:

Podcast 91: Denying Reality: Bill O'Reilly Blames Anti-US World Public Opinion On....Rosie O'Donnell!

2007-04-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

Today, we'll listen to Bill O'Reilly explain to us why world public opinion opposes the Bush administration's foreign policy. The reason is…. Rosie O'Donnell.

O'Reilly's propaganda is part of a concerted effort by the right-wing fog machine to divert attention from the disaster in Iraq, and pin the blame elsewhere.

You're going to laugh and shake your head in disbelief. Maybe it will also make you want to cry.

Here's part of what you'll hear from Mr. No-Spin:

Miss O'Donnell and her radical pals are basically telling the world the USA is a criminal nation, and that no matter what provocations are lodged by Iran and others, it will always be America's fault. This is grossly irresponsible and flat-out dangerous. But believe me when I tell you that millions of people all over the world are buying this garbage.

A new poll in Germany, for example, asks, "Who's the biggest threat to world peace, the USA or Iran?" 48 percent of Germans said the USA, 31 percent Iran. Incredible...

Today's Investors Business Daily newspaper labeled Miss O'Donnell "Tokyo Rosie," editorializing that her anti-American propaganda has reached hysterical levels.

What do Smedley Butler and George Kennan have to do with this? Listen and learn!

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast 90 - Shameless Right-Wing Greed: How Vulture Funds Prey On Impoverished Third World Nations

2007-04-19T22:30:00.000-07:00

Today we're going to discuss an incredibly immoral way to make huge sums of money: vulture funds which prey on destitute Third World nations. As you might imagine, there's a strong right-wing connection.

First I'll give you an overview of the vulture fund process. Next we'll go over some specific examples of vulture funds in action. Finally we'll discuss the right-wing connection to all this, aside from the obvious element of unbridled, unconcerned-with-moral-implications greed.

The overview.

In the Third World debt arena, vulture funds

are companies which buy up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off, then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest.

According to investigative reporter Greg Palast, "political muscle" and "bribery" are also employed by the vulture funds to secure the money they seek.

As you can imagine, any money collected by the vulture fund is that much less funding for education, health care, nutrition programs, or other efforts by a Third World government to improve the lives of their poor majority.

Gordon Brown is the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, akin to our Secretary of the Treasury. Speaking to the UN in 2002, he declared:

We particularly condemn the perversity where vulture funds purchase debt at a reduced price and make a profit from suing the debtor country to recover the full amount owed - a morally outrageous outcome.

Let's go on to some specific examples. A vulture fund preying on Zambia has been in the news lately...

For all the rest of the details, including how George W. Bush could stop these vulture funds with a stroke of his pen, please listen to the podcast.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast 89 - Right-Wingers Can Be Proud: 2005 Saw The Greatest Income Inequality Since The Great Depression / Listen To McCain's Descent Into Delusion

2007-04-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

As a general rule of thumb, everything right-wingers do is designed to accomplish one of two goals: either (a) transfer wealth to the already-rich from everyone else, or (b) distract everyone else from the fact that (a) is occurring.

As far as (a), transfer wealth to the rich from everyone else, the right-wingers are succeeding probably beyond even their wildest expectations.

Figures just released show that in 2005 income inequality continued to grow, by leaps and bounds. The richest 1% of Americans took home 21.8 percent of all reported income, up from 19.8 in 2004.

The really significant number is, this is more than double their share of the national income in 1980.

The richest 1% of Americans doubled their share of the nation's earnings since 1980.

Guess what happened in 1981? Right-wing icon Ronald Reagan took office. Not a coincidence, not a coincidence.

I'm sure the right-wingers are not quite satisfied, however, because the highest share for the top 1% was 23.9 percent in 1928, the year before the Great Depression.

So c'mon right-wingers, you still have work to do to set the all-time record for greed.

Regarding John McCain, I've assembled several clips of him and others speaking about his visit to the Iraqi market, and its aftermath. McCain's misrepresentation of the security situation in Bagdhad is typical right-wing lying or self-delusion, sometimes it's hard to tell which.

