Oct. 24, 2009 - The Political Cesspool - James Edwards
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Welcome to the Political Cesspool, known worldwide as the South's foremost populous radio program.
And here to guide you through the murky waters of the Political Cesspool is your host, James Edwards.
Welcome back to the second hour of tonight's very special edition of the Political Cesspool Radio Program.
I am your host, James Edwards.
It's Saturday, October 24th, 2009.
And now for the next two hours of tonight's live broadcast, we will be celebrating a full five years of the Political Cesspool Radio Program.
But before we do so, I want to thank once again our very esteemed guests from tonight's first hour, Richard Spencer, the managing editor of Talkie Mag and Dr. Paul Godfrey.
And if you want to meet Richard Spencer, Paul Godfrey, if you want to meet Pat Buchanan, Peter Brimelow, Steve Saylor, and so many more of the guests that have been featured on the Political Cesspool Radio program, you can do just that next weekend in Baltimore, Maryland.
Go to talkiemag.com, T-A-K-I-M-A-G.com, and follow the advertisements over to the HL Mencken Club meeting.
And there you will be able to sit down and enjoy a weekend with all of those great Americans.
And with that being said, let's get right down to it.
This is always a highlight of our annual calendar, the anniversary show.
And this anniversary, a little bit bigger than most.
It's five years.
Five years.
It's just more.
I don't know.
It's just better sounding than three or four.
Five years is a milestone, is it not?
Eddie the Bombardier Miller.
Hey, fella.
Tell you what, it's really good to come on tonight.
And I've been looking forward to this fifth-year anniversary.
It's gone by all these past, hasn't it?
It sure has, Eddie.
I'll tell you.
And I'm going to get to the beginning story, as we've told everyone tonight via email on our website and even in the first hour.
We're going to be talking for the next two hours, reflecting upon how we got to where we are today, where we go from here.
We're going to be sharing some behind-the-scenes stories, talking about some of our favorite interviews and just everything that makes this show it is, whatever it is.
But over the course of the next two hours, ladies and gentlemen, in addition to hearing from myself about these things, you'll be hearing from Bill Roland, Winston Smith, Keith Alexander, and of course, Eddie the Bombardier Miller, who is on with me now, all co-hosts of this program, and then even a few people who work in production behind the scenes.
But Eddie, when you talk about this show, I know one thing that you and I talk about so much when we're going out to eat each week, when we're planning the program for the forthcoming week, is the camaraderie that we all share.
What can you say about it?
Well, I'll tell you what, I've never been any closer to anyone in my whole life.
And that includes even my Army days than I have with the Cesspool guys.
As a matter of fact, just today, my wife was off.
We're getting ready to go out for her birthday tonight.
And for our lunch, it's her birthday.
It's our birthday.
This is a really big time of year for Eddie.
What you talking about, the double hamming?
I took her out to Henry's, one of our other Cesspool buddies, and took her at his mother's house.
We had some good old beans and cornbread.
That's a southern meal, if there ever was one.
Henry's been busy.
He can't join us because he's working so hard.
You know, he's a salty, you know, very salt of the earth.
If no one knows who Henry is, it's just one of our friends here that is a very loyal contributor to the program and much more than that.
He's just a great man all the way around, someone that we have a great deal of respect for.
And we've become great friends of him through his support of this program.
I mean, I wouldn't trade that relationship or any of the relationships that we share, Eddie, with one another, because as we say, this is a show in which there are no characters being played here.
We all represent on the air the way we conduct ourselves in our daily lives.
And I think we all certainly have different personalities.
But what we bring to the airwaves is what we bring to each other in our daily comings and goings.
And like you said, Ed, it's brotherhood that's stronger than steel cables.
It's something that certainly I've never experienced before.
And I've had some very good relationships with some very good friends.
You know, and you hit it right on the nail when you said different personalities.
I can't, for instance, I couldn't think of anybody being much further apart in personality than Keith and myself.
You know, Keith is an intellectual, you know, magna cum laude.
And, you know, I'm just an old alley fighter.
But I feel like, I mean, I couldn't be any closer to anyone than I am, Keith.
And I love, matter of fact, I've been sad for the past week or 10 days.
I've been too busy to go out and have our weekly dinners.
And I love that so much.
He's just like a blood brother to me, as you're like a blood son.
We just have such a tight, tight group.
