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You are here: Home / Totebaggers, to the barricades!

Totebaggers, to the barricades!

by DougJ|  March 9, 20111:29 pm| 89 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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I am happy that the Republicans have come finally come for the totebaggers. NPR would be better off without federal funding anyway and maybe now the liberals who listen in will pull their heads out of David Brooks’ ass long enough to realize that we are in a class war here and you have to choose sides. Stop musing about the Burkean merits of school vouchers and hit the fucking streets like they are in Madison.

Also too, NPR needs to realize there is no way to appease the Reichtards.

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Reader Interactions

89Comments

  1. 1.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    March 9, 2011 at 1:31 pm

    David Broder died.

  2. 2.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    March 9, 2011 at 1:32 pm

    here’s the link.

  3. 3.

    Lolis

    March 9, 2011 at 1:33 pm

    Not sure this can be spun as good for NPR.

  4. 4.

    Stav

    March 9, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    As one quick twit noted, he will now spend eternity pleading for compromise between God and Satan.

  5. 5.

    Zifnab

    March 9, 2011 at 1:34 pm

    I’m honestly a bit mixed on PBS / NPR losing funding.

    On the one hand, I think they’ve got a lot of quality programming even if it is mixed in with AEI-sponsored drivel. And I’m happy to see my tax dollars fund it.

    On the other, I haven’t forgotten the Bush Administration’s push to seed the organizations with his cronies. Maybe cutting the government cord will free the network from mealy-mouthed political correctness and “both-sides”-ism.

    When 90% of your funding already comes from viewers and listeners, the end of public financing won’t be a death blow. But when that same funding comes from oil companies and billionaires with agendas, I can’t see the networks growing less debted to their corporate sponsors.

    There’s a good chance that cutting public financing won’t change a damn thing for good or for ill.

  6. 6.

    Rob

    March 9, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    I’m sure they’ll be fine sine Rupert Murdoch is about offer them jobs to defend free speech right?

  7. 7.

    Pococurante

    March 9, 2011 at 1:35 pm

    Next stop, Roe v Wade because now they finally have the votes to do it…

  8. 8.

    TooManyJens

    March 9, 2011 at 1:36 pm

    The governor of Illinois just signed the death penalty repeal!

  9. 9.

    Poopyman

    March 9, 2011 at 1:36 pm

    I would feel better if, should govt funding be zeroed, the entire Board of Directors at NPR either resigned or got frog-marched out. They’ve been pulling some weak-assed shit, and I’m in no mood to give my money to those poosies.

  10. 10.

    General Stuck

    March 9, 2011 at 1:36 pm

    David Broder died.

    he now straddles

    that big fence

    in the sky

    RIBP

  11. 11.

    gypsy howell

    March 9, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    NPR needs to realize there is no way to appease the Reichtards

    They’ll go down trying though. And it will be very painful to watch hear.

  12. 12.

    hilts

    March 9, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    Doug,

    Because you can never have enough interviews with David Brooks pontificating about his magnum opus The Social Animal
    http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/entertainment/jan-june11/davidbrooks_03-08.html

    You’re Welcome

  13. 13.

    Southern Beale

    March 9, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    From your link:

    On “Meet the Press” in 1987, he probed whether then-Vice President George H.W. Bush, the GOP frontrunner in the next year’s White House race, was too much an eastern patrician to understand average Americans.
    __
    Mr. Broder asked the candidate whether he knew how many Americans lacked health insurance and how many U.S. children were born into poverty.
    __
    Bush said he didn’t know, adding: “We have the best medical-attention system in the world, and I don’t want to see it go into the mode of England or this whole concept of socialized medicine where the government provides absolutely everything. You are going to break the government.”

    Wow. I forget how long we’ve been dealing (or rather NOT dealing) with the healthcare issue.

  14. 14.

    General Stuck

    March 9, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    I am happy that the Republicans have come finally come for the totebaggers.

    The juvenile delinqent Cheetobaggers don’t stand a chance.

  15. 15.

    Bob Loblaw

    March 9, 2011 at 1:39 pm

    Perhaps the yuppies (ahem, totebaggers as you call them) have taken sides, DougJ. Perhaps they just prefer faux Seriousness to genuine seriousness.

    If it’s a full out “class war,” how much attrition and “betrayal” can you reasonably expect from the upper middle and beyond?

  16. 16.

