In a story about the latest polygamy prosecution, a headline (on Findlaw) referenced that someone pressured teens to have sex -- clearly, they need encouragement. Seriously, it was about teenage girls under seventeen being pressured to have sex as part of some ritual/marriage ceremony deal, so more in line with the recent guilty verdict of a civil rights leader from the '60s on incest charges. A matter Timothy Noah over at Slate argues is undercovered.
The brainy South Bronx activist who stirred an Olympic torch-bearing ruckus in San Francisco said Thursday her conscience fueled her surprise anti-China protest.
There was a good article in the NY Daily News today about the South Bronx native -- an attractive woman in many regards -- who staged a small protest while bearing the the Beijing Olympic torch. The retired fireman fellow torch bearer felt this was "disgusting and appalling" while the police officer torch bearer thought it was a poorly time protest that did not show "the best of American citizens." Yes, our support of people who enable torture underlines the point. Desires to use Yoo etc. as scapegoats notwithstanding,
[See Glenn Greenwald today; I commented over at Marty Lederman's post on Yoo/academic freedom too, which GG links.]
The Olympics are intended to provide a forum where nations peacefully come together and compete on the playing field, not the battlefield. But, we already had an Olympics boycott that suggests the ideal is not always so lovely in practice. Those who carry the torch represent the nation as a whole, so perhaps all the same it is wrong for them to use the event as a means of protest. It is not really about them. But, it simply is not disgusting or anything if one tastefully does just that. Wrong, arguably, sure. There is wrong and there is wrong, however. Lets have some damn perspective.
On that subject, what the fuck is wrong with Air America? It was at best questionable when they suspended Randy Rhodes (the popular/successful on her own afternoon host that I more than once said here turns me off) for calling (during a not station sponsored comedy event) Ferraro and Clinton f-ing whores for some of their attacks. RR makes it personal on her show sometimes, and also at times goes for the low brow. I'm not a big fan of her particular style in that regard.* This was tempered somewhat by her skill and the homework (if somewhat slanted) she clearly did on the issues. But, come on. I truly hate that petty shit. She says a magic word or two, and suddenly it's soooo horrible?
She refused to apologize, (right) wanted an apology, and now it led to her leaving the station. Pathetic. Again, I don't even really like the woman, but you put yourself up for ridicule when an allegedly progressive station fires a popular host for such a shoddy reason. But, they really do not care much about listeners. Sam Seder was popular and provided a strong voice, but he is shunted to Sundays, tossed as a guest host now and again during the week. Thom Hartmann isn't even around any more -- the guy who replaced him riffed on something about how parenting is bad these days or something, and I had to turn him off. That leaves Rachel Maddow, but the signal in NYC is so bad, I basically stopped trying to listen. Air America is basically a joke now.
[See here and here. As to the latter link, I am mainly listening to music during the day now. It might be that the incident was just an excuse for the station to get rid of Rhodes and/or she was just sick of the company as well, which would only underline how low it has gone. All the same, the company made an issue of her off the air comments about public figures -- comparisons to Imus very weak -- and its assistance in the PC movement is still quite relevant.]
Pretty sad. It started off with promise, a good signal in NYC and pretty good hosts from morning to midnight. Shoddy business and treatment of staff/listeners left it a shell of itself, awaiting only for Maddow to escape to totally fall apart. Get out when you still can girl. Find a better locale, get Kent Jones back and put this sham station out of its misery.
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* And, though his angry denunciations of the Bush Administration et. al. was refreshing, Mike Malloy bothered me as well, though without the annoying voice. He also has a pure Bush hatred (if the guy said the sky is blue, it would mean it is not) that was too over the top for me. [To give him some props, Malloy also is clearly a professional, with a news background, and continued promoting the progressive message on an alternate network from deep belief in the value of the effort.] Still, Malloy was treated badly by the station too, and the time slot never became worth turning on to again.