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A Cavalcade of Crazy

Posted on 10 March 2010 by Reverbo

A few weeks ago, the saga of the torture memo writers, Jay Bybee and John Yoo, was officially re-visited. David Margolis of the Justice Department rejected the original conclusion reached by ethics lawyers in the Office of Professional Responsibility–that of professional misconduct–and replaced it with the anyone-can-have-a bad-day, poor judgement verdict.

I know this isn’t breaking news, and health care is the issue du jour, but we haven’t yet touched on some of the broader issues involved here on A Cavalcade of Crazy, and it gives me another opportunity to demonstrate the flexibility of the popularly-referenced fourth dimension; to wit, we will not be confined by it’s apparent linearity on this column. Nor, it seems, by short, pithy sentences.

For me, these diversions are more than just salubrious; they’re vital as a defense against the merciless aggravation we encounter with tedious frequency. I don’t wish to utter any more odd, gurgling noises than I already do. Listen to Bob’s show on the HORN on a regular basis and you’ll hear all manner of howls, yowls, rumblings, and groans. I think I even heard some quacking once. And that’s just from the host.

Let’s take a little side trip to seventy years in the past. Some time ago I began kind of a personal honor roll, commemorating during the months of their birth individuals who have profoundly added to my life in extraordinarily positive ways. Although highly subjective and discriminating (at the moment Ray Davies is in final approval), I wondered if any of you would agree that it’s possible, in the case of entertainers for example, to qualify based on a single performance instead of lifetime achievement. Here’s the thing: for my money, a single film –The Philadelphia Story – does just that for three superlative actors. if Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart and Katherine Hepburn never acted in another film, they would all make it for that 1940 classic. “C.K. Dexter-Haven,” said a sozzled Stewart to a sober Grant, “you have unsuspected depth.” Your thoughts.

Okay. Next destination: 2001. Not the movie.

The response of the military/industrial/media complex in accord with the Bush administration after 9/11 was to implement and advance a plan already on the table and spin it into a bogus rationale for attacking an innocent country. The record is clear on that. In essence, our own government offended us, and parts of the world, again, and it appears to be okay. Where are all the hearings? Where’s the outrage? Other than slapping Scooter and the two attorneys, who else have we called into account? I can think of a couple who just ignored congressional subpoenas, but that was before Obama took office.

I’ll admit that I’m not aware of all the legal fine points in this case. I know significant punishment has been avoided so far; Yoo is a professor at UC Berkeley and Bybee is a federal judge. Got a bit of an arrogant chip on their shoulders about the whole thing, especially John Yoo. And why not? Both could have been disbarred and Bybee face impeachment. But it’s all so redolent of how Bush and his handlers conducted business for eight years: announce a pre-determined conclusion and then contrive some premise to support it. Solutions seeking a problem. Conceal and control the information. And there was no shortage of loyal party hookers like John Yoo to facilitate these schemes for them. Just like that, Bush and the CIA had what they wanted in writing, a legal basis for officially hurting– even accidently terminating– people, thereby adding Guantanamo, and by extension the United States, to the popular torture destinations of the world. Just wanted to authorize this abuse a little closer to home, I suppose.

Want to take this a step further? I ask you to consider the following words precisely and in context: would it surprise anyone to learn one day that we have put bags over people’s heads and rendered them to a secret location in Utah for some enhanced interrogation? How do we know they don’t? Given our history of covert and nefarious intelligence and military activities going back to the fifties both here and abroad, through countless Freedom of Information requests or investigations by people like Seymour Hersh, Gary Webb, and other determined reporters, it would not surprise me. In fact, why do you need people like John Yoo to sanction your clandestine actions and methods at all? When did the NSA, CIA or the Black-Ops spooks ever care about legal justification? We don’t even know how many billions they appropriate, let alone what they do. What’s your problem? Do you hate freedom, or something?

All too often, the “official versions,” whether rushed to release or too late on the scene, have been leaving much to be desired. It can be downright revelatory when and if the real story emerges. In a nation that ostensibly holds the principles of trust and transparency high, that’s rather sad.

For review:

http://educationforum.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=7867

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/CIA%20Hits/CIA_GreatestHits.html

http://www.minnpost.com/ericblackblog/2009/03/11/7310/investigative_reporter_

seymour_hersh_describes_executive_assassination_ring

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/121304.html

Yeah, I know–I’m giving you more to read, but here at A Cavalcade of Crazy we will include references when appropriate. You can peruse as much as you want in your spare time, if you have any. And I won’t link you up to any crackpots– that is, unless they are of a rich and irresistible nature.

