Welcome to Left Out, reality-based independent radio broadcasting on WRCT 88.3FM and podcasting on the worldwide web at leftout.info. Left Out discusses the news from a perspective left out of the mainstream media. Left Out is co-hosted by Bob Harper and Danny Sleator. Today's program is produced by Matt Hornyak. Listeners are invited to call the program at (412) 268-WRCT (9728), or to send email to bob@leftout.info.
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Happy Halloween!
New to WRCT: Law and Disorder is now broadcast at 9am on Mondays after Democracy Now. This is a program about how our rights are being eroded featuring four prominent civil rights lawyers.
Also, remember to listen to Your Health, Tuesday at 6pm when we're not on. Also, check out The World Revealed on Sunday night at 6pm. Both of these shows are excellent. The last edition of The World Revealed discussed the science of dating.
On Thursday at 9pm on HBO, watch "Hacking Democracy", a documentary featuring Bev Harris about the vulnerability of our voting machines. link
Bill Morgan, our guest today, will be giving a lecture about Allen Ginsberg at 8:00 pm Friday, November 3, 2006 at the Warhol Museum. Tickets are $5 at the door. link
Bill Morgan has written a biography of Allen Ginsberg: I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg. The book is being published on the 50th anniversary of the publication of Ginsberg's Most famous poem: Howl. There's an excellent review of the book, that is also an introduction to Ginsberg's life in this New York Newsday article.
We'll talk to Bill about Ginsberg's life and his poetry, about his decisions regarding the book.
Bill will be giving a lecture at 8:00 pm Friday, November 3, 2006 at the Warhol Museum.
During the show, Bill read a little bit of a poem called Memory Gardens.
Here are the questions and answers we discussed during the show.
In late October a poll was taken by a major news organization. One of the questions was about impeaching Bush. People were asked to choose if they thought impeaching Bush should get (1) top priority, (2) lower priority, or (3) not be done at all. What percentage picked (1) or (2)? And what organization did the poll?
Answer: 51%, and the organization was Newsweek.
To summarize some other results:
74% want the US to negotiate drug prices to be a top priority
68% want increasing the minimum wage to be a top priority.
62% want investigating impropriety by members of congress to be a top priority.
58% percent want investigating government contracts in Iraq to be a top priority.
77% want more investigation of why we went to war with Iraq.Here's a link to the poll. Here's part of the description:
Other parts of a potential Democratic agenda receive less support, especially calls to impeach Bush: 47 percent of Democrats say that should be a "top priority," but only 28 percent of all Americans say it should be, 23 percent say it should be a lower priority and nearly half, 44 percent, say it should not be done.
Note the odd wording of the astounding finding that a majority of Americans want Bush to be impeached.
Name as many states as you can in which laws have been passed to impede exit polling.
Answer: Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Georgia, Montana, Wyoming, Kentucky.
The Florida law was recently thown out by a judge For more information, listen to Lynn Cullen's show starting from 4 minutes and 20 seconds into this mp3 file.
The question is: what's going on? Why are they going nutz trying to block exit polls? Could it be because they're planning to mess with the voting machines? What other reason is there?
What well-known newspaper columnist said the following two years ago, and about whom? For what newspaper did he work at the time, and where does he work now?
Anyway, I do think my judgment is superior to his when it comes to the big picture. So, I have an idea: Since he doesn't want to debate anything except his own brilliance, let's make a bet. I predict that Iraq won't have a civil war, that it will have a viable constitution, and that a majority of Iraqis and Americans will, in two years time, agree that the war was worth it. I'll bet $1,000 (which I can hardly spare right now). This way neither of us can hide behind clever word play or CV reading.
Answer: Right-wing blowhard Jonah Goldberg from the LA Times referring to Juan Cole, who has been consistently and categorically correct about the Iraq War, and Goldberg, needless to say, has been completely and consistently wrong. Goldberg still works for the LA Times, but Robert Scheer does not.
Who wrote this open letter to the American public, about whom, and why?
Answer: Kevin Tillman, Army Ranger and brother of Pat Tillman, an Army Ranger and NFL player who was killed by friendly fire in Iraq on April 22, 2004. The Pentagon lied about the cause of his death so that they could use him as a propaganda weapon against the American public to further their deceit about the conduct and progress of the war in Iraq.
Who refused to air commercials on the public airwaves for a film on the grounds that the ads "are disparaging of President Bush" and who claim to bar ads that "deal with public controversy"? What is the proposed ad for?
Answer: NBC for the new Dixie Chicks movie "Shut Up and Sing". Or maybe it should be called just "Shut Up".
Check out this site for up-to-date information on the election. As of this writing, the count is 49-51-0 (Democratic, Republican, Tie) for the Senate, and 230-203-2 in the House.
Truth Out
Common Dreams
Information Clearinghouse
Cursor
Tom Paine
The Independent
The Guardian
Consortium News