Rushed post, Mark Crispin Miller and Eleanor Clift on The Laura Flanders Show Sunday

The Laura Flanders Show is on its second hour.

Mark Crispin Miller will be a guest on Sunday.

Currently Jonathan Tasini is on.

Listening, I'm reminding of a point that C.I. made this week. Laura Flanders' voice sounds like she's got a cold or worse. That's not a complaint in terms of listening. It's like when Phoebe on Friends had her sexy voice. But Amy Goodman had laryngitis this past week and had to miss a day (Juan Gonzalez filled soloed that day) and someone (Kyle?) wrote in asking C.I. where Goodman was?

It was Kyle who wrote in. Here's a section of that entry by C.I.:

Kyle missed Democracy Now! yesterday. He caught today's show on the radio and wondered where Amy Goodman was? The medical answer, which she gave yesterday, is that she has laryngitis. The metaphorical answer?
How about this? How about it's time for people to stop pointing to Amy Goodman and saying, "Oh well she talks about it." Yes, she does. She reports on it, she analyzes it. She puts herself out there. A lot of people don't.
Are you supporting the voices who do that speak to you? Are you making a point to listen or read or watch the voices that speak to you? Are you getting the word out the way Carl did this week by having friends over to listen to The Laura Flanders Show together?

I think the metaphorical answer is one to think about. And I know I love Laura Flanders and Amy Goodman. I am glad that they and other strong voices are there. But we can listen and gather strength and encouragment absolutely. But it shouldn't stop with listening.

We all have voices and we need to use them. You love Amy and Laura, they're voices that speak to you and nourish you? Why let them be lonely voices?

You use your voice and you speak out.

By the way, Laura Flanders voice just kicked in. That was weird. She was speaking about the war and it was as though the passion of her beliefs gave her voice the strength.

Did it medically? I don't know.

But metaphorically, it did.

If we use our voices, we are all more powerful.

It's great to listen Laura or Amy or anyone who speaks to you. But are you sharing what you learn or your view with the world around you?

Are you discussing the war or do you suffer from a nasty case of "War Got Your Tongue?"

This is not a time to be silent on the issues effecting us.

The public had a case of laryngitis after 9-11. You saw nasty little bullies puff out their chests and try to shame people. Through their echo chamber, they challenged everyone and voices of dissent were hard to find in the mainstream media. Things are only slightly better now in terms of the mainstream. But a lot of people learned to turn to alternative media.

Why is this alternative media? A huge number of people are reading it, listening to it or watching it.

If we're using our voices then we might be able to force the mainstream to open up. But if we're really using our voices, we don't need mainstream media. If we're really using our voices, we're empowering ourselves and empowering the country.

If we're wasting our voices by staying silent or filling the void with junk, we're harming ourselves and others. I do music reviews for The Common Ills. In those reviews, I can address the war, sexism or any number of topics. Nothing stops me from doing that. I could stop myself. I could choose to write about music in a sterile environment, to divorce it from the world and act as though it's "only" music.

Or I could "position myself" to be "liked" and give shout outs to really lousy rags like The New Republic. I could sell out my beliefs and do that. I could follow the designated path which is to reposition yourself and avoid anything "controversial." Maybe not embrace the Republican position but not make a point of advocating any left or "left" position.

There's a lot of money to be made doing that as the pundit circles have demonstrated.

But I'm not willing to pay the cost of selling out my soul. I'm not willing to have a voice and a platform of any kind and waste it by talking about junk in noncritical terms. Or to divorce myself from the world around me.

Some people are.

And they'll argue that away from their platform they do this or they do that.

I don't think it matters. I think it matters how you use your platform.

Let's say you read my site and you nod along and maybe you contact your representatives to back up your beliefs. But within the people around you, where you could make a difference, you say nothing. That's the same thing as having any kind of public platform and refusing to address any issues.

I agree with C.I. that we need to be taking our issues into our circles. I agree that we need to be sure people know where we stand.

When Bully Boy tries to demonize or Dixie Chick, it works only if others are too scared to speak and if they think they're alone.

We need to use our voices. We have power when we do. Own your power, don't turn from it.


Heads up to a debate Laura Flanders will be moderating:

December 20th, 7:00 pm
Tarrytown Music Hall
Tarrytown, NY

Cedric's going to posting in the middle of our Third Estate Sunday Review session and has most of it written already. Rebecca says she'll get something up in the next three hours.

Lastly, thank you to Ruth for her wonderful Ruth's Morning Edition Report that went up today. Those are always wonderful and a treat to read but I did appreciate the kind words she offered. It's always a pleasure to read Ruth and today it was also an honor to be mentioned. Thank you, Ruth!


laura flanders
the laura flanders show
radio
the common ills
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
cedrics big mix
the third estate sunday review
ruths morning edition report
democracy now
amy goodman

Ryan, remember this is Heddy we're talking

I had the best night last night.

There's something about waiting for the other shoe to drop.

When it finally does, you were expecting it.

Wally, thank you for doing the "Community Jot." I saw that and was able to catch up on what was going online while I was out having fun last night.

