• Pennsylvania Primary results.
• Republican Attack Ads.
• Guest: Sarah Hailey Merriam who worked with the SEIU in Pennsylvania yesterday.
• Guest: CNS Editor-in-Chief Terence Jeffrey. "And the winner is John McCain".
• What would be your elevator speech for the candidate you do not prefer?
• Guest: Dr. Robert R. Hieronimus, "The United Symbolism of America: Deciphering Hidden Meanings in America's Most Familiar Art, Architecture, and Logos ".
• "Takin Back Our Country": Guest: Dan Seals. Northern Chicago.
• Guest: Larisa Alexandrova, Raw Story. Updates on Don Siegelman and Paul Minor.

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

Wednesday 23 April '08 show

• Article: The race chasm, David Sirota, 5 April 2006.
  "Barack Obama has won in states that have large white or large black populations, states where race politics don't play out on a daily basis.".
• Article: Pennsylvania and the Persistence of the Race Chasm, David Sirota.
• Video: Extreme. North Carolina Republican Party.
  

  “Narrator: For twenty years, Barack Obama sat in his pew listening to his pastor.

  Jeremiah Wright: And then wants us to sing God Bless America. No, no, no. Not God Bless America, God (censored) America.

  Narrator: Now Bev Perdue and Richard Moore endorse Barack Obama. They should know better. He’s just too extreme for North Carolina.

  Chairman Linda Daves: The North Carolina Republican Party sponsored this ad opposing Bev Perdue and Richard Moore for North Carolina Governor.”

• Hillary won by 9.375% in Pennsylvania. Before she needed 64-65% of all the delegates, now 69-70%. Hillary said she believes the tide is turning. David Sirota was on the show on 7 April, two op eds. The networks stopped talking about Edwards, then his numbers dropped. The networks are pro big business. They want to be able to use sexism and misogamy or racism for McCain. North Carolina Republican ad. The tragic flaws of sexism and misogamy or racism in this nation. Democrats are becoming hardened, influencing independents, not based on issues but personality, race or gender or association with Bill Clinton. We are sliding in depression, moderate Supreme Court retirees will need to be replaced. The conspiracy theory about Hillary wanting Obama to lose against McCain so she can win in 4 years time.
• Article: Gen. Petraeus named as next commander of Mideast command. As BuzzFlash commented, "Bush and Cheney Forced Out Admiral Fallon as Head of CENTCOM Because He Opposed Nuking Iran. Now Bush and Cheney Put Their Yes Man, Petraeus, in as CENTCOM Head So They Can Attack Iran and Say That It was a Decision by the Head of CENTCOM. Quite a Scam They Got Going There".
• Article: IRAN: Considering Hillary Clinton's 'obliterate' remarks.
  [Chris Cuomo:]: "You said if Iran were to strike Israel, there would be 'massive retaliation." Scary words. Does 'massive retaliation" mean you'd go into Iran? You would bomb Iran? Is that what that's supposed to suggest?"

  [Hillary Clinton]: "Well, the question was, if Iran were to launch a nuclear attack on Israel, what would our response be? And I want the Iranians to know that if I am president, we will attack Iran. And I want them to understand that. Because it does mean that they have to look very carefully at their society. Because whatever stage of development they might be in their nuclear weapons program, in the next 10 years during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate them. That's a terrible thing to say, but those people who run Iran need to understand that. Because that, perhaps, will deter them from doing something that would be reckless, foolish, and tragic."

• Racism. The USA has the largest prison population, but not overall population. The majority of prisoners are black, but not the majority of the population. Obama is half white and speaks white.
• Bumper Music: George W. Told The Nation, Tom Paxton (video)
• CNN is interviewing Barack Obama, saying that the Washington Post reports that he is going negative. He said, "The Washington Post needs to take that source out of its Rolodex".
• The people who ran the Willie Horton political ad 1988
  

  have a new web site, exposeobama.com. They sent out an email...
  

