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TODAY'S SHOW: FRIDAY, MAY 9th 2008

By Vanessa Silverton-Peel

Happy National Train Day everyone! Rachel will be celebrating later tonight with a ride home to Massachusetts and an AmDog. How will you honor this fine holiday?

On today's show we've got David Corn. Mother Jones Magazine and Brave New Films have dug up video of McCain's "spiritual adviser" that you are definitely going to want to see.

MENTIONED ON TODAY'S SHOW

Army's stop loss program rises dramatically 

Rachel Maddow Show guest Colby Buzzell called up to serve another tour of duty in Iraq 

Would Obama campaign help Hillary pay off campaign debt?

 

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I will honor Train Day...

...by not pillaging any.

Insert "winkie" here.

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not by the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists"--Abbie Hoffman

Hey, Rachel

About halfway through the "bump and grind" part of the show, you did a little promo that sounded as if you were talking inside a dumpster. Is that the (ahem) "studio" they've given you now?

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not by the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists"--Abbie Hoffman

So...as the comments dwindle

to a demoralized few...

I would like to offer just one more practical suggestion, as if anyone will notice.

The really hateful experience of having to wonder if it will be TMRS or race to the outhouse is turning off the base.

Please, just advertise it every day that it is on, and I will remember to tune in an hour later.

I want you to know that when I wait at 6pm just in case and tune out when it's wingnuts galore, I pretty much forget about tuning back in.

Please, post every day what it will be and we will be there one hour in. And we won't miss the few times when Rachel starts her own show early.

Please? (not presuming that anyone cares.)

Or..HEY!

This is the REALLY GOOD IDEA.

Many AAR affiliates DON'T EVEN BROADCAST the third "hour" of TMRS.

Idea:

MOVE THE SIMULCAST to the third hour of TMRS, and play the taped one hour of TMRS that she's actually on in the FIRST hour so that New York listeners today would have been able to go from Marc Maron to Rachel.

Got it?

HOUR ONE: Taped actual Rachel Maddow show with Rachel on.
HOUR TWO: David Bender show with Rachel Maddow brand
HOUR THREE: Race to the Outhouse which is carried on some AAR stations.

Sigh. as if anyone will listen.

regarding running the simulcast as the 3rd hour...

I like that idea!!! I listen on XM on my way home in the Chicago area...so I used to listen to the first hour of TRMS at 5pm Central...not thrilled with the simulcast...

skiddlybop

I, too, listen on WWRL in NYC, and lament the no-3rd-hour of TRMS (and in its place, Al Sharpton?!?!). Anyhow, I encourage you - and any other NYC terrestrial radio listeners out there - to email WWRL program director Rennie Bishop with your suggestions/complaints. From the WWRL website:

To ask a question or make a comment about WWRL’s Programming in general, please email Program Director, Rennie Bishop at bishop@wwrl1600.com

Who knows if our emails will help, but they certainly can't hurt ... unless WWRL decides to expand Sharpton's show.

Rachel

I like you. However, I do get the feeling that you are an Obama supporter. In so doing you seem to be ignoring the obvious. Obama has a character problem. I am white middle age. I will not support Obama due to his lonnnng affilication with Rev. Wright. Obama sat in this church for 20 years. He has exposed his daughters to the black "victim" mentallity. Does Colin Powell or Conde Rice sit in simular environments?

I would like to vote for Obama, but will not. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE!

He will loose in November. He cannot get people like me to see beyond his character.
Also, I am gay. I don't believe the good old Rev. Wright speaks highly of gays - nor do I believe that Obama really thinks different from Wright.

Also, Obama has demonstrated that he can get 30-40% of white voters against Clinton. On the other hand, Obama gets 90+% of the black voters. I feel that the black voters are not open. If any one voter segment is discriminating, it's the black voter. That is what the numbers tell me.

I understand that these are sensitive issues. But ignoring the obvious will not make things any better.

Thank you for reading my comments.
Best wishes

Nothing to do with race?

Can you honestly say that after your statements about
"black victim mentality"
"black voters are not open. If any one voter segment is discriminating, it's the black voter"?

And yet your decision to not vote for Obama has nothing to do with race? Please, at least be honest that it has everything to do with race.

Obama's character?

