While I’m grateful the law got stopped, I don’t agree with the “why” of it. Read the ruling here
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/azimmig0728.pdf
And listen to the podcast for 7-28 to find out why I disagree with the “why”
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This questionairre is the most dehumanizing thing…wait, just another in a long step of dehumanizing things. This is what our military is being asked by the Big Bad Gays. Wait to you get to the GLBT questions. Love the ones about showering. Replace Gay with Black and would this fly today?  The Morning Edit It’s terrible when you have to defend people whom you neither like or care for; people that you might not give one iota for or against until they come under scrutiny for something that just can’t stand. Enter Lindsey Lohan and Michael Steele, the strangest of bedfellows. First, there’s Lohan. Not since Brittney went crazy or Paris got arrested has the Los Angeles media been on such high alert. TMZ is on 24/7 lockdown to get the pertinent data out, from her nail polish with the “F U” written on it, to every sobbing minute of this life deconstructing in the court house. Her crime? Pissing off a judge. Truly, all things considered, she’s being punished far more than most for crimes where no one except herself was hurt. She missed court ordered alcohol classes for Cannes Film Festival; classes she would later make up. Judge Marsha Revell said “the court does not buy it…” when Lohan made her emotional pleas for freedom and sent her off to 90 days in jail and 90 days in rehab. Remember, he first offense was a DUI, drunk driving, where she crashed in to a curb. The second DUI ended in a small chase and cocaine allegedly was found. But everyone agrees the decision is because she is Lindsey Lohan. If the judge was lenient, then the myth of celebrities getting great treatment gets perpetuated. In this case, she actually is having a book thrown at her for being a celebrity. Then there’s Steele. I’m not a fan and I might as well go on record in print with the “Uncle Tom” comment I made about him when he got the job on air. Yes, I said it, like I’ve said so many things. But I’ll never change my mind about why or how he got the position. Democrats elected a Black man and Republicans wanted to show they are inclusive, thus, the ultimate affirmative action. But the party never reflected diversity, racial equality, equal rights for all so he was a sham, a fake. However, even a broken clock is right twice a day. And recently, when he said Afghanstan was Obama’s war, that the American people don’t want it and that it is unwinnable, the attacks from both sides were quick. In fact, the Democrats took a press release written about war dissenters under Bush and revised it for Steele, calling his comments unsupportive of our troops, unpatriotic, on and on; the letter read like a Bush administration attack on an anti-war protester. The problem is Steele was right about 2/3rds of his statement. Since Democrats have been in control of Congress, which controls war and war funding, since 2006, and since Barack Obama has been President since 2008 and over that time Afghanistan has only escalated to rival Iraq in costs and lives, it would appear both wars are in full swing . And Democrats need to own that. Right, wrong, make arguments here it doesn’t matter. Remember Vietnam was Nixon’s war, but Johnson started it. So it no longer matters that these two illegal occupations were George Bush’s dirty little payouts to his war mongering profiteer friends, but Congress and this President have kept them funded, kept them up, escalated them in some cases. No, Afghanistan and Iraq are now the part and parcel of the Democratic majority; time to stop blaming the evil dictator and own up. If any Democrat doesn’t like the fact that we must now own the war, end them, not around esoteric deadlines in the future. Stop the funding. In 2009 one of the only real Democrats in principal, Barbara Lee (D-Calif) introduced a bill to stop funding the war in Afghanistan, making money available only to bring troops home. H.R. 3699 died, of course, no support, no publicity, no will to make it happen. So the party of peace is the party of war, like it or not, and you can’t kill the messenger, in this case, Michael Steele. So two people coming under attacks; one for behavior neither outrageous nor egregious for someone that grew up famous and the other neither untrue nor far off the pale. Before all the members of MAD comment on this about the seriousness of drunk driving, NO ONE believes what Lohan did was all right. She’s rich, get a driver (or was, rumors are she’s broke now). But the entire nanny philosophy the court has taken, you can’t drink, you must go here and there, do this do that or else…really? This is what the City of Los Angeles and the People of the State of California want to spend what little