Towards the end of the podcast you'll also hear the details about the next Blast The Right Live Call-In show, Monday, April 16, 10 pm EST.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #88 - Listen To A Progressive Third World Leader Tell Us In His Own Words The Truth Our Mass Media Ignores

2007-04-13T21:30:00.000-07:00

Today we're going to hear a progressive Third World leader in his own voice.

Throughout Latin America, the impoverished masses, who sometimes constitute on outright majority of their nations' populations, are rising up and electing progressive leaders. These progressive leaders promise to rule in the interests of the majority, not a small elite super-wealthy group at the top.

And that's just what these progressive leaders are doing, much to the consternation -- and public whining, ranting and raving -- of both local and US right-wingers.

One such progressive leader is Evo Morales of Bolivia. He was elected in a landslide in December 2005. Since then, he has delighted the poor majority in Bolivia, with his pro-social justice measures.

In this podcast you'll hear excerpts from an interview of Morales conducted by Amy Goodman on her wonderful Democracy Now program.

Morales laments past US violence against his nation, and explains his administration's current efforts to end centuries of exploitation by the West.

In addition to the theme of the Third World poor taking power and achieving economic justice, we'll note some sub-themes.

They are: as in the past, so in the present. As in one Third World country, so in another. And as abroad, so at home here in the US.

In other words, right-wingers are the same, throughout history, and all over the world.

I'll also give you details of the next Blast The Right Live Call-in show.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #87 Is UP! Bush's Budget: Right-Wing Greed & Cruelty / Listener Email: The Human Dimension Of The Gay Marriage Debate

2007-04-09T00:35:00.000-07:00

George Bush ran for President as a "compassionate conservative." Yet his proposed federal budget belies that claim. Bush would slash programs that provide critical assistance to our most vulnerable citizens, including children and the elderly. At the same time, Bush proposes tax breaks for the richest 1% among us. And Bush's bloated Pentagon budget seems to serve no purpose but to enrich his defense industry-associated supporters.

In our second segment, we'll read and discuss a message from a gay listener who expresses his fears about the present-day climate in America. Here's a sample:

As a gay man living in a relationship for 17 years, I just don't understand why my family can't get the tax, legal and health benefits of other families. I don't care if my relationship is recognized by a church. However, I do want legal protections.

Why are right wingers so opposed to my rights? How would they be hurt by my loving relationship?

In my closing remarks, you can find out about the next Blast The Right Live Call-In Show.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #86 Is UP!! Iraq's New Oil Law: Proof That Bush's War IS Blood For Oil

2007-03-22T23:20:00.000-07:00

U.S. government pre-war planning documents stated that the new Iraqi government would have to privatize its oil industry. The Iraq Study Group said the same thing after the war.

The new Iraqi oil law just unveiled would do just that:

A new oil law set to go before the Iraqi Parliament this month would, if passed...transform Iraq’s oil industry from a nationalized model closed to American oil companies except for limited (although highly lucrative) marketing contracts, into a commercial industry, all-but-privatized, that is fully open to all international oil companies.

It does so to the benefit of the companies, but to the great detriment of Iraq’s economy, democracy and sovereignty.

[T]he law’s...provisions...allow much (if not most) of Iraq’s oil revenues to flow out of the country and into the pockets of international oil companies.

It's a radical departure not only from Iraq's existing structure but from how oil is managed in most of the world today.

We overthrew the Iranian government in 1953 to get Iranian oil back into multinational hands, and a half century later, in 2003, we overthrew the Iraqi government to get Iraqi oil back into multinational hands. And, I would add, to establish permanent military bases in Iraq.

Just as our actions in Iran caused massive resentment there and led to a takeover of that country a quarter century later by hard-line Islamic radicals, our actions in effectively grabbing Iraq's oil, will similarly produce results we won't like, and probably in far less time.

