Monday Night Menagerie

Just a reminder that tomorrow night is the big adoption show on Air America radio.... Tonight, we have a bit of everything!

We'll get started with a Quickie News Update with Victoria Jones of the Talk Radio News Service.

We'll follow that with a conversation with Will Bunch, senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, whose "Attytood" blog is one I enjoy immensely. He wrote a piece on Thursday "The 26% Solution" that caught my eye, so I invited him on to tell us about it... He is also author of the book, Tear Down This Myth: How the Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Politics and Haunts Our Future.

We'll round out the first hour with a visit from Howie Klein of downwithtyranny.com, who live-tweeted Saturday's Senate debate before the vote to open debate on the health care bill.

Hour two will be filled with a no-holds-barred conversation with Dylan Ratigan, host of MSNBC's Morning Meeting.

Join in the fun! Click here to listen live (11pm-1am ET), and call in at 866-303-2270.

My Best Thanksgiving Ever

Ten years ago this month, I was hoping to bring my daughter home. Six months earlier, I had started the process to adopt my daughter. I wasn't sure where she was, or what she looked like, but I had already spent countless hours assembling my adoption dossier, and dreaming of a baby girl in an orphanage somewhere in Russia.



It took another year of waiting, of re-doing paperwork, and lots of frustration. But at the end of October, 2000 I accepted the referral of an 18-month old little girl in an orphanage in the village of Karakastek, Kazakhstan.

Nine years ago tonight, I was in the city of Almaty, about 90 minutes by car from her village, but I had already visited three times. Nine years ago tonight I was spending my final night as a childless woman.



It was Thanksgiving Day! On November 23, 2000, I appeared in a freezing cold courtroom in a tiny village on the other side of the world, trying to convince a judge that he should allow me to take this precious little girl with me home to the US, to be her mother.

I've made many mistakes in my life, but I often say that adopting my daughter is the one thing I know I did right.

The process was long and involved, but it certainly didn't get any easier after bringing Alison home. Parenting is the toughest job I've ever had, but it's also the most rewarding.

People often comment to me that Alison was very lucky, and I have always respond that we both were. She is definitely my daughter; that was apparent almost immediately!

This Tuesday, November 24, Alison and I will celebrate our 9th "Forever Day." Many in the adoption community refer to the day the new parents take their child from the orphanage as their "gotcha" day. We prefer the more sentimental description, as it is the day we became mother and daughter, forever.

November also happens to be National Adoption Month, so I tend to do at least one adoption related show every year at this time.




I hope you'll tune in to Air America radio this Tuesday night, November 24, 11pm-1am ET, for a very special show. (Click here to listen live)

When I first made the decision to adopt internationally, I joined a few list-serves. (FRUA, EEAC are home to the two biggest.) Through those lists, I found a group of families who were using the same agency as me, and we formed our own little list.

It's now more than 10 years since we began the process, and I count this group among my closest friends, even though some of us have never even met in person! We went through the heartbreak of long waits and broken promises, the fear of making bad decisions, the joy of accepting referrals and traveling to meet and bring home our children.

We've supported each other through issues with our kids, deaths, divorces, surprise births and so much more...

Tuesday night, a few of these very dear friends will join me on Air America to tell their stories. Perhaps you'll be moved to find out if your child is out there somewhere waiting for you.


Click here to read my journal, and please join us Tuesday night!

What a Long, Strange Week It's Been

***Updated with audio links... click to hear the interviews with
Robert Reich, Dave Dayen and Kevin Zeese****

This has been a strange, strange week.

It was the week of Palin. Sarah Palin who, by all rights, should have disappeared from the national discourse after she quit her job as governor of Alaska with 18 months left in her first term, is a phenomenon.

Palin is revered by the non-thinkers, the anti-intellectuals, the Bible-thumpers who know not the meaning of Christianity, the hate-mongers and the teabaggers, and reviled by those of us with a conscience, with compassion for our fellow human beings, with a modicum of education and the minds to think for ourselves.

I was planning to have a little fun with Palin tonight. I was going to conduct my own "interview." There's certainly more than enough footage of recent Sarah interviews from the past few days to piece together the answers to the questions I'd pose. But I realized after about 10 minutes of sifting though her inane answers to questions from everyone from Oprah and Barbara to Hannity and Beck that I had much better things to do with my precious time.

Then I came across this gem from funnyordie, which says it all... Finally, Sarah Palin tells the truth!

Sarah Palin Tells the Truth - watch more funny videos

Now on to things much more important...

Tomorrow night, the Senate will hold the first procedural vote on the way to passing their health care bill (which you can read here). Tonight, I'll check in with a great panel of folks who'll weigh in with their expertise and opinions on what's good and bad about this bill, and what will happen with it.

