Burnin' Down the House

RP is back burnin’ down the house with great music, Lizzie Edwards does a slow-burn about Ann Coulter and actually calls her on it, and Tehran literally burns, in places.

RP is back today after yesterday’s Day of Silence. So the soundtrack to my life resumes…Further…there’s this on RP’s home page this morning:

Due to the huge numbers of Internet radio listeners who responded to this appeal, many of you were unable to get through to your Senators and Representative. If so, it's definitely not too late. Please contact your members of Congress now via SaveNetRadio.org and ask them to support the legislation currently pending that would set an Internet radio royalty rate that is fair to all involved: stations, listeners, artists, and record companies.

What's this all about? The US Copyright Office has set a royalty fee structure for Internet radio that is — in almost all cases — at least 10 times greater than the royalties paid by any other type of radio, anywhere in the world. No existing Internet radio services would be able to operate profitably under this fee structure. It would mean the end of stations like Radio Paradise, and the end of the royalty payments to artists that we're currently making.

No indication as to what “huge numbers” actually means. But it’s a great good thing that the phone lines were so busy some folks were unable to get through. I didn’t even try to call, opting for e-mail instead. I hate phones; it’s just the way I am. But you, Gentle Reader, probably aren’t phone-phobic. You could ring up your congresscritter’s office and tell ‘em internet radio is worth saving, if you have a free minute or three today. I’d sure appreciate it if you did.

Today’s Teapot Tempest…Elizabeth Edwards vs. Ann Coulter.

Elizabeth Edwards, ever her husband's most aggressive defender, called in to MSNBC's "Hardball" yesterday to admonish conservative commentator Ann Coulter for using the "language of hate" to attack John Edwards. Elizabeth Edwards asked Coulter -- who has compared the former senator to a gay man and has mused about his death in a terrorist attack -- to stop using personal attacks as part of her public routine, a request Coulter quickly rebuffed.

I don’t like Coulter. I’ve said this before and my opinion hasn’t changed. God Help Me for saying/thinking this, but Mrs. Edwards is right. Coulter’s rhetoric is SO far over the top she’s become a caricature of the right and an actual asset to the likes of Pretty Boy. Coulter’s “fag” comment about Edwards raised millions for the man. Hell, Elizabeth should be glad Coulter attacks her man as she does. And Jonah Goldberg thinks she is:

More to the point, John Edwards is imploding. And his last really good moment in the press was when Coulter called him a "faggot." It was dumb and distasteful, but it was also money in the bank for Edwards, who used it to further endear himself to the netroots base and to raise money on it. Elizabeth Edwards is — smartly — trying to change the subject back to Edwards as a victim of those mean rightwingers. It strikes me as a little desperate.

Desperate, perhaps. Smart? Most certainly.

Shut up, Ann. Or at the very least, tone it down. For the children your party.

Meanwhile, Tehran Burns…

Motorists today set fire to petrol stations in Tehran in an angry backlash against the Iranian government's decision to impose petrol rationing.

A station in Pounak, a poor neighbourhood of the capital, was set alight, while two pumps were completely destroyed at another in the east of the city.

[…]

Iranian state radio reported that several petrol stations had been attacked by "vandals".

The unrest put further political pressure on the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is already under fire for failing to deliver on promises to improve the economy after his election in 2005.

In May, the government reduced subsidies for petrol, causing a 25% jump in prices.

Pajamas Media has more, including shaky cell-phone video of burning gas stations (worthless, IMHO, coz it could be any gas station…just sayin’), and links to a Canadian-Iranian blogger (much more worthwhile) and other sources.

The Left thinks Dubya and Co. is inept at managing our gub’mint, but real ineptness is named “Ahmadinejad.” This could get out of hand real fast, Insh’Allah.