• The election last night.
• Republicans who followed Rush's suggestion to vote for Hillary lost out.
• Guest: David Sirota. Free trade.
• Guest: DNC Vice Chair Susan Turnbull.
• United Technologies, Diebold, lobbyist.
• Guest: Mia Farrow. Darfur.
• Brattleboro and Marlboro voted to arrest Bush and Cheney.
• Guest: Larry Scott, founder and Editor of VA Watch Dog. Vote Smart - Vote Vet.

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

Wednesday 05 March '08 National show

• The election last night. Thom asked listeners in Texas to call and say if they had heard Republican callers to right wing shows complaining that they were disenfranchised by voting for Hillary, only to find that they then could not vote for non-presidential Republican candidates.
• Clip:
  [Laura Ingraham]: "Rush, I understand that the Rush Limbaugh audience is mobilizing in Texas for Hillary. Am I hearing that right?"

  [Rush Limbaugh]: "I don't know if the audience is mobilizing or not. I am urging people — I am using a phrase — the Republicans — our nominee is chosen. It's John McCain.

  Texas is open. And I want Hillary to stay in this, Laura. This is too good a soap opera. We need Barack Obama bloodied up politically, and it's obvious that the Republicans are not going to do it and don't have the stomach for it.

  As you probably know, we're getting all kinds of memos from the RNC saying not to be critical there. Mark MacKinnon of McCain's campaign says he'll quit if they get critical over Obama.

  This is the presidency of the United States you're talking about. I want our party to win. I want the Democrats to lose. They're in the midst of tearing themselves apart right now. It is fascinating to watch, and it's all going to stop if Hillary loses.

  So yes, I'm asking to cross over and, if they can stomach it — I know it's a difficult thing to do to vote for a Clinton — but it will sustain this soap opera, and it's something I think we need. It would be fun, too."
  "The O'Reilly Factor", February 29, 2008.

