1) Roast Beef with Gravy
2) Oven Baked Chicken
3) Black-eyed Peas
4) Southern Fried Corn
5) Macaroni & Cheese
6) Oven Corn Bread
7) Country Banana Pudding, and Chocolate Chess Pie
I have added a couple of recipes take a look at it, enjoy!
Black Eyed Peas Recipe
Recipe ingredients:
1 – 1lb Bag Of Black Eyed Peas, Dry3 – smoked turkey wings or legs sliced/ cut - Tablespoons Olive Oil1 – Tablespoon Chopped Onion1/2 – Teaspoon Garlic Powder1/4 – Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper1/4 - Teaspoon Black Pepper
Cookware and Utensils:
1 – Large Pot or Dutch Oven1 – Cooking Spoon
Recipe instructions:
As always the key to great cooking is being prepared and to use quality ingredients.
You can pick up a bag of dry blackeyed peas at your local grocery store. Start with a small bag of peas, about 1 pound. This should produce about 5-6 cups of cooked beans.
Sorting and rinsing your peas is very simple. Sort through your peas removing any defective peas, dirt or debris that may be present. Place the peas in a colander and rinse several times.
In order to make that perfect dish you have to soak your peas before cooking. After a good rinsing place peas in pot and cover with at least 3 inches of water. Place peas in your refrigerator and soak peas overnight.
After the peas have soaked overnight discard the water. Rinse peas one finally time. Place peas into a large pot or dutch oven and cover with two inches of fresh water. Bring water to a boil then add other ingredients. Add lid to your pot and simmer 2 hours until peas are tender. Do not let water cook out. Add additionally seasoning to taste if required.
Serve your peas separately or with cooked rice
Southern Greens and Smoked turkey wings
Recipe ingredients:
4 – 5 Pounds of Collard Greens - 2 smoked turkey wings or legs (sliced)– 1 teaspoons sugar – Hot Pepper Pod - Salt and Pepper to TasteWater
Cookware and Utensils:
1 – Dutch Oven – Cutting Board – Sharp Knife
Recipe instructions:
As always the key to great cooking is to be prepared and use quality ingredients.
Selection of collard greens is very important. Go to your local grocery store or farmer's market and select 5 pounds of young leafy collard greens. You will select more than the recipe calls out because some leaves will be unusable and the large stems will be cut off and discarded.
Start off by cooking your smoked turkey. Place smoked turkey(sliced) in Dutch oven. Add water and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover meat and simmer until tender. This should take about 1 hour. Don't allow the water to cook out.
While the smoked turkey is cooking go ahead and prepare your greens for cooking. Rinse your greens several times under cold water to remove dirt or sand. After greens are clean, stack several leaves on top of each other. Using a cutting board and knife, roll the leaves together and cut leaves into 1 inch thick strips.
When your smoked turkey become tender go ahead and add more water, the collards, sugar and hot peppers to the Dutch oven. Add greens to the pot until the pot is full. Most likely all of the greens will not fit. Just allow the greens to cook down and continue adding until all of your greens fit in the Dutch oven. Cover greens and continue to simmer for about 1 hour, until greens are tender. Stir your greens often and keep sufficient water level to all the collards to simmer. About halfway through cooking add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve your collard greens with your favorite meat and corn bread.
Note: some can't leave the pork alone so use it in place of turkey, but turkey is a great substitute with less fat and sodium.......
Third stone from the sun, which airs on www.area24radio.com, live every other sunday 6 pm to 7.45 pm. Also posts of political articles and entertainment in the hudson river valley. Enjoy.......
