Geek of all Trades Episode #3: I finally get some Pod-cred.

In which our illustrious host interviews his podcasting idol, finally makes his Schenectady Mailbox an official segment, announces a new one even though he doesn't have an intro for it yet, insists people go see The Dark Knight, and gives a postive review of the new X-Files movie. Oh BTW, no Odd News segment this week folks. Sorry.



Contact Me:

E-Mails: brian.d.webber@gmail.com, or arkle@comcast.net

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723188282

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/arklemknzy

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/arkle

Flixster: http://arkle.flixster.com



Main Site: http://arkle.silver-gateway.com

Podsafe Music: http://music.podshow.com/



This Week's Schenectady Mailbox Writing Prompt: The Shift Change Harrasment Squad.



Promos:

Buy Playing For Keeps August 25th: http://www.murverse.com



Mentioned on the Show:

The Dark Knight

Neo Cartoon Lover

The X-Files I Want To Believe

Mur Lafferty

Interview With A (Losing) Candidate

The official Watchmen trailer

J.R. Blackwell

Columbus's 4th voyage

Disney's Flowers and Trees

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Elvis Presley

"In God We Trust" as the U.S. national motto

the Social Security Act of 1965

The Apollo 15 Mission

Jimmy Hoffa disappears

The Takeover

The News From Poughkeepsie

'Body Of Christ" Returned To Church After Student Receives Email Threats

N.J. Student Speaks Out Against Biased Textbook That Pushes Prayer Myths

William Shatner

Leonard Cohen

Homicide: Life on the Street

The Lone Gunmen

Law & Order SVU

G.O.A.T. Bonus Episode #2

It's late, I know. Sorry 'bout that. To make up for it, I'm including a bonus from the Goddess of Radio, Randi Rhodes.

300 colonists bound for New France depart Dieppe, France
Ford Motor Company sells its first car
Fascist government in Italy bans use of foreign words
Don Imus
Telstar relays the first live trans-Atlantic television signal
First and only successful hijacking of an El Al aircraft
1992 Vatican Commission

Geek of all Trades Episode # 2: I do in fact "got chills" and they are indeed "multiplyin'."

In which our illustrious host loses control, cause the power you're supplying, is electrifying. Also, he re-tells the origins of his nickname, reviews a movie (or perhaps 3), gives an update on a couple of his writing projects, announces a new segment, teases another new segment, and shows off the brand new show notes format.



Contact Me:

E-Mails: brian.d.webber@gmail.com, or arkle@comcast.net

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723188282

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/arklemknzy

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/arkle

Flixster: http://arkle.flixster.com



Main Site: http://arkle.silver-gateway.com

Podsafe Music: http://music.podshow.com/



Promos:

Jody Whitesides: http://www.jodywhitesides.com

Pieces: http://pieces.libsyn.com



Mentioned on the Show:

The View Askew Message Boards

The Great Green Arkleseizure

Star Trek New Frontier

Arkle, the horse

Amelia

Grease: You're The One That I Want

The Balticon Ep of the Geologic Podcast

Tofu 'may raise risk of dementia'

Do octopuses have a favourite tentacle?

Socks-obsessed schoolboys

Worms Do Calculus To Find Meals Or Avoid Unpleasantness

Separation of Church and the DMV

Hellboy II The Golden Army

Wall-E

War, Inc.

The Shock Doctrine

The Weird Show

The Islamic calendar

Dr. Emily Howard Stowe

The Trinity nuclear tests

Disneyland

Alexander P. Butterfield

Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince

Directive on Superpowers (DC Universe RPG by West End Games)

The Elevator Pitch

The News From Poughkeepsie

Creative Commons

The video of the closing sound

G.O.A.T. Bonus Episode #1

This Day in History from the Point of View of a Right Winger for July 9th:

The Braddock expedition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braddock_Expedition
Napoleon annexes the Kingdom of Holland: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_French_Empire
The 14th Amendment: http://www.nps.gov/archive/malu/documents/amend14.htm
Great train wreck of 1918: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_train_wreck_of_1918
Donald Rumsfeld: http://www.slate.com/id/2081042/
Saipan: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/111729/353
New Zealand Parliament passes the Homosexual Law Reform Act: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexual_Law_Reform_Act_1986

The Long List of McCain Flip-Flops

(cross-posted at my MySpace page)

Steve Benen of the Carpetbagger Report has compiled a long (and growing) list of McCain flip-flops:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/TheCarpetbaggerReport/~3/315443325/15924.html

Here's the full list (along with Benen's closing commentary...)

* McCain supported the drilling moratorium; now he’s against it.

* McCain strongly opposes a windfall-tax on oil company profits. Three weeks earlier, he was perfectly comfortable with the idea.

