Show 2009-01-10

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Richardson bows out of cabinet, Israel/Gaza conflict with Saleem Siddiqui from HotConflict.com, compromising with a failed ideology.

I know many of you, like me, work a full time job for a living.  You don’t always have time to catch up with the newspaper or evening news.  So at the top of The Russ Belville Show I help you catch up on the week’s hottest news topics with…

The Week in 90 Seconds

The Illinois House votes 114-1 to impeach Governor Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich – No Cloud over Me

I guess in some places in America, impeachment still is on the table

Nancy Pelosi – Blank Check

Harry Reid absolutely, positively will not seat Roland Burris… whoops, that’s my script from a week ago!

Harry Reid – Senate will vote on Burris

Al Franken officially declared the winner of Norm Coleman’s Senate Seat

Al Franken – Good Enough

Half a million jobs lost in December, unemployment is at 7.2%

Brother can you spare a dime (short)

President-Elect Obama adds $300B in tax cuts to his economic plan to woo Republican votes

Barack Obama – Act boldly and swiftly

Obama names CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta to be the next Surgeon General

Sanjay Gupta – Michael Moore Speechless

Under investigation in NM, Gov. Bill Richardson bows out of Obama’s cabinet

Bill Richardson – Mi buen amigo

The US Senate votes to support Israel’s attacks on Gaza, So Joe the Plumber is on the case, reporting from Israel.  Seriously.

Joe Wurzelbacher – War Correspondent

And the Florida Gators are the National Champions of College Football, defeating Oklahoma 24-14

Monday Night Football

Show Open

Stevie Banter

A right cheeky boffin who’s such a jammy beggar he smacked his own bonce when he learned he’d be spending a dirty weekend pawing the bristols a Page 3’er.

Larry Craig ends appeals

Larry Craig – Intent to Resign

Former Senator Larry Craig of Idaho is finally giving up on his effort to withdraw his guilty plea stemming from his 2007 arrest in Concourse C of the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport. After 18 months, looks like the battle’s over….

Larry Craig – I’m Not Coming Out (medium)

Dexter Stars Elope!

Michael C. Hall and Jennifer Carpenter, who play brother and sister on Dexter, are husband and wife, reports AP. Hall’s spokesman, Craig Bankey, said today the couple eloped in California on New Year’s Eve. Hall, 37, and Carpenter, 29, just finished the third season of Showtime’s serial killer show Dexter.

Quantum biggest Bond Ever

Daniel Craig – Bond, James Bond

Sony and MGM are reporting that Quantum of Solace, the latest installment of the 007 franchise, just set the mark as the highest-grossing domestic Bond film with $167.1 million, passing 2006’s Casino Royale’s $167 million. Solace has done $550 million worldwide — still a ways behind Royale’s $594 million worldwide haul.

SOLID AS BARACK!

Ashford & Simpson – Solid

On Jan. 20, Ashford & Simpson will release a single version of Solid (As Barack), a remake of their popular # 1 single Solid (As A Rock), originally released in 1984. his new version, complete with expanded lyrics for the entire song, is a tribute to President-elect Barack Obama.

The Big Story

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The Big Story

The Big Story

Saleem Siddiqui

HotConflict.com

Glenn Greenwald

This Rasmussen Reports poll — the first to survey American public opinion specifically regarding the Israeli attack on Gaza — strongly bolsters the severe disconnect I documented the other day between (a) American public opinion on U.S. policy towards Israel and (b) the consensus views expressed by America’s political leadership.  Not only does Rasmussen find that Americans generally “are closely divided over whether the Jewish state should be taking military action against militants in the Gaza Strip” (44-41%, with 15% undecided), but Democratic voters overwhelmingly oppose the Israeli offensive — by a 24-point margin (31-55%).  By stark constrast, Republicans, as one would expect (in light of their history of supporting virtually any proposed attack on Arabs and Muslims), overwhelmingly support the Israeli bombing campaign (62-27%).

Is there any other significant issue in American political life, besides Israel, where (a) citizens split almost evenly in their views, yet (b) the leaders of both parties adopt identical lockstep positions which leave half of the citizenry with no real voice?  More notably still, is there any other position, besides Israel, where (a) a party’s voters overwhelmingly embrace one position (Israel should not have attacked Gaza) but (b) that party’s leadership unanimously embraces the exact opposite position (Israel was absolutely right to attack Gaza and the U.S. must support Israel unequivocally)?  Does that happen with any other issue?

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The People Speak

Let’s turn things over to the good and wise people of North America and hear your voices…

John Lennon – Power to the People

Stand up together and fight the power…Let our leaders know how we feel

O’Jays – Give the People What They Want

It’s time to let The People Speak!  Spread your words all across the North American continent by dialing 888-7 RADICAL

Public Enemy – Fight the Power

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The Lunatic Fringe Award

Pink Floyd – Brain Damage

Now it’s time for our weekly roundup of the right-wing’s altered reality… / From the guano loco neocon chickenhawks to the hypocritical American Taliban… / And the cable news punditocracy… / The Russ Belville Show presents… / The Lunatic Fringe Award – an award dedicated to the politician, pundit, or preacher who said the most ignorant, hateful, or bizarre quote of the week.

George W. Bush – outstanding Dom Rumsfeld

BUSH: I thank members of the cabinet, members of the administration, and former members of the cabinet, especially the former secretary of defense, who did an outstanding job, Secretary Don Rumsfeld.

Rush Limbaugh – Barney Frank the Banking Queen

LIMBAUGH: Well, it certainly was the way the subprime mortgage thing went down. It certainly was the way Congress was in charge of telling Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac what to do. Barney Frank leading the way, folks — he was, and is, the “Banking Queen.”

You can build

You can buy

Any house your heart desires

Zero down

Financing

I am the banking queen

Michael Savage – Transgendered Detective

SAVAGE: The San Francisco Police Department is forcing detectives to undergo brainwashing by a transgendered detective.  Lieutenant Stephen Thorne” — that’s a female-to-male detective — “is facilitating transgendered community awareness training.  It’s a class now to teach normal men how to have sensitivity to a psychopathic sex-change operative who should be in a mental hospital.  When I worked at a local radio station, they forced the entire staff to take diversity training. I was the only one who challenged the freaks giving the diversity training. I fought them every step of the way.

Ann Coulter – Single Moms create strippers

COLMES: Now, look, let’s talk about — let’s talk about your book. How about that?

COULTER: I would love to.

COLMES: All right. Now, you talk about “Single motherhood is like a farm team for future criminals and –

COULTER: Yes.

COLMES: — social outcasts.”

COULTER: Yes.

COLMES: So you’re putting down single mothers.

COULTER: What I am saying –

COLMES: “We have a term for youngsters involved in children of divorces, or as I call them, future strippers.”

COULTER: What I am saying is –

COLMES: How sensitive of you.

COULTER: Yes, it’s very sensitive. Well, and it’s something that needs to be said. What I’m saying is there is no better example of victimizers who are treated like victims than single mothers. This was not an accident that the illegitimacy rate has gone up 300 percent since 1970. This was a plan by liberals.

Glenn Beck – Stop Commie Namecalling

BECK: I’m tired of the politics of left and right. It’s about right and wrong. We argue back and forth — “If you haven’t voted for the donkey, you’re just a hatemonger.” The other side — “Oh, those donkeys trying to turn us into communist Russia.” Stop!

Glenn Beck – Obama a Marxist

Glenn Beck – Obama welcome back Marx

Glenn Beck – Hillary Clinton is a liberal fascist

Glenn Beck – Nice of you to join us Stalin

Glenn Beck – John Edwards Soviet Star

So Glenn Beck, for demonstrating the a hypocrisy so grand it’s like shooting fish in a barrel, you are the winner of this week’s Lunatic Fringe Award

Red Rider – Lunatic Fringe

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Living in America

Neo-Con regressives like to say that we liberals hate America first.  I like to say we liberals love America most – that’s why we’re so disappointed in how badly regressives trash her reputation and treat her people.  So today we help our leaders focus on the plight on the little guy by taking our look at Living in America.

James Brown – Living in America

Compromising with a Failed Ideology

Dick Cheney – Obama has 365 votes

Mississippi, A Hotbed of Abstinence Education, Now Boasts Highest Teen Pregnancy Rate In America»

The Centers for Disease Control released a new report today that found that Mississippi “now has the nation’s highest teen pregnancy rate, displacing Texas and New Mexico for that lamentable title.” The report found that in 2006, the Mississippi teen pregnancy rate was over 60 percent higher than the national average and increased 13 percent since the year before.

While the new report does not explain why the state’s teen pregnancy rate is increasing, one reason may be the poor quality of its sex ed programs. As the Sexuality Information and Education Center explains, Mississippi focuses heavily on abstinence education and teachers are prohibited fromYeah demonstrating how to use contraceptives:

Mississippi schools are not required to teach sexuality education or sexually transmitted disease (STD)/HIV education. If schools choose to teach either or both forms of education, they must stress abstinence-until-marriage, including “the likely negative psychological and physical effects of not abstaining.” […]

If the school board authorizes the teaching of contraception, state law dictates that the failure rates and risks of each contraceptive method must be included and “in no case shall the instruction or program include any demonstration of how condoms or other contraceptives are applied.”

A reporter for ABC News’s Jackson, MS affiliate explained, “The Mississippi Department of Human Services says abstinence is the only birth control that is 100 percent effective. And that’s the only message teens need to hear.” Unfortunately, numerous studies show that abstinence-only education is not effective. As one study found:

Teenagers who pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a study released today.

Further, a review by the House Oversight Committee found that “80% of the abstinence-only curricula…contain false, misleading, or distorted information about reproductive health.”

Pregnant teens in Mississippi face few options. Access to facilities that provide abortions in that state is extremely limited. Indeed, because of an unusually effective anti-choice campaign in the legislature, only a single abortion clinic remains open in the state.

UPDATEThe report also found that the teen pregnancy rate is rising fastest in Alaska, where Gov. Sarah Palin (R) is a strong proponent of abstinence-only sex ed.

524,000 jobs lost in December, unemployment rises to 7.2 percent.»

The U.S. economy lost 524,000 jobs in December, the 12th straight month of decline. “Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost in 2008, with 1.9 million destroyed in just the past four months.” It’s the biggest job loss in any calendar year since 1945. The unemployment rate rose to 7.2 percent, the highest since early 1993 — just after the last Bush left office. USA Today charts the job losses over the past year:

 

Marijuana Minute

This is your Marijuana Minute – 60-second update of cannabis news in America, brought to you by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws at NORML.org

The state of New Mexico has finalized rules that make it the first state in the nation to regulate the sales and distribution of medical marijuana to qualified patients.

Non-profit entities can apply for a license to produce up to 95 marijuana plants and maintain an inventory of medical marijuana that “reflects current patient needs”.

The move makes New Mexico the third state, following California and Colorado, to allow for the legal sale of marijuana through a dispensary system.  Current estimates suggest medical marijuana provides $100M in sales tax revenue to California alone.

Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron notes that a system of taxed and regulated marijuana sales for all adults in America would raise $10-$14B per year.

Under the Radar

Every week at The Russ Belville Show, we sift through headlines to find the stories buried in the back pages or ignored on the evening news.  Stories our citizens and our leaders need to hear.  In this segment, we go Under the Radar

Golden Earring – Radar Love

Calls to Legalize It!

El Paso, TX

On Tuesday afternoon El Paso Mayor John Cook vetoed a resolution unanimously passed by city council that would have asked the U.S. government to begin a serious debate on legalizing narcotics.

Earlier in the day city council passed a resolution, ration[aliz]ing that the best way to stop the drug wars in Juarez may be to legalize the drugs here in the United States. It was part of a larger resolution outlining several steps for the United States and Mexico to take in order to cut down on the number of murders between rival drug cartels. Last year more than 1,600 people were murdered in Juarez.

City council members realize it may be extreme to legalize drugs like heroin, but others like marijuana could make sense. Currently, marijuana accounts for 70 percent of the drugs coming across the border. “Any business will tell you, you take a 70 percent hit to your pocket book, you’re going out of business,” said Councilman Steve Ortega.

Arizona AG

Attorney General Terry Goddard said Tuesday he might be willing to consider legalizing marijuana if a way can be found to control its distribution – and figure out who has been smoking it.

Goddard said marijuana sales make up 75 percent of the money that Mexican cartels use for other operations, including smuggling other drugs and fighting the Mexican army and police.

He said that makes fighting drug distribution here important to cut off that cash. He acknowledged those profits could be slashed if possession of marijuana were not a crime in Arizona.

Florida Op-Ed

One business that appears to be thriving in Southwest Florida is that of marijuana grow houses. Last year, the sheriffs office confiscated $8 million worth of the herb. This year, we’re approaching $7 million. Let us generously assume that the sheriff’s office is wiping out a quarter of our county’s marijuana crop every year. That would give us a $30 million a year industry that goes untaxed and unexploited by taxpayers. Our high foreclosure rate ensures that entrepreneurs can find plenty of grow houses at bargain-basement rates.

The way the system currently works, money that could be used to fund our economic survival instead ends up in the pockets of second-rate criminals and mobsters in the northeast.

Imagine that marijuana could be taxed at exorbitant rates, 100 percent even, in exchange for granting legalization of the plant. Our hypothetical modest $30 million could begin to build a comprehensive, world-class transportation system. It could be used to build a municipal, super-highspeed Internet system that makes broadband speeds look tortoise-like. A system like that would show big technology firms that Southwest Florida means business. Commercial impact fees might be waived for qualifying new businesses. We could fund educational programs and scholarships that would make us a magnet for the greatest minds in the nation.

