Err America Forces Randi Rhodes Out

So at first, it looked like Air America Radio suspended Randi Rhodes because it "does not condone such abusive, ad hominem language by [their] hosts,” after Rhodes called Hillary Clinton and Geraldine Ferraro "fucking whores" during a comedy routine in a San Francisco nightclub.
After two weeks off the air, it was announced "that Rhodes terminated her contract Wednesday after she refused to apologize on air for her remarks."

“We sought an apology, because of what she had said…like Imus, like David Shuster,” [President of Air America Media, Mark] Green said. “She refused and instead last night informed us she was terminating her contract with Air America, which she has the option to do.”

He said she was not forced out — “She exercised her option.”

After an interview on Larry King however, we found out the truth. Rhodes said that Air America had gotten new owners and that "this thing is really about them wanting to change my contract." According to Rhodes, when the new owners discovered "they didn't have the right to fire [her]" they used parts of her stand-up routine as a means to get her to leave Air America. Watch the interview video here.

It didn't take long for Rhodes to find employment.

The Nova M Radio Network is thrilled to announce the addition of “The Randi Rhodes Show” to its nationally syndicated talent offerings beginning this Monday, April 14, 2008.

So now Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy are working for the same network. Good for Nova M. Their vision of progressive talk radio is everything Air America should have been.

I've been leery about the extensive programming changes (not for the better) that have happened over these last few months on Err America's supposed flagship station in New York and was wearing my tinfoil hat when expressing to others that I thought it was a conspiracy to sink the radio station before the general election.... now I'm not so sure I'm wrong.

And who will cover the time slot left vacant by Rhodes at AAR? Thom Hartmann? Sam Seder?

Richard Belzer will fill Randi Rhodes' 3pm-6pm time slot on Air America all next week...

The epilogue remains to be written.

The Truth Hurts

"Typical white person." That's what's being twisted around here. "Typical white person."

Senator Barack Obama, speaking off the cuff during a radio interview on a sports show called his grandmother, his own grandmother a "typical white" person.

610 WIP host Angelo Cataldi asked Obama about his Tuesday morning speech on race at the National Constitution Center in which he referenced his own white grandmother and her prejudice. Obama told Cataldi that "The point I was making was not that my grandmother harbors any racial animosity, but that she is a typical white person. If she sees somebody on the street that she doesn't know - there's a reaction in her that's been bred into our experiences that don't go away and sometimes come out in the wrong way and that's just the nature of race in our society. We have to break through it. What makes me optimistic is you see each generation feeling less like that. And that's pretty powerful stuff."

Unfortunately, the typical white people in media, the blogs and elsewhere are running with this story like OJ in the white Bronco, and distorting it - playing the sound bite and cutting it off after "typical white person" thereby completely twisting its context.

Here is Obama's campaign trying to explain further what Obama was trying to say:

Barack Obama said specifically that he didn't believe his grandmother harbored any racial animosity, but that her fears were understandable and typical of those often shared by her generation..."

The sad part is, if anyone criticizing Obama over this were being as honest as he is about the racism that still exists in this country intead of denying the truth, distorting the words and decrying the man, they'd see that what he has said can't be denied. It's his own experience, his own grandmother he's talking about, and his own reality.

There is no white person on earth that can claim to know what it's like to be a black person in America. You can try to understand it, you can fight the instictiveness of racism, but it is there and no white pundit sitting in a television studio or white blogger on either political side should even dare to touch the race issue as if they know both viewpoints. People like Gretchen Carlson of Fox & Friends would get eaten up for breakfast if someone actually took her up on "honestly discussing the race issue."

As Bob Cesca wrote today:

...Whether it's the Clinton campaign who likely pushed the Wright videos to the press, or the far-right fuckwits who are pretending to suddenly be racially sensitive -- and who, by the way, mistakenly believe you can be racist against the majority race. You can't be racist against white people. Sorry. I'm also looking at you, Geraldine Ferraro.