money the city and state has on prosecuting? As the state begins to pay its workers minimum wage because it can’t come up with a budget and is broke, as education is cut, police cut, fire cut, services needed, as real criminals go untried, or worse, released early due to overcrowding, Lohan is the fish we need to fry? Of course not, but she’s the brunt of the outrage that should be targeted elsewhere. Think about this. A person stood on the deck of the Deep Water Horizon rig in the Gulf and told someone to shove salt water down the pipe instead of mud, because it’s cheaper. Another person knew the concrete Halliburton was using wasn’t the proper grade or strength. And CEO Tony Hayward knew and knows he runs a company guilty of felonies outside of Deep Water Horizon, and knows that this disaster did not have to happen. Tony Hayward, and the staff that ordered the salt water and others have caused a tragedy that has killed 11 people, and has killed an entire region and maybe it’s way of life and people. Not one of them has served as much time as Lohan has or will. Not one has been in court as much, or is as monitored as Lohan. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove and the other neocons are war criminals by their own admissions. Bush authorized torture, illegal occupations, hell, they were all part of a coup d’etat in 2000 where the neocons used the U.S. Supreme Court (duplicitous in it) to make a ruling on Equal Protection, something not at issue and not under the prevue of that court. Dick Cheney released the name of spy and let Scooter Libby take the wrap. None of the above have served as much time as Lohan has or will. Not one has been as monitored as Lohan. On and on I could go, listing Bush era criminals that will never, ever serve one day in jail, but Lohan must. Not one of them reduced to tears for their crimes, but Lohan was. Not one of their careers ruined or disrupted, but Lohan’s will be. In fact, the neocons have gone on to prosper, from starting PAC’s and collecting millions, to doing book tours, speaking engagements or taking high profile private sector jobs. As for Steele, it’s true he’s just a placeholder, a face put up to show the party is something it’s not. And he’s usually full of ridiculous rhetoric from a dying party, a party of racists (the rhetoric over immigration and Arizona is proof enough for me), of criminals, a party whose members would leave poor America without the lifeline of unemployment checks because the poor or unemployed are just lazy and should get out there and take whatever job there is (of course, there aren’t any, but don’t confuse them with facts). But as ridiculous as he is, he’s right about Afghanistan. We, the People need to own those wars. They are still being fought in our names, and if we don’t like it, then end them. It really is that easy. It was that easy to go in to both of those countries. We occupied them in days. We can leave in months. His statement, this one statement, was very near the truth. And it’s an ugly truth, a terrible truth, a truth we can’t escape any longer; these are no longer George W. Bush’s wars or failures, there everyone’s now, ours, mine, yours, Republican and Democrats have supported the wars if nothing else through approving the funding. Democrat’s fears of being called anti-war, un-American, unpatriotic have kept them silenced and impotent; so much so that the only one brave enough to say what needs to be said about the war is now the head of the party that started it. Now that’s irony. There’s plenty of reasons to get rid of Michael Steele, this isn’t one of them. And for god’s sake (any god named or unnamed) leave Lindsey alone. So she likes to drink, so does a whole lot of America. So she’s a young girl who had money and fame and enjoyed it just a bit too much. Leave her alone. If she wants to self destruct, let her. Take away her license, period. Don’t let her drive at all. If she does, arrest her. But all this drug rehab (what if she likes them?), alcohol rehab (again, what if she enjoys drinking, is this not America?), and SCRAM Bracelets (secure continuous alcohol monitor). And speaking of SCRAM bracelets, it’s rich a court weighs in on Lohan’s addictions while our addiction, Oil, is killing an entire region. Leave Lohan alone, or else we should all start wearing SCROM bracelets, secure continuous OIL monitors. Because of lust for oil is killing more, costing us more, and hurting us more than Lohan’s lust for Mojitos. America, worry about your own addictions, and leave Lindsey alone. And Democrats, worry about the two wars you are funding and conducting, and stop worrying about those that are pointing out that it is, in fact, you that are now funding and conducting them. To hear segments about these and other topics (both issues covered on the 7-6-10 shows) go to the podcast at www.radiokrl.com A quick read thru of the HuffPost article on video.
