another minute to help out the fellow little guys. From the Free Press website: "Postal regulators have accepted a proposal from media giant Time Warner that would stifle small and independent publishers in America. The plan unfairly burdens smaller publishers with higher postage rates while locking in special privileges for bigger media companies." Now, is that fair? Don't we just hate that? Then go sign it.

Jennifer Leblanc

There should be a rule on how grandiose a self-gratifying claim can be. For example, last week Bill O’Reilly used his Web and newspaper column to glad-hand himself for “knowing” that Rosie O’Donnell would leave “The View.”

Reading it, you would have thought Mr. O. was pulling strings behind the scenes as some well-respected newsman, instead of just being a steamy pile of upper-class, Bush-voting crap.

But that’s Bill: he makes outlandish claims because he thinks he’s bigger than Guy Fawkes Day. This week, however, Bill has gone too far.

People who watch his drivel on TV will be familiar with his recent inspired ranting against Virginia Beach Chief of Police Jake Jacocks, who did not call Homeland Security over Alfredo Ramos, an illegal immigrant, who had had four run-ins with the law. This has Bill miffed — and maybe rightly so — because on March 30 Ramos killed 17-year-old Alison Kunhardt and 16-year-old Tessa Tranchant when he drunkenly hit their car. Of course Bill felt Ramos should have been sent back to Mexico already, before this tragedy occurred.

Virginia Beach’s Jacocks didn’t share this idea because Ramos had not been a violent offender. More pragmatically Jacocks said he didn’t want to get federal authorities involved, possibly because Feds don’t play well with the locals; Feds like to have a lot of power and that’s something of an issue with people who like freedom. This fact has got Bill, who apparently thinks the Feds should have a camera in every home and a tracker on every computer, angrier than a pit bull in a room full of cats.

Under duress with the bad press he was getting all around, Jacocks changed the policies of his department.

What does Bill say?

“After my reporting battered the government of Virginia Beach, it has changed its dangerous and irresponsible policy. But Jacocks got in a last shot calling me, your humble correspondent, ‘pathetic.’”

Did you read that? He claims it was his reporting that changed things and then has the audacity to call himself humble. I’d call that an oxymoron if that were not two syllables more than what O’Reilly is.

The fact is that Bill wasn’t the only person “reporting” on the Ramos case. It got a lot of attention in the press (I’m betting he got it from the AP) and the public was angered. O’Reilly didn’t do anything, the people did. But The Culture Warrior is not above hyperbole.

My whole point is that people responding to the policies of their government make changes — not middle-aged white men pontificating from inside of a box. Anyone who thinks they do may require therapy.

However, maybe Bill is on to something. Maybe everyone with a forum for opinion should use that to make claims that they are the ones that make the differences.

All right, here is mine: I’m the reason Lindsey Lohan is doing so well with rehab. You see, I’ve publicly stated that she is a “hotty” several times but that I don’t like “drunks.” Hearing this Lindsey must have chosen to turn her life around.

Now I’m off to cause a thunderstorm in Wyoming and end the LAPD’s violent ways. Thank god I have this forum, or nothing would ever change. Aren’t I swell? I did a great job.

Patrick Duganz

May is Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention Month. That means my anti-sun habits are not just acceptable this month but trendy, too. 

I could make many excuses for how pale I am. I'm a bookworm — all those hours indoors reading. I'm part Irish — we're not a sun-friendly people. My skin doesn't tan, it blisters — well, that's not an excuse, just a painful truth. Besides all that, tans just don't do it for me. On myself or anyone else. I understand the image — J. Lo, Paris, jet-setters in general with exotic tans and a big purse that costs enough to feed a small nation. I also understand the economics behind the advertising — so much profit to be made off the bronzing powders, sprays, lotions, and tanning business, trying to look like an heiress. Intellectually, I get it (if you don't, read the NY Times article spelling it out for you). Personally, I don't like it. I have better things to do with my time than damage my skin. And if I were forced to be on the towel next to you, you'd get an earful from me.

To begin with, it's your health, stupid. A tan is skin damage. Even if the possibility of skin cancer (higher than ever before) means nothing to you, I'll appeal to your vanity. You may like to carry around Gucci bags, but do you want to look like one? Are you going for a crocodile look or something?

Now, this rich-girl image. A century ago the heiress look — only the poor worked outside and tanned — was pale. So pale in fact that they used arsonic-based cream to whiten their skin, which would naturally kill some of them or at least make them extremely ill. Do you think skin cancer from sun damage is any different?

Behind the image: last I heard Paris Hilton had been sentenced to 45 days in prison. Wow — that's hot. Like, burning skin hot. I'm sure some time in "the yard" will allow her to keep her coloring.

I also understand that not all young women out there know how to be their own person. They need an icon from a magazine cover to aesthetically mimic. I can provide some pale versions, some anti-crocodiles. First, Nicole Kidman. Come on — what's not to like? Oscar winner, the richest of all rich girls, and a UNIFEM Goodwill Ambassador. Next, a French version: Julie Delpy. Is anything more chic than a French woman? Last (but not least, I just can't think of more pale actresses at the moment), a youngin', Michelle Trachtenberg. From the NYT article: "In the May issue of Allure magazine, [she] said the pressure to bronze is her pet peeve with beauty advisors at makeup counters. 'They're like, 'Maybe you'd like to warm up your skin tone'…And I'm like, 'No, I'm going to embrace the pale.'" 

That's right, people — embrace the pale!

Jennifer Leblanc