Thom's stack - October 2006

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

Tuesday 31 October '06 National show

• It's Halloween - upside down 5-pointed star day. Satan worshipers use the upside down 5-pointed star. The Medal of Freedom is also upside down because it hangs that way. The Republican Party elephant has its stars upside down. Back in Michigan where Thom used to live a local group - Anabaptists? - had an annual campaign to strip satanic symbols (Halloween stuff) out of schools.

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• Article: Hurricanes Are Getting Stronger, Study Says (September 15, 2005).
• Article: Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth": One-sided, Misleading, Exaggerated, Speculative, Wrong, Marlo Lewis, Jr.
• Article: A Skeptic’s Guide to An Inconvenient Truth, Marlo Lewis, Jr..
• Paper: A Skeptic’s Guide to An Inconvenient Truth, Marlo Lewis, Jr. (120 page, 5.14MB pdf)
• Guest: Marlo Lewis, Competitive Enterprise Institute.
• Article: British government report says unchecked global warming will devastate world economy: "Unchecked global warming will devastate the world economy on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression, a British government report said Monday, as the country launched a bid to convince doubters that environmentalism and economic growth can coincide... Introducing the report, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said unabated climate change would eventually cost the world between 5 percent and 20 percent of global gross domestic product each year. He called for "bold and decisive action" to cut carbon dioxide emissions and stem the worst of the temperature rise."
• Report: Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, Sir Nicholas Stern (HM Treasury).
• Bumper Music: today's bumper music was a selection of songs related to Halloween, for example, "The Monster Mash", "Ghostbusters".
• Article: Senior Bush Appointee Rejected Scientists’ Recommendations In Favor Of Industry Positions. "Julie MacDonald, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, has consistently “rejected staff scientists’ recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act.” A civil engineer with no training in biology, she has overruled and disparaged the findings of her staff, instead relying on the recommendations of political and industry groups." The breast cancerdrug Taxol comes from the Pacific Yew tree.
• Article: Snow: President Bush Has ‘Actually Taken The Lead’ On Climate Change.
• Article: ThinkFast: October 31, 2006. "The Interior Department has dropped claims that oil giant Chevron “systematically underpaid the government for natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, a decision that could allow energy companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.”"
• Article: "The Bush administration has shut down access to the EPA’s principal library for researching the effects and properties of chemicals. “EPA’s hasty, buzz saw slashing at its library network is now interfering with its mission of harnessing the best available science to protect human health and the environment,” said Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The Bush administration has already shuttered EPA’s Washington headquarters’ library and regional posts in Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City."
• Quote: "The American, by nature, is optimistic. He is experimental, an inventor and a builder who builds best when called upon to build greatly." John F. Kennedy.
• Guest: Wayne Madsen, "Jaded Tasks: Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil, The Blood Politics of George Bush & Co.". Afghanistan, Iraq, war on terror (compared to dandruff!), private military companies / mercenaries. He's in Portland tomorrow at the First Unitarian Church.
• Article: Cheney: Lynne gave Wolf Blitzer ‘the slapdown.’. "In an interview today with Fox News, Vice President Cheney said his wife’s combative recent CNN appearance was “great” and “very accurate,” adding, “We refer to it around the house as the slapdown." ( clip)
• Article: CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Calls Out Lynne Cheney For ‘Sniping At My Patriotism’.
• Article: VIDEO: Lynne Cheney Unhinged On CNN.
• Article: Republicans See Edge From Early Voting. "Democrats Question Specific Claims and Believe They Are Catching Up With the Trend".
• During a gubernatorial debate hosted by Chris Matthews in Florida, Matthews asked Democrat Jim Davis if he is a liberal. Davis refused to answer until pressed by Matthews, then said: "I don't fit into a label, Chris, and neither does our state." George Washington called himself a liberal. These guys should memorize Jack Kennedy's speech. Rant on historical differences in world view between liberals and others. Clip: Montage of Bush's "Be afraid" phrases in an RNC speech.
• Clip:
  "What do our opponents mean when they apply to us the label 'Liberal?' If by 'Liberal' they mean, as they want people to believe, someone who is soft in his policies abroad, who is against local government, and who is unconcerned with the taxpayer's dollar, then the record of this party and its members demonstrate that we are not that kind of 'Liberal.' But if by a 'Liberal' they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a 'Liberal,' then I'm proud to say I'm a 'Liberal'.
  
