Having been born on the day Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated, I have always taken a special interest in this great man and his times. It is also tasteless when you consider that Sen. Kennedy's younger brother Edward just received a terminal illness diagnosis--I mean really, how crass can you get? Senator Clinton's dumb remark sullies his memory by using his murder as an election talking point. Whether she meant to imply that Obama could also be assassinated or not, this is simply the point where she should fold up her tent. Apology is not enough. It is time for Sen. Clinton to stop embarrassing herself and our Party and go away. BBC coverage excerpt below. Keith Olbermann is doing a Special Comment tonight.--Editor


Clinton 'sorry' for RFK reference
Hillary Clinton
Mrs Clinton apologised for any offence her remarks may have caused

US presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has apologised for evoking Robert Kennedy's 1968 assassination as she argued to continue her nomination bid.

Senator Clinton said she had been attempting to point out that previous campaigns had also continued into June.

Democrat Robert Kennedy was running for his party's presidential nomination when he was shot dead in June 1968.

A spokesman for rival Democrat hopeful, Barack Obama said Mrs Clinton's comment "has no place in this campaign".

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Music by:  .22 from the Podsafe Music Network. Special featured musician is Dan Coyle. For more about Dan, touring info or to buy a CD, check out Danâs website at http://www.dancoyle.com/.

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Music by:  .22 from the Podsafe Music Network. Special featured musician is Dan Coyle. In this show you can hear two of Danâs great songs: (Peace) In America and Nobody Really Understands. For more about Dan, touring info or to buy a CD, check out Danâs website at http://www.dancoyle.com/.

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Want to sound off? Donât suffer in silence; call our listener line at 206-333-0500 Visit the mothership.

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Next week, Euro returns!

You probably didn't hear or read about four soldiers from an Ottumwa-based Iowa National Guard unit being wounded in Iraq a few days ago.

It rated only four paragraphs in the paper, which is probably understandable given there were not many details available - including the soldiers' names.

The Iowans were wounded when an improvised explosive device - a roadside bomb - exploded next to their vehicle during a patrol near the Iraqi city of Samarra. Two of the soldiers were injured seriously enough to be flown to a military hospital at Landstuhl, Germany. The two other members of the 833rd Engineer Company were treated in Iraq and returned to duty.

Here's what initial news reports didn't say:

"They were in an RG-31 armored vehicle," said Lt. Col. Gregory Hapgood, chief spokesman for the Iowa National Guard. "If they'd been in a Humvee, they would have been killed. A Humvee couldn't have withstood the explosion."

You could call it "Exhibit A" in the argument over whether to build more of the state-of-the-art armored vehicles for use by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not that you would think such a thing would be a point of political controversy. But it is, and you can ask Joe Biden if you don't believe it.

More than any other member of Congress, the Delaware senator has pushed for funding and construction of thousands of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles - including the RG-31 - the type that saved the Iowa soldiers last week.

Why would championing these things cost a politician, when they are certain to protect American troops?

Well, Biden is a Democrat running for president. Democrats, particularly party activists who will attend the caucuses, are loathe to back anybody they even suspect might support the war in Iraq.

Biden opposes the war, and it's not just jabbering. He's come up with a plan to divide Iraq into three semi-independent regions with a strong central government and a fair split of oil revenues. It may be the best idea yet to resolve the ugly situation and get U.S. troops home.

Biden's political problem: He cast a Senate vote in May in favor of a supplementary appropriations bill to continue funding the war. The sole reason is because the bill included funding for buying MRAP vehicles.

There was, as they say, hell to pay. Especially because Democrat presidential candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Christopher Dodd all voted against the bill. Those candidates support appropriations for the MRAP, just not when it is specifically tied to an Iraq war funding bill. Their spinning translation? Biden voted for the funding, therefore he supports the war.

Biden says the vote made him "the bastard at the family picnic." Anti-war activists held "Impeach Biden" signs when he visited Iowa City. His staffers warned he would "get his skin ripped off" if he attended an event in Council Bluffs.

All because of the vote. And he says he doesn't care.

"As long as there's one American kid over there, I'm voting the money for these things," Biden said in a chat the other day during a stop in Des Moines. "It's the one way we can save lives before getting them out."

He got an education a couple of years ago, during his fifth trip to Iraq, when he saw one of the relatively few MRAP vehicles in the country. Then he talked to some soldiers about an MRAP that had been hit by a roadside bomb. It was a large vehicle known as a Cougar and it had taken a direct hit. Soldiers explained to Biden it had been thrown 25 feet straight up and sustained massive damage. The soldiers inside were shaken, but all walked away.

