Just to pre-empt any right-wingers thinking about recycling Clarence Thomas' old line about "a high-tech lynching for an uppity black" with regards to Dr. Condoleezza Rice's upcoming testimony before the 9-11 commission: She ain't uppity. You don't reach that level of government -- or corporate, or academia -- being uppity. Trust me on this one. I come from a long line of uppity negroes. We know these things.
No, that last bit is too subtle. Let me restate as simply as possible: white folks, particularly right-wing white folks, who are even thinking about getting into an argument with me concerning the definition of "uppity" are wasting their time. Not mine, since no way am I taking that bait. As far as this subject goes, you don't know shit about shit, and needs to shut the fuck up.
There, that should be clear enough.
Might as well also mention that it's entirely possible to criticize the woman without being sexist and/or racist, as I'm fairly confident the idjits will charge. Don't worry, they don't believe anyone who does criticize her is being one or both of those either; it's just a convenient blunt object to attack opponents with. Like the crusade Glenn Reynolds is on about Air America reducing broadcast diversity in the, what, five or six cities where they air at the moment.
They wouldn't be sincere about the uppity/lynching thing either.
This is just one of the many, many reasons I'd prefer not hearing from 'em here. Bad enough they're evil fucking assholes, but evil fucking assholes making spurious charges about what are actually serious issues, just ones that don't directly effect them, is just. . . not something I particularly care to deal with, if it's all the same to you.
High tech lynching? Nope.
She can defend herself just fine.
As for Air America and "displacing black talk?" While I haven't weighed in on the issue, I can point to my first-hand experience as the former general manager (and morning talk host) at the late WIGO radio in Atlanta in the mid 90s.
When WIGO was in the process of being bought out, there was a legitimate concern about silencing voices that weren't heard regularly on local radio. I was on during morning drive, and we had other shows from across the ideological spectrum on across the rest of the day.
Being in Chicago, Aaron, you might remember my mid-morning host. He went by "Harold Lee" with our station, but I knew him -- as did you, most likely -- as Harold Lee Rush.
The local folks at WLIB have a legitimate beef. The Final Call has an New Amsterdam News piece on the controversy (http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_1366.shtml). The black-hosted local shows there are being displaced into the wee hours when listenership drops dramatically (as does the station's signal).
I'll admit that I have a bias and soft-spot for locally produced radio in general; I think the Clear Channel-driven consolidation and homogenization of radio has killed the notion of home-grown, independent and creative broadcasting. It's killed "Mom & Pop" owned radio and IMO, it's stifled creativity in music overall.
Michael, Harold Rush? Doug Banks' old co-host/sidekick? Oh yeah, I remember him. Coolness. Any idea where he's at these days?
As for Condi taking care of herself. . . I ain't thrilled with the folks who get all melodramatic about 9/11, but as National Security Advisor at a time when our National Security got caught with our pants down, you'd think the woman would have resigned, or committed ritual seppuku, or something. As it is, looks like she ain't even going to apologize.
A simple "I seriously fucked up" counts for a lot. Easier to forgive someone when they admit to doing something that requires forgiveness, but that seems beyond Bush & Company. . .
And I very nicely didn't mention that Clear Channel has done a hell of a lot more to destroy "broadcast diversity" than Air America has, or will. Since I don't seem to recall Glenn and them folks raising any sort of ruckus about that, hypocritical little shits that they are. That would suggest that I actually take them seriously at this point.
If heads had rolled at CIA and FBI, I'd agree with you. Everybody fucked up -- on both sides of the aisle. And as opposed to pointing fingers, (which everybody across the board seems to be doing) I'd much rather see things done to keep it from happening again (and making me take off my shoes to go through the gestapo at Hartsfield ain't it).
While you're right about Cheap Channel (when those fucks bought the news station I worked part-time for a couple of years ago, they fired all the part-timers who made "too much money" -- since I made the most out of all the part-timers, I was at the top of the damn list), their unholy alliance with Percy Sutton pisses off an entire audience in New York that depended on WLIB.
There were other signals available in NYC, but then Percy wouldn't get his. After all, the greedy SOB screwed up the "Showtime at the Apollo" gold mine, why not complete the task by pissing away everyone else in Harlem while he's at it?
Harold is out of radio and living here in Atlanta. It's been about a year and a half or so since I've spoken to him, but last I heard, he's doing pretty good for himself.
Hello Michael and Aaron, someone sent me this link and I was pleasantly surprised. I have been back in Chicago for about a year, working with The Bronzeville Press, (see POLICYKINGS.COM). I agree that Cheap Channel is far more dangerous than Air Am, as we watch what they're doing here in ChiTown. Thanks for remembering me.
Michael, are you still in radio?
OMG! Hey, man! No, I've been out of the biz for a while now; there was an aborted attempt to turn 680 into a black talk station back in 2000 that I was a part of (I was going to do morning drive with Jill Strickland; our good friend Ron was going to do middays), but other than that, I'm languishing in the high tech end of things.
Bought a house in Mableton a year ago, we had yet another baby (this makes 3!) a year before that (I'm too old for that shit, but God saw differently).
Now that I've got an e-mail for you, I'll drop you a line so I can get your phone number (if you've got my old one, you've still got mine - haven't changed it in 10 years).
I'm glad to hear you're doing well, man! Talk to you soon!