FairAndUNbalanced's podcast (Political News)

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Syndication

How about this?

The election just six months away. The presumptive Democratic nominee 9 points ahead. Even conservatives attacking Republicans.

And Democrats still lost in November. Here’s how it happened.

Direct download: How_Trump_Wins_in_2020.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 7:59pm EDT

If he had paid more attention to a couple of memos, he would have been in politics a whole lot longer.


How I maneuvered a crooked corporate executive into getting fired, and how Nancy Pelosi seems to be doing the same to a crooked President.

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Direct download: My_President_Is_Angry_about_Being_Called_Angry.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:42pm EDT

With that wonderful sense of humor that is only his, my President leads his supporters in laughter.

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Direct download: My_Hilarious_President.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:33am EDT

The root cause of the political death spiral that afflicts the Republican Party has been blamed on Trump, Nixon, and a host of minor players. We have overlooked a hidden player that has only been with us for 30 years.

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Direct download: Political_Rising_Tide_and_a_Sinking_Republican_Continent.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 1:22am EDT

A numble President and Cabinet join in public prayer, thanking God for providing to a grateful nation a President and Cabinet as courageous and bold as themselves.

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Direct download: Thanking_God_for_a_Numble_Leadership.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:13pm EDT

The announcement is disheartening. John McCain has been stricken with brain cancer.

The nation sees tragedy involving a war hero.

Kelli Ward sees a wonderful opportunity for personal advancement.

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Direct download: John_McCain_Brain_Cancer_and_Human_Decency.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:54pm EDT

Most of us are values voters. When we decide our candidate is a real jerk, we support someone else.

That can give us hope.

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Direct download: Chris_Christie_the_Snow_and_the_Beach.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:57pm EDT

A personality that seems disconnected from any external reality can only be compared to a character from fiction.

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Direct download: Donald_Trumps_Secret_Identity.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 1:33am EDT

For the first time in history, a Director of the FBI must be fired, fired by the newly elected President. Here's why.

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Direct download: Reining_In_the_Insurgent_FBI.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:13pm EDT

The scheme to make an African baby a future US President kept growing.

It has become a massive global anti-American plot against Donald Trump.

It won't end until the election, when the American people join the conspiracy.

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Direct download: Donald_Caught_in_the_Rigging.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:53pm EDT

Can a cartoon character from 6 decades ago, catching falling plates on black and white television, explain the strange personality of Donald Trump?

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Direct download: Donald_and_the_Dish.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:30pm EDT

If Hillary Clinton is innocent of wrongdoing, you have to wonder why there is so much scandal.

Well, gather round.

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Direct download: Haircuts_and_Christmas_Cards_-_an_Introduction_to_Scandal.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:41pm EDT

The Republican Party plays the drowning Ophelia in Shakespeare's Hamlet, "as one incapable of her own distress."

The Party is in a death spiral.

Like a moth, it circles the flame, helpless, unable to stop itself.

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Direct download: Pre-autopsy__Why_the_Republican_Party_is_Crashing.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 8:07pm EDT

He is not winning in any way you or I might think possible.

But, by his own inner light, he is winning none-the-less.

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Direct download: The_Art_of_the_Election__How_Trump_is_Winning.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:50pm EDT

Donald Trump describes himself as he sees himself.

He is the most successful businessman, the smartest graduate, the toughest candidate, the best thing that ever happened to evangelicals, the most attractive to women.

He is a candidate of superlatives.

He believes that makes him a superlative candidate.

It doesn't.

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Direct download: The_Superlative_Candidate.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:27pm EDT

His aggressive approach, traveling personally into the very heart of criminal territory, was becoming too effective. The order came directly from the crime lords. Kill the chief of United States Narcotics Enforcement.

Like some comic book superhero, he went underground, surfacing only to surprise, battle, and bring down those drug cartels.

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Direct download: Judging_the_Mexican_Judge.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:04pm EDT

Once, not long ago, even candidates thought to be adorably ignorant put forth a noble effort to prove otherwise.

That era now seems to have passed us by.

Perhaps it is gone forever.

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Direct download: Lack_of_Qualification_as_the_New_Qualification.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:41pm EDT

The controversy in the primaries is about fairness.

But the real injustice is not the injustice that gets noticed.

