Thom's stack - August 2006

Occasionally I link to an article that covers a story even though Thom did not mention that article.

Thu 31 August '06 National show

• Article: Salt Lake sounds off in protest and support . "A crowd of thousands cheered Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson for calling President Bush a 'dishonest, war-mongering, human-rights violating president' whose time in office would 'rank as the worst presidency our nation has ever had to endure.'"
• Bumper Music: Two Paper Town, Steve Seskin.
• Article: What has the GOP ever done for the working class?
• Yesterday was the anniversary of the installation of the hot line to Moscow.
• Guest: Alan J. Reinach, Seventh-day Adventist Church State Council. Separation of church and state.
• Bumper Music: Conservative Christian, Right Wing, Republican, Straight, White, American Males, Todd Snider.
• Guest: Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona. Comparison of American and Canadian health systems.
• Bumper Music: 90 Pound Suburban Housewife Drivin' in Her SUV, Rozanne Gates & Suzanne Sheridan.
• Guest: Interfaith Alliance president Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy on politics and religion in this year's elections. Dominionists.
• Article: Ohio to Delay Destruction of Presidential Ballots.
• Guest: John Gideon of votersuinite.org, VoteTrustUSA and blogger on bradblog. Busby/Bilray ruling. Arizona proposition 200 requiring 2 forms of ID to vote - plus marriage licence if a woman changes her name on marriage.
• Taking my Country Back: Phil Dunkelbarger, MA Ninth District Democratic candidate. 19 September primary.
• Iraq occupation update.
• Clip: Hannity: "[M]aking sure Nancy Pelosi doesn't become the [House] speaker" is "worth ... dying for". Thom talks about President Pelosi making Hannity wet his pants. "This is the moment to say that there are things in life worth fighting and dying for and one of 'em is making sure Nancy Pelosi doesn't become the speaker." "I want to talk to you Republicans out there, both candidates and voters. Here's some unsolicited advice: Ignore the polls, ignore the media, ignore the pundits. It's 70 days to go. The end is not here yet. We still can turn this thing around." If the president and vice president are impeached, which would need Democrats to be in power, and Judge Anna Diggs Taylor has ruled that the president had committed felonies and violated the constitution which he swore to protect and defend, then as speaker Nancy Pelosi would become president.( clip)
• Article: Gingrich: Powerful Pelosi 'would be a disaster'.

Wed 30 August '06 National show

• By dint of Democrat and Conservative Senators asking each other, they have deduced by process of elimination that Senator Ted Stevens was the one who put a secret hold on the Obama/Coburn bill to create a public database of how money is spent. Stevens is famous for pork, including the "bridge to nowhere".
• Alaskan listeners called in saying that the bridge to nowhere may be to an island with few inhabitants, but there is also an international airport there, to which people, including emergency services, must currently take a ferry. The reason for the high cost is because it has to be high enough to let cruise liners underneath.
• Thom is broadcasting from the Quake in San Francisco today. He was in town for last night's director's screening of the new movie Crude Impact, in which he appears.
• Article: Bush Speeches to Stress Stakes in Iraq: "President Bush will launch another major public-relations offensive to strengthen support for the Iraq war".
• Ohio officials are soon to start destroying the ballots. Kerry sent an email out urging people to support Blackwell's opponent, saying Blackwell used the power of his state office to try and intimidate.
• Thom has another new article out: JonBenét Died - And Bush Lied?
• Bumper Music: Wild World, Cat Stevens
• Drudge Report has been featuring the story of television anchor Kyra Phillips leaving her personal microphone on during a toilet break, so that her gossip and sounds of running water and zips drowned out President Bush.
• Guest: Jeffrey Feldman: Frame Shop. Rummy Launches New Campaign,   Spin And Nothingness,   Allen At It Again, Winks At White Folks.
• Bumper Music: It's good to be king, Tom Petty.
• In San Diego, Superior Court Judge Yuri Hoffman ruled that once the Speaker of the House of Representatives swore in Republican Brian Bilbray, that was it - even though the election was not certified and the counting had not been completed and there are many questions about irregularities in the election. He said he did not have jurisdiction.
• Bumper Music: Lookin' for a Leader, Neil Young.
• Article: Beyond Macaca: The Photograph That Haunts George Allen.
• Quote: "What is most important for democracy is not that great fortunes should not exist, but that great fortunes should not remain in the same hands. In that way there are rich men, but they do not form a class." Alexis de Tocqueville.
• Article: US accused of bid to oust Chávez with secret funds, Duncan Campbell.
• Bumper Music: Let's Beat on the Dixie Chicks, Jim Terr, Blue Canyon Productions
• Article: How Out of Touch Can One Senator Be? David Sirota.
• Bumper Music: The Bug, Mary Chapin Carpenter.
• Guest: Larry Scott: VA Watchdog.
  