  "But first, I would like to say what I understand the word "Liberal" to mean and explain in the process why I consider myself to be a "Liberal," and what it means in the presidential election of 1960.
  
  "In short, having set forth my view -- I hope for all time -- two nights ago in Houston, on the proper relationship between church and state, I want to take the opportunity to set forth my views on the proper relationship between the state and the citizen. This is my political credo:
  
  "I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves.
  
  "I believe also in the United States of America, in the promise that it contains and has contained throughout our history of producing a society so abundant and creative and so free and responsible that it cannot only fulfill the aspirations of its citizens, but serve equally well as a beacon for all mankind. I do not believe in a superstate. I see no magic in tax dollars which are sent to Washington and then returned. I abhor the waste and incompetence of large-scale federal bureaucracies in this administration as well as in others. I do not favor state compulsion when voluntary individual effort can do the job and do it well. But I believe in a government which acts, which exercises its full powers and full responsibilities. Government is an art and a precious obligation; and when it has a job to do, I believe it should do it. And this requires not only great ends but that we propose concrete means of achieving them.
  
  "Our responsibility is not discharged by announcement of virtuous ends. Our responsibility is to achieve these objectives with social invention, with political skill, and executive vigor. I believe for these reasons that liberalism is our best and only hope in the world today. For the liberal society is a free society, and it is at the same time and for that reason a strong society. Its strength is drawn from the will of free people committed to great ends and peacefully striving to meet them. Only liberalism, in short, can repair our national power, restore our national purpose, and liberate our national energies. And the only basic issue in the 1960 presidential campaign is whether our government will fall in a conservative rut and die there, or whether we will move ahead in the liberal spirit of daring, of breaking new ground, of doing in our generation what Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman and Adlai Stevenson did in their time of influence and responsibility." John F. Kennedy, September 14, 1960, Acceptance of the New York Liberal Party Nomination (mp3).
• Book recommended by a caller: Take It Back: Our Party, Our Country, Our Future, James Carville, Paul Begala.
• Guest: Elizabeth Kostova, author of the novel "The Historian" about Dracula, Vlad the Impaler.
• Article: Chertoff Raises Threat Level on Reports of Imminent Election, Andy Borowitz.
• Article: Bush Moves Toward Martial Law. "In a stealth maneuver, President Bush has signed into law a provision which, according to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), will actually encourage the President to declare federal martial law. It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a set of laws that limits the President's ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act (10 U.S.C.331 -335) has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act (18 U.S.C.1385), helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush is seeking to undo those prohibitions.
  
  Public Law 109-364, or the "John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007" (H.R.5122) , which was signed by the commander in chief on October 17th, 2006, in a private Oval Office ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency" and station troops anywhere in America and take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to 'suppress public disorder.'".
  
  This eviscerates the Posse Comitatus Act.
• Quote: "Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse comitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both." Posse Comitatus Act of 1878.
• Harold Ford, Tennessee candidate, said, "Republicans fear the Lord, Democrats fear and love the Lord."
• Ellen Ratner of Talk Radio News. Congressman Rahm Emanuel of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee got a lot of pressure, so he's moving some money, but not to liberals. Thom doesn't have many politicians on as most are not straight talkers. Exceptions include Bernie Sanders, Barney Frank, Ron Paul. Ellen Simon's opponent has not turned up for 7 debates; the Libertarian has. She has an excellent chance to win and needs money.
• Article: Sen. Allen On Assault Of Constituent: ‘Things Like That Happen’ (video).
• A caller had heard that Comcast workers in Pittsburg had been trained in profiling, told to turn possible terrorists in. This is particularly scary with loss of habeas corpus. We are watching the construction brick by brick of a police state. Will we be able to stop it in time?
• Jeff in Tacoma called: an American journalist was just assassinated by an off duty police officer in Mexico. The media is saying that the violence is by protesters, but it is not. This sort of thing is coming to the USA. Visit Industrial Workers of the World.