...to the far-right bloggers, FOX News and Ferraro... The minority population CAN'T be racist against the majority population any more than the poor can subjugate a king or, for that matter, workers can subjugate a CEO. For a white Hannity or a white Ferraro to somehow play the role of a racial victim is hilarious...ly stupid.

Worst of all, the integrity that Obama has shown by tackling an issue such as race during his campaign for the nomination has been cast aside as nothing more than politicking by the more cynical MSM. Putting everything on the line, Obama chose to speak the truth, and strength of his words in a speech that will be remembered by many as one of the great speeches in our modern US political historical landscape was nothing more than fodder for those who heard the words, but didn't listen.

Looking for phrases, words they could latch onto, wondering if he would "disown" his controversial Pastor whom he considers family - all of that was at the forefront for the talking heads, but the punditocracy lost the meaning of his words while looking for a cheap, tawdry sound bite.

The plain fact of the matter was and is that Obama is speaking the truth. And for those that choose to attack, it the truth that hurts.

The Ferraro Insanity Continues

It's time for the Clinton campaign to tell this nutball to shut up whether she has any connection to Clinton or not.

Ferraro's very first statement in a Wednesday night interview, when asked why she resigned from Clinton's finance committee, was because she wanted to get this story out of the headlines... yet she's being interviewed on national television! Get off the screen, Geraldine! Your time was 25 year ago. It's over. Go away.

Then she says the Obama campaign should apologize to her for calling her a racist!
Some family member should make sure this woman is taking her medication and check her mouth afterwards to make sure she swallowed.




I wonder who asked her to be on the show? Was she there to clear her sullied name or could it be that since now she has "nothing" to do with the Clinton campaign and can "speak for herself", she can trash Obama all she wants with no accountability?

Keith Olbermann: Special Comment on Ferraro Uproar

No comment necessary.




Update: From Andrew Sullivan -

Ferraro's original gaffe was an accident. The compounding of it is a strategy. A reader comments:

...Throwing the kitchen sink apparently means turning the Democratic Party into an all out race versus gender war, ultimately allowing Bill and Hillary to either emerge on top or for Obama to be so badly damaged that the Superdelegates will fear he's lost the white vote in the general election. That's exactly the game the Clinton's have set in motion here.

Ferraro Quits - But Still Doesn't Get It

What a completely unhinged person.

CNN - Geraldine Ferraro has stepped down from her role as a member of Hillary Clinton's finance committee.

In a letter to Clinton obtained by CNN's Suzanne Malveaux — who spoke with the former vice presidential candidate shortly after she sent it to Clinton — Ferraro said she is stepping down so, "I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign."

In a phone conversation with Malveaux, Ferraro said she was not asked to step down by Senator Clinton or her campaign...

"I am who I am and I will continue to speak up." She added that she thought it was a shame that the Obama campaign was trying to block her First Amendment rights...

Full letter:

Dear Hillary –

I am stepping down from your finance committee so I can speak for myself and you can continue to speak for yourself about what is at stake in this campaign.

The Obama campaign is attacking me to hurt you. I won't let that happen. Thank you for everything you have done and continue to do to make this a better world for my children and grandchildren.

You have my deep admiration and respect.

Gerry

Unacceptable comments followed by a resignation with no apology. If it sounds like a racist, and it smells like a racist, chances are, it's a racist. There is no spinning this any other way. And to top it off, Clinton did absolutely nothing to squelch the comments other than to disagree with them. For a person who believes there's a difference between "reject" and "denounce", Clinton did neither. No "rejection", no "denunciation", no "repudiation", nothing. Just "disagreement."

Now Ferraro can freely "speak for herself" and continue her attacks with no repercussion on the Clinton campaign. Brilliant!

One begs the ironic question: was Geraldine Ferraro the VP nominee in 1984 because she was female? She just doesn't get it.

(H/T Bob Cesca for the awesome video!)

Ferraro Attacked Jesse Jackson in 1988 With Same Comment

Ben Smith:

"If Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race," she said.

