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 third and final hour of this very, very special edition of the Political Cesspool Radio Program.
I'm your host, James Edwards.
It's Saturday evening, October 24th.
At the top of the program tonight, during the first hour, we had a very, very good conversation with Richard Spencer, the editor of Talkie Magazine and Dr. Paul Gottfried.
And then moving into the second hour, we began what we do every year, this time of year, our annual anniversary special commemorating five years on the air this year.
The Political Cesspool first took to the airwaves on October 26th, 2004.
And we're still here stronger than ever.
And in honor of that, we are talking with all of the members of the hosting staff of the CESPOL tonight.
And before this hour is up, you'll hear from a few members of the behind the scenes crew as well.
You heard from Eddie Miller and Bill Rowland during the first hour.
Now, it is my pleasure to present to you none other than Winston Smith, one of the longest tenured guys in the crew.
Winston, how are you?
I am so well tonight.
This is exciting.
It's been an extraordinary day just anticipating this show tonight.
I'm sure you know Craig Langley, the official of the Political Cesspool.
Yes.
Well, I just spent nearly an hour on the phone before I called into this broadcast.
And, you know, James, that's one of the most amazing things to me about being on the CESPOL staff is the people that I get to talk to or talk with on a regular basis just by picking up the phone or by logging on the computer.
You know, I've talked with David Duke a couple of times, just he and I, on the computer.
One time was by accident.
You know, I was calling one of our other friends and I accidentally hit Dr. Duke's number and he picked it up and said, hello.
Dr. Duke?
And he said, yes, this is David.
I said, well, I'm sorry.
This is Vincent Smith from the CESPO.
I accidentally called you.
And he took no offense.
He laughed and we talked for a bit.
But the people we get to talk to on a regular basis, just as easy as can be, the real luminaries of the movement.
I am amazed at it.
And here I am, just a humble talk radio host.
And these people count me as one of their close friends.
I share your sentiments in that wholeheartedly.
That is without question one of the absolute joys that doing this brings you is that you do form relationships not just with the guests that we've had the opportunity to interview and the other people who are working in this movement as we do on a daily basis but the people who tune into this Program,
the listeners, I'll tell you, I would not trade the relationship that we share with those who take the time to write us, encouraging words, those who take the time to donate to the program, those who take the time to email us with criticism, critiques, praise, whatever.
The relationship that we have with our listening audience is second to none, and it's completely authentic and real.
It's not a put-on.
It's something.
Listen, we do this show essentially as volunteers.
I mean, there's no paid, there's no one paid to do what we do here.
And to know that we have been able to reach so many, that we've been able to sustain such success because of that listening audience, is something that, well, Winston, words can't describe it.
You're right.
And the things that we talk about, we talk about everything from, well, just to go back to Dr. Duke, there was a brief period there when I had sustained, well, I had a stroke.
And I talked to him, and he was so big brotherly in his counsel to me.
He encouraged me, and it was as though I was, well, just his younger brother.
He encouraged me and spoke so warmly to me.
I couldn't believe it.
I kept thinking, this is David Duke talking to me from Russia, and he's concerned about me.
What can you say about that?
But James, you know, it's not just the internationally known people that I really enjoy talking with.
Godfrey Dulias, Lieutenant Godfrey Dulias, what can you say about that other than what a superb man?
What a story.
What an icon.
A true gentleman.
And Lieutenant Dulias, if you're listening tonight, sir, I hope you're doing well after your recent medical problems.
We've prayed for you and we just wish you all the best, sir.
And as I said, I was talking with Craig Langley, the official opponent of the political SES pool, and we talked about his life, what's going on, and he just kind of threw something out off the cuff.
We're talking about multiculturalism.
And he described an argument he was having with this Jew.
And he said, you know, he told this Jew, you know what multiculturalism is?
It's the final solution to the Caucasian question.
Craig, why haven't you brought that up before?
That is excellent.
But we have these sharp people who are honest.
You know, the other side, they have sharp people.
And frankly, they're scum.
You know, say what you want about the people at the Semitic Professional Lying Cockroaches, you know, the SPLC.
Say what you want about them, but they're fairly sharp people, but they're scum.
Whereas in our movement, we have people who do what they do, heaven knows, not for monetary gain because there is no money in it.