Like the situation with the Iowa soldiers, the vehicle saved their lives.

The MRAP vehicles are built with a V-shaped undercarriage that deflects shrapnel from mines and roadside bombs from the passenger compartment.

The military estimates that MRAP vehicles would prevent from between 68 percent and 80 percent of deaths and injuries from the roadside bombs, as compared to armored Humvees.

"Seventy percent of all the kids killed or wounded are from IEDs," Biden said. "If you can extend life expectancy by 80 percent by having MRAPs, how can you not fund it?"

Then he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, checked the numbers, and gave a startling bit of information.

"From March of 2003 to July 19, 2007, if we'd had MRAP vehicles in Iraq it's reasonable to say that between 938 and 1,120 Americans who were killed by IEDs would still be alive."

Manufacture of the new vehicles is under way, largely because Biden became such a pain in the neck to his congressional colleagues on the issue. So far, $23.6 billion has been appropriated for building and deploying 18,000 MRAPs in Iraq. Ideally, they would replace all of the Army's up-armored Humvees in the country.

Biden promises to keep up the fight to see that funding continues.

"It's cost me politically," Biden said. "But some things are worth losing elections over. This is one."

You can bet the four Iowa National Guard soldiers who were wounded last week and their families would agree.

Columnist John Carlson can be reached at (515) 284-8204 or jcarlson@dmreg.com

By AMY LORENTZEN, Associated Press Writer

DES MOINES, Iowa - Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden on Saturday was endorsed Saturday by a small Iowa newspaper, which praised him for "the only workable plan to get us out of harmâs way in Iraq."

The Delaware senatorâs campaign said Biden was the first Democratic candidate to be endorsed by a newspaper this election season.

Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, advocates limiting the power of Iraqâs central government and dividing the country into three semiautonomous regions of Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis.

Danny OâBrien, Bidenâs Iowa state director, said the endorsement shows that Biden is gaining momentum in Iowa as "more Iowans recognize his leadership and experience on the most important issues affecting us at home and abroad."

PLEASE NOTE: WE HAVE SOME REAL SOUND QUALITY PROBLEMS WITH THIS EPISODE, BUT IF YOU HANG IN THERE YOU CAN HEAR EURO'S INTERVIEW. WE APOLOGIZE FOR THE INCONVENIENCE.

Shortly after the first accused terrorists reached the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Jan. 11, 2002, a delegation from CIA headquarters arrived in the Situation Room. The agency presented a delicate problem to White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, a man with next to no experience on the subject. Vice President Cheney's lawyer, who had a great deal of experience, sat nearby.

The meeting marked "the first time that the issue of interrogations comes up" among top-ranking White House officials, recalled John C. Yoo, who represented the Justice Department. "The CIA guys said, 'We're going to have some real difficulties getting actionable intelligence from detainees'" if interrogators confined themselves to treatment allowed by the Geneva Conventions.

From that moment, well before previous accounts have suggested, Cheney turned his attention to the practical business of crushing a captive's will to resist. The vice president's office played a central role in shattering limits on coercion of prisoners in U.S. custody, commissioning and defending legal opinions that the Bush administration has since portrayed as the initiatives, months later, of lower-ranking officials.

Enlarge Photo

The vice president's office pushed a policy of robust interrogation that made its way to the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, above, and Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. More Cheney photos...

Cheney and his allies, according to more than two dozen current and former officials, pioneered a novel distinction between forbidden "torture" and permitted use of "cruel, inhuman or degrading" methods of questioning. They did not originate every idea to rewrite or reinterpret the law, but fresh accounts from participants show that they translated muscular theories, from Yoo and others, into the operational language of government.

Call our listener line today! Your message may be played on the show! 206-339-4328.

Alex:  Only from you and Harry Shearer am I hearing anything about New Orleans these days.

Greg:  Cooper Anderson did his little cry thing.

Alex:  Oh for God's sake.

Greg:  He did his cry op as they call it in the biz.

Alex:  Cry op!

Greg:  He did his cry op, and now he's on to Angelina and Brad. It was really upsetting though. He's a Vanderbilt, Anderson Cooper. And it was very upsetting for him to see the way they were treating those people who cut his grass and take care of his illegitimate children. Oh did I say that?