Monday 30 October '06 National show

• On Friday Thom was in San Francisco for "The Great Debate II". Thom, Stephanie Miller, Rachel Maddow and Johnny Steele debated conservatives Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Jerry Doyle and Rusty Humphries, moderated by Willie Brown. Around 1,500 turned up. Thom thinks the left team won and had the most listeners there. On Saturday Thom did a presentation and book signing at King's Books, Tacoma, Washington. Afterwards he went to a fundraiser for the local Democratic Party. Senator Maria Cantwell gave a speech, as did Senator Harry Reid, who said some nice words about Thom.
• KQKE has been playing Thom's show on delay, but as of next Monday it will be playing the show live, so listeners will be able to call in.
• Article: He’s Baaaaack!: Newt Gingrich Returns With New Book On ‘God In America’. Gingrich traveled around Washington D.C. interpreting landmarks. He said that the 1963 Supreme Court ruling that it is against the law to force kids to listen to the bible in school each day was 5-4, but it it was 8-1. He also said that the ten commandments and Moses are prominently displayed in the Supreme Court, but only 2 commandments - don't steal and don't kill - are part of the law, and as Thomas Jefferson pointed out, they were part of law before Christianity came to England. He wrote, "Finally, in answer to Fortescue Aland’s question why the ten commandments should not 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.”". Gingrich quotes the Jefferson Memorial, which has inscribed, "I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man", saying it shows that Jefferson supported the church. Jefferson was talking about the tyranny of the clergy, however - he believed in separation of church and state. [See Thom's Moses Didn't Write The Constitution article]
• The Newt Gingrich story came from PlacitasRoy in the chat room. Thom now gets so many hundreds of emails per day, many of them sending him the same stories, that he regrets he can no longer read them, so please don't send any more. If you can access the chat room, however, you can post links to stories in the room for him to see.
• Bumper Music: Black Horse and a Cherry Tree, KT Tunstall.
• Louise had to rush Higgins to the vet on Saturday. He woke Thom up several times last night. He's an attack cat, including vets, so they had to give him gas. His blood tests are OK.
• Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley (video).
• The story of the Goddess Columbia.
• Callers to radio shows often say, "You're complaining but you don't have any solutions". Thom's solutions include:
  • Return to tariffs and walk away from trade policies.
  • Lift the cap on social security.
  • Do away with the inability of the government to negotiate drug prices for the Medicare program.
  • Raise the minimum wage.
  • Enforce the Sherman anti-trust act and break up some of the giants.
  • Re-examine corporate personhood.
  Nancy Pelosi's "first 100 hours" solutions include:
  • Clean up some of the corruption in Washington D.C.
  • Put new rules in place to break the link between lobbyists and legislation.
  • Enact all the recommendations made by the 9/11 commission.
  • Raise the minimum wage to $7.25.
  • Cut the interest rates on student loans in half.
  • Allow government to negotiate directly with pharmaceuticals for lower drug prices for Medicare.
  • Broaden the kinds of stem cell research allowed with Federal funds.
  Right now the only way to do anything is to get Democrats elected.
• Article: Confession That Formed Base of Iraq War was Acquired Under Torture: Journalist according to Stephen Grey, the author of the newly-released book "Ghost Plane", who was on the show on Friday. Clip of Bush fear-related phrases from RNC speech.
• Quote: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance." First Inaugural Address March 4, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• Guest: Arianna Huffington , On Becoming Fearless.
• Article: Glitches cited in early voting.
• Bumper Music: Gotta Serve Somebody, Bob Dylan.
• Berlusconi alert. Article: Italy's Berlusconi and Mills charged with corruption. ( clip)
• Iraq occupation update. ( clip)
• Article: Antiaging Researchers Study Calorie Cutback, David Stipp (subscription). "In the 1930s, researchers stumbled onto a surprisingly simple way to slow the biological forces of aging: cutting normal calorie intake by about a third. Scientists found it boosts animals' life spans by 30% to 40%, and considerable evidence suggests that calorie restriction, or CR, would slow human aging too. But only steely ascetics could hack its hunger pangs. So the finding remained a little-known curiosity in the back halls of science.
  
  Now a coterie of scientists and biotech ventures are rekindling interest in CR as they try to mimic its antiaging effects with medicines. It is still a highly speculative quest, and many researchers fret that it hasn't completely shaken its association with centuries of dubious nostrums to slow aging, from inhaling virgins' breath to eating gold to implanting monkey glands...
  
  Much of the new focus is on a substance in red wine called resveratrol. The interest in it started three years ago when a group led by Harvard Medical School biologist David Sinclair reported that it boosted yeast cells' life span by 70% via a mechanism resembling CR. He later co-authored a study showing that it also boosts life span in fruit flies and roundworms...
  