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Direct download: Conventional_Fairness.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:06pm EDT

It is reminiscent of old comedy routines. Why do mainstream news outlets keep tripping into the same journalistic trap, set by conservatives?

Why do mainstream news outlets keep tripping into the same journalistic trap, set by conservatives?

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Direct download: Would_You_Believe.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:58pm EDT

Nixon? Obama? A careless elite? A creepy birchism that never left?

The real answer is hidden in plain sight.

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Direct download: Trapped_in_the_Palace_of_Cows.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:42pm EDT

Marco Rubio's hopes will end, not for his terrible policy positions, but rather for his inspirational family story.

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Direct download: Marco_Rubio_and_the_Lost_Soul.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:34pm EDT

The description accidentally made public, how the National Republican Party sees Republicans, is extraordinary.

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Direct download: How_Republicans_Define_Republicans_Now_Documented.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:23pm EDT

There are better reasons to support or oppose Hillary Clinton or Marco Rubio than Benghazi, email servers, or credit card debt.

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Direct download: Scandal_and_the_Presidential_Election.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 8:19pm EDT

It has been an odd reversal.

Those attacking Hillary Clinton's character are angry as their character is examined.

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Direct download: Ugly_By_a_Frog.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:47pm EDT

Pundits and politicians argue about John Boehner's success or failure. Pretty much all of them have it wrong.

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Direct download: Why_John_Boehner_Tripped_and_Fell.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:27pm EDT

Henry Fonda's film from half a century ago helps explain Donald Trump's popularity in the Republican Party of today.

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Direct download: Donald_Trumps_12_Angry_Men.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

The outrage from liberals on behalf of Goldwater in 1964 was vocal.

From conservatives in 2015?

Not so much.

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Direct download: Barack_Insane_Obama_Diagnosed_on_Fox.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:29pm EDT

How an officious airline counter employee taught me something important about Donald Trump and heroism.

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Direct download: What_Donald_Trump_Can_Teach_Us.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:16pm EDT

Commuters sometimes take traffic delays personally. That is why 4 successive days of 4 hour delays, delays generated deliberately, have hurt Chris Christie more than any comparable scandal.

But the Governor has gone through a period of introspection. He may have discovered within himself a path to recovery.

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Direct download: Chris_Christie_is_Ready_to_Move_On.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:04pm EDT

Bobby Kennedy began as a law enforcement official who seemed unable to communicate with those on the other side of the poverty line. In five years, he became noted for his ability to transcend racial, economic, and class tensions.

His journey during those five years began with a program of listening and learning.

Half a century later, what can Hillary Clinton learn from his experience?

Direct download: What_Can_Hillary_Borrow_from_Bobby.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:27pm EDT

Fox News personalities were having a bit of fun with NBC anchor, Brian Williams, over his misleading stories about his wartime reporting experiences.

Then Bill O'Reilly's own inaccuracies came to light. Should O'Reilly resign? Should he take a leave of absence? Should Fox News fire him?

A Fox affiliate in Tampa Florida has a step by step guide ready and waiting to show Bill O'Reilly exactly how to handle the accusations.

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Direct download: What_Bill_OReilly_Ought_to_Do_Now.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:59pm EDT

When Mike Huckabee says that he can be friends with gay people.

Sounds good, enen if it is in the same sense that Jesus was friends with tax collectors who extorted far beyond the taxes they sent on to Rome.

He also groups gay sexuality in with swearing and visiting the corner bar after work. That could be a twenty first century way of restating the way the Apostle Paul grouped gay sexuality in with gossip and kids disobeying parents.

I don't agree that being gay equates with any violation of spiritual law, but I at least understand it.

But God doesn't like classical music? Or ballet? Seriously?

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Direct download: God_Hates_Opera_-_Seriously_-_Huckab.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 1:07am EDT

In every campaign in his political life, Mitt Romney has run on his resume.

In 2016, he will run on philosophical substance.

Mitt Romney can become President Romney. But he needs one more ingredient, the toughest campaign objective to achieve. 

Direct download: Who_Is_the_New_Authentic_Mitt_Romn.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:36pm EDT

In many ways, 2010 was the precursor to 2014. Sharron Angle was the poster child for Republican extremism.

Hidden in the laughter on mainstream news shows was an unexamined self regard, an arrogance that helped add to public resentment.