* McCain thought Bush’s warrantless-wiretap program circumvented the law; now he believes the opposite.

* McCain defended “privatizing” Social Security. Now he says he’s against privatization (though he actually still supports it.)

Wait, I’m not done with the last two weeks yet….

* McCain wanted to change the Republican Party platform to protect abortion rights in cases of rape and incest. Now he doesn’t.

* McCain thought the estate tax was perfectly fair. Now he believes the opposite.

* He opposed indefinite detention of terrorist suspects. When the Supreme Court reached the same conclusion, he called it “one of the worst decisions in the history of this country.”

* McCain said he would “not impose a litmus test on any nominee.” He used to promise the opposite.

And these come after these other reversals from April and May:

* McCain believes the telecoms should be forced to explain their role in the administration’s warrantless surveillance program as a condition for retroactive immunity. He used to believe the opposite.

* McCain supported storing spent nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain supported moving “towards normalization of relations” with Cuba. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Hamas. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain believed the U.S. should engage in diplomacy with Syria. Now he believes the opposite.

* He argued the NRA should not have a role in the Republican Party’s policy making. Now he believes the opposite.

* McCain supported his own lobbying-reform legislation from 1997. Now he doesn’t.

* He wanted political support from radical televangelists like John Hagee and Rod Parsley. Now he doesn’t.

* McCain supported the Lieberman/Warner legislation to combat global warming. Now he doesn’t.

And these are the flip-flops I’ve noticed earlier:

* McCain pledged in February 2008 that he would not, under any circumstances, raise taxes. Specifically, McCain was asked if he is a “‘read my lips’ candidate, no new taxes, no matter what?” referring to George H.W. Bush’s 1988 pledge. “No new taxes,” McCain responded. Two weeks later, McCain said, “I’m not making a ‘read my lips’ statement, in that I will not raise taxes.”

* McCain is both for and against a “rogue state rollback” as a focus of his foreign policy vision.

* McCain says he considered and did not consider joining John Kerry’s Democratic ticket in 2004.

* In 1998, he championed raising cigarette taxes to fund programs to cut underage smoking, insisting that it would prevent illnesses and provide resources for public health programs. Now, McCain opposes a $0.61-per-pack tax increase, won’t commit to supporting a regulation bill he’s co-sponsoring, and has hired Philip Morris’ former lobbyist as his senior campaign adviser.

* McCain has changed his economic worldview on multiple occasions.

* McCain has changed his mind about a long-term U.S. military presence in Iraq on multiple occasions.

* McCain is both for and against attacking Barack Obama over his former pastor at his former church.

* McCain believes Americans are both better and worse off than they were before Bush took office.

* McCain is both for and against earmarks for Arizona.

* McCain believes his endorsement from radical televangelist John Hagee was both a good and bad idea.

* McCain’s first mortgage plan was premised on the notion that homeowners facing foreclosure shouldn’t be “rewarded” for acting “irresponsibly.” His second mortgage plan took largely the opposite position.

* McCain vowed, if elected, to balance the federal budget by the end of his first term. Soon after, he decided he would no longer even try to reach that goal.

* In February 2008, McCain reversed course on prohibiting waterboarding.

* McCain used to champion the Law of the Sea convention, even volunteering to testify on the treaty’s behalf before a Senate committee. Now he opposes it.

* McCain was a co-sponsor of the DREAM Act, which would grant legal status to illegal immigrants’ kids who graduate from high school. Now he’s against it.

* On immigration policy in general, McCain announced in February 2008 that he would vote against his own legislation.

* In 2006, McCain sponsored legislation to require grassroots lobbying coalitions to reveal their financial donors. In 2007, after receiving “feedback” on the proposal, McCain told far-right activist groups that he opposes his own measure.

* McCain said before the war in Iraq, “We will win this conflict. We will win it easily.” Four years later, McCain said he knew all along that the war in Iraq war was “probably going to be long and hard and tough.”

* McCain said he was the “greatest critic” of Rumsfeld’s failed Iraq policy. In December 2003, McCain praised the same strategy as “a mission accomplished.” In March 2004, he said, “I’m confident we’re on the right course.” In December 2005, he said, “Overall, I think a year from now, we will have made a fair amount of progress if we stay the course.”

* McCain went from saying he would not support repeal of Roe v. Wade to saying the exact opposite.

* McCain went from saying gay marriage should be allowed, to saying gay marriage shouldn’t be allowed.

* McCain criticized TV preacher Jerry Falwell as “an agent of intolerance” in 2002, but then decided to cozy up to the man who said Americans “deserved” the 9/11 attacks.

* McCain used to oppose Bush’s tax cuts for the very wealthy, but he reversed course in February.

