Pat Buchanan Skewered On Hardball

Sometimes Chris Matthews is completely off the mark, but sometimes he hits the nail on the head.

On tonight's Hardball, Matthews was contrasting Barack Obama's and John McCain's prospective policies for the Middle East and took Pat Buchanan to task for attempting to compare John McCain to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Matthews and Mark Green are on Buchanan like a couple of pit bulls.

Watch and enjoy.

Appeasement - Part Two

George W. Bush, in probably his most outrageous comments since stealing the Presidency, compared sitting down to negotiate with an elected party leader of another country to the "appeasement" of the Nazis in 1938, when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain gave Hitler half of Czechoslovakia in the hopes that it would deter Hitler and his Nazi Party from further invasion. Not only did he say it, but he said it to the Isreali governing body as a diplomat representing the United States.

If Bush actually knows any history at all, then this is where he would be an expert as his family was involved with the rise of Nazi Germany through Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush. But I digress.

The backlash of negative responses that this idiotic statement has garnered would make one realize that the Emperor with no Clothes had really stepped in it big time, don't you think? Well... if you think. John McCain, however, does not think.

Asked if he thought Mr. Obama was an appeaser, Mr. McCain sidestepped the question and said: “I think that Barack Obama needs to explain why he wants to sit down and talk with a man who is the head of a government that is a state sponsor of terrorism, that is responsible for the killing of brave young Americans, that wants to wipe Israel off the map, who denies the Holocaust. That’s what I think Senator Obama ought to explain to the American people.”

Well, if McCain wants an answer, Mr. Obama will be happy to oblige, and he didn't waste much time responding to Bush and McSame at a gathering in Watertown, South Dakota this morning:




It's funny how McCain would be "Hamas' worst nightmare" in 2008 while running for the Republican nomination, yet he sang a remarkably different tune in 2006:

RUBIN: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCAIN: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

Sounds like another flip-flop flim-flam from the Double Talk Express that the McCainstream Media probably wouldn't have reported a few months back. But what has happened over the last twenty-four hours seems to be a watershed moment for politics at present, for although Hillary Clinton has stated her objections to Bush's inane comments, the talk has been Bush-McCain-Obama pretty much nonstop since this story broke, leaving Clinton in the dust. And now that the conversation has shifted to a two person race, perhaps there'll be a little more scrutiny from the McCainstream Media toward its Maverick. One can only hope.


The talk has finally evolved to Obama and McCain in the general election, and who Obama would choose as his VP running mate (no talk of Clinton's VP pick) and if the conversation remains there, it's probably the only good to come out of the latest embarrassment from our president while on the world stage.


UPDATE (5/17/08 , 9am): Mark Green: "Appeasement": Guilt-By-Analogy... When Guilt-By-Association Isn't Enough

"...It was bad enough when McCain tried to link Hamas and Obama because Hamas said it preferred Obama. And if the Klan endorsed McCain because he wasn't the black guy, would McCain have a problem if someone said that McCain and the Klan are one and the same?

...We've seen this movie before. Whenever conservatives can't win an argument on the merits, they attack some real or perceived enemy as Hitler. So Ho Chi Mihn was Hitler. bin Ladin was Hitler. Ahmadinejad was Hitler. Of course Hussein was Hitler. And anyone who does something to try to resolve conflict short of more war is Neville Chamberlain.

...Was Israel -- with far more experience and its survival at stake in dealing with war and terrorism -- wrong to neogtiate with former enemy Egypt, with successful result...wrong to negotiate with former enemy Jordan, with successful result...

...Take Iran and Ahmadinejad, the newest "Hitler." Iran can't stop laughing at Bush's foreign policy. He attacks its long-time enemy Iraq, allowing Iran's Shia majority to have far more influence in a Shia-majority Iraqi government. And Bush at the same time provides an unpopular Iranian government with a convenient outside enemy to rally nationalistic support to its side. Which is why Secretary Robert Gates himself has advocated talking more to Iran. What an appeaser!"