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
"As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests". Gore Vidal
="I believe Gandhi is the only person who knew about real democracy - not democracy as the right to go and buy what you want, but democracy as the responsibility to be accountable to everyone around you. Democracy begins with freedom from hunger, freedom from unemployment, freedom from fear, and freedom from hatred. To me, those are the real freedoms on the basis of which good human societies are based." Vandana Shiva
="I believe Gandhi is the only person who knew about real democracy - not democracy as the right to go and buy what you want, but democracy as the responsibility to be accountable to everyone around you. Democracy begins with freedom from hunger, freedom from unemployment, freedom from fear, and freedom from hatred. To me, those are the real freedoms on the basis of which good human societies are based." Vandana Shiva
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Famous Doctor Operated on Slaves Without Anesthesia
By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Dec 10th 2010 2:01PM
Comments (65)
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University of Illinois professor Deborah McGregor has shed light on an important piece of American history. McGregor has noted that Dr. James Marion Sims, considered the father of modern gynecology, developed many of his techniques by operating on slaves, many of whom were not given anesthesia.McGregor, author of 'From Midwives to Medicine: The Birth of American Gynecology,' said "There is no doubt that he carried out experiments on women, and that he was only able to do so because they were slaves."Part of the controversy regarding Sims centers around a statue placed near Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street in New York City. The statue is located next to the New York Academy of Medicine, in a neighborhood that is majority black and Puerto Rican. EastHarlemPreservation.org put a poll on its Website that asks: "Should the NYC Parks Department remove the statue of Dr. Marion Sims from its East Harlem location considering his experiments on female and infant slaves?"Out of 650 people who responded, 62 percent voted that the statue should be removed, while 16 percent of respondents claim that it shouldn't be. The rest said they would need more information.New York City Council member Charles Barron petitioned to have the statue removed, but was not successful. The failure of the petition hasn't killed the effort. All the while, the New York City Parks and Recreation Department says that there have been no requests to remove the statue.Among other things, Sims was known for having invented the speculum, which allows doctors to see inside the vagina. He also claimed to have been the first doctor to treat club foot and crossed eyes. One focal point of his work was the treatment of vesico-vaginal fistula, a condition caused by prolonged labor, leading to an embarrassing odor and serious pain for the patient affected. Women with this condition were forced to stay away from other people and were even sent away from their families.Sims operated on 10 slave women from 1845 to 1849. Anesthesia became available in 1846, and there were at least three slaves who were not given anything to dull the pain. According to a New York Times article in 1894, the "first operation was on a female slave and was unsuccessful. He operated again and again on the same subject [Anarcha], and finally, in his 30th trial, he was successful."After the procedure was perfected using slave women, Sims then began to operate on white women. The white women were given anesthesia. McGregor says that Sims also operated on slave infants.One of the defenders of Sims' efforts is Dr. L. Lewis Wall of Washington University in St. Louis. Wall has argued that Sims' work was "not necessarily racist.""Acceptance [of anesthesia among doctors at the time] was not universal, and there was considerable opposition to its introduction from many different quarters, for many different reasons. ...The evidence suggests that Sims' original patients were willing participants in his surgical attempts to cure their affliction -- a condition for which no other viable therapy existed at that time."While I can sympathize with Wall's efforts to defend Sims, I simply cannot agree. The mere notion that he perfected his techniques by experimenting on slave women clearly implies that for Sims, slaves were subhuman lab rats on which he could pursue his scientific work. He is no different from Nazi doctors who performed horrifying experiments on Jews during the Holocaust. Conducting this kind of work on white women would never have been allowed, so being black was the key in allowing for this form of subjugation (notice that he wasn't able to "help" white women until the failed surgeries had been performed on black women, similar to how the doctors in the film 'Something the Lord Made' would "help" sick dogs by trying experimental procedures to save their lives) . So, yes, Dr. Sims' decision to experiment on black women was certainly racist and was also part of the foundation of distrust between the medical profession and the African American community. One suggestion was that instead of a maintaining a monument honoring Dr. Sims, another statue should be constructed to memorialize the women on whom the experiments were done. Such a move would show appreciation for the medical advances made by both Sims and the women who were forced to endure this serious pain in the name of science. Sims might have been a great scientist, but for women and people of color, he is certainly no hero. Experimenting on our people as if he were Dr. Frankenstein is disrespectful to our humanity.Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.
