Hurrah for Air America Radio

[A bunch of us are upset with Air America Radio because they have cancelled Sam Seder and Marc Maron's weekday videocast of Break Room Live -- it exists on YouTube and elsewhere and you can follow where Sam and Marc land by checking out SamSederShow.com -- but even as I am miffed I am going to look at the silver lining of the cloud. Think about it, and please join all of us Sederistas and Maronites in changing the world into a better place. Thanks! What follows showed up at Sam's site.]

Hey, I am going to accentuate the positive and say I am glad that Air America exists even if I don't like this latest turn BUT perhaps without them I might never have found people like Sam Seder and Marc Maron and Thom Hartmann (with Senator Bernie Sanders) and Lizz Winstead and Rachel Maddow and Al Franken (more of a liberal now than what he was before, I think) without Air America. Okay, they/Air America are not perfect, but I am glad they exist, even as I continue to support Thom Hartmann apart from them and Sam Seder and Marc Maron wherever they land and Lizz and Rachel ALWAYS, and Kent Jones and the great Laura Flanders and of course Janeane.... So yeah, let's get upset, but let's move forward and insist our guys (and gals, if you don't think guys is gender neutral) end up economically and psychologically WELL and HAPPY. Let's push them, their video, their books, their body of work, wherever we go.

And another thing, I likely would have never met YOU Guys without THEM: MaggiesBoy, Fernando, Nefferkitti, Nightbird,ToniD, Kat-in-Manhattan...., all of YOU -- and you guys are GREAT!! So, yes, it isn't fair but it is what it is, and it sure is better than Right Wing America.

So kisses and Peace Hugs from NYC and know that it works out OKAY: together we will help heal the world and make it transform. Got to get Thom's newest book [Threshold] because it talks about our being at the crossroads. We are. It is tough times. But we are together going to do what we can. Pray God that it is enough.

Love you -- Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Enough, Hillary / Enough Hillary

After hearing Rachel Maddow's rant from last night on podcast, I went to Hillary Clinton's website and left this suggestion on their contact form (which I duly signed with my full contact information to validate):

I am a woman. I am a feminist. I am a New Yorker. I am a peace and justice activist. Please get out of the campaign. You have lost unless you steal it.

My daughter-in-law abhors you and will not vote for you. I used to like you until you voted for Bush's illegal invasion (and before I realized what a corporatist you have been).

Enough, get out. Now.

Thank you.

Rachel contends that Clinton's decision to take it to the convention will cause the Democratic presidential candidate to lose. I will add that Clinton first and foremost believes in the divine right of Hillary. The party bigwigs have got to sit on her and set her straight. She is not helping women. She is not helping families. She is not helping our country or our world. She is being self-serving. Time, past time, for her to get out. If she won't leave graciously, then the Democratic Party must take action along the lines that Rachel Maddow suggests: They must get 90 super delegates to move right now to Obama to deflect her position about Florida and Michigan and make the subject of these two states moot.

Ah, the ego..... Talk about it. Contact her campaign. Contact any Dems who can help. (And then we will take up how Obama has to get real with his energy policy. There is no such things as good affordable nuclear energy or clean coal -- but that's another post.)

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

Edwards' Endorsement in the Offing?

Air America Radio's Rachel Maddow and David Bender have just been discussing the rumor of John Edwards endorsing someone, and possibly Hillary Clinton because she is viewed as tougher. It is Valentines Day and I do not wish to face such betrayal. I just went to JohnEdwards.com and left this on the Contact page:
 

Message for John Edwards:

There is rumor you plan to endorse. As someone who donated a lot (for me) to your presidential campaign, blogged and talked about it, and also collected petition signatures in New York City, I am begging you:

PLEASE do NOT endorse Hillary Clinton -- she has been a corporatist and has not listened to her peace and justice constitutents.

She gets big money from the ARMAMENT industry and the Big Pharma. A Hillary Clinton endorsement would be a SLAP in the FACE of anyone who worked for YOU.

Please do NOT make of your campaign a MOCKERY.

Thank you.

====

Will it make a difference? If enough of us do similarly, maybe. And perhaps Rachel and David are wrong about the endorsement. Rachel would prefer him not endorsing anyone. I'm with her -- especially if her endorsement is Clinton.

 

Peace hugs,

Kate Anne

MLK, 935 and an Anniversary

Long week -- Martin Luther King Jr. continues to touch my heart, even though I holed up on MLK Day instead of finding a memorial service. With a bit of a bug, I did not belong out in the cold amidst people. That said, I have been playing clips of MLK speeches and listening to Civil Rights music on my iPod. MLK, Jr. deserves to be celebrated not by a few words on one day but through our impacting the world with positive contributions for peace and justice in his memory. At the end of his shortened life, Brother Martin was working on issues involving peace and poverty -- against the military-industrial complex which is ruining the United States of America. It transcends race.

A week ago Friday, my paid work place honored me for 20 years of service. Oh my! This peace and justice worker was none-the-less happy to receive matching Eternal Circle sterling silver earrings and necklace from Tiffany's. Crass? No, pretty. It feeds my spirit and gives me more energy to do my p& j work.