We get tighter every year.
You know, if people could just watch us ride around and see how wonderful a time we have together, I dare say I don't think anybody in the country could have a tighter-knit group.
Well, it's a wholesome, tight-knit group that we have here.
And we do it all at our own expense.
We serve this cause that we love through this radio program.
And I think probably that is one of the reasons, obviously, that we have become so close, is that we all have gone under fire together.
We've all been in the trenches with one another when the media comes crashing down and we've all stuck together.
And obviously, that tempering certainly goes a long way to making us the men that we are.
And, Eddie, when we come back from the commercial break in a few minutes, I'm going to be talking with you about some of the most memorable stories that I have of your involvement with this radio program.
But before we do that, I want to go back to the very beginning.
How did this show get started?
I can remember it plain as day, one of the most vivid memories in my life.
I ran for state representative in 2002.
I was 21 years old.
I remember that all too well.
And that's when I met Eddie.
As a matter of fact, Eddie was one of my supporters in that campaign.
I'd never met him before until I went to his house and left him a brochure.
But I was running as an independent, a naive 21-year-old against the Republican leader in the state house, a neoconservative, and ended up getting a fairly respectable amount of votes considering we had no money and I had no political background.
We got about 20% of the vote, a few thousand votes in a very small district.
But nevertheless, that same campaign, I met a man by the name of Austin Farley, and he was actually one of the other men that I ran against.
I beat Austin, but lost the election.
But Austin and I obviously became friends throughout the course of that campaign.
And then two years later, I was standing, Eddie, and this is the vivid memory that I have.
I was standing at the Opryland Hotel with my family, and I got a call from Austin, who I hadn't heard from in God knows how long.
And he said, listen, you know, we've got an opportunity here.
If you want to be a part of it, I think we could start a radio show together.
What do you think?
And of course, I had nothing better going on at the time, but I still wanted to fight in some way.
So I got back down to Memphis, and Austin and I talked about it.
And then a few months later, October 26th of that year, 2004, he and I went on the air together.
Austin Farley was my co-founder in this program.
And he and I started this show at the time.
Our guest hosts or co-hosts, as they would later be known, were Bill Rowland and Jess Bonds.
And that was the original crew, me and Austin, Jess, and Bill Rowland.
Course, Bill's still with us.
And I remember, wow, you know, the first night we went on the air, my grandmother had just passed away.
She had passed away that very same week, and I was closer to her as anyone left, as anyone that I've ever been related to, as anyone in my life.
And she'd left a small inheritance with me, about $20,000.
And, you know, I used that money to keep the show on the air for the first nearly two years until we were able to catch on enough to begin getting listener support.
And I can remember very emotionally so going on the air that first night.
And she had just passed away.
And James, I would like to let the listeners know that you spent every penny of your own money to keep that radio station afloat in the early goings.
Well, you know, it's not anything I look for a pat on the back on, but you know, it's true.
We didn't have any money.
Austin was working, and we all, you know, were tight, but I'd, you know, just come into a little money, and it was important to me that this show become something.
And so, you know, we had to pay to buy our airtime back then.
And, you know, so we, you know, the show stayed on and it caught on.
And we'll get to that eventually.
But I can remember the first call, that very first night on the air, we were talking about what this show was going to talk about.
And it was going to talk about, you know, Second Amendment rights.
It's going to talk about securing the border and all the things that this show does talk about.
And for some reason whatsoever, I don't know why, but Austin and I got on to talking about Abraham Lincoln and what a traitor he was.
And this was the very first show.
The very first phone call that came in that first show was from a black woman who said, and you're going to be shocked, that we were racists.
And I guess the die was cast from that point forward, that we were always going to be maligned and vilified, falsely vilified.
But I can remember that first call and where we went from there.
And we were able to make it through the first few months on the air, Eddie, and we had a great kickoff.
We decided to have an official cesspool kickoff in December of 2004 after we saw that we were gaining steam.
We had the movie actor Sonny Landam come down.
Sonny Landham had starred in movies such as Predator in 48 Hours, and he came down to keynote our first official kickoff.
We had a packed house, standing room-only crowd at a local barbecue restaurant.
And I can remember Austin and I walking around downtown with Sonny Landham, this guy who had been in the movies, and people coming up and asking for his autograph.
I couldn't believe he was still recognizable to these people, but it was a great experience.
