Erik's Links of Value

We here at Democracy Burlesque try to stay up on recent "news events" ... so we may mock them accordingly and as such its important that we tap into information provided from the Right, Left, Center and Crazy. Below are a few of my favorite links for genuine information as well as keeping tabs on the nut jobs and just some general places to get the funny juices going.

News:

NPR (well I'd be concerned if you weren't already familiar but you may not be aware that most of their shows are available in podcast to listen via your computer or portable media device)

BBC World Service

The Guardian Unlimited (while still a mainstream news outlet... its helpful to hear whats going on in the world from someone outside the US.)

The Daily Show and Colbert Report, despite being "fake news" get it right a LOT of the time and frankly Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are better interviewers than just about anyone else in the TV news industry

TruthOut.org is a reader supported news sight that tries to find teh stories that slip through the cracks but shouldn't... They may seem leftist but I think its mostly cause the guys in control are so far to the Right.

If I have to pick a major network news program to recommend it would be ABC News which seems to suck the least though I may watch this more out of habit than anything since Peter Jennings died.

The Onion is where I go when the real news is too depressing.

Political Connections:

Real political information and discussion:
VoteSmart is really the BEST place for genuinely even-handed political analysis and information. Its a grassroots effort to combat the political machinery that obfuscates the real issues when voting and keeping track of what your representatives are up to. One of the most useful things they do is provide a finder where you put in your zip code and they provide you with a list of all your political representatives and biographical information with contact info.


The Right:
Ken Hamblin AKA The Black Avenger is the only Radio Host who would be considered conservative yet I would say was worth listening to... unfortunately ... he's nop longer on the air.

Anne Coulter is Crazy!!!!! (true story... my fiancee's aunt who is head of her repuiblican women's chapter in Houston texas happened to notice Ms. Coulter's picture on our copy of Lies and The Lying Liars Who Tell Them and said "There is something wrong with that woman" ) BUT! she is great fodder for us progressives that want to write funny stuff about right wing fundamentalists.

Rush Limbaugh may be a total tool and guilty of some of the most egregious crimes in punditry... but he has an audience and we must know our enemy if we are ever to defeat people like him.

Bill O'Reilly is another great resource for comedy... if only because of his ongoing feud between Al Franken that started when they met at a forum which was broadcast on CSPAN's Book TV of all places (I tried to find a full transcript or video of that meeting but was unsuccessfull)

The Left:
Randi Rhodes is a good leftist equivalent to the Right wing pundits as mentioned above and can be fun to listen though she is just as partisan.

Air America is the largest progressive radio network and is host to a number of left wing pundits out to "Left" the damage done by the right wing punditry. Well worth checking out but again, they are often just as partisan as the people they are trying to combat.

The Nation is about as mainstream as a "liberal rag" gets.

And I just stumbled across Common Dreams.org which purports to be Progressive news site. I have not fully investedgated them but it seems to be worth a look-see.

The Radical:
Zeitgeist the Movie is a full length film viewable as streaming media which will make every conspiracy theorist nerve tingle and I highly recommend watching it if only because it does bring up some interesting things... Like the Fedral Reserve is NOT actually a part of the government and all legal tender is LOANED to the government for distribution. But its still kind of radical and must be taken with a grain of salt.

PETA and the NRA are cut from the same cloth when it comes to extremism and they would get along great if it wasn't for the whole hunting issue.

And of course no listing of Radical groups would be complete without the Christian Coalition. As someone born and raised a good church boy... they people scare and offend me to no end.

FUNNY!!!!
When I've had a Rough Day... I go HERE, HERE and Here!