Save us, Jane.

What allan said.

quick! you spelled her name wrong (Rachel)

g’mornin’!

(and, thank you!)

[modnote: thank you!]

Nice piece of hero worship, hope she loves it.

Jane is MY Superhero!

Super Butch indeed. Where else on the boob tube is such great, continuing in depth (for TV) muckraking to be found. Long live Rachel and her band or renowneds.

I thank Rachel for mentioning FireDogLake on her show, which is why I came here and checked it out.

Mod: I don’t know whether it’s just a time lag, but in my RSS “Rachel” still shows up as “Rachael” even though the title is correct now. And it also shows as Rachael in the browser (title of the post). You may want to fix that, too.

I still never miss KO (thanks to TiVo) but Rachel’s show is must see! (Except for Kent Jones — I stop the replay when he comes on.)

Watch the weekly Republican address at CNN:

http://politicalticker.blogs.c…..-policies/

I left the following comment at CNN’s political ticker, though it probably won’t appear:

If the insurance companies win, YOU LOSE
October 3rd, 2009 1:36 pm ET
Your comment is awaiting moderation.

This weekly Republican address delivered by Michigan Congresswoman Candice Miller is classic misdirection.

The same greed that has crippled our health care system also crippled the financial services industry and nearly brought down our economy.

The time has finally come to fix our health care system. Sure, the system helped thousands of executives achieve riches beyond the dreams of avarice at the expense of millions and millions of Americans. But it has simply proven to be unsustainable. And too many Americans are dying unnecessarily as a result.

Democrats say that President Obama’s health care plan does not go far enough to fix the root of the problems.

And the Democrats won in 2006 and 2008.

So, Michigan Congresswoman Candice Miller, quit spouting nonsense.

Well, I did notice that NBC finally figured out how to get people to watch David Gregory: Put Rachel Maddow on with him. They should just come right out and replace Gregory because the fact is that nobody likes him and he’s a horrible interviewer. The only way to put Meet the Press back on top is to put a smart, informed person there who will ask the tough questions and call out the B.S. when needed, regardless of partisanship. The obvious choice os Rachel Maddow.

BTW: Looks like the people who made that video may be trying to get on her “moment of Geek” segment.

Superheroes don’t save people in democracies, people save people.

Quote of the day!

What’s wrong with Kent Jones? She brought him over from her radio show. I think I would have missed him if he wasn’t there.

Kent Jones is probably a nice guy but I don’t understand why he is on. His work is not funny or informative. It just sort of – is.

Speaking of people having power in democracies, does anyone know about FDL Action’s ad calling out Lincoln and Ross. Is it playing in Arkansas? Is it having any effect? I have been disappointed not to have heard anything about it except for an all-too-brief reference on Countdown over a week ago.

I would really like to know the answer to your question about the ad. Haven’t seen one thing about it here.

Rachel is terrific, not just because she is smart, but because it is apparent how hard she works by how well she is prepared. She knows her material (in depth) backwards and forwards and is not afraid to ask ANY question. She does it all with grace and not the obnoxious manner that has become so typical in the media. It is very sad that she is the exception in the media and not the norm. I remember the days of Daniel Shorr, and when Dan Rather and Sam Donaldson were real journalists in the 60s and 70s before big salaries and egos. Rachel is a journalist. The rest are media personalities.

I agree about Gregory. He is beyond awful and has made MTP unwatchable, except for tomorrow when Rachel will be on.

I never heard Rachel’s radio show, but he is just inane. Sorta like a male Ana Marie Cox. JMHO of course. Others may feel differently. I often also turn off KO’s final segment when he winds up with some stupid comic. And yes, I *do* have a pretty good sense of humor. Just don’t care for those segments of the show.

And I noticed that Richard Wolffe was back on KO this week. He must have done adequate penance.

You have asked this a couple of times on Jane’s threads…and I also would like an answer. Even “we don’t know” would be OK.

All the power’s in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it

While we walk the street
Too chicken to even try it

–The Clash, White Riot, 1977

All of the time I see people trying to take political shortcuts, expecting some deus ex machina to resolve our inability to marshall effective political power commensurate with our level of support as complex blind alleys are resolved by magic in bad fiction. Grassroots organizing is what delivers the goods, what focuses popular support into an exercise of power and coerces progressive policies from the elites. This is a power game and we’re not playing for keeps. The other side clearly is.

We need mass mobilization to confront the noise machine, and the only entities big enough to do that are the unions. ANSWER is stalinist toast. But the unions are too busy fighting one another. The SEIU and AFL-CIO need to declare a truce right now and use their muscle to put hundreds of thousands of people into the streets demanding Medicare for all, to organize the unemployed. Labor thinks that it can do the movement building during election years and work on organizing workers on the off years, but at this point, we need all hands on deck or we’re toast.

We also need a rapid response media strike force so that the next times they come at one of us, like Van Jones, we have some toolkit that can challenge that framing. The other side’s main weapon is what I call a clusterfuck bomb. They send out shards of fear, hoping that at least one of those wedge issues causes any one to question progressive initiatives. We cannot respond to that with intellectual argument because that will have us playing defense all over the court, rather we have to fashion up a toolkit that hits people viscerally where it hurts corporations.

One political approach to that is to bridge the left/right gap with some good old fashioned anti-corporate populism. This should be much easier once the wheels really begin to come off of the economy next year.

I love Rachel and never miss her show. But I also love elected Representatives who aren’t afraid to speak up and speak out for Progressive viewpoints. We need so many more.

This is Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) taking on Wolf and a gang of Republicans on The Situation Room on Oct. 1.

Rep. Grayson is just the type of intelligent, blunt, outspoken, liberal Dem we need as Senate Majority Leader…at least IMHO.

Rep. Grayson calls Republicans “knuckledragging neanderthals”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTrDF0Gszck

And this is a little profane commentary on Grayson…and Republicans… from the The Rude Pundit.

The Rude Pundit sums it up. http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2009/10/rep.html
(Warning: possibly offensive language to some)

Excellent ideas! The Unions should definately join together – we need that now more than ever.

I like, Kent Jones, too. btw, didn’t, Willie Giest, start out on, Tucker Carlson’s show with the same kind of gig?

Yeah, I think I’ll put my $ on Grayson. But the song is great…nothing like the 60’s and 70’s protest music but it’s a start.