VirusHead

World War II gave us Tokyo Rose, the Japanese radio broadcaster whose job it was to demoralize American troops. Seoul City Sue did the same thing for the North Korean communists during the Korean War. Hanoi Hanna was the Vietnamese communist version. Today we have Baghdad Betty. However, Baghdad Betty can be distinguished from the aforementioned for one very salient reason. Baghdad Betty does not broadcast from Iraq — she broadcasts from
New York.

Baghdad Betty aka Randi Rhodes is one of Air America’s premier talk show hosts. Actually, Randi Rhodes is a nome de microphone. According to a recent Ann Coulter column, her real name is a secret. I first heard Rhodes about a year ago during a trip to Fort Lauderdale. After about twenty minutes of her repeating Bush and Nazi I realized she was incapable of an original thought so I changed the station.

I have not listened to Air America since I wrote about the network when it first began broadcasting. I felt it might be interesting to get their current perspective. So I tuned in recently to listen. I began with the 10 AM show of Lizz Winsted and Rachel Maddow. I skipped the noontime Al Franken show and returned for Baghdad Betty/Randi Rhodes. What I heard was a rebroadcast of her show of several weeks earlier. Listening to Baghdad Betty’s dialogue with a caller named Dave and her subsequent monologue I learned:

“We (the United States) invaded an unarmed country (Iraq).”
“We (US) bombed the hell out of “unarmed country ( Iraq).”
“They (Iraq) had no air force”
“We (US military) are torturing the people we went to liberate (Iraqis).”
“They (the Iraqi people) waited a year for us to take care of them. We didn’t. Then they found out about us torturing people that is what created the insurgency.”
“Every single solitary military guy,” said there were not sufficient troops in Iraq.

Just imagine: all this disinformation was from just one show. One can only imagine what Baghdad Betty says on a regular basis. Her rant was pure propaganda. One only wonders if she is a dupe of the antiwar crowd or intentionally deceiving people.

Whichever it is none of what she said was true. For example:

If Iraq were an “unarmed country” as she said, then maybe she could explain how Lance Corporal Andrew Julian Aviles was killed when an Iraqi artillery round struck his amphibious assault vehicle on April 7, 2003.

If we did “bomb the hell out of an unarmed country” then she should explain the December 1998 CNN report stating, “Iraqi forces would shoot at warplanes patrolling the no-fly zones.”

If Iraq did not have an air force as Baghdad Betty says, then why did the December 2002 Daily Telegraph say, “An Iraqi warplane shot down an unmanned US surveillance drone yesterday, threatening to escalate the tension in the region as America builds up its forces for a possible war early next year. Why did a 2001 UPI story claim, “Since December 1998… [there are] more than 160 incidents of Iraqi aircraft violating the zones.”

Baghdad Betty claimed the Iraqi people waited for a year for us to do something to help them then, when we did not help them, and seeing the photographs from Abu Ghraib, the insurgency began. If this were true why is it that the November 13, 2004 New York Times reported, “nearly 18 months after the Iraq insurgency began in May 2003.” (italics mine) Why is it that the nonprofit think tank Jamestown Foundation wrote on June 17, 2004, “insurgency began in May 2003 with the outbreak of violence by the Sunni Arab population.”

According to Baghdad Betty, we are torturing the people we were liberating.

Does she think SSGT Joseph Darby was torturing prisoners? He was the person who told officials about the illegal conduct by guards at Abu Ghraib. What about all the other troops who investigated and prosecuted these abuses? Are they all guilty of torturing innocent Iraqis or Iraqi prisoners.

She also said that “every single solitary military person, “said more troops were needed. Yet, General Tommy Franks was quoted as saying July 7, 2003, “more troops not needed for Iraq.”

Baghdad Betty said we do not have any trouble murdering people in this country, while drawing the parallel to capital punishment here and the snuff films broadcast by the terrorists.

There is a report that she once advocated the assassination of President Bush during her broadcast.

Her biography says she was in the Air Force. If this is to be believed her insulting of the military is outrageous. Her biography also says she is a “smoky-voiced Brooklyn native” (This explains why I thought she was merely doing a bad imitation of Barbra Streisand).

She is completely without credibility. Randi “Baghdad Betty” Rhodes is to talk radio what “Tikrit” Teddy Rall, who said Pat Tillman was an idiot, is to newspaper cartoons. They are fools.

Note from VirusHead: Hmmm…. unless you are Michael P. Tremoglie, you just plagiarized his entire article for a blog post response? Try thinking for yourself.

Randi Rhodes says she has 5-10 million listeners. HUH?? Washington D.C.’s station that broadcasts Air America ratings are 0.2 not 2.0 but 0.2!!! She seriously beleives she can influence the House to draw up articles of impeachment for Bush. She spewed on and on last year that if Bush is relected-He will reinstate the draft, overturn Roe vs Wade, He will produce Osoma Bin Laden (because Osama was sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom? I quess), right before the election, go to war with
Iran……and when Bush won fair & square, she went on and on like a sour apple spewing hellion, the elections were rigged. Bottom line- Randi Rhodes is mentally ill.