  Dear right versus left supporter,

  Please find an important message from Bruce Hawkins, executive director of exposeobama.com...

  Ask yourself... do you really want the next President of the United States of America to be a man with ties to known Marxists such as Frank Marshall Davis and terrorists such as Bill Ayers and former PLO operative Rashid Khalidi?

  Consider the fact that Barack Hussein Obama refuses to wear the flag on his lapel, or that he does not place his hand over his heart in the presence of the American flag.

  Consider the fact that Barack Hussein Obama embraces Jeremiah Wright, a man who has preached the most vile racial hatred and anti-American sentiments from the pulpit for twenty years, while at the same time Barack Hussein Obama accuses decent hard-working Americans of bigotry when he says things like, "It's not surprising that they get bitter. They cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them...

  ." Consider the fact that Barack Hussein Obama's wife Michelle said that her husband's candidacy marked, "the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country."

  But what really makes "President Barack Hussein Obama" the scariest four words in the English language is that fact that HE CAN BECOME THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

  They are raising money to put an ad on the television:
  

  Narrator: Tamika McFadden-Harris, murdered leaving church choir practice. Cut down by gang gunfire while shielding her six-year-old daughter. Mike Boyd, killed at 15, beaten with bricks after a gang member crashed into his car. Severo Enriquez, just 14 years old when he refused to flash a gang hand sign. He was shot five times in the back. They all died in 2001, in Chicago. The Sun-Times called it "urban terrorism," and demanded action on gang violence. But that same year, a Chicago state senator named Barack Obama voted against expanding the death penalty for gang-related murders. When the time came to get tough, Obama chose to be weak. So the question is, can a man so weak on the war on gangs, be trusted in the war on terror. The National Campaign Fund is responsible for the content of this ad.

  It would appear that the right believe that Obama will win the nomination, and are gearing up against him.

• Article: 'Reprehensible Misrepresentation'.
• Historical example of negative campaign advertising.
• Bumper Music: The Mail Must Go Through, Larry Groce & The Disneyland Children's Sing Along Chorus (clip). To call the comment line, go to thomhartmann.com and click on "contact".
• Guest: Sarah Hailey Merriam who worked with the SEIU in Pennsylvania yesterday. Canvassing. Flyers were sent out saying where to call about precinct information - nobody got through. Others are not being registered, and were turned away without provisional ballots. Broken machines.
• "And the Winner is John McCain" - Huffington Post's title in large letters at the top of the front page for for the New York Times article, The Bruising Will Go On for the Party, Too.
• Guest: CNS Editor-in-Chief Terence Jeffrey. "And the winner is John McCain". Yesterday was bad news for the Democratic Party. Hillary has exposed weaknesses in Obama since February; churchgoers went for her. Guilt by association. Bob Casey won, and Rahm Emmanuel fielded several similar people. States where the swing votes are, e.g. Ohio. How are Republicans going to run McCain given the recession, his tax policies? Legalized abortion.
• Bumper Music: Are the Good Times Really Over for Good (Wish a buck was still silver), Merle Haggard.
• Are the right wing attacking Obama now because they believe he will be the nominee and they are in a race to define him before he can define himself, or are they doing this because they would rather run against Hillary Clinton so they want to help her take him down in the primaries? McCain has said he would much rather run against Hillary Clinton as he thinks she would be easier to beat. Or both?
• Bumper Music: Magic, Pilot.
• Thom asked callers what would be their elevator speech for the candidate they do not prefer?
• Thom:
  

  I really would love to hear, there are some very partisan ... web sites out there that are taking very strong Obama or Clinton positions, and I'd love to hear them argue the opposite position. I think it would be fascinating. But as I'm asking callers, 'can you speak on behalf of the candidate that you don't like, if you're stuck with that candidate, can you right now just give me your elevator speech?' people are like, 'nope, can't do that'. And that says to me that this thing has gone on way too long and been way too acrimonious.