Let's see;
He will be up against McCain. Sounds like you will vote for him; that will show Obama..
McCain has Rev. Haggey; ok, he says he 'didn't sit in a pew for 20 years.. but in politics (That is what this is, not duelling pastors..) he sought and retains the endorsement of that wingnut who blamed Katrina on the gays and says the US was partly founded to wipe out that false religion Islam; yeah, there's a uniter.

So blacks may be 'discriminating'? I hope all voters are. How about Hillary's 'Hard-working white folks'? I think there may be a set percentage out there who won't vote for a black man; isn't that sort of a balancing thing..?
To each their own,
Good luck,
Rick

Cheers,
Rick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uApZuZ6RPy4
'Sorry about your white house. I see you've re-built it. It's very nice.'

Nothing to do with race eh?

You are not voting for a man because of where he went to church. Think about that for a minute. I find this 'issue' to be single handedly be the most moronic thing I have ever heard. I cannot understand how Hagee and all the other nuts get a pass, but the second nutty things come out of a black man's mouth it is worthy of non stop coverage. So McCain can actively pursue the endorsement of men who hate islam, calls catholicism 'the great whore', says Americas chickens were coming home to roost via Katrina because of the gay pride parade, makes the case for a preemptive strike against Iran, and that is perfectly ok. Your ability to be fair and balanced in your analysis is astounding. Even McCain has stated that he does not believe that Obama believes what Wright believes so i guess he has a few of his 'bearings'.

I am a lesbian, please point me in the direction of any monotheistic religion that welcomes gays with open arms, and as someone who is also black do also inform how we are not being 'open' because we are not damning someone because of where they went to church.

I can't believe I am getting sucked into this.

1) Obama has offered more for gay rights than any other candidate. He will repeal don't ask don't tell. He wants full partnership rights for gay couples. The only thing he says he won't back is the marriage thing, because he doesn't think it can win - yet. Personally, I don't think he cares, but he is smart enough to know where to draw the line politically.

2) Have you ever read either of his books? They are both available on iTunes and are enjoyable reads. He has never uttered a single wing-nutty or "angry-black-guy" thing. As an atheist, I admire him because he does NOT wear his religion on his sleeve, nor does he pander to the religious in order to get ahead politically.

3) Wright is a convenient scapegoat that white people can use as an excuse not to vote for the black guy. "Uh...I was gonna vote for him until Rev Wright?" GIVE.ME.A.BREAK. No one is buying it.

4) There are racist people in this country, yes. But this is not a racist country. We are a great country filled with great people. The Democrat will win, but only if we can come together. I will happily extend my hand to you. The question is, will you take it, or will you hold your breath petulantly before taking your ball home?

As Ed Rendell said "I'll give you 10 days to pout. Then suck it up, get over it, and support the Democrat."

The alternative?
A war-monger who can't keep his enemies straight?
A panderer who hangs around religious crazies in order to get the crazy vote?
A man who calls his wife a cunt and wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade?
A veteran with a chip on his shoulder who will not support VA rights
A man who knows nothing about out economic crisis nor how to solve it?
A man who calls his wife a cunt and wants to overturn Roe vs. Wade? (repeated for emphasis)

Rachel = Obama supporter

I think Rachel has bent over BACKWARDS to ba AGNOSTIC in the Obama/Clinton fight, as has Thom Hartmann. While others like Randi Rhoades and the Young Turks have gone into full Obama Root Mode, which is unfortunate.

And Rachel appears frequently on Keith Olbermann's show, when Keith is clearly ProBama, (albeit a convert from the Clinton camp as he stated on last night's show). You seem to be buying into a Republican BULLSH*T point that having an opinion or political POSITION = BIAS, the Republican MEME that made FOX NEWS famous.

re: The Wright "Problem."

I think you're falling for a CLASSIC ROVIAN Attack Strategy: Take an opponent's STRENGTH and morph it into a WEAKNESS.

Obama's whole campaign has been centered around building TOLERANCE and CONSENSUS. "We are not as divided as our politics suggest." "There is no Red America or Blue America." "We are ONE NATION, ONE PEOPLE."

STOP listening to the damn pundits and listen to what Obama is actually SAYING. Read his positions at www.barackobama.com and see where his REAL feelings are. You can accept or reject THAT, not the INSINUATIONS that the Right-Wing will always throw against him.

