• Population growth, food shortages.
• Obama's remarks about bitterness.
• Guest: Dr. Deal Hudson, Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States. Rev. Hagee.
• Guest: Hannah Saona, ACLU, Idaho. Idaho rejects the Real ID Act.

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

Monday 14 April '08 show

• Thom went to Seattle Green Festival on Saturday. Over 50,000 people were in Seattle to hear the Dalai Lama speak on the importance of compassion in action. There were still enough people to pack the festival and hear Thom. Thom spent a week with others at the Dalai Lama's residence called the Synthesis Dialogues, and there is a movie about it: Dalai Lama Renaissance, narrated by Harrison Ford, which is playing in theaters now.
• The world's population is growing rapidly; it is almost 7 billion people. Countries are restricting or adding tariffs to exports of food. Food importing nations are experiencing big price increases. The UN World Food Program can't afford food. 3 people were recently murdered in Darfur for WFP food Use of land and crops that could be food for biofuels, for example the USA using corn for ethanol, is contributing the problem. There are non-edible crops and land that is no good for producing food. We need to move towards electrolysis and hydrogen using solar power in the deserts, and let's decentralize it. The world population progression. It's a crisis of culture. In many countries where women have equal power, there's no population growth. John Roberts went down to Florida. Middle class income has stagnated, prices have risen.
• Article: Precious grains.
• Book: "What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America", Thomas Frank.
• Bumper Music: A Day In The Life Of America, Ronnie Milsap.
• People are multiple jobs. They are angry.
• Clip:
  "You know, Senator Obama's a good man, and he is a very talented and gifted man. But, I think his comments were elitist and divisive. And the Democratic Party has been, unfortunately, viewed by many people over the last decades as being elitist and out of touch. I mean, we have waged elections over that. And, you know, you don't have to think back too far to remember that good men running for President were viewed as being elitist and out of touch with the values and the lives of millions of Americans."
  Senator Hillary Clinton.
• Bush trashed Kerry for elitism and war record.
• Clip:
  "When I go around and I talk to people there is frustration, and there is anger, and there is bitterness. And what's worse is when people are expressing their anger, then politicians try to say "what are you angry about?" This just happened, I want to make a point here today. I was in San Francisco talking to a group at a fundraiser, and somebody asked me, well, you know, how are you going to get votes in Pennsylvania? What's going on there? We hear that's its hard for some working class people to get behind you're campaign, why is that? I said, "Well look, they're frustrated and for good reason. Because for the last 25 years they've seen jobs shipped overseas, they've seen their economies collapse. They have lost their jobs, they have lost their pensions, they have lost their healthcare. And for 25, 30 years Democrats and Republicans have come before them and said we're going to make your community better. We're going to make it right, and nothing ever happens".

  And of course they're bitter. Of course they're frustrated. You would be too. In fact many of you are; because the same thing has happened here in Indiana. The same thing happened across the border in Decatur, the same thing has happened all across the country. Nobody is looking out for you. Nobody is thinking about you. And so people end up, they don't vote on economic issues because they don't expect anybody's going to help them. So people end up, you know, voting on issues like guns, and are they going to have the right to bear arms. They vote on issues like gay marriage. And they take refuge in their faith and their community and their families and things they can count on. But they don't believe they can count on Washington. So I made this statement, so, here's what rich. Senator Clinton says "No, I don't think that people are bitter in Pennsylvania. You know, I think Barack's being condescending." John McCain says, "Oh, how could he say that? How could he say people are bitter? You know, he's obviously out of touch with people."

  Out of touch? Out of touch? I mean, John McCain, it took him three tries to finally figure out that the home foreclosure crisis was a problem, and to come up with a plan for it, and he's saying I'm out of touch? Senator Clinton voted for a credit card-sponsored bankruptcy bill, that made it harder for people to get out of debt after taking money from the financial services companies; and she says I'm out of touch? No, I'm in touch. I know exactly what's going on. I know what's going on in Pennsylvania. I know what's going on in Indiana. I know what's going on in Illinois. People are fed-up. They're angry and they're frustrated and they're bitter. And they want to see a change in Washington and that's why I'm running for President of the United States of America.

  "
  Senator Barack Obama, April 11, 2008.
• Bumper Music: Attitude, the Kinks.
• Clip:
  [Chris Matthews]: "David, the question that a lot of women especially care about is, choice–abortion rights– and although they may like the cut of his jib because he seems like a maverick and sort of a suburban, independent type–not part of some machine–he does relentlessly say that he’s for strict constructionists. He likes Scalia, he likes Roberts, he likes Alito. How does he break out of that?"

  [David Brooks]: "He doesn’t. That’s who, that’s what he believes he’d believed that for thirty years. The guy is pro-life. He’s a conservative. The way he breaks out of this though electorally is to be Teddy Roosevelt and this is going to be the toughest thing for his campaign. He’s got a group of people around him and frankly a group or party that doesn’t want the government to do anything to help poor people. And he has to break out of that. He’s begun to do that on housing."

  [Chris Matthews]: "Especially when there are more poor people now."

  [David Brooks]: "Right, and but he’s gotta…he’s gotta say, ‘hey Teddy Roosevelt took on corporations, he took on health insurance, he took on the trust of his day,’ and it’s going to be up to–and this is going to be the toughest part of his campaign–is breaking out of those restrictions on the role of government to be aggressive on the behalf of people, sometimes against corporations, which is going to make the party feel uncomfortable but to me, it’s his only shot at getting those white working class he needs."
  The Chris Matthews Show: David Brooks Says In Order To Win, McCain Can’t Appear To Be Too…Republican. Which Roosevelt?

