Air America, the liberal radio network, went down in flames, Jan. 21, when it filed for bankruptcy. It wasn't because of air-to-air combat with conservative talk shows and bloggers. It wasn't because of the Recession, although reduced advertising revenue, a reality of all media, also affected Air America. It wasn't even demographics, even though older, marginalized conservatives tend to listen to radio more than do younger liberal professionals. And media history was only part of the problem.

By the 1960s, liberals had become masters at developing and using not only mainstream media but also an emerging alternative media to advance a social agenda. But then they choked, sputtered, and fell into disarray.

During the past two decades, conservatives slowly, almost methodically, established a talk show base that ignited its own movement.

By 2000, with liberals more focused upon the print media and the emerging social media, and having neglected the advantages of a re-energized AM bandwidth that was more adaptable to talk than to music, the personality-drenched conservative talk radio medium filled the vacuum. The talk shows targeted the same kind of audience that the liberal '60s alternative media had targeted—the socially and politically marginalized who distrusted Big Government and believed in individual liberties. Any emerging liberal network would be seen as merely an annoyance, rather than competition. The conservatives, embraced by Fox News and talk radio, solidified their hold upon the listeners by playing to irrational fears of their base—that the media were controlled by liberals, and that government was out to get them.

Air America had begun as a fresh challenge to the conservative talk show movement. It had a decent mix of comedy, rant, and music. Eventually, it would syndicate shows to about 100 affiliates. Air America had come into a market saturated by right-wing talk radio—and then committed suicide by incompetence. Its death was celebrated by a vitriolic rightwing mix of radio commentators and listeners.

Even facing the Recession, diminished advertising revenue, a target population that had almost abandoned radio except for niche music stations and NPR, and the dominance of conservative talk radio, the six-year-old network could have survived . . .

IF it had better investment funding . . .

IF it didn't spend a disproportionate share of its small investment on lavish studios in a high-rent Manhattan commercial building . . .

IF it didn't have so many management changes, and so much ineptness among senior managers. . . .

IF it could have hired more on-air personalities and off-mike producers who had significant radio experience. Even the most talented (among them Al Franken, Sam Seder, and Rachel Maddow) had minimal radio experience. In contrast, almost all of Rush Limbaugh's career was in radio before he became the man most loathed by liberals.

Air America might have survived if it tried to evolve slowly, as had conservative talk radio, and not try to match it in salaries and personalities the first year.

It might have survived if its primary message wasn't to attack the conservative infotainment hosts but to develop its own entertainment and issues, and to deliver a focused message. By the demise of Air America, conservative talk radio not only had a larger fan base but better websites and outreach.

But, most of all, Air America might have survived if it wasn't so arrogant. Its hosts and producers ignored phone calls and e-mails from liberals and moderates who were not on its radar as "important." And, it and many of its affiliates also ignored calls from many reporters who were trying to do stories about the network and its personalities. If the producers arrogantly didn't think something mattered, then it didn't.

In the end, Air America didn't do for the liberal movement what the rest of talk radio did for its conservative movement—it didn't respect its listeners enough to allow them their own voice.

[Dr. Brasch is an award-winning reporter and editor, media analyst, and author of 17 books. His latest are Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush; 'Unacceptable': The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina; and America's Unpatriotic Acts. All are available at Amazon.cm, and other bookstores. You may contact Dr. Brasch at brasch@bloomu.edu, or through his website, www.walterbrasch.com]

As for the filibuster, the reason Senators don't have to talk on and on and on and on when they filibuster is because there was an agreement that a filibuster should not have to halt all Senate business. When the ability of the Senate to do any business for the people is stopped because of the misuse of the filibuster, then Senators must once again be made to get up and talk until they and their allies are talked out (*) if only to make it extremely visible to the Public who is responsible for the deadlock in the Senate. If they want to filibuster, then make them talk.

(*) Doing so they can spend their energy trying to convince their colleagues to vote with them with their public oratory or they can rally the country to their side. Somehow visibility on who is responsible for the stalemate must be brought back if there is any hope to bringing balance to our form of government.

Note also, I believe the Democrats could have found some very eloquent voices on why they were blocking the terrible Bush judicial nominees if they had been required to talk. The Republicans should be required to be explicit about their objections in a very public way. Just as Martin Luther King, Jr. preached civil disobedience it was only because he was willing to pay the price for his actions by going to jail that his actions got moral authority. These guys who are playing with blackmail don't expect to have to pay anything for their acts. Like all bullies and cheats they believe they are above the laws and rules of honorable behavior. Make them talk.