    Shoemaker-Levy 9

    March 9, 2011 at 1:40 pm

    I sometimes listen to NPR stations for music, for instance if they’re playing jazz or blues or something else you can’t get on commercial radio. I hope that option doesn’t go away, but if the news/public affairs part of it is being run by sniveling little cowards then fuck ’em. If you think that Tea Partiers are a bunch of racists and you are a media executive then keep your mouth shut, OR be proud of it. One or the other.

  17. 17.

    4tehlulz

    March 9, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    “You are going to break the government.”

    I find it sad that a GOP candidate used to claim that breaking the government was bad and that now it’s a foundational goal of the Republicans.

    GHWB would have been crucified for that statement now.

  18. 18.

    Poopyman

    March 9, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    Well if I’m not going to give money to NPR, it seems another org is rising to fill the void. From an email just now:

    Dear Poopyman,
    __
    We are proud to announce that Fire Dog Lake is starting a membership program. We want to express our deep appreciation for the regular donations you make to FDL by offering you a membership at the Benefactor level.
    __
    We created this program to offer our supporters a way to participate more directly in shaping the direction of FDL, and offer benefits to our members. It also helps to insure our financial stability.
    __
    …You will be receiving a FDL Member Card, discounts at progressive vendors, and a choice of a T-Shirt or Chico Tote Bag. You can learn more about member benefits here: http://members.firedoglake.com/benefits/.

    Woo hoo! Totebags!

  19. 19.

    Doug Hill

    March 9, 2011 at 1:42 pm

    @Bob Loblaw:

    I don’t think all totebaggers are yuppies.

  20. 20.

    beltane

    March 9, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    Maybe if NPR/PBS are limited to contributions from listeners and viewers they will be cured of the beltway contagion and immune to attacks from wingnuts. Also, there is a chance that we will never have to hear Cokie Robert’s voice again.

    With David Broder gone, who will be Atrios’ Wanker Emeritus?

  21. 21.

    Bulworth

    March 9, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    Wow. I forget how long we’ve been dealing (or rather NOT dealing) with the healthcare issue.

    Answer: for a mightly long time. At least we don’t cover Everybody, like all those other countries. Sure, some people might suffer. But the important thing is we don’t cover everybody.

  22. 22.

    Maude

    March 9, 2011 at 1:43 pm

    David Brooks does sound a bit like Britney Spears. The post title of, Do it to me one more time, was a good match.

  23. 23.

    Bulworth

    March 9, 2011 at 1:44 pm

    @Poopyman: I can haz plz Balloon Juice totebag with picture of Tunch?

  24. 24.

    Mike E

    March 9, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    @TooManyJens: Now, I have something to celebrate today!

  25. 25.

    The Moar You Know

    March 9, 2011 at 1:47 pm

    Screw NPR. They’ve been carrying water for the GOP since the start of Iraq II, and have only gotten worse in the years since.

    Maybe they’ll figure out that Republicans can’t be appeased and are not their friends…but I doubt it.

  26. 26.

    piratedan

    March 9, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    @Lolis: but it’s probably good news for John McCain

  27. 27.

    Mike E

    March 9, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    @beltane: Perhaps in memorium Atrios can call it “Broder of the Day”

  28. 28.

    Gene in Princeton

    March 9, 2011 at 1:48 pm

    The day I turned on All Things Considered last year and heard Jeffrey Goldberg being interviewed as an expert on the Middle East, Iran in particular, to the exclusion of any one of a number of actual experts…was the day that stopped caring about NPR. It can dry up and blow away as far as I’m concerned.

  29. 29.

    hilts

    March 9, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    OT

    Newt Gingrich: “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate. And what I can tell you is that when I did things that were wrong, I wasn’t trapped in situation ethics, I was doing things that were wrong, and yet, I was doing them. I found that I felt compelled to seek God’s forgiveness. Not God’s understanding, but God’s forgiveness.”
    h/t http://blogs.cbn.com/thebrodyfile/archive/2011/03/08/newt-gingrich-tells-brody-file-he-felt-compelled-to-seek.aspx

  30. 30.

    Pooh

    March 9, 2011 at 1:49 pm

    “Also too, NPR needs to realize there is no way to appease the Reichtards.”

    This this this, a thousand times this. The RWNM making RWN is a sunk fucking cost, I wish liberal pols would internalize this and stop cowering every goddamn time.

  31. 31.