Tagged as: african american women, black women, BlackWomen, dr. james marion sims, Dr.JamesMarionSims
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By Boyce Watkins, PhD on Dec 10th 2010 2:01PM
Comments (65)
Email This
University of Illinois professor Deborah McGregor has shed light on an important piece of American history. McGregor has noted that Dr. James Marion Sims, considered the father of modern gynecology, developed many of his techniques by operating on slaves, many of whom were not given anesthesia.McGregor, author of 'From Midwives to Medicine: The Birth of American Gynecology,' said "There is no doubt that he carried out experiments on women, and that he was only able to do so because they were slaves."Part of the controversy regarding Sims centers around a statue placed near Fifth Avenue and 103rd Street in New York City. The statue is located next to the New York Academy of Medicine, in a neighborhood that is majority black and Puerto Rican. EastHarlemPreservation.org put a poll on its Website that asks: "Should the NYC Parks Department remove the statue of Dr. Marion Sims from its East Harlem location considering his experiments on female and infant slaves?"Out of 650 people who responded, 62 percent voted that the statue should be removed, while 16 percent of respondents claim that it shouldn't be. The rest said they would need more information.New York City Council member Charles Barron petitioned to have the statue removed, but was not successful. The failure of the petition hasn't killed the effort. All the while, the New York City Parks and Recreation Department says that there have been no requests to remove the statue.Among other things, Sims was known for having invented the speculum, which allows doctors to see inside the vagina. He also claimed to have been the first doctor to treat club foot and crossed eyes. One focal point of his work was the treatment of vesico-vaginal fistula, a condition caused by prolonged labor, leading to an embarrassing odor and serious pain for the patient affected. Women with this condition were forced to stay away from other people and were even sent away from their families.Sims operated on 10 slave women from 1845 to 1849. Anesthesia became available in 1846, and there were at least three slaves who were not given anything to dull the pain. According to a New York Times article in 1894, the "first operation was on a female slave and was unsuccessful. He operated again and again on the same subject [Anarcha], and finally, in his 30th trial, he was successful."After the procedure was perfected using slave women, Sims then began to operate on white women. The white women were given anesthesia. McGregor says that Sims also operated on slave infants.One of the defenders of Sims' efforts is Dr. L. Lewis Wall of Washington University in St. Louis. Wall has argued that Sims' work was "not necessarily racist.""Acceptance [of anesthesia among doctors at the time] was not universal, and there was considerable opposition to its introduction from many different quarters, for many different reasons. ...The evidence suggests that Sims' original patients were willing participants in his surgical attempts to cure their affliction -- a condition for which no other viable therapy existed at that time."While I can sympathize with Wall's efforts to defend Sims, I simply cannot agree. The mere notion that he perfected his techniques by experimenting on slave women clearly implies that for Sims, slaves were subhuman lab rats on which he could pursue his scientific work. He is no different from Nazi doctors who performed horrifying experiments on Jews during the Holocaust. Conducting this kind of work on white women would never have been allowed, so being black was the key in allowing for this form of subjugation (notice that he wasn't able to "help" white women until the failed surgeries had been performed on black women, similar to how the doctors in the film 'Something the Lord Made' would "help" sick dogs by trying experimental procedures to save their lives) . So, yes, Dr. Sims' decision to experiment on black women was certainly racist and was also part of the foundation of distrust between the medical profession and the African American community. One suggestion was that instead of a maintaining a monument honoring Dr. Sims, another statue should be constructed to memorialize the women on whom the experiments were done. Such a move would show appreciation for the medical advances made by both Sims and the women who were forced to endure this serious pain in the name of science. Sims might have been a great scientist, but for women and people of color, he is certainly no hero. Experimenting on our people as if he were Dr. Frankenstein is disrespectful to our humanity.Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here.
Tagged as: african american women, black women, BlackWomen, dr. james marion sims, Dr.JamesMarionSims
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Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Monday, November 22, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
Thanksgiving is coming so get them collards going..