This week an online database was announced which documents the falsehoods of the Bush-Cheney regime during the two years following 9-11. They categorized at least 532 occasions on which the regime gave 935 false statements [Read: LIES] leading up to the illegal invasion of Iraq. AAR's Rachel Maddow says this information should/could be used toward Cheney and Bush's impeachment. Check it out at The Center for Public Integrity.

Right now, however, I am working on preventing telecom's from getting immunity from being complicit with the Republican Administration in spying on God knows whom in an illegal power grabbing extension of the FISA law. Hold them accountable. The good news is that Senator Schumer is with Senator Dodd on this, but can the Democrats hold a filibuster? If they let the telecoms off the hook they will likely be letting off the Republican criminals complicit in the spying, too. And on whom, really, have they been spying? Not just terror subjects, but probably me, you and Democratic politicians.

Then last Sunday the West Queens Independent Democratic Club held a good meeting at our president Jimmy Van Bramer's home to celebrate the beginning of our 40th year and discuss issues, including the presidential primaries. Great discussions!! (And good food!)

Much to do for peace, justice and saving our democracy. Join me. At the very least, please sign up for impeachment hearings of Dick Cheney, led by Senator Robert Wexler, at wexlerwantshearings.com -- now over 210,000 signatures!!

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne

An Open Letter to WWRL 1600 Radio

Mr. Rennie Bishop
Program Director
WWRL 1600 Radio
333 Seventh Avenue
New York NY 10001

Dear Mr. Bishop,

I am an Air American – listening to Air America Radio from Day One -- and a sometime WWRL listener who is extremely disappointed with the lack of Air America Radio shows on the schedule of WWRL, the supposed flagship station of Air America Radio. I would appreciate your consideration of my critical comments which follow.

Sammy and Army are awful, (im)pure and simple – and didn’t Armstrong Williams in the past receive payoffs to talk about certain issues?

Richard Bey – His show is lightweight and his singing syrupy and egotistical. He is a poor substitute for AAR’s Richard Greene whose CLOUT aims to foster much needed liberal/progressive political activism. (WWRL’s failure previously to carry Mark Riley’s Air Americans may have contributed to its quick demise.)

Alan Colmes – This is the person Al Franken referred to in his Lying Liars book as Colmes – I tried to listen, wondering if there was some substance there somewhere. I gave up after a number of poor caliber non-informative, limitedly entertaining shows. Part of his show conflicts with that of the superior and informative This is America -- Jon Elliott’s show – and you carry none of it regularly (though I will grant you that I have heard “A Best of” show over the weekend at some strange hour – and I would have a difficult time finding it.).

Sam Seder on Sunday Show – we get only an hour of an already truncated three hour show (even that is NOT enough – instead Air America has mistakenly given us nauseatingly puerile Lionel – not your fault – actually in this case I would appreciate your broadcasting some other progressive show – maybe re-air Jon Elliott in the 9 to noon weekday slot!) Please carry Sam’s full show. (I wish that AAR would give us MORE of Sam on a daily basis.)

WWRL seems to run a lot of (TOO MANY) health infomercials. I am a firm believer of alternative medicine and herbal remedies but WWRL’s programming is way overboard for a flagship station. Undoubtedly, these must be money-makers but please note that YES, I DO support sponsors when I can. (I have purchased a number of items recently from TekServe on 23rd Street – and I told them about hearing their ads on WWRL.)

Thank God for podcasts, but as a political activist I know that it is easier to recommend slightly older Democratic/political activists listen to certain radio shows rather than ask them to subscribe to and/or download a podcast. Besides, there is the immediacy of the original show. I stream AAR or WWRL while at work and frequently when I am home – Living in Queens I get way too much bleeding from the Disney channel after dark but it is sooooo nice not to be tied to the computer to hear good progressive programming.

All of this said, thanks for carrying Thom Hartmann and Rachel Maddow, my favorites – and I love Bobby and Pap’s Ring of Fire and Welton’s State of Belief, and enjoy Mark and Arianna’s 7 Days in America, but we need to give New York City’s radio listeners the ability to hear the best of the progressive radio shows, not pale substitutes or infomercials. With Sammy and Army, Richard Bey, and Colmes, a case could certainly be made that WWRL is complicit in the dumbing down of New Yorkers. Please. You can do better. Please do.

I welcome a response.

Thank you.


Respectfully,
Kate Anne

VERY IMPORTANT: PS, PPS, and PPPS re Laura Flanders, John Edwards and more

cc: Mr. Mark Green
President
Air America Radio
641 Sixth Avenue – 4th Floor
New York NY 10011

Sane insight from Rachel Maddow's Campaign Asylum

For an articulate and witty look at the campaign trail, check out Air America Radio's Rachel Maddow on YouTube. This is one of an excellent and continuing series:



On a personal note -- Yes, I'm back from Ohio, with son's wedding pictures yet to be posted on my Flickr.com site -- soon (but you can see Kat's wedding pix). Also, to do: corporate America job, progressive liberal politics, new apartment de-boxing, Air America Radio podcast catch-up, world peace, staying sane. Not necessarily in that order. Thank God for Rachel Maddow and a little bit of humor.

Peace hugs,
Kate Anne