Is that a shrub in your pocket...
Saturday, December 17, 2005
Danny Goldberg - AssholeI may have mentioned that once or twice before, but I just did a google search for Danny Goldberg Asshole, and am rather proud to report that my little blog was the number one result.
So, here's to you, Danny Goldberg, asshole.
Friday, December 16, 2005
The EndDecember 16, 2005 will, I believe, mark (so to speak) the end of the dream that was Air America Radio. Danny Goldberg, whether he meant to or not, whether he's evil or just plain clueless has done what the right-wing noise machine and Bush apologists couldn't.
He's removed AAR's heart and soul, Marc Maron.
Marc has never been anything but honest and genuine. Wear your heart on your sleeve? Maron rips it out of his chest and hands it to you (whether you want it or not). He opens his skull, and lets you muck about in his brain. Is he perfect? Of course not, but it's the flaws that make the diamond priceless. Marc's real, which is why so many of us have come to think of him as a friend - family, even - and probably why Goldberg doesn't "get" him. I don’t suppose "real" counts for much in the circles within which Goldberg travels.
There's been some great talent at Air America, for sure. Some are gone, and a few remain. We miss those that have been cast aside, but you can live without an arm or a leg, and you can get along without your eyes. But you can't live very long without a heart, and without a soul, well, you're just Dick Cheney.
Air America will thump along for a while, no doubt, but in the end it will either fail with a whimper, or it will have become something so unrecognizable - so far from what it was supposed to be, and from the promise it held - that it won't have been worth keeping alive. A network of Springers and Colmes, trying to imitate what’s already been done somewhere else, becoming “fair and balanced” in pursuit of the quick, easy buck.
Goldberg may have brought AAR some short-term investment money, maybe some "cred" amongst the DLC set, but in the end it will never survive with him - with complete power and impunity - calling the shots.
Sunday, December 11, 2005
Tough Weekend
Yes, it was a tough weekend. We lost Richard Pryor, and Gene McCarthy. Over 100 people (including some 75 school children, aged 12 - 16, headed home for the holidays) were killed in a plane crash in Nigeria. Firecrackers set off a fire on a bus that killed at least 40 wedding guests in Pakistan. And fallen soldiers are being shipped as freight on commercial airliners, stuffed in the cargo hold with the suitcases.
It just aint right.
Remembering Gene McCarthy, it strikes me just how different times are today - or at least how different the Republicans of today are from the Democrats of the late 60's. Lyndon Johnson lied us into war - into escalation of war, anyway - with the Tonkin Gulf incident. Eugene McCarthy (and Bobby Kennedy) knew this was wrong. They knew the Vietnam War was bad, and that we needed to get the hell out. So, McCarthy challenged Johnson, and Johnson was forced to not seek reelection. I recall watching that speech on TV. It was a real shocker, even to a 7 year old kid. Contrast that with today's Republicans. They back Bush, despite the fact that we all - we all - know that this is wrong. But they don't care about right and wrong. All they care about is power.
Unfortunately, Bobby Kennedy was killed, and Nixon won the election. Nixon kept us in Vietnam to save face (or some such shit). Some 30,000 soldiers had already been killed at that point, and more than 20,000 additional US soldiers died, needlessly, before the US finally withdrew. God only knows how many Vietnamese were killed; we don't know, any more than we know how many Iraqi's have been killed. I guess "them people" just aren't worth counting.
Let's hope it doesn't take 50,000 US Deaths in Iraq to get us to withdraw.
Friday, December 09, 2005
Bush-administration officials privately threatened organizers of the U.N. Climate Change Conference, telling them that any chance there might’ve been for the United States to sign on to the Kyoto global-warming protocol would be scuttled if they allowed Bill Clinton to speak at the gathering today in Montreal, according to a source involved with the negotiations who spoke to New York Magazine on condition of anonymity.