Morning Edit-We’re All Human from Karelchannel on Vimeo. If We Stand Back And Take A Breath, We’ll Choke Up We’re so many things, each of us. We’re male, female, gay, straight, we’re progressive or conservative, we’re black, white, Latino, we’re husband, wife, son, daughter, we’re American, we’re immigrant, we’re blue or red or purple, we’re so many adjectives these days, so many names. We’re iPhone or Blackberry, Mac or PC, Facebook or Twitter (no longer Myspace), cell phone or landline, snail, or email, we’re web traffic. We’re the poor or the rich, we’re the middle class, we’re the unemployed or the uninsured, on and on and on until every bit of every subsection of everything that may make us different and classifiable is exhausted; Especially in, or for, the 24 hour news cycle, for politics, for conversation. And that 24 hour news cycle, the news alerts beamed to your device of choice from the now archaic yet irreplaceable radio to the latest WiFi device in your pocket, keeps us so busy and so distracted that for many, the one thing we’re not any longer is feeling, emotional, rational, thinking humans. Somehow, humanity has been the victim of getting in closer touch, of staying connected 24/7 or knowing it all. It got beaten out of us it would appear. And how could it not? Yesterday, I closed my syndicated radio show by stating, “Well, the disaster in the Gulf caused by the felons BP is worse today than yesterday. We are no clearer on our mission or its success in Afghanistan but lost a general in great political theatre that does nothing to keep my friend, Eric, safe in-country right now (he’s in Afghanistan in the Army). We then took a General that MoveOn.org once called General Betray Us, one that Obama then skipped the vote to condemn MoveOn.org for the attack as Republicans wanted, have Orin Hatch of Utah wanting to drug test the unemployed to allow them to get benefits which only further victimizes the poor (there’s no provision for medical marijuana, either), lost two soldiers in Afghanistan and have no end in sight really for the worst ecological disaster of all time while a federal judge with lots of oil industry and Halliburton holdings says drill baby, drill. Oh and new home sales plummeted to their lowest ever, in history as unemployment in states like California soared as benefits run out because Congress is three weeks late approving another extension…but don’t worry, it’s only Wednesday….” Any one of the incidents or situations should ground us as a nation. Stop us from whatever we are doing, make us take a pause, solve the problem, even if it takes time and sacrifice. But they don’t, they blend, they merge, they become news stories and sound bytes and water cooler conversations (does anyone have those any more since, well, no one is working in offices that can afford to rent coolers any more…). They have to, even 9/11 has to, or else we’d be even more medicated than we are right now. If we step back, take a moment, and be, yes, human, if we, as humans connect with the events and each other as the most basic common denominator, humans, our country, our world would change instantly. It would have to, the pain of its existence right now would be too much for any feeling person to bare. It’s too much for me. I often cry on air covering the news these days. Sappy, huh? I know. But when I’m talking about the baby dolphin in the surf, dying, soaked in oil, it’s first breaths from coming forth from mom, reaching for the surface, for life, for air, and it sucks in crude…for what. Really, for what? Because corporate America, not human America and Americans, but the soulless corporate America refuses to give us the alternatives at affordable prices to get off of gasoline and petroleum period; government refuses to truly back emergency plans to get us off fossil fuel, because no one has asked us to sacrifice and we won’t without being asked, obviously. I won’t preach about how we each could do wonders already to get away from fossil fuels. Walking within one mile of your house, biking within two, no two car families, one car, one motorcycle or scooter, a home can go solar for under $2k in most cities and states now…on and on..it’s all there. No, this is not the place for that. This is the place where I wonder if the soulless corporate America has become America and Americans; I truly do. Because in a feeling world, cars would be parked. Period, end of story. Seeing what uncontrolled oil can do, all off shore wells, ALL OFF SHORE WELLS in the United States would be shut down, capped, left forever untouched. It’s just too dangerous should they break. There are no acceptable levels of crude in the food chain. None. Animals shouldn’t swim in it, eat it, or “dispersants.” Period. Seeing what happens to the people and the ecosystem would make any other society stop, change immediately I would hope. Truly, immediate moratoriums on all fossil fuel vehicles. Trucks parked from X to X, cars not used except for work or emergencies from X to X. Like when we lined up for gas. Your car ends in an even number plate, you use it on even numbered days. Find another way 15 days out of the month. Yup, inconvenient as hell, but it would force the industry to change immediately. We’d have electric cars, hybrids, fuel cells, all kinds of technologies. I got rid of my car for motorcycles and scooters. Not perfect, but the lowest gets 50mpg. In December my Piaggio MP3 300 hybrid will get over 100mgp. I know it’s still using the drug, but it’s something. It hurts too much, I’ve got to try. Afghanistan hurts too much. I’ve seen too many photos from my Army friends. The soldiers are not well cared for, period, end of story. It’s embarrassing how they are forced to live knowing we spend over a million dollars a year each on them. The people there are so..sad..so caught in the middle of so much and we can’t solve their problems for them, it’s so very, very sad. We often create more. America, Americans, whatever you are, we