“Anything Goes Friday”

Hour One - “Brunch With Bernie” Senator US Senator Bernie Sanderswww.sanders.senate.gov

Hour Two – Former Governor Don Siegelman www.donsiegelman.org

Rep. Peter Defazio (D-OR) calls in at 6:30am to talk to us about the House Dems’ continued fight to do something about high gas prices.

Standing before a massive crowd in a Berlin, a city that once symbolized division, Obama warned yesterday about the dangers of allowing new walls to come between the U.S. and its allies. He said that people of all nations must stand together to face challenges of the 21st century, from terrorism to global warming, to genocide.

McCain sharpened his attacks against Obama yesterday, saying he’d rather give a speech in Germany as president than as a presidential candidate. McCain spoke to reporters outside a German restaurant in Columbus, Ohio.

The McCain campaign is slamming Obama over a decision to cancel a visit with U.S. troops in Germany. Obama says that it would not be appropriate to make a stop to visit troops at a U.S. military facility as part of a trip funded by the campaign.

Defense officials have told ABC News that more troops are expected to be directed to Afghanistan in the coming weeks to support what one official called “near term ‘08 operations.” Up to two battalions, possibly more, could be sent.

A new poll released yesterday shows overwhelming support from Latinos for Barack Obama over John McCain. Obama had lost the Latino vote to Hillary Clinton in the primaries nearly 2-to-1.

Seattle’s Progressive Talk, AM1090 presents “We The People” a Town Hall Forum examining the role we as citizens play in shaping our democracy… how we recover, and where we go from here.

Starring Stephanie Miller, Thom Hartmann, Rachel Maddow, Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, and Sam Seder and moderator Ron Reagan… all live at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall.

Date: Saturday August 16^th
Time: 6PM-9PM
Location: Seattle Center Exhibition Hall

***Tickets are On Sale NOW^***

Click Here To Get Yours Before They Sell Out!

On today’s show Rachel will be playing all of Obama’s landmark speech in Berlin and then we will compare it to McCain’s speech. McCain’s wasn’t a landmark speech but it was at a landmark. It was at Schmidt’s Sausage and Fudge Haus in Columbus, Ohio. There, McCain was literally drowned out by wind chimes. Another grand moment in campaign stagecraft brought to you by the McCain campaign!

Rachel will be talking to David Bender, her political guru and host of Politically Direct, about his reaction to Obama’s speech.

House Majority Leader Steney Hoyer, D-MD, joins the 1st hour of Today’s show to discuss passage of the housing rescue bill.

Rep. Mike Doyle, D-PA, joins the 2nd hour of Today’s show to discuss the Global Autism Assistance Act of 2008.

The activist is not the man who says the river is dirty. The activist is the man who cleans up the river- Ross Perot

HourOne - Don Corace www.doncorace.com Topic: “Government Pirates” re: “eminent domain abuse and other government regulations”

Hour Two - “Taking Our Country Back” Daniel Bliss www.danielbiss.com Topic: Running for state rep 17th district Illinois

Hour Three - Christy Harvey www.americanprogress.org Topic: News under the Radar

CNN’s Jack Cafferty, author of “It’s Getting Ugly Out There,” calls in at 6:30am to talk about his latest “Cafferty File” entries from “The Situation Room.”

Barack Obama arrived in Germany this morning for the latest leg of an international trip intended to bolster his foreign policy credentials. Obama, who will also visit France and the U.K. before heading home, will give a public speech in Berlin later following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Obama said yesterday that a nuclear-armed Iran would be a “game-changing” situation, not just in the Middle East but throughout the world. He said he wants mobilize the world to “offer a series of big sticks and big carrots to Iran to stand down on nuclear weapons.”

The Senate voted yesterday to move forward on a bill meant to crack down on oil speculators. But GOP-ers vowed to block the Senate from taking up any other measure until the Dem leadership agrees to vote on other energy-related issues like increased drilling offshore and in ANWR.

A House panel weighed overturning the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy yesterday, the first time Congress has considered the rule in 15 years a recent poll found 75% of Americans supported allowing gays to serve openly in the military.

Tropical Storm Dolly churned through Southern Texas early today, leaving battered buildings and flooding. It had been a category 2 storm.

Are all of you on McCain’s email list? You should be. It’s interesting to read what he tells his supposed choir. Actually, he doesn’t write the messages himself, like Obama, Clinton, Bill Clinton and even Huckabee do. Here’s the latest from the McCain Campaign… I think they’re scared.

McCain Team -It’s pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it’s a love affair. We want you to be the judge. We’ve compiled two videos of the more outrageous moments of this not so secret love affair. Your vote will determine which video we put on the air. The media is in love with Barack Obama. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be funny. Regards, The McCain Campaign

With silly messages and videos like this, it’s apparent the McCainiacs are grasping at straws. Good!
-Lee Callahan, AM 1090 News, Etc.

