Two members of The Common Ills community have begun blogging. Last week A Winding Road started and this week Rebecca has started Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude.
Both bloggers do not use any kind of tracking of visitors to their site. (Unless Google has something installed that they -- and I -- do not know about.)
A Winding Road is focusing on politics, music and books. In fact, Saturday will be a book day each week. The e-mail address is posted on that site if you'd like to drop a line to A Winding Road.
Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude is going to, in Rebecca's words, "focus on politics in a don't blow smoke up my a-- way and I'll be drooling over various males too."
Rebecca thought her e-mail address was visible on the page (it's not). She thus far has closed off all reply comments on her blog. She isn't sure yet if she'll open up that section but said that she will work on making her e-mail address visible and to let readers of this site know it's sexandpolitics@yahoo.com in case you want to drop her line.
I'm really happy that both are blogging. They write the most wonderful e-mails and now you'll be able to appreciate their strong writing.
Rebecca warns that Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude will use strong language and that she'll be blogging on things that outrage her so "people may get upset."
I'd just done the links (which is already hard for me) when I got an e-mail from A Winding Road saying that a new blog had just been created. I wanted to link to it then but AWR wasn't sure how long the blog would last. It's a week and three days old today (check my math, always) so we're linking.
If you're a community member and interested in creating a blog, I'd urge to look into it. (And let us know so we can get the word out.) The more voices we have out there, the better.
We were silenced after 9-11 by the mainstream media and we need to make sure that never happens again. We had Pacifica radio (http://www.pacifica.org/ )
and Democracy Now! (www.democracynow.org) and Buzzflash (www.buzzflash.com) and probably a variety of other things. We did have Randi Rhodes but most of us didn't know she was out there. We now have Air America Radio (http://www.airamericaradio.com/) which is now the home of Randi Rhodes's The Randi Rhodes Show. In addition, the network hosts The Mike Malloy Show, The Majority Report, The Laura Flanders Show, Ring of Fire, So What Else Is News?, Unfiltered, Morning Sedition, The Kyle Jason Show, The Revolution Starts Now, Eco-Talk and The Al Franken Show. Are every one of those shows going to be for every listener?
No. So you shop around and find the show or shows that feed you and give you what you need.
If you're unable to listen (either over the radio or through their web stream via Real Player or Windows Media Player) when the show airs, you can go to Air America Place (http://www.airamericaplace.com/index.php) which has archives of broadcast shows.
I'll also note that you can hear highlights of the shows on the main page for Air America (via Windows Media Player only) so click on http://www.airamericaradio.com/ if you'd like to sample.
Currently, these are the highlighted segments that you'd find there:
Morning Sedition (January 12th, 2005) Monty Python's own Terry Jones joins Marc and Mark from across The Pond to explain his take on the War on Terror, and to vent his frustration over why guys like Bush and Blair seem to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Listen here.
Unfiltered (January 12th, 2005) Thai Jones, a man who comes from a long line of revolutionaries visits Rachel Maddow and Lizz Winstead to chat about his ancestry. Listen here. The Al Franken Show (January 12th, 2005) Al tries yet again to convince his Dittohead Buddy, Mark Luther, that Rush Limbaugh is completely wrong. Does he succeed? Take a listen and find out. Listen here.
The Randi Rhodes Show (January 12th, 2004) Randi Rhodes taps her good friend and doctor, Howard Dean to find out where he wants to take the Democratic party if he gets the chair. They also open the phone lines and take some questions from inquisitive callers. Listen here.
The Majority Report (January 11th, 2004) Janeane discusses the rise of the Republican far-right with Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's magazine. Listen here.
The Mike Malloy Show (January 11th, 2004) Mike delivers a flesh-tingling bio of Michael Chertoff, your new homeland security nominee. Listen here.
So What Else Is News (January 8th, 2005) Marty Kaplan talks to former Senator and presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun about the influence of the late Shirley Chisholm. Listen here.
Ring Of Fire (January 8th, 2005) Mike Papantonio speaks with Teresa Calalay, whose son was among students subjected to horrific abuse at a "faith-based" school in Texas. Listen here.
The Laura Flanders Show (January 8th, 2005) The people spoke and some Democrats listened. Senior producer of "The Laura Flanders Show" Steve Rosenfeld and Amy Kaplan of the "League of Pissed-Off Voters" describe the movement that led to the election certification challenge. Listen here.
The Laura Flanders Show (January 9th, 2005) Ziad Abbas, co-director of a community center in a Palestinian refugee camp talks to Laura Flanders about Sunday's vote for a new president of the Palestinian Authority. Listen here.
The Kyle Jason Show (January 8th, 2005) Kyle Jason and special guest co-host Chuck D debate the evolution of HipHop and Jazz with a caller named Maleek. Listen here.
EcoTalk (January 9th, 2005) Host Betsy Rosenberg talks about "Green Media" with Steve Kerwood, host of NPR's "Living On Earth." Listen here.
There's no link to Steve Earl's The Revolution Starts Now! so let's post Air America's description of the show:
Eight-time Grammy nominee Steve Earle has signed on to host a weekly radio program on Air America Radio. The newest addition to the AAR lineup entitled, "The Revolution Starts Now," will air Sunday nights from 10:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. The weekly radio show will feature recognizable guest who will be asked to bring his/her favorite playlist for the one hour broadcast. Earle will engage his guests in discussions and debates on a range of issues including from politics, music and current affairs.