It was not the main reason mainstream candidates lost that year, and four years later.

But it was a reason.

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Direct download: Why_the_Press_Should_Have_Stopped_La.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:32am EDT

Chuck Todd's recent book offers a searing analysis of the Obama administration. The unwavering opposition of Republicans is already well documented. But Todd suggests that President Obama is also to blame for roadblocks to policies that would help the poor and middle class.

Todd worked hard, talking with hundreds of Washington insiders. He has been able convincingly to demonstrate insularity and isolation from the real world.

But not in the way anyone could have anticipated.

Direct download: Chuck_Todds_Analysis_of_President_O.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:42pm EDT

Fox News and the terrorist fist jab was unintentionally funny. The local Minneapolis television station and the secret gang signal became hilarious. The ethic itself is not always so humorous.

Take any accusation, rumor, or suspicion, and present it to a predominantly conservative audience as legitimate speculation. A large proportion of the public is led into a cocoon of comforting delusion.

Is Barack Obama really from Kenya?

Does Obamacare include death panels to decide when the elderly should die?

Is President Obama trying bring Ebola to the United States?

We report, you decide.

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Direct download: Nixon_Mandela_Bachmann_God_Expose.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:22am EDT

I have discovered, through introspection and my relationships with others, that most people have a low tolerance for injustice. When we encounter the unfairness of life, in little ways and great, humankind faces a great divide.

The hatred of injustice causes much of humanity to deny that it exists. Rationalization often involves more than simple inaction. Victims of injustice are sometimes victimized again in calloused attitudes. So we cheer for the giant who beats the little guy into submission.

But much of humanity recognizes the injustice that stares back at us. We know it exists. We know it is wrong. We know that subjecting the little guy to the mercies of the selfish and powerful is evil in motion.

That is why I am a Democrat.

That is why I will be voting today.

That is why I will be asking friends to vote.

Direct download: Why_I_Will_Be_Voting_Today.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:07pm EDT

I'm okay with negative ads. If they don't distort the facts, if they don't outright lie, if they are pertinent, if they don't grossly violate ethical boundaries, I'm okay with them.

I am a distinct minority. Voters are sick of negative ads. Poll after poll has demonstrated this to the point where it has become conventional wisdom.

Still, negative ads work. Most of the time. Not always.

They especially don't work when they are so over-the-top voters end up laughing at the sinister accusations.

For example...

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Direct download: Politics_-_Throwing_Mud_Against_the.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:22pm EDT

Most general elections are zero-sum affairs. Winning does not depend on a candidate being liked. Winning depends on a candidate being liked more than the opponent. Sometimes that just means being disliked less.

Negative campaigns produce two negatives. Voters dislike the candidate running negative ads. Voters come pretty close to hating the opponent who is the target of negative ads. All things being equal, the candidate voters dislike wins over the candidate voters hate. A lot of voters hold their noses and vote for the nasty guy who ran the ad they didn't like to see.

That can be true of any campaign with two credible candidates. None of the above is not a real option. One of the candidate will win.

In South Dakota, a third choice might just kick over the chessboard.

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Direct download: Three_Candidates_and_a_Scandal_Make.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:22pm EDT

News reports, analysts, and pundits flooded networks and print media with accounts of the Romney interview. It was big news.

The most significant item was mentioned in the interview, but was lost in the covereage.

It was overridden by the hot, hot question raised by the interview. Will Mitt run again?

News focuses on the unusual. In another era, the confession would have dominated. Today, it is scarcely worth mentioning.

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Direct download: Mitt_Romney_and_the_Truth.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:43pm EDT

It's the sort of thing that surfaces about every other week from regionally prominent Republicans. It represents a large proportion of a shrinking party.

Referring to people as anything other than human, with human feelings, with human worth, is wrong. It is wrong when the target is a black, or gay, or immigrant. The fact that this was not as widely recognized 60 years ago does not make it any more right.

Such ways of of talking and thinking come from those who are so used to the reinforcement of those of like mind, some political figures imagine the policies they espouse, and the terms they use to describe their own thoughts, will find the same approval from the general public.

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Direct download: Regarding_Humans_as_Less_than_Human.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:11pm EDT

104 former Republican office holders have joined to oppose the election of Republican governor Sam Brownback.