* On a related note, he said 2005 that he opposed the tax cuts because they were “too tilted to the wealthy.” By 2007, he denied ever having said this, and insisted he opposed the cuts because of increased government spending.

* In 2000, McCain accused Texas businessmen Sam and Charles Wyly of being corrupt, spending “dirty money” to help finance Bush’s presidential campaign. McCain not only filed a complaint against the Wylys for allegedly violating campaign finance law, he also lashed out at them publicly. In April, McCain reached out to the Wylys for support.

* McCain supported a major campaign-finance reform measure that bore his name. In June 2007, he abandoned his own legislation.

* McCain opposed a holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr., before he supported it.

* McCain was against presidential candidates campaigning at Bob Jones University before he was for it.

* McCain was anti-ethanol. Now he’s pro-ethanol.

* McCain was both for and against state promotion of the Confederate flag.

* McCain decided in 2000 that he didn’t want anything to do with former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, believing he “would taint the image of the ‘Straight Talk Express.’” Kissinger is now the Honorary Co-Chair for his presidential campaign in New York.

Confronted with the inconsistencies in McCain’s record in March, the senator’s aides told the New York Times that the senator “has evolved rather than switched positions in his 25-year career.” That’s a perfectly sensible spin — when a politician holds one position, and then, for apparently political reasons, decides to embrace the polar opposite position, it’s only natural for his or her aides to say the politician’s position has “evolved.”

But in McCain’s case, the spin is wholly unfulfilling. First, McCain sells himself as a pol who never sways with the wind, and whose willingness to be consistent in the face of pressure is proof of his character. Second, Republicans have spent the last four years or so making policy reversals the single most serious political crime in presidential politics. The dreaded “flip-flop” is, according to the GOP, the latest cardinal sin for someone seeking national office.

And if we’re playing by Republican rules, McCain’s “evolutions” should be a fairly serious problem. I’m beginning to think they might be.

Geek of all Trades # 1: Indiana Jones and the Terrorist Fist Jab

In which our illustrious host gets all philosophical on everybody's asses, trips over himself trying to inform new listeners about what they can expect from the show (won't be doing THAT again for awhile), talks a little about music and writing (very little), and helps out Wesley Clark a tad.

Contact Me:
E-Mails: brian.d.webber@gmail.com, or arkle@comcast.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=723188282
MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/arklemknzy
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/arkle

Main Site: http://arkle.silver-gateway.com
Podsafe Music: http://music.podshow.com/

Promos:
Blast The Right: http://www.therationalradical.com

Mentioned on the Show:

Rocket Propelled Geek: http://www.rocketpropelledgeeks.com/main_news_archive.php
The (defunct) MILF & Cookies Podcast Episodes: http://milfandcookies.mypodcast.com
Continental Congress adopts a resolution severing ties with Great Britain: http://www.learningcalendar.com/this_day_in_history/days_template.cfm?history_id=29362
Vermont became the first American territory to abolish slavery: http://www.wsoctv.com/blackheritage/1947088/detail.html
Amistad: http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/amistad/AMISTD.HTM
Gas mask patented by Benjamin J. Lane: http://www.todayinsci.com/7/7_02.htm
The Sherman Anti-Trust Act: http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0844878.html
48 people die in rioting in East St. Louis, Illinois: http://www.answers.com/topic/july-2
Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific Ocean: http://www.brainyhistory.com/events/1937/july_2_1937_95700.html
The Roswell Crash: http://www.v-j-enterprises.com/jrosevi.html
1st Wal-Mart store opens for business in Arkansas: http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2135
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAcivil64.htm
The Weird Show: http://www.theweirdshow.com
Stolen car found in living room: http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=217243
Lebanese food served with a bang: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7468729.stm
World's biggest coffin: http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2904391.html?menu=news.quirkies
Martian soil could grow turnips, Phoenix finds: http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn14217-martian-soil-could-grow-turnips-phoenix-finds.html
Court reverses judgment against church in exorcisms: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/5861268.html
Ariz. churchgoer rate is far behind nation's: http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/246023
Farpoint Media: http://www.farpointmedia.net
Evangelism may be losing its sway: http://www.gazette.com/articles/obama_37766___article.html/trying_say.html
General Wesley Clark's comments on John McCain: http://securingamerica.com/node/2993
Throwing Toasters: http://www.throwingtoasters.com/

Due to circumstances beyond my control...

...Episode 1 of Geek of all Trades is going to be late. Mevio is down for Site Maintenance, and I have no idea how long it will be. Hopefully I can still get the show in the feed before Midnight tonight (MST) so it'll still be Wednesday, but if I can't, expect it tomorrow.