Can you get into serious trouble for lying to the wrong people? That depends. Ask Dick Nixon. Okay, that’s a problem. Ask Bill Clinton. Before George Jr & Company’s pre-planned invasion of Iraq, I think the man who should have paid the price was the Grand Old Party’s Ronnie Reagan. Here’s a classic assertion: “We were not trading arms for hostages, nor were we negotiating with terrorists.” Three months later, on March 4, 1987, Reagan admitted he lied right to our faces: “A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that’s true, but the facts and the evidence tell me it is not.” (Next time any of you are in front of a judge, try that and see how it works.) So although Ronald’s heart was really into that mendacious tale, it just wasn’t going to last. Miss Hall? Yes, Col. North? Start the shredders.

And wasn’t there something about defying the laws of the land and sending the Nicaraguan contras the proceeds from those Iranian arms sales through the back door? Talk about low-hanging high crimes and misdemeanors. If that outrageous affair doesn’t result in impeachment hearings, what does? But we let the Teflon President skate away.

Watergate was nothing in comparison. Iran/Contra should have been the made-to-order centerpiece of a profound and long-lasting neo-con disgrace.

On one of his recent shows, I thought Bob Kincaid made a decent case for that negligence being a direct line to our dismaying situation today. If we throw Reagan out, or even George Sr. (whose fingerprints were all over that operation), none of this is a sure thing: The Bush 41 presidency and his pardon-fest, Newt and his farcical “contract,” mass media right wing craziness, human blot George Jr, or the invasion of the Middle East. Or John Yoo. The torture memos and their authors don’t enter that picture.

At least things might be a lot more manageable today. It goes back to Ford preemptively pardoning Tricky Dick. Rumsfeld, Cheney and those freaks don’t crawl out of their coffins to abuse us again. Not to mention sending an always prudent reminder to future executives. I’ll take it back to John Kennedy. I think you can argue that from November of 1963 until today, a few well-placed assassin’s bullets, together with our critical failure to finish seeing a handful of select weasels all the way to Leavenworth has led straight to the mess we are in right now. 

While I’m not especially pleased with the latest watered-down assessment of Bybee and Yoo, at least we followed up. The rest of the gang responsible for implementing the death and destruction machine in the name of the War On Terror have slipped away and are still at large. As is Bin Laden. We should come down on these mercenaries and profiteers like the pirates they are and just see how many can go for a spin in that Large Hadron Collider for a while. The shit these werewolves are getting away with up and down the line, including thousands of people literally dying because of their actions, deserves some measure of examination, if not judgement. A little justice for their rampage, you know? Mr. Yoo! Please take your place with the others inside the machine.     

I thought defrauding Congress and the people of the United States, looting the treasury, and slicing up the Constitution were criminal offenses. For your last trick you can’t just give us all the finger one more time as you walk out the door. Except I guess you can.

Sigh.

And before anyone gives them a pass, for any reason, know this: when they get their hands around your neck, there will be no passes for you.

The one thing that’s supposed to be dependable in a nation of laws is not that corruption is preventable but that there are valid and effective ways to take you down if you violate our rules of conduct. But the devious connections have grown so powerful, and the implementation of oversight so difficult, that isn’t a sure thing. In fact, too many of our elected officials are more apt to simply yield to this pressure than to exert effort on our behalf. Where is Sam Ervin? Where is Jimmy Stewart when we need him? Damn, he’s back there in paragraph four. I see no choice in the matter of official investigations into the possible crimes of any administration, especially when they leave such a trail of deceit.

What is ultimately more important than protecting our trust? Well, I’ll admit that changeover to all-digital TV is pretty big. I really don’t know how we let this go. There is a constitutional imperative to re-affirm the legitimacy of our systems and the authority of our laws. Otherwise many just descend into apathy, some into anarchy, but all lose even more confidence in government. And that is music to the ears of the powers that be.

” The government…teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law…To declare that the end justifies the means – to declare that the government may commit crimes – would bring terrible retribution.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        ––Louis D. Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice, 1916-1939

Reverbo

Critic-At-Large

Next time – Spotlight on The Republican Party:  Just Sayin’ No Since 1935.