Republican Senator Pat Roberts might squeak by to re-election with a fraction of the vote, if Republicans can get opponents to divide between two other candidates.

But Republicans have nothing to worry about. After this election, Kansas voters will always stay Republican. Really, they will.

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Direct download: Whats_Wrong_With_Kansas_Republicans.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 1:52am EDT

Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS) has been attacked, among other reasons, for no longer being a resident of Kansas. His declared residence turns out to be the home of supporters in Dodge City. He pays them rent.

As a voter, I'm okay with facing reality. Maintaining a full time residence here in Missouri while attending to a full time job in Washington is an untenable requirement. My bet is I'd feel the same way if I lived next door in Kansas.

But the insistence that our Representatives must work for us in Washington but can't live there continues. It doesn't happen every election season. Just enough to be an irritant.

I thought again it all again as I read about another scandal brewing in Maryland. The state gives tax breaks to residents. Tax officials are investigating whether a public official committed a crime by claiming to be a full time resident.

Now I have to rethink whether the Housing deal should always be a non-issue.

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Direct download: Taking_the_House_Out_of_Politics_-_M.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:54pm EDT

Mo Brooks and his assertion that white people are suffering as a result of minority advancement, not as a result of a playing field tilted toward the wealthy, comes from a zero-sum view of the world. That view is as common in history as influenza. It is especially identified with conservative reactions to every surge of progress since slavery days.

It isn't hard to exploit that view, especially when it is reinforced by an economy that has been slowed by a Congress dominated by the enemies of equality. A war against white people is a powerful lie to those who feel the effects of economic hardship.

Most analysts seem to think Democrats will win electorally just by waiting for outraged minorities, and those white people whose sensibilities are offended, to reach a combined majority.

A more immediate remedy may be a full throated expression of the truth. We ought to point out the truth because it is the right thing to do. In this case, it is also the smart thing to do.

A responsible populism on behalf of those working hard and still hurting would be justly aimed against those who dominate the halls of power and influence. A powerful falsehood can sometimes be met by a powerful truth.

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Direct download: Mo_Brooks_Slams_the_Hymnal.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:45am EDT

The idea that opposition to the President is a natural result of some flaw in his own policy or personality is counter to documented evidence.

On the very night of President Obama's first inauguration, a group of top Republican lawmakers and strategists met. The country was in peril, teetering on the edge of a mammoth economic depression rivaling that of Herbert Hoover.

Hours into the new presidency, the conservative group decided to bring Obama down, no matter what it took. They determined they would obstruct, in every way possible, anything and everything the new President would ever, could ever, propose. It did not matter what, they would oppose it.

The newest mantra from the base is coming slowly to the surface of public discussion in Republican circles. This time, impeachment needs nothing more than a vague sense that something is wrong. There are no specifics. But the feeling is strong that all of the debunked scandals must still contain something of substance: Benghazi, the IRS, Obamacare, the economic bailout, something has to provide grounds for removal from office. The impostor must be turned out.

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Direct download: Impeachment.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:02am EDT

The idea that opposition to the President is a natural result of some flaw in his own policy or personality is counter to documented evidence.

On the very night of President Obama's first inauguration, a group of top Republican lawmakers and strategists met. The country was in peril, teetering on the edge of a mammoth economic depression rivaling that of Herbert Hoover.

Hours into the new presidency, the conservative group decided to bring Obama down, no matter what it took. They determined they would obstruct, in every way possible, anything and everything the new President would ever, could ever, propose. It did not matter what, they would oppose it.

The newest mantra from the base is coming slowly to the surface of public discussion in Republican circles. This time, impeachment needs nothing more than a vague sense that something is wrong. There are no specifics. But the feeling is strong that all of the debunked scandals must still contain something of substance: Benghazi, the IRS, Obamacare, the economic bailout, something has to provide grounds for removal from office. The impostor must be turned out.

- More -

Direct download: Impeachment.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:02am EDT

Racism, to conservatives, is primarily a rhetorical weapon. It is no more than an arrow in the quiver of the enemy. It is the perennial false charge, unfairly made against good, solid American people, many of whom have best friends who are black. It is a double edged sword, one to be turned against those liberals whenever the opportunity comes. After all, only racists play the race card, accusing good folks of racism.

The featured speaker at pro-confederacy conferences, rousing cheers from those longing for the good old days, lights up another leg on the path to the future. Accusations of racism are not only to be themselves condemned. Those using them are to be banished.

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Direct download: Lessons_from_the_Mississippi_Mud_Fes.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:01am EDT

Andrew Breitbart made a name for himself by editing a video to make it appear that an Agriculture official was saying the opposite of what she said.

Breitbart, before dying of a heart attack, went on to post heavily edited videos of others. A couple of University professors here in St. Louis lost their jobs. They were made to seem to say things they did not actually say.

Andrew Breitbart has gone to the Great Beyond. But breitbarting lives, having become a bit of a conservative art form.

Christiane Amanpour, Norah O’Donnell, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf, the Environmental Protection Agency have all been breitbarted. Self-proclaimed Christian historian David Barton even breitbarts the founding fathers, editing documents to mean the opposite of what they actually say.

Now the slice and dice video distortion technique is being used by conservatives on each other.

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Direct download: Conservatives_Breitbarting_Conservat.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:17pm EDT

Senator Cochran survived by appealing to non-traditional participants in Republican primary elections. He asked black voters to help him win. And so he won.

Chris McDaniel cried foul. He refused to concede. In fact, he promises to go to court over the vote.

Thanks to illegal voting from liberal Democrats, my opponent stole last week’s runoff election, but I’m not going down without a fight.

- Chris McDaniel, in a mass email, July 2, 2014

Slavery, Jim Crow, lynchings, housing, voting are issues that echo into today's reality. For all the sleight of hand, everyone knows how the shell game has been played. Racial Conservatives have moved from one shell to another, from the Democratic Party of old to the Republican Party of today and tomorrow.

Plantation, conservative at heart, Party of Lincoln. The arguments vanish in the wind as outraged conservatives make a new case for truth. It is the truth that was already apparent.

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Direct download: Has_the_Tea_Party_Gotten_it_Right_Ab.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:21pm EDT

Whenever key evidence simply disappears from an arena of controversy, alarm bells go off. These missing emails happen to be a case in point.

We have to ask a more basic question. If that large a gap in the official record exists, how many other key pieces of evidence are missing? What other email messages have vanished?

When a public official suddenly resigns, and so much documentation turns out to be missing, is it any wonder suspicions will spread?

But there is another side. There are reasonable explanations.

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Direct download: Can_Missing_E-Mail_Messages_Be_Defen.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:21pm EDT

I never thought of him as a comedian until I came across a bit of history a few months ago.

Then, a Tea Party candidate in Oklahoma again reminded me of Benjamin Franklin last week, and how he faked out an unethical rival, and made him deny his own death for years.

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Direct download: Ben_Franklin_Is_Not_a_Tea_Party_Cand.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 7:23pm EDT

Hillary Clinton can become a great President, if she stops trying to think of herself as one of us.

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Direct download: Hillary_Clinton_Agonistes.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:11pm EDT

With each oscillation of modulus 4 years, Republicans win, when they win, by a smaller margin. When they lose, they lose by an ever widening gap.

The reason is that Republican politicians face an increasingly conservative electorate in Republican primaries. They lose to extremists or they adopt extreme views themselves to get past primaries.

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Direct download: Republican_Revolution_in_Virginia.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:42pm EDT

Karl Rove's newest questions about Hillary Clinton seem to be obvious missteps. He was quoted in a friendly paper, saying Hillary Clinton had suffered brain damage in a fall a couple of years ago.

He denied saying that. He had only said she had fallen, had a serious head injury, and had been seen wearing special glasses designed for brain injured people. That's all he had said. Very innocent.

Oh, and one other thing. You know, she's very, very old.

She'll be 69 by the time of the 2016 elections. She will be 77 if she serves two terms. And this ends up being an issue.

I would remind you, John McCain - here's the headline from U.S. News and World Report: "McCain's age and past health problems could be an issue in the presidential campaign". This happens every presidential campaign.

- Karl Rove, Fox News Monday, May 12, 2014

You might think Republicans would distance themselves from this one. Here's the chairman of the Republican National Committee.

I think that health and age is fair game. It's fair game for Ronald Reagan. It's fair game for John McCain. When people came at John McCain and said maybe he's psychologically not fit because he was a prisoner of war.

- Reince Priebus, Chairman, Republican National Committee, May 18, 2014

 

"People" said that, did they?

