October 03 2008 show notes


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


Friday 03 October '08 show




  • Thom was broadcasting live from AM1340 KPTR Palm Springs, a beautiful place.
  • Upcoming Event: October 3-4 Palm Springs. Thom is keynoting at the Association for Global New Thought's "The Evolution of Revolution... Shining Dawn's Early Light on Spirit, Science and the System" conference at Renaissance Esmeralda Resort and Spa Indian Wells, California. On Friday, October 3, 2008 he is talking about, "The New Story of Patriotism: Thinking Our Way Through Cultural Chaos". Keynote speech tonight, workshop tomorrow.
  • "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. Visit his site and sign up for his newsletter. Last night's vice presidential debate. She presented her right wing extremist point of view very effectively. Biden did well. We can't have four more years. He has obvious disagreements with Obama, including his bailout votes, but Obama and Biden are bright and open to ideas. The polls looking good but don't be overconfident, a lot can happen, for example Dukakis was 17 points ahead before the "Willie Horton" ads yet lost. Bernie voted against the bailout. There is to be a vote in the House, maybe during the show, they would not have brought it up if they did not think it would pass. His objections:

    • $700 billion to the secretary of the treasury, a guy in the midst of Wall Street greed, made a fortune, fox guarding the hen house
    • we will know very little about where it goes, what we will end up owning
    • today's bill is less insane, but oversight remains with the Bush administration
    • it does not deal with housing bubble
    • it does not make much difference to CEO compensation
    • it does not address how we got into it - deregulation
    • "too big to fail" = too big to exist. In the last 3 weeks huge entities have been swallowing up others.
    • we are heading for recession, and it is not doing anything to stimulate the economy
    • who pays for it?

    We should not have to pay for the bailout. Bernie's was the only amendment, about a 10% surcharge, it did not pass. If we interested $140 billion in infrastructure, we could create 6 million decent paying jobs. Where are the democrats? The original bailout was unbelievably bad, they have worked hard to improve on it, but they did not stand up and take on Wall Street, it will hurt them in the long term.

    FDIC limit raised to 250k - for all accounts? How long for? Short selling. The pork in the bill is an effort to buy votes. Investigation into the criminal aspects. Why aren't we backing something like the Souros plan, where we are buying an equity share in the firms and not just junk? Warren Buffet knows that value of what he buys. Very powerful special interests. Bernie:
    I want people to focus on the really big issues of what's happening right now in America, and what this crisis people about, because sometimes we get a little bit lost it in the weeds here. What this is about has an enormous amount to do with the incredible concentration of ownership and wealth in America, the fact that the wealthiest 1% earn more income than the bottom 50%, the fact that politically what that money does is doing what it is doing this minute, this minute, right now in Congress. What these folks with huge sums of money representing the largest banks, the largest corporations, we have the Chamber of Commerce there representing every big corporation in America, the Business Round Table who are the CEOs of the super large corporations. We have the American Bankers Association, we have the American Manufacturers Association, the National Association Manufacturers. All of these guys at this minute are right now descending on the House of Representatives saying, 'you vote to make sure that it is the working class people who pick up this bailout, not me and my friends'.

    And that leads you to the next issue which is the need to reform how we do politics in America, make sure that elected officials do not have to be dependent upon these guys for their money, move us to public funding of elections. It means taking a hard look as you and I have discussed so often about media in America. Who owns the media? Why is it that the average person understands so little about the financial system that we are functioning under, so that we are presumably faced with an alternative that unless you give Wall Street $700 billion, the economy disintegrates. Is that the only alternative? I think not. But, you know, do you hear serious discussion in media about the problems? Do we have serious debate on these issues? I think not.

    So I want, you know, people to continue to focus on these issues. To my mind, once again, what this campaign is about, if McCain wins, it's four more years of disaster from which I think the middle class may never recover in our lifetimes. If Obama wins, we've got a chance. You've got a chance, no guarantees here, but at least an opening to develop a progressive movement to make sure that the middle class is heard. One of the things that I do like about Obama is that he was a grassroots community organizer and there is a hope that he in fact will go to the grassroots to say, 'I need your help to take on these big money interests'. And if that is, and we have got to be very vigorous in moving in that direction. So, I wanted to just get back to what these issues are, they, this crisis just puts right out there in the open all of the contradictions that we are currently seeing in our society right now.
    Credit unions. The bailout bill will probably pass.
  • Bumper Music: Satellite Radio , Steve Earle.
  • Bumper Music: You Really Got Me, the Kinks.
  • Bumper Music: You've Got To Stand For Something, Aaron Tippin.
  • Guests: Dr. Ronald Bronow, M.D. (retired), Past Chief of Dermatology at Cedars Sinai Los Angeles and Past President of Physicians Who Care, and Matt Stoller who writes at the progressive strategy site OpenLeft.com and is the President of the political action committee BlogPAC. Brave New Films' John McCain's Health Records Must Be Released! video. Thom would consider Sarah Palin for a sales job, but not VP. McCain's health is important. The public cannot make an informed choice. Was the 2000 melanoma level 2 or 3? The 10-year survival rate for a Stage IIA melanoma is 64 percent. For a Stage IIIB melanoma, the rate drops to 38 percent. The Mayo Clinic said 2, the Armed Services Institute of Pathology said 3. They treated it as a stage 3, radical surgery. Thom read recently that there were questions if it was primary or secondary. The army said it was highly suggestive of a satellite. McCain's recent twitch, as shown by americablog.com, could have been a micro stroke or the result of surgery, but getting lost? Obama only released a 1 page summary. All of the candidates should release full medical details. If McCain had another melanoma, there would be a lower chance of survival, and he could not function as president while under chemotherapy.
  • Bumper Music: Crazy, Gnarls Barkley.
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