And from that point forward, I knew that there was something special about this show.
And certainly, my wildest expectations have been far exceeded.
And we're going to talk more about that as we continue on, sharing behind-the-scenes stories and reflecting upon the last five years and where we go from here.
The staff approved this program.
Eddie Miller and I will be back right after this.
Don't go away.
There's more Political Sesspool coming your way right after these messages.
To get on the Political Sesspool, call...
Call us on James's Dime, toll-free, at 1-866-986-6397.
And here's the host of the Political Cesspool, James Edwards.
Welcome back to the show.
James Edwards in right now with Eddie the Bombardier Miller, and we are in full swing of our annual anniversary program, special edition of the Political Cess Pool.
There's no way we can consolidate five years of stories and programming into the two hours that we have available to us tonight or that we've allotted to doing this.
But we're going to do the best we can.
I got to ask Eddie some important questions in the time that he has left.
And we're going to bring Bill Roland in.
We're going to be talking with everyone tonight.
But I was talking about the early days of the show in the last segment, late 2004 and 2005.
And you know, even back then, we were having on some pretty substantial guests, Babe Buchanan, the former treasurer of the United States.
We were having the Minutemen on, Jim Gilchrist and Chris Simcox, before it was fashionable.
The very first night they took to the border in April of 2005, before the Minutemen became a household name, we were having them on with live reports from the border before Fox and CNN.
We scooped them all.
It was also around this time that the Memphis City Council named us honorary city councilman and gave the program a certificate of appreciation for outstanding contributions to the community.
And why they did that, believe it or not, another behind-the-scenes story was that Austin Farley and I had brought in a guy by the name of Ken Platt from Clean Fuels Technology on the program.
And we actually ended up bringing him to Memphis.
And we had a closed-door session with the county and city government to try to get all of the Memphis area buses to run on clean fuel.
It didn't work out, but for our efforts, we were rewarded with those honorary city council memberships for whatever it's worth.
Just a lot of stories that perhaps you've never heard before, because let's face it, this is a growing program.
The success of this program has eclipsed anything we ever dreamed imaginable.
We are so grateful to you for that.
And now we are recounting for those who are new to the show how we got to where we are today.
Eddie Miller, you know, Austin Farley left the show because he had four kids.
The show doesn't make money.
We take in money to pay our bills, but no one receives a salary.
And he had two jobs and four kids.
He had to leave the show in early 2006 for very understandable family reasons.
And at that time, we brought in both you, Eddie, and Winston Smith.
Winston Smith actually was the man who named you Eddie the Bombardier Miller.
And let me tell you something, folks.
Nicknames in the political cesspool are not given.
They are earned.
And Eddie, I would say if anyone has earned the nickname the Bombardier, it's you and for any number of reasons, not the least of which being a story you have to share with us now, another behind-the-scenes story, your time at the Marsha Blackburn, Congressman Marsha Blackburn town hall meeting.
Eddie, what happened there?
Well, I'll tell you.
Please tell us what I'm saying.
I would just like to say, of all the great people we've interviewed, I would have to say my very favorite time as being on the cesspool was in the beginning when you and I used to go in there and get so hot and wrapped up and lose our temper and just, you know, really have to go to a break to keep from getting kicked off the air.
You remember those days?
And the snake in the snake pit out there at the old radio station.
But I love those days.
But to tell people about our dear friend Marcia Blackburn, she was having a little congressional get-together one time.
So the National Rifle Association and all their little cronies could pat her on the back and kiss her behind.
And, you know, I know the National Rifle Association is, I knew that they are one of the greatest gun control organizations in the world.
You know, they're a snake in the grass.
And so I showed up at this meeting, me and James, and what they were doing?
They were awarding this fellow, giving him an award for stopping a robbery in a Croaker store, probably about five miles from our house.
But you know, that was just a non-event as far as I was concerned.
And so when she walks in the room, this is congressman Marsha Blackburn, who represents our district in Washington.
But go ahead yeah, I mean, as soon as she walked in the room, I knew if I was going to get to say anything, I would have to.
You know, I would have to jump her first.
So I nailed her man as soon as she came in the room, I got up out of my chair And I started asking her questions.
I said, if you're such a wonderful friend of the gun people and such a wonderful friend of the Second Amendment, the Constitution, why do you support, why are you such a fanatical supporter of the United Nations when everybody in the know is aware that the United Nations is the greatest gun-grabbing organization in the entire world.