That's twelve shows total so hopefully there's something there that you'll find useless.
(I'm listening to The Majority Report as I write this and Janeane Garofalo and guest co-host Lewis Lapham -- of Harper's -- have been doing an incredible job.)
But is that it?
No. Not by a long shot. Pacifica radio has a multitude of programs worth highlighting many of which are regional. If you have a favorite, please e-mail this site (common_ills@yahoo.com) and we'll note it.
I'm going to note a daily show (Monday through Friday) that's a half hour each day: Free Speech Radio News (http://www.fsrn.org/). If you listen to today's show, here are the stories you'd hear about:
•Attacks on Iraqi Army Continue: Report from Baghdad•Bush Nominee Chertoff Has Alarming Record•Debt Relief for Tsunami Countries? •UN Meets to Discuss Tsunami Relief•African Nations not Recieving Needed Aid •Israeli Occupation Continues Despite Abbas Election •Can a Connecticut Execution be Stopped?
Is that it?
Believe it or not, no!
If you go to the web site of The Progressive (http://www.progressive.org/) and scroll down you'll have access to both Matthew Rothschild's commentaries and to the weekly show:
* Progressive Point Of View Matthew Rothschild's daily two-minute radio commentaries. Last Update: January 12, 2005 Chertoff Gives Pause
* Progressive Radio Ricardo González Interview
The links are to the latest installments of both. The Progressive Point of View is a Monday through Friday feature. Progressive Radio is a half hour weekly show.
Wow, you say, that's a lot. But there's one more I want to highlight:
Radio Nation hosted by award-winning journalist and Nation magazine contributing editor Marc Cooper, has been heard weekly on scores of public radio stations since its inception in 1995. As one of the country's most important progressive media outlets, and sponsored by The Nation Institute, RadioNation features the voices and thoughts of leading journalists, authors and activists.
If you go there (http://www.thenation.com/blogs/audioblog?bid=8) and have the time to listen to various interviews, I'd recommend especially the interviews with Gloria Steinem, Tom Hayden, Gore Vidal, Howard Zinn and The Nation's Patricia J. Williamson (I find her speaking voice amazing) (which is probably why I've listened to the episode with her speaking five or six times by now).
So we have a multitude of resources out there. (And the list doesn't end there. That's just some of the things I've elected to cite.) Some will have you nodding your head in agreement, others may cause you to scowl. It's up to you to find out which resources are for you.
And if you're able to, it's great if you can share the resources. That might just mean that you're saying, "I saw this story on BuzzFlash today . . ." or "Oh! Democracy Now! did a story on that today!" I know a number of you have e-mailed that until you discovered The Common Ills and were able to make it your blog, you felt isolated because you didn't trust the mainstream media that had lied to you too often. Now you write about (these are all permalinks on the side of our site) BuzzFlash or Democracy Now! or Why Are We Back In Iraq? or Science And Politcs or Ms. Musing (which had a problem with spamming and is attempting to fix that problem) or Interesting Times or NOW or The Daily Howler or Naomi Klein's No Logo or Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches. You've found some resources and you can share those.
That's how we connect to one another. 2004 saw the end of NOW With Bill Moyers (the show will continue as a half hour show) and that was a big blow for many of us because Moyers was such a strong and true voice. We do miss him but we do have other voices and we need to make sure that the people we talk to know that they are out there.
Let us never again start an election year with the need to educate the populace as a whole. We're looking at 2006 as a year for Congressional elections and 2008 for a presidential election.
Let's make sure we're ready and not having to rush around to educate people in our circle. No more cram sessions if we can help it.
With both of those election cycles, we'll be depending on each other. As a member, it's important for you to talk up who you are supporting. And it can be a third party candidate. Yes, even during the presidential election.
This is our blog and certainly the Democratic Party is not the only game in town. So if you're supporting a third party candidate and you don't feel that s/he is getting attention elsewhere, e-mail the site so that at least we can know in our community about the candidate your supporting.
When we end up in an election, or a primary, the community may decide to make an endorsement. (Obviously, the community endorses Howard Dean for DNC chair.) But when we're in those cycles, I'm not going to weigh in. I'm posting your e-mails and I certainly get to type whatever I want. I don't want to abuse that by saying, "Well, I'm for . . ."
I didn't do that during the Democratic Primary. I elected to support John Kerry in March of 2003. I did not make a point to push him over any other Democrat during the primary. If someone asked me, I would discuss all the candidates equally and try to highlight their good points and their bad points. That was easy to do with all but one candidate. (I'm sure you know whom I mean.)
But we have members who supported Kucinich and we have members who supported Nader and we have members who supported Cobb and members who supported Dean. (I'm sure I'm blanking on someone who wrote in that they supported someone else, sorry.) When we're in an election cycle, you can make your case for supporting the person you feel is right for the job.
We spend a lot of time on the New York Times and if anyone's new to the reason for that it's due to the fact that so much of the other media (especially radio and television) are influenced by what makes the front page of the Times. Other than that, we try to highlight resources and if you see something that blows you away, let us know. Billie did that with The Fort Worth Weekly. And as a result of her, we now do a weekly roundup of the alternative press each Thursday.
Please make yourself heard even if you don't want to be quoted. And when we're in an election cycle, please make yourself heard about your choices. We need more discussion and we need more voices. This is our democracy and we have to participate if it's to survive.