Really. The cite is an April 15, 1988 Washington Post story (byline: Howard Kurtz), available only on Nexis.

Here's the full context:

Placid of demeanor but pointed in his rhetoric, Jackson struck out repeatedly today against those who suggest his race has been an asset in the campaign. President Reagan suggested Tuesday that people don't ask Jackson tough questions because of his race. And former representative Geraldine A. Ferraro (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that because of his "radical" views, "if Jesse Jackson were not black, he wouldn't be in the race."

Asked about this at a campaign stop in Buffalo, Jackson at first seemed ready to pounce fiercely on his critics. But then he stopped, took a breath, and said quietly, "Millions of Americans have a point of view different from" Ferraro's.

Discussing the same point in Washington, Jackson said, "We campaigned across the South . . . without a single catcall or boo. It was not until we got North to New York that we began to hear this from Koch, President Reagan and then Mrs. Ferraro . . . . Some people are making hysteria while I'm making history."

(H/T Randi Rhodes)

Clinton's "Outrage"...

... at Ferraro's comments.

Clinton: “I do not agree with that and you know it’s regrettable that any of our supporters on both sides say things that veer off into the personal. We ought to keep this focused on the issues. That’s what this campaign should be about.”

How about it Hillary? Are you going to ask her to resign from your finance comittee? Do you denounce her comments? Do you reject her comments? Obama got rid of Samantha Power for her comments. Now it's your turn.

Update (11am) - Rachel Maddow on Countdown last night (H/T C&L):

For anybody to be saying that Barack Obama is only where he is because he is black, that black men are so privileged in America that that’s the only thing that explains his success because he’s otherwise unqualified - which is the implication of her comment, would be absolutely offensive, more than regrettable, from anybody commenting seriously on the campaign. Honestly, you know it, you know it would be. But for this to come from somebody whose [sic] an official part of the campaign and the campaign did not to disavow that person and distance themselves, is, it’s an incredible decision and therefore does make us question whether they’re doing this on purpose for some reason.

Ferraro has gone off the deep end with this comment defending her remarks:

"Any time anybody does anything that in any way pulls this campaign down and says let's address reality and the problems we're facing in this world, you're accused of being racist, so you have to shut up," Ferraro said. "Racism works in two different directions. I really think they're attacking me because I'm white. How's that?... "

Yeah... okay. Are you fucking kidding me?! Hell hath no fury like a bigot scorned. Maybe you're being attacked because of your patently racist comments, Gerry. Did you ever think of that?

This is becoming a major issue. Obama gets rid of a foreign policy advisor because she called Hillary a "monster" and has to "reject" an endorsement from Farrakhan that he never sought, but it's okay for McCain to actively seek and accept the endorsement of a religious nutball like Hagee, and it's okay for Clinton to react to Ferraro's comments with what amounts to a slap on the wrist?

And now that Ferraro's defended her remarks, in essence calling it reverse racism, if Clinton does anything less than ask her to step down, I'll just equate it as another "kitchen sink" tactic.

Geraldine Ferrraro: Obama's Lucky He's Black

Smells like mothballs.

Former Democratic VP nominee Geraldine Ferraro came back from the dead to give us this little nugget of wisdom:

"If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position," she continued. "And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept."

..."I was reading an article that said young Republicans are out there campaigning for Obama because they believe he's going to be able to put an end to partisanship," Ferraro said, clearly annoyed. "Dear God! Anyone that has worked in the Congress knows that for over 200 years this country has had partisanship - that's the way our country is."

Yes, Geraldine, we all know how easy it is to be a black man in America. They get everything handed to them on a silver platter... except for taxi cabs. But you're at least partially right. If Obama were a white man, he wouldn't be in this position. He would have had the nomination sewn up by now.

Another old, white woman with the "Hope is not good" message. Do you see any Republicans campaigning for Hillary? Lawd, lawd, lawd! He's just an uppity ol' nigger who doesn't know his place, isn't he Geraldine?

Please go back to whatever coffin crawled out of and have a nice, long nap you stupid fool.