The link takes you to a National Review (haha) story about how global warming is a farce. Because, uh, facts and reality apparently don’t matter.

She’ll be in Louisville another year. Two tops. And we’re betting Clear Channel won’t even bother replacing her.

Meanwhile, big polluters are fighting like woah to prevent a new global agreement. Never mind that 2011 is tied for the tenth hottest year on record. Or that it only takes common sense to recognize the earth has an environmental problem or two on its hands.

Dramatic evidence that the American dream is slipping further out of reach for far too many Americans, indeed. [Mother Jones]

Congressman John Yarmuth summed things up quite nicely yesterday. [Twitter]

Hilarious: One of Jane Driskell’s pals has been emailing us, telling us we have no clue what we’re talking about when it comes to Greg Fischer. HA! [Louisville Is Screwed]

Yep, Jerry Abramson’s past is being forever ignored by the mainstream media. The Democrats, who have hated him for years, are suddenly in love. [Page One]

It’s interesting watching FOX41 (still WDRB? no affiliate?) report on the WAVE3 Heitz situation without ever mention that station brought the story to life. [FOX41]

Jake’s kitchen leads people to believe he is 100% Indian so Diwali is something he’d want us to mention. [Consuming Louisville]

That’s leadership, transparency and change you can believe in. Here you go. It’s Greg Fischer. Defending his decision NOT to fire Mike Heitz for getting caught as he was about to drive his city vehicle after drinking. Even though he only stopped because he got caught. Told ya he didn’t have the courage to do the right thing. At least EMS – with its embarrassing leader – knows when to can people for bad behavior. [WAVE3]

Humana has apparently improved in Newsweek’s “green” rankings. Maybe more local companies should follow this lead. [Business First]

Call us heartless for not being surprised that daytime violence like this is occurring at a Cordish joint. [WHAS11]

How does your local Clear Channel affiliate cover the Occupy Wall Street protests? By saying they’re all rioting. [84WHAS]

Hope you trust your Metro Councilcritters. Because they’re redrawing council districts and will vote on the final map today. [WLKY]

A whopping 62% of Jefferson County Public Schools students receive assistance with meals. That’s more than food for thought. [C-J/AKN]

So what’d he do? Pandered with his homophobic ignorances. Again.

More talk of being in a tent with ten men. Saying things like, “I don’t want to come in from a 16-hour day to see two men snuggled up watching a movie.”

Even the Clear Channel Republicans are turned off by his anti-gay rhetoric.

Just like they’re turned off by his weeks of gender discrimination denials, only to offer this weird attempt to mock Nancy Pelosi:

Everyone’s excited for Monday, September 20 from Noon to 3:00 P.M.

Will Joe foam at the mouth like the rest of those folks or will he be a voice of reason that competes with Rush Limbaugh?

UPDATE: Joe will be on Bobby Jack today at 2:00 4:00 to discuss his departure from Clear Channel.

Last night, LEO Weekly’s Phillip Bailey went on a Twitter Inspectigation that we thought was potentially very interesting.

This morning, however, Connell responded on her radio program. Give the segment a listen:

For those of you who can’t listen at work, here’s a rough transcript:

Mandy Connell: 84 WHAS! Howdy doo, everybody, it’s me, Mandy, and welcome to another addition of the really big show. And boy, you know, you can tell it’s a slow news cycle right now, because the stupidity of the stories out there is mind-blowing. Mind-blowing.

-SNIP-

I wanna start the show by talking about something that happened last Thursday because that was the starting off point for all of this, the nonsense that’s coming down the pike right now. Uh, last Thursday — last Wednesday, actually — I said, uh, I used a phrase that I just, I still don’t know why those words came out of my mouth. It was inappropriate. On Thursday I apologized. Cause I meant it.

And now that incident is being used as a jumping off point by some by some of the local media, who are doing things so preposterous in an effort to paint me as this bitter, angry racist, that I just can’t let it go without comment.

Now, my tweets have been mined as part of a tweetvestigation by a local blogger for a, for a local magazine. And in his tweetvestigation he went back through all – I think I’ve tweeted 375, 376 tweets in my entire tweet career, which I believe goes back to maybe February of 09, I don’t remember when I started the Twitter thing. I was really, I was an active Twitterer for a long time, I haven’t been tweeting lately, I’ve just been busy. But I am very proud of my tweeting because I do some of my best comedy in 140 characters or less.

