Category Archives: Politics

Cokie Roberts: Typical Man, that President John Adams

BlogTalkRadio Welcomes President Obama to ’40 Minutes for Health Reform’ Special

BlogTalkRadio celebrates its third anniversary this month. And what better, more fitting way to mark the occasion than with an interview with President Barack Obama?

As TechCrunch and CNN reported yesterday, the president will appear on BlogTalkRadio this Wednesday, Aug. 19, at 5 p.m. ET. He will be discussing health-care reform as part of the “40 Days for Health Reform” campaign.

CAPTION: Obama: On the road to health-care reform.

Obama: On the road to health-care reform. (Photo: Pete Souza)

We are honored that the BlogTalkRadio platform has been selected to host this conversation as the debate on health-care reform reaches a fever pitch, and that the president is lending his voice to the dialogue.

Having embraced other popular platforms like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn during his campaign and into his administration, this event is yet another example of the president leveraging social media to communicate with the American people.

As I reflect on Continue reading →

Billionaire George Soros to the Empire State: Don’t Thank Me, Thank the Quakers

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George Soros may be the 29^th richest person on the planet – with an estimated worth of $11 billion – but things weren’t always so rosy for the illustrious investor.

Interviewed on Harlem Talk Radio, the Hungarian native, whose family was forced underground to evade the Nazis during World War II – and who later worked as a railway porter – recounts what prompted his most recent act of munificence.

"I hope that some of the kids who got the money will prosper," George (above) tells us. "When they grow up, maybe they can do the same thing.

This week, George announced that his Open Society Institute made a $35 million donation to Back To School New York, a joint effort with the State of New York and U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services that provides grants of $200 per child to more than 850,000 families receiving public assistance or food stamps. The money is to be used to buy clothes and supplies for the new academic year. Continue reading →

Tara Dowdell: I Didn’t Pave the Way for Randall Pinkett’s Lt. Governor Run

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NBC News political researcher Domenico Montanaro may want to start doing some, ah, political research.

Last week on MSNBC.com, Domenico cited a report about former Apprentice contestant Tara Dowdell having run for political office.

But as Tara tells BlogTalkRadio, nothing could be farther from the truth. Not only that, the erroneous report has since gone viral, causing Tara to have to field calls from scores of inquisitive friends and relatives.

"The only political office I have ever run for is student body president," Tara (above) tells us.

“My aunt called my mom and said, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t tell us Tara ran for office!’” Tara tells us. “It’s pretty embarrassing.”

The trouble began on July 10, when PolitckerNJ.com, which covers New Jersey politics, reported that the Garden State’s governor, Jon Corzine, is “reportedly considering Apprentice Season 4 winner Randal Pinkett to run on his ticket for Lt. Governor. Also an Apprentice contestant that season: Tara Dowdell, who worked as an aide to Gov. James E. McGreevey.”

On that front, Tara tells us, “Though I’m flattered, I’m not sure where that rumor comes from, as I have never been approached by Governor Corzine or his staffers about a possible candidacy.”

Two days later, CQPolitics.com, the website of the Congressional Quarterly, wrote:

“Oddly enough, as PolitickerNJ.com’s Wally Edge points out, while Pinkett would be the first African-American to run statewide as the nominee of a major party in New Jersey, he would not be the first reality TV star to run for office in New Jersey – that distinction already is held by Tara Dowdell, who once worked for disgraced former Gov. Jim McGreevey.”

While it is true that Tara, who resides in N.J., did work for the former gov (as director of appointments, from 2002 to 2003), she has never sought political office in any state.

The source of Tara's woes.

Still, a day after CQPolitics.com’s report, Domenico wrote on MSNBC’s FirstRead:

“CQ Politics calls Gov. Jon Corzine’s possible choice of reality TV star Randall Pinkett as candidate for lieutenant governor a ‘Hail Mary’ pass,” before going on to cite CQ’s reporting as follows:

“But ‘oddly enough, while Pinkett would be the first African-American to run statewide as the nominee of a major party in New Jersey, he would not be the first reality TV star to run for office in New Jersey. That distinction is already held by (another Apprentice alum) Tara Dowdell, who once worked for disgraced former Gov. Jim McGreevey.’”

On BlogTalkRadio’s Let’s Get Real this week, however, Tara finally sets the record straight.

“MSNBC said I had run for office. They said that Randall Pinkett is not going to be the first reality-TV contestant to run for statewide office because that distinction belongs to Tara Dowdell,” Tara, who now works as a political and marketing consultant, tells host Reuben Torres.

“There are some other distinctions, but that particular distinction does not belong to me,” she adds. “I have never run for public office.”

To hear Tara’s full interview, click here.

Jesse Ventura: Senator Al Franken Is ‘Just Another Democrat’

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Al Franken may have finally assumed power in our nation’s capital, but don’t expect fellow Minnesotan Jesse Ventura to stand and applaud.

CAPTION: The former gov: Frank appraisal of Al's potential.

The former governor: Frank appraisal of Al's potential.

Interviewed on The Weekly Filibuster, the one-time pro wrestler – who, as an independent candidate on the Reform Party ticket, ran for governor of Minnesota in 1998, won and served until 2003 – had few supportive words for the former Saturday Night Live player, who was sworn in this week as the junior senator from the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

When host Ben Goodman asks, “Will Senator Franken be a positive force for Minnesota?” the former governor replies:

“I don’t know. He’ll be a Democrat. You’re talking to the high priest of the third-party movement… It’s just another Democrat, in my opinion.”