Author of another New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, Palast is best known in his native USA as the journalist who, for the Observer (UK), broke the story of how Jeb Bush purged thousands of Black Florida citizens from voter rolls before the 2000 election, thereby handing the White House to his brother George. His reports on the theft of election 2004, the spike of the FBI investigations of the bin Ladens before September 11, the secret State Department documents planning the seizure of IraqÃïïs oil fields have won him a record six ÃïïProject CensoredÃïï for reporting the news American media doesnÃïït want you to hear. ÃïïThe top investigative journalist in the United States is persona non grata in his own countryÃïïs media.Ãïï [Asia Times.] He returned to America to report for HarperÃïïs Magazine.

PalastÃïïs Sam Spade style television and print exposÃÂÃïïs about elections manipulations, War on Terror and globalization, as seen on BBC Ãïïs Newsnight and Amy GoodmanÃïïs Democracy Now! His writings have won the Financial Times David Thomas PrizeÃïïand inspired the Eminem video, Mosh. ÃïïAn American hero,Ãïï said Martin Luther King III. In the BBC documentary, Bush Family Fortunes, Palast exposed George Bush Jr.Ãïïs dodging the Vietnam War draft. Greg Palast, says Noam Chomsky, ÃïïUpsets all the right people.Ãïï

Palast won the George Orwell Courage in Journalism Award for his BBC documentary, Bush Family Fortunes.

He has appeared on the SoonerThought Show previously. 

A transcript of this episode will be posted soon.

Also in this episode, former CIA Director George Tenet squirms and we take calls from old favorites like EuroSatan and new ones like the Drunk Tax Lawyer and the Yokel. You, too can call the Listener Line: 206-339-4328. Music on this show, including our theme song by .22 is from the Podsafe Music Net. Want your daily fix from Alex and the gang? Visit Soonerthought.com! Help keep us onlineÃïïdonate today!

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Also, we are proud to present:

Happy Thanksgiving from Alex and the Gang.

SoonerThought Show Halloween Spooktacular!

Our biggest show of the year tackles pre-election topics, featuring the Stupid Conservative of the Week, a scary reading by WordFaery and an excerpt of Alexs novel, Pilates Cross.

It is also Euroween as EuroSatan talks about his favorite holiday and weighs in on Halloween costumes, candy, Mr. Furley and the Stick of Butter.

Dont forget to vote STRAIGHT TICKET DEMOCRAT Nov. 7!

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This will be just the thing for your Halloween listening!

Watch for it!

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This Show is a Member of the Progressive Podcast Network!

New Air Security Hysteria Ultimately Self-Defeating

August 11th, 2006

Please understand: I respect the need for security on airliners. We must try to screen bad guys from doing bad things on our planes.

But I have to ask: where do we draw the line for reasonable security?

Nineteen murderous bastards allegedly used box cutters to take over the planes of 9/11. So now we cannot bring fingernail clippers on planes. Okay.

One idiot tries to set off shoe bombs, so now we have to have remove our shoes to be checked. Lucky it wasn't an underwear bomb, I guess.

Now, its liquids you will not be allowed to bring any liquids of any kind (except medicines and baby formula) onto the plane and this will be a permanent rule (see below). What really pisses me off are rumors that they also want to ban my iPod. This is just ridiculous, stupid overkill.

Precautions are understandable, but really, where does it stop? I am fully willing to sign a form that says I understand flying is risky and that I will take my chances with reasonable security precautions. How about you? 

What I am not willing to do is sacrifice my dignity for ridiculous personal searches which add hours to the airport check-in. I am just not willing to get on this slippery slope to eventually losing all personal liberties right down to having a cup of Starbucks on the overcrowded, smelly, poorly-operated planes I must ride.

I know, I know, If I don't like it I can just drive; and I do drive now, whenever possible. But you and I know that airliners are simply indispensable for most business and vacation travel.

Therefore, I offer this: Life is risky. Suck it up.

Americans are smarter and tougher than our government seems to understand. Talk to us like adults. Tell us the risks, then let us decide. But this nanny-national security state stuff is just crushing the American way. Besides that, BushCo cynically and without apology uses fear of terrorism as political ammo against their opponents. Just ask Connecticut voters for Ned Lamont. No less an eminence than our crooked Vice President has said that by voting for Lamont over Lieberman, we have aided and comforted the enemy.

We should demand our government stop imposing hysteria-induced security measures on us. As trite as it sounds, with every liberty lost, with every silly precaution imposed that changes our way of life, the bad guys win.

