Rachel is back!
Rachel is back from the Air America cruise where she met so many of our very smart and very fun listeners. As we ease back into the swing of things Rachel will be hosting the first hour of the show and Nicole Sandler will be hosting the second hour.
Nicole has done a bang up job filling in for Rachel these last three days, we are lucky to have her! More on tonight's show later...
Yay!
All the subs did a fine job, but I'm starting to suffer from withdrawal.
Car manufacturers buy-out/bail-in
Can someone please explain to me why the CEO's don't/won't/haven't taken a pay cut in the past years? Everyone has, yet they're exempt I take it. This time I want their pay cut and the workers pay and allowances to stay as they are- no cuts what-so-ever, otherwise, I do not agree with the bail-out-buy-in.
Welcome back, Rachel
Hope you had a good time, but glad you're back--
Hey!
I recognize that voice!
:cheese:
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
Lieberman
Rachel.... Lieberman's "teflon-ess" must be about money. Earmarks he has greased both sides of the aisle with and to be continued. So are we going from partisan corruption to bipartisan corruption. Please explore this. Thank you. Appreciate your show so much.
Yay! Rachel!
Nichole is the first fill in I've heard on the show while they've been away on the cruise. I'm sure she's probably a knowledgeable person, but she really needs to ditch the FM talk radio voice and get some passion. That's the nice thing about Rachel (well, beside all of the others) she has the ability to express the passion and excitement that she has for politics/public affairs. I must say, though, as much as I don't enjoy Bender, I thought that his stints have been a bit better. Not much, though. He's too argumentative and talks over the guests and the callers. No fun.
One of the things I dislike the most...
...about both Bender's and Sandler's approaches is their insistence that listeners call in. If I want to hear a poorly-spoken individual go on and on about some half-baked pet idea of theirs, I'll go hang out at the bus station. Or read Singy's posts all the way through.
:cheese:
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
crusted hates "their insistence that listeners call in", GENIUS!
Eliminate their ability to dynamically gauge their listener appeal or sample the degree of consensus among their diehard talk radio addicts.
This is the same myopic perspective that rails against hosts lending their voice commercial spots because it diminishes their credibility as objective commentators.
Call in shows are rarely have as intelligent well researched content as programs limited to interviews with published authors and activists, however there is the opportunity for the host to show off their debate skills by debunking general misconceptions which can be instructional for those who need ammo when they are confronted with Joe the Plumber types along the way.
I agree that Schultz is a waste 95% of the time, while Lionel and Hartmann do it well in better than 9 of 10 instances.
Why you find it necessary to attack blog posts that in your opinion are irrelevant, beyond your comprehension, or exceed your attention span, remain strong reasons to consider you a BONEHEADED ADVOCATE for CENSORSHIP who is pretending to be thoughtful and well adjusted while actually a diversionary TROLL and a duplicitous republicrat infiltrator.
Boing!
Gabble gabble gabble.
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
::cheese::? Then YOU Want the Mac&Cheese Post Above, Cap'n! :D
Yeah, I'm not in love w/call-in shows either - and given how tightly screeners control which callers get through, the notion that a call-in show is inherently "balanced" under the Fairness Doctrine (as the discussion Nicole Sandler had the other night alleged) is laughable on the face of it. For instance, I don't see Rush Limbaugh's screeners letting a call from Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann get through - too much risk they'd make him look stupid. OTOH, some incoherently ranting International Conspiracy of Right Wingers, Jew Bankers and the Trilateral Commission type probably gets right through, so Limbaugh can score a few quick points off of "nutjob libburuls"!
