Thank God for archives. The post below was written on December 11, 2007 in response to a rant that Air America host Randi Rhodes (her ghost as far as I’m concerned) went on regarding Oprah Winfrey and her "blackness". Now, it appears, Randi is rimming Obama, obviously in an attempt to make good on the rant that occurred back in December because Black folks were PISSED and we should have been. I’m not, nor will I ever be an Obama supporter, but there are some things that are still off limits my white friends! Don’t get it twisted. Now, Hillary is in her crosshairs and Air America put her in theirs. –SUGAR

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From December, 2007

Today, "liberal" talk show host Randi Rhodes set white America back at least 30 years. She decided to stick her ignorant foot in her mouth by saying that Oprah was "acting black" during her recent speeches while stumping with Barack Obama.

This is what I heard as soon as I got into my car this afternoon on my way to the gym. And, before I go any further, let me say that for at least the past two months, it has been my routine to get into my car after work and turn on the Randi Rhodes Show so that I could hear what I considered enlightening, intelligent conversation about all things doing with the war and politics. I’ve told almost everyone I know, including other bloggers, about how much I’ve loved listening to Randi keep it real. Well, today, "keeping it real" went wrong.

Randi, who must be blind in one eye and can’t see out the other, said that Oprah was "acting black". She said that Oprah "turned her blackness up a notch or two", Oprah "went all Maya Angelou on us", Oprah was really acting like Harpo, saying, "That wasn’t Oprah up there! That was Harpo! That was Sophia!! You tole Harpo to beat me!" and "we haven’t seen Oprah that Black since The Color Purple" [Of course, that must be Oprah's one and only film since Randi said it was right? Stupid bitch. I just bought Beloved on Saturday]. As I sat in my car in the parking lot at my gym, my mouth hung open for what must have been five minutes straight every 20 minutes. Caller after caller, black and white, called in to tell Randi she was out of line and to try to give her some insight into Oprah’s approach during her two most recent speeches, but she wasn’t hearing it. She yelled at people, she berated them and she acted like an absolute savage [what's new?]. This, only minutes after her previous story was about how she rarely gets to go on television because execs say "we are afraid of you", basically because she acts so damn ignorant and wild. Today, she proved them right.

She went on to say that the Oprah we see on the Oprah Winfrey Show is the way Oprah always acts and she couldn’t believe that Oprah would be different at home or amongst her friends, namely black ones. A lady called in to tell Randi that Oprah is in essence on her job while doing the O.W. show and that she might have been more relaxed around the black audience. Randi went off, telling the woman that she just couldn’t accept that black people have to live "dual lives and if so, that’s pretty pathetic and I wouldn’t want to live that way." Before I insert a "fuck you", let me let Randi know–most of us do live dual lives and I’m about to show you a bit of it.

Bitch, what in the hell do you think we’ve been ranting and raving about all of these years!? It is an open and often spoken of reality among us, professionals and otherwise, about how we have to "Wear the Mask". Has she never read that FAMOUS (at least among black folks) poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar? Has she never watched the Dave Chappelle Show? ANY black comedians–I can think of at least five comedy bits about the fact that many of us have to switch it up when we are at work. The Sugar in the boardroom is not the same Sugar when I’m in the comfort of my own home.

As I listened to Randi rant and rave about how Oprah must be a fake if she’s different from how she is on the show and how blacks who have to switch it up will never get promotions because they act one way at work and then switch it up when they are home, I realized that there was no need in getting my blood pressure worked up any more. There is only one thing I need to do, because her mind will never be changed–and, that is to stop listening to her show.

I call on all of you who listen to it, or even thought about it, to stop doing so as well. The comments today were unacceptable and downright unbelievable. I felt betrayed, hurt, bamboozled and everything in between. Black people struggle enough as it is in this country without some fool getting up on the radio claiming to know how Oprah is when she isn’t on the show, when Oprah probably doesn’t even know who the fuck she is. I felt like maybe she was trying to use black folks, who hasn’t, to garner some publicity for herself for saying something over the top and I thought about not writing this blog post, but I needed to get it off my chest.