    Bob Loblaw

    March 9, 2011 at 1:50 pm

    @Doug Hill:

    2009 NPR demographic information:

    http://www.wqub.org/media/NPR%20Profile%20stats%202009/NPR%20demographics.pdf

    86% white
    65% have a bachelor’s degree or higher
    median household income: $86,000
    median age: 50

    You’re right. They’re not yuppies. The ‘y’ in yuppie stands for young. They’re old-assed former yuppies instead. My bad.

  32. 32.

    Citizen_X

    March 9, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    @Bob Loblaw:

    If it’s a full out “class war,” how much attrition and “betrayal” can you reasonably expect from the upper middle and beyond?

    Oh, please. NPR is the station of the overeducated and underpaid; ie, the school teachers and academics. These people may want to make it into the upper middle class (like most of us), but only a small percentage of academics actually get there. (Despite what Charlie Rose may think.)

    Edit: @Bob Loblaw: Well! OK, you’re right about the overall listenership. But my point about the teacherly types stands; they skew hard to the lower side of that median.

  33. 33.

    Southern Beale

    March 9, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    Newt Gingrich blames his cheating on Bill Clinton. Because everything is ALWAYS Bill Clinton’s fault! This is Clinton Derangement Syndrome on steroids.

  34. 34.

    jibeaux

    March 9, 2011 at 1:54 pm

    My affiliate already does pledge drives every season. For what feels like a very long stretch of time. If they have to get more funding from listeners, I think they’re going into a death spiral where they have to pledge drive more but they get fewer listeners because it’s all just pledge drives.
    But I think politically it’s a bad move. Not that NPR probably has a huge base of intermittent voters it could mobilize, but the more distractions chip away at the Republicans’ laserlike focus on jobs and the economy (please note: snark), the worse it is for them.

  35. 35.

    Southern Beale

    March 9, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    @Gene in Princeton:

    Yup. Liberal Media Fail, NPR Edition.

    NPR’s ability to swallow right wing talking points whole has me not giving a big shit about them. But I do hate that the RW is able to demonize NPR when 80% of their programming is cultural stuff that is completely a-political.

  36. 36.

    Southern Beale

    March 9, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    @Poopyman:

    I gave money to LINK and got a tote bag.

    Just sayin’.

  37. 37.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    March 9, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    NPR is odious.

    I donate to this guy, Jesse Thorn. He is on a few broadcast stations via PRI. He does really interesting stuff. Really knows his hip-hop too. In spite his almost painful whiteness.

    http://maximumfun.org/

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    March 9, 2011 at 1:59 pm

    As I noted in open thread the federal money keeps a lot of local station doors open, regardless of what one’s position on NPR/PBS et al may be. Kill the federal funding and it’s gone forever, and a lot of local public stations will be sold off, also gone forever.

    I do not want this to happen.

  39. 39.

    hilts

    March 9, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    Ron Schiller decides not to join the Aspen Institute
    h/t http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/romenesko/122506/ron-schiller-will-not-be-joining-the-aspen-institute

  40. 40.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    March 9, 2011 at 2:03 pm

    @Bob Loblaw: Household income, right? Two 50yos making 86K total? Probably with kids in college? That sounds more like the middle-middle.

    Hardly suffering but probably no Jag in the driveway.

  41. 41.

    ThresherK

    March 9, 2011 at 2:05 pm

    I can’t imagine NPR doing things any better without the federal “strings attached”. Who there is chomping at the bit to stop the false equivalence parade of right-wing welfare thinktankers? Who is going to smarten up, stop privileging the lies, and stop checking with the Beltway Inbreds for the narrative of the day before writing stories?

    There is a market for what NPR is supposed to be. Somewhere between Steven Colbert’s commentary, satire and media crit, and Democracy Now for in-depth reportage, commercial appeal be damned.

    I cast one more vote for the kind of fine, quality programming* many local public radio stations provide, such as WAMC’s The Media Project and almost anything from WNPR (No Relation) (Really, the N stands for “Norwich”.)

    *h/t Guy Caballero

  42. 42.

    PeakVT

    March 9, 2011 at 2:06 pm

    @Zifnab: Uh, 90%? Try 32% for member stations, 0% for NPR.

  43. 43.

    FlipYrWhig

    March 9, 2011 at 2:08 pm

    @hilts:

    Newt Gingrich: “There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.

    He was so passionate about the country that the patriotic passion just came surging out of his pen1s?