And that's about as far as I could get.
She wouldn't answer my questions.
But the way she was smiling, it was just making me matter and matter.
And these punks, these thugs in the Memphis area National Rifle Association came over and started to threaten me, telling me that I had to shut up.
And I tell them, no, sir, I'm not going to shut up.
That woman there is my congressman.
I'm her constituent.
She's going to have to answer my questions.
I'm going to leave here.
She damn well are going to answer my questions before I leave.
And they said, well, I was going to have to, they were going to remove me by force if they had to.
Well, I just informed them they might remove me out of there, but it was going to take more than them.
And they were going to pay a heavy price for it.
And so, you know, the only reason, and I'll tell you what, to this day, the only reason I left there peaceably is because the fellow at the rifle rage happened to be a friend of ours, and he owned the range.
And he was a pretty good supporter of the program, if I remember.
And he contributed money.
Matter of fact, he used to work there, James, for a little while.
And he asked me, he said, this thing is, he came over to me and he asked me as a friend.
He said, this thing is getting out of hand.
The cops are going to come.
It's going to be nasty.
Would you please leave before it gets out of hand?
And Eddie left.
But here's the point of this.
Eddie did what any red-blooded patriot would do.
He held his congressman accountable for her treasonous votes and treasonous actions.
And this goes back to what we were talking about in the first hour about respectable conservatism with no mistake about it.
She was a traitor.
And James and I both knew at the time that she was a traitor.
But go ahead.
Well, no, and you got hot and justifiably and righteously so.
But yet, she deserved it.
They deserve our contempt.
Remember one of the taglines we're trying to beat into your minds.
People who work to destroy Western civilization, people who work to displace European Americans, are evil people.
And evil people deserve our contempt.
Now, that doesn't mean we need to go out and berate them and do things that are illegal or advocate violence.
Certainly not.
And that's not what we're talking about.
But you could at least, you should at least be able to demonstratively express your disdain.
And certainly Eddie did, and he was asked to leave.
But we need more people doing what Eddie the Bombardier Miller does in his real life.
I mean, this wasn't a stunt for the radio.
We did this on our own time.
We went to a town hall meeting.
Eddie did the right thing.
That, of course, hasn't been the only meeting that Eddie has been ejected from.
We don't have the time to get into all of them.
But that's why I love you so much, Eddie.
You're the most real person I have ever met.
You fought for this country in war.
You're a combat medic.
You come and you fight on this radio program for no compensation.
You go out, you walk the streets with your signs.
You don't, you know, you're not impressed by people who have been elected to Congress, and you shouldn't be if they're working against us, as she is, and as so many others are.
You go out there and you fight and you tell them what you mean.
And we need more people who are doing things like that.
But at the same time, you have a heart of gold.
As tough as you are with our enemies, that's how loving you are with the people who are part of our family here on this program.
And one story you have to tell me.
We only have about two minutes to break.
Maybe not even that much.
We have a minute 10.
You treated the political cesspool staff to a dinner fit for saudi royalty at the Gold Strike Casino.
Tell us about that real quick.
Hey, I'll never forget that.
Listen, I used to be a heavy gambler, used to love gambling, and used to love to drink whiskey when I was able to.
I had to give it up.
But I've been gambling at the casinos near our house for several years, and I had no idea I had so many points.
They sent me this letter saying they were selling their casino to another corporation, and I needed to use up these points.
And lo and behold, I had almost $3,000 built up in cops and didn't even know it.
And so, hey, we went down to probably the finest steakhouse within 75 miles of Memphis, maybe further away than that.
It's just the best place I've ever been.
Hey, and I took the entire cesspool down there and their wives and my grandson and my oldest daughter.
And we, James is telling it right.
They put us in a private room with a table.
I bet that table will probably cost $4,000 or $5,000, maybe more.
Hey, Eddie, Eddie, hang on.
Carry over to the next segment.
I know you got to go to your wife's birthday party, but you got to finish this story before we bring Bill Rowland on.
So sit tight.
We're going to come back, and Eddie's going to finish this behind-the-scenes scoop of the Cesspool.
We're going to continue on right after this.
Don't go away.
The Political Cesspool, guys.
We'll be back right after these messages.