Paul Krugman thinks it comes from the dysfunctional political culture.

James Fallows points to the broken political system and the consequences for having essentially a gangrenous government that is sucking the life blood out of our country. But he notes that the dream of less government which the conservatives proclaim devolves into a Mad Max world where nothing works (including the private sector) and that is to be avoided.

Nevertheless we are at a terrible crossroads as it becomes evident that we no longer can solve our problems through our government.

A major reason our government is so bad today is the Senate and it's requirement to have 60 votes to do anything. One thing that makes the Senate so bad is the complete misallocation of power to the empty spaces in our country. The fact is that a Senator from a small state has significantly more power than our founders would have imagined. And then we have the entrenched interests that can buy themselves whatever they want. Which the Supreme Court made even worse last week.

Recognizing that our country and the form of government bequeathed to us has been so badly broken has been a source of profound sadness for me.

I hear you are planning to have a discretionary spending freeze to help rein in the federal deficit.

I have suggestion.

Perhaps you can threaten to shutdown things like the national parks. After all, it worked when Newt Gingrich was running the Congress. But then again perhaps you might want to consider who will get the blame this time?

After all, you all (the Democrats) have all the power with your overwhelming, albeit not filibuster-proof majorities. There isn't a Gingrich holding a gun to your heads (just that damn Wall Street waiting to grab whatever they can). You all are making the decisions of what to cut.

Yours,

-Mary

Cannon said the mountains ended up getting less rain than forecasters had predicted, and that helped tremendously. The most powerful cells from the storms veered away from the Station fire burn area, she said.

...But Spencer and Schmidt cautioned that the preparations won't be enough if heavier rains soak the mountains.

"We want to prevent a sense of complacency," Schmidt said Friday. "It's not like crying wolf. It wasn't worse, because the rainfall intensity and its duration was not as high as forecasted. If we had gotten what was forecasted, it would have been a lot worse."

From October 2003:
---
Listening to the news this morning about the incredible wildfires in Southern California reminded me of my very favorite John McPhee book: In Control Of Nature . In this book, McPhee talks about three natural disasters: volcanic eruptions, floods and landslides, and how modern day humans have tried to constrain their impact. The section on landslides is an excellent primer on the reasons the fires in Southern California are so bad and how the consequences of the fires can mean massive mudslides.

The landscape in Southern California has been created to be one of the most flamable in the world and the ecosystem is shaped by earthquakes, wind, fire and water. The worst of the fire season in California is always in October and in Southern California are conjoined with the Santa Ana winds (hot and dry) that help the fires move and grow. The latest studies show that urban growth is now exacerbating the fire danger.

McPhee's story shows how the fires in autumn can be combined with torrential rains in the winter (the 100 year rains) to create huge mudslides, enough so that in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains are found huge football field sized man-made holes designed to catch the boulders that are sloughed off the mountains. The interaction between the vegetation, the fires, the soil and the rain is quite fascinating. And how although men are constantly attempting to tame nature, this is not always something we do well or wisely. This is one book that I definitely recommend.

It's a new year, and we've been trying to find new topics for our columns.

In reviewing the columns over the past few years, we wrote against racism and animal cruelty. But, there's still racism and animal cruelty, so we'll still have to speak out on these critical social issues.

We wrote about tolerance and the acceptance of all races and religions. But, a large number of Americans apparently didn't get the message, so we'll have to try harder this year.

We wrote about the continued destruction of the environment and of ways people are trying to save it. Environmental concern is greater, but so is the ignorant prattling of those who believe global warming is a hoax.

We wrote against government corruption, bailouts, tax advantages for the rich and their corporations, governmental waste, and corporate greed. But, since they still exist, we'll have to continue speaking against those as well.

We wrote about the effects of laying off long-time employees and of outsourcing jobs to "maximize profits." But until Americans realize that "cheaper" doesn't necessarily "better," we'll continue to have to write why exploitation knows no geographical boundaries.

We wrote in support of the rights of workers, for better working conditions and benefits at least equal to their managers. We didn't expect to see anything change, but we were hopeful that a small minority of business owners who do respect the worker would influence the rest. Until that happens, we'll still have to write about labor issues.

We wrote in support of helping the unemployed, the homeless, those without adequate health coverage—and against the political lunatics who continue to deny the disenfranchised and marginalized the basics of human life. Unfortunately, not much has changed over the past few years.

