Guest Playlist: Ken Whitehouse

On January 28, 2009, in Guest Playlists, by Mary Mancini

Music is a window into our show. The bumpers we play are integral to what we do – whether it’s interviewing guests, celebrating participatory democracy, or yakking about Republican hackery and misinformation. Often our guests will have their own theme song, but when we meet them on the show we know we’re only getting to know one tiny bit of a complex and interesting person.

Because we want to know a little bit more of what makes our guests tick, Liberadio(!) is happy to introduce a new feature, Guest Playlists.

Our inaugural list is from Nashville Post reporter, Ken “Punk Rock in the” Whitehouse. With his playlist and commentary, the Oscar Madison of State political correspondents gives us a little more insight into what’s going on in that baseball-capped head of his. Punk rawk, indeed.

Which Side Are You On? – Dropkick Murphys (Album: Sing Loud, Sing Proud!) Written by Florence Reece in 1931. She was the wife of a union organizer in Harlan County, Kentucky. She wrote the song one night after company men came a ransacked her house looking for her husband during a strike. This version is the Celtic/Punk version of the song.

Baby, I’m an Anarchist! – Against Me! (Album: Reinventing Axl Rose) Love song between an anarchist and a “spineless liberal.” Line of the song that sums it all up is, “We marched together for the eight-hour day and held hands in the streets of Seattle, But when it came time to throw bricks through that Starbucks window, You left me all alone.”

Walk Away – Tom Waits (Album: Orphans: Brawlers) If only I could write that well and sing that bad.

Mao Tse Tung Said – A3 (Album: Exile on Coldharbour Lane) You know this band for the theme song of The Soprano’s, but this song is a bone chilling statement on power at the point of a gun. It uses clips from the Rev. Jim Jones final recorded speech in the jungles of Guyana. Don’t let anyone who likes Kool-Aid near your speakers when playing this.

Start Wearing Purple – Gogol Bordello (Album: Gypsy Punks; Underdog World Strike) New York band that has a Gypsy/Ukrainian sound. Lead singer bounces back and forth between Russian and English, I think this song could be about monarchical inbreeding throughout Europe but not sure. No matter, your kids will like it for reasons they won’t understand.

Amsterdam – Jacques Brel (Album: Enregistrement Public à l’Olympia 1964) Brel is the only thing stopping the world from placing economic sanctions on Belgium for giving us Jean-Claude Van Damme. The song is about sailors on shore leave in Amsterdam and though sung in French you can understand the emotion of every word.

Tower of Song – Leonard Cohen with U2 (Album: I’m Your Man) A homage of sorts to Cohen’s influences and the art of songwriting. You also might want to check out the Emmylou Harris cover of Cohen’s “Ballad of a Runaway Horse.”

Last Kind Deal – David Johansen (Album: Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus soundtrack) Former New York Dolls front man gets in touch with his Delta side.

If I Ever Leave This World Alive – Flogging Molly (Album: Drunken Lullabies) Everyone needs an epilogue and mine would be this line “If I ever leave this world alive The madness that you feel will soon subside So in a word don’t shed a tear I’ll be here when it all gets weird If I ever leave this world alive”

Sample Full Playlist (will launch iTunes)

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As the House Turns

On January 28, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

TN House Ethics Committee streaming live right now (10 am Central). The members are moseying – Chairman Jones, Turner, Mumpower, Odom, Harwell, et. al..

Will What will happen to Speaker Kent Williams? Find out now on As the House Turns! Dun-dun-duhn!

UPDATE: TN House Ethics Committee just recessed at the behest of Rep. Gary “Swingset” Odom to try and decide if the complaint against Williams is in their jurisdiction. (Swingset. He likes recesses. Get it?) Reconvene at 1:00 PM.

UPDATE II: More deets from Kleinheider.

UPDATE III: Those intrepid correspondents on the scene are reporting that Rep. Brian Kelsey, who brought the ethics complaint against Speaker Williams, is none too pleased with the lack of action on the part of the committee. From Woods at Pith:

“This is a complaint about sexual harassment and about lying to cover it up. Clearly this committee came in here with the idea that they are going to cover up this whole issue and not even investigate this. It’s really absurd.” …

“I don’t know where this committee is going right now, but if they came in here not ready to investigate it then that’s the wrong attitude to have when you’ve got serious allegations of sexual harassment and of lying about it to the public.” …

“I came here ready to have a hearing. We’ve got several members who were witnesses to this. To deny them the opportunity to comment on this is a travesty. The reason Representative Lynn is not here is that she had major feelings of stress this morning and she is in the hospital and unable to make it here. This is a serious charge. This is not a joking matter.”

If Rep. Lynn is indeed in the hospital because of the stress, we hope she gets the pharmaceuticals she needs. But since neither her staff nor other House Republicans seem able to confirm Kelsey’s report, he has some explaining to do. Is he so consumed by his obsession with his personal vendetta against Speaker Williams that with all the eyes of Tennessee’s best political reporters on him he’s attempting to create his own own reality to further his case? Disingenuous at best, delusional at worst.

