May 19, 2010

This Week on Midweek Politics with David Pakman / May 19th, 2010

Total Running Time: 60:00

MP3 Podcast: Available with entire Midweek Politics Archive for Members

This Week’s Topics:

–Bill Newman, Attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts, joins us in studio to discuss the upcoming Westboro Baptist Church God Hates Fags Supreme Court case, Arizona immigration, why conservatives hate the ACLU, Citizens United, his representation of Paul Cameron years ago, and much more.

–David Chura, author of I Don’t Wish Nobody to Have a Life Like Mine: Tales of Kids in Adult Lockup, joins us live in studio to tell incredible stories of children and how they are treated in adult jails and prisons, discuss the criminal justice system, and much more.

–David Pakman’s trip to the Grassroots Radio Conference in northern California, interest in producer Louis Motamedi’s makeover, and more.

–A couple of primary elections have happened, the biggest news being that switching to the Democratic Party was not enough to keep Arlen Specter in the Senate, losing the Democratic primary to Congressman Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania.

–We discuss Arlen Specter’s odd and seemingly poorly organized campaign, involving a lack of response to Midweek Politics producers, as well as referring to a group of Democrats that endorsed him as Republicans twice during a speech.

–Democratic Connecticut Senate hopeful Richard Blumenthal repeatedly refers to when he served in Vietnam, even though he never actually did, and we discuss whether it is reasonable to forget whether or not one has seen combat in the military.

–The Deepwater Horizon oil spill is turning out to be worse than ever imagined, possibly spilling ten times more oil than originally claimed by BP executives, and we wonder why the monthly required inspections of the site did not happen, as well as whether blowing the entire thing up to close the site and stop the spill might happen.

–At the actual spill rates, the Deepwater Horizon spill is an entire Exxon Valdez spill every four days, and 26 new offshore rigs have been approved since this spill with a safety check exemption.

–Elena Kagan is nominated to the Supreme Court, and Republicans go nuts, including Senator John Cornyn, who after saying it was okay that incompetent Bush SCOTUS nominee Harriet Miers had no judicial experience says recently that Kagan’s lack of the same experience is a problem.

–Republicans defend slavery to attack Elena Kagan.

–New stations airing Midweek Politics in New Jersey and Maine.

–Audience emails about hospital CEO Craig Melin’s appearance on the show, on Louis’ makeover, and on Teabagger Ned Ryun’s claims that misspelled sign at Tea Party protests are liberal plants to make Teabaggers look bad.

–Much more in the Midweek Politics Members Podcast: http://www.davidpakman.com/membership

–Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/midweekpolitics

–Check out Midweek Politics TV: http://www.youtube.com/midweekpolitics

–Join our Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=259017165642

-Leave us a message at the Midweek Politics Voicemail Line at (219)-2DAVIDP