Posted on 05/21/2004 9:25:54 PM PDT by Pikamax
Randi Rhodes announced today that she is quitting Air America. Rhodes made the surprise announcement in a prepared statement at the opening of today's broadcast of the Randi Rhodes Show.
On a related note the Arbitron ratings came out (for New York only) and it is not pretty. Air America on WLIB came in ranked #24 between #25 Mexican Radio and #26 Wall of Voodoo.
LEGAL CLARIFCATION REQUIRED: If you quit on a radio show with no ratings does that count as a resignation?
The Air America message board is in mourning.
In case you missed it...here is the updated timeline of the Air America Death Watch. I won't cheat and post it but I had meant to post a prediction that she would be the first to go. From what I understand she had a bigger audience in Florida then she was getting on AAR's "national" network. I don't think her little "assassination" joke helped.
Hi. My name is Randi... and I am a political Junkie
01.02.03
Hi... my name is Randi... and I am a Political Junkie.
It started innocently enough, in 1992 I followed the Clinton-Bush campaign. So I read Time and Newsweek some U.S. News and World Report. Next thing I knew I was reading the Sunday New York Times, and the Washington Post. Soon, it all became more frequent. Not Just the Sunday Times, but now, it was the dailies. The Boston Globe, The New York Post, The Daily News, The Tennesseen for God's Sake.
I started subscribing to the Nation, The National Review, and Free Republic... And, logging on for BUZZFLASH, Salon, Slate, Drudge Report. Doing Legislative Searches on the Internet, and writing Congressmen in and out of my district.
Whatever money I made it just seemed like it would pay for my fix of the National Journal and then that huge chunk of change for The Congressional Quarterly. I bought books about past presidents before I got a facial. Before I paid my bills, before I took care of my family or my hair.
Soon, I found myself isolated, sitting in my dark room alone, with newspapers spread out in front of me. I would look at all the news I spent all day SCORING and then, then came the cable channels. Brian Williams on MSNBC, Geraldo on CNBC, even grotesque Chris Matthews crept in. Fox News? It was like "straight to the vein".
My heart would race and my head would feel like it was exploding. I was sick, my body wracked with pain whenever I saw Sean Hannity. But I was hooked. I took the bait. I kept waiting for them to report so I could decide. It was such a good come on for a junkie like me. I bought it. OH I BOUGHT IT BIG.
I cut my hair like Paula Zahn, I felt like Laurie Dhue was my only real friend. I started putting on lip liner and lip gloss in her same shade "Terra Cotta and Coffee with a Nude Gloss finish.” I thought if I ever O.D.’d Brit Hume would be there for me. I was wrong. So dead wrong.
It's disgusting looking back now at the friends you keep when you are addicted (when you are a news junkie). Brit Hume, Tony Snow, Bill O'Reily... They are bad men. Very bad men. All they want is to get you into it. I call it "THE LIFE". They're dangerous. They distort your mind. They seem like they care about you getting the news, but really they just want their money and fix of Clinton.
Next thing you know you're FATIGUED all the time and still you can't get enough either. It was a dangerous spiral.
Downward.
Then came the grand daddy of them all. C-SPAN. The perverse channel that makes you feel insane the moment you do it. You feel it instantly. The loneliness, the isolation. You KNOW you're alone when you're doing C-SPAN. No one productive or personable wants to watch you do it to yourself. But you don't care. You get that sense that you are better than everyone else. That this designer drug is a slow comfortable screw that only you know about. You could try to get your friends into it, but they were the smart ones… They’d always say NO I won't go THERE.
So I stand before you today to declare that I am trying to save myself, my marriage, my relationship with Jessica. I will take it one day at a time. I will take it easy. I will work the programs so they don't work me. I will ask for serenity.
I can't say that I made it through the weekend. I waited until Jimmy fell asleep last night and I watched it--C-SPAN. I thought I could handle it. I really did. But this morning I watched Meet the Press, Face the Nation, and Late Edition with Wolfe Blitzer.
I sat in my house unwashed until noon. I feel ashamed...