  44. 44.

    Poopyman

    March 9, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    @Southern Beale: LINK already gets my cash, and I’m happy to give it.

    ETA: Mrs P must have the totebag, though.

  45. 45.

    debit

    March 9, 2011 at 2:11 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: Sometimes the fires of patriotism have to be stoked, again and again and again, harder and faster until there’s an eruption of patriotism that can only be dealt with by a handful of kleenex.

  46. 46.

    Bob Loblaw

    March 9, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    The median household income nationwide is only $52,000. The median household income of NPR listeners is 65% higher.

    This country really struggles to even visualize income inequalities, let alone remedy them.

  47. 47.

    hilts

    March 9, 2011 at 2:13 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    Gingrich Vitter 2012
    Penis Passion

  48. 48.

    debit

    March 9, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    And OT but MST3K’s TV’s Frank (Conniff) is writing fiction. Truly, a work of heartbreaking beauty and inspiration.

  49. 49.

    someguy

    March 9, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    @Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel):

    Two 50yos making 86K total? Probably with kids in college? That sounds more like the middle-middle.

    That’s about $2k short of 80th percentile. That’s upper middle, aka bordering on wealthy. Make $2k more and they’ve arrived in the class we need to start taxing a bit harder, ‘cuz they’ve got theirs.

    I guess you misunderestimate the level of general poverty and wage stagnation that’s been inflicted on this country by our corporate overlords.

  50. 50.

    Shoemaker-Levy 9

    March 9, 2011 at 2:15 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    Then it stands to reason that Lewinski was Gingrich’s fault? Tiger’s girls were Phil Mickelson’s fault? Myra Brown was Sam Phillips’ fault? Somebody help me out with the logic here, it might come in handy some day.

  51. 51.

    RossInDetroit

    March 9, 2011 at 2:18 pm

    Screw NPR. They’ve been carrying water for the GOP since the start of Iraq II, and have only gotten worse in the years since.

    I’ll never forget the first time that was driven home for me. A story about Obama’s Iraq troop drawdown plans. A NPR analyst noted that nobody gives GWB credit for drawing down the Iraq troop levels during his last term.
    Cue me screaming at the radio that he sent those troops there on a whim in the first place and should get ‘credit’ for nothing but a bloody, disastrous war.

  52. 52.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    March 9, 2011 at 2:24 pm

    @Bob Loblaw: So, probably roughly $43K per earner. Not exactly living high there. Most of the people I know – who aren’t living it up – make more than that by themselves, not including their spouse, though we’re not sweating.

  53. 53.

    kdaug

    March 9, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    @someguy:

    That’s about $2k short of 80th percentile. That’s upper middle, aka bordering on wealthy. Make $2k more and they’ve arrived in the class we need to start taxing a bit harder, ‘cuz they’ve got theirs.

    Cute. Try 4 more top income brackets. Let’s say, 500K, 1M, 10M, and 100M.

  54. 54.

    El Cid

    March 9, 2011 at 2:26 pm

    Going after NPR and PBS funding wasn’t even new when it happened under Reagan.

    The Carter presidency saw a steady growth in public TV, NPR, and community radio stations. When Ronald Reagan entered the White House, both PBS and NPR faced renewed political and economic pressures. On one level, the Reaganites were philosophically hostile to public broadcasting. It favored deregulation.
    __
    On another level, the hostility was more partisan, as the Nixon canard about left-liberal bias in the public media was again resurrected.
    __
    Reagan cut funding for CPB. The State Department publicly called NPR “Radio Managua on the Potomac.” A regular chorus of complainers, Jesse Helms, Patrick Buchanan, and others generated a cacophony of criticism. As despised as NPR is, it is public television by far that has borne the brunt of right-wing vituperation. PBS’s Vietnam: A Television History was roundly condemned as being too critical of US policy in Indochina.
    __
    PBS bent over backward to accommodate the right-wingers. A special one-hour response was broadcast. It was hosted by Charlton Heston and produced by Reed Irvine’s Accuracy in Media.
    __
    In 1986, there was a firestorm of protest over The Africans, a nine-part series written and hosted by Ali Mazrui of Kenya. Mazrui advanced the radical idea that imperialism and colonialism had adversely affected the peoples and countries of Africa and that their legacy was having a devastating impact.
    __
    This was too much for the right. The wogs were out of control. National Geographic-like specials, of which there are no shortage of on PBS, featuring zebras, giraffes, and gorillas in the mist, are preferred to anything remotely relating to the reality of Africa.