To Ryan "Kansas" and his wife, my apologies that you weren't given an apology but were instead lectured about me. What can we do with someone obsessed?

Not much.

I'm feeling a little like Briget Fonda in Single, White Female but I imagine it must be worse for you because while I can crack jokes about "Heddy," she wrote and led you both to believe it was an apology.

Are we really so surprised that someone who seems to believe I should write 'like a man' in order to win her approval can't apologize to someone she's wronged?

No.

And anyone who assumes that there is only one way to write isn't someone that we should concern us with too much.

But I am sorry for you (Ryan) and for your wife. I did feel a fire storm was brewing over there.
I'm sorry that instead of addressing that at her site, "Heddy" decided to make me the focus. I'm also sorry that when she finally writes the "apology," she's still made me the focus (she's not the first to be obsessed with me) instead of addressing what happened to you.

But do you think she ever apologized to Arundhati Roy? Do you think she ever wrote her?

Let's picture how that would go:

to: Arundhati Roy
from: Heddy
title: Apology from All Puff and No Politics
Arundhati,
C.I. passed your address on to me. I did try to write you but you mispelled something in your address because it's your problem, the problem is never me, it is always someone else. And of course I'm only writing because an obvious point, that I may have hurt you, wasn't obvious to me because I didn't see it on TV in a push up bra.
I think you need to understand that when Kat wrote that I was endorsing attacks on you, she was obviously wrong. Just because I link to and regularly promote an anti-feminist rag that wished you harm and treated your safety as a joke, just because I continue to promote them, doesn't mean that Kat has any right to question my feminism! Sorry that you won't be visiting All Puff and No Politics anymore.
Heddy

I think that's how it would go. I think she'd continue to be obsessed with me.

And isn't that easier than addressing a serious issue like what happened to you?

Or explaining why she promotes a magazine that encourages attacks on Arundhati Roy?

And Heddy's busy trying to chase down "complexity" in TV portrayals of men behind bar. Or trying to track down quotes she can put up since, and are we surprised, thinking is beyond her.

A thinking person would have realized that was no apology to you.

But why think, or examine, when you're convinced that you're always right?

We're all wrong. The whole world is wrong. Heddy's right.

She was, guessing here, right to laud shows like Veronica Mars as "good" for women and young girls. As Veronica's become the woman who cried false rape, she has nothing to say on that. She's too busy slobbering over how Rob Thomas may be the next Joss Whedon!

Surely that is the most important topic facing the world today.

In her mind.

If you're a Black Eyed Peas fan, you may know "Going Gone." You may know the chorus that Jack Johnson offers since it's from his song "Gone." It's a message lost on Heddy. Maybe if I substitute some words? I'll sub four words and they will all be in caps. Otherwise, this is from The Black Eyed Peas with Jack Johnson, "Going Gone:"

You see yourself in the mirror
And you feel safe coz it looks familiar
But you afraid to open up your soul
Coz you don't really know, don't really know
Who is, the person that's deep within
Coz you are content with just being THE QUEEN BEE TOKEN
And you fail to see that its trivial
Insignificant, you addicted to material
I've seen your kind before
You the type that thinks souls is sold in a store
Packaged up with inscent sticks
With them vegetarian meals
To you that's righteous
You're fiction like books
You need to go out to life and look
Coz what happens when they take your material
And you already sold your soul and its
[chorus]
Gone
Going
Gone
Everything gone
Give a damn
Gone be the birds when they don't want to sing
Gone people
All awkward with their things
Gone.

Ryan, think about it this way, you're anti-war. And Heddy is still trying to figure out where she stands. So it's okay that you're attacked, that I'm attacked, that Bright Eyes is attacked and that
Arundhati Roy is attacked. If you ask me, I'd rather be on Heddy's hate list.

I'd rather be with people like Bright Eyes and Arundhati then the old rag. If you think about it like that, I think you'll see that being on Heddy's hate list is actually a plus.

Like The Black Eyed Peas warn, "What's worse is your soul gonna be gone" (gone, going gone). So Heddy's got bigger problems than me. There's a world out there and wars going on and we need voices who acknowledge that. She can't. Her problem.

Take comfort in that, Ryan.

the common ills
the third estate sunday review
the daily jot
sex and politics and screeds and attitude
mikey likes it
kats korner
bright eyes
conor oberst
arundhati roy
black eyed peas
jack johnson

Gone, going, gone (not me; but it's dedicated to someone)

Cat got my tongue?

No.

But I am laughing on the phone with that sexy bastard Jess.

I can't write laughing like this.

But I will tell people they should watch those blog rolls on community sites. Watch mine, oops, someone's gone. Gone at Third Estate Sunday Review, gone at The Daily Jot, . . .

Gone, going gone . . .

As Jack Johnson sings. In fact "Gone" (his version and the Black Eyed Peas) actually makes for a good dedication to someone.

She knows who she is.

So to her, I dedicate "Gone."

I'll have more when I'm done laughing -- and calling everyone I know.

In the meantime, sing "Gone" to yourself.

Or join Jess & I in our update on Poison: "Every olive branch has it's thorns . . ."