  Former Senator, VA Chief and Vietnam Veteran Max Cleland Seeks Treatment for PTSD.
  
  Ride, Sally, Ride. "Dr. Sally Satel continues to go after PTSD veterans...trying to turn the victims into the guilty." ( clip)
• Bumper Music: They Lost My Vote, Ellen Bukstel and Nancy Wuerzburger.
• Bumper Music: Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield.

Tue 29 August '06 National show

• Thom and conservative Dan Gainor. On the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Thom debates with him the role of insurance companies and "Big Business" in disaster relief. ( clip)
• Article: Brown says White House wanted him to lie.
• Bumper Music: Livin on the Edge, Aerosmith.
• Bumper Music: No Earthly Good, Johnny Cash
• Graph of the correlation between gas prices and bush approval ratings.
• Guest: Chris Kromm, Reconstruction Watch.
• Story: 'HUD' Sham Acts Out Katrina Housing Anger ("Yes Men").
• Bumper Music: Just an old Truth Teller, Jimmy Buffett.
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Press frenzy on the Gulf Coast, with politicians giving speeches who have done nothing in the region. "Yes Men" gag. The people who prepared the set for the press frenzy were Mexicans who had been there a year.
• Bumper Music: When the Ship Comes In, Bob Dylan
• Governor Ted Kulongoski of Portland, Oregon challenged Howie Rich - the millionaire/libertarian from New York who financed a local ballot initiative in Oregon - to a debate. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad challenged President Bush to a live television debate.
• Article: The Third-World-ization of the USA.
• Article: One more broken promise, Paul Krugman.
• Graph: A History of Home Values.
• Clip: "I expect the Lord to return in the 21st century to Rapture at his church. Now, I can't prove that. I cannot prove that the Lord is gonna come in this century. No one knows the day or the hour, but in my heart I believe it because there are no more predicted events that need to happen before our Lord can return... I expect a global economy in the 21st century, which first will manifest itself as a cashless society. I believe that plastic will take the place of cash, and that while this will only be fulfilled during the tribulation period at the Rapture, I believe that God is setting the stage for, and laying the infrastructure for, a cashless society right now." Rev. Dr Falwell. Hardly the stuff of Matthew 25 in the wake of Katrina. What would Jesus talk about right now? The temple has to be rebuilt before the Rapture.
• Quote: "Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.) said this week that God did not intend for the United States to be a "nation of secular laws" and that the separation of church and state is a "lie we have been told" to keep religious people out of politics. "If you're not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin," Harris told interviewers from the Florida Baptist Witness,".
• Article: Public Stoning: Not Just for the Taliban Anymore. Reconstructionist agenda.
• These guys are trying to recreate American history, rewriting text books, to turn the founders into bible thumping fundamentalists. They were not; most were opposing them.
• Quote: "I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies.", Benjamin Franklin, in "Toward The Mystery".
• Quote: "When the clergy addressed General Washington on his departure from the Government, it was observed in their consultation, that he had never, on any occasion, said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion, and they thought they should so pen their address, as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or not. They did so. However, the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly except that, which he passed over without notice. Washington never did say a word on the subject in any of his public papers, except in his valedictory letter to the Governors of the States, when he resigned his commission in the army, wherein he speaks of 'the benign influence of the Christian religion.' I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretends to be in his secrets [in Washington's confidence] and believes himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more of that [fundamentalist Christian] system than he himself did.", Thomas Jefferson.
• Quote: "As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion,--as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen,--and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.", Treaty of Tripoli.
• On February 21, 1811, President James Madison vetoed a bill passed by Congress that authorized government payments to a church in Washington, DC to help the poor. Faith-based initiatives were a clear violation, in Madison's mind, of the doctrine of separation of church and state, and could lead to a dangerous transfer of political power to religious leaders. Quote: "Because the bill vests and said incorporated church an also authority to provide for the support of the poor, and the education of poor children of the same;... this would be a precedent for giving to religious societies, as such, a legal agency in carrying into effect a public and civil duty."
• The following Jefferson quote is sometimes used by religious right-wingers to portray Jefferson as a bible-thumping Christian; but it is taken out of context. "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny imposed upon the mind of man." But it is taken out of context. The full quote is:
• Quote: "I promised you a letter on Christianity, which I have not forgotten... I do not know that it would reconcile the genus irritabile vatum [the angry poets] who are all in arms against me. Their hostility is on too interesting ground to be softened.
  