On the show and express your opinion in the Political Says poll,
call us toll-free at 1-866-986-6397.
All right.
I know Eddie the Bombardier Miller is about to have to leave to go and attend his wife's birthday party on the same evening where we're celebrating five-year, our five-year anniversary of the Political Cess Pool.
And as soon as Eddie leaves his chair, Bill Rowland will be filling it.
But, Eddie, before you go, you got to finish the great story about the night at the casino where you treated the staff to one heck of a meal.
Wasn't that great?
You know what?
Until I get Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, that'll be one of my all-time favorite memories.
There was eight of us all together in this private room in one of the most lush steakhouses you've ever seen.
And we were treated like royalties.
Matter of fact, the Maitre D of the whole place was in our room.
We had our own waiter, our beckon call.
To quote Winston, we had our own waiter at our beckon call for our every little wish.
And I still remember what you said about Winston.
You said he had 23 desserts.
Well, what was that dessert that they had?
They set it on fire and did all sorts of things to it, right?
They put on a little show.
You're reading my mind.
I was asking my wife about that.
She could remember the name of it.
Bananas Foster, I think.
The Maitre D came in there, and he had this fancy dessert.
I'm sure one of our listeners was, you know, more cultures than us, will probably remember.
Keith might even know because he's got a super memory.
But they bring it in there and they stir it up some kind of way and they pour it out while it's on fire.
You know, I wish I could remember the name of it.
I think it was Bananas Foster.
But anyway.
But we, you know, we had some Bananas Fosters too, but this stuff, it was great.
We all had, I remember, I don't know if you remember or not, but Blake, I think, he got the lobster filet mignon combination.
Keith, I mean, Winston got the filet mignon lobster.
I mean, the filet mignon was big enough to feed a line.
And, you know, the lobster was just gigantic.
I never had such a good time in my life.
It was just wonderful.
The Maitreye couldn't have been better.
I mean, he could have worked anywhere in the United States.
We share fellowship, Eddie, in and out of the studio, and everything that we do, every day that passes, brings us all closer together.
And hopefully, that's apparent on the radio program as we continue to fight for our people, which is, of course, our calling and why we do what we do.
And, Eddie, you have played such an integral role in the development of this show.
I thank you for it, my friend, and hope that the next year, the next five years for that matter, will be equally memorable and productive.
And I'm looking forward to getting that started when we come back to work next week.
Well, I love and admire you just as much as you do me.
And I love everybody in our team.
And I know that they know I love them so much.
I've told Keith that we're all so fortunate to have a friend like Keith.
He's like a brother to us, like Winston.
You know, I mean, what could you say?
What is there about Winston you couldn't like?
Bill, Bill is, you know, very intellectual, like Winston.
Matter of fact, if I had to class myself, I'd say I'm the least intellectual of the group.
But y'all love me anyway, and I thank you for everything you said about me.
Even if you had to stretch the truth, hey, I'll take it.
Well, Eddie, you have a good time tonight at your wife's birthday party, and we'll see you next week, buddy.
And thanks for coming on tonight and sharing some of the things that we've got.
You guys have a good one now.
I was going to tell the story about how you walked around in Times Square with your political cesspool t-shirt on, but we'll have to do that another day.
Now join us.
Bill Rowland, Bill, are you there?
Am I even on the line?
Bill, are you there?
I'm here.
Okay, buddy.
Well, we're playing musical chairs.
We're coming in the revolving door tonight.
Thanks for calling in.
I know you've got a busy schedule this weekend, particularly tomorrow morning, but you've made some time to come on this anniversary special, which is always a highlight for me on the Political Cessible calendar.
And I'm telling you, folks, and I mean this in all sincerity, and I'm not blowing smoke because these guys are my friends or that I might be obligated to do so.
Bill Rowland, probably more than anyone else, has really cultivated the demeanor of this radio program.
I can remember specifically the first time we got attacked by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which was back in 2006.
I mean, we had media swarming the radio station, calling my home, this, that, and the other.
That was a real watershed moment in the history of the political cesspool because for me, my first time being under such scrutiny and under such vicious attack, it was a white knuckle experience.
I mean, the first reflex you have is to ask for forgiveness and go hide somewhere.
And that was my gut reaction at the time.
But I asked Bill for his counsel, and he counseled me well.
And of course, it was the right thing to do, not to apologize.
We had done nothing wrong, to stand strong, to spit in their face.