The Right-Wing's attack point comes from Obama being TOO TOLERANT. If he is tolerant of someone like Rev. Wright, then maybe (the insinuation goes) then he supports INTOLERANCE, which is where Rev. Wright stands on many issues. So Tolerating Intolerance = INTOLERANCE. Way to go, Karl Rove! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
___

Obama's association with Rev. Wright DOES expose a fault in Obama, but not the one you're thinking. It's not that everything he's ever said and done as a legislator is a LIE and he's a STEALTH "Manchurian Candidate" (as Ann Coulter called him) who SECRETLY believes in what Rev. Wright says. He got caught with his pants down PANDERING to the Looney Religious Left.

Rev. Wright's church has over 20,000 members on the South Side of Chicago. That's a hell of a lot of people that were Obama's CONSTITUENCY in his State Senate district. His constituency there LOVE Rev. Wright and all the fiery rhetoric, despite the High Percentage BULLSH*T factor. They LOVE him down there. Joining Wright's church was a POLITICAL DECISION. To fit in with his constituency.

So Obama panders to religious leaders. Is that any worse than John McCain pandering to even worse looneys on the Religious Right, like Hagee or Paisley? There's an incredible DOUBLE STANDARD where Right-Wing religious Looneys can say whatever the hell they want and it's OK because they're "Men of God." But when someone from the Looney Religious Left says ANYTHING, they're Anti-American, dangerous Radicals.

Because, according to the Conservative DOGMA, Republicans are the Party of GOD and the Democrats are the Party of Atheist, America-Hating Baby Killers.

Who is John McCain's pastor? Oh, yeah, that's right. He doesn't HAVE ONE. That's because he's been following the lead of RONALD REAGAN, expousing his Christian beliefs while NEVER actually GOING to Church. That's really convenient, isn't it? John McCain is a Catholic. Wait, no, Episcopal. Wait, no, Baptist! Wait, no, just a generic, Good, whateve-the-heck Christian he decides to be TODAY.

If you care about your president being a good Christian (which you SHOULDN'T) at least Obama WENT to church for 20 years, while John McCain and so many other Republicans get to sit on their asses every Sunday Morning so they don't have to COMMIT themselves to whatever positions their Church or Pastor might expouse!
____

No matter WHAT you might think about Obama, I can't believe, as a Democrat, you would consider voting for John McCain or sitting on your hands and ALLOWING him to win.

I sucked down two votes for BILL, even though I would have wanted a more Progressive candidate. Because that was the REALITY of the times.

I wasn't like so many Liberal/Progressives who went into the 2000 election saying "Gush/Bore, what's the difference? And voting for NADIR. Because allowing the Republicans complete control of the Government would push us into the ABYSS. And that's EXACTLY where Dubya took us to, the Abyss. Do you really want us to stay the Course of Dubya radical Military Interventionism and hacking away at our Government, so that we no longer have the ability to GOVERN OURSELVES???

Do you really want John McCain to appoint two more SUPREME COURT JUSTICES that will cannonize two more people that will KILL Roe V Wade and turn Dubya's crapping on the Constitution that is the "Supreme Executive" into the Law of the Land for an entire GENERATION???

Yeah right.

RBurnett, Have you been hearing anything both Obama and Clinton have been talking about during this campaign????

Clinton only talks about gay stuff in front of gay audiences. Obama talks about gay stuff everywhere he goes, including black churches that turn silent when he does. During the LOGO debate she had the gall of saying that she is IN FAVOR of DOMA, whereas Obama is against it. I still can't believe LGBT people who said she did well in that debate. Where they watching?

May I remind you that her hubby Bill -- the so called most gay friendly president in the history of this country -- brought us DOMA, don't ask don't tell, and enshrined into immigration the HIV ban? (All while the Human Rights Campaign drooled over him but that is another story).

Just keep in mind that if McCain wins, you can kiss goodbye your gay rights. He will nominate more extremists to the Supreme Court (he is already talking about it), and may be bring back the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and who knows what else..... and you are afraid of Wright????

Heck, as a lesbian them whities are more scary to me -- McCain, Bush, Rove, Parsley, Hague (the guy who said that Katrina was because of the gays), Cheney, Roberts, Alito, Falwell (the guy who said that 9-11 was because of the gays), Scalia (the guy who wanted sodomy to remain illegal)... should I continue??

