Back in the Bush era, we had one progressive radio show – Air America – and it was my link to sanity in an insane time.
Megan was in high school and when I made the drive to pick her up, I was usually listening to Air America, particularly during the 2004 election cycle. It was during this cycle that I really began to understand that the election would probably be stolen because Diebold – which supplied thousands of the voting machines in the election – was owned by Bush supporters, diehard Republicans. And in the election booth that November, I punched out Kerry’s name – and Bush’s name came up. I did it twice more and the same thing happened. But that’s another story!
Air America was on the air from March 2004 to January 2010, when it declared bankruptcy. It featured an outstanding lineup of talent: author Thom Hartmann, Ed Schultz, Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Al Franken, and Stephanie Miller. All of these people were bright and articulate and politically savvy on the radio. What’s interesting about them is where some of them are now, in 2014.
Al Franken, a Minnesota native, is now a U.S. senator – and yes, he’s still outrageously progressive. Ed Schultz hosts nightly The Ed Show on MSNBC, and his focus is on middle class Americans, unions, the working Joes. Thom Hartmann, who should have his own show on MSNBC, continues to write compelling books. Randi Rhodes is on Sirius Radio. Stephanie Miller, who is funny and really knows her politics, has her own show on Sirius Satellite Radio. She should have her own show on MSNBC.
Rachel Maddow is in a class apart. She now hosts the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC, at the prime time slot – 9 p.m. Maddow holds a doctorate from Oxford. She’s openly gay. She’s upbeat, has a sense of humor, and she’s pretty, but not in the way the Fox News anchors are – who all look like Stepford wives.
Unlike Keith Olbermann, who first had her on his show as a guest, she invites people with opposing points of view. Sometimes they show up, most of the time they don’t – because they know they can’t defend themselves against the kind of investigative journalism that she does. You know, FACTS.
Maddow and her team scour local newspapers and websites for stories that might hold national interest and implications. Recently, she was the only national news person to report on the closure of the George Washington Bridge between New York and New Jersey, the busiest bridge (so they say) in the world.This scandal, which involves Chris Christie, the current New Jersey governor, may crush his shot at the White House in 2016 and could put him in federal prison for a number of crimes.
As Christie told it today in his TWO HOUR press conference, he was basically clueless (sure), and feels betrayed (uh-huh) by the people he trusted, some of whom he has since fired. There are more than 2,000 pages of emails available now on this bridge closure – which tied up traffic for four days and had human repercussions. Emergency teams couldn’t reach a woman in cardiac arrest and investigative teams could delve into the disappearance of a child. That’s just for starters.
For the last several nights, Maddow’s show has focused exclusively on the Christie bridge scandal and has uncovered a pattern of Christie bullying and intimidation that smacks of the worst kind of politics: cross me, say something negative about me, and you’ll pay the price.
There are several theories about why Christie retaliated against the town of Fort Lee, New Jersey. But the bottom line here is that Christie appears to have used a federal facility – a bridge – for political gain and that’s a federal offense. I would like to see this blowhard in prison. But because he’s claiming he knew nothing about any of this (really? You’re that incompetent as a boss?) and because he’s a slick talker who may be the Republican party’s best hope for a presidential candidate in 2016, he will probably draw the DO NOT GO TO JAIL CARD.
As Rob points out, our governor, Rick Scott, became governor in spite of the fact that he was charged with Medicare fraud and belongs in prison.
So there you have it, American politics on the down and dirty side. I’m sure there ‘s a synchro in here somewhere, and eventually it will be found – by us, by you, by someone. And when it surfaces, we’ll post it.
In the mean time, though, we have this thought: everything in life appears to be political, even if you are not.
Well said. How can we not be political at this crucial time? And yet, sometimes I feel, for all the transparency the internet has brought, and remarkable journalists like Rachel Maddow, nothing seems to change. Corporations consolidate their power and corrupt the democratic process as if they no longer care if anyone knows or not, because they don’t think there’s any opposition. How about the bill they’re trying to push through right now, that would enable multi-national corporations to sue governments for loss of revenue if, say, their practices were opposed by local laws. How do Americans like the idea of their tax dollars going to Monsanto, for example, to compensate them for loss of revenue because some state insists on labelling food products as to whether they are GMO or not?
And as far as the corruption that enabled Bush to become president…………what kind of world might we have had if, rightfully, Gore had become president? Would millions of people have died in Iraq, and the country have become bankrupt with the Bush war machine? How much resources might instead have gone into the environment? And yet no one talks about that …………
Can’t really comment on US politics but I suspect there are similarities in other countries worldwide. If there was an election tomorrow in the UK I don’t know who I would vote for. I think in the ballot box there needs to be another category to put your cross by “None Of The Above”.
This will be interesting to watch.
There are already several Mayors saying that after they didn’t support Christie they lost funding for impt. Things.
The problem will be proving it. I believe this will taint Christie but his serving any time? I doubt it. But, you never know!
He deserves time. But that doesn’t mean it will happen!
The American people are beyond sick of this type of politics and stupid, blowhard, vindictive, dirty, politicians. At some point pleading ignorance is just not going to work. I think this may be one of those times.
the ole “i didn’t know nuthin’ ’bout nuthin'” thing puts christie right up there in the top 10 dumbest bosses on the planet – says a lot about his management skills – but we all know that’s such a piece of, uh, baloney… – i’m just waiting on that one little email or text message or phone call to surface – ya’ll know the one – the one that’s going to link him directly to it all – it’s there – somewhere – and it will surface sooner or later –
oh, and love me some maddow!!!
>>But because he’s claiming he knew nothing about any of this
That was the same excuse of every Nazi leader at the Nuremberg Trials! “I didn’t know anything about what was happening.” / “That information was below my level of command,” etc.
Yeah, RIGHT! 🙂
Someone else drew this parallel to nazi Germany!
Seems rather obvious!