don’t need to think any more. At all. Really, we don’t. The great thinkers are thinking and then marketing their thoughts to us constantly. We need to remember it has always been our job to feel. We, the People are the Soul of America, its heart. Our founders knew that many of us wouldn’t be the most informed, but we’d have the spirit, the heart, the soul to do what is right, to vote for what is right based on truths that are “self evident.” Think about the Constitution. It doesn’t talk about divisions, about labels, about budgets and committee meetings and moratoriums. It talks about the intangibles, As I grab my iPad and launch the app “USA Manual” which has so many great documents in it like the Constitution, reading them again, reading it, makes me believe the founders were more emotion than anything else. Courage, fear, hope, lots of hope, they were feeling Americans who reacted out of those emotions. In their very documents defining the country they speak of “justice” and “tranquility,” “the general welfare” and “the blessings of liberty.” Those are all things that can’t be touched or legislated, they are things to be felt, to be achieved. One knows when justice is served not by a sentence, but by their gut feeling. One certainly knows when one is tranquil or blessed. No, our founders felt, they felt anger and rage against a King and a tyrant, they felt love and compassion for strangers, yes, they were greedy, some, another emotion, and yes, unjust, to Blacks and American Indians, and every kind of horrifying part of humanity existed them, the worst we can be. And yes, there was business and corporations of sorts. Yet, to them, all of that was a means to an end, and that end was a country that FELT, that had a heart and a soul to stand up for what was right and defend against wrong. Even right and wrong are emotions and totally subjective points of view at times. I understand why many of you can’t or won’t feel it as deeply, or tire of it, but we must remember today more than ever that we are human. The immigration debate isn’t about illegals, it’s about people. Humans. The Gulf Disaster isn’t about who can or should drill where, it’s about us causing an event so catastrophic we have yet to see the outcome, hell, it’s not even anywhere close to being over. It’s a game changer, a life changer, a country changer or should be. It should be the death knell of oil and big energy companies. Period. Don’t you feel it? Can’t you feel it? Won’t you? The same with war. Aren’t you weary of it for any reasons any more? Weary, tired, human thing again. A billion a day on foreign oil, billions more to fight wars to protect it, Iraq and Afghanistan tie directly in to the Gulf. It’s all related, everything in the news. And it’s all about people, not things, not adjectives, people. It’s time to take a step back. To breathe in; to breathe deeply. Yes, you’ll choke on the toxic fumes of the Gulf, but once you recover, you’ll be inspired. Another emotion we need to feel. Inspiration. It’s been a while since America has felt it as a whole. If we begin to feel through all these events, and the pain they will cause (and they will, they still do because we don’t feel our way through then heal, we move on without healing); but if we move through that pain we’ll make something so much better than what we have now. If we don’t start to feel more, more pain, more outrage, more of a need to sacrifice to make things better, then we sold our lives and souls to corporate America and like all of our gadgets our battery life as a nation is running out. The only way to recharge is to go back to basics; humanity. Here’s a little video of Karel and Hal Sparks. And for something completely different, Karel Stands Up! offers the politically charged gay standup comedy of Charles Karel Bouley on June 28. Better known on the radio waves as simply Karel, the talk-show host has gotten himself repeatedly in hot water for his comments, and also occasionally shown the door, most recently from KGO in San Francisco in 2008 when his profane off-air comments about “Joe the Plumber” turned out to have accidentally gone out live. Karel returned to his first passion, stand-up comedy, and is rebuilding his radio career, city by city through syndication, including Green 960AM in SF. OK, so, every so often I get an item sent to me to review that Iove so much, I just have to keep. The Sonos players are such items. Each and every day I begin with them now, and can’t imagine my multi-media life without them. These all in one players merge all my digital needs. At the core is an incredible sound system that rivals Boise or any others. A stylish unit, it can do so many things for a device with only two buttons. Stream any radio station directly to the device. Stream any music service such as Pandora. Plug in an external device, such as airport express. Access your iTunes library directly. It does it all. And it does it all from the iPhone or iPad. It’s all software controlled, a small app for the iPhone or iPad and suddenly the online world of streaming radio and music is right at your fingertips. Each morning when I get up, I grab my iPad. I immediately launch Sonos player. I go to Radio, and Green960 San Francisco. I immediately turn on Bill Press and then in to Stephanie Miller. On weekends, I do a Pandora quick mix of my favorite stations. If you have more than one device, link them together in party mode, or enjoy them separately. The sound quality is unbeatable, the ease of use incredible and the fact that it merges internet and streaming radio, iTunes, music services, external devices makes Sonos the answer for any apartment, or any room in a large house. Perfect for kid’s rooms as well and includes an alarm setting, of course! Click on the ad on this pay or go to sonos.com for more! Karel gets an introduction to his new Aprilia Mana 850 GT with ABS and Farings.  Karel gets a new Aprilia Mana |
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