Secretary of Labor under Bill Clinton and now professor at UC Berkeley, Robert Reich will join me to talk about two of his most recent blog entries: "Harry Reid and What Happened to the Public Option" and "The Great Disconnect Between Stocks and Jobs."

Dave Dayen writes the FDL News blog for FireDogLake, and he'll give us the details on where the 3 rogue ConservaDem Senators stand the night before the first vote tomorrow.

Kevin Zeese is president of Prosperity Agenda, one of the organizations, one of the three "initiating groups" behind Mobilize for Healthcare, a nonviolent campaign to end private health insurance abuse and win health care for all! He'll talk with us about their next step in the fight for the real “public option”: Medicare for All, a national single payer plan that cuts out the profit, covers everyone, and puts patients first.

And my favorite activist, David Swanson will check in too. He's in California, on his book tour for Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union. He was in Miami last month for a book reading/signing, and I was honored to introduce him to the crowd. C-Span was there too, and will show that event this Sunday morning at 7:45 ET on C-Span 2.

Listen live from 11pm-1am ET by clicking here, and call in at 866-303-2270!

One Step Closer

Tonight, the United States moved one step closer. One step closer to the rest of the free world.

It should come as a huge shock to realize that the United States of America stands alone as the only industrialized nation on the planet that doesn't consider health care to be a basic human right. The good ole US is the only first world country in the world in which a person can go bankrupt and lose everything he or she owns simply because he, she or a family member got sick.

The United States of America, where compassion seems to be a very rare commodity.

At least, that's what the rest of the world must think of us.

But I know that I, as a liberal, progressive, ACLU card-carrying democratic-socialist wannabe, I am compassionate. I don't think anyone should have to choose between putting food on the table or visiting the doctor when something is wrong. Health care, to me, falls under the heading of those inalienable rights granted us in the Declaration of Independence of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Nowhere does it say "if you can afford the premiums, co-pays and deductible!"

Today, Harry Reid introduced the new Senate Health Care bill, H.R. 3590 "Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act." This is the product of the two Senate committee bills merged into one that will be debated, amended and, hopefully, voted on.

Once that passes, this bill will have to be merged with the House bill. And then both the Senate and the House will have to pass it in order to take us yet another step closer to giving Americans the peace of mind that so many of our fellow world citizens already enjoy. The dignity of life.

It's more than a little ironic that the Republican members of Congress who, unanimously, claim to be "pro-life" are so against the one thing that can help our people live. Health care for all.

Tonight on my Air America radio show, I'll bring you the latest updates on the Senate bill, from Ryan Grim at Huffington Post and Brian Beutler at Talking Points Memo.

And I'm thrilled to speak tonight with Rich Stockwell, a senior producer at MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann. He's the man who came up with the wonderful idea to show the Democratic Senators who just might stand in the way of health care reform just what's at stake by mounting a series of free clinics, in conjunction with the National Association of Free Clinics. The first one was held last weekend in New Orleans.

Rich wrote about the experience in "Health reform's human stories," a piece that Keith felt compelled to read on the air in its entirety.

Listen live from 11pm-am ET by clicking here, join us in the chat there too, and call in at 866-303-2270 with your thoughts!

Two Smart Women....

I'll have two brilliant, accomplished women on the show tonight. OK, I felt I needed to make up for last night's night of Pa(l)in. But more importantly, the two women on my show tonight are both fascinating and each has much to say.

I first heard of Connie Schultz in 2007, when I saw a review of her book "...and His Lovely Wife: A Memoir from the Woman Beside the Man," which told of her experiences on the campaign trail with her husband, now-Senator Sherrod Brown from Ohio. At the time, I was producing a talk show, and the male host was not interested in interviewing her. Hmmm....

I've since become a fan of this Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Schultz has just returned from Hong Kong where, as a visiting lecturer, she was teaching Chinese women who were allowed to leave mainland China for one year to study the principles of a free press!). In her latest column dealing with the gruesome discovery of 11 bodies at the home of a convicted sexual predator in Cleveland, Connie writes of the incredulity with which the Chinese women digested this story, who all wondered how the 11 victims could be missing for so long, yet not missed.

Yes, there is much to talk about with Connie Schultz, including this amazing column called "No magic can keep us young; the trick is aging gracefully" which, considering my recent 50th birthday, touched a chord for me.

In hour two, I'll speak with the inimitable Kathy Griffin, who also has a book. "Official Book Club Selection" is the actual title, and it actually should be one! I read the whole thing in less than a weekend, and was sad when it ended. I am a big fan of Kathy's because she says what she thinks, and pulls no punches. We need more people like her.

Listen live from 11pm-1am ET by clicking here, and call in at 866-303-2270!