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Speak up for the Future

Posted on 09 March 2010 by shinai

Hello Fellow HORN Listeners,

Our Friends at ILoveMountains.org are holding a National Call-in day today (3/9/10)  to find more Co-Sponsors for S696, The Appalachian Restoration Act.  If you would like your senators to be  co-sponsors of this legislation, call the capitol switchboard at 202-225-3121 and Ask to be connected to  your Senator’s  office.  When you speak to your Senator’s Staff Person, speak politely. But do speak up, The Future is counting on you.

-Thanks So Much for all the love and care that all of you have shown us and each other in these times.

The HORN Team.

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Buggy Whip Power V The Future.

Posted on 08 March 2010 by shinai

Courtesy Scientific American:

Not many years ago, there wasn’t enoughwind power coming from the Great Plains to worry about. Now there is, and lots of people are worrying.

A group of mostly East Coast utility companies calling itself the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy fears that the prime conditions in the Great Plains will make the region’s wind power too cheap for its members to compete with, unless developers there are made to pay the costs of moving wind power eastward.

Influential natural gas producers and generators in Texas are worried. They are demanding that the state’s wind developers share the costs of backup natural gas generators that must pick up the slack when the wind doesn’t blow. The gas industry, threatened by state policies that promote wind power, is asking regulators to impose penalties on wind generators that can’t deliver scheduled energy when the wind dies down.

And last week, four senators representing New York, Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania proposed to deny federal clean energy grants to wind developers that buy blades, turbines and other components from abroad.

“It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, pointing at a proposed Texas wind farm whose backers include a Chinese power company.

Some renewable policy advocates say the problem has less to do with China and more with on-and-off-again federal energy policies, and arguments over how to pay for the vast expansion of transmission lines needed to maximize wind power delivery. Instead of looking at foreign rivals, members of Congress should start with a look in the mirror, says this side in the debate.

-Source.

See Related Article.

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3/7/10 Tonight’s Fox’d Up: Idling Hands

Posted on 07 March 2010 by shinai

Hey folks Jon is back with a new show and he will be looking at what it is to be Jobless in America, and is the Green Movement as green as it should and much much more. Click here for the full Post.

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Twice Is A Pattern – Tea Party Terrorism Part ll

Posted on 05 March 2010 by rantingkeyboard

(I’m just going to keep adding the cowardly face shot of the newest teabagger terrorist that goes on a killing spree, on top the of original cracked teapot image I made after Joe Stack went on his.)

John Patrick Bedell, whom authorities identified as the gunman in the Pentagon shooting on Thursday, appears to have been a right-wing extremist with virulent antigovernment feelings.

If so, that would make the Pentagon shooting the second violent extremist attack on a federal building within the past month. On Feb. 18, Joseph Stack flew a small aircraft into an IRS building in Austin, Texas. Mr. Stack left behind a disjointed screed in which, among other things, he expressed his hatred of the government.

Details of Mr. Bedell’s case are still emerging. But writings by someone with his same name and birth date, posted on the Internet, express ill will toward the government and the armed forces and question whether Washington itself might have been behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Finish reading the rest of this well-written article over at the Christian Science Monitor.

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Let’s Put The Iran-Contra Criminal’s Face On The $50 Bill

Posted on 04 March 2010 by rantingkeyboard

No, seriously.  Repiglican representative Patrick McHenry from North Carolina has introduced legislation that would replace President Ulysses S. Grant’s face on the $50 bill, with that of Ronnie Raygun’s.

Yeah, kinda makes you throw up in your mouth a little, doesn’t it? And talk about cramps! Oh, Lordy!

I could post more about it, but I have to go inject my eyes with bleach. You can read the report about it here. Feel free to make LIBERAL use of the comments section!

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Grumpy Old Neocon Blocks Unemploment Bill AGAIN – Video

Posted on 01 March 2010 by rantingkeyboard

U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning blocked the extension of unemployment and health insurance benefits for a second time on Monday.

Bunning (R-Ky.) said that the legislation still wasn’t funded in the budget, and that he didn’t want to keep adding to the debt. The benefits covered in the legislation—which affects about one million Americans stopped on Sunday night after Bunning blocked the measure from coming to a vote last week.

In the Senate, legislation must receive unanimous consent for it to move to a floor vote. To block this bill’s progress, Bunning simply objected every time unanimous consent was called for.

