• Show live from AM 1600 WWRL, NYC.
• Super Tuesday.
• Guest: Congressman John Spratt, chair of the House Budget Committee. Bush's new budget.
• Guest: Climate skeptic Marc Morano, communications director for Senator James Inhofe.
• Guest: David Bender. He and Mark Green will be anchoring Air America's Super Tuesday coverage.

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

Tuesday 05 February '08 National show

• Show live from AM 1600 WWRL, NYC.
• Super Tuesday. Because of thresholds, if any Democrat race is very close, for example a candidate could win a race by a narrow margin counting the raw vote, and the delegates get split 50-50. John Edwards is still on the ballot in a lot of states, if not all. Some people are thinking that they will vote for Edwards thinking he will get more delegates to get to the convention, just in case it's a brokered convention. But he has to exceed the threshold of 15% of the vote to get any delegates at all, which is extremely unlikely since he is not actively running. The wasted votes would go to the winner. Vote for one of the two, not against.
• A listener from Brooklyn said she was turned away due to broken machines. The Republicans use winner takes all, the Democrats use proportional representation. The Republicans will probably know who their nominee is going to be by the end of the day.
• The Senate may vote on FISA today. Call Congress (callcongress.org) - no amnesty for Bush and the telecommunications companies.
• Article: Bush Administration Plans To Install Black Box Sensors On Private-Sector Computer Networks.
• Guest: Congressman John Spratt, chair of the House Budget Committee. Bush's new budget. $3.1 trillion. $688 billion just for war. It's probably an understatement, there's just a plug of $70 billion for the supplemental costs of Iraq and Afghanistan in fiscal year 2009. 2008's figure is $196 billion. Iraq has 30 to 35 million people, so we are spending roughly $5,000 per Iraqi, and the average annual income is around $500.If we gave $5,000 to each Iraqi to stimulate their economy would that not be money better spent?
• McCain and Obama are said to be ahead. American Samoa is about to wrap up. There's not a great split by gender or race or age, though age has been known to have affect, for example young folks voting for JFK.
• Some callers found heir name was not on the list when they turned up to vote.
• Testosterone poisoning.
• Site: Caucus Kit, Geoff in Denver's site where you can download sample caucus resolutions.
• Anniversary: U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell Addresses the U.N. Security Council, February 5, 2003.
• There's a real battle brewing in DC about the failure to list polar bears as an endangered species, and they have brought forward the drilling leases to tomorrow.
• Guest: Climate skeptic Marc Morano, communications director for Senator James Inhofe, minority leader of the US Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. His committee has nothing to do with the leases; he has no comment. The polar bear decision is due any day. There are more polar bears now. Their habitat is disintegrating. The models are speculative concerning the ice. Scott Armstrong is calling their methodology to tasks. So why countries competing to go there? why can see shrinking on Google earth? natural causes. NASA study said it was unusual winds. John McCain said in debate, since if the climate skeptics are right, and we reduce use of fossil fuel, we will still have cleaner air, new industries, send less money to the Saudis etc; and if wrong, there's a disaster? Marc said if you guys are right, there is no realistic proposal that would have had any impact. So Thom asked, why not work together towards one?
• People For the American Way (PFAW) is collating information about problems voting, and looking for trends. Call 866-OUR-VOTE.
• Some listeners are upset because Thom seems to be preferring Obama, others because he seems to be preferring Hillary.
• Bumper Music: Nobody Told Me, John Lennon.
• The cooling trend between the 40s and 70s. Albedo. Particulate matter.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. American Samoa finished voting at 12:30. Hillary campaign conference call, irregularities in AZ, registered voters not on list, ID problems, no provisionals. She has a report problems page. 866-OUR-VOTE. - or similar. The Hillary campaign see themselves winning but inconclusive, it may go all way to convention. They say Obama is using Republican talking points. She has offered to debate him once a week through March 4th. Regional debates? If the Republican nominee is known and the Democratic nominee is not, the Democratic race would get more media attention. The Senate Finance Committee was run by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus of Montana today. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was testifying, defending the budget. Baucus said that avoiding recession is completely unrealistic, as is the idea that they would balance the budget by 2012. Medicare and Medicaid cuts would be devastating to older people and the disabled. Paulson said that the economy could not handle any increased taxes. The Senate votes on the stimulus package Wednesday, they hope to get the campaigning senators back. It is a different version to the House.
• Air America Radio has special coverage tonight, 8p-2a, with Boxer, Villaraigosa, Hart, Franken, Shrum, Huffington, and AAR Hosts including Thom.
• Guest: David Bender. He and Mark Green will be anchoring Air America's Super Tuesday coverage. Thom will be dropping in, and Kerry and Boxer, mayor Villaraigosa, Gary Hart, Al Franken, Lionel. 24 states are voting (22 Democratic). Minnesota is caucusing, Al Franken. Polls show Norm Coleman dropping, losing in November. 28 Republicans are not running to keep their seats. It happened to Democrats in 1994. They don't want to be in the minority, and Republicans can't take back the House. The Democrat's mission is not the House, which is hopefully a given; they need 36-42 Republican districts with Democratic representatives to go solid blue. Coward-proof majority. Democrats have been working at not losing, which means they don't stand for something. Conyers may yet go ahead with impeachment. Video of Rob Kall interviewing Conyers. Conyers said that impeachment is not off the table, and he gets to decide.
• Bumper Music: If Everyone Cared, Nickelback.
• Comparison of the Hillary and Obama health care plans. Thom would not vote just on a plan put forward this early in the campaign. Both leave the insurance companies intact. Both plans are great compared to what we have now.
• Don't just work for candidates, get jobs with the local board of elections on election day.
• Article:
  "Individuals in the Army, Navy and Air Force made those branches of the armed services among the top contributors in the 4th Quarter, ranking No. 13, No. 18 and No. 21, respectively. In 2007, Republican Ron Paul, who opposes U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, was the top recipient of money from donors in the military, collecting at least $212,000 from them. Barack Obama, another war opponent, was second with about $94,000."
  Cost of '08 Presidential Race Already Tops All Elections Prior to '04.