Oh, and remember that mysterious person that attempted to interrupt this morning’s proceedings? The one we couldn’t see if we were watching the live streaming? If you thought it was an unhinged spectator who doesn’t understand Robert’s Rules of Order and wasn’t mature enough to contain his or her emotions, well, you were spot on! From Punk Rock in the Whitehouse:

When that committee convened this morning, Chairman Rep. Ulysses Jones (D-Memphis) asked the legal counsel whether the committee had jurisdiction over the case. Staff attorney Doug Hines said that he did not believe it did and that the matter is the domain of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Tennessee Human Rights Commission.

The statement caused Kelsey to jump out of his seat and say that he had an avenue in which the matter could be heard, to which Jones quickly banged his gavel and said Kelsey was out of order and had not been recognized.

UPDATE IV: During their short 1:00 session, Rep. Beth Harwell (R) made a motion for the ethics committee to NOT go ahead with hearing Kelsey’s complaint. The motion carried unanimously.

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Saltsman Playing the Blame Game

On January 27, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Politico is reporting that Chip “I’m Rubber, You’re Glue” Saltsman, the candidate for the chairmanship of the RNC not endorsed by the TNGOP’s Robin Smith, is still refusing to apologize for including a very suspect song about Barack Obama on his Holiday Mix CD.

Republican National Committee chairman candidate Chip Saltsman blamed the media Tuesday for the uproar over a CD he sent out in December that included a song titled “Barack the Magic Negro.”

Saltsman did not apologize for sending out the song, a parody referring to a 2007 Los Angeles Times column of the same title that is written to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon.” He said during an interview on MSNBC that the episode exposed media bias.

“We’re definitely not playing on a level playing ground with the media on that issue,” Saltsman said. “I mean, there was no outrage when the L.A. Times article coined that phrase.”

Questioned by host Contessa Brewer why he was pointing a finger at the press, Saltsman responded: “Contessa, I’m asking you, were you outraged when you read the article in the L.A. Times a year and a half ago?”

“It was a parody Christmas gift, and I sent it out without even thinking about what was on it,” he said. “Obviously, when you do something like that, you don’t want to offend a lot of people when you do. That’s something you don’t want to do. And, you know, hopefully that we’ll move on, talk about the future of the party.”

Note to Chip, thinking is of the good.

UPDATE: Saltsman gets the smackdown by a lady in a silken bow. (h/t Kleinheider & Pith)

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Liberadio(!) Podcast: January 26, 2009 Last One Out Lock the Door

On January 26, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Summary: Guests include Rep. Mike Turner, (D-The Fightin’ 51st!), author Clay Risen, and Elbert Ventura, research fellow for Media Matters for America.

Part 1 – We’re Done Now – MLK, Jr. day of service? Check. Inauguration of a Democratic President? Check. English Only defeated? Check. New TNDP chair elected? Check. Alright, we’re done here! Turn out the lights and the last one out lock the door! Oh wait….it seems that Freddie wants to do something about education. And we were SO CLOSE to margaritas and a beach. [41.8 MB 26:05 download MP3]

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Part 2 – Interview with Rep. Mike Turner – Rep. Turner (D-The Fightin’ 51st!) was recently elected Democratic House Caucus chair. Despite facing many obstacles – sexual harassment charges against the Republican Speaker he helped elect, a vengeful majority leader, rabid State Republican Party operatives, a potentially fractured State Democratic Party, candidate recruitment, a looming and potentially disastrous redistricting scenario, and a Governor’s race that’s already starting to heat up – Mr. Turner assures us that the House Dems are more united then ever and are ready to move forward with the people’s business. Now, if we can only keep him from commenting on the blogs. Oh, and Rep. Campfield’s girlfriend? Call me! [39.1 MB 24:22 download MP3]

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Part 3 – A Birdseye View from the Vote for TNDP Chair. We’ve heard the stories of all the political arm-twisting surrounding the election of the TNDP chair over the weekend, but what did it look like on the ground? [18.9 MB 11:48 download MP3]

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Part 4 – Interview with Clay Risen – Clay is the founding managing editor of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas and the author of the fascinating new book, A Nation on Fire: America in the Wake of the King Assassination. The book studies in detail the week following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and discusses both the immediate and long-range impact of the events, including a persuasive argument that those events were the catalyst for the urban decay that followed in many of America’s large cities. [40.4MB 25:11 download MP3]

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Part 5 – The Media Matters for America Smackdown – Media Matters research fellow Elbert Ventura thought he was done too but then he realized that although the administration has changed, the media has most definitely not. So, it’s back to airing out the misrepresentations – he does the lies about President Obama’s economic stimulus plan and we squeeze in the lies about closing Guantanamo Bay. [26.2MB 25:11 download MP3]

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And Stay Out!

On January 26, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

As I was wrapping fish with reading Bill Kristol’s column today in my beloved New York Times, I failed to notice this at the bottom:

This is William Kristol’s last column.

I assume they mean last column for the Times, but I can dream, can’t I?

