Dead-Blogging The O'Franken Factor--Several Updates!(Welcome fellow
Michelle Malkin and
Ankle-Biting Pundits readers!)
So that I don't get accused of burying the lede here, the big news in this post is contained in the audioblogger segment (scroll down to "Play this audio post" and click. It turns out that Al Franken did not plan to admit the Air Enron story on Monday, but it was sprung on him by surprise from a caller, who specifically called it "Air Enron", which
Michelle Malkin appears to have created.
As
requested by Mrs M, I've gone ahead and listened to the entire broadcast of Monday's show. My summary of impressions and approximate times:
(0:00-7:20) Rambling tribute to Peter Jennings, whom Al had lunch with while researching a project called "Lateline". Unsurprisingly, much of the tribute is about Al, and not Peter.
(7:20-10:45) Introduction of new affiliates: Missoula, Lafayette (La), Victor Valley, CA. Quick facts about the towns. Neither of them can remember who wrote Evangeline (I would have guessed Tennyson, but it's
Longfellow.).
(10:45-17:50) Break, followed by rant about Wall Street Journal Editorial Page. Al disagrees that the 2003 Bush tax cuts led to employment gains. Gripes that they don't note the earlier tax cuts (which is actually a reasonable point, although the counter argument is that nothing works overnight, and job gains don't show up early in an economic recovery). Starts playing some notes on a slide whistle-type instrument to punctuate his argument, which is distracting, but I guess his point is that the new claim is that more people are working than ever before in the United States. Which, he rants, is meaningless because there are more people than ever before in the United States. Lanpher joins in with something about this being where "they" point out that more people own homes than ever before, and Franken agrees.
Well, there's two little bits to nibble on. The
current total number of nonfarm jobs, seasonally adjusted is 133,786,000. The highest number of jobs during the
Clinton Administration seems to be around 131,800,000, so yeah, I'd say that's a record number of jobs.
As for the housing situation, Lanpher's just woefully uninformed. In fact, the measure used is homeownership percentage, which has been increasing steadily. The
census takes us from 1940's rate of 44%, steadily rising to 66% as of 2000. Since then it has
continued to increase to 68.6%. And no, Kathleen, it's not just rising population; homeownership is rising
faster than the population, otherwise the percentage wouldn't be rising.
Then Franken goes off on another mistake he found the other day that they've apparently already talked about, where some guy claimed that the unemployment rate was the lowest it had been in decades. Which, as Franken notes, is false. But then he goes into the whole "a lot of people just stopped looking for work rant" which is silly. The unemployment rate is 5% and people are discouraged from looking for work? And if so, weren't they discouraged also during the first Clinton Administration, when the unemployment rate never got below 5.1%?
(17:50-27:40) Break, followed by "We had Bin Laden at Tora Bora." Book called
Jawbreaker written by a CIA guy (yet again) making this claim that we blew it. Kerry made the claim during the election. They do a little role-playing, with Al playing Dick Cheney and Kathleen playing Diane Sawyer and Tim Russert, with Cheney supposedly saying at the time that Bin Laden was at Tora Bora.
Implication by Franken that Gen. Tommy Franks only said that we didn't come close because he got a medal (at 21:25). You know what they say about prostitutes Al, they all think everybody else is a whore as well. He then goes off onto how the other guys who got medals (Bremer and Tennent) didn't deserve them. Argumentation about concrete walls, and how they have to build them, but they could have used local cement companies...
This is worse than root canal. I'm getting a headache listening to Franken.
(27:40-30:45) Cindy Sheehan comes up. Immediate comparison to Max Cleland. Looks like Franken recognizes Crawfordapalooza (TM). Sound clip of her claiming Bush killed her son. Franken even admits that her comments aren't fair(!) (at 30:20). Interesting to see how the left was a little leery of her until the media picked the story, and suddenly she's everybody's darling. Let's remember, she's been giving her pitch around the Lefty carnival for well over a year now; it's just the rest of America that's paying attention to her for the first time.
(30:45-38:00) Break. Franken sings! Introducing Christie Harvey. Rick Santorum supposedly said that Intelligent Design shouldn't be taught in school. But apparently he wrote an op-ed that said the opposite and was pushing for ID in NCLB. They then go off on Santorum's gaffes... Civil Liberties: The 9-11 Commission asked for a task force on the Patriot Act, but it hasn't met yet. Of course, remember this show takes place before the "Able Danger" revelations about the 9-11 Commission.
(38:00-48:38) Steve Robinson Gulf War vet at Center for American Progress (liberal think tank). Commitment to our troops not great. Attempt to cut hazard pay, attempt to cut death benefit. I don't have time to fisk that, I suspect the hazard pay cut proposal came in the lull after the initial combat; they do acknowledge that it was restored by Congress (and I suppose approved by the President since we know he has yet to veto anything).
Update: Dave (in the comments) pointed me
to this story about how the Bush Administration is actually proposing a major increase in the death benefit.
The plan to increase the tax-free "death gratuity," now $12,420, to $100,000 and provide an extra $150,000 in life insurance payouts will be part the 2006 budget proposal submitted to Congress next week, the Pentagon's personnel chief said in an Associated Press interview. Veterans groups and many in Congress have been pushing for such increases.Boy, Steve Robinson couldn't be more wrong. Great catch, Dave! Thanks!
It is obvious why AA is not making the grade. It's painful to listen to: it's all doom and gloom. Everything's awful and getting worse.
Need for mental health screening. Sounds good but he goes into the "psycho vet" stuff, listing all the bad things that folks who don't get help do--alcoholism, wife-beating, etc. Reinforces the image of Vietnam vets as nuts (which I learned very quickly was not factual from the many vet friends we made at Kerry Haters).
