Hey you dirty lib'rals!

[Bob The Mercenary]

My family's current book collection:
Hannity
Beck
O'Reilly
Levin
O'Reilly
Savage
O'Reilly
Bill Donahue
Hannity
Hannity

Publications delivered to my house:
National Review
Weekly Standard
US News and World Report
Wall Street Journal
National Rifleman -_-

Mornings and late nights my mom has Imus and Levin playing on the radio, and in between they watch Fox News and CNBC.

I have six feet of conservatism in the basement and its leaking through the walls, polluting the rivers and lakes near my house. My walls are red white and blue and the air smells of nationalism. Help!

I'm looking for suggestions of some good books written by authors of the other side, and maybe some TV shows that aren't just ad hominem, and maybe throw in some reputable web sites while you're at it. I've already been doing my part, but you guys would know better than me. Topics can be on anything really, I just want to know.

[Tev]

Really you should consider becoming a hippie as your choice method of child rebellion. More tie-dye, peace signs, and green practices.

[Geminex]

Get Das Kapital, see what they say.

[Green Spanner]

Get Das Kapital, see what they say.

And then get "Quotations from Chariman Mao Zedong" and brandish it at all times whilst dressed in one of those green 'Mao-suits'.

It'll be great. Trust me.

[Bob The Mercenary]

Get Das Kapital, see what they say.

I'd get shot.

National Rifleman

[Sky Warrior Bob]

For the Radio:
Well, I quite enjoy the Stephanie Miller show (http://www.stephaniemiller.com/) from time to time. And who can say no to listening to Jim Ward (http://www.stephaniemiller.com/about/jim-ward/), doing his various voice impressions. (Admittedly, I've never heard him break into his Captain Qwark voice on the show.)

She's also the daughter of William E. Miller (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Miller), Moderate Republican Barry Goldwater's (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Goldwater) VP running mate, when he made a try for the Presidency.

Its fun to listen to, and tends to stray a bit more into light-hearted humor than serious politics. Then again, it might have a bit too much mocking for you to enjoy.

For Television:
Countdown w/ Keith Olberman & The Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC might be something worth looking into. They do a pretty good job of backing up their views, but Keith can be a tad much on occasion (sometimes his commentary can be a bit too heavy handed). These days, I just watch the first few minutes, to see if I'm interested in any of the stories he will be covering. Rachel seems okay, but she's on at 9:00, so I haven't really checked her out.

Books:
I'd recommend you look into recent books by John Dean, who was a lawyer for Nixon, but really got along well with Barry Goldwater. He's written a few recent books, like Worst than Watergate (http://www.amazon.com/Worse-Than-Watergate-Secret-Presidency/dp/031600023X), Conservatives without Conscience (http://www.amazon.com/Conservatives-Without-Conscience-John-Dean/dp/0143038869/ref=pd_sim_b_1)& Broken Government (http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Government-Republican-Destroyed-Legislative/dp/B002GJU3P0/ref=pd_sim_b_2).

I've read a tad of Conservatives without..., and thought it was written well enough. However, I didn't get far into it, because political books just tend to be too much for me to digest. Give me an article out of Newsweek, or something on Salon.com, then maybe.

SWB

[Bob The Mercenary]

For Television:
Countdown w/ Keith Olberman & The Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC might be something worth looking into. They do a pretty good job of backing up their views, but Keith can be a tad much on occasion (sometimes his commentary can be a bit too heavy handed). These days, I just watch the first few minutes, to see if I'm interested in any of the stories he will be covering. Rachel seems okay, but she's on at 9:00, so I haven't really checked her out.

I've checked them out before and agree with you about Olberman. He's bearable depending on the stories he's covering. The last time I watched Maddow I remember getting really pissed off, but I think that's only because I disagreed with her and I was still in my "only I am right about everything" stage.

I'll be looking up the books on my brand new Kindle. <3

[Tev]

Bob, do you have access to a National Public Radio affiliate? If you do, tune into it during any and all news and society pieces. Detox on this for a month then see how you are feeling.

[Bob The Mercenary]

Bob, do you have access to a National Public Radio affiliate? If you do, tune into it during any and all news and society pieces. Detox on this for a month then see how you are feeling.

Found one! Didn't know the college near me had a repeater running off it.

I can't promise I won't relapse every so often. The conservative hosts I listen to are still entertaining, though I seldom agree with them anymore. I'll consider that my one dose a week allowance. And maybe I'll turn on Beck every so often for his rad theme song.

Who knows, maybe I'll even be placing my first ever vote for a Dem this November.

