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July 31, 2006
I can't comment on every single post on the Huffington Post from AAR co-founder Sheldron Drobny, but this one is especially funny:
I am a contributor to OpEdNews.com, a thoughtful progressive site that is run by Rob Kall. He is a good friend and has always been a true believer in the "cause." This is an email that he sent out to all his contributing writers which I think is a standard that should apply to all sensible blog managers.
Arianna, are you listening?
UPDATE: From this 7/25 entry:
While at lunch today, I was fortunate to catch the appearance of Air America co-founder, Sheldon Drobny on the Dennis Prager show. While I applaud Drobny's willingness to appear in such a forum, I was far from impressed with his performance. Listening to him make unsupported assertions, back away from taking positions, pretend that he was under attack, and refuse to admit that he was even on the left, was not exactly entertaining, but it was enlightening.
If you too would like not to be exactly entertained, the audio is here. Search for "Is Left Anti-Semitism a Right Wing Plot?".
Posted in Sheldon Drobny
at 11:59 AM
| Comments (0)
July 28, 2006
Chair botherer and alleged comedian Al Franken has a political action committee completely inappropriately named the "Midwest Values PAC". Now we've learned that it's raised around a half a million dollars, mostly from a ragged collection of Hollywood lefties:
* Larry David (apparently has a cable TV show; wife opposes global warming while flying on chartered jet)
* Barbra Streisand (singer/political strategist/crack speller)
* Nora Ephron (writer/director/name sounds like Greek for 'kidney')
* Jimmy Smits (actor/new president of U.S. in the "liberal" alternate universe)
* Larry Hagman (J.R.)
* Christopher Guest (director?)
* Barry Levinson (?)
* Harold Ramis (second least talented former SCTV member)
* Aaron Sorkin (crack television writer)
* Ron Bass (related to Lance?)
According to Laurie David's husband:
"Al is a friend of mine, so more than anything, when friends ask me to do things, I have a hard time saying no to people... If he asked me to drive him to the airport, I'd do that too."
Would you please? I'd like to say somewhere tropical, but that might be in bad taste. And, France has long been a refuge for disenchanted "liberals". So, for a change, how about here?
Posted in StuartSmalley
at 10:52 PM
| Comments (1)
July 27, 2006
The nitty gritty is
here:
XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. reported a wider loss for its second quarter Thursday as it absorbed charges for restructuring its debt. The company again lowered its estimates for full-year subscriber counts...
The company said it now expects to end the year with a customer base between 7.7 million and 8.2 million, and that it would refine that range at the end of the third quarter. The company cited "current marketplace dynamics" and regulatory uncertainty regarding certain of its radio models for the change.
The news is sure to disappoint investors, who punished XM's stock in May when it lowered its previous forecast for year-end subscribers to 8.5 million from 9 million, blaming problems with product availability and soft retail sales...
Now, the sure-fire way for them to come back to profitability and increase subscribers is for them to pick up Air America.
What's that you say?
AAR has been exclusively on XM for almost a year?
Oh.
OK, well, how about this. George Soros could offer people money for listening. The more AAR you consume, the more you earn.
Posted in Meta
at 10:12 AM
| Comments (4)
July 25, 2006
According to this, Mike Piazza did a (guest?) news cast for Air America.
Posted in AlsoRans
at 10:18 PM
| Comments (0)
Is Karl Rove using his sputnik mind control ray and Rockefeller rich man's mafia powers to steal Air America Radio co-founder Sheldon Drobny's thoughts and sap him of his vital fluids?
That remains undetermined. However, here's the final paragraph of Sheldon Drobny's latest HuffPost essay:
So my conclusion is that the bloggers who violently hate Israel and see it in black and white terms are not really liberals. They may even be anti-Semites, but they are not representative of the liberal community that was so active in achieving racial and ethnic equality. It is a contradiction for a true liberal to be an anti-Semite. Furthermore, I would not put it past the right wing to flood the liberal blogs with hateful criticisms of Israel to advance a perception that liberals are anti-Israel or anti-Semitic. And I see Karl Rove's fingerprints all over this.
