Hammer Mill Days

Getting some feedback on our recent episode of THIS IS BIG GREEN, the monthly podcast we wrap together with gaffer tape and bailing wire (whatever the hell THAT is), stuffing it full of discarded hammer components left lying around from a previous era here at the Cheney Hammer Mill. It's a smart podcast ... about as smart as a box full of hammer heads. Yep, yep ... we've got at least one brain between us. And then there's Marvin (my personal robot assistant). He has an ELECTRONIC brain. Okay, where was I? Ah, yes. Feedback. What has it been like? Kind of a whistling, whining sound that drops in and out. I think I left the speakers on while we were recording. Annoying, but tolerable. I suppose you were thinking by feedback I meant audience reactions to the podcast. Oh, no ... that's not what I had in mind at all. I couldn't possibly post those comments here. The FCC would jump all over my shit. (And likely they'll complain about that last sentence, as well.) ...

Rumor has it they used to wait until the person they despise was cold in the ground before excoriating them. Now, not so much. So Hugo Chavez, elected president of Venezuela three times (four if you count the recall) is called a "strong man" and "steadfast ally of dictators" who "showered the poor with social programs". Rest in peace, anyone? I'm not surprised to hear this kind of claptrap on NPR news (known around my house as "Empire News"), particularly since their point man on Latin America - Juan Forero - is an abysmal reporter, incessantly critical of Chavez while giving a remarkably easy ride to Colombia (the last report I heard from him on Colombia, within the last six months or so, made no mention of human rights violations, intimidation, ongoing repression). He characterizes Chavez's complaints against American imperialism as if U.S. economic and political domination of Latin America were some drug-induced hallucination by fr...