The Carter Gilson Report

Volume 1, Episode 108

Grist, Science, and Dr. Anthony Westerling helped me with this podcast.

California is burning and there is very little we can do about it right now. The time when we could have done something to contain this fire was decades ago. And no matter what you may have been told, we knew this was going to happen. We cannot stop this fire until it kills itself, but we can help to prevent them in the future. I’m not talking about putting out campfires. The answer lies in the science of global warming. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 107

Harry Reid’s office has let it be known that he will ignore a hold being placed on a bill. This is unusual enough, but the hold is coming from within his own party. More than that, even, it’s not coming from someone who is known for grandstanding, nor from a freshman Senator in his first year. No, this is coming from a 27-year Senate Incumbent who is well respected inside and outside the halls of Congress.

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Volume 1, Episode 106

FireDogLake, the Washington Post and Chris Dodd’s campaign are sources tonight.

We knew, just looking at the people that Bush had surrounded himself with in 2001 when he took over the Presidency, we knew that there would be some crap to contend with. John Ashcroft, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, these were old names tied up in a new conservatism, birthed out of the Nixon White House and looking to extend the executive power they saw Congress usurping. These were the forces that got Bush to within snatching distance of the electoral victory they needed to push their American Tyrant agenda. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 105

note: this is largely from memory, but AFP and ThinkProgress helped refresh me.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or perhaps in Iraq), you already know that Al Gore, 43rd President that never was, will be taking home the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on global warming advocacy. Because admitting that global warming is real and not a lie concocted by a serial exaggerator as Gore is usually portrayed, ever since the 2000 election, the right wing has refused to accept that there is any legitimacy to the award. If they accept that Gore deserved the award, then the have to accept that Global Warming is real. This would then cause them to do two things that are anathema to the right wing. For one, they would have to take steps to mitigate global warming including capping carbon emissions and otherwise acting outside what they see to be the best interests of business. They would also have to admit that Al Gore is telling the straight truth. And that, especially, ain’t gonna happen. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 104

DailyKos and Think Progress were instrumental in providing information today, while Sadly, No! continues to help me get through it.

The culture of conservatism that has hijacked the discourse in this country is, of course, poorly named. It really isn’t conservative. It does not conserve anything, and it radically alters the fabric of this nation from one that prizes independence and creativity to one that shuns anything different. This culture that has gripped our nation says that we cannot question our leaders about the course our nation is taking. Anyone with doubts, or who raises objections, is branded a traitor and is fair game for personal attacks. This is true wether you are a sick celebrity supporting stem cell research, a soldier speaking out against the war in Iraq, or a 12-year-old boy supporting the SCHIP program that saved his life. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 103

big help in this from the New York Times

With so much evil and abhorrent in the Bush administration, sometimes it’s hard to single out the one thing that really puts it all together for me. Yet I keep coming back to one thing, something basic, primal, something that cuts to the heart of what it means to be unAmerican. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 102

Video again, on Burma. Invaluable sources in this edition include the Daily Mail, the BBC (1, 2, 3), racoles’ Burma photostream on Flickr, and FireDogLake just today.

You’re watching the Carter Gilson Report for Tuesday, October 2, 2007. I am Jeffrey Carter Gilson.

The Junta in control of Myanmar, also known as Burma, took a step that most dictatorships and military rule ends up taking. Faced with tens of thousands of demonstrators throughout the country protesting the harsh, martial rule that this peaceful country has been subjected to, the Junta made it nearly impossible to get information out of the country. They effectively shut down the internet in Burma.

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Volume 1, Episode 101, Audio

Audio-Only version.

Volume 1, Episode 101

A video podcast. The Audio-Only version will be coming down the same feed in a few minutes. I’ll also have an update later with the script.

It’s all about Rudy 9/11 Giuliani.

Here it is in YouTube:

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Volume 1, Episode 100

Mike McConnell thinks that debate over FISA will kill Americans. President Bush is going to veto health care coverage for millions of children. We are stuck in a civil war of our own making half a world away with no end in sight. The right to exist is being encroached upon to the point where a college student with a blinky nametag and some silly putty is threatened with death from the authorities at an airport. The economy is collapsing under the weight of foolish adjustable rate mortgages and debt without credit. And yet, I feel fine. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 99

You’re listening to the Carter Gilson Report for Tuesday, September 25, 2007. I am Jeffrey Carter Gilson.

Some nights, working out what to cover is hard not because there isn’t anything to cover, but just because I feel like I should know more about the subject before I really throw myself into it. Take FISA. I have a basic idea that weakening the restrictions on domestic surveillance is bad, but I don’t have the legal grounding to make a terribly persuasive argument. Or SCHIP. I know that kids need better health coverage, and I know that the President is doing his best to destroy the program, but sometimes finding the words to say so feels a bit out of my league.

