• Thom is working on the Air America Cruise all this week. The show was guest hosted by Lee Rayburn, host on 92.1 The Mic, Madison, WI.


• Guest: Jennifer Feyerherm, head of the Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign for the Sierra Club. They won the Deseret Bonanza case.


• Guest: John Nichols, The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, and The Nation, author of "The Genius of Impeachment ".


• Guest: Paul Soglin, former mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. Waxing America. WMC Watch (Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce) campaign, watching the business lobby.

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

Thursday 20 November '08 show

• Thom is working on the Air America Cruise all this week. The show was guest hosted by Lee Rayburn, host on 92.1 The Mic, Madison, WI.
  
• Article: UN warns Iran is forging ahead with stockpiling enriched uranium.
  
• Article: Al-Qaeda denounces 'hypocrite' Obama. They are worried, because they need a nemesis, a bad guy. We are safer because of who we elected?
  
• Obama is putting ex Clinton people in because they have experience and he wants to hit the ground running? We need to push him, he has sounded hawkish. Iran forging ahead with stockpiling enriched uranium. Clinton 3.0. Peace Action says write congress, tell them bring troops home, keep protesting.
  
• Article: Sierra Club Wins Appeal of Coal Plant Air Permit. Deseret Bonanza.
  "In a case with national implications, the Environmental Appeals Board of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruled today that the EPA had no valid reason for refusing to require that best available control technology be used to limit carbon dioxide emissions from a coal-fired power plant proposed in Utah. The Sierra Club went before the Environmental Appeals Board in May to request that the air permit issued by EPA Region 8 for Deseret Power Electric Cooperative's proposed waste coal-fired power plant be overturned because it failed to require controls on carbon dioxide emissions that cause global warming. As permitted, Deseret Power's 110 megawatt Bonanza plant would have emitted 3.37 million tons of carbon dioxide each year. It would be located next to the existing Bonanza Power Plant on Bureau of Indian Affairs land."
  
• Guest: Jennifer Feyerherm, head of the Wisconsin Clean Energy Campaign for the Sierra Club. They won the Deseret Bonanza case. Sierra Club challenged an air permit for a proposed coal fired plant in Utah, saying the PA should regulate global warming pollution. The environmental appeals board for the EPA decision came down telling the Bush Administration's Environmental Protection Agency that it is out of excuses; they have to regulate global warming pollution. That effectively put on hold every proposed coal plant in the nation until the administration figures out what we ate going to do about global warming. This effectively leaves it up to the Obama administration. The Bush administration has ignored the problem and come up with excuses. We need a suite of options, not just one alternative fuel. Investors should not throw good money after bad, trying to make old coal clean. Coal is not clean, we blow tops off mountains to get it and ruin people's lives. Americans want choices, including coal. Wind and solar are free fuel forever. Natural gas is cleaner than coal; it is a transition fuel. We need localized solutions. Silver buckshot not a silver bullet. The things we do against global warming also help reduce pollution. Mercury contaminates the streams and lakes. We don;t want to unplug everything and use candles. We have the technology. We can do more with less, make smart decisions. Compact light bulbs. Use LED holiday lights.
  
• Midnight regulations. Animals and plants at threat. They have to be published by tomorrow to be in effect when Obama takes over, so he cannot easily reverse them. Democrats are looking to use an old law.
  
• Population growth, family sizes, methods of population control.
  
• Article: For McCain, A Subdued Return to Capitol Hill.
  
• Article: Prop. 8 Gay Marriage Ban Heads To California Supreme Court.
  
• Article: Cheney, Gonzales Indicted In South Texas County.
  
• Valerie Plame has asked the Supreme Court to review her case.
  