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Direct download: The_Age_of_Hillary_Clinton.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:15pm EDT

You can't just poll voters, if you want to predict how voters will choose. You have to poll voters who will choose. If a voter isn't going to vote, that voter will not have much effect on an election.

It is hard to figure out who is going to vote. Some pollsters go by past elections, taking into account what percentage of different ages, races, income groups, and educational levels have voted. So, if you find you're over-representing left handed people with blue eyes, you just count their numbers less. It's called weighting.

But weighting depends on past patterns holding in the future. Patterns are getting tricky.

 

It's getting harder to figure out who is going to vote for another reason. Republicans have been taking steps to make it harder for minorities and college students and working class people to vote. At the same time, courts are beginning to take a harder look at voter suppression. So it's hard to predict who will have their voting rights taken away by conservatives.

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Direct download: Wave_Election_Polls_and_a_Tidal_Futu.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:58pm EDT

Lincoln Denial

Well the reason that the slaves were eventually freed was the Constitution. I mean, it was like the conscience of the American people.

Unfortunately there were some court decisions like Dred Scott and others that defined some people as property, but the Constitution kept calling us back to "all men are created equal and we have inalienable rights" in the minds of God.

Former Senator Jim DeMint, Heritage Foundation, April 3, 2014

Sometimes I have to search my heart to know why I react as I do. I confess I don't really know for sure why that interview is so irritating.

It isn't the first idiocy uttered about slavery. In fact, it is similar to earlier presentations by others.

But we also know that the very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States.

Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), January 21, 2011

- More -

Direct download: Lincoln_Denial.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:20pm EDT

Columbia, Tennessee promotes itself as the mule capital of the world. Every year around the end of March and beginning of April, they hold an annual celebration. Thousands of people come from all over to join in bluegrass, gospel, country music, with dancing and events. This year they tried a sort of take off on a rodeo, with guys riding sticks made up to look like heads of mules. It was like Monty Python for mule lovers.

They also have an annual mule parade. Four years ago, a local Republican candidate for Congress, a tea party favorite, was scolded by a parade organizer for some sort of safety violation committed by his campaign the previous year. The candidate, Zach Wamp, got really steamed. He was reported by the Nashville City Paper to have said a couple of things that make campaign managers attempt to fly from tall buildings.

"I make my own rules!" and "You can’t tell me what to do!"

Yikes. Way to go, Zack.

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Direct download: Lessons_from_the_Columbia_Mule_Parad.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:31pm EDT

Republican Tipping Points

When Bill Clinton won the Presidency in 1992, conservatives looked for whatever comfort they could generate from his low share of the vote. It had been a three candidate race, and Bill Clinton won with 43 percent.

George Will reacted with some degree of scorn, not toward Clinton, but toward Clinton's critics. He mocked the"delightful Republican attempt to build confidence on a rickety scaffolding of little numbers."

He stated two obvious facts.

One was that the President-elect would have won with a substantially larger share of the vote had the third candidate, Ross Perot, not engaged in a campaign that was self-financed by equal parts big money and big ego.

The other was that Clinton had ... well ... won.

"Clinton`s strong number is: He won 100 percent of the White House."

Unless you are Chris Christie making a ruthless run toward national Republican prominence, that 100 percent of any elective office means you would not be willing to block lanes or break heads to get a few more points past 60 percent. As long as you get enough past half to avoid a nail biting recount, who cares?

That's why it was hard for me to take seriously the Huffington Post headline a few days ago:

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Direct download: Republican_Tipping_Points.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 11:15pm EDT

Will Massively Wealthy Elites Save the Republican Party?

Voters in their mid-twenties will remember just one presidential campaign in which the Republican got more votes than the Democrat. That happened in 2004 as President George W. Bush was cast as the anti-terrorist President.

Elections in which the Democratic candidate got more votes:

 

  • 1992
  • 1996
  • 2000
  • 2008
  • 2012

Elections in which the Republican candidate got more votes:

 

  • 2004

A trend can be seen in non-Presidential races. The line is not straight, but it wobbles along, generally in one direction. The oscillation does continue. Republicans are victorious, then Democrats win. But Republican victories are becoming narrower over time. Democrats, when they win, achieve greater margins.

What began happening in 1992? Why is it continuing?