And Bill, it goes without saying, without you, though, being there, you have to surround yourself with good counsel.
If you had not been there and it was left to my own, if I was left to my own devices at that time, me being such a rookie and a greenhorn in the movement three or four years ago, it could have all turned out very differently.
But thankfully, you were there.
And the show, I think, was born that day.
It might not have been our first night on the air, but you're not really established until you've gone through your first attack.
And you led us through it.
You shepherded it through us quite well.
Just one question, James.
Am I too late for cake and ice cream?
I heard Eddie talking about the meal down at the casino.
And, you know, I feel like that I've missed out on some awfully good dinners and banquets.
I don't know where you were then.
I'm not sure I know if the cake and ice cream has arrived yet.
Well, the cake and ice cream, that's going to be the after party.
You know, we're going to have all sorts of liquor, too.
But, you know, we can't do that yet on the air.
But yeah, I don't know where you were that night.
You were certainly involved with the program because it was only two years ago.
I don't know where you were that night we all went to the casino or if you couldn't make it or what happened.
I just know you weren't there and everyone else was.
So, you know, we'll have to get that sorted out behind the scenes, I guess.
But you should have.
On a more serious note, of course, you know, on a radio show that is as strong and forthright as a political festival, we can never afford to run and hide behind a tree with our pants wet.
We've seen so many leaders do just that, Bill, over the years, and it completely ruins any credibility they have.
They will never be able to lead again.
Well, some of the radio hosts are learning the lesson that they should have learned in the beginning.
And that is, once you concede an inch to your enemy, he is going to stampede all over you.
And Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus, Hannity, Combs, all the rest of them, they all want to pay homage to the Martin Luther King myth.
They all want to pay homage to the civil rights movement.
They all want to pay homage to some part of our history and some part of America to which we don't belong.
And so in doing so, they're simply opening up their front door for a home invasion.
And we learned from the beginning, and at least I knew, I'm a little older, I've been around a while, that once you yield that inch, then you are simply opening the door wide enough for the stampede to begin.
And not only do you have to defend your stand, you have to raise your fists and say, I'm waiting for you.
I want you to come at me because I'm going to knock you flat when you do.
And it's the mentality that we have got to have is that this is a proactive show.
It's an aggressive show.
It is a show which is always on the attack.
We are never on the defense.
We are the Nathan Bedford Forrest of broadcast radio.
We are the Robert E. Lee of broadcast radio in the sense that we learn that once we hide or we go into a bunker or behind a hill or something, that the enemy is just going to keep swarming at us.
Now, in the time since we have gone on the air, some interesting things have happened.
We stood up against the SPLC.
Now the STLC is under attack by the mainstream media.
We held out long enough to see the day when they are being discredited, not by our show, our other shows that have held the ground over the years, but by the mainstream media, by people in the mainstream who are saying, this is a gang of racketeers.
They're all out just for money.
This is all a scam.
And now the truth is beginning to come out.
The tide has turned on the Southern Property Law Center.
And as long as we keep telling the truth and keep on the offensive, then these other organizations will have to answer to us.
We won't have to answer to them.
No, you're absolutely right.
And you look at the success that we've had and the amount of credibility that we've gained because, and I think, again, I go back to that day.
You know, it was all well and good to survive two years up until that point.
But until that happened, and that was in the spring of 2006, you know, you haven't been battle-tested.
And I think since then, obviously, all of us, myself included, more so than most, and then the program in general has been battle-tested.
And we've come out like Sterling Silver.
We've come out like a sharp sword.
And we're cutting through the opposition.
And we've done so with a lot of integrity and a lot of dignity.
But again, Bill, I have to give you the credit.
And it wasn't as though I was just parroting that which you advised me to say.
I took your advisement under serious consideration, and it was the right thing to do.
And there would be no political accessible today if I'd have taken the route or if we had collectively taken the route that so many others had taken.
But I've got to ask you this.
We're sharing stories.
Well, we only got 20 seconds, man.
We've got so much to talk about tonight.
You can't, you can't put five years worth of broadcasting into the time we have available tonight.
But we've got some other stories, Bill, that you have played a huge role in.
You've left your fingerprints all over the history of this program.
And we're going to talk about a couple of those very significant moments when we return right after this.
Don't go away.
The political cesspool, guys.
We'll be back right after these messages.
