• Assassination of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.
• Guest: Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News talking about Benazir Bhutto.
• Guest: P.J. Crowley, Center for American Progress. Musharraf, Pakistan.
• Guest: Law Professor Marjorie Cohn. CIA tapes. Torture cases.
• Kansas GOP Chair Brags of Voter Caging in E-Mail.
• Guest: Tim Carpenter, Progressive Democrats of America.
• Guest: Rob Kall, executive publisher, OpEdNews.

Topics, guests, upcoming events, quotes, links to articles, audio clips, books & bumper music.

Thursday 27 December '07 National show

• Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated.
• Guest: Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News, who interviewed Bhutto in Maryland and followed her career. They both contributed to Fox. She was nice. Ellen's cousin Richard went to Harvard with Bhutto. There is speculation that she had her brother murdered. Ellen does not believe it. Bhutto said in the interview that President Pervez Musharraf would say yes to the USA and turn a blind eye to extremism. Ellen calls him Saddam light. Theories - Musharraf had it done or allowed it, but risky since there would be blowback. "Charlie Wilson's War". There was only one where Bhutto was speaking. Anything is possible with Musharraf. Greg Gorman of Talk Radio News went over to Pakistan after the earthquake, and said that the government did ok. Old Democrats are sending out emails. The Council on Foreign Relations is giving a press conference. There will be a gaggle in Texas. Archduke Ferdinand moment? Bhutto will be viewed as a martyr.
• Bumper Music: Livin on the Edge, Aerosmith.
• Bumper Music: Walk Tall, John Mellencamp.
• Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
• Guest: P.J. Crowley, Senior Fellow and Director of Homeland Security at the Center for American Progress, former Special Assistant to the President of the United States for National Security Affairs under Clinton. What will Musharraf do about the elections? Bhutto was pushing for more democratic rule. Musharraf let it happen? It was most likely al Qaeda or sympathizers. "Charlie Wilson's War". We have supported individuals like Musharraf rather than building infrastructure like the Marshall plan. We need to invest in Pakistan and Afghanistan, win hearts and minds.
• Bumper Music: What's Bush Got To Do With It?, Us the Band.
• Video: Rudy Giuliani Ad Parody: A Question Of Security.
• Clip: "As a matter of fact, in interviews in 1999 with respected journalist, and long time Bush family friend, Micky [David] Herskowitz, then Governor George Bush stated: ‘One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief. My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I’m not going to waste it. I’m going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I’m going to have a successful presidency'." Cindy Sheehan, My Testimony for the Downing Street Memo Hearings, June 16 2005.
• Guest: Professor Marjorie Cohn, president of the National Lawyers Guild, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, author of "Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law". Thom talked with Law Professor Marjorie Cohn about the destruction of the CIA tapes, whether Jose Rodriguez will testify, and cases involving torture. Abu Zubaydah, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Zacarias Moussaoui. Ron Suskind's book "The One Percent Doctrine". Bush actually scolding George Tenet. Impeachable offenses. Criminal offenses. Should Michael Mukasey recuse himself? American Freedom Campaign. (transcript).
• Bumper Music: World Turned Upside Down, Coldplay.
• Article: Kansas GOP Chair Brags of Voter Caging in E-Mail.
• Article: Kansas GOP Chair Sends Email Boasting of Voter Caging.
• Bumper Music: Everything, Alanis Morissette.
• Article: GOP Challenging Voter Registrations, October 29, 2004.
• Diplomacy. Thom will support any Democratic presidential candidate apart from Mike Gravel who is a little too crazy.
• Video: Mike Huckabee's Message to Iowa (parody).
• Every time they evoke executive privilege they are guilty? Executive privilege is not in criminal cases or the Constitution.
• Caging is so widespread, Republicans don't realize it is illegal? There's nobody to prosecute it.
• Clip:
  "Now many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome. Good government. They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." Paul Weyrich
  

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• Call your elected representatives and tell them, "Hey, I understand that the head of the GOP in Kansas just sent out an email bragging that they're caging voters. What are you going to do to stop the Republican Party from trying to steal the elections y the use of caging this year? And I would like to hear back from you." Very respectfully, Democrat or Republican. If you don't get a response, don't get discouraged; think of it as a vote.
• Bumper Music: You've Got To Stand For Something, Aaron Tippin.
• Guest: Tim Carpenter, National Director, Progressive Democrats of America. Mobilizing the Progressive Vote. Endorsements. Presidential primaries. We won't get a progressive majority, but can take progressive views to the people in primaries. Working with Kucinich, believe Edwards will win Iowa. Straw polls. Kucinich wins if Thom announces his straw poll in advance; people keep calling who are not listening to the show. Edwards wins the start of the unannounced ones, but then Kucinich people keep calling who are not listening. Progressive Democrats of America froze their membership for straw polls; 41 Dennis, 26 John. Thom is contributing to Edwards and Kucinich. Jan 6 they are talking about impeachment. Howard Dean. What can people do? go to their site and register, go to Progressive Challenge 2008.
• Quote: "Be always at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let each new year find you a better man". Benjamin Franklin.
• Site: wexlerwantshearings.
• Article: LAKOTA Secession: No Longer Tolerating Broken Promises!
• Guest: Rob Kall, executive publisher, OpEdNews. The Best of the Rest of the News. Iowa. In polls people are liking Ron Paul for his habeas corpus and war views, and ignoring his Libertarian views. In an Iowa poll he jumped from 4 to 10%, with Giuliani on 14% and McCain 17%, with margin of error 4%. Lakota Sioux nation seceding from the US. One of his reporters is talking to their leaders. Another is writing covering New Orleans: "Baghdad on the Bayou". They were securing the oil. Elections. Anybody that scares the PTB will be vilified and mocked after Iowa, the same as Howard Dean.; probably Paul, Huckabee, Edwards, but not Romney, Hillary.
• Bumper Music: Turn It Up, The Alan Parsons Project.
• Asked about Pakistan, Thom said he looked at the price of gold. If the people of wealth and power thought it was an Archduke Ferdinand moment, gold would rocket. It is up, but not that much.
• The primaries are so early. If there was a cash limit like in England, they would be much shorter. But Supreme Court rulings say the cash cannot be limited. If the press dealt with the issues, it would be good, but it is all about the horse race instead.
• Bumper Music: We Can't Make It Here Any More, James McMurtry.