Recipe submitted by lindsay11217, 07/10/06Southern Style Collard GreensIngredients (use vegan versions): 1 large bunch of collard greens 1 tablespoon seasoned salt 1 teaspoon regular salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 2 tablespoons of vegan margarine 1 cube vegetarian vegetable bullion hot pepper sauce or ground cayenne pepper to tasteDirections:In a large pot, add approximately 3 quarts of water (more or less depending on how big your collard bunch is). Bring water to a boil, and mix bullion, all salts, and black pepper. Reduce heat and let simmer while you prepare the greens.Wash greens thoroughly. Strip away stems that run down the middle of the leaf from the greens (tearing them from top to bottom, away from the stems). Stack the leaves together (I found about 8 -10 works) and roll them up, and slice them into 1" slices. Add the stripped and cut greens to the pot. Add margarine and pepper sauce or ground cayenne pepper to taste. Cover pot, and simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally.Makes 6-8 servings. Can be frozen after cooking for easy meals, just reheat and serve! For a true southern meal, these greens are best served with southern style black-eyed peas, and corn bread to soak up the "pot liquor" (leftover broth)! Yum! A great, inexpensive side dish full of flavor.Serves: 6-8Preparation time: Prep 20 minutes, Cook 60 minutes
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
http://www.watercolorcafe.net/entertainment.html
Please check out the link for this place Wali ali & the tamborine band will be playing there 11.26.10 @ 8.30 pm be there o' be square. Food is good, too!
Please check out the link for this place Wali ali & the tamborine band will be playing there 11.26.10 @ 8.30 pm be there o' be square. Food is good, too!
Monday, November 8, 2010
Blacks4Barack MORE NEWS !: NEW !The 244 ACCOMPLISHMENTSof PRESIDENT OBAM...
Blacks4Barack MORE NEWS !:
NEW !
The 244 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
of PRESIDENT OBAM...: "NEW ! The 244 ACCOMPLISHMENTS of PRESIDENT OBAMA ETHICS • Ordered the White House and all federal agencies to respect the Freedom of Info..."
NEW !
The 244 ACCOMPLISHMENTS
of PRESIDENT OBAM...: "NEW ! The 244 ACCOMPLISHMENTS of PRESIDENT OBAMA ETHICS • Ordered the White House and all federal agencies to respect the Freedom of Info..."
MSNBC’s suspension of Keith Olbermann: US media shifts further to the right
By David Walsh 8 November 2010
Keith Olbermann, the host of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann”, a news commentary program on US cable channel MSNBC, was suspended November 5 for having donated $2,400 each to three Democratic candidates for Congress on the eve of the recent elections. Phil Griffin, MSNBC president, asserted that Olbermann had violated a company policy that requires obtaining management approval before making political contributions.
On the face of it, the suspension that ends Tuesday is absurd. As host of the nightly program, Olbermann has made no secret about his support for the Democratic Party. Indeed, his program, watched by an audience of one million in the most recent period, came to prominence on the wave of hostility to the George W. Bush administration and its criminal activities. The show has been at the center of MSNBC’s own gain in popularity in recent years. Olbermann had a number of “good days” mocking and excoriating Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and company—granted that this crowd was an easy target.
In social and political terms, the action taken by MSNBC management against the Countdown host is an expression of a further rightward shift on the part of the media and political establishment in the wake of the midterm elections. Having been granted time to regroup by Barack Obama’s election and first two years in office, the US ruling elite will now step up its campaign of reaction.
Olbermann’s donation to the three Democrats—Senate candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky, and Arizona Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords—is small potatoes by any objective standard.
As a whole, the Fox News Channel—owned by Rupert Murdoch—is a perpetual political operation on behalf of the Republican Party, the Tea Party movement, Sarah Palin and the rest of that ultra-right crowd. According to Media Matters for America, more than 30 Fox News hosts and personalities “have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or organizations in more than 600 instances.”
Ultra-right Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee and others regularly endorse Republican candidates and causes on the air and even shill for campaign funds. They also personally donate money to candidates. For instance, Hannity gave $5,000 to the political action committee of Rep. Michele Bachmann (Republican from Minnesota) this past summer.