I mean, as you said, there's not a single person on the SESPOL staff who makes a dime off what we do.
In fact, many times we pay for what we do.
Whenever I go on speaking engagements, I know that a lot of the organizations to which I go to speak on behalf of the SESPOOL, they're not wealthy, so I pay my own way there.
These people are so genuine.
They're so honest.
And every time I go on a speaking engagement on behalf of the CESPO, I am treated like a king.
The ladies always make sure I am well-fed and make sure I'm comfortable.
My sleeping, my accommodations are good.
The men are generous to a fault.
They are excited to have me there.
And They're just common folks who are concerned about their people.
Well, Winston, with that, just hold on a second.
I just got a word in my ear that another, well, I guess you would say he's a common man, but very uncommon in terms of his intellect.
And he's a member of the staff, and he's on the line right now.
He doesn't have a lot of time to spend, so that's why I'm interrupting you just briefly.
Pardon me.
He's at an engagement tonight, and he only has a couple of minutes with us, but he wanted to make a cameo appearance on this, our anniversary issue.
Keith Alexander, Keith, are you there?
I'm here.
I've spent all this time calling in so I can be called common.
I love that, man.
Well, you know, we're populous, so what can we say?
A common man is a good thing in our mind.
What can you say about him?
The political cesspool's intellectual great white shark.
Keith, that's not just a name.
That's the fact.
Well, like I said in the second hour, you're not given a nickname in the cesspool.
You earn it.
But Keith is another guy who has been providing counsel for this program for a long, long time.
He just now, obviously, within the last few months, became a weekly fixture on the program.
But Keith has been behind the scenes with us for a number of years.
Keith came up with one of those phrases that I used on CNN in my debut interview.
What was it, Keith?
You can't have a first world nation with a third world population.
And that's something that has been reattributed to us in other publications.
Keith is a guy who, like Bill Rowland and obviously Winston and Eddie and the other people who work on the show, this program just wouldn't be what it is without his contributions.
And for that, we are eternally grateful.
And Keith, I know you are very pressed for time.
You basically just wanted to come on tonight to say hello to everyone.
And I thank you for that.
I wanted to wish the show a happy birthday and to congratulate you and Winston for bearing through so manfully through the years to keep this thing going through lean times and flush times.
So it's really paying off, fellas.
I think the show gets better and better all the time.
And I think that, you know, quite frankly, we've got a hosting staff, with the possible exception of me, that is second to none on the radio.
I'll take you guys over Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or any of the so-called leading lights any day because first you've got a better radio presence, better radio voice, and of course, the intellectual rigor of our program is head and shoulders above anything else that's out there, in my opinion.
And that's basically due to you two fellas.
Well, Keith, you're far too modest in your assessment of what role you play on this program.
I agree.
I agree.
And everyone knows that.
But Keith, I know, like I said, you're at an event.
You had to step out just so you could call in tonight.
And I thank you for that for coming on record and making the appearance.
We'll be back with you obviously next week.
But Keith, you know, you look at this show, what we've done, the next five years are going to be very interesting because now we don't have to go through the process of being established.
We're already well established.
Now we continue to cultivate and grow upon that which we built.
And you're a very big part of it.
And thanks for calling in.
Well, thank you.
And best of luck, guys.
Keep up the good work.
We certainly will.
And we'll do that right after we return from this next commercial break.
Keith Alexander, everybody, he deserves a round of applause.
A great man, great addition to this staff.
And I'll be back with Winston Smith, and we're going to dish on some more stories.
And I got a few questions for Winston, and I'm going to prompt him to share a few of his own stories when we come back.
Don't go away, the political cesspool, guys.
We'll be back right after these messages.
Jump in, the political says, pull with James and the gang.
Call us tonight at 1-866-986-6397.
And here's the host of the political cesspool, James Edwards.
Five years ago this week, we hadn't even broadcast our first show.
Tonight, five years later, we are a household name in the paleoconservative movement and a radio program that has interviewed everyone on the right, a show that has received attention from all of the mainstream media.
And we've done it all thanks to your support, you in the listening audience.
I want to thank Keith Alexander for calling in and making his presence known.
Keith is attending a soiree tonight, so he wasn't able to spend much time with us, but did want to come on record on this, our anniversary program.
Obviously, you've already heard from Eddie Miller and Bill Rowland this evening.
Winston Smith on the line with me.