(Note: I usually just scan Drobny's various rantings and this eluded me. However, this blog was making a big deal out of, so I decided to read what Drobny actually wrote this time.)
Posted in Sheldon Drobny
at 10:13 PM
| Comments (0)
July 23, 2006
I don't usually do this, but this site has received a hit from a search for 'AAR's Mike Malloy affiliated with communist party'.
Obviously, that person was looking for which version of the Commies Malloy is associated with. Frankly, I don't know, so I'm turning to my loyal readers for help. Is he with the American Communist Party? Or is he with the RCP, the "Revolutionary" version thereof? Perhaps the good ol' CPUSA? The WWP? The PLP?
There are so many to choose from, and I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I don't know which one it is. If anyone knows, please leave a comment.
Posted in Satire
at 04:18 PM
| Comments (0)
July 18, 2006
From
this (via
this):
On July 13, the Pensacola, Fla.-based law firm of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. filed a "qui tam" lawsuit in U.S. District Court, alleging that Diebold and other electronic voting machine (EVM) companies fraudulently represented to state election boards and the federal government that their products were "unhackable."
Kennedy claims to have witnesses "centrally located, deep within the corporations," who will confirm that company officials withheld their knowledge of problems with accuracy, reliability and security of EVMs in order to procure government contracts. Since going into service, many of these machines have been linked to allegations of election fraud...
Posted in AlsoRans
at 05:51 AM
| Comments (3)
July 17, 2006
Wouldn't it be nice if there was a special place that "liberals" could go to in order to discuss all the failings of Air America, without having to worry about AAR anti-fans finding out about it? Well, here's that very special place:
...Half the ads I have heard on the several different AAR stations I've listened to over the past several years have sounded like they were made by two amateurs with a tape recorder and an old sound effects record...
...Those Ovaltine ads are driving me crazy...
...I am not a fan of Franken and I can tolerate Randi in spells...
...Al is mailing it in! He doesn't even sound like he is interested in what he is doing anymore. Who knows what his salary could do to help sustain the network...
...air america struggles because air america sucks... by and large AA comes across as just so much suburban pseudo-prog kvetching, short on courage and long on verbiage. a fucking bore, in other words...
...I felt that way too and never quite thought of it in that context- that these AAR hosts were all part of a sort of elite club along with their regular listeners and everyone else was not worthy- like Franken's constant '...who is a personal friend of mine' bullshit about every famous person he discusses as if that somehow gives him street cred. It really pushes that whole liberal elitist stereotype well...
...I first tuned in wanting to like it, to love it. I wanted to believe. But all I felt was pandered to, with dumbed-down, condescending dribblings from self-worshipping monomaniacs. If they can't sell to me, square in the middle of their target demo, they sure as fuck can't sell to John Q. Conservative Sheep in Arkansas...
Posted in Meta
at 09:45 PM
| Comments (1)
It's official: Janeane Garofalo is no longer on Air America Radio. The formerly-cute actress will now be pursuing "other projects".
While some might want to make a big deal about this, there's really nothing there. She herself had hinted about her departure since May, and she hasn't really been a big part of the show for the past year.
There's really nothing here. Nothing at all.
This will not spell the eminent demise of the AAR network, which is jumping from success to success, with surging ratings from Portland to Portland.
Meanwhile, for fun, let's vote on which AAR celeb will be the next to create a non-stir by "pursuing other projects." Leave a comment with your choice:
A) Al Franken
B) Randi Rhodes
C) Jerry Springer
D) Mike Malloy
E) Walter Duranty
F) Hugo Chavez/Cindy Sheehan
Posted in Janeane
at 10:47 AM
| Comments (5)
The article "A New Alliance Of Democrats Spreads Funding" reports on the secretive "Democracy Alliance", a coalition of nearly a hundred stretch limousine "liberals" who are donating millions in order to create their own "liberal" infrastructure. See, the VRWC is too awesomely powerful, and having virtually every TV network, TV station and newspaper in their back pocket isn't enough. They want even more, apparently in an attempt to cover up the fact that their ideas still aren't working.
