I am hereby urging everyone to boycott the movie "Southland Tales", to be released in November. Since I've been boycotting movies since I saw "A Stranger Among Us" around 1992 or so, this will be easy for me. However, if you're one of those people who inexplicably watches movies, I urge you not to attend.
The film is from writer-director Richard Kelly, and it's the sequel to something called "Donnie Darko", which appeared in 2001. It features a cast of D- and E-movie actors like "The Rock", Justin Timberlake and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
The reason for my boycott is that one E-movie actress it won't feature is this one:
The major casualty [of a re-editing to make it less worse], lopped off at the studio's urging, was a subplot with Janeane Garofalo as a general.
Anyone who'd cast JFo as a general (except perhaps in the Iraqi Army) belongs in a mental institution.
Via a comment by "dump", we learn that Air America Radio says it's going to be taking a more moderate stance and will be moving away from extreme liberalism. I'm not familiar with all the terms liberals use, but I believe that that means that Maoism is out, with the more moderate Trotskyism coming back into favor (close followers of AAR will recall their brief flirtation with Stalinism). This will also make it easier for them to get behind Hillary Clinton.
In fact, their vice president of programming, David Bernstein, says:
"I do think the liberal programming that has occurred here has been far too extremist... It's not our job to get a Democrat elected to Congress. We need to be funny, we need to be enjoyable, and I don't think that existed at this company three years ago."
But, it will exist at the current version, and soon. Just you wait.
In related news, they've also picked up 10 smaller stations to carry some of their programming, but only because they unbundled their shows: no longer do affiliates have to accept everything AAR has to offer, only the "best".
And you know, every time I look for it what comes up, believe it or not, is that Blackwater wants to move to San Diego and build this giant complex in San Diego right where most of the evacuations are taking place and you know. ...Some of them are thought to be the work of arsonists and in the same breath you've got a community that's on fire that just recently protested Blackwater West. Just recently said no to Blackwater and apparently you don't do that. ...You know, nobody is saying Blackwater set the fires, that is nobody that doesn't want their house burned down. Nobody is saying that, but it is all so bizarre that this is America and you have to sort of sit there and wonder... arson, same place Blackwater West wants to be, people protesting. And then you find out that some of the guys that used to work for Blackwater are now in Schwarzenegger's administration. It's all so creepy.
If you can't even make it in Austin, Texas - the closest that fine state comes to an infection of "liberalism" - you can't make it anywhere. Except, of course, perhaps Portland.
As of Monday, Air America Radio is off the air in Austin due to an ownership change at KOKE 1600 AM. They've switched to Spanish-language programming. As libtalk their ratings were 0.9 and apparently their signal was so weak it couldn't even be heard four miles south of downtown.
Air America is looking for a good home, and their affiliate manager, Dave Kaufman wants you to send him tips at dkaufman *at* airamerica.com:
"If someone can point me to the direction of someone more amenable to picking up our format, I'll take all the help I can get."
Speaking on her radio show today, Air America Radio's Randi Rhodes spoke about her supposed mugging. She said she was watching football in an Irish pub and went outside for a smoke. The next thing she knew she was on the ground, having fallen or been pushed into a metal grate. She also said she hadn't eaten all day, and she's been to a series of doctors and dentists to fix her injuries and they've also been unable to determine a medical reason for the incident. She also says she sent a two sentence email to AAR's management telling them that she had been mugged; when right-wingers were blamed for the incident she decided not to speak out because she had doctor's appointments.
Here's an edited recording of the start of her show. Bear in mind that about five minutes of the beginning was edited out for brevity. In the raw version she complains about the "paparazzi" staking out her building, including one who asked if there was a "secret lift" to Rhode's apartment.
10/20/07 UPDATE: Air America's channel has released their own video (link), lamely called "Randi Rhodes is back, talks about what happened to her". It features the full, near 8-minute introduction to her show, accompanied by only one graphic instead of my shorter, more multimedia production which featured four graphics and titles. And, it includes this hilariously defensive video description:
Liberal bloggers are taking a beating for speculating that Randi's injuries were the result of a right-wing attack. And it is wrong to jump to conclusions and point the finger when you don't have all the facts. But isn't it also wrong that right-wing blogs are now speculating that Randi's injuries are the result of too much alcohol? There are any number of scenarios that would explain Randi's fall. So it's odd that the right is attacking the left for jumping to conclusions and then turning around and doing the exact same thing.
Air America Radio host Randi Rhodes was supposedly mugged on Sunday night in New York City while walking her dog and supposedly lost a few teeth. Already, her fans are saying "This was a political attack" and others are playing a similar game. However, at this point in time all that's known is that she's not on the air; AAR themselves says "reports of a presumed hate crime are unfounded." And, the police said no report had been filed. Note that Rhodes was sued for slander a couple years ago; the last that was heard on that case was in January, with the plaintiff cleared to go ahead despite Air America filing for bankruptcy. Other actions may have taken place since then.
While I wish her the best, I also wonder how much this story will change as the details come out. There's even the possibility that there was no attack at all.
Rhodes' lawyer told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog. He said she's not sure what happened, and only knows that she fell down and is in a lot of pain. The lawyer said Rhodes expects to be back on the air Thursday. He stressed there is no indication she was targeted or that she was the victim of a "hate crime."
UPDATE 2: AAR host Jon Elliott - the brain surgeon who started the ball rolling - said this in a completely voluntary written confession:
"I shouldn't have speculated based on hearsay that Randi Rhodes had been mugged and that it may have been an attack from a right wing hate machine. I apologize for jumping to conclusions based on an emotional reaction."
Police have also contacted Rhodes, and she says she's not going to file a police report. I don't suggest making the "glugg, glugg" gesture myself, but I'm sure many are doing that.
Secular progressives rejoice! This weekend, Air America Radio launched Freethought Radio (airamerica.com/freethoughtradio), a show just for the large percent of liberals who are atheists or agnostics.
The hosts are Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-presidents of the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wisconsin (ffrf.org). That organization has done much good work that liberals should take pride in, such as "overturning a state Good Friday holiday", "halting the Post Office from issuing religious cancellations", and more (ffrf.org/legal)! Plus, they're part of the Secular Coalition (secular.org; "Atheists. Humanists. Freethinkers. Americans.")!
The first show even featured a distinguished guest: Christopher Hitchens, author of the bestselling "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything."
This is all great, but I need to point out to my reactionary readers that they aren't "Satanists". The latter people worship a god, just not God. So, most likely not all of their members are Satanists. And, I need to point out that this has already been tried. But, just because it didn't work out perfectly OK the first time doesn't mean that liberals shouldn't keep trying.
When he isn't promising to lick any man in the joint, Ed Schultz has a radio program. And, unlike Air America Radio's audience which largely consists of cows outside Karnes, Texas, apparently somewhere around 3.25 million listeners on a weekly, cumulative basis tune in the Shultz show, sources say. That ties him with Jim Bohannon (link), Doug Stephan (link), Clark Howard (link), and even someone you may have heard of: Bill O'Reilly. Of course, that's still over 10 million shy of Rush Limbaugh and just slightly ahead of Bill Bennett. Nevertheless, this should give "liberals" some comfort, even despite the fact that, as we all know, Shultz' liberalism is just an act and he's actually a crypto-conservative. In fact, his show is most likely an elaborate ruse by the RNC: shortly before the '08 elections he'll probably have a "miraculous" conversion back to conservatism, just in time to urge his listeners to do the right thing.