Now, I do want to pay homage, though, to the members of the hosting staff.
As it was said in Mel Gibson's movie, The Patriot, and it's likened to us.
We are the volunteer militia.
This is not regular army, so sometimes people come and go, and we have had some people on the hosting staff that aren't with us anymore.
And I want to pay my respects to them for the role that they have played in the development of this show over the years.
And I'm speaking specifically about Political Cesspool co-founder Austin Farley.
I talked to Austin just yesterday.
He really wanted to be on tonight, but he is out of town with an ailing grandfather.
But he wanted to pass along his best wishes to the audience and to anybody who was with us back when he was here in 04 and 05.
But without Austin, obviously there wouldn't have been a political cesspool.
Jess Bonds, another one of the co-hosts that we've had some years back.
Jeff Melton, a co-host who was with us for the bulk of 2007, who played a tremendous role in revitalizing our website, giving us a much advanced web presence.
And then the people behind the scenes that you never get to hear from on air, like the fine folks who administer our Facebook page that Bill Rowland mentioned.
And we've got a team of people who work on our website now and help me with the blog.
And people like Mark in St. Louis who do a lot of technical work.
There is no less than about a dozen people who work weekly on this radio program, not including the staff at Liberty News Radio Network and WLRM Studios here in Memphis.
So many people work behind the scenes to bring this show to you every week.
We get all the credit because we're the hosting staff.
But without the people behind us, there would be no cesspool.
And that goes for the people who are with us currently and the people who have been with us over the years who are no longer associated with the show.
I salute you all on this very momentous occasion.
Winston, you know, going on now, we've got some stories we've got to get out there.
I don't know if you were listening to the program when Eddie was on, but he recounted the story when we all went to the casino for that dinner.
I know that's a story you always love to share.
But we're not going to revisit that one.
But I do want you, we were talking about Austin Farley.
Now, when Austin originally retired from the program for those family reasons that I mentioned earlier, you were the guy who was brought in to take his place.
You were essentially the third full-time host we had, and you came in pretty early on in our run.
But in your rookie hazing, Austin gave you a pretty tough assignment.
Can you share that story with us?
Well, I was scheduled to, I don't think I was scheduled to do the show one evening, but you, in your typical fashion, you called me phantically one afternoon and said, Winston, I got this real problem.
I know you're not scheduled to do the show tonight, but I've got this thing that I've got to take care of.
Would you mind coming into the studio and doing the show?
And I said, well, of course not.
I'll do it.
Oh, great.
Thanks.
James said, thanks, Analyze.
You really saved my life here.
This thing came up so suddenly, and I just can't get out of it.
And I'm just so glad you're doing it.
By the way, we have a guest tonight that you'll be interviewing.
And I saw no problem.
And he said, well, it's a friend of Austin's.
He's an exorcist.
I said, what?
And you said, he's an exorcist.
I said, you mean like Linda Blair head turning 360 degrees and all that?
You said, well, I don't know about that, but he's an exorcist.
Will you still do the show?
And I said, well, yeah, I guess I'll do it.
So I spent the afternoon trying to download the music for the original movie, The Exorcist.
Found it, and I gave it to, I think I gave it to Chief Fritt to produce for us and put it into the lineup.
Anyhow, this guy came on the air, and he was prepared to talk.
He was not prepared to listen or take any questions.
I thought he got a few lines in.
And he ended up performing an exorcism on Ted Kennedy.
I think it worked.
I doubt it.
But he said, you know, you can do an exorcism.
Anybody can be an exorcist.
And I said, well, are you a priest?
Are you an ordained priest?
And he said, well, I'm a lay priest of some sort.
And I didn't want to go into the theology behind that, you know, being a good Presbyterian boy myself.
But he said, you know, you can do an exorcism anytime.
Anybody can do an exorcism anytime.
You can do an exorcism in this shower.
I've done lots of them.
He said, he said, you know, I can do an exorcism on anybody.
I can do an exorcism on Ted Kennedy right now.
And I started saying, well, that's not necessary.
And he said, oh, listen, here's how it goes.
And so he started doing his exorcism.
Well, you know, and that's why we're so thankful we have broadcast archives on our website dating back to that time.
Early 2006 is when we first got the broadcast archives going.
Or was it 2005?
Yeah, it was 05.