Read the rest of the transcript after the jump…

Normally, I would tweet about things I had talked about on my show when I was on the air in Ft. Myers. Now, what’s interesting about this particular tweetvestigtion, is that unlike – remember a couple weeks ago when context was so important? context was the most important thing you could provide – well, at least it was when Shirley Sherrod was the victim of the attacks. Context. Context. Well, no context is necessary now. No context at all. Let me provide a little context for Mr. Bailey Breitbart.

Context in the form of this: There are three specific tweets that he finds especially egregious. One about raccoon gangs. That’s not code for anything, it was about a story in Lakeland, Florida, about a woman being attacked by a gang of raccoons. An actual gang of raccoons. You know, little masks, little human hands, who tear into garbage cans, big fluffy tails that you can make hats out of. Gang of raccoons attacks this woman. And I said on the air on my show that when I saw this story, I just had this vision of this raccoon apologist standing in front of the raccoon media talking about the fact that the raccoon gangs were not at fault here, because the only reason these raccoons joined gangs in the first place was because they had failing schools, the system had failed them and they had no other choice. Please.

The second one that he finds so horrific is one that I linked to a story in the Washington Examiner that was a column about whether or not racism charges had been launched so many times against conservatives that they had lost their punch and they had lost their sting. And as a snarky commentary, a sarcastic comment, I wrote something to the effect of, ‘Can you still wear a white sheet after Labor Day?’ Because, honestly, that really seems like I’m seriously asking that question. I really want to know if it’s okay to wear a white sheet after Labor Day.

And the other one, which I don’t think I can say on the air, because it was a response to something someone else posted that was unintentionally funny. And I was making a point back to that person about the unintentionally funny way he wrote something. And I know it was unintentional, cause the guy who wrote it is just as nice as the day is long. And what he wrote could be interpreted a newsworthy way and a dirty way and of course I interpreted it the dirty way. Just trying to make a point.

But don’t worry about context! It’s, it’s all good. I mean, I am a conservative, so I don’t get context. So we’re moving on now.

But it wouldn’t be a political/news show without mentioning President Barack Obama. Connell referred to the President as a “half-breed” when saying the U.S. allows people like him to rise to the presidency. Right after she said it, you could tell she knew she’d made a serious mistake. She indicated she’d said “half-breed” because it was the first thing to come to mind.

To say I lost my cool in reaction is an understatement. I was offended and disappointed beyond words. My assistant took my phone (She could have scratched my new iPhone! It was major. Hell hath no fury like a homo scorned.) away and dared me to email anyone about it until cooling down for several hours.

I’ve only known Mandy a few months, true. That’s long enough, however, for me to understand that she’s not a racist. She’s really not. I defy anyone to get to know her and prove me wrong. She’s also not a homophobe. (Hello, from South Florida, was friends with notoriously gay congresscritters.)

What she said? That is definitely, 100% racist. Offensive. Disgusting. Maddening. She’s not even from Kentucky, where racists grow on trees. The governor and speaker of the house have even uttered racist crap. But what Mandy said was awful to the point of infuriation.

So I cooled down (in 102-degree heat and crazy humidity) for an entire day. Then reached out to Mandy for comment.

Here’s what she had to say:

The only thing I can do is express my embarrassment that was the phrase that came to mind and apologize for the offensive way I was trying to convey my point about the President’s mixed heritage. It was inappropriate, and truthfully, I was shocked when that tumbled out of my mouth. My only excuse is that when talking for three hours without the opportunity to choose words in advance, sometimes my brain doesn’t do the good or right thing. I am human.

While there is no excuse for what she said, I’m relieved that she was truthful and open. We spoke a bit more in-depth and it’s clear to me that Mandy is is remorseful and completely embarrassed. Not because she got caught. But because she said “half-breed” and she knows she’s hurting herself and countless others.

This is not an apology for what she said. It doesn’t make it better.  It’s only a tiny step forward. The only thing that can heal what went down is to prove to this community in an un-Rush Limbaugh-like manner that she’s a good person. And I hope she does that.

I expect that she’ll be apologizing on today’s show and will prove to her audience that she’s worthy of a second chance.

Just wanted to share my take on things.

From a Clear Channel press release:

Announcing the new appointment, Clear Channel Louisville Market President Bill Gentry said, “Dave’s disturbed sense of humor matches up well with Tony’s. Plus, Tony could use some adult supervision.”

