SHOCKING BLUE

 I am listening to NPR's All Things Considered, Ashnikko, a musician I don't know is being interviewed  and I hear something about shocking blue hair and I start laughing because it reminded me of one of the times I was arrested (for non-violent civil disobedience) at a anti World Bank protest in D.C. I was being processed through the system at the same time a guy with long, shaggy electric blue hair was, the cops asking us the basics, name, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color. The guy said blue, the cop looks up and the guy just points at his head. The cop is not amused and they the guy says 'Oh you didn't mean here (still pointing at his head) you meant here and he points at his crotch', I just burst out laughing and the guy was laughing too, the cops were not amused.....FYI he said his hair was brown...... I can still picture this whole scene in my head, it was so funny!!!!!

Today, NPR made Sanders an unperson...at least for NPR listeners 3SEP15

THIS is unusual for NPR, but they aren't perfect. Still, when they do something like this they have to be called out on its so here is my e mail to +NPR's All Things Considered and to NPR's Ombudsman.

Mara Liasson, maybe you are a Hillary Clinton supporter, maybe you just don't like Bernie Sanders, but whatever the reason your skewed reporting on 2 SEP 15 about the Democrats running for the party's 2016 presidential nomination was pathetic. Bernie Sanders is having an impact on Mrs Clinton's campaign, and he is responsible for energizing the progressive base of the party, but you couldn't bring yourself to mention his name. Your report came across as anything but objective, and while this is expected from the mainstream media NPR is not supposed to be part of the manipulation of the American electorate to make sure those the 1% want to be are. Shame on you. 

 Click the link at the end of this article if you are an Sanderista too, or if you just want to remind NPR they are supposed to be better than the mainstream media. From +Daily Kos .....

Thu Sep 03, 2015 at 01:02 AM EDT

Today, NPR made Sanders an unperson...at least for NPR listeners

by ari9999

NPR political correspondent Mara Liasson performed acrobatics before a live audience of radio listeners today (9/2/15) — twisting herself into a pretzel to avoid mentioning (whisper:) Bernie Sanders and his stunning campaign successes.
Her four-minute piece focused on Joe Biden and whether or not he would choose to enter the 2016 Democratic presidential primary. But halfway through, she veered to the existing Dem field — but mentioned only one name: Clinton.
Ironically, Liasson began this part of her, uh, analysis this way...  (below the curlicue).

[Biden] certainly can't capture the anti-establishment fever that's been sweeping the Democratic Party base...

"Fever" is a pretty intense description. Something dramatic must be going on, right? Must mean Liasson's now going to mention the main focus of this fever, the Dem primary candidate who's been drawing 10,000 to nearly 30,000 people at events! The guy who's rejecting all PAC money! The one who's raised over $15 million in small donations from over a quarter million ordinary folks, people who got the fever and feel the Bern! Right?
Well, no.
Liasson hops back to Joe. After all, he is the topic of this commentary.

[Biden's] certainly not beating Hillary Clinton with key groups, even though his political persona is authentic in a way that she's not.

Okay, here it comes, Liasson's comment about the candidate whose brand is built on authenticity — the guy who sticks to substantive issues, walks the walk, and votes the way he talks! Right? Well...

So for [Biden] to win, [Clinton] has to implode.

What?! There's no other candidate Biden would have to beat? If Clinton implodes, then Biden's a shoo-in?

...And there are real questions about whether it's already too late for Joe Biden to raise the money and build an infrastructure for a campaign.  

You mean the way another Dem rival has already been doing with almost unbelievable success?! Hey Liasson, you know who I mean. The guy who's now leading all Dem opponents in New Hampshire. The one who's now, shockingly, just 2-3 points shy of a statistical dead heat for the lead in Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg poll published just two days ago?
C'mon, Liasson, give it up, give us that name!

One of the real questions is, whether a run would be good for [Biden], good for [Clinton], good for the Democrats... I think the Party would welcome it, the Party wants competition, there are many Democrats who think it would be good for Hillary Clinton to have a serious opponent, and it would help her to become a better candidate.

