• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.
• Racism.
• Rush Limbaugh calling for riots and beatings in Denver.
• Justice Scalia: "get over it.".
• Hardening of sides within the Democratc Party.
• What's the filter through which we view society?

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

Friday 25 April '08 show

• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. Housing starts are back to 20 years ago, and there were far fewer people then. Middle class collapsing. The top are making out like bandits. People's responses to his request for stories about how the economy is affecting them - there are now over 600. Truckers going out of business. Speculators driving up oil prices. He did a press conference yesterday, 1991 war to defend Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia is now producing less oil, yet want us to sell them sophisticated aircraft. Take oil out of the strategic reserve. Levin, Feinstein, Cantwell, Nye pushing to close the "Enron loophole", end speculation. Hedge funds are not regulated, operate in secret. Card check. Women's life expectancy is going down. Detroit jobs. Privateering. Biodiesel pricing. Primaries, Republicans crossing over and voting for Hillary. Superdelegates. Bernie sees negativity as destructive. Scott Ritter on Stephanie Miller Show talking about missiles, Petraeus promoted, Fallon left, Iran, Cheney was in Saudi Arabia which is preparing for nuclear fallout. Economy. Denouement of class war, bandits winning, stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Economic rant. It's not enough just to vote. Colbert is extremely bright, fast, funny. He communicates to young people. The Finnish ambassador was on the show last week. Solar power, California rationing water, they leased 100 commercial rooftops and covered them with 2 square miles of solar panels.
• Bumper Music: Where's All The Freedom, Merle Haggard.
• Bumper Music: One Big Union, Matthew Grimm & The Red Smear (video).
• Clip:
  [Colbert]: "Anyway, my guest tonight claims to be the only Socialist in the Senate. I’ll get him to name names. Please welcome Senator Bernie Sanders! Senator, thank you so much for joining us. "

  [Sanders]: "My pleasure."

  [Colbert]: "Now, you describe yourself as a Democratic Socialist, correct?"

  [Sanders]: "Yes."

  [Colbert]: "That takes, if you’ll pardon me for saying so, some huevos rancheros. To call yourself — to call yourself a “socialist” in this day and age! That’s like, after the Chicago fire, saying, “I’m an arsonist!” You know, “socialist”, we crushed you people in the Cold War, didn’t we? Capitalism won, sir! "

  [Sanders]: "Mmmm, not exactly."
  Bernie on the Colbert Report, 21 April 2008.

• An email from pastor Rick Scarborough entitled "Obama - black community first and foremost" about Michelle Obama's Princeton University thesis in which she wrote, "There is no doubt in my mind that as a member of the black community, I am obligated to this community and will utilize all of my present and future resources to benefit the black community first and foremost". He says, "Mrs. Obama clearly identifies herself in her thesis as a separationist and not an integrationist. She states tat there are clearly separate black and white communities in America and she elevates black over white."
• Clip:
  [Limbaugh]: "To Atlanta, where it's going to hit 80 degrees today finally. Here is Lisa, nice to have you on the EIB Network. Hello."

  [Lisa]: "Hi, Rush. I'm calling because I wanted to get some clarification on a comment that you made yesterday at the end of the first hour."

  [Limbaugh]: "Yes, ma'am."

  [Lisa]: "You made the comment, um, I think one of the call, one of your callers that called in, you were saying that you were hoping for riots if the Democrats choose Hillary over Obama, and you even kind of sang your statement to the tune of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas", or did you mean a white country? What, what exactly did you mean by those statements yesterday?"

  ...

  [Limbaugh]: "I'm being a nice guy! You said play it back. I don't need to play it back. I can sing it again. Yesterday I didn't have the melody right. That's why I gave up on it."

  [Lisa]: "It's like you revel in the division of this country."

  [Limbaugh]: "What is in your mind, Lisa?"

  [Lisa]: "Republican, Democrat, we Americans, we need to do away with both parties and just really start from scratch and think about what's best with this country."

  [Limbaugh]: "No. Nope. You know what we need to do away with?"