Bunning insisted that, under a “pay as you go” law that was enacted in February, all legislation has to be paid for before it can be made into law—even though he didn’t vote for that bill when it was before the Senate.

Read more about this idiot over here.

Have you heard about Bunning’s declaration of “Tough shit” on the Senate floor last week? Oh yeah! You can read about that little stunt here.

And check out what happened when he was asked a couple of questions. Somebody! Call the waaaamublance!!

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Nevada State Government moves to Four Day Work Week.

Posted on 01 March 2010 by shinai

Courtesy Las Vegas Sun:

CARSON CITY — Most of Nevada’s government will soon transition to a four-day workweek. But the reasons for it go beyond filling the state’s $887 million deficit.

The plan, proposed by Gov. Jim Gibbons and broadly supported by legislators, will save $600,000 on energy costs, make it easier to implement a 10-hour-a-month furlough for state workers and lift their flagging morale.

But legislative sources point to another reason — even if they’re loath to admit it publicly — for this major change: The reduction in the availability of state services will make the public feel the effect of the revenue shortfall.

It’s a potentially controversial, if intriguing, strategy.

The citizen who isn’t attending college or doesn’t have a child in school or use social services, may not have felt the effects of previous rounds of cuts. But longer lines at the Department of Motor Vehicles, lengthier waits for birth and death records and delays for businesses dealing with state agencies might make Nevada’s stark financial situation personal.

Legislators cited first the potential economic benefits of the four-day week — Utah, which adopted the schedule in 2008, saw energy savings, overtime and sick leave among state employees decrease and citizens increasingly use online services.

But as Assemblywoman Debbie Smith, D-Sparks, said: “It’s important for us, as we cut across the board, to demonstrate to the public the impact of the cuts.”

-Source.

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2/28/10 Fox’d Up: Yes Folks we Have Show.

Posted on 28 February 2010 by shinai

Yes folks,

Believe it or not we have show.  If you’re wondering what happened, blame the Ninja. (Sake should be taken before bed to prevent yearning for Sepuku.

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Contemplating A Cavalcade of Crazy

Posted on 26 February 2010 by Reverbo

Hello, how are you? It’s good to be here. I’m Cliff Yablon, but some of you may already know me from Bob Kincaid’s show as Reverbo, Critic-At-Large. No, that’s not an old photo of me. That’s President Rufus T. Firefly from Duck Soup, who when asked by the Ambassador of Sylvania if war could be prevented, remarked “It’s too late. I’ve already paid a month’s rent on the battlefield.” The humor there is a bit tempered by the fact that the previous president of our own country basically did just that and worse in Iraq. As leader of the bankrupt nation of Freedonia, Firefly also reduced workers’ hours by shortening their lunch breaks, something George Jr. and his handlers were no doubt considering.

In Horse Feathers, Groucho sings “Whatever It Is, I’m Against It.” Sound familiar?

So is everything just an endless movie or is this real life? Anymore, it’s hard to tell. As Twain once said, “Sometimes I wonder if the world is being run by smart people who are putting us on, or by imbeciles who really mean it.”

But, back to my intro. As much fun as I have listening to Bob, and emailing and calling his show for two years, why not see if this works in print, and hopefully adds to the already high level of thoughtful and entertaining discourse. In short, I’ve been invited to be a columnist on the HORN blog. My literary arena is not that of journalism, but of commentary and satire, and I hope you come along, too. Sound like fun? I’ll say. As Critic-At-Large, just about everything is fair game, and while I try to do my homework, what I may sometimes lack in the erudition department I believe I can make up for in the comedy sector. Somewhere I remember reading someone a lot smarter than I who suggested that arguably every human act is shaped in some form by politics, that in fact, our entire lives and the choices we make have some political framework. As Richard K. Morgan said in Altered Carbon, “The personal is political.” There. I’ve just given us a pass to go anywhere we want.

Anyway, the airheads and fools of the world deserve all the ridicule intelligent people can dish out, and most of them ask for it. And those who promote reason, dignity and honor deserve our praise.

So what do we mean by comedy? It’s subjective, to be sure, but for me the best kind demonstrates consistency. One way to find out it is to apply a simple test to an idea, event, or even a word, and ask yourself, does this at least stay as funny, if not actually get funnier, the more you think about it? Here’s a concept: hindquarters. Does that meet the funny test? See what I mean?

Try the test with this headline: Spotlight on South Carolina. Or this idea:  Embracing your inner moron. Passes with flying colors, I think. High jinks and monkeyshines await.