For many years, we had written about the need for health reform. At the end of last year, Americans got a partial victory, but there is still much more that needs to be done.

We wrote against the media's fixation with celebrity skanks and scandals. We doubt anything will change this year, but we'll still comment upon the media's neglect of what's important—and their fascination with what isn't.

We wrote about why newspapers and magazines died, why the rest have downsized their staffs and the quality of their news product. We doubt anything will change this year, but we still have to bring the issues to the public.

We wrote about problems in the nation's educational system, especially the failure to encourage intellectual curiosity and respect the tenets of academic integrity. But there are still those who believe education is best served by a program manacled by teaching-to-the-test mentality.

We had written forcefully against the previous president and vice-president when they strapped on their six-shooters and sent the nation into war in a country that posed no threat to us, while failing to adequately attack a country that housed the core of the al-Qaeda movement. We wrote about the Administration's failure to provide adequate protection for the soldiers they sent into war or adequate and sustained mental and medical care when they returned home. We wrote about the Administration's belief in the use of torture and why it thought it was necessary to shred parts of the Constitution. Fortunately, last year, we saw a new administration that recognizes that torture is not only wrong but counter-productive to acquiring good information, and that the Constitutional fabric of the United States must be preserved, no many how many threats are made upon it. Unfortunately, at all levels of government, Constitutional violations still exist, and a new year won't change our determination to bring to light these violations wherever and whenever they occur.

The hope we and this nation had for change we could believe in, and which we still hope will not die, has been diminished by the reality of petty politics, with the "Party of No" and its raucous Teabagger mutation blocking social change for America's improvement.

We really want to be able to write columns about Americans who take care of each other, about leaders who concentrate upon fixing the social problems. But we know that's only an ethereal ideal. So, we'll just have to hope that the waters of social justice wear down, however slowly, the jagged rocks of haughty resistance.

[Dr. Walter Brasch is an award-winning social issues columnist, former newspaper investigative reporter and editor, and journalism professor. His latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush. Rosemary Brasch is a former secretary, Red Cross national disaster family services specialist, labor activist, and university instructor of labor studies.]

Her guest, Tricia Rose, pointed out that this could only come because people have so little real understanding about the real consequences of structural discrimination. And even more, it points to a problem in recognizing reality.

So how many conservatives get things wrong because they have little empathy for others and thus are out of touch with reality? Paul Krugman noted today that Roger Ailes might not be simply politically opportunistic, but also illogically paranoid. And Digby caught Sally Quinn believing that she too is the target of a vast terrorist conspiracy.

Perhaps this explains the reason Scott Lively¹ wrote an entire book that says homosexuals were responsible for the Nazi totalitarianism. Lively too turns day into night, because he accuses the victims of Hitler of being the perpetrators even though there is overwhelming evidence that homosexuals were explicitly targeted for death by Hitler's regime.

It is so nice to believe the injustice and persecution of some out group is justified when one feels threatened by them for some imaginary reason.

(1) Scott Lively is an evangelical who thinks homosexuality is the root of all evil and helped convince the Ugandans that they needed to deal with the danger which led to the proposed law to put homosexuals to death.

via Climate Progress

SUGAR NOTCH, Pa.--A regional advocate for the rights of the homeless says actions by Sugar Notch officials to deny shelter to homeless men may be based upon fear and a lack of knowledge.

About 40 homeless men were scheduled to receive temporary shelter at the Holy Family Roman Catholic church in Sugar Notch for a week beginning Jan. 11. About three dozen churches in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton region each shelter the homeless for one or two weeks a year. Professional staff usually work with, and stay with, the homeless. However, borough zoning officer Carl Alber, apparently acting under Council direction, issued a letter that threatened the church with a $500 fine for each day it housed the homeless. Councilman Herman Balas, a member of the church, said that Council was acting for safety and citizen welfare. The Rev. Joseph Kakareska told the media he has no plans to deny shelter to the homeless for the week. Sugar Notch is a town of about 950 residents, about five miles southwest of Wilkes-Barre in northeastern Pennsylvania.

A public council meeting, Jan. 4, led to a yelling contest among the Council and members of the audience; most of the Council and residents claimed the homeless could pose "problems," with others claiming the problem had nothing to do with the homeless but with following proper zoning ordinances. However, the church is zoned R-1 (residential) and in a residential area. Council kicked the problem to the Zoning Commission, but indicated that if the church files an appeal, with a $350 fee, it would allow the homeless to stay in the church for a week. It's an "olive branch," claimed council president Charlene Tarnalicki. There was no ruling that if the church loses its appeal if it would still be liable for up to a $3,500 fine.

