Today we're going to talk about the prospects for universal health care in America, in other words, making sure no one lacks health insurance. We'll focus less on the nuts and bolts, and more on the public attitude towards this issue. The conclusion will be, the public is solidly on our progressive side.I talk a lot on Blast The Right about the moral imperative to reduce human misery, suffering,
Mar 08, 2007
Today, we're going to have installment two of our series, Lying Or Just Plain Ignorant? Bill O'Reilly Misleads His Audience. The subject is poverty.O'Reilly recently had as a guest Rev. Fred Candeler, of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. Rev. Candeler was objecting to plans to place George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University. Candeler said one of the reasons
Mar 01, 2007
Today we're going to pick up from a few podcasts ago, and discuss another example of a Third World nation's people fighting for their very lives. It's yet another chapter in the book of global economic justice. Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed a sweeping land reform bill, to ensure that like his nation's other national resource, natural gas, Bolivia's fertile lands would be utilized for
Feb 23, 2007
Today we're going to discuss the phony claim by George Bush and Dick Cheney that Bush has unfettered power to wage war in Iraq -- and one assumes elsewhere -- as he sees fit. Congressional oversight? Surely you jest.In law school you usually take at least a beginning course in constitutional law. The subject is often referred to as con law. The situation with Bush and Cheney thus can be
Feb 15, 2007
Today we're going to discuss yet another way the Bush administration is continuing to push its radical right agenda even without control of Congress. In this case, it's the emasculate the government, cut taxes on the wealthy agenda. All accomplished through some until-now hidden workings of the Internal Revenue Service.I'll tell you up front that this isn't a page-1-headline-type story. But
Feb 09, 2007
Today we're going to start a series entitled "Lying Or Just Plain Ignorant? Bill O'Reilly Misleads His Audience." Part I will be about Iraq. Included will be, some effective responses when you hear misinformation like that disseminated by O'Reilly.Did you know, for example, that 72% of US troops in Iraq said last February they should be withdrawn within one year, whether or not the mission is
Feb 02, 2007
Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed on April 4, 1967:A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the
Jan 26, 2007
Today, we're going to present some data about income and wealth distribution that you've probably never before seen brought together in one place. Make sure your seat belt is securely fastened.For example, let's take the wealthiest 1/10 of one percent of all Americans. There are 130,500 such taxpayers. They have more income than the 120 million Americans at the bottom.Nice, huh?How about
Jan 19, 2007
Today we're going to have a wide-ranging discussion of that totally misleading economic term so beloved by the right, the "free market." By the time we're finished, you'll never hear the phrase "free market" the same way again.One of the more exasperating things when speaking to a right-winger, is that virtually no matter what subject you're talking about, if you're making good points and the
Jan 12, 2007
Today, we're going to start off the new year with some new evidence -- as if you really needed any more -- that right-wing policies cause increased human misery, suffering, pain and death. This example concerns thousands of unnecessary highway deaths from accidents involving large trucks.Safety advocacy groups, along with the insurance industry, presented studies showing that tired truck drivers
Jan 04, 2007
This last podcast of the year will be a review of some of the worst things the right-wing did in 2006 as covered by Blast The Right.Here's how I put together my list.You know I often say that right-wing policies inevitably cause increased human misery, suffering, pain and death. I don’t think I've every explained exactly what the components of that phrase mean to me.Misery and suffering I
Dec 28, 2006
Today we're going to look at a failed -- but still ongoing -- right-wing propaganda campaign, and analyze why it failed. Could it be because the right's actions and policy proposals prove they don't believe the words coming out of their own mouths about the war on terror?This summer, no doubt in desperate hope of scaring up a majority of GOP voters for the midterm elections, the right-wing
Dec 22, 2006
The Democrats have proclaimed that before 100 hours have gone by in the new Congress this January, they will, among other things, raise the Federal minimum wage.The bill, which has been languishing for years in the right-wing controlled Congress, is called the Fair Minimum Wage Act. It provides for three hikes: from the present $5.15 to $5.85 sixty days after enactment; to $6.55 one year later,
Dec 14, 2006
Today, we'll discuss how George W. Bush, even after the midterm elections, is continuing to appoint right-wing extremists to critically important government posts -- in this instance, jeopardizing the health of millions of women. Then a QuickBlast about Hugo Chavez's landslide election victory in Venezuela -- so much for the right-wing lie calling him a "dictator." We'll end with a listener
Dec 07, 2006
Ok, we had the midterm election, and there was apparently no nationwide right-wing electronic voting fraud sufficient to tip the scales to the Republicans, since the Democrats, thank goodness, did succeed in taking back both houses of Congress.I've been wondering, however, was there Republican voting fraud of the electronic variety, just not enough?And, what does this midterm election portend for
Nov 30, 2006