More ashamed than Robert Byrd at a Hadassah Meeting. More ashamed than Bob Barr at an NAACP meeting. More ashamed than Nancy Regan dedicating a Nuclear Aircraft Carrier 15 years after the Cold War ended. More ashamed than Dick Cheney trying to explain the Clean Air Act at the Oil Barron's Ball. More ashamed than Lynne Cheney at NARAL meeting. More ashamed than George at a MENSA meeting. More ashamed than Laura Bush at Bersace's Milan Show. More ashamed than Trent Lott PERIOD.
I sat alone this morning in our marital bed chanting (low). Jim Nussle republican Iowa 6th Term Chairman of the House Budget Committee. Henry A Waxman, Democrat, California, Ranking member Henry A Waxman. Democrat, California, ranking member House Government Reform Committee, Henry Hyde Republican Committee on the Judiciary. John Conyers, Democrat, Michigan, Ranking member, House Judiciary Committee. E. Clay Shaw Jr. Republican, Florida subcommittee on Social Security.
Robert Byrd, Why? It's insidious… It just creeps up on you and you don't even know you're hooked like this. But then, you see a photo of yourself, or videotape or hear a recording of yourself, and you just feel embarrassed. I know that I will get better and be able to live a manageable life. BUT NOT WITH A BUSH IN THE WHITE HOUSE! (Can they read this?????)
Right now, I am craving handgun crime stats. Eminent Domain decisions from the last 50 years I want to be a part of the giant LEFT WING CONSPIRCACY.
Although... I am Glad that Laura Bush is in the White House... She believes that a child beginning at the very earliest age must be taught (how to respect the servants). What a great job she did with Jenna and the "other one". But by now I think the secret service must be used to those late night runs to the convenience store for beer, rolling papers, and condoms. Not to mention the boyfriend pick ups at the local county jail. But she tips well, though, as a liberal... I must observe that even when you are the progeny of a Patrician Dynasty there is certainly no excuse for not knowing how to hide your boozing.
GEORGE is a completely different matter. Did he really declare our Long National Nightmare of Peace and Prosperity is finally over? I thought I heard that.
I MEAN here is a guy who thinks we should solve California's energy crisis by running an extension cord from Vegas. Guess Exxon's losing too much money on those free coffee refills. The only explanation we've gotten is that Clinton had no energy policy. Well then I guess the DRUNK MONEKYS that pick the daily oil prices have been in a bad mood since Bush came to town...
You know I think there's something going on that they don't want to tell us. I don't think Uncle Jed's "bubbling crude" has finally run dry--I think Bush and Cheney are spending all of it lubricating Strom Thurmond. And the rest of us be damned.
Now if we could just harness Maxine Waters or Gay Power we'd be good to get through the summer. I think.
Speaking of Cheney... why is he our Vice President? Did George get the idea while eating white bread? Did Cheney kill in the evening gown competition? Does he make a fabulous tuna casserole or something? How did Dick and Bush oh never mind... it's too obvious. Here is a man that every time he sits up on the gurney it costs another 3 billion dollars! President Bush says that the energy crisis is, and these are his words, "The result of not enough power-generating plants and then not enough power to power the power of the generating plants."
You now realize why it took his father, his father's friends, the Florida Secretary of State, and the Supreme Court to pull this off. His entire life gives a new meaning to the phrase "assisted living".
But I know George thinks that what America needs is a taller pie and until I understand what that means... I will fight for some tender genius in American life to show up and save us from the Office of Total information Awareness.
Thank You.
Or is she leaving? Some posts on her messageboard claim she's taking a long weekend to attend a graduation and will be back Tue. Maybe this is AA's way to get even
more fake publicity?
In West Palm Beach she is on right after Rush.
She is so totally against President Bush and anything conservative or Republican as to be unbelieveable.
I have listened to her just to get an idea of what and how the other half think. Still unable to ascertain logic or thought patterns from her dribble.
I can't imagine any propoganda being more unAmerican or more pathetic but the little old Jewish bluehairs in Palm Beach listen to her sorry butt.