It was almost as if Randi didn’t even want to acknowledge that Oprah is black. She repeatedly said things like, "Oprah was sounding like a black preacher", "Hillary does it" (she does) "Al Gore does it (he does) and "Now Oprah did it"…what this stupid bitch didn’t seem to remember is that Oprah IS black. She isn’t acting black!!! I’m trying to temper my swearing as much as I can, because I tend to be hot-headed, but those comments and the revelation that Randi Rhodes is really an ignorant racist has pushed me over the edge.

We all really need to learn more about one another, but as of this moment, Randi Rhodes is dead to me [thus the picture in the post]. I won’t listen to her show again, I don’t care who she has on. And, if I see the bitch on television, I’ll be hitting channel up or channel down. The thing is, she had so quickly started to have an influence on me, there’s this commercial that runs during her show that suggests buying gold from some company called ITM that I was really going to look into. Not now. She’s done in my world. Silly bitch. –SUGAR 

We’re following this with a highly relevant post by No Quarter reader, Sugar, who — we were pleased to find out — has her own blog and does some great writing there.

I wonder if AAR will bring Rhodes back.

And isn’t this a dandy way to begin Monday morning?

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Special thanks to C.S. for locating this video.

* Ed Schultz, the radio show host until recently a Republican but is now a Democratic party “expert” on TV pundit shows
* Allison Kilkenny, a venal writer for Huffington Post

ACTION NOTICE: Sign this petition to demand a stop to sexism on our nation’s radio stations. (There are more details at the end of this post.)

I wish these people were “exceptions to the rule” among Obama supporters. But, reports of delegates at caucuses and conventions prove their behavior is a too-often norm for Obama’s followers. Someone I know was a delegate at the King County convention today in Seattle, Wash. where the Obama delegates booed so loudly when they were asked to say the Pledge of Allegiance that the convention chair gave up and skipped the pledge. (Maybe they took their cue from “The One”?)

Apparently, our symbolic rituals of patriotism are passe´ — even at official American political party events that decide who will be the candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

BELOW, read what the buffoon Ed Schultz said and what poison-pen writer Allison Kilkenny wrote. WARNING: Ms. Kilkenny’s language is vile and adult denigrating to both men and women …

DISCLAIMER from SusanUnPC: I am not a supporter of John McCain. I plan on voting for Hillary Clinton in November. But we can surely attack McCain on the substance of his politics and his record without resorting to these kinds of attacks that have no place in a supposedly civilized society — the quality of which is under threat from the likes of these people.

ALLISON KILKENNY perpetuates the Randi Rhodes sexist, disgusting attacks in her Huffington Post story, “John McCain Is A Big F*cking Whore.” Here are some repulsive examples from her article:

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Ladies and Gentlemen, John McCain is a big fucking whore.

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John McCain is, in short, a whore.

Matt Welch carefully explains in McCain: The Myth Of A Maverick how the McCain of yesterday transformed into a lobbyist-humping, lying whore.

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John-Whorebag-McCain spent more than three decades living in the Beltway, a far cry from his claims of existing outside Washington.

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If and when the press gets over their love affair with McCain, they’ll realize they’ve been in bed with one of the biggest Beltway sluts. On the McCain bus, there’s no time for message consistency, especially during a campaign season packed with the act of getting down on both knees and suck, suck, sucking until the cash flows. …

If that isn’t sexist filth — even if the verbal garbage is tossed at a man by a female writer — I don’t know what is. Arianna Huffington should to be taken to task for permitting this kind of sexist hate speech on her blog.