[Wigmund]

Mwuahahaha...our corruption of Bob is nearing completion...excellent.

There's nothing wrong with listening to the conservative talking heads. It's whether or not you believe what they spout is what's important.

[Green Spanner]

It's whether or not you believe what they spout is what's important.

And whether the thought that some people do depresses you.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

What the fuck bro. Das Capital is the best starter. There's a lot of "liberal" "left wig" shit out there but it's total bullshit0- seriously read Capital, it's te best introduction to left wing toght, everytihn else is from, shitty - oh I pretend to be a leftie but sertetly i make money off the murder of Adrican children fuckfaces.

[Premmy]

MAN your drunk posts are boring, make out with someone or something!

[DFM]

He's not drunk, the mental illness of liberalism has finally taken its toll.

[Archbio]

Beck can write?

[DFM]

FOX just printed off his teleprompter scripts and stapled them together.

[Mirai Gen]

His Inconvenient Book thing is at my store. I want to put it in the Comedy section.

Actually I want to make a special category of "Horseshit" and put his book there.

Also, on the subject of Beck. (http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/03/jesus_was_a_nazi_and_sos_your.html)

[Tev]

Found one! Didn't know the college near me had a repeater running off it.

I can't promise I won't relapse every so often. The conservative hosts I listen to are still entertaining, though I seldom agree with them anymore. I'll consider that my one dose a week allowance. And maybe I'll turn on Beck every so often for his rad theme song.

Who knows, maybe I'll even be placing my first ever vote for a Dem this November.Yeah often it is passed along the various campus radio centers.

Programs of note in order of importance:
1.) This American Life (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/) - Friday evenings. The most awesome Ira Glass and crew presiding. Replays on Saturday afternoons.

2.) Fresh Air (http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=13) - Weekly afternoon run and evening encore. Contains interesting interviews give by Terry Gross. She does a pretty good job.

3.) Morning Edition (http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=3) - Weekday mornings. Very good and fair rundown of news that is of actual importance.

4.) Car Talk (http://www.cartalk.com/) - Click and Clack, the Tappert brothers. Honestly, you could absolutely hate cars and mechanical talk and you would love listening to this.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

His Inconvenient Book thing is at my store. I want to put it in the Comedy section.

Actually I want to make a special category of "Horseshit" and put his book there.

Also, on the subject of Beck. (http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/03/jesus_was_a_nazi_and_sos_your.html)

He's just continuing the long tradition of playing the Nazi card.

[Bob The Mercenary]

He's just continuing the long tradition of playing the Nazi card.

THAT PISSES ME OFF SO MUCH!

Everything's an attack on our "liberty" or "freedom", and Obama is simultaneously a Maoist, Fascist, Socialist, and Communist.

[Green Spanner]

liberty, freedom, Maoist, Fascist, Socialist, and Communist.

Man, I remember when all those words used to actually mean something.

Good times.

[Bob The Mercenary]

http://www.leeauge.com/VaderRise.jpg

[DFM]

Darth Vader is the collective embodiment of all conservatives.

[Mike McC]

To go off Mirai's post, Roger Ebert is surprisingly a very good viewpoint when he tackles politics. If you have a twitter account, go and follow @ebertchicago (http://twitter.com/ebertchicago). Like this tweet from about half an hour ago:

"Some Dem congressmen struggling with how to vote. No GOP struggle; the party line decided for them."

There is the added bonus of him posting a ton of other interesting stuff as well.

[Bob The Mercenary]

Started reading some of the books. I think it's pretty much 90% certain I'm voting (D) in November. Depending on what happens between now and then. Not so much to agree with their policies as it is to spite all those who've lied to me over the last two decades.

Though, I'm not a complete lefty, and don't think I ever will be. I'm an evangelical capitalist progressive. Go figure.

[Mike McC]

Started reading some of the books. I think it's pretty much 90% certain I'm voting (D) in November. Depending on what happens between now and then. Not so much to agree with their policies as it is to spite all those who've lied to me over the last two decades.

Though, I'm not a complete lefty, and don't think I ever will be. I'm an evangelical capitalist progressive. Go figure.Most of the left is in the center anyway.

[Green Spanner]

Most of the left is in the center anyway.

lol US politics.

[Mirai Gen]

Lately with how much that collective group of howler monkeys known as the GOP has been operating more and more people are either registering independent or democrat.