    This is completely unlike what’s happening today.

    Who today would doubt the need for Africans to reject colonialism?

    The reaction has always been for CBP / PBS / NPR to yield more and more to Republican attack.

  55. 55.

    dollared

    March 9, 2011 at 2:27 pm

    @someguy: No, wrong comparison. Now add in their education level, and they are people who voluntarily make less than the median for their group. That’s what makes them important – they are the educated people who do not think life is about short term income maximization.

  56. 56.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    March 9, 2011 at 2:30 pm

    @someguy: Ugh. Yes. That’s shameful.

    I consistently misunderestimate that. Funny, I don’t feel like a sunny optimist

  57. 57.

    Dan

    March 9, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    If it means the end of “Wait, Wait- Don’t Tell me!” then I’m for it.

  58. 58.

    dollared

    March 9, 2011 at 2:31 pm

    Doug, two divergent points: totebaggers do have to get to the barricades. They value things other than short term income maximization – they need to see the evil in Brooks. Thanks for doing that, and keep it up.

    The point about NPR? Uncharacteristically thoughtless, and well, stupid. No federal funding? No NPR. No national network of state PRs. Period. That would be a disaster equivalent to the BBC dissolving and Murdoch taking ownership of the discourse in the UK.

    We neeed NPR. Badly. What we need to do is keep the funding and take it back.

  59. 59.

    Svensker

    March 9, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    @FlipYrWhig:

    He was so passionate about the country that the patriotic passion just came surging out of his pen1s?

    Um, you mean that doesn’t to everyone? Blushes. Looks around nervously. Oh.

  60. 60.

    Parallel 5ths (Jewish Steel)

    March 9, 2011 at 2:34 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent):
    @someguy:

    But, let’t not mix up class and income. Correlated but not caused. (Would make a good tattoo)

  61. 61.

    something fabulous

    March 9, 2011 at 2:39 pm

    @Bulworth: Ooooh! With the caption, “Totebag THIS.” !!!

  62. 62.

    CaffinatedOne

    March 9, 2011 at 2:43 pm

    Well, NPR isn’t significantly funded directly regardless; Congress funds some of CBP which funds stations, though it’s mainly the small/rural ones that seem to rely on that for a significantly. So the main, direct, effect would be to close smaller/rural stations.

    In terms of NPR, that’d cut into it’s revenue stream somewhat since it’d decrease the station programming fees that make up the largest single portion of it’s funding (~40%). I presume that it would require NPR to more heavily lean on corporate sponsorships to make up the difference, so that’d nicely push them further toward being another mouthpiece for the corporate/plutocratic agenda set. Of course, that’s the point.. to eliminate another force that could be used to oppose, or at least raise inconvenient questions to, the plutocrats.

  63. 63.

    Vanya

    March 9, 2011 at 2:45 pm

    What is ironic is that the Board’s actions at compromise have only further inflamed and hardened the political divisions between Right and Left. If the Board had done nothing at all, the Right would have screamed for a bit, and then quickly forgotten Schiller the second the next outrage du jour comes along. Which they will still do. But now the brilliant minds at NPR have managed to turn the left against them as well. Well played there, guys.

  64. 64.

    CaffinatedOne

    March 9, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    Well, NPR isn’t significantly funded directly regardless; Congress funds some of CBP which funds stations, though it’s mainly the small/rural ones that seem to rely on that for a significantly. So the main, direct, effect would be to close smaller/rural stations.

    In terms of NPR, that’d cut into it’s revenue stream somewhat since it’d decrease the station programming fees that make up the largest single portion of it’s funding (~40%).

    I presume that it would require NPR to more heavily lean on corporate sponsorships to make up the difference, so that’d nicely push them further along toward being another mouthpiece for the corporate/plutocratic agenda set. Of course, that’s the point; to make them more reliant on pleasing the corporations/plutocrats since they need their money and thus neuter another force that could be used to oppose, or at least raise inconvenient questions to, the plutocrats.

    I fail to see how any of that could be classed as a “good thing”.

  65. 65.

    ThresherK

    March 9, 2011 at 2:47 pm

    @Dan: Let’s lose the “never met a right-wing talking point we didn’t like” framing. But can we keep Roy, Paula and Moe?