We started getting it.
Anyway, you might be able to find that show somewhere deep in the vault.
And if you can, you want to pay.
It's just one of the many, many stories we have.
And, you know, we interviewed the exorcist that night, or Winston did as a part of his initiation as a cesspool.
But you've got to look at the broadcast archives, Winston, and reflect upon, and we do this every show, the guests that we've had.
My God, at the guests that we've had.
I mean, you're talking about, and every time I try to do this off the top of my head, I'm going to miss out on some of the most important.
But you look through our archives and the people that we've been able to be friends with.
You were talking about Duke earlier, and obviously David's a friend of mine as well.
You know, I got my star back in 2000, two years before my failed candidacy for state representative working for Pat Buchanan.
And to interview Pat Buchanan for the first time, a guy that really brought me into this whole thing was very moving.
But over the years, we've interviewed Nick Griffin and Sam Dixon and Buchanan and Jared Taylor, Steve Saylor, Larry Pratt, Peter Brimelow, Ted Nugent, Kevin McDonald, General Hal Moore, the guy whose life story was, Mel Gibson played his character in the movie, We Were Soldiers.
Richard Lynn, Tom Sunick.
You know, I've had the opportunity to sit down with some of the oldie singers that I like so much and more trivial interviews, you know, Gary Puckett and Carl J. Maurici.
But, you know, others like Paul Craig Roberts, even the two guests we've had on tonight, such great minds, and Richard Spencer and Paul Godfrey.
We have a magnificent library of broadcast archives, and they are available to anyone who wants them free of charge around the clock.
Go and learn from the brightest minds of the movement because they have all been on this show, and you can get them at thepolitical cesspool.org.
But Winston, we got another treat in store for you right now.
You speak of the devil, and he's liable to appear on this radio program.
We have a gentleman, and he is a gentleman calling in from New York tonight to wish us happy birthday.
And you just might know who he is.
Craig, are you there?
Happy birthday, guys.
There's the poet laureate of the political cesspool, Craig Langley, calling in from New York on our five-year anniversary.
Craig, how are you doing?
You've been listening to the show for almost that long, haven't you?
Well, yeah, I actually discovered you guys late at the end of the fall of 2006.
Your guys were my intellectual breather during my two years at a very liberal arts school.
So set your sights a little higher, brother.
Set your sights a little higher.
Craig, I want to thank you.
Obviously, Craig's been featured as a guest here, and we've featured some of his poetry on our blog.
And, you know, to have, I say again, Winston, echoing what you said earlier, to have people of Craig's caliber in our listening audience, I mean, it's humbling to think that people as bright as he look to us for leadership.
And I don't know if we deserve that sort of respect, but perhaps we've earned it.
And I just tell you, Craig, I'm thankful to know that every time we go on the air, we've got people of your caliber out there paying attention to what we say.
I mean, without people like you, again, there'd be no show.
Well, thank you very much.
We need, I extend the greetings, the good words to you.
We need people willing to stand up no matter what for us at this time.
So thank you very much for all your service for me and the rest of our people.
Well, thank you, Craig, and thanks for calling in and taking the time to wish us a happy anniversary.
And we'll try to give you more of that good stuff over the course of the next half decade because that's what we're celebrating tonight, a half decade on air.
We're going to continue to celebrate it when the political cesspool continues tonight.
James Edwards and Winston Smith are with you.
We've got a couple of more surprise guests for you before it's all over, and we'll be back right after this.
Don't go away.
The Political Cesspool, guys, will be back right after these messages.
On the show and express your opinion in the Political Cesspool, call us toll-free at 1-866-986-6397.
It was a windy October night on October 26, 2004, when Austin Farley and I went in to broadcast the first ever broadcast of the political cesspool.
And five years later, I would say, you know, the average shelf life of an activist in this movement is probably about five weeks.
And here we are a full half decade later, stronger than ever.
And, you know, it is hard to do, ladies and gentlemen, it's hard to break through.
You just have to have otherworldly resolve to make it.
You know, you just have to have iron will to stand the test of time.
If for nothing else, if you're not getting attacked, you know, it's not like you're always being whisked away to New York to be on CNN, as I've had the opportunity to do.
A lot of time, you know, you're not getting a lot of emails in the early going and you're not getting a lot of support.
And you just really have to dig deep to stay alive.