  "The delusion ...on the clause of the Constitution, which, while it secured the freedom of the press, covered also the freedom of religion, had given to the clergy a very favorite hope of obtaining an establishment of a particular form of Christianity through the United States; and as every sect believes its own form the true one, every one perhaps hoped for his own, but especially the Episcopalians and Congregationalists.
  
  "The returning good sense of our country threatens abortion to their hopes, and they [the preachers] believe that any portion of power confided to me [such as his being elected President], will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough too in their opinion.", Thomas Jefferson.
• Quote: "Where the preamble [to the Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom] declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word 'Jesus Christ,' so that it should read, 'a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion.' The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo, and Infidel of every denomination.", Thomas Jefferson.
• Quote: "Finally, in answer to Fortescue Aland's question why the ten commandments should not now be a part of the common law of England? we may say they are not because they never were made so by legislative authority, the document which has imposed that doubt on him being a manifest forgery.", Thomas Jefferson.
• Quote: "Sir Matthew Hale lays it down in these words, 'Christianity is parcel of the laws of England'... But Christianity was not introduced till the seventh century; the conversion of the first Christian king of the Heptarchy having taken place about the year 598, and that of the last about 686. Here, then, was a space of two hundred years, during which the common law was in existence, and Christianity no part of it... We might as well say that the Newtonian system of philosophy is a part of the common law, as that the Christian religion is... In truth, the alliance between Church and State in England has ever made their judges accomplices in the frauds of the clergy; and even bolder than they are.", Thomas Jefferson.
• Quote: "It is not only the sacred volumes they [the churches] have thus interpolated, gutted, and falsified, but the works of others relating to them, and even the laws of the land," he wrote. "Our judges, too, have lent a ready hand to further these frauds, and have been willing to lay the yoke of their own opinions on the necks of others; to extend the coercions of municipal law to the dogmas of their religion, by declaring that these make a part of the law of the land." Thomas Jefferson.
• Quote: "Hope springs eternal. Eight millions of Jews hope for a Messiah more powerful and glorious than Moses, David, or Solomon; who is to make them as powerful as he pleases. Some hundreds of millions of Mussulmans expect another prophet more powerful than Mahomet, who is to spread Islamism over the whole earth. Hundreds of millions of Christians expect and hope for a millennium in which Jesus is to reign for a thousand years over the whole world before it is burnt up. The Hindoos expect another and final incarnation of Vishnu, who is to do great and wonderful things, I know not what... You and I hope for splendid improvements in human society, and vast amelioration in the condition of mankind... Our faith may be supposed by more rational arguments than any of the former." John Adams.
• There is a move to turn the United States into a theocracy, and it is dangerous.
• Bumper Music: Hold on tight to your dreams, ELO.