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
Benjamin Franklin

Writer, Actor, Inventor of the Chill Pak, 9/11 Skeptic and star of The X-Files and The Lone Gunmen, Dean Haglund goes one on one with Alex for an enlightening interview!

Plus 9/11: Legitimate Questions. Music from the Podsafe Music Network. SoonerThought is a member of the Progressive Podcast Network. Vote for us on PodcastAlley.com!

P.S. Alex says Happy Birthday, Dad!

My blog is worth $3,951.78.
How much is your blog worth?

A Rant

You know what really pisses me off? That these flag waving, America-first, Jesus is my co-pilot NeoCons who have their noses so far up Bush's ass they won't admit that Valerie Plame has a legitimate case against the Administration. She was a covert agent who was outed because her husband, a decorated Republican-appointed ambassador, had the temerity to tell the truth.

It seems NeoCons can get behind and even lionize as heroes convicted criminals like G. Gordon Liddy, Ollie North, Elliot Abrams and numerous others with no apparent irony or sense of hypocrisy; but when a person who is a legitimate hero happens to disagree with their Dear Leader, they Swift Boat them.  They are also the first to say that dissent is hazardous to our troops; unless our troops oppose the president or when our spies tell the truth.  

Note to NeoCons: If you love this country (a sentiment you practically salivate over on Fox News), you have to play by the rules.  You do not take up arms against a brother. You do not expose a CIA agent in the name of political gotcha. You do not attack the mother of one our fallen soldiers because you don't like her politics. Americans should not be doing this to each other, even under the reign of the divider/decider in Chief.

I am also incensed by people who virtually worship NYC over 9/11 (which is fine), but laugh off disaster victims in New Orleans as godless or fools (how stupid of them to live in a city that is below sea level! They deserved to drown!). This is an historic American city, a crucial seaport and the home of American citizens. Stop laughing about the disaster, you assholes. If other Americans had done this kind of bullshit to Oklahoma City when the American terrorist McVeigh attacked us, I can assure you I and several of my fellow Okies would have tracked them down to kick their asses.

Down is up, up is down with NeoCons. Thank God America is waking up to just how corrupt the entire movement is. To the 33 percent or so of Americans who are too A. Stubborn B. Dumb C. Mean to admit the truth, I say: There's always Mexico. Go south...you can still steal an election down there, ya bastards.

In this episode Alex interviews Scott the Movie Guy about Superman Returns; discusses SWIFT and the terrorist funding mechanisms; reads an excerpt from Greg PalastÃ??s Armed Madhouse and wishes the U.S. a happy 230th.

Music from the Podsafe Music Network--including "Busted Frog"--the SoonerThought Podcast theme song by .22.

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UPDATE: The minimum wage vote in Oklahoma failed on a procedural vote.

The audio for the interview may be found here.

Bitch-slap Coulter--buy Greg's book.

http://www.podtrac.com/audience/start-survey.aspx?ver=1&pid=AwFflDH_lBk$

Thanks!

Peace.

Happy Memorial Day. Please pause to remember the ones we lost.

May 25 2006

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Most music on this episode recorded live on the islands. Other music from the Podsafe Music Network.

Alex interviews author, filmmaker and 

Superstar Investigative Reporter

GREG PALAST!

TRANSCRIPT: http://www.soonerthought.com/?p=1883

Check out more about Greg at: http://www.gregpalast.com/

At Greg's site, Hear Larry David, auteur of HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and principal writer of the "Seinfeld" series, and Greg Palast reading Palast's new book, Armed Madhouse, Chapter 4: The Con-Kerry Won.

We will be transcribing his interview with Alex and posting it on www.SoonerThought.com next week--stay tuned!

That's just the beginning, folks...this episode also features some new stuff, like:

Scott the Movie Guy reviews MI:III, Revenge of the Thetans and The BRAIN (an Army paratroop veteran who was stationed in Haiti and other hot spots) talks about geopolitics through the eyes of a soldier.

We also have great music from the Podsafe Music Network located at:

http://music.podshow.com/

This episode features artists .22 (Their song "Busted Frog" is the official SoonerThought Podcast theme music), Retail, The Sheckies, Bowler, The Recordist, Gunther, Alexye Nov and others.

We are taking a brief vacation, but will be back with more late next week.

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Peace.

Attention Podcasters: We would be happy to trade spots with you! Send your spot to us at soonerthought@gmail.com

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Music from the Podsafe Music Network, including artists .22 and Adam Wyle.

Special congrats to Podcast 411's Rob Walch on the birth of his new baby.

Thanks for listening!