We'll return.
Jump in the political cesspool with James and the gang.
Call us tonight at 1-866-986-6397.
And here's the host of the Political Cesspool, James Edwards.
Ladies and gentlemen, we're sharing behind-the-scenes stories in commemoration of our five-year anniversary.
And if you are a regular contributor to this radio program, or perhaps if you haven't donated in a while, we want to remind you that anyone who donates tonight, before the end of this show, the offer ends when we go off the air tonight.
Before the end of this show, if you donate $25 or more, you're going to get a hand-signed copy of our new booklet, Liberalism and Its Effects on American Society.
Go to thepolitical cesspool.org and donate tonight, and you will get, it'll be autographed by all of us.
Me, Bill, Eddie, Winston, Keith, and we'll mail it to you as a token of our appreciation on this, our five-year anniversary.
Before I go back to Bill Rowland, we have a very special caller on the line, Mark from St. Louis.
Mark, how are you?
Hello, this is Billy Ed Mallard with Mark Palazzolla.
Hey, how are you doing, guys?
Society dinner, succeeding from the union, which we do annually.
And we want to say happy birthday to James and this Political Cesspool.
Well, thank y'all so much for the demonstrative birthday salutation.
I wish it was my birthday.
My birthday is in June, but the show's birthday is tonight.
Okay.
We're fucked.
Say happy birthday.
Are you ready?
You do it.
Are you ready, ladies and gentlemen?
Well, guys, thank you so much for that.
That is a very unexpected and pleasant surprise.
God bless you all for your support.
And thanks for calling in.
That's really made my night.
Happy birthday, y'all.
Thank you so much.
And Mark Palazzolla works so hard behind the scenes to do a lot of the technical work that we do.
And he's just another one of the many people that make this show happen each and every week.
Bill, that kind of reminded me of the CFCC remote that we did back in June.
Now, that was a story, although it was a recent one, so we probably don't have to rehash at all.
Just go to the archives and listen to the last show in June.
That was the kind of festive atmosphere we had down there in Jackson when we did our TPC remote.
Yeah, that was a great show.
And audience participation, people coming up from the audience and being interviewed.
You know, James, I want to mention, too, that one example, I think, of the success of the show is the Facebook page that we have where fans can sign up.
And I checked the Facebook page today.
768 fans of this show have signed up.
And that is more fans than many more famous people and more famous shows actually have.
So, you know, again, I want to encourage all our fans to go and sign up on the Facebook page and take a look at some of the other fans of the Political Festival.
What you'll see there are some really beautiful people from all over the world.
You know, when our enemies talk about inclusiveness and diversity, you go to the Facebook page and we have fans from Greece, from Italy, from Germany, from Holland, from France, from Norway, from Malta, from Portugal, Spain, most of the countries in South America.
So we are a very diverse program in terms of our listening audience.
That's really a really good-looking bunch of people as well.
I go there and admire it daily, Bill, and I thank you for bringing that up.
That's the kind of diversity we like.
And if you want to be a part of it, just go to Facebook and search for the Political Cesspool Radio Program, join up and stand up and be counted.
And, Bill, you know, so much has happened over the years that have gotten us to this night and this particular moment as we head into what will be our sixth year of broadcast radio.
One of the most iconic events that happened was another one that had your fingerprints all over it.
It's a story we've told quite a few times, but it deserves to be told again.
You quarterback this from start to finish.
That was the big political cesspool defense of the Confederate parks in 2005.
If you can, in five minutes or less, break down that story and recount that story.
Well, in less than five minutes, to put it simply, is that a local black politician here instituted, and I'm sure it was an orchestrated attack on our Confederate parks, which are landmarks.
They are on the historical register.
But it was simply a vicious and I would say cruel attack on the memory of the Confederacy in the old South, one which was completely unprovoked.
And as a result, we, I think, at the Political Cesspool were the only organization that saw the real danger and saw how to combat the threat.
Some of the other organizations, and I won't name them, were trying to take the same ineffectual, limp-wristed path to defeat.
And once again, it comes down to the fact that you've got to stand up, you've got to take a stand, you've got to go public, you've got to stick your chest out and say, come and get me if you think you're man enough.
And the fact is that Al Sharpton got involved in the whole controversy and was going to have a march here in Memphis.
And because of the action, I think the action we took, Sharpton canceled that march.
