Mr. Thompson is a former Republican senator from Tennessee, and former ABC News Radio contributor.
Blog Archives
Listen to the Podcast
What is Podcasting?
Podcasting is a method of distributing sound files via a dedicated XML feed. Using podcasting software, you will choose the content you want once, and from that moment it will delivered to you regularly. The software does all the work, reaching out to this site all the time, automatically downloading sound files when they are posted.
When can I listen to podcasts?
You can hear the audio whenever you want. Podcast content is on-demand, which means you control when you listen.
How do I do a true podcast with reader software?
To do a true podcast you will need to download a Podcast reader program.
Get free software here:
If none of these questions helped you, please send an email to audiosupport@abcrn.com. Please be as descriptive as possible when submitting your issue.
Advertisement
Sticks and Stones
It bothers Americans when we're told how unpopular we are with the rest of the world. For some of us, at least, it gets our back up -- and our natural tendency is to tell the French, for example, that we'd rather not hear from them until the day when they need us to bail them out again.
But we cool off. We're big boys and girls, after all, and we don't really bruise that easily. We're also hopeful that, eventually, our ostrich-headed allies will realize there's a World War going on out there and they need to pick a side -- the choice being between the forces of civilization and the forces of anarchy. Considering the fact that the latter team is growing stronger and bolder daily, while most of our European Union friends continue to dismantle their defenses, that day may not be too long in coming.
In the meantime, let's be realistic about the world we live in. Mexican leaders apparently have an economic policy based on exporting their own citizens, while complaining about US immigration policies that are far less exclusionary than their own. The French jail perfectly nice people for politically incorrect comments, but scold us for holding terrorists at Guantanamo.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 3:43pm
The NFL Backdraft
I've been a dedicated fan of professional football since I was a kid. I have the "premium" satellite football package and I've had seats for Tennessee Titans games since they first came to Nashville. So you can probably guess what I'll be doing this weekend. Like a lot of other fans, I'll be listening to draft guru Mel Kiper, Jr., as the NFL draft plays out in New York.
This year, though, the process of player selection has taken a decidedly political turn. You might even think it was taking place in Washington DC, with the league scolding teams for leaking personal information about prospective players, such as admissions of marijuana use. There have even been reports that top draft picks have been tailed for weeks by private detectives looking for signs of character flaws.
The backstory for this new focus on off-field behavior, of course, is the disastrous public relations season the NFL had last year. So let me turn my attention for a moment from more pleasant topics, like how great Vince Young will be with a year under his helmet, to ask the league brass a few questions.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 7:53pm
Rewriting History a Classroom at a Time
By now, we're used to people like Iranian President Ahmadinejad denying that the holocaust ever happened, even while he and his regime promise not only the destruction of Israel but the elimination of Jews internationally.
It's bad enough hearing from a distance about the bizarre anti-Semitic theories taught by heads of state as well as schools and religious leaders. Now, according to a study funded by the British government, we find out that some schools in Great Britain have stopped teaching history that is offensive to Muslim students. The topics that have been erased from the curriculum, the study found, include both the Nazi genocide and the Crusades.
This rewriting of history through omission wasn't some government policy. It was the result of individual decisions in local schools by teachers with large populations of Muslim students. Unfortunately, many of these students have been taught by parents and mosques that the holocaust never happened and that the Crusades were an unprovoked attack on Islam by European Christians. History books that present these events in any other light, they believe, are part some giant conspiracy designed to attack their very religion.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 9:21pm
Black and White Decisions
Some time ago, I was watching an old Humphrey Bogart detective movie and it struck me that the fictional jobs of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe would have been a lot easier if they had cell phones. In fact, a lot of those great old plots don't make any sense at all in the age when you can reach just about anybody at just about any time. It used to be that filmmakers could keep characters in the dark and build dramatic tension just by taking them away from telephones. An actor could pick up a phone and say, "The line's been cut," and you knew that ominous music would follow automatically.
Cell phones, of course, have made that staple scene a joke, but that doesn't mean that we've all learned to use this new technology to its best advantage. For example, we know that criminals who commit home invasions routinely lift the receiver off the first telephone they come across, preventing anybody who might be in the house from using another extension to call the police. So if you're serious about home security, you should sleep with a cell phone on the nightstand.
The response by Virginia Tech authorities to the shootings last week makes the point even more clearly. The proof is that, minutes after the shootings began, blogs started posting information sent by eyewitnesses who used "text messaging" cell phones and other mobile devices. Many students, however, didn't learn about what was happening until hours later, and then through a less modern technology -- the bullhorn. This was, sadly, a crisis response from the era of black and white movies, not the age of the Internet and IM.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 8:10pm
Talking About Federalism
My friend, Ramesh Ponnuru, over at National Review and I had a little disagreement over the issue of Federalism (you can read the original article here). It might seem a little like "Inside Baseball" but, actually, it deals with something that is of importance to everyone who is concerned about the expanding power of government. Our government, under our Constitution, was established upon the principles of Federalism -- that the federal government would have limited enumerated powers and the rest would be left to the states. It not only prevented tyranny, it just made good sense. States become laboratories for democracy and experiment with different kinds of laws. One state might try one welfare reform approach, for example. Another state might try another approach. One would work and the other would not. The federal welfare reform law resulted from just this process.