And note: getting back Iran's oil -- once again -- is next on the Bushian agenda.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #85 Is UP!! War On Terrorism Truths: More Of BTR's Interview With Bush-Bashing Conservative Scholar / Email: Listener Converting Right-winger

2007-03-22T23:15:00.000-07:00

Bruce Fein, a conservative scholar who's none too happy with George Bush, makes these three points in the concluding part of our interview:

1. the threat level from terrorism is not insignificant, but nowhere near the threat levels we faced in WWII or the Cold War;

2. civil liberties violations are clearly not justified by any such honest evaluation of the threat level; and

3. the civil liberties violations by the Bush administration, along with the Iraq War, have made us less, not more safe, because these violations and the war have expanded the pool of potential terrorists.

In our email segment, a listener relates how a right-winger at work is beginning to see the light, at least in part from being repeatedly exposed to Blast The Right!

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #83 Is UP!! Lying Or Just Plain Ignorant? Bill O'Reilly Misleads His Audience, Part 2: Poverty

2007-03-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

Today, we're going to have installment two of our series, Lying Or Just Plain Ignorant? Bill O'Reilly Misleads His Audience. The subject is poverty.

O'Reilly recently had as a guest Rev. Fred Candeler, of the Methodist Federation for Social Action. Rev. Candeler was objecting to plans to place George W. Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University. Candeler said one of the reasons was that Bush's economic policies violate Methodist social teachings on poverty.

O'Reilly challenged him by asserting:

[audio clip] Poverty is very low in the United States. It stands at below 10%. Even those who are poor have the basic staples of life, most of them, unless they're addicted or mentally ill. What's the problem with the president's economic policies, which have really been very successful, particularly after 9/11.

Amazing how in less than 50 words, O'Reilly can pack in so much disinformation.

An unsuspecting member of O'Reilly's audience would come away from this believing that poverty in the United States is under 10%, that we have a very low poverty rate, and that Bush's economic policies have been very successful in this area.

In this podcast, we thoroughly debunk O'Reilly and establish that:

--the US poverty rate is not under 10% but 12.6%
--Bush's economic policies have been a dismal failure in this area because every year poverty has gone up under Bush, except for the one year it stayed the same, and that extreme poverty has set a record high under Bush's regime
--tens of millions of Americans are increasingly at risk for falling into poverty, and
--the US poverty rate is not low, but is higher than virtually every other industrialized nation in the world

We'll also discuss the noxious right-wing doctrine of Social Darwinism.

Please listen to the podcast for the details.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #84 Is UP!! A Major Defeat For Right-Wing Ideology: American Public Strongly Supports Government Guarantee Of Health Care For All

2007-03-08T22:28:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to talk about the prospects for universal health care in America, in other words, making sure no one lacks health insurance. We'll focus less on the nuts and bolts, and more on the public attitude towards this issue. The conclusion will be, the public is solidly on our progressive side.

I talk a lot on Blast The Right about the moral imperative to reduce human misery, suffering, pain and death, which right-wing policies don't do. In fact, the rule of thumb is, right-wing policies increase human misery, suffering, pain and death.

For a couple of examples, check out my year-end podcast 74, where I review some of the worst things the right-wing did in 2006 as covered by Blast The Right. Included among their gifts to America in 2006 were increased poverty, mining deaths, cancer and lung disease.

As I discussed in podcast 79, George Bush's proposal to improve our health care system, which he still runs around shamelessly promoting, leaves 90% of the problem unsolved.

There are 47 million Americans without health care coverage. By the White House's own admission, George Bush's plan will at most cover about 1 in 10 of them.

How does the public feel about that?

We have some fresh data on this, from a New York Times, CBS News poll. It was conducted February 23-27.

A majority of Americans say the federal government should guarantee health insurance to every American, especially children, and are willing to pay higher taxes to do it, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

Heartening, huh?

What you'll hear in the rest of this podcast will show how the right-wing is truly the loony fringe right, and we supposedly loony left progressives are not so loony after all, but supported by strong majority sentiment.

Please listen to the podcast for the details.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #82 Is UP!! Third World Land Reform Would Allow Hungry People To Feed Themselves: Another Social Justice Measure The Right-Wing Tries To Kill

2007-02-22T21:27:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to pick up from a few podcasts ago, and discuss another example of a Third World nation's people fighting for their very lives. It's yet another chapter in the book of global economic justice.

