• Guest: Kari Chisholm, Blue Oregon. Does Oregon Put Obama's White Working Class Problem To Rest? Transcript.
• Guest: Fred Lucas, staff writer, Cybercast News Service. Election results through the lens of both conservative and liberal.
• Guest: Dr. Stephen Frye, author, "Twenty-Five Reasons to Legalize Drugs - We Really Lost This War".

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

Wednesday 21 May '08 show

• Oregon and Kentucky primaries.
• Article: Oregon's electorate: the most liberal liberals; the most conservative conservatives, Kari Chisholm, BlueOregon, May 18, 2008.
• Guest: Kari Chisholm, Blue Oregon. Does Oregon Put Obama's White Working Class Problem To Rest? Transcript.
• Bumper Music: Shout Out Loud, Amos Lee.
• Article: White On White, Timothy Egan, New York Times, May 21, 2008.
  "On to Oregon, where Obama won by double digits. A bunch of chai tea sipping elitists, with zero body fat, living in hip lofts while working at Nike, yes? No. Well, they do like running, and tea. Oregon is one of the nation’s whitest states – just under 2 percent of residents are black – but rich it is not. The state is below the national average in both per capita income and median household income.

  This suggests that Obama doesn’t have a white working class problem so much as a regional problem, in a place where Democrats won’t win anyway.

  "
• Guest: Fred Lucas, staff writer, Cybercast News Service. Election results through the lens of both conservative and liberal ...now what? he's playing it down the middle. Last night's elections. The Republican vote for Ron Paul. John McCain's problem with his base. Problems unifying the party because it has deviated over so many issues over the years. The Democratic primary has been so divisive that numerous polls show that roughly one fifth of Democratic voters say they will vote for McCain in the fall. Obama might have a tougher time in the swing states. Are we watching the disintegration of the semi-neo-conservative, libertarian, pro free trade, pro corporate rights, pro tort reform wing of the Republican Party?
• Bumper Music: Say What You Need To Say, John Mayer (video).
• Chuck Hagel scored 0% on progressive tax reform. He's Republican but is against the war.
• Bumper Music: Cold as ice, Foreigner.
• Bumper Music: Ghost Chickens in the Sky, Sean Morey.
• Article: Polly wants to go home: Lost parrot tells vet his address.
• Site: Gary Pritchard for California State Senate 33rd district.
• Bumper Music: Give a Little Bit, Supertramp.
• Article: A White, Working-Class State for Obama, Jeff Alworth, BlueOregon, May 19, 2008.
• Guest: Dr. Stephen Frye, author, "Twenty-Five Reasons to Legalize Drugs - We Really Lost This War". Dr. Dean O'Dell endorsement. More Americans have been killed in the war on drugs than in wars, in various ways: drugs, gangs, dealers, early death in prison. Teen murder 19%. It's a violent business. Violence during prohibition, murder rate went down each year for 11 years after it ended, racism worse than slavery, he spoke to Bill Cosby. Slaves owners at least looked after their slaves so they could work, and their kids for future workers. The death rate in foster care is four times that of those not in foster care. Thom had the Dutch police chief on the show. Thom would use pot rather than alcohol if it were legal because it is safer for the body. Tobacco and alcohol are the most dangerous drugs, and they are legal. Narcoterroism, so the illegal market supports terrorism. The Netherlands proves that demand goes way down. Decriminalization vs. legalization. The American system would continue to harass drug users after decriminalization. The Dutch don't have ghettos.
• Bumper Music: Me And My Gang, Rascal Flatts.
• Legalize the use of drugs in their natural form, rather than pharmaceutical versions. People are making money incarcerating drug takers, testing them.
• Bumper Music: Talk to me, Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac.
• Article: White House's Gillespie Takes NBC News Complaint To Fox.
  "Our concern is, frankly, and I raised it that when you have people like Keith Olbermann and Christopher Matthews and MSNBC and the frequently blurring of the lines between that commentary, that advocacy on their part on behalf of certain candidates with the NBC news division increasingly commingling, there may be a spillover effect here that is disconcerting."
• Article: Medical marijuana user dies for lack of liver transplant.
• Movie: a/k/a Tommy Chong.
• Contest. Before the last segment of the show, go to thomhartmann.com and post a comment in response to today's "On the Program" entry. The winner gets a signed copy of .
  The winner was Matto the Hun for:
  

  I LIKE the Obama is an Exotic candidate meme!

  Who doesn't like exotic? It's kind of a weird (and completely not sexual) turn on.

  So long as he doesn't start wearing pasties!

• Junkies on heroin don't get colds, apparently.
• The petty crime rate dropped when the British decriminalized heroin. So many court cases have to do with drugs that some judges and lawyers would lose their jobs. The private prison industry is the fastest growing domestic (non-service) industry involving construction in the United States.
• Ambassador Joe Wilson in Orange County, California, talking tonight and tomorrow night to support Ron Shepston for the 42nd Congressional District opposing Gary Miller.