Federalism also allows for the diversity that exists among the country's people. Citizens of our various states have different views as to how traditional state responsibilities should be handled. This way, states compete with each other to attract people and businesses -- and that is a good thing.
Everyone in Washington embraces Federalism until it comes to someone's pet project designed to appeal to the voters. Then, oftentimes, even the most ardent Federalist throws in with the "Washington solution" crowd. I fought this for eight years in the Senate. I remember one vote (I believe it was 99 to one) when mine was the only vote cast for Federalism. The bill would have created a federal good Samaritan law.
::More::
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 5:45pm
Signs of Intelligence?
One of the things that's got to be going through a lot of peoples' minds now is how one man with two handguns, that he had to reload time and time again, could go from classroom to classroom on the Virginia Tech campus without being stopped. Much of the answer can be found in policies put in place by the university itself.
Virginia, like 39 other states, allows citizens with training and legal permits to carry concealed weapons. That means that Virginians regularly sit in movie theaters and eat in restaurants among armed citizens. They walk, joke and rub shoulders everyday with people who responsibly carry firearms -- and are far safer than they would be in San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, New York City, or Washington, D.C., where such permits are difficult or impossible to obtain.
The statistics are clear. Communities that recognize and grant Second Amendment rights to responsible adults have a significantly lower incidence of violent crime than those that do not. More to the point, incarcerated criminals tell criminologists that they consider local gun laws when they decide what sort of crime they will commit, and where they will do so.
Still, there are a lot of people who are just offended by the notion that people can carry guns around. They view everybody, or at least many of us, as potential murderers prevented only by the lack of a convenient weapon. Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 6:31pm
Another Lesson from the Virginia Shootings
It seems to be part of our nature to feel that we live in an era separate and distinct from the past – until something like the Virginia Tech killings forces us to face reality. Then, the horrors and atrocities of "the olden days" visit us again.
Periodically it has been decided, by the people who decide this sort of thing, that history as we know it is over. Or, at least, that things have changed so much that the lessons of the past no longer apply.
Though there are fewer and fewer people around today who remember it, the conflict that was officially ended by the signing of the Versailles Treaty in 1919 was known for several decades as “The War to End All Wars.” Back then, you could hardly blame people for feeling optimistic, having witnessed the end of dictatorial monarchies, such as the Russian Czars, the German Kaisers, the Ottoman Sultans and the emperors of both China and Austria-Hungary.
World War II, however, required a rewriting of the history books. The Holocaust and similar genocides committed by the Soviets now make the reverie of the ’20s and ’30s a sad footnote.
Since then, history has “ended” several times, notably with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Once again there was the sense that, finally, we had moved beyond the need to think about people and regimes willing to murder for their own ruthless purposes.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 5:18pm
Case Closed: Tax Cuts Mean Growth
Originally posted on 4/14/07 in The Wall Street Journal
It's that time again, and I was thinking of the old joke about paying your taxes with a smile. The punch line is that the IRS doesn't accept smiles. They want your money.
So it's not that funny, but there is reason to smile this tax season. The results of the experiment that began when Congress passed a series of tax-rate cuts in 2001 and 2003 are in. Supporters of those cuts said they would stimulate the economy. Opponents predicted ever-increasing budget deficits and national bankruptcy unless tax rates were increased, especially on the wealthy.
In fact, Treasury statistics show that tax revenues have soared and the budget deficit has been shrinking faster than even the optimists projected. Since the first tax cuts were passed, when I was in the Senate, the budget deficit has been cut in half.
Remarkably, this has happened despite the financial trauma of 9/11 and the cost of the War on Terror. The deficit, compared to the entire economy, is well below the average for the last 35 years and, at this rate, the budget will be in surplus by 2010.
Perhaps the most fascinating thing about this success story is where the increased revenues are coming from. Critics claimed that across-the-board tax cuts were some sort of gift to the rich but, on the contrary, the wealthy are paying a greater percentage of the national bill than ever before.
The richest 1% of Americans now pays 35% of all income taxes. The top 10% pay more taxes than the bottom 60%.
The reason for this outcome is that, because of lower rates, money is being invested in our economy instead of being sheltered from the taxman. Greater investment has created overall economic strength. Job growth is robust, overcoming trouble in the housing sector; and the personal incomes of Americans at every income level are higher than they've ever been.