A Pa(l)in in the Ass

***Updated to include audio links..
Click to hear Lisa Derrick, Richard Kim, Shannyn Moore, and my "tribute" to Sarah Palin***

I'm sorry. I know that everywhere you turn today and tonight, you'll be subject to the inane ramblings of a woman who doesn't deserve the time of day, much less the fifteen minutes of fame she's used up a thousand-fold!

But here we are, with a Sarah Palin on Oprah the most talk-about media event of the season. Seriously, it will likely be one of Oprah's highest rated shows of the season. The question is, though, how many are watching hoping for the train wreck?

I know I am... or did. Unfortunately, other than one truly stupid choice of words (she's "reloading"?!?!), it was a rather boring show.

Hopefully, my show tonight will not be! We'll have some fun at Palin's expense, a fairly easy thing to do. I've put together one of my production pieces -- not from today's Oprah appearance, but some of our favorite blasts from the past.

I'll also have a great slate of guests... Richard Kim, Senior Editor of The Nation magazine, and co-editor of Going Rouge: An American Nightmare will join us to talk about the book, a collection of essays about Palin and her 14 months in the spotlight and her inauspicious political career. (Note: Going Rouge is only available through OrBooks.com until Dec. 1, when it will be available at all other booksellers.)

Lisa Derrick was live blogging today's Oprah broadcast on her La Figa blog at Firedoglake.com,
and she'll join us tonight with the high... or low points.

And finally, a woman who can thank Sarah Palin for unwittingly helping her career! Shannyn Moore has had a pretty good year as an Anchorage, Alaska- based blogger and broadcaster. She's been telling us the truth about Palin through her radio show, TV appearances, her blog, and more, and we've been loving it. Shannyn penned a piece today on Huffington Post "Sarah's Oily Lies Drip from the Pages of Going Rogue" and we'll talk about that and others of Palin's lies too.

And although Sarah's five part interview with Barbara Walters starts tomorrow (I kid you not), we're done after tonight. Unless she says something we, like the proverbial train wreck, just can't ignore.

Listen live from 11pm-1am ET here, and call in at 866-303-2270.

Friday Night: Keeping the Light Alive

It's been a long week. Friday's are always welcome in my world, but even more so this week.

On tonight's Air America radio show, we'll deal with the news of the week...

I'll visit with Larisa Alexandrovna of Raw Story and atlargely.com, who wrote today about Greg Craig's resignation from his post as White House counsel. Why is this important, you ask? Well, there are just some weird things about the story... like the fact that Craig is a Karl Rove buddy, and that Craig will be replaced by veteran Democratic lawyer Bob Bauer, who just happens to be married to outgoing White House communications director Anita Dunn. Hmmm....
Mark Karlin, editor and publisher of BuzzFlash.com will check in with the BuzzFlash stories of the week, including health care reform/Stupak and the Senate and the revolt of the Democratic women, the rise of Jon Stewart as a media force exposing the wrongs of Faux News, the Afghanistan conundrum, and the jobless recovery.

And we'll wrap up the week with an old, dear friend of mine. Dan Navarro is best known as half of the singer/songwriter duo of Lowen & Navarro. Dan and Eric Lowen wrote, recorded and made music together for twenty years, releasing nine albums.

Five years ago, Eric Lowen was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), and just a few months ago retired from performing.

A group of artists and friends of Lowen & Navarro -- including Jackson Browne, Keb' Mo', John Ondrasik (Five for Fighting), The Bangles, and others - have released Keep The Light Alive: Celebrating the Music of Lowen & Navarro, the proceeds of which will benefit The Eric Lowen Trust, ALSA LA and Augie's Quest. Find out more at www.keepthelightalive.org.

Listen live tonight from 11pm-1am ET by clicking here, and call in at 866-303-2270!

The Other Side of Nicole Sandler

My Multimedia Page is now up, featuring a huge video/music project I've been working on for the better part of the last year.

My dear friend, Michele Clark, has been producing an amazing event for the past 12 years, called Sunset Sessions. She brings adventurous radio programmers, music supervisors (the people who place music in film and televison shows), music industry professionals and artists to beautiful locations to enjoy three days of music, conversation, information and networking.

Michele Clark's Sunset Sessions 2009 was held Feb 12-14 at La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, CA, and featured a wonderful mix of established stars (Chris Isaak, Third Eye Blind) along with some up and coming bands (Eric Hutchinson, Zac Brown Band) and others whom you may not have heard of yet, but should soon...

I posted the entire project on my new multimedia page, www.radioornot.wordpress.com. I hope you'll visit and enjoy some of the great music there. Here are a couple of my favorites from the project:

Chris Isaak:



Eric Hutchinson: