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.

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

Jason and I are back to wrap up the Democratic National Convention and look ahead to the Republican National Convention. What did we think about the speeches at the Democratic Convention? What were the highlights? The lobbyist loopholes must be closed. John McCain’s choice for Vice President: What can we say? We have some breaking news. We think McCain’s choice is truly awful—there’s no stronger way of putting that. Sarah Palin is a tool—I can’t stand her. Given McCain’s indebtedness to the oil and gas industry, who else would he have picked? We have heaps of comments to close out the episode. We’ll be back with another political chat in a week.

Checkout 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 111 - Between Conventions [ 58:29 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

The Democratic National Convention began today, so Jason and I are back to chat about politics. We begin by discussing the two main US parties, inspired by a listener question, and talk about how they evolved into the parties they are today—their differences then and now. This sets the stage for discussions about the party conventions (this also gave me a chance to sneak in a little story from my past). We look at the purpose of the conventions. Is the Republican McCain’s campaign doing anything unusual to target the Democrats during their convention? What do we think about Joe Biden? I actually met him once (did you hear who Jason and I met years ago?). We have a phone comment about our last political chat to end today’s episode with. We’ll be back next week, when we’ll go over comments to this episode. I’ll be posting a regular solo episode at the end of this week.

Don’t forget to visit 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.

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AmeriNZ 110 - Poltical Chat: Conventions Begin [ 35:57 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It’s time again for a political podcast with Jason, but this one starts out with a special announcement. From there, it’s on to talk of Obama’s recent tour and McCain’s reaction to it, Condoleeza Rice in New Zealand and the Pacific, and then on to the vice presidential sweepstakes. We also talk about the scandals at the US Justice Department, and another story in the news that has nothing to do with politics.

Be sure to visit Jason’s blog!

The next political podcast with Jason is tentatively scheduled for posting on Friday, August 29 New Zealand time.

Special thanks to Ryan of The Way We See It podcast for the voicemail that opens today’s episode. I’ll go over all comments next time (this episode was running a bit long).

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

AmeriNZ 105 - Monthly Politics [ 44:19 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Jason joins me today as we resume our political discussions. The primaries are over, and the focus has shifted to the November elections. So today we kind of re-set the stage for what we’ll be talking about in future episodes.

We begin with a chat about campaign finance, then on to talk about vice presidential choices. Should the candidates have to condemn every single supporter who says something stupid? We talk about the recent Supreme Court gun ruling, and whether it will affect the election. Will the anti-gay ballot measures hurt Democrats this year, too?

Our next political chat will be in about three weeks, tentatively the last week of the month. In the meantime, please leave a comment at http://amerinzpodcast.com/, send an email to arthur{at]amerinzpodcast.com, or ring my US listener line on 206-339-8413.

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AmeriNZ 98 - Presidential Sweepstakes [ 37:43 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Episode 64 is now available, and it’s free no matter where you get it from. You can listen to it or download it through the player at the bottom of this post, or subscribe for free through iTunes here (you must have the free iTunes player installed). You can also listen to it for free through the player on my MySpace page.

My last political podcast was before Christmas—which was before the Iowa Caucuses—and a lot has happened since then. Joining me to discuss all that today are Jason and Archerr from archerradio.com.

I begin today with a brief explanation of what’s going on for the benefit of non-American listeners. Then it’s a brief recap of where we’re at, especially the delegate totals. We then talk a bit about what’s wrong with public opinion polls. This leads into a discussion of Super Tuesday and whether it will or won’t be “all over” then.

I get the chance to slag off my home state of Illinois for it’s asinine primary system, before I go on to reveal who I voted for President in the Illinois Democratic Primary and why. I also talk a bit about how US citizens living overseas vote.

The rest is a wide-ranging discussion of all sorts of things related to this campaign. Do Republicans hate each other? One leader says they do. Did you know that Mitt Romney has far higher negatives than Hillary Clinton? What about the economy? Iraq? They all get a look from us and we’re not shy about saying what we think.

Leave a comment, or you can email me at amerinz(at}yahoo.com or ring my US listener line on 206-339-8413.

Links for this episode:

This Boy Elroy post on polls
Jason’s blog
ArcherRadio
“Blue Savannah” by Erasure iTunes USA Store or iTunes NZ Store. Or go to Amazon.com.

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AmeriNZ 64 - Political Catch-up [ 53:07 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Episode 61 is now available, and it’s free no matter where you get it from. You can listen to it or download it through the player at the bottom of this post, or subscribe for free through iTunes here (you must have the free iTunes player installed). You can also listen to it for free through the player on my MySpace page.

This is the last chance I’ll have for a political podcast before my big trip, and that also means it’s the last chance to talk politics before the Iowa Caucuses or New Hampshire Primary. Jason joins me today as we talk about events in the campaigns, including Romney and Huckabee trying to out fundamentalist each other. Aren’t they promoting a religious test for public office? Huckabee gets a a good look today, both for his call for quarantine of people with HIV/AIDS and is “fair tax”, which we think is anything but. A look at opinion polls and we wrap up for the day. I have a couple comments, a replay of my pretend commercial, and that’s it. Friday will be a normal podcast, and will probably be my last until January.

Check out Jason’s blog.

Leave a comment or send an email to me at amerinz{at)yahoo.com. You can also ring my US listener line on 206-339-8413.

Get AmeriNZ Podcast for free on iTunes

AmeriNZ #61 - Election Time Begins [ 39:15 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download