And yeah Roger Ebert's twitter is awesome. Been following him for a while now, he really made himself a treat to follow after the whole Rush Limbaugh the Haiti earthquake thing - he usually jumps on political opportunities like Rush or Beck opening their ugly lying noise-holes to mock their fans (http://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/10752340880), mock (http://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/10736243257) them (http://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/10736243257) and what they say, (http://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/10736378415) and then there's times when he's just funnier than hell. (http://twitter.com/ebertchicago/status/10782408284)

[Pip Boy]

You could always just start watching The Daily Show.

[Mike McC]

The Daily Show is actually fairly bipartisan, wherein they don't really take sides, and highlight the foibles and fallacies of all sides, political and news-related, equally.

[Mirai Gen]

The Young Turks is also pretty good if you don't mind going to on-the-spot uStream stuff. They do have a lot of YouTubes floating around, and attack pretty much any side they can (though it is tough to find people making even bigger asses of themselves than GOP, as I said).

Also, The Liam Show has its moments too. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMlPE1lV_5Y)

[Bob The Mercenary]

Since this is kind of on topic, is there some way I can adopt this kid? (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/18/90669/state-of-the-health-care-debate.html)

[Premmy]

Since this is kind of on topic, is there some way I can adopt this kid? (http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/03/18/90669/state-of-the-health-care-debate.html)
No, because you're a bum and a maniac, thus ineligible to adopt.

[Nique]

If you're trying to wean them off of insane pundits, don't throw them to Olberman or Marr or anything like that. Not that they don't have some merit but Marr is primarily a (unfunny) comedian, and Olberman likes to call people names. If you do it's going to be an endless 'left' vs. 'right' argument, when in reality what you probably want to do is make them realize that listening to unreasonable people is a dumb thing to do.

There is certainly room for discussion and debate in the realm of politics, no reason to try and 'convert' anyone persay. But there should zero tolerance in any forum for inaccurate, disengenously preconstructed narratives.

This is presented esspecially by Fox News - both their news casters and pundits. What makes them bad is not that they are 'conservative' or 'republican' or 'libertarian' or whatever, it's that they are unreasonable, stubborn, combative, ignorant, and perhaps worst of all, they market their programs as unbiased and bi-paritsan. Bill O'riley is far from the worst of the bunch but he simply should not have any part of his program labled the 'No-Spin Zone'.

PS: Entire episodes of the The Daily Show might not be in order, but his interviews are good. He let's people speak (unless there's a an oppurtunity for a good joke, even then he generally avoids talking over them) and even apologizes if they whine about not being able to get a word in, even when they have. He doesn't bend over for them but he admits when he's talking about something he is unfamilar with and is a very gracious host.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

PS: Entire episodes of the The Daily Show might not be in order, but his interviews are good. He let's people speak (unless there's a an oppurtunity for a good joke, even then he generally avoids talking over them) and even apologizes if they whine about not being able to get a word in, even when they have. He doesn't bend over for them but he admits when he's talking about something he is unfamilar with and is a very gracious host.

There is a problem with this style-however- and it's when he has a guest who is speaking a load of shit and he feeds them. I particularly remember the Greenspan interview where Stewart is hanging off his words and was like "You just blew my mind" when it was complete bullshit and a better, if ruder, interviewer would have challenged him.

[Nique]

I'd have to watch that again to catch what happened exactly. Is it possible he was joking? It is primarily a comedy show, it's just that Stewart actually awknowledges the other side with fairness in a discussion whereas O'Riley yells and Glenn Beck (EDIT: pretends to cry) cries/ flails his arms.

[Professor Smarmiarty]

I get that but when the opposing side is making out and outridiculous claims you have to challenge them, they shouldn't be treated as valid. There is a difference between questioning someone's statements when they say something a bit sketchy and yelling and screaming in an O'reily mold.
He seemed serious to me in the interview- it was a long time ago though, just one that I always remember because I lost heaps of respect for Stewart from then on.

[Nique]

I get that but when the opposing side is making out and outridiculous claims you have to challenge them, they shouldn't be treated as valid.

Again I can't comment on the specific situation but I think there is an attitude amoung pundits that anyone who disagrees with them or challenges their idealology in any way IS making an out-an-out ridiculous claim, when they may not be. Fox news pundits do this the worst but I'm seeing more liberal based pundits follow suite which is the wrong way to go. If Stewart, as the host of a show that is very much not intended as a seriousbuisness pundit talk show, erred on the side of being too polite, well, I'm not sure that's too much of a problem.

I don't think you should have to challenge every ridiculous claim you encounter, becuase always having to be right is ridiculous in itself.

[Mike McC]

Seriously, on twitter, Roger Ebert is <3

http://i.imgur.com/AzFyj.png