While visiting Fort Lauderdale last month I listened to a talk radio program hosted by a woman named Randi Rhodes. If ever a talk show defines hate speech Randi Rhodes’ show is it. The woman had difficulty saying two sentences without using the words President Bush and Nazis.

It was enlightening to say the least.

Randi will be one of the hosts of the new Democratic Party radio propaganda network called Air America debuting March 31. I keep hearing about this broadcast network of the Howard Dean wing of the Democratic Party. Apparently it is a stellar lineup of professional haters of anything Republican or conservative.

Along with Ranting Randi’s program will be the O’Franken Factor. Al Franken –a former Saturday Night Live writer – is hosting this program, which he apparently named as a parody of Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly Factor, hosted by Bill O’Reilly. Franken thinks that O’Reilly instigated a lawsuit by Fox for copyright infringement. I think Franken is more disturbed by the fact that O’Reilly once told Franken to keep his mouth shut, which Franken meekly did, at a booksellers conference then by any lawsuit by Fox News Channel.

If calling his show the O’Franken Factor is Franken’s revenge then call it revenge of the nerds. If this is the cleverest title Franken can create he is going to have a long road to hoe. Although, give the devil his due, Franken’s other equally corny book titles, Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, and Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, sold a lot of copies. Franken apparently knows his audience – bitter, hate-filled, mean-spirited, puerile, people who delight in grade school insults.

Personally, I now change the channel when Franken is on. I watched his routine a couple of times. It was kind of boring. I saw him in a movie once. He was making love to a gorilla in the movie Trading Places. It was a rather realistic portrayal by Franken. (I guess one of Franken’s topics will be opposing the Defense of Marriage Acts and the proposed Constitutional Amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. After all, Franken does have this silver screen proclivity with animals.)

Franken will have a co-host, Katharine Lanpher, for his show. (I guess he needs somebody to tell him when and how to speak into the microphone. This is the guy who wrote Limbaugh is a big fat idiot? At least Limbaugh can do a talk show by himself.) Advertisements for Air America state proudly that Lanpher has a mean streak a mile wide and so does Franken. No question who their audience will be.

Another star of Air America is Laura Flanders who already has a program on Working Assets Radio (the acronym is WAR - if you get my drift). This genius once said that we should not bomb Afghanistan for harboring Osama bin Laden because we did not bomb Buffalo, NY for harboring Timothy McVeigh. Hellllooo is anybody home there Laura. Flanders also once called Christian Radio “vitriol.”

Laura is scheduled to share her duties with Chuck D of Public Enemy, and Lizz Winstead of the Daily Show. Chuck D ironically started his political career with the Fox News Channel. You know, the same Fox News Channel that liberals say does not have any liberal opinions. Chuck D’s Public Enemy rap songs are notable for the anti-Semitism.

Lizz Winstead is a feminist comedienne (or maybe I should just use the gender neutral term - comic). She is also a Fox News alumnus (amazing how that conservative news channel has all these liberals). Winstead is co-creator of the Daily Show.

Just these six hosts together have enough hate speech to fill an encyclopedia. When you include the rest of them there is a festival of lies and hate. (What is interesting is the Minnesota Connection here. Franken, Winstead, and Lanpher are all from Minnesota. Is it something in the water?)

Flanders likes to bash males - specifically conservative, Christian, white males. She was part of the group that perpetrated the Super Bowl hoax. This was the news item that said more women are abused Super Bowl Sunday than any other day of the year. This was a lie – one that Flanders still propagates.

Flanders also wrote a book called Beware the Bushwomen in which she excoriates Laura Bush, Condoleeza Rice and other female members of the Bush administration and their wives as being traitors and mind numbed robots who do the bidding of their white male masters. Translated into English, Flanders does not like the idea that some women oppose abortion, affirmative action, and gay marriages. Of course, Flanders does not criticize them for their policy or ideology she just insults them alleging they are Stepford Wives.

You get the idea.

Feminist Lizz Winstead was a co-creator of the Daily Show. Then she had creative differences with the host and resigned. Ironically she too migrated to Fox. Winstead is famous for her quote “ I think, therefore I am single.” Right Lizz, married women are all dumb and do not think.

Do you notice a trend here among these Air America stars? All the hosts associated with this radio network have just one talent. They are experts at hating people. Air America will not criticize. There will be no discourse at Air America. These very same people who were on Fox will not invite Fox personnel on their show. The Air America talk radio will be nothing more than pure invective.

In fact Air America’s slogan should be, “We don’t debate. We just hate”

Chris Tremoglie