And then you catch a break and you make a name for yourself.
And if you don't cave under the pressure, you can become real leaders.
And God knows if we can do it, anyone can.
And, you know, speaking of those CNN interviews, I can remember that.
That was such a tremendous experience.
I got off the plane, CNN, paid for me to go up there.
We were on for an hour for a panel.
It was me and three black folks in a panel on segregation.
And anyway, they flew me up there, and I remember getting off the plane in New York, and the driver had a sign there that said James Edwards.
And went to the Le Parker Meridian Hotel in Times Square, and that's where they put me up at, and we did the show.
And I can remember walking into CNN and just getting the passes and going through all of the security and going up there into the green room and getting ready.
I can remember that so vividly and the discussions that were had there behind the scenes with the producers and just the way that show went.
And we were on a couple of times since then, but that was the only time that I was actually up in New York to be on the program.
And I can remember after the fact walking around Times Square thinking, how did I get here?
And out of all of the legendary places to eat on Times Square, Tavern on the Green and so many other, I ate at Ruby Tuesdays.
I know what to do.
Yeah, that was during the Confederate History Month series of 2007.
And I felt so out of place in New York.
It just, you know, I guess some people like that kind of stuff.
But I just, you know, I couldn't wait to get back to Memphis and get back into the studio here.
But yeah, certainly that was a very big break.
And, you know, we've talked about it before.
But anyway, talking about memorable people who have played a role in the development of this show, Peter Scoop Stanton is definitely one of them.
And I know he came on a few years back.
And Winston and I have done a lot of shows with him.
Back then, he was the international correspondent of the Political Cesspool Radio Program.
That was when he was stationed overseas.
Now that he's back here, he's just, I guess, a regular correspondent.
But nevertheless, he has left his impression on this program.
And he joins us now.
He's calling in from Virginia.
Scoop, how are you?
Good.
How are y'all doing?
Man, we're celebrating five years, and you've been around for a few of them.
Memorable guests, memorable moments, Scoop.
What stands out in your mind?
The best guest happened to be the worst interview.
That would be Sonny Landom interviewing from his hospital.
All right.
Tell everybody what was going on that night.
Well, I was at work listening to it over the internet.
And Sonny Landon was on.
I think Pat Buchanan was another guest.
And he was talking on the phone, and he was really out of it because he was going to surgery the next morning.
And the nurse comes in.
He's like, hey, I'm on the radio.
And just an absolute car wreck.
And you, I think, Eddie was in the studio.
And I can just imagine your jaw dropping because mine was.
I was like, oh, my God, this is a car wreck.
I can't turn away.
I can't turn it off.
I need more.
Well, and Sonny gave us more that night.
Pete's exactly right.
I called Sonny up because he was scheduled to be on the show that evening.
And I said, Sonny, just making sure you were set for the show.
And he's like, oh, I forgot about it.
I'm in the hospital.
I got to have surgery in the morning, but the show must go on.
And at that time, I didn't know how drugged up he was.
Nevertheless, he didn't get us in any trouble.
I mean, he didn't say anything out of bounds or use any bad words or anything, but it was definitely a very interesting interview and just one of the million stories we have.
We're going to have to write a book.
We're going to have to write a book about our time in the Cessbool because, you know, we could do a show like this every night for the rest of the year and we wouldn't be able to share all of the stories that have happened on air behind the scenes stories like that that make this Odyssey so interesting.
Pete Stanton, he was a regular, is a regular contributor to this program.
He's always emailing us stuff.
And of course, he was calling in from overseas with a lot of observations from Europe back when he first started with us.
You were brought to the show by Jared Taylor, no less, were you not, Scoop?
Oh, yeah, what happened was I was surfing the internet one day and I came upon the American Renaissance website.
Then they had links and one of them was to the Council of Conservative Citizens website.
I'm like, oh, here's another cool website.
And then they had links on this Council of Conservative Citizens and one was at the E Pleas of Cesspool.
I said, oh, I got to check this out.
And sure enough, there was a radio show and they had archives.
Like, oh, let me see what the archives are like.
And I was listening.
I was like, oh, this is too much.
So then I emailed you and said, hey, I heard you archive your show.
You know, you do a great show.
Keep up the good work.
And then you emailed me back saying, you know, thanks for listening.
So then, you know, a couple emails later says, hey, I'm working over here overseas.
You know, you got room for international correspondent.
And you said, sure, not ever meeting me, not knowing me from Adam.
And you took a chance on me.
to say, hey, you know, we're going to have somebody overseas who would contribute to the show.
And contribute, Pete, contribute, you have.
You contributed today, and that's how you got started, but you contributed today.
I was going through in preparation for tonight's show.
You sent in about 30 talking points for things we could discuss tonight, and we're just not going to have time to get them all.
And one of the things that you said that we should make mention of tonight is that the political cesspool has a 100% failure rate in endorsing candidates.
We've never endorsed anyone that's won.
I've never voted for anyone that's won, though, so at least that's congruent.
But another thing is you made your own press.
I think you got written up in the nation last year for crashing a Sarah Palin rally with a political cesspool cardboard sign.
What happened?
Tell us that story.
Well, we at the Political Cesspool started the tea parties before the tea parties even began.
Because you're truly went to a drugstore, spent about $3 in raw materials to make a sign.
One side of the sign said right in Ron Paul, and the other side of the sign said thepolitical cesspool.org.
So not only did I go a McCain and Sarah Palin rally, but I went to a Michelle Obama fundraiser and I went to two Barack Obama fundraisers with my sign.
And to tell you the truth, I got a more positive response from the Obama supporters than from the McCain Palin supporters.
Well, but you also got the press, though.
I mean, there was some journalists there who wrote about how evil we were and how evil the Republicans were because you were in their midst and you were walking around with the sign that said the political cesspool.
And that's proof positive that the Republican parties are a bunch of, you know, right-wing wackos and so on and so forth.
But see, Pete makes his own news.
Not only does he scoop the news for us, he goes out there and generates his own press.
And you've done that a lot of times, Pete.
But another thing, you got to tell us this story.
So many stories.
So many.
The time the political cesspool took over the karaoke bar.
And you came down to Memphis to meet us after doing all of this correspondence from overseas.
You came into town to meet us.
We all went to the karaoke bar.
Winston, you were there.
Eddie was there.
Tell us the story, Pete.
Well, we decided after the Ron Paul meeting that just was typical cesspool fashion.
We decided to run over to the karaoke bar, where I guess you're a regular regular.
So after we sang Mac the Knife and got a standing ovation from the Cesspool table only, you literally had to drag me up on stage to sing karaoke.
And so then, and Mrs. Stanton's not too happy because I, unfortunately, I never sang with her, karaoke.
But I, you know, next time we go to karaoke bar, I'll take her out.
But we sang, I forgot the name of the song, but I mean, we were somewhat in tone and we got a rousing ovation involved.
We sang run around.
Winston, do you remember the song?
Because I sure do.
We sang Run Around Sue.
By Deion, absolutely.
And, well, we closed down the karaoke bar, that's for sure.
They were never the same after that.
But yeah, you were right.
You were at that ron.
That's another meeting that Eddie the Bombardier Miller got ejected from.
The Ron Paul, this was back when Ron Paul was running in the Republican primary.
Eddie got kicked out of that meeting, too.
And then we went and sang karaoke.
And you and Winston were back in the back while Eddie was getting ejected, passing notes to one another.
Right, like two fifth graders passing notes.
And there was a girl sitting in front of us who I said, she has hair like a New York Daily News truck, which has 12 shades of paint.
And she was out there.
I mean, Ron Paul, you know, he attracted literally everybody.
Including people with purple hair and Eddie Miller and everyone in between.
We'll be back right after this.
Don't go away.
The political cesspool, guys.
We'll be back right after these messages.
We gotta get out of this place.
If it's the last thing we ever do, we gotta get out of this place.
Welcome back to get on the political cesspool.
Call us on James's Dime, toll-free, at 1-866-986-6397.
And here's the host of the Political Cesspool, James Edwards.
Thank you, Art Frith.
Yep, five years ago, we were buying our own airtime and only being broadcast here on our local station.
We're still here, of course, on the flagship station, 1380 a.m. WLRM.
But I've thanked a lot of people tonight, and I want to be sure to thank once again the staff at Liberty News Radio for syndicating us and getting this out to an ever-growing audience.
Obviously, that was one of the biggest, biggest moments that we had when Michael Powers gave me the call and said we want you on board.