Whewee! Guess you don’t like Randi Rhodes much. Well, free speech and all that, but I respectfully disagree. She is one of the few American voices willing to patriotically question the policies that hurt our country.

We were rated 49th – or perhaps 47th, I forget – on the list of countries with a free press – normally we are always at least in the top ten. Dissedent voices are not allowed to even attend “town meetings” even when they are paying the taxes for them. The national debt is at a record high, which contributes to the aim of the destruction of all social programs such as social security, medicare, medicaid, the erasure of unions, and so on. Our precious national resources have been opened up to sheer greed without regard for future consequences. Our military are sacrificing their lives for the profit margins of our corporations. Sorry – but I believe that our country is founded on the values of liberty, justice and freedom for all. To the extent that these have been corroded, I believe that I am (and Randi Rhodes is too) a true American Patriot. We are a country in which it is the solemn duty of every citizen to be informed and to speak truth to power. I think Bush, Cheney, Rove and company should be impeached and tried for crimes against the nation and against humanity. Or do those 100,000 Iraqi citizens in Fallujah not count as human to you?

I saw her while she was in Crawford and she looks nothing like the picture on the AAR site. And she’s a midget. She thinks that telling her audience, she has 12,000,00 listeners, will make it so. Her shows last week hit an all time low. Yeah sure, we believe you Randi, when you barf out -President Bush didn’t respond sooner “because he wanted those people to die” By the way, she didn’t grow up in Brooklyn, she grew up in Queens. Her lies are endless. She’s a freak. When Hot air america deflates, hopefully she will go find a traveling carnival show, and join up.

VirusHead Response to “Nascarman”: Welcome back. According to Wikipedia, she was born in Brooklyn and grew up in Brooklyn and Queens. She took in her niece when her sister died of cancer. As for the picture, how exactly is that a “lie”? Pictures catch all different sides of a person. I don’t know how many listeners she has, but Air America does have a pretty good audience – probably not so much in the Nascar-fan base since she is “highly critical of rightists, fascists, Neoconservatives, and Christian, Islamic and Jewish religious fundamentalists” and many Nascar fans I know lean heavily to the right. I guess that would include you, judging by the way you found this entry and at what time.

“Rhodes takes on the roles of editorialist, satirist, comedian and news analyst. She is a leading activist for accountability and standards in the media, and has spoken at congressional hearings about creating a framework of national standards for what can be labelled ‘news’.” I suppose Congress considers her a freak, and that’s why they solicited her opinion?

Now, if you found that she was guilty of the same things for which she criticizes others, you might have scored some points here. You know, like attacking drug addicts while being addicted, or claiming to be for the small businesses and middle America while robbing them blind. I didn’t hear the quote you claim, so I can’t speak to that. However, I thought Chris Rock caught a grain of truth when he said on Leno last week that that he liked George Bush because he’s such a gangster. It went something like, “I only help people who voted for me. You’re lucky I didn’t bomb your …”. Or another comedian, who compared the Bush administration’s self-analysis on Katrina (they still refuse to have an independent investigation) to OJ looking for the “real killer.”

Although she sometimes goes over the line (and if she said what you claim, that would certainly be an instance of it), I usually agree with the arguments and evidence she offers and the solutions that she proposes to situations here in the USA. I’m sure you don’t hold…um, say, Limbaugh and Hannity to the same standard with which you here assess Rhodes.

Hey, VirusHead, Just heard Randi trying to talk sense to a KooladeHead about abortion. Why didn’t she mention, and remind him, that the Reps have been in control of Congress since 1992 and NOT ONE senator or congressman has introduced a bill to ban abortion. It’s just their talking point to manipulate and control the less educated.

If you know how to reach her, please give her this message. I live in the Czech Republic and listen to AirAmerica over the Internet and can’t afford to call her show. I would appreciate your help.
Sincerely,
A Patriot Living Abroad

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I passed it on via email. I agree with you – it is only a way to get people out to vote republican, just like inciting hatred of gays.

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Maybe RANDI will give us the voice we need, esp. after melissa Etheridge’s recent interview.

More and more of us are WAKING UP. No taxation without equality; simple math.

Now the feds will need to repeal DOMA and DADT, grant us FULL equal rights (including marriage), and begin to start viewing our families – OUR FAMILIES – as the tax-paying contributing members of society we are…..well…..we USED to be!

Because if our HOMES, our FAMILIES, our very BELOVED are not acknowledged and valued as other families are legally, whatever we do outside of that home will never be acknowledged and valued legally, such as adopting children, working without discrimination, or serving openly in the military.

FAMILY FIRST. What is more important than FAMILY?

We owe the IRS absolutely NOTHING until equal. This is NOT a test.

This is NOT a debate.
This is NOT a vote.
This is definitely NOT a popularity contest.
This IS justice.

GAY TAX PROTEST.