We’re heading into the final weekend of the 2008 Election Campaign, so we start off talking about recent events, including Barack’s 30-minute broadcast, early voting, voting machines, vote fraud and we even have an election night tip. We eventually move on to talking about various ballot initiatives, and when we get to talking about Proposition 8 in California, I really get on my soapbox. Should there be some sort of penalty for those who use lies in a political campaign, like those trying to end same-sex marriage in California have done? I don’t think that ads using lies should be allowed, but Jason is more dubious. Later, after comments, we start talking about the notion that politicians are never allowed to admit mistakes, so they have to stick with bad ideas no matter what. All of which are the sorts of things we’ll be talking about once this election is finally over.

Next political chat will be on Election Eve.

Links for this episode:
Real Clear Politics
Jason’s Blog

Please leave a comment, ring my US Listener Line on 206-339-8413, or send an email to arthur{at]amerinzpodcast.com.

Get AmeriNZ Podcast for free on iTunes

AmeriNZ 125 - Politicast for the Last Weekend [ 50:36 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s the final week of the US election campaign—FINALLY! We added a podcast today, one Friday and one next week on “election eve”. Then we’ll collapse (hopefully from exhaustion caused by celebrating). So we start in with me talking about the alternate universe that Fox Noise operates in, and that leads into a discussion of varying looks at the Electoral College map.

One major indication of how things are going is where the candidates are campaigning, and the Republicans are spending most of their time in states that should have been safe for them, but they’re not. We also look at the possibility of voter fraud and vote suppression to keep Obama from winning. Which candidate can bring reconciliation to the country? The new Congress will have a lot more Democrats, but the ideology won’t change much; we tell you why.

A phone message lets us talk about third parties and a major reform that would let them run a campaign that could possibly win the White House. Other comments let us talk about Amendment 2 in Florida, Prop 8 in California and even a bit about Illinois politics.

Next political chat will be at the end of this week.

Links for this episode:
Real Clear Politics
Jason’s Blog

Please leave a comment, ring my US Listener Line on 206-339-8413, or send an email to arthur{at]amerinzpodcast.com.

Get AmeriNZ Podcast for free on iTunes

AmeriNZ 124 - Politicast - The Final Week [ 40:40 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We’re in the last two weeks, and soon this way-too-long campaign will be over! We start today with polls: Where they’re at, what they mean. We also talk about early voting and its impact on the election. Then we move on to a hard look at the rhetoric of the Republican campaign. What does “pro-American” mean? Why has Palin promoted her strong support for a Constitutional Amendment to ban same-sex marriage? Log Cabin Republicans get a verbal slap. Oh, yeah, we have to talk about right wing Christianity, too, given the role it’s playing in this campaign. Comments let us talk even more!

Links for this episode:
Real Clear Politics

ABC (US) News’ tax cut comparison

Steal Back Your Vote comic book by Greg Palast and Bobby Kennedy Jr.

Jason’s blog is here.

Please leave a comment, ring my US Listener Line on 206-339-8413, or send an email to arthur{at]amerinzpodcast.com.

Get AmeriNZ Podcast for free on iTunes

AmeriNZ 123 - Politicast last 2 weeks [ 56:52 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download