• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.
• Welcome to listeners on KMPT, Missoula, Montana.
• Iowa caucus results analysis, delegate accumulation.
• Populism.
• Guest: Patric M. Verrone, Writer's Guild of America. The Writer’s Strike.

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

Friday 04 January '08 National show

• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. He has a great newsletter available from his site. Huge Democratic turnout in Iowa. The independents and the young came out. He was excited by that. 2/3 want change, voted against the machine. Economy, level of desperation among poor - cold winter, heating, food centers running out, poor needing supplements, more in homeless shelters. Whoever is nominee, we have to make them take more populist stances.

  Pocket veto. Filibuster, nuclear option, what is the solution? Record number of filibusters. If there is a filibuster- somebody wants to keep talking and not vote, you need 60 for cloture to end the debate. They only had 59 for global warming. There are 51 voting on the Democratic side and 49 Republicans. Bernie does not know the answer to this issue yet, but we do need to make the Republicans actually filibuster - debate the issues round the clock if necessary. Tell your representatives. Call Congress (callcongress.org).

  Health insurance, care. Is Bernie populist? His job is to represent the people. Ohio looked beyond race. Why did Obama beat Edwards? Barack came to Vermont for Bernie, he's very charismatic, a lot of people came out for the first time. Nancy Skinner ran against him, and said he was a rock star - before anybody had heard of him.

• Bumper Music: Send It, ELO.
• Welcome to listeners on KMPT, Missoula, Montana. Thom is trying to organize a trip there.
  
• Bumper Music: Thank You, John Mellencamp.
• Rudy Giuliani did not campaign in Iowa, where he suffered a stunning loss. He said, "None of this worries me - Sept. 11, there were times I was worried".
  
• Quote: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." First Inaugural Address March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Upcoming Event: Monday and Tuesday Jan 07 - 08, Manchester, NH. Show "Live" from the NH Primary radio row.
• Article: As Predicted, Populism Is On the Rise - Who's Laughing Now?, David Sirota.
• Obama and Edwards are talking like FDR about the Great Republican depression. Obama won 18 delegates, Edwards 17, Hillary 16. Dodd and Biden dropped out. These are caucuses, a delegate-accumulating process not a winner/loser situation. Next Tuesday in New Hampshire there will be 30 more delegates up for grabs; Thom will be there. Then on January 19 in South Carolina, 33 more. Then on January 26, 58 more delegates. On super Tuesday, February 5, there will be many more delegates chosen. The winner is likely to be one of the 3. Thom predicts John McCain will win, the only place the Republican party has to go. What is happening to Huckabee is like what happened to Pat Robertson. The populist dimension of Huckabee and Edwards are not being reported - if the media do mention it, they say Edwards is angry. Huckabee is a Baptist minister, evangelist, possibly Christianist (theocracy) but also populist, and the Republicans will push back. But McCain also shows some some populism. Populism in the other candidates. Romney outspent them vastly and tanked. David Sirota article; the populist message is growing in the Republican Party, and full bloom in Democratic Party. Bernie has been talking about it for 5 years. Michael Moore asking of we want a "me" or a "we" society in Sicko. Corporatists are for "me" and populists are for "we". The way to get a "we" society is not to elect the perfect candidate, but to get involved.
• Super Tuesday total delegates:
  

  State	Type	Delegates
  Alabama	primary	60
  Alaska	caucus	18
  American Samoa	primary	13
  Arizona	primary	67
  Arkansas	primary	47
  California	primary	441
  Colorado	caucus	71
  Connecticut	primary	61
  Delaware	primary	23
  Democrats Abroad	primary	11
  Georgia	primary	104
  Idaho	caucus	23
  Illinois	primary	185
  Kansas	caucus	40
  Massachusetts	primary	121
  Minnesota	caucus	88
  Missouri	primary	88
  New Jersey	primary	127
  New Mexico	caucus	38
  New York	primary	280
  North Dakota	caucus	21
  Oklahoma	primary	47
  Tennessee	primary	85
  Utah	primary	29
  Total		2088

• Bumper Music: Anything Goes, Harpers Bizarre.
• Quote:
  "This room was, until about five or six minutes ago, completely empty. This is a manufactured 'celebration.' It really felt more like a funeral as people started strolling in from upstairs where they had obviously been gathered. This is unlike anything that I've ever seen, a completely empty, dirge-like event."
  Andrea Mitchell of NBC, about Senator Hillary Clinton's speech after the Iowa caucuses.
• Anti-Mormon push polls. Women voting for Obama. Independents and Republicans turning out for the Democratic caucus - people who have had it with the Republicans. The effect of Iowa's early caucus on the choice of candidates in the other states. Should those who dropped out be congratulated? The DNC not letting other states vote earlier.
• The primary process. Early primaries winnow the field. From the start of the country until the 1970s, activists in parties decided their nominees but they can be taken over by monied interests so that the people are not represented. But because of the Internet and talk radio, the system is now more open and transparent. Thom suggested stopping the primaries, it has become about ads. Go back to smoke filled rooms.
• Obama success linked to the youth vote. Iowa was great but was it a fluke? Thom thinks not, he will do well, if not win. We elect representatives, not leaders. This is only the beginning of the process. Direct democracy. The initiative process.
• Quote: "A leader is the wave pushed ahead by the ship", Tolstoy.
• Bumper Music: Waiting On The World To Change, John Mayer.
• Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
• Article: Dollars No Good at Indian Tourist Sites.
• Obama won, he spent $9 billion, Hillary $7 billion, Edwards $3.6 billion. Cracking the Code: 93% of political decisions made on feelings rather than information.
• Guest: Patric M. Verrone, Writer's Guild of America. The Writer’s Strike. We're talking about the future. In contracts they've done Hollywood, TV, cable, now moving to Internet. How talent are paid. "What Would Jefferson Do? " is on Amazon's Kindle. WGA have worked out an agreement with Letterman's company "Worldwide Pants", covering "The Late Show with David Letterman" and "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson". There are 7 conglomerates, and they bargain together in alliance; on December 7th they walked away from table, and have not come back. So the WGA is bargaining with independents. Leno is owned by NBC. Carson used to own his own show. Jay is a long time member, and is now writing his own stuff, so violating the strike. Directors Guild. Screenwriters Guild. "Above line" people get royalties, "below line" is those who don't, for example camera men, but money from residuals goes into their pension fund even if they don't get royalties directly.
• Thom has two brothers who are shop stewards, it's a union friendly show.
• Call the Thom Hartmann Comment and Rant line at 202 536-5306 to leave a recorded message, agree, disagree, sound off - it's all welcome. Keep it shorter than 30 seconds, and know that it may be used on the air.
• Article: Hillary Repackages Herself as a Black Man.
• What say to your Republican representatives? Let them know your positions. What to do: work to get them kicked out. If you can't be active yourself, find people who can be activists and support them.
• Bumper Music: What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong. Thanks.
• Article: Dave Lindorff: Clinton's Embarrassing Iowa Flop Exposes Key Democratic Leadership Myth. Many primaries coming up are closed, the so machine has more power.