This is our final politicast of the year, but we’ll be back sometime in the first couple weeks of January—and with some announcements and new things. Today we talk about a lot of things, starting with the mess in our old home state of Illinois. We also have an extensive discussion about religion and politics, same-sex marriage, and we even talk about the divisive online rhetoric of the left and—especially—the right. I say that far right christianists are not”victims”, and it’s offensive for them to say they are. Jason is annoyed by far-right christianists falsely claiming to speak for all “people of faith”. Later, we talk about the bailouts and the twilight of the Bush years. Are Bush-Cheney guilty of treason? We end by talking about the optimism of the impending inauguration. Comments let us discuss a few more things, too.

Link for this episode:
Be sure to visit Jason’s Blog.

Please leave a comment or send an email to arthur{at]amerinzpodcast.com.

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AmeriNZ 134 - Politicast at year-end [ 1:06:34 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today’s is a special—and shorter!—podcast, including a special feature. It’s Election Eve in America, and Jason and I get together one last time to talk about the 2008 campaign. First, we go over the current Electoral College totals. Then, we discuss a few smaller issues, and go over comments.

Then it’s to the main purpose of today’s podcast: Our “closing statements”. We tell you what we’re thinking and feeling at the end of this long campaign.

Links for this episode:
Real Clear Politics
TPM Map of Republican Sleaze
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 126 - Politicast on Election Eve [ 25:00 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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

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.

Get AmeriNZ Podcast for free on iTunes

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