Unfortunately, someone who can hold my interest for an hour at a stretch just talking is rare - and I'm sorry to say I don't think Nicole Sandler possesses that talent any more than David Bender or Ron Reagan do. Rachel does, because of her magpie mind and sense of amusement at the foibles of the powerful - Olbermann does for similar reasons, though I'm not sure his intelligence quests quite as broadly and he enjoys riding his temper more. In a completely different arena, Leo Laporte The Tech Guy has a similar talent for holding your attention because he clearly loves technology and fixing things - though get him started on politics, and you discover he's angling for a Dennis Kuchinich-Ron Paul ticket! ::Whoa...!::
And I rest my case
EOM
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
Problem Is, Cap'n, SingSing's Right About Holder
IF you can wade through SingSing's tinfoil-hat broadsides, he does have a point about Obama Attorney General choice Eric Holder - Big Telco and Big Media lobbyist, Reno's point man on the Elian Gonzalez case, advocate of last-minute Presidential pardons (which The Traitor Bush may well take advantage of himself, thanks to former President Slick!), and most significantly to me personally a vociferious First Amendment opponent with connections to the Khrister Right's "Morality in Media"! Oh, and did I mention his recommending Clinton's pardoning of sixteen members of Puerto Rican insurgent group FALN?
From his record, it looks like AG Holder would much rather prosecute adult entertainment and college kids using BitTorrent than he would terrorists or Right-Wing traitors. He sounds to me like Obama's answer to Alberto Gonzalez - one of the most odious of the inherently-odious AGs Bush picked.
Maybe he DOES have a point
However, if he wants me to get it--you know, with my "short attention span" and inferior intellect and stuff--he won't make me wade through insane garbage first. It's the equivalent of crying "Wolf!": get a rep for BS, and if/when one finally does post something cogent, folks are more likely to skim over that as well.
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
Yeah...There IS That, Cap'n....
I skim most of SingSing's posts to see if I see anything comprehensible - most of the time, though, my eyes glaze over and my brain goes into vaporlock. :/
I hope HE's getting some satisfaction out of the effort he puts into his posts - b/c otherwise he's just confuzzling people and wasting bandwidth.
Bad economy = good for mac-n-cheese
Who knew? Better yet, who knew macaroni and cheese is "an icon of value-oriented meal solutions?"
http://www.courant.com/features/food/hc-maccheese.artnov20,0,2633245.sto...
Macaroni and cheese, like potpies and canned soups, are going to see sales growth because of the economy [snip]
[As the ultimate comfort food] It might even make you forget how much money you've lost in the stock market, if only temporarily.
I have 2 kids, so I keep Kraft in business anyway...
personally, I think it's gross and doubtful it would make me forget that my 401K is dwindling to nothing.
I try to avoid food...
...that glows in the dark. That "cheese" is positively phosphorescent.
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
If you're going to claim phosphorescence...
... then I'm going to need to see an emission spectrum as proof!
:winky:
Oh, and I happen to like that "cheese."
Unfortunately...
...the "emission spectrum" is in the infra-beige. Invisible to anyone outside of the Southern Willamette Valley or Kalamazoo. Sorry, but that's the way fizix works.
:cheezwhiz:
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
I think, OSM, It's Time for Alton Brown...TO THE RESCUE!!!!
Even if he is a Goddess-curst Born-Again Southern Baptist:
- Alton Brown's Stovetop Mac & Chese Recipe (easy to make - most effort is grating the cheddar...and I cheat and use a food processor! :D )
- Alton Brown's Baked Mac & Cheese Recipe (more effort - but is it delicious!)
Lately, though, I've been experimenting w/Indian cuisine - mostly store bought sauces mixed with leftover chicken and lamb, but I'm planning to do tandoori chicken from scratch after the holidays. :)
Thanks! It's worth a shot!
My kids seem to enjoy processed cheese food product, but I'm sure I'll like it better!
You Might Be Pleasantly Surprised, OSM :)
It's really good - I think the oven Mac & Cheese is better, but it's a LOT more work, too.
And, if your K-I-D-Z fuss TOO much - just replace the cheddar w/Velveeta! ::shudders::
Happy! Happy! Joy! Joy! Rachel is back!
She did great w/Mike Huckabee last night. I can't help but think every time I see him that if there is ever a movie about him, Kevin Spacey could play him.
Kevin Spacey as Mike Huckabee
On so many levels, this is hilarious.
I know, I think it's funny too, but I see a resemblance.
