Mark Riley Media

Progressives…Time to Stop Playing

Mark Riley — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:01:07 +0000

The signs are everywhere, from North Carolina to Indiana to the hallowed halls of Congress.

North Carolina votes NO to gay marriage

Those who want to take America back to the 19th century are girding their loins for the battle ahead. Their endgame is obvious, and has been for some time.

The question that remains is whether those who call themselves progressives are ready to put aside their differences and prepare to “throw hands” (metaphorically, you understand).

The stakes are as follows. If we want to have any hope that the more than 12 million Americans currently out of work will ever have decent jobs again in their lifetime, we’re going to have to play politics to win.

That won’t be easy for progressives.

We pride ourselves at being somehow better, more high minded than our opponents. We won’t engage in certain tactics that they take for granted to win elections. Maybe we don’t have to. But we do have to have a clear idea of what we want to accomplish this and every election cycle. And yes, we may have to be ruthless in order to get it done. For the sake of our kids, if ruthless is what it takes, so be it.

Our political aim should be threefold.

You may not think he’s done everything he should have, but electing Barack Obama to a second term is essential. So too is widening the margin of the Democratic majority in the Senate. The third priority is to turn just 25 Republican seats in the House to Democrats.

Why are these three goals important? The GOP minority in the Senate just killed (for now) a bill to freeze the interest rate on college student loans. In Indiana, a decent, long serving Republican US Senator just got his head handed to him by a Tea Partry Neanderthal. In North Carolina, a referendum just passed defining marriage as between a man and a woman.

These are three recent reasons progressives must be ready to stand and fight this election cycle. Another will be evident to anyone who has passed over or under a bridge, an overpass, train trestle, whatever. Folks, our infrastructure is falling apart.

The same people who think corporations are people tell us we’re too broke to fix our roads. How many able bodied Americans could be trained and put to work creating the steel that upgrades these structures so central to our lives? Who will mix and lay the concrete that replaces the foundations that have rotted away from years of neglect?

Oh yeah, and before I forget. Right now the nation’s unemployment rate stands at 8.1%.

If it ever got back down to where it was when Bill Clinton was president (3.9%), we’d all breathe a sigh of relief. I want to go one better. I want every able bodied American who wants to work to have a job. Then those don’t will have to come up with a really good reason why they can’t work like the rest of us.

And while I’m at it, I want universal health care, quality education for all Americans, and the end of the mess that has become our immigration system.

The President dropped his “to do” list on Congress the other day.

You’ve just read mine, and what progressives need to do to reach these lofty goals.

What’s your “to do” list? Can progressives get it done?

Land and Nugent- American Idiots

Mark Riley — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 00:47:24 +0000

Perhaps Perhaps we should have expected that as the presidential race got clear and focused, we’d be hearing more nonsense coming from those who want to see Barack Obama lose.

Trouble is, these surrogates (as opposed to supporters) can’t even get their crazed rants straight.

Two of the latest are the aged rocker Ted (my next hit song is coming) Nugent, and the alleged religious broadcaster Dr. Richard Land. In a way, their demented ravings have a lot in common.
Nugent goes off at the National Rifle Association convention, calling the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State criminals.He then opined about America’s defiance of kings and emperors. “We are partriots, we are bravehearts”, says Nugent. Never mind that the Braveheart saga was a movie that purported to deal with historical events in SCOTLAND! Why let facts get in the way of insanity? Or is Nugent crazy like a fox? Since the basis of these rants is pure speculation, suppose Ted Nugent, surrogate of Mitt Romney, said what he did in order to foster a revival of his long dead rock career? Just asking.

Just as bad is Dr. Richard Land, a religious broadcaster and major domo in the Southern Baptist Convention. He decides to speculate that President Obama’s experession of concern about the killing of Trayvon Martin is somehow linked to a plot to turn out the black vote in November. His evidence? OOOPS, he doesn’t have any. But that doesn’t stop him any more than it stopped Ted Nugent. Yet Land went one step further. He plagarized large amounts of his on air rant from an editorial in the Washington Times. Unlike Nugent, Land did apologize, for the plagarism, and for what he said about the Martin case (which really wasn’t his original idea anyway).

You can bet this type of slander is just the tip of the iceberg of what we’ll see between now and November. Notice also, as my friend Jonathan Capehart pointed out in the Washington Post, that as of Wednesday morning, Mitt Romney has yet to be Velcroed to the remarks of either Nugent or Land, as Barack Obama was to the remarks of Democratic strategist Hillary Rosen about Ann Romney. American idiocy comes in many shapes and forms, races and creeds. It’s not limited to the left or right of the political spectrum. I simply choose to point out the nonsense of the latter. There’s a whole media hemisphere that does the opposite.

Let them justify these remarks. I can’t. Can you?

Listen to me Monday through Friday 6 AM to 9 AM on WWRL AM 1600. Follow me on Twitter @MarkRileyMedia.

Mark Riley — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 10:20:36 +0000

First, let’s face facts. A lot of people, including most of the media, wrote off the Occupy Movement as elected officials and law enforcement shut down encampments and started treating them like terrorists. Even as the movement came out of hibernation and into the unusually warm end of winter sun, the skepticism remained. Yet in the wake of the six month celebration on St. Patrick’s Day and actions planned for the future, Occupy is alive and well.

The media has in too many instances misrepresented what Occupy, and in particular Occupy Wall St. has accomplished. This became obvious to me back in October, when OWS was still in Liberty Square/Zucotti Park. It was then that I heard two local television reporters discussing what new “angle” they could find to insert in their next report. There’s nothing overtly sinister about this, reporters do it all the time. The problem comes when they can’t wrap their brains around the most obvious “angle” of all. Occupy Wall St. was about a simple message, and in the end it has resonated throughout this country and around the world.

The widening income inequality that has flowed from the greatest economic collapse since the Great Depression needs to be addressed. And now, Occupy Wall St. is addressing other issues. Wednesday night it’s the Million Hoodie March, in support of Trayvon Martin, the 17 year old shot dead with a bag of Skittles in his pocket in Sanford, Fla.. Police bruality against OWS will also be the subject of a march and rally. And then, on May 1st, a rally to end all rallies. While this awakening takes place, despite the irrelevent reports of money problems and the like, one question remains, for Occupy Wall St. and its sister movements around the nation and world. Will new encampments be found, and occupied?

There are certain things and certain people in life you learn not to bet against, no matter what the odds.

I have a friend who has been giving the most wonderful parties New York City has ever seen, and he’s been doing it for more than 40 years. Lots of people thought he was done 20 years ago. Like my friend, Occupy Wall St. has been pilloried, mocked, and left for dead.

Don’t take that bet.

Tune in to The Mark Riley Morning Show Monday through Friday from 6 AM to 9 AM on www.wwrl1600.com.