    (words of Newt Gingrich): “Voters don’t care about the 1990s. They are concerned about what leaders will do in the future.”
    Roy Blount: “So, when are you leaving your next wife?”

    As a Yankee I’m jealous of that singular Southern knack of saying something razor-sharp with a polite manner.

  66. 66.

    CaffinatedOne

    March 9, 2011 at 2:49 pm

    Sorry for the double(ish) post, for some reason editing and deleting posts seems to do nothing in my browser for this site :( The last post is the one I intended.

  67. 67.

    batgirl

    March 9, 2011 at 2:54 pm

    @FlipYrWhig: And notice the passive construction:

    …things happened in my life that were not appropriate.

    Newt didn’t actually control his penis, it just happenned.

  68. 68.

    batgirl

    March 9, 2011 at 3:12 pm

    @someguy: Yes, I find this happens all the time with my very upper-middle class friends and family, the milieu I grew up in, whose lives are often cut off from the vast majority of Americans.

    I know someone who obsesses about money, complains she can’t afford anything, and worries constantly about retirement. Her salary is way above that NPR median. However she works for a bunch of jackasses who have multiple homes and private plans. She has no clue that compared to most Americans she has it damn good.

    I get so tired listening to her when day in and day out I work with people just struggling to pay the next bill, to find employment, to eat. I just helped someone fill out the application for food “stamps.” She was embarrassed. She doesn’t want to have to rely on government programs. She wants a job and has been working hard to find one. But as we have now learned, the longer you are out of the work, the less likely places are willing to even look at your resume.

    I’d also like to point out that this woman was employed (like many of the people I help) until the banksters that this person works with blew up the economy. Yet, god forbid, they pay their fair share of taxes.

  69. 69.

    Ken J.

    March 9, 2011 at 3:15 pm

    regarding Newt, I was always fond of this construction from 2008, when the leading Republican candidates were allegedly Gingrich, Giuliani and McCain, who together were “one wife short of a baseball team.”

  70. 70.

    Thymezone

    March 9, 2011 at 3:16 pm

    Yeah, stop musing and hit the streets. From the blog that has provided stirring leadership in the area of street politics.

    Can we say “Cindy Sheehan?” How much bandwidth was spent here on talking about how funny this American hero looked on tv and how much we hated her unphotogenic “demonstrations?”

    Hell yeah, stop musing, and stop blogging, and hit the fucking streets.

  71. 71.

    Tonal Crow

    March 9, 2011 at 3:22 pm

    I’ll contribute $1000/year to an independent NPR and add them to my will.

    You?

  72. 72.

    Corner Stone

    March 9, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    @debit: I’m liking the trendline your recent comments are following.

  73. 73.

    Midnight Marauder

    March 9, 2011 at 3:31 pm

    @Thymezone:
    A Cindy Sheehan reference? That is the best you can do?

  74. 74.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    March 9, 2011 at 4:01 pm

    @The Moar You Know:

    Screw NPR. They’ve been carrying water for the GOP since the start of Iraq IIimpeachment proceedings against Clinton, and have only gotten worse in the years since.

    Fixed.

  75. 75.

    comrade scott's agenda of rage

    March 9, 2011 at 4:03 pm

    @Vanya:

    But now the brilliant minds at NPR have managed to turn the left against them as well. Well played there, guys.

    Clearly they come from the Claire McCaskill School of Pissing Off Your Supporters.

  76. 76.

    MikeB

    March 9, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    @dollared: No. IMO, defund NPR and bring back the Fairness Doctrine. Conservatives are
    whining that their tax dollars are funding liberal propaganda, and that NPR shows
    no respect for their opinions. Commercial stations, on the other hand,
    use the so called “public airwaves” to disseminate corporate right wing
    propaganda 24/7. This amounts to a government subsidy in the form
    of broadcasting licenses with no requirement for content that serves to inform the
    public at large, basically the same argument Tucker Carlson makes about funding NPR.

    The larger issue, again IMO, is that the last decade has proven beyond a doubt that
    what is good for business is not necessarily good for America. The public
    supposedly owns the airwaves, but they are used primarily for the profit and
    promotion of corporate interests. The Fairness Doctrine was a rather clunky
    attempt to achieve some balance in informing the electorate, but the
    government needs to start thinking in terms of the public good for a change.
    The level of political ignorance in this country is appalling.

  77. 77.

    Elizabelle

    March 9, 2011 at 4:53 pm

    Concur re The Fairness Doctrine.