“The organizers said the Bush people were threatening to pull out of the deal,” the source said. After some deliberation between Clinton and his aides, Clinton decided he wouldn’t speak, added the source: “President Clinton immediately said, ‘There’s no way that I’m gonna let petty politics get in the way of the deal. So I’m not gonna come.’ That’s the message [the Clinton people] sent back to the organizers.”
But the organizers of the conference didn’t want to accept a Bush-administration dictum. They asked Clinton that he go ahead with the speech. “The organizers decided to call the administration’s bluff,” the source said. “They said, ‘We’re gonna push [the Bush people] back on this.’”
At around 8:30 p.m., organizers called Clinton aides and said that they’d successfully called the bluff of Bush officials, adding that Bush’s aides had backed off and indicated that Clinton’s appearance wouldn’t in fact have adverse diplomatic consequences.
Several hours after all these tense negotiations had been resolved, the U.S. delegation’s chief, Paula Dobriansky, issued a statement saying that events such as Clinton’s speaking “are useful opportunities to hear a wide range of views on global climate change.”
“They were trying to clean up the mess,” the source said. Late Friday the U.S. walked out for other reasons.
Clinton 'annoys' US Climate Team
Ah, Bill Clinton still pissing off the Republicans. Gotta love it. Say what you want about Bill, he was the best Republican president since Eisenhower (at least).
MONTREAL, Quebec (AP) — A contentious U.N. climate conference entered its final day Friday with the long-term future undecided in the fight against global warming, and with a surprise visitor on tap to rally the “pro-Kyoto” forces.
Bill Clinton, who as president championed the Kyoto Protocol clamping controls on “greenhouse gases,” was scheduled to speak at the conference Friday afternoon — in an unofficial capacity but potentially at a critical point in backroom talks involving the U.S. delegation.
The U.S. envoys, representing a Bush administration that renounced the Kyoto pact, were said to be displeased by the 11th-hour surprise.
“They haven’t protested formally, but they’re annoyed,” a source in the Canadian government, conference host, said of the U.S. delegates. “They’re not infuriated, but they’re not thrilled.”
Sunday, December 04, 2005
NY's 25th Congressional District
The 25th has long been "represented" by Republican lap dog Jim Walsh. Democrats have historically put very few resources into this race and Walsh's only opposition in 2004 was Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins. The 25th is an oddly shaped district (it looks vaguely like a slightly aroused Florida) that includes Syracuse and Onondaga County, and the parts of Cayuga, Wayne, and Monroe County directly south of Lake Ontario. Another pro-Iraq chickenhawk, instead of heading off to Vietnam, Walsh opted for the Peace Corps in Nepal in 1970-72.As a senior member of the House Appropriations Committee (and chairman of the Subcommittee on Military Quality of Life and Veterans Affairs), Walsh has been effective in bringing home the pork to his district.
It looks like Walsh will have some competition this time around, though.
Paloma Capanna, 39, a lawyer from Webster, has already announced her candidacy and vowed to force a primary if she doesn't win the party's nomination in the spring. She recently started holding town-hall style meetings with voters.
Capanna and potential candidate Dan Maffei, 37, of DeWitt, Onondaga County, say Walsh has been too closely aligned with fellow Republicans and hasn't shown the independence needed to serve the diverse district.
Maffei worked as an aide to former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., and the late Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., and this year coordinated Syracuse Mayor Matt Driscoll's successful re-election bid.
"I don't see any new ideas coming from Jim Walsh," said Maffei, who hasn't officially announced his candidacy.
Potential Democratic candidate Ken Howland, who grew up in Irondequoit and now lives in the Syracuse area, describes himself on his Web site as an Army veteran of the Vietnam War. He says he ran for Congress in the early 1980s as an independent Republican. He could not be reached for comment.
All three Democrats are trying to appeal to voters' growing displeasure with President Bush and the war in Iraq. The potential candidates oppose the war and say Bush should develop a withdrawal plan. Walsh, conversely, supports the war effort.
- Paloma Capanna: www.capannaforcongress.com
- Dan Maffei: www.maffeiforcongress.com
- Ken Howland: www.kenhowlandforcongress.com
