Blast Off! Radio today at 4:00 pm EDT: Days of swine and roses

Saturday marked the 135th "Run for the Roses," the Kentucky Derby, an event that Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Dementia) surprisingly missed, given that he's a Kentuckian presumably running for reelection ... although it looks more like retirement is in the offing. On the other hand, maybe the senator merely was being prudent and avoiding crowds who may be infected en masse with the swine flu. So, there's your "day of swine and roses" ... get it?

Well, what you really ought to get is in front of a computer at 4:00 Eastern today for another exciting edition of Blast Off! Radio. Today we'll talk about that crazy swine flu scare and how it reflects Republican strategy (believe me, there's a connection -- and it's not that the GOP caused swine flu, despite the pigs they keep choosing as officeholders), and we'll also see how those nutty Republicans, led by none other than Jeb! Bush, are trying to "restore the luster" to their increasingly marginalized party, especially following the defection of Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania to the Democratic side of the aisle.

Naturally, we'll discuss some topics of Florida interest as well, including a look back at the recent contentious budget struggles in Tallahassee: what passed and what didn't? And why exactly do Republicans want to keep the electorate stupid and ill-informed? (I'll bet you can answer that one on your own ...) And I'll have a look back at my trip last week to New Orleans, with some discussion of how the city is coping with life nearly four years after Katrina.

You'll get all that and more on the show today, plus of course your phone calls, emails, and chatting. And it's so very easy to listen and participate:

TIME: 4:00 pm Eastern TODAY

Click here to listen

Call in number: (646) 716-7543

E-mail: blastoffradio-at-gmail-dot-com

As far as I know, the swine flu can't be transmitted through the internets ... so there should be nothing stopping you from listening today to Blast Off! Radio! Hope you'll join me this afternoon ...

(cross-posted at FPC Blog)

Grading the mainstream corporate media

Well, the test results are in. Friday, marches were held across the country to urge President Obama administration to adhere to his campaign promise to reform immigration policy in America, and the marches were forecast to draw attendees comparable on a nationwide level to those ludicrous, hate-filled "tea parties" on April 15. As I suggested, the mainstream corporate media had a chance this weekend to demonstrate just how "fair and balanced" they (allegedly) are by covering these "liberal" marches to an extent equivalent to how they drooled all over themselves promoting and reporting from the "conservative" tea parties.

So, how'd they do? Well, about as well as one would expect from a "Fourth Estate" that is securely suckling at the teat of the Republican Party.

That's not to say there was no coverage at all. Here in America's Wang™, for example, one of the state's leading newspapers, the Orlando Sentinel, took the bold step of publishing an Associated Press pool piece about the marches ... although to their credit there also was an article about the Orlando march that drew about 125, well below the estimated 20,000 who attended in 2006.

Meanwhile, the Naples Daily News provided local coverage of a march in Immokalee that, like the aforementioned AP article, focused less on the message of the marches than on the supposed cause for their "disappointing" attendance: the swine flu scare.

And although organizers didn’t expect to see numbers quite like those of the 2006 marches, they were disappointed when just over 100 people attended the Immokalee event.

The event’s timing was not the best, organizers admitted, as health officials tried to clamp down on a swine flu epidemic.

For most rally organizers, swine flu was secondary to promoting immigration reform, including pathways to citizenship for an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants who have renewed hope buoyed by Barack Obama in the White House and a Democratic-controlled Congress.

But the swine flu scare took a toll, Hernandez said, especially when a second case was confirmed in Lee County.

“I think that the people got scared,” Hernandez said after the event adding that she would have cancelled the event had she known of the second case earlier in the day.

Attendance of over 100 in Immokalee, 2,000 in Washington, D.C., and similar crowds elsewhere (2,000 in Chicago, a "large" but undefined gathering in Milwaukee, about 1,000 in San Jose, even 400 in Greeley, Colo.) might suggest -- even in light of the lower numbers allegedly due to the swine flu scare -- that this was a major undertaking whose total attendance rivaled estimates of the national "tea party" turnout. But, naturally, other than a handful of patronizing articles about how fewer people marched this year than in the past (due in part, it was supposed, not so much to swine flu as to fears of arrest and deportation or "lost hope" in the immigration-reform movement), the media chose to ignore it.

Heckuva job, mainstream corporate media. Thanks for reminding us once again how much you're in the pocket of the right wing in this country.