  78. 78.

    alwhite

    March 9, 2011 at 5:01 pm

    My guess is this will make NPR more beholden to the big money boys whos ads they run all the time. Their coverage has already become more cautious and conservative, this should cement the deal.

  79. 79.

    El Cid

    March 9, 2011 at 5:03 pm

    @MikeB: No one will bring back the Fairness Doctrine. I don’t actually think it would have as great an effect as people might like — working on issues regarding the concentration of ownership and localized activity would probably do a great deal more — but in any case, I don’t see the Democratic party interested in doing so. Some individual Democrats, always. But not an agenda item.

  80. 80.

    Doug Hill

    March 9, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    @Thymezone:

    I go to rallies and the like fairly often. I gave never written about Cindy Sheehan.

  81. 81.

    mclaren

    March 9, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    Stop musing about the Burkean merits of school vouchers and hit the fucking streets like they are in Madison.

    My oh my oh my oh my oh my.

    When I suggested mass non-violent public demonstrations and a general strike throughout America four years ago, people called me “dangerous” and “scary” and “insane” and “demented” and “in need of therapy.”

    My oh my…how times have changed.

  82. 82.

    RalfW

    March 9, 2011 at 5:58 pm

    My annual drive across Nebraska reminds me how vulnerable state Public Radio networks are. Their daily goal is about what Minnesota Public Radio’s hourly goal is during pledge drive (and MN’s pledge is 5 or 6 days, NE still the standard two weeks).

    I’m also more concerned about the creeping corporatism at NPR, and that won’t get better if the feds defund it.

  83. 83.

    debit

    March 9, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    @Corner Stone: Well, I enjoy our conversations and look forward to many more, hopefully with a vigorous exchanging of ideas, many thrusting arguments and passionate ejaculations.

  84. 84.

    Elie

    March 9, 2011 at 7:49 pm

    @RalfW:

    I absolutely agree…

    I have been hearing the “dwindle” of NPR for some time. Nothing short of some sort of class revolution (and I dont see that happening anytime soon) will save them in their current iteration.

    Death to systems that cannot survive is not a bad thing. They take up resources and band width that perhaps could fund other things. Yes, in the short term, there is loss for the programs and information that they share with the public that are open and honest. The demand for that will have to drive the development of a better alternative.

    I say, let it die.

  85. 85.

    Elie

    March 9, 2011 at 7:57 pm

    @mclaren:

    Yes, sadly so. Do you rejoice that such a time may be upon us?

    THAT is sad. The only people who long for the extreme of revolution, are the idealists who do not care about the destruction and pain’s impact on the little guy.

    Have you seen/read Marat Sade?

    If so, you understand that it was not the so called sadist, Sade but Marat who advocated for death and destruction…

    Absolutists always have all the answers. And their “widdle bwains” cannot perceive the pain or consequence beyond their own narcissistic frame. Its called “mind blindness”

    Are you an Asperger’s?

  86. 86.

    JohnR

    March 9, 2011 at 8:25 pm

    “NPR needs to realize there is no way to appease the Reichtards.”

    Too bad they won’t, then. Same with the Democrats. It’s not like this is all a big secret, for God’s sake. Once the GOP realized how to turn Nixon’s loss into their game, and the Democrats decided that going long was the way to get along, it was pretty much all done. Control the media and you control the hearts-and-minds. I’m still hoping that the formalities will wait until I’m dead, but it’s happening faster and faster (as it always does, I suppose; then people always see “Nobody could have expected that”)

  87. 87.

    MikeB

    March 9, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    @El Cid: I agree, FD was not effective and
    was unwieldy at best. But some “fairness doctrine”-like policy needs to be
    put in place, or perhaps the solutions you suggest.

    Ah, whatever, we’re both dreaming. The politicians will never do anything that
    might potentially harm the corporate media’s bottom line.

  88. 88.

    Dan

    March 9, 2011 at 10:24 pm

    @ThresherK: Not happy about it, but I’m prepared to surrender them as collateral damage.

  89. 89.

    Doug Wieboldt

    March 9, 2011 at 10:56 pm

    Actually, Brod er never lived… He was merely a dream of the Reich wing… We will not miss him, nor his passage… He was never deserving of notice. May he lie in an unremembered state forever… The coldest circle of hell is actually destined as his final resting place. Let us celebrate his passage.

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