Today we'll discuss another example of good news on the international economic justice front. It comes in the form of a powerful kick in the teeth against the Third World debt scam that's been perpetrated against the poorest nations on earth for all too many years.Many of these indebted nations are forced to spend far more on repaying these loans, than on health care and education and other needs
Nov 23, 2006
There's good news for those of us who cheer when Third World nations make progress in their efforts to step out from under the boot heel of Western economic exploitation.Six months ago, way back in podcast 42, we discussed how Evo Morales, the newly elected President of Bolivia, had nationalized Bolivia's oil and gas industry. He gave foreign companies 180 days to turn over a majority stake in
Nov 16, 2006
Most of you are familiar with the many recent corporate and accounting scandals, with Enron, Tyco and Worldcom among the most notorious.In response to these events, even the right-wing controlled Congress felt compelled to act, and they passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act is one of the pieces of legislation that the SEC enforces, with these purposes: truthful disclosure
Nov 09, 2006
Torture and mass murder by the death squads of Iraq is being covered by the media, true. But what is largely unreported, is that these death squads bear a US pedigree.What we're seeing in current-day Iraq is a replay of one of the most heinous aspects of United State's foreign policy in 1980's Central America.Plus: an update on the Florida exit poll ban, a listener call-in comment on right-wing
Nov 02, 2006
Right-wingers claim that there is a war on religion in this country.The fact is:[S]ince 1989...more than 200 special arrangements, protections or exemptions for religious groups or their adherents were tucked into Congressional legislation, covering topics ranging from pensions to immigration to land use. New breaks have also been provided by a host of pivotal court decisions at the state and
Oct 26, 2006
Today, I'm going to address some issues related to the upcoming midterm elections, including the history of, and likelihood of continued, right-wing electronic voting machine fraud. There is nothing going on in this country more important politically, than to take back from the Republicans at least one, and preferably both, houses of Congress, in the midterm elections just a few weeks away.The
Oct 19, 2006
True to form, the Bush EPA ignored its legislative mandate to formulate new rules regarding poisonous soot in the air. Then after a court ordered it to produce new rules, the Bush EPA ignored its own experts and left an old totally inadequate standard in place. Thousands will die as a result.The 400 richest Americans, all billionaires, have as much wealth as half the US population, 57 million
Oct 12, 2006
The right-wing of the GOP has made covert racist appeals, and engaged in voter suppression, from 1968 to the present time. The so-called Southern Strategy begun under Richard Nixon, and Ronald Reagan's entire political career, are two such examples. The latest effort takes the form of the voter ID laws the right is currently pushing.We hear the Falwells and the Robertsons ad nauseam, but
Oct 05, 2006
Today I'm going to tell you about two of the most important and damning statistics in the world, and then link them to right-wing policies. We'll also try to decide what to call the deadly result of these policies. Is that result properly called terrorism, or just unfathomable violence?We'll also hear from a listener who abandoned his Republican ideology and adopted a progressive outlook as a
Sep 28, 2006
Today we have two segments and listener email. The keywords applicable to right-wingers in this podcast are immiseration, prevarication and suffocation.Immiseration, as in, right-wingers increase poverty.Prevarication, as in, right-wingers lie us into war. Suffocation, as in, right-wingers deny trapped mine workers the oxygen they need to survive. Caution: you will hear Dick Cheney during this
Sep 22, 2006
Today we're going to present Part II of the series, Critically Important But Largely Unreported Aspects of the Iraq War. What we'll discuss in this podcast are the Bremer Orders. These are laws promulgated by so-called Coalition Provisional Authority head Paul Bremer when he was running Iraq for the Bush administration. These laws, as those of you familiar with right-wingers may suspect, were
Sep 14, 2006
Today we're going to present Part I of what will be at least a 3-part series, Critically Important But Largely Unreported Aspects of the Iraq War. The first subject we'll address is, the neocon organization called Project for a New American Century, known as PNAC. This will make your hair stand on end.A major issue in the midterm elections, just about 2 months away, will of course be Iraq.One
Sep 08, 2006
Today we're going to have a change of pace from the previous several weeks of one-topic, in-depth discussions.Instead, you'll be presented with a smorgasbord of tasty dishes you can use to nourish the intellect of each one of your friendly local right-wingers. On the menu is Katrina, abuse of the IRS, and Bush failures in the war on terrorism.Various and sundry tidbits of truth for you to feed
Aug 31, 2006
The Third World poor suffer a quadruple whammy, a four-pronged attack on their livelihoods and very lives themselves.One of these prongs we've already touched on in previous podcasts, the sweetheart contracts between corrupt Third World governments and foreign multinationals that allow Third World natural resource wealth to be plundered.The other three elements of the right-wing attack are unfair
Aug 24, 2006
We didn't find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, correct? Most of you out there consider this an old issue. Surely most Americans understand that Saddam had no WMD.Think again.The Harris Poll recently asked Americans if the following statement was true or false:"Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded."50% of Americans said the statement was true! 50% of Americans
Aug 17, 2006