I went to the link to the Air America message boards. This post there provides the most background on her resignation. Definitely sounds like bad blood between her and Franken, with Randi accusing him of playing the prima donna.
How is this possible? Without the moral compass of Absolute Truth, he considers himself and others like him to be the standard of conduct. Using this standard ("everybody cheats, lies, steals, etc."), he projects his values onto the conservative side to see how we line up.
Obviously, our core values are not in line with his. So, in extremely convenient fashion, he simply determines that the other side is living in hypocricy -- they must live one way in public and another way in private, because "no one could ever truly be that virtuous."
He then takes it a step farther. He reasons that since he is being open and honest about his lifestyle, he is actually far superior than the ones who, in his mind, are putting on a facade (think of Bill Clinton's "We saved the Constitution" declaration).
But it gets even worse, because you'll notice that there is an unhealthy rejoicing at finding skeletons hidden in someone's closet. This is because he's uncovered the greatest "sin," and the fact that one of the opposition has fallen because of it is good news, indeed.
As an added bonus, he can feel better about himself because his preconcieved notions about the other side are coming true. Without Absolute Truth, his personal conduct does not matter -- if someone else is exposed, it makes his transgressions acceptable.
A good example of this is Bob Livingston's resignation over adultery DURING THE IMPEACHMENT DEBATE OF BILL CLINTON (who committed perjury and obstruction of justice). Who was the one who uncovered this evidence? None other than Larry Flynt.
Here's what he had to say: "I'm happy if my efforts had anything to do with it. I think right-wing radical bullies like him are more of a threat to our unique form of democracy than anything else" (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june99/flynt_1-5a.html)
And so it doesn't matter about the drug use of Randi Rhodes or Al Franken. Their lives make no difference to them, but they will do whatever they can to expose hypocricy (while being blind to their own). They rejoiced at the Rush Limbaugh case, and you're right, they missed a golden opportunity to discuss major policy decisions.
They're so blinded by their goal of personal destruction that they're destroying themselves. The Truth stands by itself, and it always will. While justice has decreed judgment on the tyranny of liberalism, freedom and liberty are putting her to death.
bttt
I would think that any man who even as much as smiled at her could take it off as a deduction on his income tax for charity.
That face could make a freight train take a dirt road.
>My first thought was Snow White.
My guess was a football team.
Oh, and the mascot.
Air America has about as much viability as selling air.
Air America should go ahead and admit that there would be no prisoner abuse without gays and women in the US military.
These numbers must be from the accounting department at "Err Amerka!"
Mark
Hey, an opening on AA? Maybe Billyboy oughta give it a shot. LOL.
In radio parlance, "AC" stands for "Adult Contemporary." You might also hear "AOR," for "Album Oriented Rock," although these are completely different, so I really don't know why I mentioned it, other than to impress everyone on FR with my knowledge of totally useless information!
Mark
I just hope Al doesn't do serious damage to himself. Poor man's already brain-dead........
Mexican Radio
I feel a hot wind on my shoulder And the touch of a world that is older Turn the switch and check the number Leave it on when in bed I slumber I hear the rhythms of the music I buy the product and never use it I hear the talking of the dj Can't understand just what does he say? I'm on a mexican radio I'm on a mexican radio I dial it in and tune the station They talk about the u.s. inflation I understand just a little No comprende--it's a riddle I'm on a mexican radio I'm on a mexican radio I wish I was in Tiajuana Eating barbequed iguana I'd take requests on the telephone I'm on a wavelength far from home I feel a hot wind on my shoulder I dial it in from south of the border I hear the talking of the dj Can't understand just what does he say? Radio radio...
Don't let it happen again! That's my department.
;-)
If we get lucky, O'Reilly will be the next to go. The guy is a pompous ass that lives on the misery of others. What a low life!!
Well if you are truely liberal, open, accepting and affirming, 2+2=5, as long as you feel good about yourself.
I've heard of shooting through gauze to soften a hard looking woman's photo. That had to have been shot through a Turkish towel.
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