"This is not a zoning issue, but an issue of fear by residents," says Gary F. Clark, executive director of the Northeast Pennsylvania Homeless Alliance. "Most homeless pose absolutely no threat to any citizen," says Clark. The homeless, says Clark, often have day jobs, and are sheltered only in evenings. Clark says that with the Recession, more persons have been laid off from jobs they may have had for several years, and have been unable to meet mortgage payments on houses. Council's concern about the homeless, according to Balas, was that they could be violent or be drug users.

However, Clark says that while some of the homeless may have alcohol- or drug-induced problems, most are "just trying to get by." About 3.5 million people will be homeless at some point this year, with almost half being children, according to the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. About 16,000 Pennsylvanians are homeless on any given night, according to the Pennsylvania Interagency Council on Homelessness. About one-third of homeless men are veterans, "many with post-traumatic stress disorder that keeps them from a stable life," Clark says. It is unlikely, he says, that they pose any threat to public safety.

Clark points out that it is unacceptable during the Winter, when snow lies on the ground and temperatures drop into the teens, to have anyone "trying to survive on our streets." Shelter, says Clark, "is a basic human need and many more problems are created when this need is not met." The "true measure of a society," says Clark, "is how it treats its most needy."

The "movable shelter program," run by Wilkes-Barre's non-profit VISION program, and with the support of numerous churches that give temporary shelter and meals to the homeless, has had relatively few problems, says Clark. VISION director Vince Kabacinski told Council he has offers of legal support not only from local organizations but from some as far away as Arizona. “I didn’t ask Sugar Notch to become part of the problem with the ‘not in my backyard’ ” attitude, he said.

On a sign in front of the church is the message, "Jesus was homeless, too."

Among Latinos the prosperity gospel has been spreading rapidly. In a recent Pew survey, 73 percent of all religious Latinos in the United States agreed with the statement: “God will grant financial success to all believers who have enough faith.” For a generation of poor and striving Latino immigrants, the gospel seems to offer a road map to affluence and modern living. Garay’s church is comprised mostly of first-generation immigrants. More than others I’ve visited, it echoes back a highly distilled, unself-conscious version of the current thinking on what it means to live the American dream.

Rosin shows that this underlying belief tied directly to the number of subprime loans that were made to communities under the Bush policy that tied the Ownership Society to the Faith-based Initiatives.

One theme emerging in these suits is how banks teamed up with pastors to win over new customers for subprime loans.

...The idea of reaching out to churches took off quickly, Jacobson recalls. The branch managers figured pastors had a lot of influence with their parishioners and could give the loan officers credibility and new customers. Jacobson remembers a conference call where sales managers discussed the new strategy. The plan was to send officers to guest-speak at church-sponsored “wealth-building seminars” like the ones Bowler attended, and dazzle the participants with the possibility of a new house. They would tell pastors that for every person who took out a mortgage, $350 would be donated to the church, or to a charity of the parishioner’s choice. “They wouldn’t say, ‘Hey, Mr. Minister. We want to give your people a bunch of subprime loans,” Jacobson told me. “They would say, ‘Your congregants will be homeowners! They will be able to live the American dream!’”

Rosin points to the role the Christian Right has in creating the financial crisis, but she missed tying it directly to the philosophy and financial backing that underpinned the Bush faith-based policies.

Max Blumenthal reports in his book, Republican Gomorrah, that the intellectual underpinnings for this initiative came from the Religious Right through the writings of Marvin Olasky who came up with the Bush theme of "compassionate conservatism." Olasky was funded by Howard F. Ahmanson, Jr., the financier for most of the conservative, stealth religious campaigns in the 1990s and during the Bush years.

In 1992, Olasky wrote The Tragedy of American Compassion, an argument for transferring government social welfare programs to the church, which he claimed was the traditional and most effective approach until the New Deal - the very policy Rushdoony and his acolytes had long advocated. In this work, Olasky cited his "conservative Christian" friend Howard Ahmanson as proof that faith can cure poverty, describing how Ahmanson "found that poverty around the world is a spiritual as well as a material problem - most poor people don't have faith that they and their situations can change."

How many of those newly minted foreclosed upon who believed that it was their faith that allowed them to buy a home are aware that they were being staked out to fleece in the world's latest con-game?

What is clear is the prosperity gospel was made for the Bush years because what it delivered was remarkable prosperity for the select few.