(48:38-55:23) Break, then the same Gulf War vet talks about Cindy Sheehan. He admits that the President has met a lot of the soldiers who are at Walter Read, but doesn't think it's too much for him to meet with her/parents who've lost their children. He apparently doesn't know that Bush
has met with her. He says he knows Cindy (remember, she didn't come out of nowhere, she's been around); just a hint of hesitancy to talk about her.
Back to the psycho vets coming back from Iraq are going to be just like Vietnam. Rolling my eyes here. Talk about the IED situation resulting in truck driver soldiers getting killed.
(55:23-69:06) Break. Time for phone calls on Cindy Sheehan. What should the President do, or (alternate topic) is Bob Novak crazy?
Call: Not screened. Brad, veteran of Gulf War. Experimental pills, exposed to nerve gas, Sarin. He's doing well, but son was born with birth defects. Son going to need a heart transplant. Sad story of course. Franken does press him a bit as to whether there have been studies about this. In Gulf War vets, fewer kids with birth defects. Franken offers to have the staff do some research.
Second caller says Cindy's grandstanding, but the people are shut out from the policies being made. He rambles a bit and Franken forgets to ask him about the comment about grandstanding, so Al and Kathleen have to talk about that for awhile. Then he goes onto a rant about the deficit and tax cuts.
Third Caller: Peter from Columbus. What Cindy's doing is useful for stirring discussion, but that she's not going to change anything. Dems should claim national security being undermined. Catchphrase to "frame it". Franken loves it. Rambles onto pensions and social security. Franken claims he learned something about talk radio--how integral health care is to everything. We need universal health care.
The miracle cure for the Democrats.
Sign off says he'll take another call, then a boring correction.
(69:06-75:40) Break. Boring mistake correction coming up. Humorous music. He confused Iceland with Greenland.
Abby from Madison. She cried on Al Franken's shoulder sometime. She was in Iraq also. And at a fundraiser for Operation Truth. Read article in NY Times about Sheehan. She thinks President Bush should invite her in.
Dan from Switzerland. Teaches English there. Says it's a great opportunity for Bush to take advantage of the situation. Says he heard about
Air Enron! on conservative talk radio--Heading to break, Al promises to talk about it. I was skipping through and didn't catch that the first time around!
Here's the clip of Dan springing the question on him out of nowhere:
Woohoo! Here's to Dan from Switzerland. I have to admit, I was under the impression that Al decided he had to fess up about the Boys & Girls Club scheme; instead he got stung by a caller!
Okay, that discovery makes this whole exercise worthwhile. I was beginning to think that sticking my head in the microwave sounded better than listening to another 30 minutes of misery and woe. And there's no doubt in my mind that this guy was what Rush would term a seminar caller--he does the "Love the show, love the book bit, gives a quick (and probably fake) indication of his thoughts on Cindy Sheehan, and then wham!
(75:40-82:45) Starts with something about a guy named Norm. New Yorker Senior Editor Henrik Hertzberg. Praises Hertzberg's writing in Talk of the Town. Finally brings up the Air Enron story. Mentions the Post story. Then we go the part that has been
transcribed by Brian at Radio Equalizer.
(82:45-87:55) Hertzberg gets to talk about Intelligent Design. Some joking about what should be taught. Hertzberg compares ID to the Iroqois creation myth. Dull bit which Franken tries to liven up with his cackling. Says ID can't be tested because it's magical. Franken says spiritual. Lampher points out Santorum's surprising objection to ID being taught in school.
(87:55-93:31) Break. Hertzberg back. Wrote a book called Politics. Bush approval ratings discussion. Handling of the war down to 38%. Franken says Norm Ornstein says intelligence is bad on Iraq. More of the slide-whistle gag. Blah blah, horrible mess, few Americans are asked to make a sacrifice. More pretense that the Democrats care about the soldiers and their families.
(93:31-1:07:25) Break. Franken sings again (I think)
Born in the USA as "Norm in the USA". Claims Air America Institute polled on Rove/Plame. Lots of numbers thrown around. 43% said he committed a crime. Gag about whether Rove was in Aruba. The whole segment is silly, and no, they didn't poll people. Then they get serious and Ornstein says he talked to "senior people" who said Iraq is going bad. Who plans this stuff? They put on a funny skit where it is obvious that Ornstein is being faux serious, followed immediately by a segment where he's supposed to be really serious. That's incredibly poor design to sell the message in the second segment. They ask him about support for the insurgents from Iran, but he says he hasn't heard of it (despite the well-known story from about two weeks ago).
(1:07:25-1:13:33) Almost done! Novak's explosion comes up. Mention of the word "bullsh*t" by Ornstein, not bleeped at all. Be interesting to see if it went out over the air--isn't that a guaranteed FCC fine? Signoff!
Okay, that was relatively painful, but it's over. (shudders)
Later observations: They are clearly running AA on a shoestring. Several callers (including the first two of the day) were unscreened. I've called into right-wing shows and only gotten on unscreened when they were on remote. Oddly enough the MP3 download contains the same bumper--a Grateful Dead riff--over and over again. It gets annoying about the 15th time, unless you hate the Dead like me, in which case it only takes once.
Let me point here to two other bloggers who have been doing yeoman's work on Air America when it wasn't the hot story. Our buddy the Leather Penguin sometimes uses rough language but he's got a good sense of humor and a
long history of posting on Air Idiot, as he refers to them.
And Bore America has been dedicated to
covering the Airheads since the start.
