I WANT CONDI/ AIR AMERICA

Can't wait for Condi Rice to testify on Thursday! I'm sure she'll keep spinning the same crap she's been spinning since 9/12/01, but maybe Bob Kerrey'll catch her in a contradiction!

Here's how he might do it:

- On 9/11/01 she was all set to give a speech about national defense policy that contained no mention of Al Qaeda, and was to promote the conservative wet dream - missile defense.

-She claimed that no one could have foreseen that terrorists would hijack a plane and use it as a missile , but this is in contradiction of all sorts of evidence

Anyway I'll be watching/listening!

In other news:

Air America Radio made its debut last Wednesday. I was listening when they first came on here in LA. The station was a Spanish station and you could hear the announcers holding some sort of farewell and thanking everyone (all in Spanish of course) for all their years of service/listening etc. Then there was dead air for about 2 minutes, then the station cut into the middle of "I want to hold your hand" by the Beatles which then transitioned to "Cant by me love", which cut out in the middle to more dead air. Finally, the station cut into the middle of some public service announcements and commercials, and at last (about 15 minutes late) -Al Franken's show "the O'Franken factor" (a dig at Bill 'O'Lielly') came on, but the station reversed the order of the hours, so it was hard to tell what the heck was going on. Ah the trials and tribulations of creating a new radio network.

Anyway, they since have worked out the kinks and here is your OP review.

Al Franken's show is the flagship show and is the best of the bunch. The guests so far have been fabulous - Hillary Clinton, Madeline Albright, Al Gore, Michael Moore (who apologized to Al Gore for supporting Ralph Nader in 2000!), Paul Krugman (author of "the tax cut con" a NY Times article debunking the Bushies tax cut mania, and many others. Al is balanced by Katherine Lanpher a Minnesota Public Radio host who is more radio savvy than Franken. She's constantly verbally rolling her eyes at Al's antics which gets annoying (lighten up Katherine!), but she is great at getting down to business and keeping the show on track (Franken has a tendency to meander). Great show! Problem is they need more like it. The other shows are made up of small groups of people complaining about the Bushies which, although I agree politically, can become numbing.

Probably the most aggressive show is Randi Rhodes' afternoon solo pit bull rant. She is the typical ballsy New Yorker and her voice gets shrill and annoying fast. However, to her credit, she had a fantastic segment last week where she dressed down Ralph Nader. She said that the country "can't afford" Nader because although he has some sympathetic ideas, he takes votes away from defeating Bush in November. Nader was truly flummoxed and kept babbling the same old lines about how Dems and Reps are the same and equally corrupt, and why didn't a liberal like her support him etc. Eventually he hung up on her. Great radio, but the show had yet to get back to that peak by the end of the week.

So here's my advice: If you hate right wing talk radio because of the talk radio format, you won't find this any more appealing because it's the same with different rants. If you hate right wing talk radio because of the right wing bias -give it a try. It's not going to convert any republicans, but has a slight chance of converting the undecided, and after all it's nice to hear a truly unabashed and unappologetic liberal viewpoint for a change.

I heard today that they got their first really major sponsor - McDonalds(!), so I guess it's catching on!

Click here to listen to Air America live!