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TNGOP Tent Not Big Enough for President Obama

On January 26, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Tennessee Republican party chairperson Robin Smith is between a rock and a hard place. Who does she endorse for RNC chair? Hometown boy Chip Saltsman, with his dubious decision-making skills and just a whiff of racism? Or current South Carolina Republican Party chair, Katon Dawson, with his politically expedient decision making skills and his big load of bigotry?

She picked Dawson. Ruh-row.

Turns out that up until last September, Dawson – who announced his candidacy for the chairmanship in November – was a member in good standing at the 80-year-old Forest Lake Club, that has no black members and a deed with a “whites-only” restriction.

Nice big tent you got there, Robin. But if it’s set up at Forest Lake, our new President can’t get in.

UPDATE: Mr. Dawson has also been endorsed by American Family Association founder Don E. Wildmon, a vocal opponent of marriage equality and a guy just nutty enough to think that he can get a boycott of McDonalds to take root. Wildmon wrote in a statement to his supporters, “if the Republican Party is to survive, it must get back to its roots. I believe that Katon Dawson…has the ability to take the party where it needs to go – to Burger King.” (OK, I added that last bit).

(Strike 2: Dawson was also kind of dick to Stephen Colbert.)

(Stike 3: Fuzzy math and the “absolute poster child for the Republican Party’s long-term demographic ills.”

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Post Politics, Where the Internet People Bring the Crazy

On January 26, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

Kleinheider got “the internet people” going crazy over at Post Politics this weekend with just a simple non-red meat post about the election of the new chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party, Chip Forrester. Last time we looked there were over 230 comments. One of our guests on this morning’s show, Rep. Mike Turner (D-the Fightin’ 51st!), said that even he made a brief appearance last night before being mercilessly attacked by the muumuu-wearing parliament smokers for some *gasp* typos.

Kleinheider suggests in a recent Tweet:

If you are into TN politics, you probably need to carve out some time to read all the comments on this thread.

You can do that – if you have the time and the stomach. Or you can just watch this classic bit of art imitating life from The West Wing. Enjoy!

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Steve Gill’s Birthday Suit

On January 25, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

One of the things most worrisome about last week’s English Only special election was the effect that anti-immigrant right-wing ideologue mouthpieces Steve Gill, Phil Valentine, and Michael “It’s Delivery Not” DelGiorno, would have on the outcome. Let’s face it, two hours a week of us presenting reasoned and well-rounded interviews and opinion opposing the referendum versus 11 hours a day of them presenting bratty fear-based lies, half-truths, and accusations had us a little worried.

Not anymore! Last week’s election showed that we should have more faith in our listeners, the power of the grass roots coalitions, well-reasoned debate, and civil dialogue.

It’s not just Eric Crafton’s English Only that was defeated on Thursday. The brand of name-calling alarmism practiced by the three mouthkateers (can Tom Negri, General Manager of Loews Vanderbilt Hotel, or Rev. Jim Lawson, civil rights icon, really be defined as “liberal-wackos”?) was also given the smackdown by facts, figures, and the intellectual optimism practiced by a wide coalition of business, community, and spiritual leaders.

At this point, Gill et. al. should be frightened. Although they would never admit it, they know their fearmongering has both limited appeal and a limited shelf-life. Which is why hanging on to it while the rest of the country strides ahead is bad for business. Those boys say that they are giving people what they want, but our show – which with only 2 hours a week on a non-commercial station and engaging, reasonable guests, helped to defeat a city-wide referendum – clearly shows that they are so not. These emperors have not a stitch on.

The arguments against the Fairness Doctrine or the viability of progressive talk radio are red herrings use to deflect what DelGiorno, et. al. are really afraid of – that in these times, the majority of people in Middle-Tennessee would rather do what we do – discuss how public policy, elections, and elected officials can best serve the people of Tennessee – rather than what they specialize in – fear-based and divisive bombast (cue tax! abortion! immigration! gun! discussions). And they have no earthly idea how to adapt.

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Mary Mancini: Bigot

On January 25, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

That’s what I’m being accused of because of a recent post in which I bid adieu to the Old Confederate States of America.

Let’s put aside, for a moment, that those making the accusations clearly didn’t read my full post and chose to read only an inflammatory excerpt provided by Kleinheider over at Post Politics (the little scamp!). Let’s also ignore the accusations of “presentism.” And the bad analogy that equates my use of the words “yokels” and “yahoos” to the very worst of racial epithets.

The real question this hubbub raises – and this isn’t rhetorical, I’m very curious – is how would you describe someone who flies a confederate flag at half-mast on the day we inaugurate our first African-American President, or who says on the day after the election that “she was bothered by the idea of a black man ‘over me’ in the White House?”

I used those words because of actions and beliefs, not skin color. I used those words because clearly the content of character lacks basic human decency. I used those words – which, by definition, mean “crude,” “boorish,” and “mired in local custom” – because they fit.

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The Whole World Was Watching

On January 22, 2009, in Liberate Your Radio from The Right, by Mary Mancini

And now they have their answer. Thank you, Nashville! Good night!

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