They would both probably be horrified by the comparison, but hey, it's there for me, maybe it's the dimples.
Too much to say!
1st - Welcome back! Did you have fun? Hope so!:)
2nd - I loved Arianna Huffington with Bill Maher. Wow, she has personality. To Arianna - Good job, once I got over the accent. But it wasn't hard at all. That interview with Bill Maher was great "Bill, you're such an optimist.
3rd - Why is it okay for Bill Maher to say "Goddam America" but Rev. Wright got such grief?
4th - I too am very optimistic about the Pres-Elect! Change is on the horizon: I just hope that we as a nation can hold on until Jan.
5th - Bail Out! The remaining $350B left in the pot, why not give each state $1B. And of course apportion more $ to the very hard hit states, i.e., Michigan, etc. With that $1B to each state they could clear up their budget fallouts and then apportion the remaining funds to their infrastructures which will employ many. We've got to help the auto industry. We can't allow that to go away. We must attach strings to their bailout: New managment (government master): the american auto industry builds very cheaply made cars. Why don't they drive a Toyota or Nissan and see exactly what they are doing, for they are doing it right! Again, not too hard to figure out. We can do so much with our auto industry. If Brazil (or maybe it's Argentina) can be as advanced as they are with the sugar, then what are we doing in the GREATEST country of all? We've got to get moving here. We have sent men to the moon: We are builiding a space station: We can certainly build some fuel efficient/or fueless autos in this country. Also, the oil industry: They profited $14B last quarter. The reason for their profit is american autos: They surley could bail out or loan the auto industry some $.
This really does not seem to hard to figure out.
6th - Hillary - Secy of State: I'm a little mixed on this issue. In reality, it does not matter who Barack will appoint: the only thing that really matters is that his team do the job that they were hired to do. Quite frankly, I don't care who and how it gets done, just get it done. We as citizens of this country must assist in this. Let's not worry about his appointments, only that his appointments will do their job for US! Further, the CHANGE that I believe Barack was speaking of was not so much that everyone would be new to the administration, but that his policies would reflect change. We cannot have neophytes in DC. We need experienced people in the office now. If one must remember, when Clinton first took office, everyone was a neophyte and that's why things did not flow easy. Let's not forget that. Barack's new team will have the experience and will be able to walk into the job as opposed to walking into something somewhat foreign. We elected this man for his judgment: Now, let's allow him to use it. We did not waste our votes. We must be patient and we must believe.
Rachel, keep up the good work!
anita
cocktails
Hi Rachel
Hope the cocktails on this cruise were better than on the first cruise. I was on that and found them uneven, at best, though I loved drinking cocktails with you and Susan. Your interview with the cocktail guru was great. Hope you have flavourful holidays.
Cat
Repeats
I am a huge Rachel Maddow fan, and I can't get enough. I try to listen to the radio show and watch her TV show on MSNBC. It's very disappointing to find the radio simply being the soundtrack of the previous night's TV show. I find it just a hair "disrespectful" that tonight on the radio I get to rehear last night's news.
What Feed Are You Listening To, Aeronaut?
I thought they'd dropped that recently, and added an extra hour to Ron Reagan's show....
To AAR's credit, the idea was to offer an audio feed of MSNBC's program for Rachel's listeners, many of whom don't have cable television. Once MSNBC started offering her complete show via podcast, though, AAR stopped doing it.
The comment you are replying to does not exist
I was just about to reply to one of Sing Sing's posts and what do you know, suddenly I got the reply that "The comment you are replying to does not exist."!
Imagine my surprise, especially since SingSing continually repeated such racist tirades as "...THE BLACK POTUS..." (always in all caps, just in case you missed the subtly).
Exactly what purpose does it serve to mock others or exclaim such innuendos?