  [Lisa]: "And all that would do is put Rush out of business, with his hate-filled discussions every day for three or four hours a day."

  [Limbaugh]: "There's no hate on this program. We need to put liberals out of business, Lisa."
  Rush Limbaugh, "Lisa from Atlanta: Racist Seminar Caller on Denver Convention Riots", April 24, 2008.

• Clip:
  "So, all those clowns at the liberal radio network, we could incarcerate them immediately. Will you have that done, please? Send over the FBI and just put them in chains, because they, you know, they're undermining everything and they don't care." Bill O'Reilly, June 20 broadcast of Westwood One's The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly, 2005.
• "Homeland" Security creeps Thom out. Quote: "Dank ihrer Führung wird Deutschland sein Ziel erreichen, Heimat zu sein. Heimat zu sein für alle Deutschen der Welt." Rudolph Hess, 1934 Nuremburg rally.
• The genocide in Rwanda was started by talk radio. Large parts of America hear only Rush Limbaugh and his ilk.
• Article: Hillary Clinton goes nuclear. Hillary: “We would be able to totally obliterate them.” (Iran).
  "Mrs Clinton’s latest television advertisement features, among others, Osama bin Laden. It ends with a rhetorical question: “Who do you think has what it takes?” Certainly not, voters are invited to conclude, an effete and elitist senator from Illinois with Hussein as a middle name.

  We all know, after all, how Mr Obama would deal with America’s enemies. While Mrs Clinton was reaching for the president’s nuclear football, Mr Obama would actually be taking tea with Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, the Iranian president. Has not he admitted as much? Mrs Clinton mocks such naivety. Curiously, the lesson she draws from the past eight years is that the only language these tyrants understand is American military might...

  In one respect, she is right. If it turns out – and it may – that nothing can dissuade Tehran from joining the nuclear club, then the US will need to devise a deterrence strategy. I would hazard a guess, though, that it will be something more sophisticated than a blanket threat to eviscerate 70-odd million Iranians. We have left behind that period of history when it was deemed reasonable to visit the sins of tyrannical rulers on entire nations.

  "
• Impeachment. What is to prevent Bush or McCain pardoning all of them?
• Book: "The Impeachment of George W. Bush", Liz Holtzman.
• Bumper Music: Anything Goes, Harpers Bizarre.
• Congress should be holding hearings. Obama has said that if he becomes president, he will investigate the crimes of the current administration. Previous presidents stopped investigations into their predecessors.
• Commentators are openly calling for riots, police beatings in Denver.
• Clip:
  [Limbaugh]: "If you heard that call -- if you didn't, if you're just joining us; we had a call from a woman named Lisa in Atlanta who was tarring me as a racist when she was the actual racist, because of my desire to see the Democrat convention break down exactly as it did in 1968 in Chicago with Democrats beating up on Democrats in the streets. Mayor Daley's cops, his thugs went out there and were attacking Democrats, and the SDS was there and all the anti-war crowd -- the Jerry Rubins and the Tom Haydens -- they were starting fires and so forth, and the Democrats sent Mayor Daley's thugs out there to beat 'em upside the head!"
  Rush Limbaugh, "Lisa from Atlanta: Racist Seminar Caller on Denver Convention Riots", April 24, 2008.
• David Sirota's hypothesis.
• Bumper Music: Cold as ice, Foreigner.
• Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
• Article: Note to Lincoln High parents puts 'vice' in advice for prom .
• Clip:
  "I and my court owe no apology whatever for Bush versus Gore. We did the right thing. So there."
  Scalia on Bush v. Gore: ‘Get over it!’.
• Clip:
  [Scalia]: "I and my court owe no apology whatever for Bush versus Gore. We did the right thing. So there!"

  [Stahl]: "People say that that decision was not based on judicial philosophy but on politics."

  [Scalia]: "I say nonsense."

  [Stahl]: "Was it political?"

  [Scalia]: "Gee, I really don’t wanna get into - I mean this is - get over it. It's so old by now."
  Justice Scalia On The Record.