Coup de Foudre

Oh, my. There it was on television. The comparison was, um, well, it wasn’t really a comparison. More like a contrast. Vivid. No ambiguities. Clear. Even the Republican knuckle-draggers in Georgia probably got it. (Okay. Scratch that part. The Republican knuckle-draggers in Georgia don’t get shit. Ever. They hug their guns, beat their kids, fight with their overweight spouses, go to church most Sundays, and always, always vote for whatever Republican the tee-vee evangelist tells them to vote for so that the queers are stopped.) First, there was Barack Obama standing in front of the ancient Temple of Hercules in Amman, Jordan, telling the assembled press corps his ideas for peace in the Middle East. Behind him, sitting quietly and showing unusual deference, two other U.S. Senators, Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Jack Reed. The AP photo of that moment - a photo that floated across the Web and was reproduced in hundreds of newspapers around the globe - was impressive. Change was about to pounce on . . . History! Mine eyes have seen the Glory . . .!

And, then, of course, there was the required coverage of lost, twitchy, rheumy-eyed John McCain. Required not by some archaic “equal time” provision in FCC rules and regs. How quaint would that be? No, the requirement is self-imposed by management and is there solely to prevent CNN or MSNBC or the broadcast networks being accused by the right wing booger-pickers of See! We told you! There’s your goddam liberal bias. Looky! They got cameras on Obama. Looky! Boy, they better show some McCain, too! Sumbitches!

So, the cabled nets switched to McCain. Oy. There he was. In a golf cart. A GOLF CART! And, who was the skinny, all sweatered-up banshee driving? Yikes! George H.W. Bush, his own mottled self. All squinty-eyed, his mouth open so he can breathe, that permanent shit-eating sneer plastered over his wrinkles. PAPPY BUSH! Driving Mister McCain! Around in circles! No, wait! Stop! Okay, go! Hey, this is fun! Wanna see me lay some rubber, John? Heh-heh. My boy likes you, ya’ know. Heh-heh. Hey, watch me run over that guy’s toes! Crush ‘em. Heh-heh.

And before that Golden Moment? There was ol’ John doing another of his “town hall” meet-ups. Several dozen white folks, this time herded into some Motel Six conference room in Rochester, N.H., (where??) staring into middle space, rounded up to sit as props and grin when John grins; frown when John frowns; clap when John makes some snarky remark about Obama; sneeze when John sneezes; fart when John farts. Whatever. And, there’s ol’ John, pacing back and forth in the center of it all, making those little flapping motions with his arms, scaring the small children present, accomplishing nothing, zero, following his tattered script, comme ci, comme ça, until all present want to claw out their own eyeballs from the tedium and the warm air coming from the loud, not working window air conditioner .

Meanwhile, back in The Middle East, Obama continues his walkabout, now with the Leaders of Israel!; now with an Honest-To-God KING!; yesterday, Generals! in Helicopters! Before that, applauding, cheering Soldiers! In uniform! And, before that? Private Meetings with Iraq’s leaders who then emerge and endorse the Obama Troop Withdrawal Plan and Timetable. TIMETABLE! Not some goddam withdrawal horizon, whatever semantic horseshit that might be. And, tomorrow, who knows? Will the Israelis and the Palestinians - at the sight of the Mighty Obama striding across the HOLY LAND - fall into each other’s arms and shriek their mutual love and forgiveness and lower their eyes and whisper their shame at the way they’ve all been behaving for the past six goddam DECADES???? Huh? Will that happen?

Meanwhile, back in Snoresville, N.H., ol’ John is telling his rapidly decaying audience that it took France five years to build a nuclear power plant and complained that in the United States it took 15 years or more. Bodies started to fall out of chairs. Children began to wail with hunger and wet diapers. Ol’ John continues. He says that Americans did not readily accept France as a role model, saying self-mockingly, “As you know we always want to imitate the French.” Someone - a short order cook? a Safeway manager? - offers him a chunk of Brie. He declines. Too close to supper.

And then it comes. The coup de grace. Fox News cuts away from ol’ John’s mind-battering speech about France and cheese (was it cheese?) and Obama not having real leadership ability like ol’ John does, to cover the rescue of a bear cub wounded in a California fire and nicknamed Lil’ Smokey. The cramped audience runs for the exits.

Back in The Real World, the world of Challenge and Leadership and Future Presidents and Massive Ancient Ruins and Generals and Kings and Prime Ministers and absolutely No Farts or sneezes or twitchy, chicken-like arm flapping, Senator Barack Obama continued to stride across the Middle East, without a helmet, and no body armor, the desert opening before him, while the winds of time - Old Time, Biblical Time - whistles through his close-cropped hair.

- MDM

Obama’s best chance for winning in November might just be John McCain. Or rather, John McCain’s campaign, the most poorly managed, embarrassingly outmaneuvered campaigns since Katherine Harris ran for Senate. So on today’s show Rachel will be running through the litany of missteps and miscalculations, from the canceled visit to an oil platform during a hurricane to his backward timeline on the surge and the Sunni awakening.

Our guests today are John Amato from Crooks and Liars and Ilan Goldenberg from the National Security Network