To SingSing's Mind, Polly, Only HE Knows The Real Truth....
and the rest of us are floating ignorantly in The Matrix...or something.... :/
Problem is, SingSing's like the LaRouchites who hang out at subway stops or parks in New York City, or al-Qaeda, or proponents of THE TURNER DIARIES (appropriately, given SingSing's increasingly-obvious racist bent). It's not that they're necessarily wrong about what's going on in the world, or even some of the people and institutions who may be responsible (see my earlier comments about Obama's possible AG pick Andrew Holder). It's that their solutions always seem to involve a Constant State of Strife and Revolution, with daily exhortations To Devour Our Young.
They all need the rest of us to believe the time for all other solutions is past, so as to validate their need to see the world burn, over and over. While I'm sure most ("many"? "some"? "okay, just me"?) of us would love to see the Right groveling for mercy, the Clintons mocked as irrelevant drama queens, and Holy Joe the Quisling wandering in the wilderness having lost the Land of Canaan for the rest of his miserable life, we'd much rather have our workable government and civil society back...even if it means the "Rethug Lite" DLC of Clinton and LIEberman gets to fail upward yet again, and the Bush Nazis remain unpunished. Looking into my soul, I realize that while I sure don't LIKE it much, I guess I can swallow my need for terminal vengeance on everyone who "questioned my patriotism" or even that I was right and they were wrong, and give President Obama a chance to fix things - even at the cost of a lot of "centrist" Clintonistas in his White House, at least at first.
SingSing, al-Qaeda and those bogus miltiamen racists, though, are all just like Bush - they can't conceive of building anything, so they delight in tearing it all down.
Selah.
Letterman 11/21
Rachel,
I saw you on Letterman last night and you were great!
I've liked you ever since I first heard you sub for Al Franken but never thought I was a lesbian. Does that make me weird?
Feedback time
Rachel. Welcome back. You are doing a GREAT job on MSNBC, but I don't need to hear it again on the radio. I would rather have another hour of you, or lacking that, David Bender.
BTW. You have seriously mis-pronounced Peshawer, Pakistan several times now and since the violence there is likely to continue, you need to fix this. It more closely approximates this: Peh-shower.
And as for your essays on whether Obama's appointments are "change we can believe in", you might want to look back to the Carter and Clinton administrations and not only remember that they are the main sources to find experienced Dems, but you might also remember how unsuccessful it was both times to bring in a whole crew of how-Washington-works-naif's and how they got squat done, blowing the honeymoon period out of the water.
Would you have Obama sacrifice getting anything done because no one knows how Washington works, just to have new faces in all the places? Not me. I just care that they are wise choices which don't conflict with his promises.
Having said that, unless Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi morph into completely different Majority leaders under Obama, I would surely like to see them replaced by two more persuasive and compelling leaders.
Oh, and one more thing
I would certainly like to hear more analysis on why the car industry problems are being laid at the feet of Labor by nearly everyone, and why it is that NO ONE is talking about health care costs re this issue....
This guy...
...is hardly "NO ONE".
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
Love him! I grew up near Flint,MI and met him many years ago..
That was when he ran a "radical left" little newspaper whose name I can't recall.
I met him, too
Just a few years ago, at a book-signing. Called me "sir". I thought he was talking to the guy behind me. Gotta love that parochial school upbringing.
:cheesenotthedayglokind:
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
I was just thinking, as I
I was just thinking, as I was driving home today and listening to someone talk about that very issue, that if we had nationalized health care the Big 3 might be in less trouble than they are. A lot of businesses would be in less trouble. A lot of people would be in less trouble. The fact that we don't provide nationalized health care is really hurting our industries as well as our people.
Unions - The Right's Scapegoat of Choice!
The Right Wing Echo Chamber, with the increasing collusion of the Mainstream Media, has always hated unions - how DARE the workers think they should be entitled to such Communistic things as, oh, Job Security, a Living Wage, Paid Vacations, Medical Benefits, a Pension Plan That Isn't Gambled Away by the Board of Directors, a Say in How the Company's Run.... Horrors!
Don't forget that the Right Wing Echo Chamber and MSM also blamed Prop. 8's passage in California on high first-time Black voter turnout for Obama - despite pollsters discovering, once they dug under the numbers, that 62% of first-time Black voters voted against Prop. 8!