In regard to that financial gift, the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Pressreported that “Fox News programming head Bill Shine said there’s no company policy against talk show personalities giving to candidates, but said Hannity would disclose the donation when Bachmann appears [on his program]. ‘It always good to remember that he’s not a journalist, he’s a conservative TV host,’ Shine said. ‘If he wants to donate to a candidate, he certainly can.’” In fact, Hannity never did disclose the contribution on the air.
The right-wing host also contributed $4,800 to the to the unsuccessful congressional campaign of John Gomez in New York. Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR) writes that “Hannity reportedly promised New York Republican and Conservative Party leaders he would ‘do all he could’ to promote Gomez, help him fundraise and bring in headliners for events if they gave Gomez their party nods. Hannity made good on his promise by reportedly bringing in fundraisers for Gomez and using his Fox News program as a promotional tool for Gomez.”
FAIR also reports that MSNBC’s parent company, General Electric “made over $2 million in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle (most coming from the company’s political action committee). The top recipient was Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman from Ohio. The company has also spent $32 million on lobbying this year, and contributed over $1 million to the successful ‘No on 24’ campaign against a California ballot initiative aimed at eliminating tax loopholes for major corporations (New York Times,11/1/10).”
Comcast, the cable giant, which is apparently in the process of purchasing NBC, is another lavish corporate contributor and lobbyist. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that the company donated $2.7 million to Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2010 elections. Comcast has spent $8.8 million on lobbying politicians so far in 2010, after dishing out $12.6 and $12.5 million, respectively, in 2009 and 2008 on such efforts.
American corporations systematically buy up and control state and national legislators, governors, and members of Congress, without anyone in the US media batting an eyelid.
Olbermann’s chief crime is to be identified with anti-Bush and pro-Obama sentiment, which the political establishment now considers has served its purpose. Olbermann has shown signs recently of reining himself in. At the wretched Rally to Restore Sanity held October 30, presided over by Jon Stewart, the latter showed a montage featuring cable news hosts Beck, Olbermann and others. Stewart asserted that the “24-hour politico pundit perpetual panic conflictinator” was worsening the country’s problems.
While the right-wing hosts paid no attention to Stewart’s appeal, Olbermann announced two days later that he was scrapping the “Worst Person in the World” segment of his program. Figures such as Beck, Fox News Channel commentator Bill O’Reilly, demagogue Rush Limbaugh, as well as right-wing politicians and former members of the Bush administration had been featured in the nightly segment. Olbermann indicated that the “tone needs to change.”
Olbermann’s colleague at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, took a thoroughly cowardly stance, defending the cable channel’s action. On her program, Maddow told viewers, “Here at MSNBC, there is an explicit employee rule against hosts making contributions like that [Olbermann’s]. You can do it if you ask in advance and management tells you, ‘Okay.’ That’s what I understand happened in 2006, under previous management. But if you don’t ask in advance for an exemption from the rule, you are bound by the rule.”
She went on: “Let this incident lay to rest forever, the facile, never-true-in-any-way, lazy conflation of Fox News, and what the rest of us do for a living. Everybody likes to say, ‘Oh, that’s cable news. It’s all the same. Fox and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.’ Let this lay that to rest forever.”
Maddow and her ilk are simply pathetic. Her mealy-mouthed argument, which will only convince her most uncritical admirers, carries no weight whatsoever, it merely expresses the incapacity of latter-day American liberalism to offer any resistance to the extreme right.
The media has speculated as to the more immediate cause of the clampdown on Olbermann. An article in Politico observed, “Some saw in MSNBC’s latest move corporate fears about appearing too liberal, which were being exacerbated by NBC Universal’s pending takeover by Comcast.
“Michael Wolff wrote at Adweek that the pending merger … is the true reason for the power shift behind Olbermann’s suspension. ‘The background to everything is that is happening at NBC is the transition to Comcast ownership,’ he wrote.”
Whatever the facts of the case, Olbermann’s suspension is a sign of things to come. We hold no brief for his largely superficial and unsubtle political pronouncements, but his suspension is one signal of a new official lurch to the right.