Jennings commented: “I’m looking forward to tapping into Tony’s keen sports mind. Once I get past the foam, of course.”

Tony Vanetti warmly welcomed his new partner to the Afternoon Underdogs show: “I’ve been hosting this show alone for three months, and this is the best they could do? Really?”

You sports nerds excited?

Jennings starts on July 26th, replacing Adam Neft.

But take a look at this story’s headline on the WHAS site:

No big deal, right?

Then look at the Tweet promoting the story:

What does “Hispanic” have to do with anything?

It’s not an attack. I’m legitimately asking. Because some say it’s a big deal, some say it’s not. (It really could matter when it comes to this particular story because LMPD is asking for the public’s help.)

Aww, how sad. Corrupt Joe Prather has to be replaced on the Louisville-Southern Indiana Bridges Authority. [C-J]

Burrell must’ve been drunk again? He got mad, cursed and walked out of a mayoral forum. [FOX41]

On Thursday – Earth Day – Greg Fischer will hold a press conference to unveil energy and environmental services plans. 10:00 A.M. On the lawn of Riverside, the Farnsley-Moreman Landing. The Sierra Club and others will join him. [Media Advisory]

Everybody is all excited that the Courier-Journal endorsed Jack Conway instead of Daniel Mongiardo. [WFPL]

Abraham Lincoln was enslaved in chain link fencing for Thunder Over Louisville. [Fat Lip]

Can you believe Goldman Sachs is giving its staff more than $5 billion in pay and bonuses in the wake of government fraud charges? [HuffPo]

Jerry Abramson is still pretending that he has no idea if LG&E will be put up for sale. [C-J]

Lexington’s Leland Conway and a bunch of teabaggers are throwing a party to deny global warming. They’re tired of the “greenies.”  The Lexington teabaggers don’t realize it’s just a Clear Channel publicity stunt. [Facebook Link]

Will Hoge will open for James McMurty at the WFPK Derby Festival Wednesday Evening Concert on April 28. 7:00 P.M. Great Lawn. Free admission if you’ve got a Pegasus Pin. [Press Release]

While definitely conservative (she describes herself as “recovering dirty-foot-hippie-liberal”), I’m not quite sure why everybody is freaking out over her new role.

Here’s why: More than 130 applications were reviewed and dozens of talented radio honchos were interviewed for the job. She’s been at this thing for 14 years. She’s a quick study, if you listen to any of her archived programming, and is no stranger to dealing with government buttcramps and people like me with egos the size of Red China. And it doesn’t hurt that she’s got a heart.

According to WHAS Operations Manager Kelly Carls, “Mandy really stood out for her energy, enthusiasm and dedication to giving listeners an interesting, informative and engaging radio program. We believe she will really connect with the 84WHAS audience.” Which is precisely how she should be judged– by how she’s able to connect with her entire audience, not just the right-wing. And we’ve gotta stop comparing her to Francene. Because that’s setting the bar just a little too high, to say the least.

Here’s what Connell had to say about her new job, “To say that I am excited is a massive understatement. Not only do I get to join a heritage radio station like 84WHAS, I get to live in Louisville, which has more amazing restaurants than I dreamed possible. I couldn’t ask for a better new home! I can’t wait to dig in, metaphorically and literally.” Little does she know, she’ll have to REALLY dig in the next time there’s an ice storm, otherwise she’s likely to be trapped in her home for seven or eight months.

So, if I can give her a chance to show her true colors and talent, why can’t the rest of you? Let’s give her a break.

Now for the interesting and unprofessional stuff: I zoomed in on her high-res headshot and it appears that she is a fan of the gays (good mark)… because a gay clearly did her makeup.

She loves our dumbest president in history, Dubya, and his brother, Jeb:

And like I mentioned above, she’s got a good heart. She and her husband founded Cigars for Soldiers, an organization that gives back to our military personnel. Aside from the auto-playing music on the charity’s website that caused me indigestion, the organization has done a lot of good by needed relief and comfort to thousands of soliders– and not just by giving them cigars.

Unlike some unethical “journalists” (including those who think no one else knows they’re on the take) who are quick to attack, I’m not tossing her to the wolves just yet. Let’s see how she handles the job before we start throwing stones. There will be plenty of time for that in a few months.