• 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. Thom played clips from his speeches.
• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.
• "Anything goes" Friday.
• Guest: Lamar Waldron, Thom's "Ultimate Sacrifice" co-author. He names a person who had King killed.
• Forthcoming book: Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination, Lamar Waldron, and Thom includes who killed Martin Luther King.
• Words.

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

Friday 04 April '08 National show

• 40th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination. Tragedy.
• Thom and Lamar have a sequel to their book Ultimate Sacrifice due out in the fall, Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination. It includes details of Martin Luther King's assassination.
• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. They are trying to make the web site more interactive. Economics guest. He has put up a web page video of him asking for people to tell him about their experience of economy, with a web form for them to do so, and has already got 300 responses. Go and add yours. They are poignant, powerful. There's a middle class squeeze section. Next week on the floor he will read excerpts. He read excerpts on the show. Some people called in. Paying for kids' college education. The visit of Ambassador Pekka Lintu of Finland. Congress did extend Pell grants etc, but they have a long way to go. Oil CEOs testifying. economic treason? Definition of middle class. Yesterday on the floor of the Senate he introduced legislation to cap interest rates at 14%, and not just for student grants. Usury laws. The amendment yesterday was first introduced by Senator Alfonse D'Amato in 1991; he got over 70 for it. Old Texas homestead wars. Oil etc. not gone up with respect to gold, so the Federal Reserve is debasing the currency for the rich. Fuel prices. Become energy independent. Are the fed authorized to bail out Bear Stearns? Voting for president who seems like a nice guy. Right wing extremists are on the side of the rich. A recent poll found that 81% of the nation felt the country was headed wrong. Kuwaiti debt, oil. The true drop out for college, if manufacturing had such a failure rate they would hold hearings. A caller knew somebody who had a business; it failed, and he said if had had that experience he would have voted differently. Has Bernie experience of running a business? He had a small company producing education filmstrips.
• Bumper Music: Mr. Blue Sky, ELO.
• Bumper Music: It's All Good
• Clip:
  "We've got some difficult days ahead. (Amen) But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop. (Yeah) [applause] And I don't mind. [applause continues] Like anybody, I would like to live a long life-longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. (Yeah) And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. (Go ahead) And I've looked over (Yes sir), and I've seen the Promised Land. (Go ahead) I may not get there with you. (Go ahead) But I want you to know tonight, (Yes) that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. [applause] (Go ahead. Go ahead) And so I'm happy tonight; I'm not worried about anything; I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. [applause] "
  Martin Luther King "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, 3 April 1968. Video.
• Surge. Smoke and mirrors. Contractors should be included in totals. Sadr calling for a million person march. Occupation not war. We won the illegal war. Wars are won and lost. It's an occupation.
• "My fellow Americans: major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
  George W. Bush, May 1, 2003, Remarks by the President from the USS Abraham Lincoln
• Clip:
  "The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. "Ye shall know the truth," says Jesus, "and the truth shall set you free." Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal."
  Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam" speech, April 30, 1967, Riverside Church, New York.
• A caller said that on the CBS News last night they made it sound like Bush got everything he wanted from NATO, no mention of Ukraine and Georgia. They had a segment about the Democratic race. GOP stars. They showed the donkey logo with the stars upside down.
• "[Officials] shouldn't need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that's the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that's the call that we didn't know about. We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went."
  Attorney General Michael Mukasey.
• Bumper Music: Do Ya, Electric Light Orchestra.
• The Air America Radio site has been reinvented, there are some bugs including stream. Some alternative streams.
• Bill to ban the sale of T shirts, etc., with the names or pictures of Iraq war dead on.
• Bumper Music: We'll Be Watching You, Dave, The Power Hour.
• Former Quest CEO Joseph Nacchio is going to be retried.
• MSNBC did a documentary based on Ultimate Sacrifice, "Conspiracy Files - The JFK Assassination", which is re-shown periodically on the Discovery Channel.
• Guest: Lamar Waldron, Thom's "Ultimate Sacrifice" co-author. Martin Luther King's assassination was paid for by two Georgia racists. Joseph Milteer was one. He's on tape talking about the John F Kennedy assassination two weeks before it happened. La godfather Carlos Marcello provided the hitman. Martin Luther King demonstrations disrupted their cash flow. The day after the assassination, before fleeing to Canada and other countries, James Earl Ray took a detour south to Atlanta, ditched his car at a housing project, and somehow got 3 miles across town to his rooming house. Milteer admitted to friend that he was in the area. Marcello and Trafficante were blackmailing Hoover. Hoover had botched an investigation of Milteer. Martin Luther King chose nonviolent protection, did not trust local police. Commander Juan Almeida in Cuba. People working with John F Kennedy put Thom and Lamar on the right course. People make conclusions first, don't investigate. They went where the evidence took them. The CNN special last night did not mention that the committee said that there was likely a conspiracy. History repeats itself, failure to investigate, further crimes, hence John F Kennedy assassination? Millions of files are still secret. Melteer was in Atlanta frequently. Friday was payday at factories and they took money from right wing racists to take out Martin Luther King. It was a scam to collect money to provide land, but eventually they were forced to deliver.
• Clip:
  "I'm only going to talk to you just for a minute or so this evening. Because ... I have some very sad news for all of you, and I think sad news for all of our fellow citizens, and people who love peace all over the world, and that is that Martin Luther King was shot and was killed tonight in Memphis, Tenn.

  Martin Luther King dedicated his life to love and to justice between fellow human beings. He died in the cause of that effort. In this difficult day, in this difficult time for the United States, it's perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are and what direction we want to move in.

  "
  Robert F. Kennedy, Indianapolis, April 4, 1968.
• Bumper Music: You Learn, Alanis Morissette (video).
• Thom:
  

  To say anything is just words is crazy. I mean, it's just words that have changed the world. It's just words that have created religions. It's just words that have brought about, that have built empires. It is the power of words to inspire, the power of words to divide, the power of words to unite. Words are the tools that we use to communicate. The only way, well not the only way, the most effective way that a person can convey an emotion from one person to another is with words. Think of the power of "I love you" or somebody saying that they hate somebody. I mean it's just, there's enormous power in words. Words are the most powerful tools we have. That's why I wrote a book about using words, you know, Cracking The Code about how to use words effectively in the political context. Anybody who says 'just words' about anybody, you know, Barack Obama or anybody else, is tragically deluded, tragically deluded.

• Bumper Music: What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong. Thanks.
• Hopefully the topic by topic archives will be back up at the weekend.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Senate: 2 tax breaks, one for manufacturing, one concerning gulf coast residents' grants, Voinovich/Stabenow. Bush meeting the Prime Minister of Romania. The Romanian economy is better and therefore people are comfortable about taking a risk in investing. Envious of 15% flat tax. Gates wants more troops in Afghanistan. Grim labor statistics. Bernanke said not necessarily terrible unemployment for a long time. Frightening rate, and a lot of workers. Stock market will go up because more labor is available. Worker insecurity quote. Inflation. McCain said the Democrats will continue their anti growth agenda. Growth was in education and health care - service industries. US to provide security for Cheney for at least 6 months after leaves office, at a cost of $4 million.