By David Walsh 8 November 2010
Keith Olbermann, the host of “Countdown with Keith Olbermann”, a news commentary program on US cable channel MSNBC, was suspended November 5 for having donated $2,400 each to three Democratic candidates for Congress on the eve of the recent elections. Phil Griffin, MSNBC president, asserted that Olbermann had violated a company policy that requires obtaining management approval before making political contributions.
On the face of it, the suspension that ends Tuesday is absurd. As host of the nightly program, Olbermann has made no secret about his support for the Democratic Party. Indeed, his program, watched by an audience of one million in the most recent period, came to prominence on the wave of hostility to the George W. Bush administration and its criminal activities. The show has been at the center of MSNBC’s own gain in popularity in recent years. Olbermann had a number of “good days” mocking and excoriating Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and company—granted that this crowd was an easy target.
In social and political terms, the action taken by MSNBC management against the Countdown host is an expression of a further rightward shift on the part of the media and political establishment in the wake of the midterm elections. Having been granted time to regroup by Barack Obama’s election and first two years in office, the US ruling elite will now step up its campaign of reaction.
Olbermann’s donation to the three Democrats—Senate candidate Jack Conway in Kentucky, and Arizona Democratic Representatives Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords—is small potatoes by any objective standard.
As a whole, the Fox News Channel—owned by Rupert Murdoch—is a perpetual political operation on behalf of the Republican Party, the Tea Party movement, Sarah Palin and the rest of that ultra-right crowd. According to Media Matters for America, more than 30 Fox News hosts and personalities “have endorsed, raised money, or campaigned for Republican candidates or organizations in more than 600 instances.”
Ultra-right Fox News hosts such as Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Mike Huckabee and others regularly endorse Republican candidates and causes on the air and even shill for campaign funds. They also personally donate money to candidates. For instance, Hannity gave $5,000 to the political action committee of Rep. Michele Bachmann (Republican from Minnesota) this past summer.
In regard to that financial gift, the St. Paul (Minnesota) Pioneer Pressreported that “Fox News programming head Bill Shine said there’s no company policy against talk show personalities giving to candidates, but said Hannity would disclose the donation when Bachmann appears [on his program]. ‘It always good to remember that he’s not a journalist, he’s a conservative TV host,’ Shine said. ‘If he wants to donate to a candidate, he certainly can.’” In fact, Hannity never did disclose the contribution on the air.
The right-wing host also contributed $4,800 to the to the unsuccessful congressional campaign of John Gomez in New York. Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR) writes that “Hannity reportedly promised New York Republican and Conservative Party leaders he would ‘do all he could’ to promote Gomez, help him fundraise and bring in headliners for events if they gave Gomez their party nods. Hannity made good on his promise by reportedly bringing in fundraisers for Gomez and using his Fox News program as a promotional tool for Gomez.”
FAIR also reports that MSNBC’s parent company, General Electric “made over $2 million in political contributions in the 2010 election cycle (most coming from the company’s political action committee). The top recipient was Republican Senate candidate Rob Portman from Ohio. The company has also spent $32 million on lobbying this year, and contributed over $1 million to the successful ‘No on 24’ campaign against a California ballot initiative aimed at eliminating tax loopholes for major corporations (New York Times,11/1/10).”
Comcast, the cable giant, which is apparently in the process of purchasing NBC, is another lavish corporate contributor and lobbyist. The Center for Responsive Politics reports that the company donated $2.7 million to Democratic and Republican candidates in the 2010 elections. Comcast has spent $8.8 million on lobbying politicians so far in 2010, after dishing out $12.6 and $12.5 million, respectively, in 2009 and 2008 on such efforts.
American corporations systematically buy up and control state and national legislators, governors, and members of Congress, without anyone in the US media batting an eyelid.
Olbermann’s chief crime is to be identified with anti-Bush and pro-Obama sentiment, which the political establishment now considers has served its purpose. Olbermann has shown signs recently of reining himself in. At the wretched Rally to Restore Sanity held October 30, presided over by Jon Stewart, the latter showed a montage featuring cable news hosts Beck, Olbermann and others. Stewart asserted that the “24-hour politico pundit perpetual panic conflictinator” was worsening the country’s problems.