It's the classic "Divide and Rule" strategy the Right's been doing since Ronnie Raygun's "False Dawn in Ammurika" nearly thirty years ago, and the MSM's gone along b/c they hate not having access to The Popular Kidz....
health care burden on businesses
During the campaign I wondered why Obama or surrogates never brought up the burden that high health care costs place on small (and not-so-small!) businesses. There was plenty of talk about taxes, but what really hurts is the escalating cost of insuring employees. It seemed an obvious rejoinder to the McCain camp assertion that rolling back the tex cuts would hurt businesses.
I figure that Obama's team must have deliberately decided not to mention this since it would likeley have led to criticisms of his health care plan by supporters of a totally nationalized plan. Obama clearly doesn't seem prepared to go that far...yet...(ever?).
Noam Chomsky redux
Reading Noam Chomsky's Penguin paperback "Doctrines and visions," reminds me of what I hope for from the likes of political scientist Rachel "Mad Skills" Maddow. Namely, to wit, a collaboration between historians and ... . I think a collaboration between journalists and historians can result in better information for historians, who notoriously leap to conclusions on the basis of too little evidence, and more timely good information (less b.s.) from journalists.
Because I'm a translator, I also understand the invaluable ($) benefits from a second or third pair of eyes.
Chomsky is a great man and has done invaluable work. Yet here and there in what I'm reading, sandwiched between the proven-true facts you won't find elsewhere, there will be a tiny B_B-style overgeneralization of the personal opinion that is probably what people then use to denigrate Noam Chomsky. No one should denigrate Noam Chomsky. Noam Chomsky is an invaluable asset. Perhaps a second pair of eyes--perhaps a history major, or a Maddow intern...
I'm Confused, BB - WHY Do You Thnk We'd Object to Chomsky?
An antiwar Libertarian Leftist? That's my kind of intellectual! :)
Not "we"--"they" (you know, "them")
People used to roll their eyes at Chomsky's sincere listing of unpleasant facts. Yes, the world is unpleasant, oh no, not Nicaragua again. A shorthand way to write off that kind of academic or even that kind of person is when they interrupt their succinct arguments with opinion asides about e.g. how shocking or awful it all is. Or when they don't provide succinct arguments at all and instead talk in liberal shorthand Stichwörter, key words, as in the Team America: World Police parody of Tim Robbins.
Last night I thought Chomsky was doing the former, and I was irritated both because these little unnecessary sentences seemed to provide easy handles for the comedians on the Right to persiflage the rest of what Chomsky was saying and because I find myself deleting those kinds of sentences from my prose. Of course, now I can't refind any of the examples that set me off at the time. Chomsky is therefore innocent (and good), and I am guilty of a loosey-goosey post.
Check out the difference between the kind of language Amnesty International used in the 1990's and the kind of language Rachel Maddow uses, even though their goals are probably remarkably similar. When AI talked about slaughter, torture, blood and ###'s of innocent victims, college students would automatically roll into a protective ball. Rachel Maddow talks about how exactly torture doesn't work, the differences between what the U.S. says it's doing abroad and what the U.S. is doing abroad, how exactly killing civilians ultimately escalates the violence, what exactly is going on at Guantanamo and how it makes us look to the world, what methods were used by the different groups to arrive at their numbers for civilians killed because of us in Iraq, Pentagon research into crowd control technology, Pentagon efforts to re-establish taxpayer-paid propaganda offices, Pentagon efforts to reseat central intelligence, Pentagon efforts to access all the world's phone conversations and how the resulting data might have twisted Congressional arms during key votes, etc. Communications-wise, maybe this is the difference between a "bleeding heart liberal" and a "national security liberal." The "national security liberal" argues like a spy novelist, laying out the perps, tactics, technology and things you can do to help, whereas the "bleeding heart liberals" for years and years just repeated the same interminable lists with hound dog eyes, until the rightwingers could say, "look how uncool that is" to young people.