• Zimbabwe exit polls show Mugabe was beaten, he won't allow the results of the election to be released. The world is upset about this. It is now 7 years since the Florida elections and the results have not been released.
• Article: In the ’60s, a Future Candidate Poured Her Heart Out in Letters, July 29, 2007. Hillary Clinton.
• Bumper Music: The Way Life's Meant to Be, ELO.
• There's increased hardening on both sides. It is exactly what Rush, McCain, Rove want - to split the party. And Rush Limbaugh wants riots in Denver. Democrats and Bill Richardson and James Carville close to hitting each other below the belt on Larry King Live. Peter DeFazio wrote to both campaigns saying to prove how each can defeat McCain.
• Clip:
  [Bill Richardson]: "They're changing the rules. They want to bring in Florida and Michigan all of a sudden and count them. They're basically saying that Senator Obama is -- can't win in November, when he is, obviously, the strongest general election candidate winning battleground states and his message with Independents. And now, all of a sudden, the presidency is slipping away and they'll do anything to keep it."

  [James Carville]: "You know, maybe the governor was on vacation and not taking phone calls when myself and Governor Rendell and Governor Corzine offered to pay for a revote in Florida and Michigan. And, by the way, I would point out, of people actually voting, Senator Clinton leads the popular vote. People did go vote in Florida. They did go vote in Michigan. If you don't want to count the delegates after they voted. But we said..."

  [Bill Richardson]: "That is false."

  [James Carville]: "Excuse me. Governor..."

  [Bill Richardson]: "That is totally false."

  [James Carville]: "Governor, I don't..."

  [Bill Richardson]: "How can you say, when they didn't participate, James?"

  [James Carville]: "Governor, I..."

  [Bill Richardson]: "How could you say that?"

  [James Carville]: "Honestly, sir..."

  [Bill Richardson]: "That is lunacy."

  [James Carville]: "I have not interrupted you."

  [Bill Richardson]: "That is lunacy."

  [James Carville]: "Sir, I have not interrupted you."

  [Bill Richardson]: "All right. Go ahead."

  [James Carville]: "I have not interrupted you."

  [Larry King]: "All right. One at a time. Go ahead."

  [James Carville]: "Right. So maybe he was on vacation not taking phone calls. We offered to pay for it -- to have a vote in Florida and Michigan. We got -- we've got nine percent of the Democrats in this country live in Florida and Michigan. They did go vote. Now you may not want to cost the delegates, but please don't offer to me that Senator Obama won the popular -- is winning the popular vote, because he's not."
  CNN Larry King Live. Carville vs. Richardson: Whose Candidate Can Come Out on Top? Aired April 23, 2008 - 21:00 ET.

• Article: Keith Olbermann Interviews Hillary Clinton: Video and Transcript. Iran.
• We need to have a good rational discussion about how to prevent nuclear war in the Middle East. Which of these countries do we want to protect? Israel is a long time ally and a democracy. Egypt and Jordan have been long time allies, though less democratic. Saudi Arabia does not even pretend to be a democracy. What's our relationship with Syria going to be? A third of today's Financial Times editorial page is devoted to Hillary and Iran.
• 9/11. The Democrats should be loudly questioning issues raised for example the warnings the Bush administration ignored, the fact that two of the alleged attackers were living with an FBI agent, Colleen Rowley, why did they stand stuff down. The alleged wiring of a building is too controversial for Democrats to touch. The Republicans are defending Bush's failure and Cheney's and Rumsfeld's bizarre behavior too. They have conflated legitimate questions with crazy stuff.
• Clip:
  "They like her fight. And they like what she is saying. And they are ready to take this thing on. And let me congratulate FOX because you were the first ones to call it for Hillary Clinton. Fair and balanced FOX. You beat them all."
  Hillary Clinton Campaign Chair Terry McAuliffe on Hillary's Pa. Primary Win. They repackaged it into an ad.
• Article: GOP objects to bill allowing recounts. Rush Holt.
• What have black people done to deserve racism? What are people afraid of? Next Wednesday at noon we're going to have the guy from the KKK on, to answer Ernest's question.
• Article: Ship hired by US military fires warning shots in Gulf.
• Bring back the original incarnation of the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to help all of those losing their homes. More people are expressing economic fear, the stimulus check won't go far.
• Thom:
  

  And this gets to the larger question of 'what's the filter through which we view society'? The filter through which Americans have been viewing society since the Reagan years, and this has been a debate that has been going on since this country was founded, is the filter of private property. We consider private property to be freedom and society and family and community and safety and security, those are all the things that are derived from private property and freedom.

