(12/5/2010) Christmas is coming soon, and people are dropping off the unemployment rolls, but not in the way they would like.  The standoff over extending the Unemployment Insurance checks is still on, and there’s no end in sight.

Knowing, from years of observation, how politicians act, I don’t think the standoff will last much longer.  It’s all about illusion.

This week’s Good Guy:  Befitting the upcoming holiday, more links to charities.

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(11/28/2010) This week we take a look at these aggressive security procedures by then Federal Transportation Security Administration that has so many people up in arms.  Since they’ve never caught a suspected terrorist, even when they had the OLD procedures in place, why are we bothering to escalate the process?

Also:  A lady on Gather.com writes an open letter to Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.  She has also sent it to McConnell himself and she doesn’t mince words about how she feels in this very heartfelt missive from an American citizen.

Plus:  This week begins our second annual series of holiday Good Guy segments

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(11/22/2010)  This week we take a look at the big, and probably phony debate on the expiring tax cuts and the Earmark debate.  Also, Hamid Karzai, the President of Afghanistan wants the US  to get out and stop “meddling” in his country.  We suspect there’s more than one reason for this.

Plus:  This week’s Good Guy is a whole different kind of animal.

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(11/14/2010)  This issue is about the way fear is being used by the politicians to keep the heat for their actions off them by pitting Americans against Americans by selling the fear of the “other side” and how these people will destroy the country if they get elected.  And I think we should honor our vets the other 364 days of the year and not just on Veterans Day.

Also, I analyze the lie about the expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

Plus:  This week’s Good Guy is the St Joseph’s Center, a charity for homeless veterans.

Article on failure of tax cuts for the rich

The Joseph Center for homeless veterans List of Phobias

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(11/7/2010)  This week, five days after the midterm elections we give a quick wrapup on the elections and my take on it, and a little look ahead to what I think we can expect from the new House majority and their “mandate” to do what the people want.

Also, this week’s Good Guy takes a look at two little-known, but worthy and somewhat unusual charities.

Thanks for listening and please tell your friends.

http://www.dogtagsforkids.org/ http://www.kiva.org/

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(10/31/2010) This one was done two days before the midterm elections and it’s my last shot at asking you to please be sure to vote, and to consider voting for independents and/or third party candidates.  A lot depends on whether we decide to stop going with the status quo or consider shaking up the system and maybe, just maybe getting this country’s government going in the right direction again.

Plus:  This week’s Good Guy is “Homes for Our Troops” a group that provides free, specially adapted housing for returning vets with severe disabilities and injuries.

As always, please tell your friends about the Gut Reaction Journal, and don’t forget to vote.

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(10/25/2010)  This week I talk about the need for independent candidates again, but since it’s less than a week until the Midterm Elections we will have that behind us and the Journal can go back to our normal topics.

Also, I recently had an online discussion about term limits and independednt candidates with another member of an discussion website called Gather.  I mention a part of that discussion but if you want to read the whole thread it will be available on the links page on this site.

And this week’s Good Guy is Hal Donaldson and a group called the Convoy of Hope.

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(10/10/10)  This one is a reminder that there is a midterm election coming up, and we re running out of time to change the direction of the country before everything falls apart.  And it’s a sincere THANK YOU to the almost 2000 people who listen to the Gut Reaction Journal.

Also, I talk about the Coffee Party, a grassroots group who doesn’t want to “take the country back” or eliminate the government in favor of leaving everything to big corporations.  They want us to KEEP our country and get wise to the idea that “United we Stand” is more than a slogan and we need to be more involved in how our own lives are being run.  This is the very first political organization the Gut Reaction Journal has ever recommended.

Plus:  This week’s Good Guy is Annabel Park, the woman who is the founder of the Coffee Party and she tells the story of how the group came to be.

As always, please tell your friends.

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(10/03/2010)  Recently, the Democrats put out a bill supposedly to help keep American jobs in this country, and the Republicans kept it from coming to a vote.  To me this shows NEITHER side gives a damn about the American Worker because, while the GOP predictably killed a vote on the bill, the DEMOCRATS waited until almost the last minute to introduce this bill.

This government has been encouraging companies to move their facilities overseas for FOUR DECADES, and the Democrats didn’t think to introduce this bill until a week before they all went home to campaign!

Also, why are the Liberals starting to call themselves “progressives” now? Like the Republicans, they seem to think what they do is all about packaging rather than substance.

Plus:  Our Good Guy is an upscale restaurant owner who is making a LOT of dinners for underprivileged kids.

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(9/27/2010)  This is the 2010 extended (30 min) edition of the Gut Reaction Journal.  The Gut Reaction Journal’s Guide for the Skeptical Voter is our small effort to make our listeners wise to the many sneaky and subtle ways the two parties get us to vote their way, often without us noticing we are being influenced at all.

In this edition, we point out several methods politicians, their parties and supporters use the media (Radio, Television, Newspapers, Magazines and the Internet) to inundate you with spin, misdirection and outright lies to put the idea into the back of our minds that make us think these people are better than their opponents when we pull the curtain.

Politicians and their supporters are constantly competing for your free brain space and it’s become a BIG industry.  Hopefully, this guide will better prepare you to avoid the army of people out there trying to get you to think their way, instead of yours.  We want you to pick your own favorites and not somebody else’s.

Also: This weeks Good Guy is a group called “Sew Much Comfort”, a non-profit organization making “adaptive clothing” for wounded service men and women who otherwise cannot wear normal clothing.

We hope you can get some use from this guide, and please tell your friends.

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