Mon 28 August '06 National show

• Today in 1963 Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a dream" speech.
• Quote: "He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from opposition; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach himself.", Thomas Paine.
• Guest: Wesley J Smith. Attorney, author of "Forced Exit: the Slippery Slope from Assisted Suicide to Legalized Murder". Texas futile treatment. Oregon assisted suicide.
• Bumper Music: Suicide is Painless, Mike Altman & Johnny Mandel, M*A*S*H.
• Clip: Procreation Not Recreation, John Gibson.
• Guest: Irwin Redlener, Americans at Risk.
• Book: Bumper Music: Don't let me be misunderstood, The Animals.
• Iraq occupation update.
  Article: Rumsfeld Praises Troops Doing Extra Duty: "Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld on Saturday praised the work of an Army brigade whose one-year tour in Iraq was extended just as they prepared to return home, and said he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry at him... 172nd Stryker Brigade families at Fort Wainwright... Reporters who traveled with Rumsfeld from Washington, D.C., were to be excluded from the session... Jennifer Davis of Anchorage, whose husband is a member of the 172nd: 'I am totally frustrated, disappointed and heart broken, just when I thought we were going to be able to resume a "normal" life and when I thought the nightmare was over, the nightmare was extended.' ".
  Article: Compliant and subservient: Jimmy Carter's explosive critique of Tony Blair.
• Bumper Music: Blame it on the Stones, Kris Kristofferson.
• Article: One Year Later: The Real State Of New Orleans. "Standing in Jackson Square on Sept. 15, President Bush stated, 'This government will learn the lessons of Hurricane Katrina' and promised to 'get the work done quickly.'". Get? Shouldn't it have been done?
• Clip: : Gen. Batiste: Rumsfeld ‘Served Up Our Great Military A Huge Bowl of Chicken Feces’. "Donald Rumsfeld is still at the helm of the Department of Defense, which is absolutely outrageous. He served up our great military a huge bowl of chicken feces, and ever since then, our military and our country have been trying to turn this bowl into chicken salad. And it’s not working."
• Clip: With a robust package of at least $550 billion in across-the-board tax relief, we will help create more than a million new jobs by the end of 2004., George W. Bush. That's $550,000 per job.
• Article: Bush and Saddam Should Both Stand Trial, Says Nuremberg Prosecutor, Aaron Glantz.
• Bumper Music: Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh, Allan Sherman.
• Article: Summer Camp 2006: "Hello Mudda, Hello Fadda" Has Been Replaced by "Hello Druggist, Hello MD", Arianna Huffington. "According to one trade group representing 2,600 camps and 3 million campers ... roughly a quarter of the kids at its camps are taking regular doses of psychopharmacologic drugs such as Ritalin, Concerta, and Straterra (ADD/ADHD), Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft (anxiety and depression), and Clonidine, Lexapro, and Risperdal (mood disorders)... We now have over a million kids on Prozac and its equivalents and more than seven million on Ritalin." Rant on the school system being a victim of various groups. ( clip)
• Quote: "We must take from state authority those functions for which it is incompetent and which it performs badly... I believe the state should renounce its economic functions, especially those carried out through monopolies, because the state is incompetent in such matters... We must put an end to state railways, state postal service and state insurance.". Mussolini. "The state returned large monopolies to the private sector after returning them to profitability such as the Consortium of Match Manufactures, privatized the insurance system in 1923, the telephone system in 1925, and many of the public works. In Germany the Nazis announced they would end nationalization of private industries when they seized power. In 1932, Hitler returned control of the Gelsenkirhen company to private hands and in 1936 returned the stock of "United Steel" to private hands. Throughout 1933-1936, the Nazi returned to private hands the control of several banks: Dresdner, Danat, Commerz and Privatbank, the Deutsche Bank, and several others. In 1936, the steamship company Deutcher Schiff and Maschinenbau was returned to the private sector. In 1934, Dr. Schacht, the Nazi Minister of Economy, gave instructions to hasten the privatization of municipal enterprises. These enterprises were especially coveted by the rich industrialists, as they had been prosperous even during the depression. Both in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, the tax system was changed to one favoring business and the wealthy. The Nazis allowed industries to deduct from their taxable income all sums used to purchase new equipment. Rich families employing a maid were allowed to count the maid as a dependent child and reap the tax benefit. In Italy, the Minister of Finance stated: "We have broken with the practice of persecuting capital." (link). The war against the middle class.
• Article: Hizbollah's reconstruction of Lebanon is winning the loyalty of disaffected Shia, Robert Fisk. "Hizbollah has trumped both the UN army and the Lebanese government by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars - most of it almost certainly from Iran - into the wreckage of southern Lebanon and Beirut's destroyed southern suburbs. Its massive new reconstruction effort - free of charge to all those Lebanese whose homes were destroyed or damaged in Israel's ferocious five-week assault on the country - has won the loyalty of even the most disaffected members of the Shia community in Lebanon..."
• Congress has allocated $17b for Katrina relief; 100m has been spent.
• Doug Cunningham, Labor Radio news. NW flight attendants strike.
• Guest: Mark Karlin, "Buzzflash". Bush press conference last week - Jon Stewart did good analysis on Comedy Central. Bush was unglued, saying no Iraq - 9/11 connection. Mainstream media edited out the part where he said he was happy. Bizarre story report that the president likes farting to embarrass people and fart jokes. Last stages of dry drunk syndrome? Hurricane Katrina.
• Article: The Bush Administration Helps Terrorists Accomplish Their Main Goal: Terrorizing Us and Curtailing Our Freedoms.

Fri 25 August '06 National show

• The first hour of this Friday was devoted, as usual, to "Brunch with Bernie" with Congressman Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. Two school teachers were murdered in Vermont yesterday. Rant for Labor Day.
• Bumper Music: