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No No No Thom...
You are mistaken... I missed the callers name, but I have long agreed with his sentiments. I've even posted them on this page.
You constantly have conservative guests on your show, sometimes 2 or 3 a show and many over and over again. But progressive guests are few and far between. And when you have them on, it's usually on topics on which there will be little if any disagreement.
But make no mistake about it, there are credible people on the left who would be willing to come on your show and have much to offer your audience.
I've felt for a long time that you want to be seen as the voice of the left. That's odd when you sometime call yourself the "radical middle". And I have to wonder if you avoid having more progressives (and more progressive) guests on your show so your conservative side won't be revealed.
I'[ve heard you say that there is no Left in this country, but then you used a definition that only would include groups like the Socialist or Communist Parties as the left. Today's left isn't like that. It's fragmented. That's one of its major weaknesses. But that doesn't mean that there is no Left.
If you don't think there are people who are to the left of you and willing to come on your show, listen to Democracy Now! or any of the Pacifica radio stations. You can do that online.
Shame on you for the way you responded to the caller who asked you have more progressive guests on. The DUMP BUTTON is a coward's tool. As soon as he started his point, you cut him off and declared yourself just about as left as it gets.
Topics you're not very left on:
1) Israel/Palestine: You're totally and shamefully biased in favor of Israel. I really don't think you can face the truth of the situation there. Let me give you an example. You almost never mention Israel's treatment of Palestinians. On the day you interviewed Amy Goodman about her book, Amy had around 5 stories in her headline stories about Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians.
2) Capitalism vs Socialism: You say you're not afraid of the word "socialism" but you are if the word "Democratic" doesn't precede the word socialism. You don't want the government making your shoes.
3) Economic Fairness: You make no bones about the fact that you favor well regulated capitalism. But to you it's perfectly fine for a CEO or corporate owner to be paid 30 to 40 times more than the companies workers. Don't you think there are a lot of people to the left of you on that issue.
4) Illegal Immigration: You're too nice and may think you'll get too much flak from your listeners if you said round up the illegal immigrants and throw them out of the country. So instead, you say we don't have an illegal worker problem, we have an illegal employer problem. Crack down on the employers and the illegal immigrants will leave. I call that a starve them out strategy. You feel they''d rather starve in their country than here. And you invoke the name of Cesar Chavez to support your position. When you have, I've asked you, on this blog, to have Dolores Huerta, the co-founder of the United Farm Workers as a guest because I know she doesn't agree with you. So far, you haven't. Why?
5) AMERICA'S ROLE IN THE WORLD: You're aware of the way the United States has conducted itself in world affairs. You know about the work of Howard Zinn, Noam Chomsky, John Perkins, Stephen Kinzer and many more. You choose to see the United States as the "good-guys" and disregard this well known history.
That's just a partial list of topics that there are many credible and well spoken people who are to the left of you. But it seems you don't want the less informed members of your audience to know that.
So instead of having informative and valuable guests who are to the left of you, you continue your ritual of repetitive word wars with your conservative guests.
It was shameful the way you dumped the caller who asked that you have some more progressive guests. And then you told us that you do a fine job of representing the views of the left. I hope you didn’t hurt your arm patting yourself on the back. Is that what you call your humble opinion?
Boehner says that the CIA has never lied to him.
That statement is not provable. He could prove that they have lied to him with a single example, but it is impossible to probe non-existance.
In California we have a special election on a bunch of budget issues. I want 2 bumper stickers:
Repeal prop 13
Recall Grover Norquist
About the "ugly republican" caller who exhibited such willingness to murder innocent people wrongly accused... Is he not an accessory to the crime of murder. And wonder if it was himself or someone he loves wrongly accused. Can't these people imaging the possibility of this affecting them personally at some time?
Dudley Sharp’s argument in comparing incarceration/kidnapping and death penalty/murder inadvertently gave me new insight not only into the Death Penalty but into Due Process and the 14th Amendment.
When someone is incarcerated in a civilized country he is promised Due Process throughout his incarceration. He is promised not to be tortured, not to be held incommunicado throughout his term, to be given a chance to prepare a defense, to be fed, etc. When someone is kidnapped none of these promises are given.
When someone is put to death any promise of due process beyond the moment of death is silly. Obviously, murder is the same.
When I’ve listened to John Yue argue in favor of the actions of the Bush Administration in holding prisoners the way they did, I’ve been struck with how he simply could not see what damage is done to individuals and civilized society in general when due process is ignored. This why I think the California Legislature should impeach him, if it constitutionally can, as an official of the State of California in his position as a Constitutional Law Professor.
When a government ignores due process, it devolves into just a gang of cutthroats. When a government imposes the death penalty it devolves into just another gang of cutthroats.
Isn't it interesting that pro-life people generally support the "death" penalty?
Eliminating the death penalty doesn't fix the flaw in the justice system that convicts innocent people in the first place. I worry that the attention paid to the form of punishment obscures the need to refine how we decide whether to punish.
We should make the people who believe in the death penalty financially support the families damaged by the loss of that bread winner. Send their children to college, pay for their homes, health care, food.
No argument. If you do it, you pay. If you don't believe in paying for it, you don't do it.
As for you republican callers from Rush's show? See ya in 2010. You're done.
On the "EIT" thing, I love the idea of the Bush Admin. being hanged on its own penchant for obfuscatory lingo.
I don't know how the Republican Party can get its footing back, but I know how they can start. Start by keeping their feet out of their mouths. The problem is that putting their feet in their mouths seems to be a reflex.
correct - sorry for errors above
My father was telling me that there were two things that he learned in school that he thought students today would benefit from. One is the Athenian Oath - how we should treat our community. The other was the poem Abou Ben Adhem - understanding people are not that different, Also, we agreed that the golden rule is much more effective then the 10 commandments and doesn’t cross the Church/State divide.
The Athenian Oath
We will never bring disgrace on this our City by an act of dishonesty or cowardice.
We will fight for the ideals and Sacred Things of the City both alone and with many.
We will revere and obey the City’s laws, and will do our best
to incite a like reverence and respect in those above us
who are prone to annul them or set them at naught.
We will strive increasingly to quicken the publics' sense of civic duty.
Thus in all these ways we will transmit this City, not only not less,
but greater and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.
Abou Ben Adhem
by Leigh Hunt
Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in the room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold.
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said,
“What writest thou?” The vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”
“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, “I pray thee then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow men.”
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names who love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!
Note: we will revere and obey the City's laws ..... incite ... those about us who are prone to annul them or set them at naught . Seems to me that speaks of holding our politicians accountable and not above the law.
My father was telling me that there were two things that he learned in school that he thought students today would benefit from. One is the Athenian Oath - how we should treat our community. The other was the poem Abou Ben Adhem - understanding people are not that different, Also, we agreed that the golden rule is much more effective then the 10 commandments and doesn't cross the Church/State divide.
The Athenian Oath
We will never bring disgrace on this our City by an act of dishonesty or cowardice.
We will fight for the ideals and Sacred Things of the City both alone and with many.
We will revere and obey the City's laws, and will do our best
to incite a like reverence and respect in those above us
who are prone to annul them or set them at naught.
We will strive increasingly to quicken the public's sense of civic duty.
Thus in all these ways we will transmit this City, not only not less,
but greater and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.
Abou Ben Adhem
by Leigh Hunt
About Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)
Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,
An saw, within the moonlight in the room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold.
Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the Presence in the room he said,
"What writest thou?" Then vision raised its head,
And with a look made of all sweet accord,
Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,
But cheerly still; and said, "I pray thee then,
Write me as one who loves his fellow men."
The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night
It came again with a great wakening light,
And showed the names who love of God had blessed,
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.
Do unto others and you would have them do unto you.
Last year I learned about a fascinating organization, Murder victims' Familes for Reconcilliation (mvfr.org). Founded in 1976, this organization opposes the death penalties, and it welcomes families of both murder victims and the families of executed prisoners.