• Thom was on Fox and Friends this morning, and off air the host Laura Dhue said that they had received 1200 emails in 14 minutes from people saying they followed Rush's suggestion.
• Hillary's lying about always being against NAFTA.
• Bumper Music: Our Country, Jim Mellancamp.
• Article: Fareed Zakaria's "Expertise" and the Elite's Insulting Dishonesty, David Sirota.
• Movie: Life and Debt. Jamaica.
• Article: It's Also the Congress, Stupid, David Sirota.
• Guest: David Sirota. Free trade proponent Fareed Zakaria article. "Life and Debt". Mexican and Peruvian farmers protesting against trade agreements. Subsidies to big corps rig the market. Clinton and Obama going after NAFTA, but GATT and WTO are bigger. The NAFTA model that the others are based on is fundamentally corrupt. Only 8% thought it was good thing in a poll last night.
• The disturbing thing is that Clinton will take success to mean that her tactics and rhetoric are OK. Ross Perot was right.
• Bumper Music: I take My Chances, Mary Chapin Carpenter.
• Be careful what you wish for. NAFTA slam against Obama, Hillary not outraged when asked about Obama being Muslin, 3am ad.
• Thom suggests to both camps that the battle he would like to see to get his vote, is which one can mount a stronger campaign against McCain, lobbyists.
• Bumper Music: Thank You, John Mellencamp.
• According to ABC news' current delegate estimate, Obama needs 77% of the remaining to win, which is unlikely, and Hillary needs 94%, even unlikelier. Last night John McCain had a 1191 sign behind him when accepting the number of delegates required.
• Site: futureselector.org/.
• House voting on FISA. FISA rant. Protect the Bush Administration Act. Did they listen to Democrats' phone calls?
• Guest: DNC Vice Chair Susan Turnbull. No. 2 to Howard Dean. What will the DNC do now, particularly on Florida and Michigan? Thom wants a voting primary, else people will feel that the superdelegates decided, and will feel disenfranchised. She said take a deep breath. Still counting in Texas. Not one person at the DNC who really want anybody to feel disenfranchised and efforts will be made. There are still primaries to come. No delegates were selected in Michigan, and they broke rules. You say to your kids, "you have to eat your vegetables before you get desert". In Florida the decision on timing was made by Republicans, and they influenced Michigan too. She wants people to feel that her vote as a superdelegates is no more important than that cast by thousands of people. We can't afford another 1968 election, where many walked away after having been involved. There was a record turnout last night. When Thom was on Fox news this morning, they were talking about how many Republicans voted for Hillary. Please make sure it can;t happen if Michigan and Florida caucus. This election is critical.
• Bumper Music: I'm a Liberal, Neal Gladstone (video).
• Article: It's True. The Press Goes Easier on One Candidate.
• Charlie Black, lobbyist is working for McCain, went on Tim Russert's show to tell America how John McCain is not in the pocket of lobbyists. Nobody questions it. He's surrounded by lobbyists.
• Chris Matthews was gleeful about how much time and money the candidates would spend in Pennsylvania. Is it the best thing for the Democratic Party and America? Thom doubts it. we have to be prepared for anything and keep on fighting.
• Bumper Music: Pink Houses, John Mellencamp, from the Uh-Huh album.
• Charles Black, head of BKSH & Associates is (or was) a lobbyist for United Technologies, as Stuart in Seattle pointed out to Thom. Thom's producer Shawn Taylor went over to their web site. Press release: United Technologies proposes acquisition of Diebold for $40.00 per share in cash. "UTC’s proposal is subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence and customary regulatory approvals. UTC expects that once it reaches a timely agreement with Diebold’s Board of Directors, the proposed transaction would be completed within 90 days". That's before the election.
• Presidency decided by a duopoly. We need to take over the party. Negative campaigning. We need instant runoff voting,so join Greens at local party.
• NAFTA did not get the 67% that treaties require because it was called an agreement. Illegal giving up of sovereignty?
• Bumper Music: Who Says You Can't Go Home, Bon Jovi.
• Guest: Mia Farrow. Darfur, South Sudan, terrible poverty, Eastern Chad, insecurity. political pressure. China oil revenues support violence. Spielberg pulled out of the Olympics in protest. Sponsors of the games have not pulled out, they should threaten to. Shocking photos on her web site.
• Article: McCain Attacked In Third-Party Ads. "McSame as Bush" clip.
• During yesterday's elections in Vermont there was one notable little event, not covered (seriously) by the main stream media. Two towns voted to arrest Bush and Cheney if they showed up in town. Brattleboro (Thom's on the air there ) and Marlboro. Bush has never been in Vermont. The big stories are instead a cat stuck in a tree, a sextopus. but not this.
• Bumper Music: Save The USA, Andrew Bayuk.
• Guest: Larry Scott, founder and Editor of VA Watch Dog. Veteran's Issues.
  Article: Vote Smart - Vote Vet: New Veterans' Voting Information Page. See how the presidential candidates voted on veterans' issues. Selected information from votesmart.org. Hillary and Obama rank highly, McCain very low. Hillary and Obama are being very generic when sp0g abut Veterans' issues, for example what kind of health care and how will it be paid for? They need to say to get the VA vote. McCain's plastic card plan. Previous plastic card stuck Vets in a private HMO and they are having to pay large copays and fees, and it would mean the end of the VA.
• Bumper Music: Calling America, ELO.
• callcongress.org.
• Article: NH impeachment resolution comes up for House vote (HB24).
  "Impeachment is a tool of accountability – part of the checks and balances process of our democracy - which is available to the citizens in our democracy. The people have a right to petition their representatives and we have a duty to respond and act – regardless of the timing, convenience, political expediency or other concerns which are secondary to the preservation of the democratic process".
• impeachthem.com.
• Quote: "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

  We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government.

  " Declaration of Independence.
• Bumper Music: Imagine Revisited, Dave, The Power Hour.
• Article: Diebold Rejects Takeover Advance.
• Thom began an op ed entitled "Bring Back the Smoke-Filled rooms" He does not oppose superdelegates..
• Santa Fe NM has voted yes on a Charter Amendment to introduce ranked choice voting.