Clout! Tuesday
WEB STREAM DOWN... APOLOGIES... WE'LL HAVE AUDIO CLIPS UP AS FAST AS POSSIBLE BELOW
We're live from Washington, DC tonight (Richard wanted to go see what your tax dollars are being spent on!) Lots of conversation with you about the purpose and direction of Air America Radio, and the kind of hosts you want to hear in the future. Celebrities? Politicos? A rotating cast of characters? Radio veterans? There were some very thoughtful calls on this.
TODAY'S AUDIO SEGMENTS
SEGMENT I - RICHARD GREENE
SEGMENT II - RICHARD
SEGMENT III - RICHARD AND YOU
SEGMENT IV - YOU AND RICHARD
SEGMENT V - RICHARD WITH YOU
SEGMENT VI - YOU WITH RICHARD
SEGMENT VII - YOU 'N' RICHARD
SEGMENT VIII - RICHARD 'N' YOU
Who to fill 3-6pm Slot
Richard,
You seem like you are really pushing Richard Belzer to fill Randy Rhodes slot. Not sure why that is. After hearing the piece with him and John Stewart joking about his dog's tattoo, I can't say he has my vote. Funny yes, but what we need is substance.
Progressives are vastly outnumbered on the radio dial. There is so much "spin" produced daily that needs to be unspun. That's why I would prefer to see someone like Rachel Maddow who really has her act (and her facts) together, in that spot.
Several listeners have mentioned Thom Hartmann as being top notch, and I couldn't agree more. He is the reason I first started to listen to Air America (after first seeing him on CSPAN).
Randi Rhodes and "Big Eddie" can both be very good at times but can waste alot of time as well whining about the same thing over and over again. It would be great if they repeated talking points over and over again so more people would get them, but the repetition is usually more like "Hillary will do anything to get into the white house!" O.K. great. No what do I do with that?
By the way what ever happened to the Young Turks? They used to be on in the mornings here in Detroit and they were often very good.
GREAT SHOW, RICHARD!
OK, I had my doubts about you, but you've won my heart. I didn't take to the conspiracy theories, psychics, etc., etc. However, you RULED when you opened the phones to us listeners. I couldn't get through, so let me voice my humble opinion. To me, Sam Seder is IT. Maybe not in the 3-6 PM timeslot, but SOMEWHERE. Actually I think that Rachel would be good in this timeslot, so she'd be free to schmooze over at MSNBC.
In any case, the farther away Air America gets from Mainstream celebrities, the better! (except maybe Janeane!). Please have the suits give more time to OR bring back: Sam Seder, Laura Flanders and Marc Maron.
I would advise all show hosts not to drop the names of their celebrity 'friends.' That might impress some in LA, but it makes people sound vapid.
With regard to you, I had a revelation last night: You could be the lefty Art Bell! Art Bell and George Nouri of Coast to Coast AM have been my guilty pleasures for the past few years. If you were the lefty Art Bell, you could air tons of off-the-wall opinions, with a left-leaning slant. I also think that you've got the temperment, because you're nice and considerate to listeners, the way Art and especially George are. That's my opinion and I hope that you take in the right way.
Peace, Babs
Tax day discussion
(It was good to meet Richard on the Air America cruise, and my wife and I enjoy the show. That said.....)
Your clip from Zeitgeist about the income tax contains several serious errors and misstatements that ought not be propagated by intelligent people.
1. The grossest deception is a statistical one. Saying that the AVERAGE person works until May to pay his income tax is like saying that when Bill Gates and Warren Buffett visit a soup kitchen with 100 clients, the average person in the room is a billionaire. More than 90% of the people in the country finish working for their income tax around mid-February, which certainly would seem more reasonable. Shame to any progressives allowing this distortion on the air without using it as a teachable moment.
2. No law requires filing a tax return. FALSE. See http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/jsiegel/Personal/taxes/JustNoLaw.htm for a complete legal basis for the filing requirement.
3. The 16th Amendment was not properly ratified. FALSE. See http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9406E4DD1431E233A2575BC2A...
AND see also
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Is_US_income_tax_invalid_because_Ohio_wasnt_le...
If you want to have street cred, you have to hold the ratio of bull**** to fact down.
Steve Rosen
Roswell, GA