While the right-wing hosts paid no attention to Stewart’s appeal, Olbermann announced two days later that he was scrapping the “Worst Person in the World” segment of his program. Figures such as Beck, Fox News Channel commentator Bill O’Reilly, demagogue Rush Limbaugh, as well as right-wing politicians and former members of the Bush administration had been featured in the nightly segment. Olbermann indicated that the “tone needs to change.”
Olbermann’s colleague at MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, took a thoroughly cowardly stance, defending the cable channel’s action. On her program, Maddow told viewers, “Here at MSNBC, there is an explicit employee rule against hosts making contributions like that [Olbermann’s]. You can do it if you ask in advance and management tells you, ‘Okay.’ That’s what I understand happened in 2006, under previous management. But if you don’t ask in advance for an exemption from the rule, you are bound by the rule.”
She went on: “Let this incident lay to rest forever, the facile, never-true-in-any-way, lazy conflation of Fox News, and what the rest of us do for a living. Everybody likes to say, ‘Oh, that’s cable news. It’s all the same. Fox and MSNBC, mirror images of each other.’ Let this lay that to rest forever.”
Maddow and her ilk are simply pathetic. Her mealy-mouthed argument, which will only convince her most uncritical admirers, carries no weight whatsoever, it merely expresses the incapacity of latter-day American liberalism to offer any resistance to the extreme right.
The media has speculated as to the more immediate cause of the clampdown on Olbermann. An article in Politico observed, “Some saw in MSNBC’s latest move corporate fears about appearing too liberal, which were being exacerbated by NBC Universal’s pending takeover by Comcast.
“Michael Wolff wrote at Adweek that the pending merger … is the true reason for the power shift behind Olbermann’s suspension. ‘The background to everything is that is happening at NBC is the transition to Comcast ownership,’ he wrote.”
Whatever the facts of the case, Olbermann’s suspension is a sign of things to come. We hold no brief for his largely superficial and unsubtle political pronouncements, but his suspension is one signal of a new official lurch to the right.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Sunday nights 5:45pm - 7:45pm next show 2/14/10
http://www.randoradio.com/images/BTS_01.17.10.mp3
Brother from the 3rd Stone
PLAYLIST
www.RandoRadio.com
Brother from the 3rd
stone BTS_01.17.2010
SONG ARTIST ALBUM
uptown drifter - vernon reid - mistaken identity
so flute - st. germain - tourist
pharoah's dance - miles davis - bitches brew
haitian fight song - mingus - the clown
THX 138 - jeff Beck - who else
2001 spiff odyssey - thievery corp. - sounds from the…….
alone again so - kid loco - a grand love story
jericho - weekend players ?
mr. Nichols
afros in ya - j-boogies dubtronic - mushroom jazz 5
keep that same ole feeling - crusaders - those southern knights
school days - stanley clarke - school days
trouble man - gaye - trouble man sound track
poetry man - zap mama - world moods
you send me - neville - bring it on home
afro blue - coltrane
uptown drifter - reid
Brother from the 3rd Stone
PLAYLIST
www.RandoRadio.com
Brother from the 3rd
stone BTS_01.17.2010
SONG ARTIST ALBUM
uptown drifter - vernon reid - mistaken identity
so flute - st. germain - tourist
pharoah's dance - miles davis - bitches brew
haitian fight song - mingus - the clown
THX 138 - jeff Beck - who else
2001 spiff odyssey - thievery corp. - sounds from the…….
alone again so - kid loco - a grand love story
jericho - weekend players ?
mr. Nichols
afros in ya - j-boogies dubtronic - mushroom jazz 5
keep that same ole feeling - crusaders - those southern knights
school days - stanley clarke - school days
trouble man - gaye - trouble man sound track
poetry man - zap mama - world moods
you send me - neville - bring it on home
afro blue - coltrane
uptown drifter - reid
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