The article contains this intriguing bit:
Several alliance donors are negotiating a major investment in Air America, a liberal talk-radio network.
That's all there is, but isn't it a bit late in the day to donate even more money to AAR? Janeane's leaving, Franken is still considering leaving, Springer is boring, Randi is screeching, and no one really cares because no one listens (except in Portland).
Posted in Meta
at 08:12 AM
| Comments (2)
July 16, 2006
You can apparently
replace an hour of the Majority Report (featuring Sam Seder and the now-mostly-exited Janeane Garofalo) with your own infomercial for just $250 on KOMY 1340FM in Santa Cruz/Salinas/Monterey Bay:
Many of the pre-Air America shows on KOMY were reported pay-for-play, and the weekends and noon hour also are paid programs, advertising things like vitamin supplements, music, Las Vegas vacations, and fishing... One issue that I wonder about is the fact that the Zwerlings claim that they have been able to sell *zero* local advertisements on their station, and they take this to mean that the listeners are hypocritical liberals who refuse to pay for Air America...
Sadly (OK, I don't really care) Zwerling himself appears to have left a self-promotional comment suggesting people listen to his Saturday show where he would explain all. On the 0.000002% chance that someone else heard that, please leave the details in the comments.
Posted in Meta
at 11:28 AM
| Comments (0)
July 15, 2006
Air America has a new show called "The Time is Now" hosted by one Rev. James A. Forbes Jr. He's 70, far-left, and the leader of a congregation in Manhattan. He's also... religious. So, expect him to be ripped a new one by AAR's "liberal" listeners.
Posted in AlsoRans
at 11:06 PM
| Comments (0)
Former "Morning Sedition" co-host Marc Maron has been cancelled from his Los Angeles-based basically-local show to which he was shuttled after MS was cancelled. Now, that show has in turn
met its fate:
The satiric "Harrison on the Edge" will join KTLK-AM's (1150) night time line-up beginning Monday. The show, which bills itself as "Progressive Talk Radio by the Openly Gay Son of a Neo-Nazi," will originate from Los Angeles and replaces "The Marc Maron Show." The show will air Monday through Friday from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. The station's move represents an expansion of the program, which already airs Saturdays from 2 to 5 p.m.
Maron: less popular than someone who's shtick was tired the
first time I heard his tag line.
And, lest you think this site and CalendarLive are the only people who've noticed, there is
one other person who did:
The first cancellation came about because the former new CEO had a personal dislike for Marc and funny morning shows in general. For some reason the board and the suits did nothing to stop him from first dissembling the fantastic Unfiltered, and then moving on to Morning Sedition. He ended Morning Sedition on the day that Howard Stern went to Satellite radio, thus closing the door on the thousands of new fans who might check out a show that features a bit of a comedy zoo thing happening along with liberal politics.
Well, that guy is now gone and we are looking at the ruins of what could have been at AAR. To run down the lame programming left in the place of what was really something special is not even worth it. The future also looks pretty bleak right now.
Once Al Franken leaves to run for Senate, and Jeaneane Garafolo goes back to acting (she just announced tonight that she would only be doing a little subbing work in the future,) we are left with the truly intelligent Rachel Maddow who is sorely misused as a morning news person rather than as part of an ensemble, and the fantastic Sam Seder, who will likely move along sooner rather than later, as he says all the time. Other than that, there is Randi Rhodes who rasps and complains on and on angrily and repetitively, often obliterating her own point in the process, and the package deals of the horrendous Jerry Springer and Satellite Sisters. Hartman waits in the wings along with some others, but there is nothing really compelling there.
Bear in mind, she's a
supporter.