::More::
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 1:53am
Originally posted at Redstate.com
Oil prices fell. The stock market rose. Video images of smiling British soldiers with Iranian President Ahmadinejad were everywhere. So were pictures of the 15 freed hostages embracing family members back home. The relief over the return of the Brits was so tremendous; you could almost hear birds singing.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 2:44pm
Originally posted on 4/5/07
If you tune into the news, you're going to end up hearing or reading at least the headlines of stories you'd probably rather not know about. Somehow, I know that Paris Hilton may have violated her parole. I'm not sure how it happened, but I even know a little about Britney Spears's hairdo, divorce, and trip to rehab. These bits of cultural trivia, I really wish I hadn't digested.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 2:43pm
Originally posted on 3/30/07
Ayaan Hirsi Ali can't leave her Washington D.C. home without guards.
Born a Muslim in the African nation of Somalia, she was treated as property. Hirsi Ali, though, escaped a marriage, arranged by her father, to a cousin in Canada she'd never met.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 2:41pm
Originally posted on 3/29/07
You might have heard about the lawsuit brought by a radical Islamic advocacy group against passengers on a U.S. Airways flight. Their offense was reporting suspicious behavior to the flight crew. According to reports, six Muslim men took up positions inside the plane similar to those taken by the 9/11 hijackers and vocally condemned America.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 2:40pm
Originally posted in 3/28/07
Tony Blair's getting angrier every day. But if past Iranian hostage takings are an indication, he may be upset for a while. The American-embassy hostages were held for 444 days, and the Israeli soldiers kidnapped last year by Iran's Hezbollah puppets still aren't free.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 2:35pm
Originally Posted on 3/27/07
So they're going to dig up Harry Houdini. They want to see if he was poisoned by a powerful league of spiritualists for exposing their phony seances. The doctor who'll examine the remains also exhumed Jesse James's coffin a few years ago -- to see if the outlaw outwitted authorities by having another man buried in his place.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 2:30pm
Originally posted on 3/26/07
The House's emergency war-funding bill contains several conditions on how the war should be run. They'll never become law but they "send signals," they say.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 1:35pm
Originally posted on 3/22/07
Some people think that our planet is suffering from a fever. Now scientists are telling us that Mars is experiencing its own planetary warming: Martian warming. It seems scientists have noticed recently that quite a few planets in our solar system seem to be heating up a bit, including Pluto.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 1:34pm
Originally posted on 3/20/07
We are all very well aware of the fact that we have an illegal immigration problem in this country. As usual, we avoided the problem for as long as we could and when we couldn't avoid it any longer we were told that, indeed, somewhere between 12 and 20 million people had somehow come into this country unnoticed.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 1:33pm
Originally posted on 3/19/07
The comic-book movie "300" about the Spartans and the Persians in 480 BC. is still breaking box-office records. Now it seems the rulers of modern-day Persia -- Iran -- are not amused.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 1:30pm
Originally posted on 3/17/07
How do you get your news?
Do you read it in the paper, listen to the radio, or watch it on TV? Do you watch World News or the CBS Evening News? Or do you watch Charlie Gibson or Katie Couric?
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 1:28pm
Originally posted on 3/15/07
I feel bad for Nancy Pelosi, AND her neighbors. Anti-war activists from the group Code Pink have been giving her the same treatment the president gets at his Crawford, Texas, ranch. Camping on her San Francisco lawn, they're demanding she cut off funds to the troops in Iraq.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 12:39pm
Originally posted on 3/14/07
Once again the Washington scandal machine is in full frenzy. This time the hapless Justice Department is baring the brunt. It's over the administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys last year. Who's responsible for this atrocity?
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 12:38pm
Originally posted on 3/14/07
Wasn't it Casey Stengel, the old baseball manager, who said one day after the third dropped fly-ball in the outfield, "can't anybody here play this game?" That's sort of the way I feel when I watch certain parts of our government in action.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 12:36pm
Originally posted on 3/7/07
Doesn't Patrick Fitzgerald look like a man who has dodged a bullet and is ready to get out of town? That was my first impression after watching the special-prosecutor's press conference after news came down Wednesday about Scooter Libby. It would seem that prosecuting a Bush official before a Washington jury is not necessarily a slam dunk after all when the gruel is this thin.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 12:35pm
Orignally posted on 1/19/07
Preparation continues in the House and Senate for the introduction of a nonbinding resolution disapproving of the president's plan to send additional troops to Iraq in order to quell the violence there. The resolution will have no legal affect. A congressional vote to cut off funding could stop the troops or could stop the war altogether but the critics of the plan don't have the stomach for that. It might be politically dangerous. One sponsor of the Senate resolution said that the goal is to demonstrate that the president is "on his own."
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 12:33pm
Originally posted on 1/12/07
You know, I not only play a prosecutor on TV, I used to actually be one. So when I see something like the farce that's playing out in North Carolina it makes my blood boil.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 12:31pm
Originally posted on 1/11/07
In his address last night much of what the president said had been anticipated by the media -- the additional troops, the understanding that he has with the Maliki government as to their responsibilities and so forth. But I was struck by a couple of things he said that indicated not just a change in tactics but a whole new attitude with regard to what's necessary. He's taking the gloves off.
posted by Fred Dalton Thompson at 12:20pm