Tax It!

Schwarzenegger seeks education cuts

California schools could eliminate a week of instruction and increase class sizes next year under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new plan for solving the state’s budget crisis. 

Vowing to give schools maximum flexibility to cut costs, the proposal unveiled Wednesday also would allow districts to eliminate one of two science courses required for high school graduation.

Schwarzenegger’s plan would provide no teacher salary increases, eliminate a program providing subsidies to overhaul low-performing schools, and suspend participation in a program encouraging teachers to obtain national certification.

Students could see dramatic impacts from the governor’s proposed $2.1 billion in education cuts this fiscal year and $3.1 billion from what schools anticipated in 2009-2010.

Wow.  It is a shame that the public school students are going to have to suffer.  If only California could find a way to easily slash $981 million in police, judicial, and correctional budgets, and if only California could raise $105 million in new tax revenues, that would be more than half of the proposed $2.1 billion Schwarzenegger is cutting from education.

You can educate children or you can arrest and lock up potheads.  Your call, Guv.

Paterson will slash budget of center that helps abused children

“Everybody’s going to feel the pain as a result of the budget cuts,” Paterson said in December, 2008.

Paterson has been blunt about his budget. And after digging through the numbers herself, Deborah Merrifield, the Executive Director of the Joan A. Male Family Support Center, is feeling the pain.

“We could lose up to $1.1 million out of our relatively small $3 million budget, so that’s a 35-percent cut,” said Deborah Merrifield.

This support center prevents child abuse and neglect through different programs and a parent helpline. But the programs are in jeopardy of cutbacks and closings. On New Year’s Eve, five people there were laid off.

New York: $565M savings, $65.5M taxes from legalizing cannabis.

Corzine seeking more cuts in budget

TRENTON – Gov. Corzine is proposing cutting $812 million from New Jersey’s budget in response to estimates that the state’s financial shortfall has leaped from $1.2 billion to $2.1 billion.

The governor plans to raid the rainy-day fund, use unspent money from the previous year’s budget, freeze salaries of government workers, and use other measures, he said yesterday. He also is counting on at least $300 million in new federal aid.

Cuts may include $90 million in discretionary spending, $15 million in municipal aid, $75 million in educational aid for kindergarten-through-12th-grade schools, and $160 million in the state’s pension contributions.

New Jersey: $197M savings, $23.9M taxes from legalizing cannabis.

Rendell seeking more budget cuts

In Pennsylvania, Gov. Rendell has announced several rounds of budget cuts and has proposed tapping the rainy-day fund, diverting money from the sale of oil and gas drilling rights, and using federal aid to make up for a revenue deficit.

The state Revenue Department yesterday released figures showing Pennsylvania’s general fund taking in 6.8 percent less than expected for the fiscal year that ends June 30. Projected for the entire year, that would leave a $2 billion deficit in Pennsylvania’s $28.3 billion budget.

Pennsylvania: $198M savings, $34.9 taxes from legalizing cannabis.

People Want It!

This comports well with what we see from public opinion polls.  The 2007 Zogby Opinion Poll on the question of “eliminat[ing] federal penalties for the personal use of marijuana by adults and allow states to adopt their own policies on marijuana?” found that The People are evenly split on ending cannabis prohibition at 49% in favor, 48% opposed, with majorities in the east and west in favor.  Support of The People for this question, phrased one way or another, has risen steadily over twenty years.

We also find that the public support for medicinal use of marijuana is strong at between 70% and 80% in favor of ending criminal penalties on people using cannabis as medicine with a doctor’s supervision.

We’ve told you how President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team was “Open for Questions” at Change.gov.  We shared the joy of learning that after 978,868 votes on 10,302 questions from 20,468 people, the #1 question asked by The People was:

“Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?”

We also shared the contempt for The People when the transition team issued the curt eleven-word reply to a very complex and reasonable question:

“President-elect Obama is not in favor of the legalization of marijuana.”

Now in the second round of “Open for Questions” is on and in the “National Security” category, after 284,445 votes on 4,449 questions from 20,121 people, we find this question in the #1 slot:

“Our current war on drugs is failing America. Billions of dollars are spent on a losing campaign. Our prisons are overflowing with people that don’t deserve to be there. What is the government going to do in an effort to fix this major problem?”