Posted in AlsoRans
at 02:17 PM
| Comments (1)
July 11, 2006
No, I'm not the author of the headline, liberal loon, Democratic embarassment, loose cannon, and AAR co-founder Sheldon Drobny
is:
...It is the fact that that most of the wealthy liberals will not support it financially that prevents AAR from doing many of the things that would make it very successful. I am not suggesting that AAR is going out of business. We are still shareholders of AAR and have our own disagreements with some management decisions but that is only natural in corporate America. The big problem has always been from the very start that rich liberals refuse to give it financial support and they make excuses for not making an investment in AAR that are disingenuous. The people who are funding AAR now are the same people who funded it originally including our venture fund.
But every big time investor who is a liberal shifts the due diligence process to one of their financial advisors as if this were a "garden variety" investment. It is not...
Air America: A "Very Special" Investment. Maybe he could sell it as a way of taking a loss or something like that. Sure, there might be rules and regulations against that, but a top CPA like Drobny can surely find a loophole.
After pimping his new radio venture, Drobny drops the Godwin bomb:
Divisions between the left had very disastrous effects in history. All one has to do is review the hostility between the left in Germany in the early 1930s to appreciate that the right wing wins when the left is divided.
Posted in Sheldon Drobny
at 11:51 AM
| Comments (12)
July 10, 2006
KQKE (960 AM) ("The Quake") is Air America's Hayward/Union City/Vast-Empty-Areas-Off-The-880 offering, and as reported here their ratings are still struggling after two years.
Now certainly, if they can't make it anywhere they won't even be able to make it in the San Francisco Bay Area, but in any case one clue to their plight might be because of their morning offering: the "Keepin' It Real With Will and Willie" show.
I'm about to tell you who Will and Willie are, but feel free to guess before I do so.
Yes, that's right, they are Will Durst and former Frisco mayor Willie Brown.
Posted in Meta
at 01:30 PM
| Comments (3)
July 09, 2006
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports on a sports talk station in their city that's 50,000 watts and can reach the East coast and Florida, WCKY 1530 AM. After 14 paragraphs describing how ecstatic the personalities are to be on a megastation, the Enquirer offers one, final paragraph:
Shows previously aired on 1530, such as "Springer on the Radio" and "Air America," now can be found on 1360.
1360 (WSAI-AM) is the former home of the sports station, and it's 5,000 watts. People will be able to find those shows, they'll just need to be holding their radio next to WSAI's antenna.
Posted in Meta
at 11:28 PM
| Comments (0)
July 06, 2006
I was expecting to hear
something like this from DU, but I thought Air America might take the higher road. I guess I was wrong:
...I first heard [about Ken Lay's death] via a "comic" bit that was over-the-top, and pretty tasteless, even by my admittedly loose political correctness standards. What followed was even dumber though. Perhaps the dumbest thing I've heard on TV or radio in the past month - and that's saying something.
Randi implied the Bush administration had Kenny Boy killed to cover up their collusion with him in the Enron scandal...
UPDATE: In an instance of great minds thinking alike, one of the HuffPost's nobodies (David Goldstein) is
getting into the act:
...Sure, we've already seen suspicions raised in the comment threads of liberal blogs, but no real effort will be made to push this theory and no "serious" journalist would ever take it seriously, except as an opportunity to ridicule the generic "left." [I've done my part! -- BA]
...As a Democrat I suppose I should be proud that my party tends to shy away from such wacky, over-the-top character assassination -- you know, like characterizing a war hero who left three limbs on the battlefield as a coward and a traitor. But I'm not so sure it's good strategy. If we hope to compete, I'm not so sure we can afford to reject even the vilest of Karl Rove's tactics...
Posted in RandiRhodes
at 09:35 AM
| Comments (4)
July 05, 2006
The Majority Report might have been canceled and Janeane Garofalo might be out of a job that she wasn't drawing a salary for, according to the Radio Equalizer. Since very few people at the MR blog or anywhere else seem to have noticed, let's speculate among ourselves:
Posted in Janeane
at 05:30 AM
| Comments (1)