  If you talk to folks in Denmark, they will tell you that the filter through which they view life, and they view the purpose of government, is family, security, safety and community, and that when those things are solid, then private property is a subordinate thing, but then people can have private property. And it's like, which are you going to hold higher? In our society, it's all about "I'm going to get mine, you're going to get yours" kind of thing, and in most of the other industrialized societies in the world it is "we are all in this together". And that's where Michael Moore said it so brilliantly in his movie Sicko. There was that one incredibly poignant moment where he said, "ultimately we have", and I'm paraphrasing, "ultimately we have to decide are we a 'we' society or a 'me' society?"

• Bumper Music: Addicted To Oil, Capitol Steps.
• Clip:
  "Iraq sits on top of 10 percent of the world’s oil reserves, very significant reserves, second only to Saudi Arabia." Vice President Dick Cheney, Meet the Press, September 14, 2003.
• Clip: McCain laughs, Sings Bomb Iran.
• Bumper Music: Bomb Iran, Vince Vance & The Valiants.
• Book: "The Invention of the White Race: Racial Oppression and Social Control", Theodore W. Allen.
• Book: "The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Colors", Frances Cress Welsing.
• Bumper Music: What a Wonderful World, Louis Armstrong. Thanks.
• Article: US shows evidence of alleged Syria-N. Korea nuke collaboration.
  "There's not a clear and compelling case as to why this information is being made available to the committee today. There has been no change in circumstances as to the reasons why we were not told eight months ago," Hoekstra said.
• Article: DoD News Briefing with Adm. Mullen from the Pentagon, Arlington, Va..
  "First, on Iran, I've been clear lately that I'm extremely concerned about what I believe to be an increasingly lethal and malign influence by that government and the Qods Force in particular in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. I believe recent events, especially the Basra operation, have revealed just how much and just how far Iran is reaching into Iraq to foment instability. Their support to criminal groups in the form of munitions and training, as well as other assistance they are providing and the attacks they are encouraging, continues to kill coalition and Iraqi personnel. The Iranian government pledged to halt such activities some months ago. It's plainly obvious they have not. Indeed, they seem to have gone the other way...

  I have no expectations that -- you know, that we're going to get into a conflict with Iran in the immediate future...

  I've said before that, you know, this is a -- and would just, I guess reaffirm -- that a third conflict in this part of the world would be extremely stressing for us. That said, I have reserve capability, in particularly our Navy and our Air Force, not just there but available globally. So it would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability.

  "
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. There was a briefing late yesterday afternoon about Syria, bombing of facility, the press is skeptical: was it really a reactor? Republican Pete Hoekstra asked why, if this was the case, was there no briefing in Congress for 8 months? Why should we believe them? List of things they have lied about: Pat Tilman, Jessica Lynch, anthrax, weapons of mass destruction, mushroom clouds. Mike Mullen's briefing. Talk Radio News' Pentagon correspondent will be travelling as pool reporter with the Secretary of Defense next week, including to Mexico. Ellen's going to Dubai, Richard will be in Afghanistan. Petraeus replacing Fallon, Iran. Weapons in Iraq that can be tracked back to recent manufacture in Iran, said to be proof of Iranian involvement. American weapons are found around the world, so can a similar argument be made abut American involvement in conflicts? Iraq and Iran they have official trade relations. The Iranian bank building in Dubai is huge. Drums beating out of the Pentagon. Housing stimulus bill. Apparently there is apparently a Senators Reid and McConnell deal for a package for $4b to purchase foreclosed properties. What to do to help individuals?