Bolivian President Evo Morales proposed a sweeping land reform bill, to ensure that like his nation's other national resource, natural gas, Bolivia's fertile lands would be utilized for the benefit of all Bolivians, not just for the benefit of a relative handful of large landowners.

Land reform would allow small farmers to feed themselves, and grow affordable food for impoverished Bolivians, who constitute a majority of that nation.

Morales started small. He gave

poor farming communities some 8,500 square miles of government land.

But then Morales proposed legislation that

would eventually allow his government to redistribute some 77,000 square miles of unproductive land.

Morales has said the government will not seize productive land, but rather large tracts of Bolivia's sparsely populated east held by a handful of wealthy families.

What, social justice for the poor? This can't be allowed to happen. The right-wing opposition did everything it could to kill the measure.

Then things became, shall we say, interesting.

Can you imagine the sound of thousands of feet marching down from the impoverished Bolivian highlands?

Listen to the podcast for the details of what happened next.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief preview above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #81 Is UP! Cons Try To Con Us About Con Law: Bush/Cheney Claim About Unfettered Presidential War Powers Is Totally Bogus

2007-02-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to discuss the phony claim by George Bush and Dick Cheney that Bush has unfettered power to wage war in Iraq -- and one assumes elsewhere -- as he sees fit. Congressional oversight? Surely you jest.

In law school you usually take at least a beginning course in constitutional law. The subject is often referred to as con law. The situation with Bush and Cheney thus can be described as cons trying to con us about con law.

You'll hear my first ever interview of a right-winger, a fairly prominent commentator. On this topic, it's a friendly conversation. Intrigued?

The bottom line is, war powers are subject to the same balance of power between the branches as everything else in the Constitution.

The Constitution’s drafters were intent on balancing power so no one branch could drift toward despotism. The system of checks and balances that runs through the document divides the war power between the president and Congress.

We'll establish the ironclad validity of this proposition by examining 4 areas:

1. the text of the Constitution
2. the intent of the founding fathers
3. Supreme Court decisions, and
4. historical precedent

Listen to the podcast for the details.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Bors on Iraq

2007-02-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

Kudos for this brilliant political cartoon.

Podcast #80 Is UP!! Right-Wing Heaven: Bush IRS Twists Rules To Let Corporations Get Away With Tax Evasion

2007-02-08T21:49:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to discuss yet another way the Bush administration is continuing to push its radical right agenda even without control of Congress. In this case, it's the emasculate the government, cut taxes on the wealthy agenda. All accomplished through some until-now hidden workings of the Internal Revenue Service.

I'll tell you up front that this isn't a page-1-headline-type story. But it's a very useful story for understanding broadly used, standard issue right-wing tactics, and for learning how to debunk and effectively counter right-wing propaganda, regarding issues even substantively unrelated to tax collection.

Every year the IRS is supposed to audit a sampling of large corporations to determine whether they are following the law and paying all the taxes they legitimately owe.

Corporations paying all the taxes they legitimately owe? What kind of nonsense is that?

In a policy begun by the Bush administration in 2003

Top officials at the Internal Revenue Service are pushing agents to prematurely close audits of big companies with agreements to have them pay only a fraction of the additional taxes that could be collected

This is according to dozens of IRS agents.

Apparently, the IRS has adopted quite a strange approach to conduct investigations:

Auditors said they were told to limit questioning only to those specific issues that the I.R.S. and the companies had agreed in advance to examine. When other questionable deductions emerged in the course of the audit… additional taxes were ignored.

Oh, I get it, the subject of the investigation has to agree to be investigated about something, before the IRS will investigate that issue.

It gets much worse. Listen to the podcast to find out how.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #79 Is UP!! Lying Or Just Plain Ignorant? Bill O'Reilly Misleads His Audience, Part I: Iraq / Bush Health Care Plan Is Typical Right-Wing Scam

2007-02-01T21:48:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to start a series entitled "Lying Or Just Plain Ignorant? Bill O'Reilly Misleads His Audience." Part I will be about Iraq. Included will be, some effective responses when you hear misinformation like that disseminated by O'Reilly.