• Bumper Music: Talk, Coldplay.
• Darfur needs more helicopters.
  "At the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Darfur, Jane Holl Lute, officer in charge of the United Nation’s Department of Field Support, says that there are 4,000 helicopters available in NATO countries, and asks if there are not 24 for Darfur."
• Article: Just say no to abstinence-only sex education?
  "The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform held a hearing about the effectiveness of government funded abstinence-only education programs in high school.

  Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) made reference to Centers for Disease Control data that shows that one in four teenage girls has a sexually transmitted infection and that 30 percent of American women become pregnant before the age of 20.

  "
• Article: Yoo refuses to testify about torture memos..
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Darfur hearing, Jane Lute testifying and the president's special envoy. Disagreement over helicopters to watch over Darfur. Ambassador Williamson did not have anything to say except it was not the major issue. All were saying it is slow genocide. Joe Biden said he would intervene tomorrow if he could, because of genocide. They say we can't because of Iraq. The Bush administration are in bed with Khartoum on the war on terror. Chinese oil, a representative from USAID said that humanitarian workers did not approve of a no fly zone because Khartoum would call it an act of war and toss them out. Three aid workers were murdered. That's the only way the rebels get their supplies. Mia Farrow has pictures from Sudan on her site. House Oversight Committee, Waxman, looking at government financed abstinence only sex education. Brownback said 80 percent of parents would like their children to abstain from sex until marriage. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. Goodyear case, the Supreme Court say you only have 6 months. Veto? Dana Perino said there was a good possibility that it will not get cloture, maybe 6pm, call Senate and say please vote to get cloture. Call Congress.
• "Everything You Know is Wrong": Guest: Dr. Robert R. Hieronimus, "The United Symbolism of America: Deciphering Hidden Meanings in America's Most Familiar Art, Architecture, and Logos ". The phrase "Novus Ordo Seculorum" below the Roman numerals for 1776 at the base of the pyramid means "A New Order of the Ages", not "New World Order". Not a "Christian nation". The GOP upside down stars are not satanic. Founding Father Charles Thomson, founding father, originated the pyramid/eye combination - the symbols are not exclusive to masons. Liberty bell. It was designed to be uplifting, spiritual but not religious. Native Americans and eagles. The Iroquois revered eagles. Eagles denote "that which protects our nation" - eternal vigilance - necessary for a confederacy - if you don't look out for it, you will lose it. The eagle on the seal has arrows in one claw and the olive branch of peace in the other - a balance. The Internet has a bunch of crap; go to original documents, the right has not. Only 9 founders were masons, none of the main ones. Reagan told Hieronimus it was Masonic.
• "Takin Back Our Country": Guest: Dan Seals.
  "When Dan Seals ran for Congress in 2006, it was the first time the then-Director at GE Capital had ever run for office. An unknown at the beginning of the campaign, Dan and his local supporters built a strong grassroots organization with thousands of volunteers and raised almost $2 million—all with little help from the national party. However, he did receive support from national figures such as Senators Barack Obama and Dick Durbin, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and former Tenth District Congressman Abner Mikva. After a short 11-month campaign and a lot of hard work, Dan shocked the pundits and incumbent Mark Kirk by winning 47 percent in the election. Dan is vying for the seat again in 2008, and this time with even more support."

  Business consultant. Illinois, Northern Chicago. It used to be Rumsfeld's constituency, but it has expanded, different people have moved out to the suburbs, so it has changed. It's been Democratic since Bill Clinton's second term. He now has support and respect and so the Republicans are coming after him. Iraq. Affordable health care a right. Economy. No silver bullets.

• Bumper Music: My Wish, Rascal Flatts.
• Article: Siegelman: Rove 'hijacked' the Dept. of Justice to win elections.
• Guest: Larisa Alexandrova, Raw Story. Updates on Don Siegelman and Paul Minor. The attorneys who were not fired. Karl Rove could go to prison for this - unless pardoned. John Conyers looking into it. Stonewalled. Call officials. Demand that the media covers it.
• Bumper Music: You are not alone, Eagles.