• "The reason (George H. W. Bush's tactic) works so well now is that you have all these economically insecure white people who are scared to death."

  Clinton was quoted saying by the Los Angeles Times in September 1991. A couple months later, Joe Klein, writing for the Sunday Times, reported that Clinton made the following remarks:
  

  "You know, he [Bush] wants to divide us over race. I'm from the South. I understand this. This quota deal they're gonna pull in the next election is the same old scam they've been pulling on us for decade after decade after decade. When their economic policies fail, when the country's coming apart rather than coming together, what do they do? They find the most economically insecure white men and scare the living daylights out of them. They know if they can keep us looking at each other across a racial divide, if I can look at Bobby Rush and think, Bobby wants my job, my promotion, then neither of us can look at George Bush and say, 'What happened to everybody's job? What happened to everybody's income? What ... have ... you ... done ... to ... our ... country?' "

  Bill Clinton Flashback: "All These Economically Insecure White People...Are Scared To Death".

• Bumper Music: Everything, Alanis Morissette.
• Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
• Article: Cheney Challenges Hillary to Hunting Contest‘Meet Me in the Woods,’ Says Veep.
• Quote: "Given the choice between a Republican and someone who acts like a Republican, people will vote for the real Republican all the time." Harry S Truman.
• Article: Meeting Reverend John Hagee, Deal W. Hudson.
• Guest: Dr. Deal Hudson, author, Onward, Christian Soldiers: The Growing Political Power of Catholics and Evangelicals in the United States. Thom challenges Dr. Deal Hudson on his "white-wash" interview of Rev. Hagee. He's a former Texas southern baptist minister, now Catholic. He's for McCain. McCain is for war. Pope John Paul II was against war. War is going to be McCain's major problem with catholics. Abortion vs. war. Prudential matter. Should the Catholic hierarchy involve itself in American politics?
• Bumper Music: Tom Cruise Scares Me, David Ippolito. (video)
• Article: "In late 2006, as economists warned of an imminent housing market collapse, housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson repeatedly insisted that the mounting wave of mortgage failures was a short-term "correction."

  He pushed for legislation that would make it easier for federally backed lenders to make mortgage loans to risky borrowers who put less money down. He issued a rule that was criticized by law enforcement authorities because it could increase the difficulty of detecting and proving mortgage fraud

  ."
  HUD Chief Inattentive To Crisis, Critics Say.
• Article: Jackson ignored housing crisis, solicited ‘emergency bid’ for oil portrait of himself..
• Article: G7 concern over disorderly slide of main currencies.
• Article: Focus of tax audits shifts to smaller US companies.
  "Mr Zerbe, a former senior aide to Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate finance committee which oversees US tax policy, added: "These corporations are struggling in this tough economy and trying to keep jobs in this country. The last thing they need is the IRS showing up on their doorstep just to make their numbers look good." "
• Article: Berlusconi's sexism chafes as Italian vote looms.
• Article: McCain: 'Hillary Can Still Pull It Off'.
• Is Hillary in it for herself like Joe Lieberman? No.
• Bumper Music: Bells Of Freedom, Bon Jovi.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Thom will be broadcasting from the UN June 5th with Ellen. Iraq deaths in Sadr City, fighting. Al Sadr wants to reinstate people fired for not participating in Basra. The president held a cabinet meeting, by 2nd week in May people should get stimulus checks. SHA secure initiative. Todays Financial Times article about Columbia agreement. The Supreme Court will hear the case of a man who spent 24 years in prison. Thomas Goldstein's conviction was overturned, he's now suing. Defense issues, house appropriations, Bush wants money for defense. House education and labor committee material markup of bill, chair wants to make it so all 401k charges are explained to consumer. Pope visit at UN, masses.
• Clip:
  "I’ve made it very clear, I’ve made it very clear in my statements and in my support of the Detainee Treatment Act, the Geneva Conventions, etc., that there may be some additional techniques to be used, but none of those would violate the Geneva Conventions, the Detainee Treatment Act…And we cannot ever, in my view, torture any American, that includes waterboarding."
  McCain Takes Bold Stance On Torture: ‘We Cannot Ever Torture Any American’. Thom would recommend visiting prisons.
• We stopped teaching civics in the 1980s. Pogrom of professors. David Horowitz, tail end of Reagan High School campaign. Progressive history is not in textbooks. It's worse than Thom thought.
• Article: A Textbook Case of Downplaying Global Warming?
• Bumper Music: Blaze Of Glory Bon Jovi (video).
• Guest: Hannah Saona, ACLU, Idaho. Idaho rejects the Real ID Act. Even the right wingers who live in cabins with guns and supplies reject it. It's anti-American. Privacy concerns; it connects databases. Identity theft fear.
• Bumper Music: Calling America, ELO.
• Article: McCain More Conservative Than His Image.
• Bumper Music: You can leave your hat on, Randy Newman.
• Article: Italy porn star uses her bottom to attract votes.
• Bumper Music: I'm free, Rolling Stones (video).
• Yesterday was Thomas Jefferson's birthday.
• Hillary needs to tell us why we should vote for her, not why not to vote for Obama. She's destroying her chances. She's getting lousy advice? Incestuous nature of Washington politics, lobbying.