[Emphasis mine.] Whoa, Liasson! Aren't we missing something here? It WOULD be good for Clinton to have competition? This is a joke, right?
Like, Clinton doesn't already have competition — surely none worth mentioning.
In Liasson's insular world, grabbing the lead in NH against all odds, and running close to a dead heat in Iowa, obviously doesn't qualify as "competition."
Sparking political fever in hundreds of thousands of fed-up folks? Nope.
(By contrast, Clinton attracted 5,000 people to an event exactly once: the day long ago, in April, when she announced her run. Hasn't come close since.)
So I guess the Bern — that remarkable passion and popularity, spreading like wildfire — doesn't qualify as competition, either.
Oh, wait, I forgot. All those ordinary folks aren't Wall Street millionaires and billionaires. So they can be safely ignored by a veteran Washington insider like Liasson, regardless of how completely out of touch she appears as a result.
To Liasson, these folks are unpersons, like their candidate. They are beneath notice. Not worthy of mention in 'serious' commentary about 'serious' candidates and, by extension, their supporters.
Nah, that's can't be what Liasson's really saying. I'm just being too sensitive. Silly me.

Right now [Clinton] is basically running against herself and her problems.

My god, Liasson actually said it: Running. Against. Herself. You know, like playing solitaire. It's just Clinton and her foibles. Who knew politics could be Demsplained so simply? So cleanly?
Nothing to see here, folks, just move along...
One more thing. Could it be that all those Sanderistas aren't really clamoring for Bernie, but against Hillary?
Well, let's ask some self-described Sanders supporters.
The Iowa poll I referenced above, also asked people who favor Sanders, why they do. Ninety-six percent said it's because they like Sanders and his position on the issues, and not to make a protest vote against any other candidate.
In fact, many of these Sanders supporters listed Clinton as their #2 choice.
This poll finding takes the theory that Sanders' success is, hey, really just about Clinton after all, and blows it to kingdom come. Obliterates it.
Ninety-six percent assert that it's all about Bernie Sanders and his decisive, commonsense policy positions.
So, I think Mara Liasson owes a public apology to Senator Sanders and over a quarter million of his avid supporters.
I'm a Sanderista too. And, Ms. Liasson, that doesn't make me or my candidate an unperson.
It's time Liasson and her corporate media cronies got the memo. You can leave a courteous note for Liasson here. The show is All Things Considered.

Originally posted to ari9999 on Thu Sep 03, 2015 at 01:02 AM EDT.

Also republished by Team Bernie.

'American Pie' And The Box Of Records A Father Left Behind 7SEP12

I heard this on NPR today and it is one of the most moving interviews I have heard in a while. Do yourself a favor, turn down the lights and give this a listen.....and then share it.....

by NPR Staff

Listen Now

All Things Considered

[8 min 20 sec]

 

Courtesy of the artist Mel Fisher Ostrowski played Don McLean's American Pie until she "learned every word."

Mom And Dad's Record Collection

This summer, All Things Considered has asked listeners and guests to share a personal memory of one song discovered through their parents' record collection.
NPR listener Mel Fisher Ostrowski wrote in to tell us about how Don McLean's "American Pie" helped her "bridge a gap between my long-deceased father and baby boy." Hear the radio version at the audio link above — and read a lightly edited version of Ostrowski's original letter to NPR below.
My mom and dad split for good reasons when I was very young. I never really knew who he was. My dad's record collection was left behind in a paper box.
As a girl, I would regularly thumb through the albums, feeling as though it were a conversation between the two of us. Don McLean's American Pie was my favorite. My dad's name was printed on the cover above McLean's patriotically painted "thumbs up" on a black strip, embossed from a label maker. I played that record until I learned every word. It was a way for me to connect to him. I still know all of the words, and I am just down from my son's room, where I rocked him back to sleep softly singing "American Pie" in his ear. I realize that this is a way for my own father to pass something on to my son. I am not sure I would have put these ideas together without your segment triggering the memories. Thank you for helping me find some peace.
http://www.npr.org/2012/09/07/160751369/american-pie-and-the-box-of-records-a-father-left-behind