Did you know, for example, that 72% of US troops in Iraq said last February they should be withdrawn within one year, whether or not the mission is complete?

Also: Bush's new health care proposal will be put under the Blast The Right microscope and come out much the worse for the wear.

Bush's plan won't help 9 out of 10 Americans without health care insurance. But it will give another tax break to upper income Americans.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #77 Is UP!! Worsening Income And Wealth Inequality That Might Even Make A Right-Winger Blush (If They Were Capable Of Feeling Shame)

2007-01-18T22:40:00.000-08:00

Today, we're going to present some data about income and wealth distribution that you've probably never before seen brought together in one place. Make sure your seat belt is securely fastened.

For example, let's take the wealthiest 1/10 of one percent of all Americans. There are 130,500 such taxpayers.

They have more income than the 120 million Americans at the bottom.

Nice, huh?

How about wealth?

The 400 richest Americans are all billionaires.

Would you believe that they have as much wealth as the entire bottom half of the nation?

Yes, these 400 families have as much wealth as 57 million other American families.

And globally, the situation is even worse.

Listen to the podcast for more details.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first, and don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Matt Bors Blasts the Right

2007-01-27T20:42:00.000-08:00

Check out podcast #72 for a verbal take on this issue.

Podcast #78 Is UP!! Case Study, Ecuador: Listen To Martin Luther King And Learn How To Get On The Correct Side Of The World Revolution

2007-01-27T20:31:00.000-08:00

Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed on April 4, 1967:

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South America and say, "This is not just."

Martin Luther King understood that we and the other Western nations need to radically change our behavior all over the world, including South America.

Today we'll discuss one such place in South America where we progressives need to make America stand on the correct side of the world revolution -- or more realistically, at least prevent our country from actively supporting the wrong side.

That place is Ecuador.

You may be thinking, Ecuador? Who knows anything about that country?

Exactly what I would have said, a short time ago.

Just like a relatively short time ago, very few of us knew the difference between a Shiite and a Sunni. But we learned, because it became exceedingly relevant.

If you want to understand how to be in solidarity with the struggling poor of the world, you need to know about places like Ecuador.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first. Please don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above. Thanks!)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #76 Is UP!! Market As Deity: Reflections On The Right-Wing's Golden Calf

2007-01-11T21:59:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to have a wide-ranging discussion of that totally misleading economic term so beloved by the right, the "free market." By the time we're finished, you'll never hear the phrase "free market" the same way again.

One of the more exasperating things when speaking to a right-winger, is that virtually no matter what subject you're talking about, if you're making good points and the right-winger has nothing to say, they'll resort to their old standby, all-purpose answer to anything: the free market. They'll accuse you of subverting the free market.

The free market this, and the free market that. The free market will cure this problem, the free market will cure that problem.

What brilliant marketing. Who could be against a free market? What, do you want an unfree market, an enslaved market?

We're going to look at this rebranding of right-wing economics from a variety of different angles. Some are hifalutin' theory, others down and dirty, in-the-trenches experiential. I hope everyone will hear something in this podcast to grab onto and use it to speak truth to power the next time a right-winger is standing in front of you, pulling their "free market" schtick.

The bottom line of this entire podcast is:

First, there never was a free market, and there isn't one now.

Second, even if there were, the results such a free market -- or any market -- produces, are not something we’re compelled to accept as holy writ.

We'll show how our "free market" in this country is, in reality, a complex, government created, pro-corporate market structure.

We'll review some of the unacceptable results that occur when this pro-corporate structure is allowed to function without progressive interventions.

And finally, we'll delve a bit into the moral and philosophical edifice that the right has erected to justify their free market sham.

(PS: Right-wingers, if you want to write in to me, fine, but at least do me the courtesy of listening to the podcast first, and don't respond just on the basis of the brief written summary above)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #75 Is UP!! Highway Deaths Continue Because Right-Wing Policies (As Usual) Fail

2007-01-11T21:57:00.000-08:00

Today, we're going to start off the new year with some new evidence -- as if you really needed any more -- that right-wing policies cause increased human misery, suffering, pain and death. This example concerns thousands of unnecessary highway deaths from accidents involving large trucks.