And that's the only march that Al Sharpton has ever canceled.
And ultimately, his visit here and his attempts to stir up trouble were an absolute debacle for him.
And I think began his decline as a fixture in the civil rights, in the civil rights agitation movement.
Well, I can remember, that was, again, one of those iconic moments.
I can remember running around and obtaining permits.
We secured Confederate Park to have our demonstration.
He was at Forre Park, which, of course, is the same resting place for Nathan Bedford Forrest, General Forrest.
And we got a ton of media attention.
We were the only conservative group.
We were the only group at all that stood up in defense of the Confederate parks.
For our efforts, we ended up getting the Dixie Defender Award from the SEV.
But this was something, Bill, once again, that really put us on the map, I think, back there.
That was back again in 2005.
Ton of media attention.
And we won the day.
And we were the ones that the media were coming to for the pro-Confederate position.
And it was a position that was held by the vast majority of the residents of the city of Memphis.
And I can remember doing interviews.
And again, Bill, you were just absolutely instrumental in the orchestration of how that went down.
And as skewed as our entry in Wikipedia is against us, even they give us credit for stopping the Sharpton March and give us credit for outnumbering the number of demonstrators that we had compared to the number of demonstrators that he had.
And that was just another one of those moments when you think of the history of the show.
That's one that pops out to me front and center.
And even though that was four years ago now.
Well, let me repeat that we have held our ground long enough.
We have stayed in the fight long enough to now see a turning.
And what we see is, once again, Mark Potok and Heidi Byrick and the other racketeers over at the Southern Poverty Law Center are now getting some very negative attention from the press.
Al Sharpton is getting some very negative attention from the press.
In one poll that was just taken, an online poll at a fairly important website, only 12% of the people in this country consider Al Sharpton a real leader, or maybe it was 22%, but 22% give him a positive rating.
78% give him a negative rating.
So his star is beginning to dim and fall.
And we're going to see more and more of the people who have been attacking us viciously, relentlessly, telling falsehoods, smearing us with all kinds of names.
We're going to see them being washed out to sea.
And we're still going to be standing on the shore tall and strong because we've always told the truth.
We have always come to our audience with integrity and with a clear vision.
We have never gone off the path.
And by staying on the path, I think people see that these people do have integrity.
They say this is a show where we can go and we'll hear an honest viewpoint.
Now, let me remind people, go to the archives from August and September of last year when we were talking about Obama and what would happen in this country if he got elected.
This show is the only show that made accurate predictions about Obama's election and about his administration.
The only show about the empowerment of Acorn, about the rise in black crime, and the attitude among many blacks in this country that they are now no longer burdened by the white man's law.
We're seeing all that come to pass.
So no one can accuse us of being wild-eyed fanatics when everything we've said came true.
And coincidentally, Bill, because of that and many other factors, we have become, I think, obviously, and I say this not braggadociously whatsoever, but with a cross to bear, I guess, we have become leaders in this movement.
We're five years in.
We're here to stay.
I look forward to discovering, along with you and everyone else, what the next five years hold.
But you look at the accomplishments of this radio program and the media that we've begun to accumulate.
And that, again, is something where always when the media comes calling, the first person I call is you.
And we get together.
And I think we have articulated our position well, not only on this program, but on other broadcasts as well and in print publications.
Bill, I mean, there's so many stories that we should be sharing with the audience.
We just don't have time.
I mean, like the night that the reporter from the New York Times flew down to Memphis to sit down with us and pick our brains.
That was a story.
The CNN experiences where, you know, obviously that was just another first, an unprecedented first, you know, CNN calls and wants us to come up there and be on television.
You know, I call you up.
We sit down and collectively we determine what we're going to say.
And I think we've presented our case well, both on this program and on others.
And we'll talk more about that in the third hour.
Bill, we only have about 20 seconds left.
A final word from you before we head into the sixth year next week.
James, I appreciate the flattering words you've said, but let me say that I'm standing on the shoulders of giants.
And I want to say that men like Dennis Wheeler, men like too many that I could name, Gordon Baum, some others, brought me along.
And we're seeing a new generation come along.
And thank God for that.
Bill Rowland, everybody.
Thank God for him and the role he's played on this show and continues to play when we come back next week.
But we got another hour to come.
Winston Smith, Pete Stanton, Ark Frith, and more forthcoming.