Considering alan colmes

I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. -Adlai Stevenson (1952)

That quote always makes us think of Alan Colmes -- we'll catch holy hell from our liberal readers for even saying this, but it's a shame that KPTK is not responding to Colmes' syndicaters about filling the empty evening slot vacated by Randi Rhodes.

OK, we know: Alan is syndicated by Fox News Radio, and worked 12 years as the designated liberal on Fox News' Hannity & Colmes.

He got all manner of shit for being too conciliatory, and not mean enough to Sean Hannity. Even we called him "a willing piñata" once.

But Alan Colmes is a principled liberal, a veteran radio man, and runs a reasoned, thoughtful, listener-driven show not unlike Ron Reagan, or Thom Hartmann or Peter B.

It would not be the first time he's been in the Seattle market: in 1993, he was on, of all places, evenings on seminal right-wing talker, KVI. It was in the early days of the talk radio re-awakening, and conservative talk didn't quite know who they were yet.

He didn't last long. "I was doomed on KVI," he says, "... [It was] like being a hamburger in a vegetarian restaurant."

We know how popular Randi is in Seattle (in that little whoopdedo 2-share popularity that KPTK hosts enjoy around here) and we've heard that KPTK has been in contact with her. They've said publicly they're willing to give her another go. (It's beginning to sound like a bad marriage).

We wish them luck, but if Randi should fall off or through again, we'd hope they'd at least talk to Alan.

Comments

[Rush]

Can we start calling Obama a war president now? cool.

[Rick]

Alan Colmes was interesting back in the day. I think he was on another station also but I can't remember which one. Radio graffiti was always interesting to listen to. Randi is to much of a bomb-thrower for my taste.

[Martin the busman]

Colmes is not a progressive. He used to play one on TV, but got fired. I would not be interested in hearing him on the radio in Seattle. The hours of progressive programming are few enough.

[Thought I Saw A Bum]

This is what talk radio has come to. Hoping that someone who lives all the way across the country will be syndicated on tape delay hours after the original broadcast. Who says it's a dying medium.

[joanie]

"Principled liberals" - I like that. In other words, progressives each and every one. Thanks.

Did anyone see the NY Times piece about how a stimulus package isn't needed in Europe because they already have safety nets for people?

Some day this country may exit the Dark Ages and actually see the light of modern society and the common good.

"Last month Frank Koppe gathered together all 50 of his employees at Koppe-Apparatebau for coffee, cake and the kind of bad news that has lately become all too familiar. He told them the small company’s business, designing and manufacturing custom equipment for industrial plants, had been sliced nearly in half.

But rather than resorting to layoffs, Mr. Koppe asked half his employees to come in every other week. The government would make up roughly two-thirds of their lost wages out of a fund filled in good times through payroll deductions and company contributions."

[KS]

"Some day this country may exit the Dark Ages and actually see the light of modern society and the common good."

Yeah, so we can be like the countries of Western Europe with a collectivist safety net. With our political correctness, then we could allow Muslims to invoke their culture on the whole society as these countries move ever closer to being a Dhimmitude. Geez, sorry - I guess I threw some cold water on that emotional response and threw in some logic to it. I'd prefer sticking with the so-called Dark Ages. Europe is the place to be if you want that kind of enlightenment...

[Puget Sound]

KS
more of those damn inconvenient truths:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123742034399078391.html

"SANDOUVILLE, France -- Renault SA's factory in this Normandy town is one of the car maker's most unproductive in the world. Yet it has no choice but to keep the assembly line running.

Chalk that up to a government bailout, French style. In exchange for a €3 billion ($3.9 billion) low-interest loan from Paris, Renault pledged not to close any French factories for the duration of the loan or resort to mass layoffs in France for a year.

The aid package, also given to PSA Peugeot Citroën, has France's neighbors screaming protectionism. It also has Renault in a fix. The company has long been shifting production of budget cars to low-cost Eastern Europe, and the Sandouville plant currently is operating at about one-third of its capacity.

The big question for the European auto industry "is where to close factories," says French Industry Minister Luc Chatel, who estimates there are about a dozen too many car plants on the continent. "We just don't want them to close in France."

Well, so much for that whole EU-Thingie....all those cars will continue to pile up in France. What could go wrong...

Read America Alone by Mark Steyn. Witty, Spot On, and damn right scary.

[Spot On]

Why don't you read it, alone.

[KS]

Put S - Spot on...
A number of people on the progressive left who are pushing for a nanny-state foolishly believe that there is something in it for them. They are delusional and don't get it that there isn't and they will be subject to it like anyone else. When more of our freedoms disappear and a nanny state is invoked, it will be very tough to get them back. When has the size of Government ever contracted ?

Many of them are control freaks and flawed in that they don't consider consequences of nanny statism leading to totalitarianism, but thrive on emotion and like to manipulate whoever - Ph(J)oanie and her ilk and Randi Rhodes apparently fit that description. I'm not saying that there aren't those types who are right-wingers, they were in the limelight during the last administration, but they have retreated into the darkness for the time being.

[Puget Sound]

there's the irony, KS. they supposedly love the children but just saddled them with a debt we may never get out from under.

pass the spending bill without letting it be read because we are in a hurry and then let it sit on Pres Obama's desk for 5 days...oh yeah, and then get ph(J)oanie outraged that it has things in there you don't like such as the AIG bill...so pass a horrible ex post facto tax bill aimed at correcting the issues with the first bill that you should have let the congress read in the first place.

[Jeff Smithers]

Irony, not to mention double standard, is that the goons on this board had no trouble at all when a billion a MONTH was sent over into the bottomless pit we call Iraq. They didn't even flinch at the news that 9 billion turned up missing and has yet to be accounted for. But money spent on hard working Americans, and projects to help them?? OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!!! THINK OF THE CHILDREN! So much hypocritical outrage at irresponsible spending and debt for the future.
Now THAT is a double standard.

[Jeff Smithers]

And as for "not having a chance to read" this bill, were you this outraged when the Patriot Act was shoved through without being read by the majority in Congress?

[super eight]

Spot on Jeff, a lot of so called 'americans' don't even know what the so called Patriot Act is and were collaborators for Haliburton.

[nevets]

Looks like Jeff doesn't support our troops. Wonder if he was one of those who wanted to spend millions on spit balls for our troops to use against real bullets. Imagine if that would have gone through.

[Highlander]

And it looks like nevets is one of those that feels that you can "support" the troops by spreading lies and rumors. That brand of "patriotism" smells more like facism

[nevets]

"And it looks like nevets is one of those that feels that you can "support" the troops by spreading lies and rumors."

You mean to tell me all those IED's that killed our troops were just lies Highlander. I've seen videos of these attacks. They are not pretty. Now if you watched something besides Olby, you might get the whole story once in awhile.

[Puget Sound]

"And as for "not having a chance to read" this bill, were you this outraged when the Patriot Act was shoved through without being read by the majority in Congress?

Posted by: Jeff Smithers | March 29, 2009 at 08:39 AM"

ironically, they revoted that same act a few years later with only minor cosmetic changes. kind of ph(J)oanie, you know. like 'jeff smithers'; highlander, and 'super eight.'

sure wish the one posting under multiple false names would stop being such a freakin ph(J)oanie.

[Puget Sound]

hey 'smithers,' here are the ten senators that voted against the patriot act when it was revised which means it was about 90 who voted for it.

"Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Byrd (D-WV)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Murray (D-WA)
Wyden (D-OR)

[KS]

Ph(J)oanie is probably posting as one or all of them. Never trust a progressive...