Another Goddamned Podcast #23: July 17th, 2008

Lately, we've been avoiding having full-blown discussions about politics. But this week we can't resist looking at a few issues related to the '08 elections in the U.S. Ex wants to know if McCain has anything to offer the American people. You might find some of the answers surprising! Would a President McCain still pander to a religious base that didn't support him in the election? Then: Given that we all agree Obama would be marginally better than McCain, why do we tend to give him such a hard time? Can you say "pissed off," boys and girls?

Obama's brand: Change. But it now comes with a secret ingredient: No-change-o. Does anyone buy that "change" line anymore? Was his FISA vote a deal-breaker for you? It was for some of the Herd. We discuss why that single vote was so important to us as atheists, freethinkers, and lovers of the Constitution. Some of us theorize about what was behind it, but what the fuck do we know?

We look at the American political system and examine why it's so difficult for third-party candidates to get elected. Lots of voters seem to want choices besides the Demopublicans, yet it's hard to find a viable standard-bearer for the great idea of ... what? Can any of us suggest a political position that a potentially successful third party might embrace? Philly explains how he thinks a new party could get off the ground. Ex, though, seems fixated on dogcatchers.

Another Goddamned Puzzle and Another Goddamned Poll and Another Goddamned Ten Minutes of Your Life spent listening to this drivel. In our free-for-all ranting segment, our resident artist is annoyed at the reactions to The New Yorker's Obama cover and the resulting controversy about visual satire. We see this as yet another problem fed by the Left as well as the Right. Evo tells about a college instructor who lost his job because he told his class that the Adam-and-Eve story was a fable. Somehow this leads us back to a brief discussion of the tragic and infuriating case of Madeline Neumann.