Honey, you need stand in front of a mirror and look long and hard.... I am sorry to tell you that you ARE a racist. It is obviously you are playing the *afraid-white-guy* card by bringing up the Wright thing. It is not your fault, you were taught that big black guys are dangerous... and if they are outspoken like Wright is, well, that's just too much, right?

Your job now is to get over your bigotry. If you still choose to NOT vote on Obama on account of the issues, well, that is one thing. But not voting for him because of Wright says to me that you have some soul searching to do.

Won't vote for Obama??

Do you even have a clue about what McCain and his endorsers, like Hagee and Rod Parsley espouse?

Hank in Albuquerque

I have to admit that I've missed the past two days too

I won't listen to R2TOH and I have found someone that I enjoy listening to just as much as TRMS. The first couple of nights, I forgot to tune back in at 7:00 and tonight I will probably check in but I am just as happy to continue to listen to my alternate programming. I hope the new schedule works out well for Rachel, who is one of my favorite PEOPLE on the planet, but I will NOT spend an hour of my time listening to the corporate hacks on MSNBC.

McCain VS Obama; Pastoral Problems, Crazy old uncle..

Rachel,
Some say that Obama's supposed problem with Rev. Right sp. is different from the McCain / Haggey connection.. I don't see much difference other than McCain getting a pass from the media.. but this is the way to look at the good reverend;

Obama has the pastor embarrassing him like a crazy old uncle who drinks too much at a wedding...
John McCain.. IS a that crazy old uncle.

The fact that he is chummy with another crazy coot is beside the point, you just hope he will pass out soon, try to keep him away from the neighbours, and you sure as hell don't trust him with the car keys.

Cheers,
Rick
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uApZuZ6RPy4
'Sorry about your white house. I see you've re-built it. It's very nice.'

Amtrak is awesome!!!!

My best vacations have involved trains. The California Zephyr through the Sierra Nevadas is like backpacking sitting down. You are literally in the forest and, at times, inside the mountains. The full moon over the Nevada desert. Aspens shimmering in the Rockies. Pulling into Denver in the snow in late September! We were supposed to reach Chicago before dinnertime put we were running late (freight trains have the right-of-way) so they called ahead to some tiny town in Illinois to order KFC for everyone.
One of my favorite routes is the Coast Starlight from San Jose to LA in the summer time, watching the sunset over the Pacific while rolling along inches from the beach.
And last fall, for my 50th birthday, we flew to NYC and took trains to and from Rochester, NY and to and from Washington DC. All part of my democracy tour: Seneca Falls for the 1848 Women's Rights Convention and Elizabeth Cady Stanton's home, Rochester for Susan B. Anthony's home and the Sewell-Belmont House in DC, the headquarter's of the National Women's Party where Alice Paul lived for most of her adult life. Every year from 1932, when she co-wrote it, until she died in 1977 she lobbied Congress to introduce and pass the Equal Rights Amendment.
As I like to say when you take a train your vacation starts at the station. No need to arrive hours in advance, no being crammed into a seat for hours. Plus you get to see America at ground level, the nitty, gritty of our cities and the majesty of our landscape. There I go, getting all misty-eyed and patriotic. This is what National Train Day is all about.

Oh!

This is utterly brilliant.

Thank you, Buxtehude Barbarossa!

Correction: the ERA was first introduced to Congress in 1923, the 125th anniversary of the Seneca Falls Convention.

APA Appoints Reparative Therapy supporter to DSM-V Panel

Email received today:

So it just came down the wire that the APA announced on May 1st it's
work groups for the new DSM-V. This includes the team who will review
the "Gender Identity Disorder" criteria and ultimately make a determination
if GID should stay in the DSM.

OF GREAT CONCERN!

I am highly troubled that the naming of the committee includes two of
the most staunchly neo-eugenic figures from Toronto's notorious Jurassic
Clark. Kenneth Zucker (who will be acting as chair) and Ray Blanchard.
Blanchard was the original writer of the theory of "Autogynophelia", and
Zucker is an adamant proponent of "repairative therapy" for gender
non-conforming
young people.

Action is needed immediately. People need to start to sound the alarms
and raise red flags about the inappropriate choices that the APA has made.
While some of the other member of the committee are known and progressive
thinkers in regards to GID such as Peggy Cohen-Kettenis and Niklas Långström
I am unfamiliar with many of the other names of the committee members.

