Good to hear Thom spanking Wesley J. Smith. People should be reminded that he's a creationist, a Fellow with the anti-science Discovery Institute.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005/03/strange-bedfellows-commenter-ken-...

Thom, you blew it. Again.

I think about 50% of the time you have rightwingers on your show (which is far too often IMHO), you let them outmaneuver you. This morning with Mark Williams, you let it happen big time.

You mentioned to Williams, on-air, that he called President Obama an "Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and racist-in-chief." This is what Williams wrote on his blog and what Anderson Cooper successfully dissected last November (video and transcripts are up at HuffPo, crooksandliars, and other sites).

After some back-and-forth, Williams asked you "is there something wrong with being an Indonesian and a Muslim?" In your response, you veered off into a discussion of how these are dog-whistle words to tea partiers, "frightened" Americans, etc., etc. I don't remember the exact words you used. But presto, with that exchange Williams maneuvered you into appearing as an elitist who "didn't think very highly of the American people", as I believe Williams's rejoinder was.

At that point I tuned to another station, because I just couldn't stand it any more.

Bravo, Thom. You took a blatant racist on your show and allowed him to maneuver you into painting yourself as an elitist, and you allowed him to derail the discussion from focusing on the wingnuttery and racism of his comments.

Leave aside for a moment the fact that both allegations against the President are false. You and I both know there's nothing wrong with anyone being either an Indonesian or a Muslim. But Williams ***obviously*** believes there ***is*** something wrong with that. And you allowed him to get away with claiming that he was fine with it. He became the equality advocate, and you became the elitist and bigot, because you didn't pin him down to admitting it was HIS belief, not yours, that there was something wrong with being either, or both. You didn't pin him down into admitting that, in the context of his language ("Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and racist in chief"), he CLEARLY meant the terms "Indonesian Muslim" as a slur against the President. And that's all you had to say. You could have asked Williams something like: "C'mon, Mark. Are you going to sit here and tell me with a straight face that when you wrote that the President was 'Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug and racist in chief' you actually intended the words Indonesian Muslim as a COMPLIMENT? Or even as something neutral?"

You do this way too much, Thom. You let the wingers on your show get away with far too much. I love listening to most of your show, but segments like these want to make me throw my radio out the window. Not because of what *they* say, Thom, but because of what **you** let them get away with on air.

Gloria Steinham said - Its not the victim, its the act of the perpetrator that is wrong. Carving a human is as bad as carving an animal because it is the killing and carving that is wrong, the action itself that is wrong - not - who you do it to!

Did someone say....Deep Ecology?

http://environmental-activism.suite101.com/article.cfm/elfland-lessons-i...

The character of a country can be learned by how they treat their animals - Gandhi The lab animal industry in America is a sham. None of this is needed in herbology and traditional chinese/ ayurvedic mediinces, for which I find are superior to Western Medicine.

Pigeons! Yes, we had pigeons in our barn loft, we have seen baby pigeons. We miss our pigeons. Anyone who wants to get rid of their pigeons, please send them to us. We'll take our chances on some of them being aliens. Central Nebraska is a healthy environment for pigeons.

Rabbi Michael Lerner says that we must start the healing process from PTA by O Syndrome.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Healing-from-Post-Traumati-by-Rabbi-Mic...

@Rus: The wingers will soon start yelling :

"MOB RULE!!!!"

if folk hear that they actually want change.

@mugsy-- lol! All that pigeon was missing was a newspaper under its wing!

I called the White House and - super nicely - explained that the 60% of the American people and 80% of Democrats are consistently "retarded" (Rahm's words, not mine) in their support of the public option because they are the ones actually dealing with the realities of the American healthcare system. Three people I know in their mid-to-late fifties were just let go from their company and the prospect of them finding new work is next to none. If we just lowered the medicare age to 50, this would be one less thing that they will need to worry about (or had a public option for them to opt into). Also, if the age was lowered (or if we had a public option), my sister would be able to get tested for rheumatoid arthritis; instead she is just taking vitamins and thinking positive. In a "capitalist" system, I was always told that competition was the core of such a system. If this is the case, why do we not have many options for insurance if we are unhappy with our current insurance? We are just asking for ONE other option. What's "retarded" about that?

WHEN WILL THEY EVER LEARN There are polls taken on the public option that reach 80% in favor. Even the most conservative polls are in the 60% area. We all know that if the democrats do pass health reform with a public option it will be a boon to all democrats and independents in 2010. On MSNBC, CNN, Progressive radio, blogs, when the question is posed as to why the democrats do no act the answer is unanimously met with a shrug and “that’s a good question.” None of them offer any answer. They act as if they are as confused as everyone else is. These people either are not very smart or are concealing the real answer. Every show I watch concentrates on the number of senators and House members who are signing on to the petition. What a farce.

When press secretary to the President Robert Gibbs said yesterday that they would not be pushing for a public option even though every democrat who is up for re-election knows that to stand on the floor of the senate and vote against the public option would be political suicide. What then is the reason? I think it is simple. Neither republicans nor democrats are on the side of the American people. They both are bought and paid for by special interests. Harry Reid is not going to bring reconciliation to the floor because he knows that he does not have the 50 votes. That’s what he says. The truth is he could force a vote tomorrow and compel the senate to either cast a vote for the public option or show their true colors. Both parties are on the side of special interests and they are not going to be exposed. Obama plays the bipartisan game when it is clear that he does not have 60 votes to pass a bill even if he loads it with every republican talking point. Why does he keep giving in to republicans when there is no chance the bill can muster 60 votes? Because he is on the side of big insurance. The bill as it stands now would give the health care companies 30 million new customers with a penalty for not signing up. How’s that for a deal?

Wake up America; no one is on our side.

I should clarify my remarks about Thom. While I consider him a genuine Progressive on economic matters... willing to take on the basic assumptions of our market system, he seems to be caught in the middle of wanting to support democracy and talking favorably about social democracies in Europe... but he can't seem to challenge the assumptions of our political system. Maybe this has little to do with his REAL beliefs about democracy and more to do with his running a successful radio program and afraid of losing sponsors. After all, to question the assumptions that underlie our federal government is to question the moral legitimacy of our system.