Safety advocacy groups, along with the insurance industry, presented studies showing that tired truck drivers caused a high percentage of accidents.

But trucking company associations countered with their own statistics that supposedly proved it was passenger cars that caused more than 80 percent of the accidents, fatigued truckers being responsible for only 2 percent.

The federal agency, filled with right-wing Bush appointees, adopted the trucking industry position.

In April 2003, as modified in 2005, the agency increased the maximum continuous driving time from 10 to 11 hours. This is even though the better research shows that

After 8 hours of consecutive driving, crashes increase dramatically, and even more steeply in the 10th and 11th hours of consecutive driving.

Are they crazy?

The continuous driving rules hadn't been changed since the 1930's. Just think of it: what kind of safety rules haven't been toughened since the 1930's? But the Bush administration not only doesn't toughen them, it loosens them!

For more details, and to hear a debunking of the ludicrous justifications offered by the right, listen to the entire podcast!

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #74 Is UP!! Year-End Review Of Some Right-Wing Gifts To America In 2006: Poverty / Class Warfare / War Profiteering / Mining Deaths / Cancer

2006-12-29T22:54:00.000-08:00

This last podcast of the year will be a review of some of the worst things the right-wing did in 2006 as covered by Blast The Right.

Here's how I put together my list.

You know I often say that right-wing policies inevitably cause increased human misery, suffering, pain and death. I don’t think I've every explained exactly what the components of that phrase mean to me.

Misery and suffering I associate with the increased poverty and general economic deprivation produced by right-wing economic measures.

Pain and death refers to the actual physical pain and dying that is caused both by poverty, and more directly, by right-wing policies that lead to war, and that fail to protect against environmental hazards and fatal diseases.

Now, it's hard to quantify evil, saying one type of right-wing-caused increase in human misery, suffering, pain and death is worse that another type of right-wing-caused increase in human misery, suffering, pain and death.

Obviously in terms of sheer magnitude, Bush's continuing slaughterhouse in Iraq would be number one.

Since on this podcast I like to give you a perspective not found on the mainstream media, I've limited my Worst of 2006 List to items that were terribly underreported, if reported at all, in the mass media.

I've selected three in each category of damage. First we'll do the misery and suffering, economic deprivation category. Then we'll go on to the physical pain and death examples of the right-wing in action.

When you're at family gatherings and other festive occasions during this holiday season and right-wing blather rears its ugly head, this week's podcast will give you a smorgasbord to choose from to throw back at the right-winger who's spouting the right's usual nonsense.

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #73 Is UP!! Have You Heard? We're In World War III! Right-Wing Propaganda Fails Because Their Actions Don't Live Up To Their Rhetoric

2006-12-21T21:52:00.000-08:00

Today we're going to look at a failed -- but still ongoing -- right-wing propaganda campaign, and analyze why it failed. Could it be because the right's actions and policy proposals prove they don't believe the words coming out of their own mouths about the war on terror?

This summer, no doubt in desperate hope of scaring up a majority of GOP voters for the midterm elections, the right-wing rolled out its "World War III" propaganda effort.

The public was not bamboozled, not stampeded into voting for the GOP to save them from World War III.

We'll discuss why, and then suggest an effective way to counter any future such hyperbolic rhetoric from the right.

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #72 Is UP! The Upcoming Minimum Wage Battle: How To Counter Right-Wing Propaganda

2006-12-14T22:07:00.000-08:00

The Democrats have proclaimed that before 100 hours have gone by in the new Congress this January, they will, among other things, raise the Federal minimum wage.

The bill, which has been languishing for years in the right-wing controlled Congress, is called the Fair Minimum Wage Act. It provides for three hikes: from the present $5.15 to $5.85 sixty days after enactment; to $6.55 one year later, which would be in 2008; and then to $7.25 a year after that, in 2009.

A critical element of any progressive agenda, of any social justice agenda, is raising the federal minimum wage. No single action could lift more people out of poverty as quickly.

And it benefits more than just minimum wage workers. Because there is a rippling upward effect, it will also help those who earn above the minimum but are still in poverty.