May 2010 be all you are hoping for.

The Philadelphia Eagles honored reserve quarterback and admitted dog-killer Michael Vick with an award for courage. Yes, you read that right. "Michael Vick" and "courage" are in the same sentence.

Each of the 32 NFL teams annually honors one of its own with an Ed Block award, named for the Baltimore Colts head trainer who was an advocate for improving the lives of neglected and abused children; the Foundation says it celebrates "players of inspiration in the NFL." Unfortunately, there is no stipulation that football players who abuse animals are ineligible receivers.

Eagles Quarterback Donovan McNabb told the Philadelphia Inquirer the award was "well deserved." Vick, his team, and what appears to be a loyal foundation of fans who believe Vick will help lead the Eagles into a SuperBowl, all believe the man who ran Bad Newz Kennels has "seen the light," has reformed, and is now a model citizen.

However, Vick's own words show the humility and humbleness that he should have are still missing from his egocentric world of sweating multi-millionaires.

"It means a great deal to me," Vick told the media, gloating that he "was voted unanimously by my teammates. They know what I've been through. I've been through a lot. It's been great to come back and have an opportunity to play and be with a great group of guys. I'm just ecstatic about that, and I enjoy every day." He further justified the honor by explaining, "I've overcome a lot, more than probably one single individual can handle or bear." Elaborating, he declared, "You ask certain people to walk through my shoes, they probably couldn't do. Probably 95 percent of the people in this world because nobody had to endure what I've been through, situations I've been put in, situations I put myself in and decisions I have made, whether they have been good or bad." He said, "There's always consequences behind certain things and repercussions behind them, too. And then you have to wake up every day and face the world, whether they perceive you in the right perspective, it's a totally different outlook on you. You have to be strong, believe in yourself, be optimistic. That's what I've been able to do. That's what I display." Not once in his statements to the media did Michael Vick apologize for what he did, or for the deals he cut in order to be restored to the status of a millionaire athlete. Everything he said was focused upon his own "courage," with "I" being the prevalent word.

Perhaps Michael Vick isn't aware that courage is not being so vacuous as to believe it was acceptable to breed and arrange for dogs to fight to the death, to allow equally malevolent "fans" to bet on the matches, and by the cruelest means possible to kill dogs who didn't perform as well as he thought they should. Going to prison for 18 months, losing two seasons of multimillion dollar income, having to work out to get into fighting condition, and then earning about $1.6 in his first year back into the NFL, with a second year option for about $5 million, isn't courage.

In case Michael Vick doesn't know what courage is, here are just a few examples. There are thousands of others.

Courage is the soldier who is on 100 percent disability from combat wounds who is now working almost every hour of every day with physical therapists, social workers, and other medical personnel to try to regain even the most remote possibility of being able to walk again.

Courage is the firefighters who risk their lives to rescue people and their pets from burning buildings.

Courage is law enforcement personnel who put their lives on the line to serve and protect the people.

Courage is the "whistle blower" who risks a job and family stability to point out greed and corruption within a business, educational institution, or governmental agency.

Courage is the lone dissenter who fights for social and economic justice in a society that is determined to continue the "me generation."

Courage is the recent graduate who delays entry into the job market, the mid-career executive who gives up the fast track, or the senior citizen who decides there is more to life than retirement, and volunteers for AmeriCorps, the Peace Corps, or any of hundreds of non-profit organizations that have taken on the burden of helping those who society has made invisible.

Courage is the parents who work two low-income service jobs, support their families, and still donate time and money to charities that help those less fortunate than they.

Courage is the family who last year had a home and job, and this year has neither but survives day to day.

Courage is the animal rights advocates who risk their lives to fight against governments that allow the killing of whales, bears, seals, wolves, and hundreds of other animals; and to humane society staff and innumerable volunteers who rescue abandoned and abused animals, and who work with them to try to give them a better life.

But most important, courage is all the people who know no matter what obstacles they overcome today, tomorrow will present the same challenges, and that they will never have any hope to be a millionaire or to receive an award for surviving against tremendous odds.

In his comments after being notified of the award, Michael Vick proved himself to be an unworthy spokesman for anything or anyone other than himself.

[Dr. Walter Brasch is an award-winning social issues columnist, former newspaper investigative reporter and editor, and journalism professor. His latest book is Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush. Rosemary Brasch is a former secretary, Red Cross national disaster family services specialist, labor activist, and university instructor of labor studies.]

She's hasn't stayed away, except when he's sitting guarding it from her licks.