A New Era or Error

Today begins the 112th Congress...   John Boehner will usher in a new era as Speaker Weeper of the House. It should be fun to hear him say this part of his prepared speech "The American people have humbled us. They have refreshed our memories as to just how temporary the privilege to serve is. They have reminded us that everything here is on loan from them. That includes this gavel, which I accept cheerfully and gratefully, knowing I am but its caretaker." Shall we take bets on whether or not he'll be crying when he says "cheerfully?" I'm afraid [...]

The Tuesday Randi Rhodes Show

As you know by now, I'm filling in for Randi Rhodes for these last two weeks of the year.  Yesterday, we listened back to some of the news from January, as we started on our journey through the past year in the rear view mirror...  Today we'll venture back through February and March. Once again, we'll be joined by Tim Karr of FreePress.net and SaveTheInternet.com, who was at today's FCC hearing and vote on their new "net neutrality" regulations.  I put that in quotes because, unfortunately, it's fake net neutrality.  The Washington Post has this wrap-up of today's meeting here. [...]

It’s the End of the Year… or Not!

It's hard to believe we're coming up on the end of 2010. The older we get, the shorter the years... or so it seems. 2010 was a year for the history books. This was a year of political frustration, economic distress and ecological disaster. We witnessed the rise of the Tea Party, and division among the Democrats. The first big shot against (small d) democracy came on January 21, when the Supreme Court upended 100 years of law to give corporations the right to buy elections. To add insult to injury, Air America radio (my employer at the time) ceased [...]

By |December 19th, 2010|Tags: , , , , , , , , |Comments Off on It’s the End of the Year… or Not!

Standing Up For What’s Right

It's what I try to do on my show every day. But in real life, do we truly take action? I understand, life gets in the way.  Working -sometimes 2 or 3 jobs- to get enough money to feed our kids and pay the rent - or mortgage, if we haven't yet lost our homes.  Taking care of the kids, the car, the house, the dogs... then we're supposed to get active too? Of course, there's the money issue.  There are always great actions going on in Washington DC that we'd love to attend... if it didn't cost money that [...]

Of Saints and Sinners

Richard Holbrooke died yesterday.  Its amazing to me how, upon a persons death, people are afraid to speak truthfully. Although Holbrooke did some good things (anyone who tries to work through diplomatic channels can't be all bad!), he was also one of the architects of the Vietnam War, and authored some of the Pentagon Papers, showing he knew full-well that that war was a no-win situation. Holbrooke is being lionized in the media today, but not by all.  All one has to do is follow Jeremy Scahill's twitter feed.  He's been speaking out about the man he's covered for years, [...]

For Crying Shame – Can You Say Double Standards?

In September of 2009 as the contentious "town hall meetings" over health care reform had dominated the news for a month, when violent rhetoric was spewing from right wingers, Nancy Pelosi recounted what happened in her hometown of San Francisco as a result of incendiary talk... and she choked up: The criticism from the right came fast.  "It appears the job of governing is too much for Nancy Pelosi, who may be finally coming apart at the seams," is just one of many similar statements that shows up in a quick Google search. And remember what crying did to Ed [...]

To Cave or Not To Cave

That's the question about what the Dems will do today. Or more accurately, how deep down into the cave they'll go.  Why is it always the Democrats who give in, and never the Republicans? One of my first stops this morning was to Greg Sargent's Morning Plum, where he told me not to get my hopes up... Deal takes shape on Bush tax cuts: The President is privately signaling that he will agree to a temporary extension of all the tax cuts, but only if the GOP agrees to extend unemployment benefits.GOP leaders appear willing to agree. At this point [...]

By |December 6th, 2010|Tags: , , , , , , |Comments Off on To Cave or Not To Cave

It’s an Upside Down World

I've been singing this song for a while now.  In GOP land, up is down, in is out, and right is truly wrong. Unfortunately, the Democrats in power aren't helping very much to make sense of it either. Yesterday, in advance of a sit-down with Republican party leaders, President Obama gave them something they've been wanting without asking for anything in return.  Seriously.  He just offered up no pay raises for most of the 2 million people who work for the federal government... Yes, middle class workers taking the hit again! In case you were wondering, the freeze doesn't affect [...]

By |November 30th, 2010|Tags: , , , , |Comments Off on It’s an Upside Down World

A Big, Hot Steaming Dump of Wikileaks

How do you end a long holiday weekend? With a big, hot, steaming dump of wikileaks documents!  Although I haven't had the time to read many of the 250,000 documents, I was thrilled that John Nichols of The Nation joined me this morning for a first look at them. Nichols wrote a prescient piece on Friday, "Official Washington Worries Wikileak Will Reveal Inconsistent Approach to Terror," and today we discussed just how on-target he was.  He hit the nail on the head when he wrote 1. Many, if not all, of the US officials who deal on the international stage tend to like [...]

By |November 29th, 2010|Tags: , , , |Comments Off on A Big, Hot Steaming Dump of Wikileaks

The Final Stretch

We have just over a week before election day, and things are getting nastier by the minute. On today's show, I'll be joined by one of the few progressive heroes in Congress - Raul Grijalva - who is in serious danger of losing his seat. On Thursday, Grijalva's Tucson office was evacuated Thursday when a staffer opened an envelope containing a plastic bag of white powder and two pieces of paper with swastikas written on them. Nice, huh?  Yes, it's ugly out there... But we'll start the show with Jason Leopold of Truthout, who spent the weekend poring over the [...]

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