  Last spring, Italian scientists reported that resveratrol boosted life span more than 50% in a kind of short-lived fish. Intriguingly, fish on resveratrol had much faster swimming speeds as they aged, and spent far more time moving around, than did undosed control fish...
  
  The story of resveratrol has its roots in scientists' increased understanding of CR. In 1989 researchers theorized that it activates a "starvation response" whose genetic machinery evolved eons ago to enable survival through periods of food shortage -- such as droughts -- by retarding the rate of aging. The response blocks growth and reproduction in order to free up energy to slow aging. The energy is siphoned to cellular systems that limit damage from harmful "free radical" molecules and other toxins produced as metabolic byproducts in cells. The theory explained longstanding mysteries about CR, such as the fact that animals on CR become resistant to toxic chemicals...
  
  It also had a dismaying implication: Our obesity-fostering, high-calorie diets are putting us in fast-aging-and-reproducing mode. That may be why childhood obesity is closely linked to early puberty, which now begins before age eight in many girls, and why adult obesity is linked to such a wide swath of aging diseases -- cancer, heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, even Alzheimer's."
  
  Thom used to fast a lot in his twenties. Catholics used to fast on Fridays. Islam has Ramadan. Jefferson had 2 glasses of red wine per day. ( clip)
• Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. "Senior Climate Change correspondent". Polar bears are drowning because there is less ice. She's been following cable TV for coverage of the British climate report; there's been virtually no coverage. Article: British government report says unchecked global warming will devastate world economy: "Unchecked global warming will devastate the world economy on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression, a British government report said Monday, as the country launched a bid to convince doubters that environmentalism and economic growth can coincide... Introducing the report, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said unabated climate change would eventually cost the world between 5 percent and 20 percent of global gross domestic product each year. He called for "bold and decisive action" to cut carbon dioxide emissions and stem the worst of the temperature rise.". He's talking about hiring Al Gore to pitch the idea. All the news is about elections. The president is traveling. Getting more young people to get involved, volunteer. VH1, MTV.
• Guest: Larisa Alexandrova, Raw Story. Article: Intelligence Laundry: To Paris again. "In July 2005, it was reported that Congressmen Hoekstra had traveled to Paris along with Congressman Curt Weldon (R-PA), the No. 2 Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, to meet with Ghorbanifar front man Fereidoun Mahdavi. Two former senior intelligence officers and current intelligence sources abroad have now described a more recent meeting between Hoekstra and Mahdavi that took place in Paris sometime between the spring and summer of this year. What is by far of greatest concern to the sources is that accompanying Hoekstra on the trip was Vaughn Forrest, a mysterious character who, like Ghorbanifar, has ties to the Iran-Contra scandal."
• Taking my Country Back: Wendy Wilde, running for Minnesota 3rd district. Play fair: stop unfair tax breaks for millionaires and giant industries. Do your homework: no more bad bills. Clean up after yourself: environment. Always do your best: work for peace and don't torture. Enough is enough: Enough with the partisan fighting and bickering.
• Bumper Music: Bye, Bye, Blackwell, Victoria Parks.
• Guest: Ian Inaba. He was on a panel with Thom at the Bioneers conference, and his film was screened. Co-founder of Guerrilla News Network, an award-winning independent news organization. His movie American Blackout critically examines the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence voices of political dissent. It chronicles the recurring patterns of voter disenfranchisement from Florida 2000 to Ohio 2004. Video the Vote is movement to document voting problems as they occur. EndTheBlackout.org - 2 things you can do: screen the movie and video the vote.
• Bumper Music: My Vote Don't Matter Anymore, Victoria Parks.

Friday 27 October '06 National show

• The election is getting closer. There's lots going on in the world. Thom is at KQKE in San Francisco for the Great Debate II", San Francisco; Thom, Stephanie Miller, Rachel Maddow and Johnny Steele debating conservatives Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty, Jerry Doyle and Rusty Humphries.
• KQKE has been playing Thom's show on delay, but from a week on Monday it will be playing the show live, so listeners will be able to call in.
• Bay Area foreclosures are on the rise. Article: Banks more than willing to help homeowners avoid foreclosures.
• The first hour of this Friday was devoted, as usual, to "Brunch with Bernie" with Congressman Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. Ford is shutting down plants, moving to China. If the Democrats win the House, and if President Bush vetoes a bill, people would notice. If the House holds hearings with subpoenas, Senate will ne