Let’s talk more about me. I like, not necessarily in this order: Kurt Vonnegut, The Onion, Dr. Strangelove, Claudia Cardinale, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, Salvador Dali, surf instrumentals, and private-eye jazz themes from late 50s television. As a matter of fact, I wish there was a way to have that Mancini-styled crime jazz playing in the background every time I spoke. I like vegetables and fruits but I have made peace with carrots: I don’t like them, and that’s that. I think in italics. I’m in love with those gorgeous French astro-physicists from the Go-Go 60s – you know the ones – and I have finally discovered my spiritual community. I realized I’m a Humanist. I don’t suffer for any gods and they don’t suffer for me. Most of us have our hands full dealing with our own lives, not to mention other human beings, and the last thing we need is to throw some supernatural creatures into the mix. I dig Joe Biden; that guy is one smooth V.P. And I can summarize Arlen Spector’s political career in four words: single brain cell theory.

I grew up in the East, then spent most of my life in Colorado, presently live in the South (my astrological sign is the possum), and will soon head north again to Maryland. At one time I thought I was a conservative Republican, but the only way to describe what happened to that party is madness. I share the ideals of progressives, whatever their stripe, and my appreciation of art and culture transcends party lines. My search for a Nelson Rockefeller Pez dispenser goes on. (That vice-presidential Pez series? Impossible to find a complete set.)

I’m fine with capitalism, I just don’t appreciate the reckless kind. When you put profits over people you’ve stepped over the line, and even the shitbrains ought to grasp that. Democracy doesn’t work everywhere–you wonder how well it’s still working here– so I don’t condone dropping it on people, unsolicited, from 10,000 feet. I hate those who conflate patriotism with loyalty, the truth is never a matter of opinion, and I dislike bamboozlery of any kind. There’s another one. Try saying the word bamboozle without grinning.

Are you still with me? This is what happens all too often. Some of you know exactly how this works. One thought leads to another and before you know it, you’ve been on the air with Bob for half an hour. I also realize this will be tough sledding if the pessimism level stays too high, but though I’ve been politically aware since the 60s, never before have I been so cognizant and awed– and infuriated– by the power of the forces against us, and how readily our elected officials will whore for them. It is definitively clear to me there is a vibrant third party in american politics– the Corporate Party– that’s enjoyed great success by sponsoring the two other parties that actually appear on our ballots. With few exceptions, the United States Senate is basically a club of fat, dysfunctional aristocrats. That’s dismaying; there’s no doubt about it. These people are supposed to be working for us.

A friend of mine once remarked that the world as we knew it ended on December 31, 1969, and it’s hard to dispute that. It’s 2010, folks, and we’re still arguing about the same things – the economy, poverty, the environment, education, taxes, energy, security, et al. Isn’t it about time we figured out the role of government and got it rollin’ for everybody? We can’t just set things on cruise control anymore; that’s long gone. Is anyone going to step up and actually fix anything while I’m still around? It’s still the People against the Establishment.  With apologies to the Ramones, Southern Culture on the Skids, and surf music’s Third Wave, you can argue rock ‘n’ roll basically had it’s last hurrah at Woodstock and then Altamont. The passionate idealism and alternative directions of the 60s and the voices who championed that collapsed in apathy or were silenced by assassination. Meanwhile, Honeywell released the first under $10,000 16-bit mini-computer, the H316 (designed for the kitchen, no less), the middle class was peaking, and The New Frontier culminated that summer when three Americans actually made it to the freaking moon, and the Commies couldn’t even make a decent car. The 1960s was the ultimate manifestation of the United States.

I haven’t forgotten about Vietnam and never can. Though I didn’t serve in it, that would have been my war. For many of us, The Great Society was far from great. To be sure, the 60s, like today, was a time of unbelievable extremes, but nevertheless – and unlike now – we were poised to realize and flourish in our incredible potential. About all we can do now is put up signs on each coast that say “Closed For Repairs.” I think it could take a generation – possibly less if certain people either pitch in and help or sit down and shut up – but so far there’s no evidence of that happening anytime soon. And whatever the outcome, it will never be the same here again.

At any rate, some say it was essentially over forty-one years ago, that the whole thing came to an end on the last day of 1969 just like the final twenty second crescendo of the Beatles’ A Day In The Life. That we were right there– as close as we’ve ever come– in the midst of a glorious, triumphant run. Instead of the floor pie-eating Homer Simpson we had the trim, space-age Jetsons, and Martha and The Vandellas asked, “Are we ready for a brand new beat?” It felt like we were on the verge of something we’ve never quite re-captured. Has it really been all downhill from there? Or have we always existed, as Joe Bageant says, inside an elaborately constructed hologram of America, our values and feelings– in fact, our decisions– already selected and programmed for us? Then we are not only faced with taking back our government and our country, but our minds. When I visualize again the all-too-recent image of that smirking weasel we got for eight years at the beginning of the 21st century it’s hard not to be nostalgic for a brighter time.

Well, we might have come close, but darkness returned with Nixon, Watergate, and then more madness with Reagan, Iran-Contra, the Bushes, the Second Great Depression – we all know what happened. (Vonnegut was always on to it, too. At the end of his 1982 novel Deadeye Dick, he wrote: “You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages—they haven’t ended yet.”) It’s tempting to speculate how different things would have been had both Kennedys lived to serve their terms. But they didn’t. And as much as I think the 1960s was the most creative, energetic and intense decade in which to grow up, the fact is, that’s my generation and we didn’t get it done either.  

Our moon adventure reminded me of that scene in Vacation, when the Griswolds visit the Grand Canyon on their way to Wally World. Chevy looks over the rim at that breathtaking vista for all of five seconds and announces “Well, we’re outta here.” Hell, all we had was a cup of coffee up there, and then it was “Buzz? Neil. Where are you? All right, I see you. Listen Buzz, Houston really wants you to stop jumping around out there now, and get back to the ship, okay? We gotta go.”  What happened to the moon bases? Where are those futuristic helium-filled pants I ordered forty-five years ago? We let our future become hijacked, plain and simple. Instead of Tomorrowland, we ended up with Greedyland, our hands still grimy with oil and the earth still pockmarked with bomb craters, and all but a connected few of us broke and disillusioned. Or downright crazy. And deadly. Look out for the Angry White American With A Gun. He’s polluted with right-wing hate, he’s armed and activated, and he may be coming to a town near you. Or, flying into one, as happened in our latest domestic attack on February 18, by the terrorist Andrew Stack III.

I know Bob Kincaid and the HORN community gets it. It’s clear Bob and his listeners understand that we really are all downstream, that the actions of people and nature are undeniably connected.  And so he and the network keep pushing ahead–pressing on–heading on, but what we do is up to us. Blatantly, our adversaries refuse to get it, and the worst of them have the arrogance to believe they not only live upstream, but that it’s their stream to piss in. With the mass media awash in deranged idiots, and Fox sticking a mic and a camera into the face of every nutcase around, it’s seems like a bozo explosion everywhere you turn. At times you’d think we were back in the 14th century. The only way you can tell it’s not is because those new high-def plasma TVs make the brain-damaged Michele Bachmann seem so lifelike.

Groucho was almost so surreal at times that the other actors often didn’t get his jokes. Some readers may not always get mine. I know Homer doesn’t. He claims he does, though. “I get jokes…I get stuff.” Yeah. Homer Simpson, Atomic Dad. The icon for our time. In any case, while I’ve read and listened to many, most of my thoughts and words are mine. Whether you write by nature or profession, the key is, through a combination of invention and synthesis, to find your own voice and then hope it’s a perceptive and engaging one. And always be open to constructive criticism. By the way, if anyone’s nodded off next to you, please tell them I’m sure my pieces won’t all be this long, but I wanted my opening night to be a strong one.

That about does it for now. I better save some copy for my next installments if this ends up working out. What have I forgotten? The most important part. The HORN could be on the cusp of breaking out right now. This may be their time. I think the internet is an excellent vehicle for progressive radio; that’s where broadcasting is headed and where there’s room to establish new and alternative markets. The HORN was out front on that and has been chugging along for a while now, building an impressive foundation and reputation. The landscape has changed and this network could be in position to really make something happen. With enough support we can increase our efforts, magnify our message, and be a leading liberal voice into the next phase of exposure and attention.

I’m pleased to be associated with everyone on the HORN and glad for the opportunity to contribute to the cause. Hopefully I’ve opened up an entertaining and stimulating dialog and a range of topics. Your thoughts, comments and feedback are welcomed and appreciated. That’s the idea.

Reverbo

Critic-At-Large

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