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ED SCHULTZ via the New York Times blog:

On the air, Ed Schultz, a liberal talk show host based in Fargo, N.D., is well-known for his blunt criticisms of the Bush Administration and the Republican Party. But Mr. Schultz, a fervent supporter of Senator Barack Obama, may have gone too far late Friday when he called Senator John McCain “a warmonger.”

Mr. Schultz, whose program is syndicated nationally, made the remarks while revving up a group of Obama supporters at a $100-a-head fund raiser at the North Dakota Democratic Party’s convention in Grand Forks.

As is typical, Barack Obama did not apologize for Schultz’s remarks but let a campaign staffer do the job:

Mr. Obama did not refer to the incident during a speech Saturday morning to 8,000 people who had gathered at the University of Montana basketball arena. But a spokesman, Jen Psaki, issued a statement that distanced him from Mr. Schultz.

“John McCain is not a warmonger and should not be described as such,” she said. “He’s a supporter of a war that Senator Obama believes should have never been authorized and never been waged.”

I have plenty of problems with McCain’s persistent support for the Iraq War and the surge, but I wouldn’t call him a warmonger — especially if I were speaking on behalf of my favored presidential candidate at a $100-a-plate dinner! And most especially if my remarks were the top story, instead of my candidate’s own campaign stops.

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HERE is more on the petition:

You have received an invitation from Stop Sexism to support the following petition.

Let’s show them how much we mean it when we say Stop Sexism in the Media

Stop Sexism on the Radio

The treatment of women as second-class citizens must stop. The assault on the integrity of women has continued with a wide range of attacks including name calling, sexual innuendo, and degrading comments about achievements and place in society. With the recent events of name calling including Randi Rhodes and Don Imus, and the ongoing assaults of women in our society and the media, we the undersigned call for you to do your part to end sexism in the media. We call upon you to end all support of media personalities and end sponsorships with companies who engage in or support sexist attacks of any kind.

IF YOU WANT a reminder of the sexism spewed regularly on radio and on stage by these nationally syndicated radio show hosts, catch this new YouTube of Randi Rhodes (quickly, before she or the San Francisco radio station contacts YouTube and demands it be taken down):

It is unconscionable that those Obama supporters whooped and clapped when Randi Rhodes called Geraldine Ferraro — a woman who has fought for equal rights for decades and was named to the National Women’s Hall of Fame — a “David Duke in drag.”
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Yes! Our story yesterday — “Air America’s Randi Rhodes Suspended: We Did It! [Updated x2]” — was the top featured story this morning at the New York Times’s blog tracker, Blogrunner.

[Click on the image to see the full screenshot.]

Did you see that Ms. Rhodes is in a snit about her “indefinite” suspension? From the Huffington Post’s Jeff Norman:

“They [Air America Radio] are in breach of my contract and have damaged my hard won excellent reputation in the broadcast industry…” Rhodes added she received thank you letters from representatives of Air America, the San Francisco affiliate and sponsors praising her for the performance that now has her in hot water.

I smell a lawsuit. Don’t you? She seems like the litigious type.

Below the fold, we have video of Fox News reporting today on the pre-event publicity announcement that appeared on Barack Obama’s official campaign Web site.

Here’s the link to the abhorrent video, which was posted first here at No Quarter. (If it’s still available; now the Obama fundraisers are claiming “copyright” privileges. We are fighting back.)

We reported this earlier today here — with a screenshot of the Obama campaign site’s publicity for the event — in our story, “Barack & Randi, Cozy As Can Be [Three Updates — Third from Larry Johnson].”

Also below the fold, you’ll also see Geraldine Ferraro’s response to Rhodes’s statements — including Rhodes calling Ferraro a “David Duke in drag” —

Fox News’s coverage today of the pre-event publicity on Barack Obama’s official campaign site:

John Gibson is demanding that Randi Rhodes apologize. And that will happen … when?

Geraldine Ferraro and more from Hannity & Colmes last night:

[MORE TO COME. STAY TUNED.]

Great thanks to C.S. for his masterful, fast video magic!