I learned about the orfanization at last year's Unitarian Universalist General Assembly. MVFR had a booth near UURISE (Unitarian Universalist Refugee and Immigrant Services and Information) where I was talking to people. the woman who spoke to me had lost her son and grandchildren to murder and was tormented by the possibility of Florida's threat to execute the murderer. Every time there was a new court proceeding, her grief became fresh. She felt compassion for the murder's family, and even for the murderer.
I'm not exactly in favor of the death penalty; I'm on the fence. But it seems weird to me that the first kind of homicide people want to outlaw is the kind that comes after a careful consideration of the facts, rather than those that happen in the heat of the moment: soldiers may kill people that wear the wrong uniform, police may use lethal force against people who look like they're about to do something violent, and citizens may "defend their homes" from burglars under the make-my-day law (as it's called in Colorado). Why are those more moral than weighing evidence dispassionately to decide whether someone should die?
The only case in which I can really argue for the death penalty is treason committed by releasing state secrets. You never know if they have more secrets to release and even people in prison have ways of getting things done.
Its called Conflict Resolution- using war to end war is perpetual war.
If the death penalty is meant as a deterrent to behavior that is destructive to the social fabric, ie murder, can we implement it against corrupt corporations, executives and politicians whose business practices, lobbying, and votes have directly and adversely affected our social fabric for the last 30 years?
Death, no matter what form it takes, should have an impact upon the soul. When this is no longer the case we should really start to question our own humanity.
Despite what Mr. Sharp would like us to think, the resultant loss of life from having a death penalty law is a question of morality. How much do we become like a murderer when we put a murderer to death? Is there truly any justification for taking a human life? Unfortunately there is too much dissent on this subject to ever come to a resolution for mankind as a whole...
The professor was pitifully unprepared. Murder, like torture, is unambiguous.
BTW, that segment was only audible for less than a minute. Is there anybody at KPOJ that is able to listen to what is being aired?
Dudley Sharp completely missed the point when he said the actual number of innocent people was far lower than Thom's number. So??? As long as ONE innocent person is executed, it is a faulty method of punishment.
The Acid Test: If the lower number is acceptable, then I presume, if Mr Sharp has a son or daughter on death row who is innocent of charges, then he would accept their execution as an acceptable price to pay for keeping the death penalty. If NOT, then he and ALL other death penalty advocates are hypocrites.
If a prisioner is sentenced to death by a jury of his peers, then people should also be available in a pool to be picked for execution by his peers service. How many fewer death penalty judgments would be made?
With all respect, Mr Dudley Sharp is no speaker. He should try recording what he says and playing back to practice. He did not make any explanation. He made incomplete statements. The only thing he managed to say almost completely is that he considers opposition statements 'morally vacuous' or 'intellectually vacuous'. I would have like to hear his opinions in complete sentences. He didn't manage to convey enough facts to understand his position.
KMH, funny how we use the Commandmentsand the Bible verses that fit our needs.
Absolutely correct. That's why anti-union peole can voluntarily find work elsewhere. Employers in Communist China, the United States, and everywhere around the globe tell that to workers all the time.
To all the anti-union workers who belong to unions, if you don't like collective bargaining and don't want to find a job elsewhere, find a charity to donate your extra income garnered from that evil collective bargaining. Then absolutely donate your vacation pay to charity as well. Also find a job during off-hours because it was that "awful, immoral" union that pushed for overtime and a 40-hour work week. Then if you empathize with the employer so much, help pay for any safety equipment/measures it must buy or institute for which that evil union most likely bargained. Start a charity for employers--voluntarily. As long as you STUGGLE to eat, put clothes on your back, and a roof over your head, you are living the corporate nirvana--dystopia is utopia.
So how much are pro-employer trolls paid to make sure they answer any pro-union comment on all the progressive blogs. I'm especially entertained by their sense of moral superiority. So what's next? Accusing me of being a communist or a fascist? Now that's entertainment!
I don't claim that unions are the perfect answer to workers' problems or any economic problem for that matter. Pothing is nerfect.
Was not Thou Shalt Not Kill one of the Ten Commandments?
Murder, Death Penalty: A rose by any other name... the outcome is the same.
John J O Roland , thanks for referencing one of my favorite pieces --- and it works so perfectly for today's politics, too!