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Direct download: Will_Massively_Wealthy_Elites_Save_t.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 12:56am EDT

My Defense of Bill O'Reilly

Bill O'Reilly's comparison has to be taken in context.

The O’Reilly haters are pretty much the people that have no idea what I do. And I like that — I mean, I don’t have any problem with people disliking me, and I’ll tell you why. I’m not comparing myself, but who was the most hated person in Judea 2,000 years ago?

Many, many loved him, but just as many despised him. They’re always going to do that. If you speak your mind, you’re going to have some who like you and some who hate you.

Bill O'Reilly, March 21, 2014

I happen to disagree with O'Reilly about the cause of the crucifixion. His opinion has been shared by antisemitic bigots for centuries. It has caused much suffering among persecuted Jews. I don't think Jesus was killed because he was widely hated. He was targeted, at least in part, because he was way too popular in the nation of Israel.

That does not detract from the point Bill O'Reilly was attempting to make. 

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Direct download: My_Defense_of_Bill_OReilly.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:12pm EDT

Ted Nugent - Impolite Name Calling

Well, that was bracing.

In the month and a half since one time rocker Ted Nugent characterized the President in terms most familiar to those who lived in the days of Jim Crow and lynchings, he has semi-sorta apologized. Between those slurs and his revised and extended remarks, he was greeted joyfully by a candidate for Governor of Texas, was endorsed by a former Governor of Alaska, and was the subject of a host of reactions by public conservatives.

His own remarks were controversial, but not entirely unexpected. They comprise a small part of a massive pattern of longstanding behavior.

More instructive was the disapproving reaction of mainstream Republicans.

Direct download: Ted_Nugent_-_Impolite_Name_Calling.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 1:14am EDT

Economists Stumbling Toward an Airplane Propeller

What's the most boring thing imaginable?

Watching paint dry? Watching grass grow? Waiting for the History Channel to show history?

How about a news account of a series of meetings by a group of economists?

Except this group of economists is staggering like an inebriated passenger stumbling toward an airplane propeller. The propeller is we now know as the economic crisis of 2008. The combination of innate cluelessness and lack of information combines with the ability to see things retrospectively to form a horror show of policy.

It's like watching a television drama with little kids playing with dynamite and matches. You hold your breath, knowing this won't be good.

 

Direct download: Economists_Stumbling_Toward_an_Airpl.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:27pm EDT

Why Prosecute the Loud-Music Killer Again?

The man who killed a teenager over an argument about loud music will likely spend the rest of his life in prison. Still, it was not a verdict consistent with common sense.

The interview with the one juror who has stepped forward provided confirmation of what many of us have suspected. A majority of the jury wanted to convict the defendant for outright murder. Three holdouts refused.

At issue was whether the shooter was acting in self-defense. The definition in Florida seems to be looser than in most of the country in two respects.

  • He did not actually have to be in any danger from the teenager he shot and killed. He only had to reasonably imagine the danger.
  • Justifiable homicide in Florida is not an affirmative defense in the same way it is in most parts of the world.

An affirmative defense shifts the burden of proof...

Direct download: Why_Prosecute_the_Loud-Music_Killer.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:37pm EDT

For the most part, mainstream media outlets have ignored the obvious coverage. They are, for once, just too responsible to get the job done.

I suppose that, in my heart, I have always known of that ageless quality within. I am too old to be young, but I'll never be too old to be immature. So it's time to take up the slack.

 

Direct download: Unknown_Investigation_into_Denied_Un.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 9:46pm EDT

Hillary Clinton Too Ruthless to Rule

Before the President was killed, Robert F. Kennedy had earned a reputation for toughness. When John F. Kennedy encouraged Americans to work at physical fitness, it was his brother Bobby who responded with fifty mile hikes, his exhausted staff in tow.

But the tough image had not been developed on the hiking trail...

Direct download: Hillary_Clinton_Too_Ruthless_to_Rule.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 10:27pm EDT

Direct download: 02_Scalia_Logic_-_Voting_Rights_Act_Had_Too_Much_Support.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 5:39am EDT

Direct download: 01_The_Republican_Demand_that_Obama_Shield_Them_From_Voters.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 5:32am EDT

Direct download: 03_John_McCain_and_the_Grieving_Mother.mp3
Category:Political News -- posted at: 5:13am EDT

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