4th Quarter 2008
Episodes 488, 489, 490, 491, 492, 493, 494, 495

Episode #488: Up & Up Forever
First Broadcast: 9/22/08
For some reason, several companies that have been around for decades, who are worth hundreds of billions of dollars, have suddenly become almost worthless. Financial markets around the world teeter on the verge of collapse as a result. The U.S. government's answer to this situation is to throw a few hundred billion dollars of its own into the vaults of these almost worthless companies, because--if various financial gurus are to be believed--the alternative is supposedly much worse. Now, given that a lot of this sudden devaluation is said to be caused by investors being "scared," "nervous," and otherwise "jittery"--nothing at all scientific at work here--doesn't this validate what that Marxist George H. W. Bush said way back in 1980, that it's all "voodoo economics"? Granted, he was mainly describing Reaganomics, but doesn't apply just as well to the present day as well? Tune in next week for more puzzled analysis--if there is a next time...

Episode #489: Quantum Economics
First Broadcast: 10/6/08
Last week, the Senate voted in favor of the Wall Street bailout 74 to 25 to 1. Senators Obama, Biden, and McCain voted for the bailout--though the Senate's web site didn't make it easy to figure it out from the original name given to the specific bill voted on:

...to amend section 712 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, section 2705 of the Public Health Service Act, section 9812 of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require equity in the provision of mental health and substance-related disorder benefits under group health plans, to prohibit discrimination on the basis of genetic information with respect to health insurance and employment, and for other purposes.
Yeah, sure. That says bailout all over it. While we're at it: Sarah Palin has never seen Russia from Alaska, because she's never been to the one place in Alaska where that's possible; and, the CEO of Washington Mutual--who was only on the job for three weeks before WaMu failed and was bought by JPMorgan Chase--could still walk away with $18 million in compensation even if he gets fired today. You know, they could have given some of that cash to me and had the same effect in the end, but I guess that would have been too much to ask for me to have my own bailout...

Episode #490: Wink, My Friends
First Broadcast: 10/13/08
Why do you suppose John McCain and Sarah Palin's campaign rallies are attracting so many racist, right-wing extremists who don't feel compelled to keep their homicidal views a secret? Why does John McCain portray himself as a "maverick" out to do good, when his record seems to indicate that he's only out to do things for himself? Why does Sarah Palin insist that the Alaska legislature's investigation of her firing of the state's Public Safety Commissioner is "very partisan," when "the probe of his firing had been unanimously authorized by the state's Republican-controlled Legislative Council"? And why did the American International Group rack up over $440,000 in hotel bills for a party for their executives in California barely a week after receiving an $85 billion loan from the U.S. government to prevent their company from going bankrupt? So many questions! So little answers!

Episode #491: Footnote This Show
First Broadcast: 10/20/08
The third debate between Senators Barack Obama and John McCain generates a wide range of criticism over McCain's numerous facial tics--not the least of which was McCain's inexplicable expression of disbelief at Obama's mention of union leaders in Colombia being assassinated "on a fairly consistent basis" (something which Noam Chomsky has been writing about for several years now, surprise surprise). Now, given a choice between a candidate who recognizes human rights abuses abroad and prejudice at home, and one who feigns disbelief that any such activity is occuring, which one would you vote for?

Episode #492: Hip To The Moose
First Broadcast: 11/3/08
So, when John McCain and Sarah Palin go on about how "small towns" are "real America," do they realize that they are saying 79% of the country lives in urban/fake America? In other words, according to them, the majority of Americans are un-American! Imagine that? Do you suppose that's one of the many last straws that's convinced so many Republicans to break with their party and endorse Barack Obama--including a former McCain advisor? Anyway, please remember to vote on Tuesday, November 4, 2008. And please don't vote for John McCain. I think his ignorant supporters give more than enough reasons why that would be an incredibly bad idea.

Episode #493: Man On The Moon
First Broadcast: 11/10/08
As America's First-Family-elect prepares to move on up to the White House, we here at Free New York bask in the relief that 85% of Manhattan voters chose Barack Obama for President instead of John McCain. So many New Yorkers ran out to buy a copy of The New York Times the morning after the election that the entire day's printing was sold out before many people even woke up. Keith Olbermann compared Obama's election the landing of man on the Moon, and Pat Buchanan probably pleased more people than he knew when he proclaimed “I think this is the end of the conservative era." And now that the Bush era is finally on the eve of ending for good, we ponder this question: What the heck are we going to do with our show after January 20, 2009?

Episode #494: Carpool
First Broadcast: 11/24/08
A balloon based on the art of Keith Haring will be in this year's Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The MTA is threatening New Yorkers with another fare hike, one of many in a long list of fare hikes going back to 1948. And the heads of GM, Ford, and Chrysler flew to Washington, D.C., in private jets to ask Congress for money to keep their companies from going bankrupt. Do you suppose, in exchange for this bailout, we could force those auto companies to rebuild the public transportation system they destroyed in the first place? I can still dream, I guess.

Episode #495: SecState
First Broadcast: 12/8/08
Repeated: 1/26/09
After a brief description of several films, we get to the point--namely, that Barack Obama nominating Hillary Clinton to be the next Secretary of State is a bad idea for the following reasons: 1) Hillary Clinton's foreign policy attitudes will most likely mirror her husband's, and Bill Clinton's foreign policy was in many ways not much different than George H. W. Bush's; 2) Bill Clinton's Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, was an advisor to Hillary Clinton's Presidential campaign, so Hillary Clinton's attitude towards other countries will most likely be heavily influenced by Albright's experience; 3) Madeleine Albright unequivocally supported U.S. sanctions against Iraq after the end of the 1991 Gulf War, even after acknowleging that over 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result; 4) Albright fully supported an aggressive foreign policy against Iraq, disregarding widespread American opposition to such a policy, as exemplified in the so-called "International Town Meeting" in which she participated in 1998, where she, the Secretary of Defense, and a National Security Advisor--aided and abetted by CNN--tried to convince an audience full of Americans in Ohio that bombing the shit out of Iraq was in their own best interests. It's true that Obama will ultimately be the one calling all the shots, but with bad advice like that coming from the State Department, will he be calling the right shots? I, for one, can think of a much better choice.

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