But equal-opportunity tell-it-like-it-is’er that he is, Jesse goes on to trash the entire system.

“The Democratic and Republican parties control the whole game. They don’t let anyone else into it. That’s their main focus – to keep other people out, and to control it all,” he says.

The newly sworn-in senator: Wrestling with a retort?

“So will there be drastic change? No, there will be a shift to the Democratic side but in essence – you know, I taught a class at Harvard. It was How Pro Wrestling Prepares You for Politics.

“And one of the main things of that course was that, in politics, people portray something that they’re generally not – just like in pro wrestling.

“I become a character in pro wrestling in front of the camera. Well, the same holds true with these two political parties: In front of the camera, they tell you they’re adversarial,” adds Jesse, whose 2008 book, Don’t Start The Revolution Without Me!, was just released in paperback.

“Behind the camera, they’re all cuttin’ their deals together. You know, the whole chummy-go-out-to-dinner stuff.”

To hear Jesse’s full interview, click here.

To download Al Franken’s February interview on BlogTalkRadio’s Radio Free Nation, click here.

Helen Thomas: Barack Obama Doesn’t Have the Courage to Do the Things He Should

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EDITOR’S NOTE, June 8, 2010: In response to criticism about her May 27, 2010 comments to Rabbi David Nesenoff on the state of Isreal—namely that the Israeli Jews “should go home” to “Poland, Germany…America and everywhere else”—Helen Thomas resigned from her position as a columnist with Hearst Newspapers on June 7.

NEW YORK, July 3, 2009 (BlogTalkRadio): Unabashed John F. Kennedy fan though she is, Helen Thomas is less than thrilled with the current incarnation of Camelot.

Interviewed on the Judy Joy Jones Show, the Godmother of White House correspondents—who has covered every Oval Office occupant since JFK—doesn’t hesitate to opine on America’s commanders-in-chief.

CAPTION: "Why should we go there and kill and die?" Helen (above) says of President Obama's new counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan."

"Why should we go there and kill and die?" Helen (above) says regarding Obama's new military strategy in Afghanistan.

When host Judy Joy Jones comments to Helen, “I’m sure that you don’t have a favorite president. I guess you have to be pretty detached in that regard,” the former UPI bureau chief says:

“No, no, I had a favorite: Kennedy. I thought he was brilliant. I thought he had great ideas.

“He created the Peace Corps. He signed the first nuclear-test-ban treaty. And he said, ‘We’re going to land men on the moon.’”

Shortly after that, she offers her take on our nation’s 44^th president.

“He’s disappointing me. He has a conscience, but he doesn’t have the courage to do the things that he should have done—which is single-payer, on medicine,” Helen says of Barack Obama. “Nobody in this country should lack for medical care. We have 47 million people who don’t have any insurance and medicine. And that’s shocking.”

(Single-payer health care is an approach to health-care financing with only one source of money for paying health-care providers. On Wednesday, President Obama rejected the single-payer model, citing instead one that would preserve private insurance companies, while offering a government-run option.)

Helen also slams the president”s foreign policy.

Helen covering her No. 1 presidential pick.

“He’s going into Afghanistan, and he’s broadened the war. He has not learned the lessons of Vietnam and Iraq,” says the veteran journalist, who currently writes a column for the Hearst Newspapers syndicate, and whose new book, Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do, will be published in the fall.

“We should not be there. To put U.N. peacekeeper forces there would be fine. But to get involved in another no-win war?

“Afghans know every cave, they know every stream, they know every mountain. It’s their country.”

To hear Helen’s full interview, click here.

L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa: First Fix the Budget, then Grab the Governorship

Jesse Jackson: ‘We Have to Reinvest in America’

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Jesse Jackson is anxious that the $787 billion federal stimulus package be used to help our nation regain its economic strength – rather than make us beholden to overseas labor.

Interviewed at the America’s Future Now conference in Washington, D.C., Rev. Jackson warns against escalating trade imbalances.

CAPTION: “We must make sure that the hemorrhaging of the economy doesn’t outdistance the stimulus,” Rev. Jackson tells us.

“We must make sure that the hemorrhaging of the economy doesn’t outdistance the stimulus,” Rev. Jackson (above) tells us.

“We have to reinvest in America’s infrastructure and manufacturing capacity. We need to get up to capacity to make shoes and steel and iron and clothes and auto- mobiles – and stop surrendering the manufacturing sector to cheap labor abroad,” he tells corres- pondent Matt Bader.

“I was in Malaysia about a month ago. And I went to the BMW plant, where workers – at max – $6,000 a year, making BMWs that sell for $60,000. Massive profits.

“Well, would you make a car in Detroit or make a car in Malaysia?

“I went to a place called Free Shell. They make computers, laptops and microchips and micromemory – the whole range of electronic infrastructure. Workers there make $2,500 a year.

“So unless there is some plan to deal with balancing trade, we cannot survive as a manufacturer. We offer them bridges, they offer us walls.”

Rev. Jackson also calls Uncle Sam’s bailout of General Motors a “gift of bankruptcy” whose terms “cannot be allowed.”

To hear Rev. Jackson’s full interview, click here.

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