• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont.


• 'Anything Goes' Friday.


• Contest: Get Walking Your Blues Away for the best post on - What should be done about Spam - Junk Mail?

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

Friday 20 February '09 show

• Article: Talker's Magazine Heavy Hundred - the 100 most important talk radio hosts in America. Thom is number 10, and the top progressive.
  
• Article: No one home: 1 in 9 housing units vacant.
  
• "Brunch with Bernie" with Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent of Vermont. He's in California. Thom in the top 10 radio hosts. 9 in 10 talkers are conservative. We need a lot more progressive voices. Issues. Economy. Get rid of the Wall Street tycoons that got us in to it, investigate if they knew they were selling worthless paper. We would be taking on very powerful people, both parties involved. People realize that their kids will have a lower standard of living than we did.
  
  Bank bailout framing. Talk about ownership, we've given the banks 2 or 3 times what they are worth, and own nothing. Chump capitalism. Interest rates. Geithner, old think. Credit card usury, even though the companies are being bailed out. We need new national usury laws. Greenspan saying we cannot legislation away human green, free market best. China following us, dumping mercury. Bernie disagrees with Greenspan. Mixed economy, harvest entrepreneurs, but learn from Norway, etc., that government can have a role, health care, education, workers treated well, retirement, a strong safety net. Amend the Bankruptcy Bill so that judges can renegotiate mortgages.
  
  Can people who lost their homes due to loss of income be helped to get their home back sooner than the 7 years it takes to improve credit? Could the government have formed a low interest mortgage lender, to keep greed in check? He voted against both bailouts and Geithner. Filibuster was protection against terror of majority, they used to actually filibuster. Why the change? Unprecedented use by Republicans. We have a finite planet, how can we depend on an economy that depends on growth?
  
  A caller was laid off, it took 4 months to get her unemployment check, she had to take money out of her 401(k) to survived, and she was taxed on it. States cutting down on personnel. Obama's bill on housing will have an adverse effect? OPEC monopoly, load up on strategic reserve while oil is cheaper? Bernie thinks it is already close to capacity. Create an organization to hire people to bring out the truth, e.g. things said during campaigns? Bernie does not think you could have an institute of truth, people would disagree.
  
• Bumper Music: Truth, Amos Lee.
  
• Bumper Music: I Wanna Love Somebody Like You, Keith Urban.
  
• Bumper Music: The Gambler, Kenny Rogers (video).
  
• Article: With Cash to Spend, China Starts Investing Globally.
  "China is taking advantage of the economic downturn to go on a major shopping spree, investing in energy and other natural resources that could give it an economic advantage it has never had before.
  
  Some economic analysts say they believe that China