I talk about the war a lot because it’s visceral. I know it’s wrong, and I know that outside the walls of power the only way to change it is to keep talking about it. Ignoring it will not make it go away.

Talking about the Bush administration weakening our civil liberties, while a bit more wonky, is still a very real thing. My generation, and I’m a bit of a tweener, X on the cusp of Y, has vague memories of Russia the enemy, but when we think about the USSR, we remember Gorbachev. Hitler is a name in the history books. When those my age and younger look back and think about those who deny the right to live freely to their country’s citizens, they won’t think of Hitler and Stalin, but of our own president.

I admit to being a bit late to the party in being political online. Not that I never wrote anything political in the past. However, the writing I used to do was disjointed and embarrassingly uninformed. And I’m including some of what I wrote in 2004.

When I had an audience (and I did, believe it or not; I may not seem like it now, but people used to know my name), I didn’t understand the power of the medium I was using. I didn’t get it. My one regret is that I didn’t just drop everything in 2003 and go to Burlington. That I didn’t see the danger signs in 2000 and do everything I could. I bought the media line that Gore was an exaggerator. And I am so embarrassed.

And that’s what this podcast is about. I shout into the void now because I didn’t then. I follow the news closely because I ignored it for too long. But more than that, I’m not the only one.

I am to blame for the world that we live in. I kept trying to change the trajectory of the hand basket as it was already sinking into hell. I used metaphor instead of a sledgehammer.

And so here we are. It’s 2007, the Democrats have the majority in Congress, but they do not control it. Bush is still able to get what he wants despite being among the least popular Presidents in the last 50 years. But I don’t feel disheartened. I’ve been doing this for 99 episodes, and I will do it for another 99, another 900, and no force from the outside can stop me. No President can make me go away. I am the voice of freedom. And so are you.

Some would complain that we need fewer blogs and podcasts out there. Balls to that. We need more. One voice can change a mind. A million voices can change the world. Use your voice.

One thing I’ve been saying from the beginning of this podcast is that if nobody knows what you stand for, then you don’t stand for anything. You have to take a stand, and let the world know. Otherwise, the people who agree with you will never know that you are out there, and the ones who disagree will never be able to challenge you.

We are digital democracy. We are the future. We will not be ignored.

Thank you for listening. You can check out the webpage, www.cartergilson.com, for show scripts and notes, blog posts, and you can leave comments. You can also email me, jeff@cartergilson.com.

I am Jeffrey Carter Gilson and this has been the Carter Gilson Report for Tuesday, September 25, 2007. Tomorrow sees the 100th edition. Have a great Tuesday, everyone.

Volume 1, Episode 98

as ever, thanks to Wikipedia, as well as CNN and Talking Points Memo.

When George Bush made his plans to go to war with Iraq, there were a number of questions, not just why, but also how he thought that a small force, just 100,000 troops and support personnel, could possibly be enough to handle security, even if the expected rose petals and palm branches were tossed on the road for them. When it became clear that they weren’t enough, it turns out that the Bush administration was actually way ahead of us on that. But they wouldn’t use soldiers and marines for the dirty job of protecting our colonial governors and diplomats, or for protecting the oil fields, or any number of other security jobs. For those, they wanted a specialist. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 97

Wikipedia, MyDD, and the State Department all helped (indirectly) with the creation of this podcast

Habeas Corpus is the bedrock of the western legal system. It is the one right enumerated in the main body of the Constitution. Last fall, Congress voted to strip that right from detainees designated as enemy combatants. Today, they had a chance to rectify that, and they did not. And we slip further down away from the just society we have always striven to be. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 96

invaluable in writing this podcast were Wikipedia, Color of Change, Slant Truth and Feministing.

This week in Jena, Louisiana, Justice has had a victory. For the victims of the backwards legal system there, a ray of hope has come in the form of a state judge vacating the conviction and tossing out the charges on Mychal Bell. But for Mychal, and for the rest of the Jena Six, for the citizens of Jena, of Louisiana, of the United States, the stain of shame hangs heavy over our heads. This is America, dammit. This is not supposed to happen here. Not in the 21st Century. But it did. And now we have to fix it. (more…)

Volume 1, Episode 95

Thanks are again due to the fantastic (and recently updated) Wikipedia entry on the Jena 6, as well as Jack and Jill Politics

After a short trial before an all-white jury, during which his court appointed defense attorney did not call a single witness to the stand, Mychal Bell was found guilty of aggravated second degree battery and conspiracy to commit. This was stemming from an incident in December at the Jena High School, where Bell and five fellow black students allegedly beat up a white student following months of racial antagonizing. The DA, having already come under fire for statements he made at a school rally, had an open and shut case. But then, in the midst of what some have called a modern lynching, Justice showed that while she may be blind, she is not deaf, and may yet hold some sway in the land of the free. (more…)