Chris Matthews , Kevin James and Appeasement

ap·pease·ment, noun - to yield or concede to the belligerent demands of (a nation, group, person, etc.) in a conciliatory effort, sometimes at the expense of justice or other principles.

It's late and I should be getting to bed, but I have to comment on Chris Matthews' evisceration of right wing hack Kevin James today on Hardball. Every once in a while, Matthews gets it right, and I'm starting to believe that he's just as tired of all the bullshit as the rest of us have been for a long time now.

I first saw Kevin James (not the funny comedian, but the asshole wingnut) on some show a couple of weeks ago and thought, "Who the fuck is this dipshit and why would anyone have him on the air?" Maybe Matthews thought that too and figured he'd have a little fun dangling him over the shark tank.

*It's a horrible situation when the President of the United States makes a ridiculous comment (comparing Barack Obama's foreign policy stance to the appeasement of the Nazis in 1938) while in a foreign country today that can be considered an act of treason,* but then the wingnut hyenas receive their faxed talking points and repeat what they read ad nauseam without even understanding what they are saying.

Watch and be amazed at how this buffoon is schooled by Matthews, and keep an eye out when James gets flustered and refers to his notes for those catch words "enabled, energized, legitimized," repeating them over and over again as if it's an answer to the question being posed.



You can keep looking at your notes all day, nitwit, the answer to "What did Neville Chamberlain do wrong that you don't like?" isn't going to magically appear on your "Dittohead Brainless Talking Points of the Day" email.

And Mark Green! "Kevin, when you're in a hole, stop digging." Priceless!

The saddest part of this whole thing is that this piece of shit excuse for a human being is going back to his job tomorrow at a Los Angeles right wing conservative radio station without any repercussion from his pitiful performance on Hardball, probably trying to excuse it as being taken out of context or that it was some "liberal media" hit job. (I say "excuse for a human being" because I believe that besides being a living, breathing entity, you also have to have the ability to use your brain and think.)

I hope I'm wrong. I hope there is blowback from his pathetic appearance because I am so fucking tired of the "yes" men and dittoheads who do nothing but regurgitate whatever is fed to them and up until this point, haven't been called on it. Finally, a "journalist" did his job. I still use that term loosely with Matthews but he is starting to show something here. Contempt for the corporate status quo? Or just plain tired of sitting there and having to deal with the bullshit? I don't know, but it's working for me, makes for good television and for once it's nice to see some truth on the tube.

Kudos to Chris for being mad as hell and not taking it anymore... at least for today. Does Matthews have enough pull at MSNBC to prevent them from ever booking this douchebag again? God, let's hope so.

(* More on the moron and his "appeasement" comments at a later time.)

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.

Why Does Air America Suck?

I've been meaning to comment about Air America Radio for some time now, and since the shit has hit the fan this week over controversial statements made by Randi Rhodes, one of their main radio personalities, I figured now would be an opportune time.

When Air America first hit the airwaves, I was instantly hooked. Although they had a rough start financially due to shady characters, not for lack of listeners as right wingers would have you believe, AAR took off and did fairly well with their programming. Their main faces at the start included Randi Rhodes and Al Franken - the latter being the high profile name that a startup company like AAR would need to garner some initial interest.

Here's my beef with Air America. Their flagship station is supposedly based in New York City, although you wouldn't know it since they've changed bands from 1190AM to 1600AM, practically to the breaking point on the radio dial. There are certain times when I'm driving where the weak ass signal is so bad, that stepping on the brakes causes interference. You can also drive in sections of NYC when you get the sense that AAR is constantly playing background music for their hosts, only to realize that its another station overlapping and competing for the same frequency.