• Guest: John Nichols, The Capital Times, Madison, Wisconsin, and The Nation, author of "The Genius of Impeachment ". The vote for the leader of the Energy and Commerce committee in the House. Dingle, 82, out. Henry Waxman in. It was felt that Dingle was not energetic enough. Health care, telecomms, energy, consumer protection. The day before the vote the transition team said that Waxman would be chief White House liaison to Congress, which was a signal. Tom Daschl possible post. Obama is preparing to make a major push on health care. Ted Kennedy came back, told reporters he was interested in a universal health care proposal, as are others. Obama did not run particularly on health care, but with the economic downturn, health care makes companies uncompetitive, and companies are cutting it. Dingle was the big 3's congressman. Pelosi. What about Waxman's old seat? Fight for control. Elijah Cummins, D-Md, Edolphus Towns, D-NY, Carolyn Maloney, D-NY. There isn't a Waxman. It is a little less important when one party is in controls, but oversight is important, particularly given the power the executive now has. He hopes Dennis Kucinich will move up, but he may not have the seniority.
  
• Indications of bad economy. Business have cut prices at record rates. Builders are starting fewer homes. The stock market fell another 5% yesterday, it closed below 8000 for the first time in this current bear market. New home starts in October are the lowest since records were first kept in 1959. The Consumer Price Index has plummeted by the most since the series of monthly data was started in 1947. We have not seen numbers like this since we started gathering numbers. It's worse. On Monday, Moody's reported that the number of companies in danger of running out of cash has reached its highest level since just after September 11, 2001. New claims for unemployment benefits jumped last week to a sixteen year high. New applications for jobless benefits rose to over a half million yesterday. It's much higher than Wall Street was expecting, by about 40000. The highest level of jobless claims since July '92, Bill Clinton's first year in office, as he was trying to turn around the economy of the first Bush Administration. The rate of unemployment in October with six and a half percent; last year at this time our unemployment rate was 4.6%. We're going the wrong way and al Qaeda is bleeding us dry.
  
• Bush's end run. Is the Iraq deal a done deal? Not in Iraq.
  
• Guest: Paul Soglin, former mayor of Madison, Wisconsin. Waxing America. WMC Watch (Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce) campaign, watching the business lobby.
  "The offices of the state's largest business lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, reside just over the hill from the State Capitol, but its influence extends to all corners of Wisconsin.
  
  With its army of lobbyists, pro-corporate position papers, paid researchers and seemingly limitless financial resources, WMC wields an influence which warrants attention and demands scrutiny.
  
  Here at WMC Watch, for the first time Wisconsin will have a full picture and warehouse of information about arguably the most influential organization affecting state legislative policy.
  
  Armed with this information, Wisconsinites can make their own decisions about the influence of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce in the State Capitol and what should be done to protect the values, priorities and needs of Wisconsin's families."
  
  Former University of Wisconsin-Madison Chancellor John Wiley called the WMC "the single largest impediment to economic recovery in our home state." It's the state chamber of commerce. It raises money for issue ads and campaigns. They have taken 2 seats on the Supreme Court. They estimate that more than half the money comes from out of state. The Institute for Tort Reform is theirs. Connections to the U.S. chamber of commerce.
  
• Iraqi end run. Obama's idea was to have a residual force, the agreement says none.
  
• Article: Giving Up on God.
  "As Republicans sort out the reasons for their defeat, they likely will overlook or dismiss the gorilla in the pulpit.
  
  Three little letters, great big problem: G-O-D.
  
  I'm bathing in holy water as I type.
  
  To be more specific, the evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the GOP is what ails the erstwhile conservative party and will continue to afflict and marginalize its constituents if reckoning doesn't soon cometh.
  
  Simply put: Armband religion is killing the Republican Party. And, the truth -- as long as we're setting ourselves free -- is that if one were to eavesdrop on private conversations among the party intelligentsia, one would hear precisely that.
  
  The choir has become absurdly off-key, and many Republicans know it.
  
  But they need those votes!
  
  So it has been for the Grand Old Party since the 1980s or so, as it has become increasingly beholden to an element that used to be relegated to wooden crates on street corners."