Big Three Loan
I live in Michigan by Detroit and I see that every person in this area is terrified that the governmnet is not going to loan the auto companies the money the asked for. I watched Congress tear into the executives about what plans are they going to use. Then they go out and bail out Citi Group with out any hearings or plan. They just give and give to these financial companies and then these companies still refuse to give loans out. AIG is a perfect example. Where was there plan?
I think that maybe the auto companies should close some plants in some of these states that these Senators that are against them. Maybe this will change their attitude when their voteers lose their jobs and then start losing their homes.
I'm Of Two Minds On This, Charles
On the one hand, I'm glad Congress is FINALLY asking hard questions of some aspect of Big Corporate America with its hand out....
...But on the other, why isn't Congress asking the same kind of hard questions of the Financial Industry, too?
I just had a mad thought: Since Ralph Nader sits in his ivory tower flinging racist sneers at President-Elect Obama while he plots yet another doomed White House run - why shouldn't President Obama put him in charge of a Big Three bailout? He's always been an auto industry gadfly, but nobody's ever given him a chance to prove the validity of his claims, or if he can actually run anything - I think this would be a great chance to find out.
Best-case scenario is that Nader proves what he's been claiming since the Sixties, gets the executive experience a President needs, and revitalizes the Big Three. Worst case is he falls on his face - but even so the Big Three have to implement some fuel economy, green auto standards, and workers' rights initiatives in the process.
Any thoughts about this?
2008-09 Rhodes Scholars
www.rhodesscholar.org/press
One recipient from Columbia (CT resident!). Perhaps the most notable is Florida State star football player Myron Rolle, who graduated in 2.5 yrs with a pre-med major and is now working on a Master's degree. Best quote from the NYT feature on him, when Rolle addressed one of his coaches who had criticized him for spending too much time studying:
www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/sports/ncaafootball/20rolle.html
“I gave him the benefit of the doubt,” Rolle said of [coach] Andrews. “I don’t think he’s ever sat through an organic chemistry lecture and seen just how difficult it is. [snip]"
Is he going to get a masters degree in pre-med?
I think I'll go for a masters in pre-law.
Let's impeach the president for lying-Neil Young
If that doesn't work...
...there's always a masters in pretension.
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
Actually, Cap'n - I Think He's Really Superman.... :o
On her TeeVee show tonight, Rachel told about how Rolle's Rhodes Scholarship interview in Birmingham, Alabama conflicted with a possible championship game in Maryland.... SO, he aced the interview, flew to Maryland, got there in time to suit up for the second half - to see his team win handily!
He then bent a steel bar in his bare hands, outran a speeding bullet, and leaped a tall building in a single bound....
Personally, I hate the concept of a pre-med "major"
Because you don't go into depth on anything - intro Bio, intro Physics, two years Chem...
But Rolle *did* do biochemistry laboratory research, along with starting his health program for the Seminole nation. I do not know in which field he's pursuing his Master's degree, but it's gotta be legit. The kid's amazing.
Speaking as the Founder of the Pre-Law Club at UNC-CH
I would like to say that we understood "pre-law" to be a student activity - an organized, formal effort to help people decide whether they wanted to go to law school and, if so, help them get there - not an academic major. I think law is better when people come to law school with degrees in forestry, art history, languages, hard sciences, medicine, politics, engineering, history, etc. etc. I loved the fact that my law school classmates came from different disciplines. One of my classmates was both a dentist and a Colonel in the Air Force. She was way cool. The idea of being surrounded in law school by a horde of people with "pre-law" degrees? Sounds icky - makes me shudder.
As for a "masters in pretension," Cap'n, I think most people who choose that path skip the undergraduate, masters, and PhD coursework altogether and leap in headfirst at the post-doc level.
I went straight to...
...Pretensor Emeritus.
:winky:
"Fear. It's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by the fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above."--Fox Mulder
I may be late to this...but...
Rachel as the Covergirl of the Advocate!
Wooooohoooooooooooo!!!!!!!
I told the guy behind the counter to move it to the top of the rack!!!
Rachel is everywhere!
For those who don't have a magazine store handy
http://www.advocate.com/issue_story_ektid64682.asp is the web version