On Air America, Franken just asked Chuck D. of Public Enemy what they would hear if they tuned in to his show tomorrow morning, and Chuck D. replied:
“A loud voice at 11.”
Made me laugh. Also, mad props for using the Dead as filler music.
Archives for 2004
This Pisses Me Off
I find this really irritating:
The Observer has learned that former Vice President Al Gore and business partner Joel Hyatt, an entrepreneur and Democratic fund-raiser, will close the deal to pay around $70 million to French-owned Vivendi Universal this week, making them the owners of the tiny digital-cable channel Newsworld International (NWI), moving Mr. Gore from politics to mini-media-moguldom.
Mr. Gore’s group plans to transform the sleepy foreign-news outlet into a youth-oriented public-affairs channel, a jump-cut news network for the iPod set. Despite vociferous claims that the network isn’t attempting to be the liberal antidote to Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News, it’s difficult to ignore the obvious: It may be fair, it may be balanced, but it’s going to be owned by Al Gore.
I am a news junky, and NWI is an unbelievable asset that already has spectacular programming with a point of view different from the dominant American media mindset. While we bicker about the differences between Fox and CNN, there is a significant difference between the news coverage by American outlets and foreign outlets. Getting rid of NWI is a hideous idea. International Newsfirst, the German Journal, and Special Assignment are great shows.
While I am at it, let me also pimp the Discovery Times. Their coverage of Middle East issues has been generally outstanding, and I really like their coverage of terrorism issues.
Damnit- screwing up NWI to promote a ‘liberal’ agenda is just a hideous idea. Unless you like more intra-continental isolation.
Bullied Into Bad Policy
Dear President Bush:
John Kerry is a liar or a fool if he thinks that releasing any of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve will do anything appreciable regarding the current gas prices. We have gone over this hundreds of times, so I hope you do not cave in and pursue bad policy because of their demagoguery.
Remember- they do not care about the outcomes of the policies and whether it really solves the problem. They just care if it appears that they are doing something and that will in turn get them votes. You can not out pander them- trust me.
Regards,
John
PS- In the debates, please ask John Kerry how he intends to ‘pressure’ OPEC. Will he have to go to the UN to ask permission, first?
*** Update ***
More evidence of Democratic demagoguery flying in the face of reality from Dan Drezner.
That Liberal Media
Check out this groaner:
Yesterday, Mr. Bush’s lawyer told the commission that Ms. Rice would testify. And after months of unacceptable delay, the lawyer said Mr. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney would also talk to the entire commission in private, not under oath. But the panel had to pay a price: it agreed, at the administration’s insistence, that after Ms. Rice testifies, it will not call her back or ask any other White House official to testify in public.
The White House’s initial refusal to allow Ms. Rice to testify and its cynical use of a confidential adviser as a public accuser would have been bad enough. But they fit an unpleasant pattern. This president has repeatedly abused his executive privilege while seeking to hide behind it, starting when Mr. Cheney invoked that privilege to gather business executives in secret to draft the administration’s energy policy.
A.) The court case on the energy policy issue has not been resolved, so claiming it was an abuse is simply, at this point, a lie.
B.) There were legitimate issues regarding Condi’s testimony- they have been resolved. This is an abuse how?
C.) How anyone who lived through the Clinton years can claim that the current President is abusing executive privilege is beyond me. That takes a level of audacity that can be found only on the NY Times opinion page.
Thank Goodness
At least we won’t have to listen to rhetoric claiming Bush is starving children:
e Senate on Tuesday voted an additional $6 billion for child care for welfare recipients and the working poor as part of a bill to renew the landmark 1996 welfare reform law.
The measure easily won Senate passage, 78-20. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and 30 other Republicans voted for it, but the Bush administration opposes the provision and House Republicans did not include it in the version of the legislation that passed the House last year.
The provision would send states $20.5 billion over 5 years in the form of block grants for programs for children up to 13 years of age. Its authors, Sens. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said hundreds of thousands of children could lose child care without the extra money, which in turn could force thousands of low-income parents to give up their jobs.
Air America
So I cruise over to the Air America website to listen to the debut of the O’Franken Factor, and much like liberal policies, the streaming audio does not work.
Have no fear- they list all members of this new six (6) radio satation behometh, and of those six, 620-Am, KPOJ, seems to have a working stream.
At any rate, Franken seems a touch more upbeat than his usually slow, monotone self- but what is really annoying is the woman who keeps piping in making announcements andgenerally, it seems, startling Franken or meddling with his stream of thought. The woman, when she is bantering senselessly with Franken (who has to think she is an idiot), makes the show sound like the SNL spoof of NPR.
At any rate, I figure it is the first day, so I will give them numerous chances. I won’t listen to the bitch Garafaolo, but everyone else will get a shot. I have heard and seen some of Marc Maron’s stand- upbits, and I have to admit- I think he is hysterical. I predict his show will be the best of the crop, if he doesn’t get nuked by the FCC (he has a touch of the potty-mouth in him).
Back to the O’Franken Factor. At any rate, liberals, this is not a good start. The first notable guests on the O’Franken Factor are G. Gordon Liddy and Ben Stein.
Liberalism- It Sells!
*** Update ***
Here is a list of live feeds since the Air America one won’t work or is overwhelmed.
About Time
A ruling I can agree with:
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the government does not have to release 11-year-old photographs from the suicide of Clinton administration White House lawyer Vincent Foster because it would cause his family pain and intrude on their privacy.
The unanimous decision makes it more difficult to use a public records law to access federal law enforcement records from autopsies and death scenes. Justices said the privacy rights of survivors must be balanced against the public’s right to information.
A California attorney had sought the Foster pictures, saying they might prove he was murdered as part of a White House cover-up. There was no reasonable evidence of that, the Supreme Court said.
Hopefully, the statement that there is no reasonable evidence of a cover-up will end the speculation that he was murdered. Will these sick bastards finally let him rest in peace and leave his poor family alone? I hate the tin-foil hat crowd, whatever their politics. And yes, dears- that includes the “War for Oil” and “Bush/Hitler” crowd.