I would urge everyone to review the APAs press release of the committee they
have appointed, and start to gather information to begin a widespread lobbying
effort. The APA held its annual meeting over this last week, and no doubt that
many of these committee members are already getting together to start
formulating
their work plan.
You can read the APA's press release here:
http://www.psych.org/MainMenu/Newsroom/NewsReleases/2008NewsReleases/dsm...

This is scary. The next step could be to reclassify homosexuality as a mental disorder needing "reparative therapy."

Zucker

That is very disturbing. NPR did a story on Zucker yesterday or the day before. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842
The Zucker part of it was surprising to me because I didn't think that anyone outside of right wing religionists believed in "reparative therapy."

PER Pres Pastor : US created to destroy Islam

PER Pres Pastor : US created to destroy Islam.

I thought Pat robertson type BS was over with.. Still stupid as ever..

The "treaty of Tripoli" says otherwise (google it).. The Treaty of Tripoli was unaminously signed into law (several founders signed it too). It says that since the govt of the US was not in any sense founded on the xian religion, there is no animosity toward Islam..

bobblerft
(Freethought Society)

Eisenbahnnarr

The four-hour train ride from Seattle to Vancouver, B.C., is one of the world's most beautiful rail routes. It follows water the whole way, through beautiful old rail infrastructure, past various snow-covered mountain ranges. We saw seals while we sat drinking beer in the restaurant car; we could just as easily have seen whales in that section of Puget Sound.

The best part is, when you arrive in Vancouver, you've rejoined the world! Canada, where even the conservative newspapers may be accurate.

Yup

So it goes.

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not by the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists"--Abbie Hoffman

BTW here's SHOCKING FLASH ... NOT!!!

Tonight on MSnbc "HARD"ball Matthews is still chuckling off McAncients forked tongue pandering faupahs by challenging "why would VanWinkle's recollection of his y2k POTUS vote be foggy?"

That it's a strategery plus if he acknowledged his voting against the shrub, since it would bolster his "MAVERICK" bona fides.

BTW:
What's with KO buying the following shot group via BLUE on BLUE murder standing less than ten feet away friendly fire, plus all of his gear and journal being DELIBERATELY INCINERATED in the field, being an "ACCIDENT" REALLY?!!!

www.constructiveanarchy.com/blog/the_assassination_of_pat_tillman.php

LIghts, camera...

"Yeah, I remember my first beer."

Yup

So it goes.

"You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not by the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists"--Abbie Hoffman

It's educational.

Although I haven't listened to today's episode of TRMS yet, I have learned a lot today discovering decades of new albums from one of my favorite jazz pianists. Unfortunately, those decades were the 70's to the 90's. What happened?! I don't know much about jazz, but didn't even Miles go a little squooshy then? Of course, it must be tough for artists to play the same standards over and over for fifty years, and not everyone can be as autistic as I can.

The Seventies must have been downright *painful*. I knew Garry Trudeau didn't much like them at the time. My van-sized apartment was more elevator-like today than ever before. Violins, flutes, reverb; Sesame Street/Barbarella.

Rod Presley's war on Islam has blue collar disciples

I heard Rod Presley's comments on your show today and his views are absolutely shocking. (It is also shocking that the media is not all over this the way they were all over Jeremiah Wright.)

But the image that came to my mind when I heard Presley's diatribe was from an Indiana campaign report, that a man in a coffee shop refused to shake Barack Obama's hand saying it was because Obama is a Muslim.

Oopps!

Suddenly it clicked. Presley is not just a threat to our image in the world, (and to John McCain's campaign). His views have redneck adherents in this country, and that kind of angry, self-delusion is dangerous.

I have no doubt that Presley speaks for the KKK in this country today, and that is truly scary!

Preachers

Religion is irrational, dangerous, and was predicted to be the next problem when the Cold War ended. The discussions of each side's various preacher problems are a delight to me. To see how we used to consider religious leaders, as rational responsible popular scholars, rewatch "Jewel of the Nile." In fact, preachers are used car salesmen. Especially in the United States, where theater bleeds into everything.

face it

obama will be the nominee. clinton's been running a losing race for months. why should we all pretend like the race is even, just to appease clinton and her supporters? not interested in that. and clinton continues to attack obama. if mccain wins this will be why, not anything to due with obama's "character." btw, we all know you mean his race.
http://myspace.com/travioli1976
It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

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