This is supposed to be the flagship station and it's become a fucking joke. Not to mention the programming changes that have happened over the last 3 years or so. They've rid themselves of shows like Mark and Marc with Mark Reilly and Marc Maron, who were very entertaining and spoke of progressive issues. They were bumped for a short lived Jerry Springer show which, believe it or not, wasn't bad. But then AAR got rid of him for a show hosted by Sam Greenfield and Armstrong Williams. Armstrong Fucking Williams! The conservative commentator embroiled in controversy after being paid to promote Bush administration policies. What the fuck was he doing on a progressive talk station?! If I wanted to listen to someone like him, I wouldn't be tuning in to AAR. Mike Malloy was on for a while at night but he's been gone for a couple of years now, summarily fired without warning or reason.

And now AAR is in the middle of another programming shake up. The "flagship" station of New York's progressive talk has bumped morning Air America talk completely off it's scheduling in favor of health talk and some guy named Coz Carson. Progressive talk doesn't even start until noon. The noon hour would start off with a bang bringing Thom Hartmann's syndicated show to New York, but now even he's been replaced with Ed Schultz. Yeah, you heard me, Ed Schultz. Randi Rhodes, the only mainstay for the entire Air America run so far is on from 3pm to 6pm; Rachel Maddow has been bumped around from her early days in the morning, to a weekend show and now luckily, is on daily from 6pm to 8pm. Just this week AAR has decided to add Al Sharpton to its lineup from 8pm to 10pm. Alan Colmes rounds out the evening from 10pm to 1am and then it's back to crap for 11 hours.

Mark Green, President of AAR who took over a little over a year ago is in the middle of running the company into the ground. And speaking of Green, I have to talk briefly about the Rhodes suspension.

Randi Rhodes was suspended after a public appearance on behalf of AAR in San Francisco in which she called Geraldine Ferraro and Hillary Clinton "big fucking whores." If you don't already know, Mark Green is a Clinton supporter. Here's the video.




Was it over the top? Perhaps. But to me it looked like a comedy routine. A slap on the wrist may have been in order if she were there on behalf of AAR, but a suspension? For something she said off the air? Here are a couple of comments on the blogs at AAR.

Less happy every day
As if it wasn't bad enough that the website is rediculously [sic] slow, and I can't even listen online anymore without having media player "buffer" every 30 seconds, AAR is now censoring it's talent over crap they said OFF AIR?? What is this, Murdock? We're no better than the neo-cons when we start punishing people about what they do off air. So.... can't listen online, can't read online, and when I do get to a radio... I can't listen to one of my favorite talents on this station because she offended Hillary Clinton? This is a load of crap and a surefire way to guarantee ANOTHER bankruptcy for this station.
By magplad April 3, 2008 - 3:40pm

I can't believe this
Randi gone??? What a disaster. I just watched the clip on the Huffington Post side. She was doing stand up, what's the big deal??!!?! I hope I will listen to Randi, Sam and Mark Maron on NovaM soon. Please hire them!!!!! The CEO's of Air America have destroyed the greatest radio station there was. Very sad
By daboerst April 3, 2008 - 9:16pm

Greene- Get a Set
Randi's stand up was unfortunate. I disagree with her approach. But her show is one of the very few left on AAR that make it worth even scrounging around looking for. But for Hartman, Rhodes, and Maddow the network now sucks. I listen less and less to AAR. You are losing stations and now even "streamers". I can admire 16 year old debaters, but I really don't want to listen to them for days on end any more than I want to listen to your weird science. You don't want to eat meat, good for you. But that message is not why I tune in. At a time when Limbaugh is gaming the electoral system on hundreds of stations, you are worried about one off air performance? WTF are you thinking about?
By hamblin02906 April 4, 2008

There you have it. Randi was "Shustered." Apparently Randi Rhodes was planning on going back home but I don't know if she was planning on continuing her show from Florida. Put on your tinfoil hats because it seems really strange to me to be doing all these programming changes, losing even more hours to vegan shows and endless drivel about what vitamins to take and now the suspension of their most popular host just six months before the 2008 general election.

I was told the AAR was sold not too long ago by the Green family although Mark Green remained its president. I haven't done it yet, but follow the money and maybe we'll see why this station has gone into the crapper. I'm sure there will be more to emerge out of this situation.