And in the “Additional Issues” category, after 811,832 votes on 13,539 questions from 45,291 people, sitting in the #2 slot is this question (behind a question on appointing Patrick Fitzgerald to investigate the Bush Administration):

“The people of this country want marijuana decriminalization, when will marijuana be decriminalized? Why continue to spend billions of dollars to prohibit marijuana when evidence shows that the war on drugs is, as you said, “an utter failure”?”

Over at the other site, Change.org, not affiliated with the Obama transition team, we see a similar theme.  Their #1 issue as voted on by The People was “Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana”, which has now moved on to Round #2 of the “competition”.

Then there was that little public opinion poll called the election, where medical marijuana passed in Michigan by 63% and passed in every single county, even the ones that voted for John McCain.  We saw decriminalization of marijuana passed in Massachusetts by 65%, and in both states, the marijuana reform laws got more votes than Barack Obama did!

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Free for All

It’s five hours worth of show and two hours worth of time to fit it all in.  It’s the lightning round of progressive talk in the Free For All, where any topic is up for discussion at 888 7-RADICAL

Ted Nugent – Free For All

German Billionaire Suicide

German billionaire Adolf Merckle, one of the richest men in the world, committed suicide this week after his business empire crumbled in the wake of the international financial crisis. His net worth tumbled from $12.8 billion to $9.2 billion in 2008.

Dirk’s Bathroom

Cool new office bathroom, outgoing Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne! We love the “new shower, a refrigerator and a freezer and buying monogrammed towels,” though we do wish you hadn’t spent $235,000 of my tax dollars on the fancy renovations…

SORRY BUSH

President George W. Bush’s days after leaving the White House is shaping up to be pretty comfortable, with a Dallas office, staffers, a travel budget, and a $196,700 annual pension, all at taxpayers’ expense. One thing he won’t have? A lifetime benefit of Secret Service protection, the first president not to benefit. His benefit, thanks to a rule change in the 90s, ends after a decade.

Brownie Evacuates

“Here I am on the other side of the fence now” — Former FEMA Michael “Heckuvajob” Brown, telling a local radio station he was safe after being evacuated from his home in Boulder, CO due to an uncontained wildfire. Actually, Mr. Brown, to be perfectly fair, you should probably hole up in Folsom Stadium without food or water and swimming in your own filth for a few days. That’s more akin to what was on “the other side of the fence,” as you put it.

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Listener E-mail

Monty Python – Spam Spam

Joe in Oregon

Last Sunday you talked about taxing pot or taxing the accessories. I’m all for that, if it can be enforced. Being a tobacco smoker and the new laws here about smoking in bars & resturants, in Oregon, it makes me think about what if the smokers all quit or smoking was outlawed, where would the government get all the tax revnue? What tax will they increase to make up that missing amount? How would the public screem when the replacement taxes, or other taxes that are raised to make that up. I don’t mind paying the taxes that I do for my habit. What bothers me is that people who don’t smoke, who are always saying raise the cigarette tax to pay for something that they don’t want to while enjoying the services that the smoker pay for. Now we can’t smoke in resturants, When will it end?

Thanks for reading this, Keep up the good work on Sunday. Wish you would be week long.

Anonymous

The truth is that most people who want pot legalized only want to smoke it. That’s because it’s not for medicinal purposes, but as a method of coping with Life. These people are incable of dealing with life on life’s terms, and so seek to escape Reality by getting stoned.

Most of us who have grown up already don’t see the value in making it legal for those people to escape Reality. We think it would be best if they just grew up and learned how to manage their emotions. Those who are already dependent upon pot for coping with life will always argue these facts with me.

It’s called Denial, and I’m very well aware when I’m talking with someone who advocates for legalizing marijuana that I’m talking to someone who is likely out of touch with Reality. That’s why they can’t make a valid argument for legalization

Al Franken – Denial

Bobbie in Oregon

You are so grounded, making more sense than almost anyone else, whether speaking about marijuana and/or other political issues such as whether R Burris should be seated.  He should; Harry Reid needs to be replaced. 

 

I have not heard many radio hosts pick up on the White Knot Campaign.  Please help spread the word these next two weekends, by having listeners go to www.whiteknot.org, re equality in marriage.  This is a peaceful protest re Rick Warren.  Those of us who cannot attend the inauguration could mail a white knot to B Obama.  The very best solution of course is to rid laws in government which are religious based which have nothing to do with crime and everything to do with civil rights abuse.  Let the individual churches make all the ‘laws’ they want for their members. 

Michael in Oregon

[Caroline Kennedy] disqualified herself for public office when she stammered “you know” 147 times in a single interview. At 51, she should have cured that by now. She needs to see a speech therapist, pronto. It’s even worse than saying “nukeular.”