The right will advance all sorts of phony arguments about why raising the minimum wage is a bad idea.

We'll examine three of the main ones.

First would be, that if you raise the minimum wage, it will result in fewer minimum wage jobs, that some of those now employed at the minimum wage will lose their jobs...

For more, listen to the podcast! (You'll hear clips of Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Teddy Roosevelt, and FDR)

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #71 Is UP!! Even After A Thumpin', Bush Continues Appointing Right-Wing Extremists / QuickBlast: Chavez Landslide Victory In Venezuela / More

2006-12-08T21:05:00.000-08:00

Today, we'll discuss how George W. Bush, even after the midterm elections, is continuing to appoint right-wing extremists to critically important government posts -- in this instance, jeopardizing the health of millions of women. Then a QuickBlast about Hugo Chavez's landslide election victory in Venezuela -- so much for the right-wing lie calling him a "dictator." We'll end with a listener comment from a remote part of Asia.

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #70 Is UP!! Right-Wing Electronic Voting Fraud In The Midterms? Dispute In Florida's 13th Congressional District Provides The Answer

2006-11-30T15:38:00.000-08:00

Ok, we had the midterm election, and there was apparently no nationwide right-wing electronic voting fraud sufficient to tip the scales to the Republicans, since the Democrats, thank goodness, did succeed in taking back both houses of Congress.

I've been wondering, however, was there Republican voting fraud of the electronic variety, just not enough?

And, what does this midterm election portend for the integrity of the vote in the 2008 Presidential and other contests?

Let's examine these questions through the prism of what's now transpiring in Florida's 13th Congressional District. This story hasn't gotten a heck of lot of national attention, but it's important to be aware of this situation, because of what it says about the national prognosis for free and fair elections.

There are 18,000 votes missing in Sarasota County. 18,000 Sarasota voters who chose candidates in other races, supposedly didn't vote, didn't make a choice, in this Congressional contest. These so-called undervotes all occurred on electronic touch screen voting machines made by the Election Systems & Software company. And would have easily provided the winning margin to Democrat Jennings.

How do we know these two things, that there are missing votes, and that those missing votes would have favored Jennings?

Listen to the podcast and find out.

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!

Podcast #69 Is UP!! Big Victory Against Right-Wing In Struggle To End Debt Slavery Of Third World Nations

2006-11-23T16:11:00.000-08:00

Today we'll discuss another example of good news on the international economic justice front. It comes in the form of a powerful kick in the teeth against the Third World debt scam that's been perpetrated against the poorest nations on earth for all too many years.

Many of these indebted nations are forced to spend far more on repaying these loans, than on health care and education and other needs of their people.

A worldwide movement is trying to achieve the reduction or even complete cancellation of Third World debt made under "odious" circumstances. Prominent figures supporting this effort range from Bono to the late Pope John Paul II.

An unprecedented admission by Norway that it made illegitimate loans it shouldn't have, may well lay the groundwork for the odious debt doctrine to become an effective weapon for those campaigning to cancel these illegitimate Third World debts.

Norway's admission of wrongdoing in lending the money is, unfortunately, in stark contrast to the continued refusal of other First World creditor nations to admit wrongdoing.

These denials seem absurd when you consider some of the actual loans in question.

Listen to the podcast for more details! Includes a clip of self-described "economic hit man" John Perkins.

For those who aren't familiar with podcasts, podcasts are a series of mp3 audio files that you download to your computer or portable music device (iPod or other) and then can listen to whenever you want.

You don't need an iPod to listen to podcasts.

Podcast software like iTunes will automatically check a podcast at intervals you specify, and download any new installments.

iTunes is free and very easy to use. http://www.apple.com/itunes/

In iTunes, if you want to subscribe to my podcast, just click on Advanced at the top right, then choose Subscribe to Podcast, and paste in the URL http://feeds.feedburner.com/blasttheright

That's the URL to use for other podcast-friendly software programs as well.

Alternatively, you can just manually download new episodes from my podcast home page as they become available. Here is a link to my podcast's home page: http://www.therationalradical.com/podcast.html

Enjoy!!