And, well, that was a very, very big chapter in the book that's still to be written.
But Winston, Winston Smith, longtime co-host of the program, Pete Stanton, the international correspondent, is on the line.
We got one last guy.
I have saved the best for last tonight.
This is a guy who took us from a very raw, unfinished product.
And to the best of his ability, and his ability is better than anybody's else.
You just got to consider what he had to work with, polished us up just as good as he could.
Winston, you've got to introduce Art Frith.
I wouldn't say he's a man who needs no introduction, but he's one of the behind-the-scenes guys that really should get an introduction, though he doesn't need one.
James, you hit it exactly right.
He took a bunch of rank amateurs and turns us into pretty good amateurs.
Chief Chris has been a professional broadcaster almost all his life.
And it's been my pleasure to work with him.
It's been my pleasure to join with him in hassling James Edwards merciless.
Oh, my God.
You talk about the hazing.
You got that one show at the Exorcist.
This is my entire career with art.
But I'll give you this.
Art made this show what it is.
And you hear art every show.
You just might not know it.
When we have the bumps in and out of commercial breaks, that's Art's voice.
And Art was our longtime producer here in the studio back during the early days in the middle era.
And he's with us now.
A man.
Art, I owe you, buddy.
You've put a lot of work in on this show.
How are you doing tonight?
Oh, still looking at the dirt from this side.
And you're up in Michigan now enjoying yourself.
I'm going to listen to the show for the opening and the breaks.
That's the only good stuff that's on.
All the other stuff in between is junk.
You are the best part when you say, Welcome back to the Political Success Pool and thanks for listening.
I mean, I'm sure that's what everybody tunes in to hear.
But I got to ask you this.
I think it makes women swoon.
Yeah.
Art, favorite story.
We ask you this every year.
Once a year, Art, he's kind of like the Wizard of Oz.
He runs the show from behind the scenes, yet he very rarely talks on air.
But now we got it.
He used to talk all the time, and now that he's out of Memphis, he doesn't.
They had a curtain to block your face from me and the board.
Well, as you always told me, Art, I have a face made for radio.
That's for damn sure.
All right.
Favorite moments, most memorable guests, Art, it's all you.
Peter lived up to his name.
He spooked me because I was going to say Sonny's bedside interview.
We had Lieutenant Dulius, of course, and General Moore, but Jess's report live from Shiloh Battlefield comes to mind back in, I think, 2006.
It was a while back.
Jess did such a great job.
No, I think that was 07.
Probably 07.
Because Jess really put in a lot of work in April of 07.
He had just one incredible, and that's still something people should go back to the archives and look at.
Jess Bonds was the man in charge of cultivating our Confederate History Month series in 2007.
And we have never, still to this day, had a Confederate History Month series that matched that in terms of the guest he was able to book.
That was an outstanding month.
Probably one of the better shows was about two years ago.
What happened two years ago?
When your mouth hit the floor when I walked in the studio unannounced.
Oh.
See, Art had just moved, and I was getting in there.
Art had to train me on how to run the board at 1380.
That was no easy task.
That's true.
Yeah, you walked in, and that was something else.
That was something you just didn't expect.
You never know who's going to walk in 1380.
I mean, one day Pete comes running in.
We don't know who it is.
We don't know if we're about to get assassinated.
All we know is somebody comes in barreling in, running to the bathroom.
Who just walked in?
And it was Pete.
And then one day I look up and there's Art, and he was supposed to be in Michigan.
Well, you know, Dave and his expensive security there at the building.
Tell them about the kind of animal problems we have at 1380 from time to time.
Oh, the snake?
The snake?
The snake, yeah.
It was more than just one.
Six foot five-inch black rats, the mama.
And then the 40 offspring that came.
And then when she returned the following year, she blew herself up in the transmitter.
I came in the studio one day, and I thought, like, someone had been eating rotten food or something had spoiled in the fridge or something.
This huge snake, it looked like a boa constrictor, had gone into the, what was that?
Was that?
That wasn't the transmitter.
Transmitter, all right, and just fried itself.
Well, she went in there to shed her skin.
I mean, when they found her originally in 05, when the station was taken back over, they had a snake problem, and they called the Exterminator out.
And Andre was the program director there at the station at the time, Andre Money.
And he said, hey, you know, welcome aboard because I just started there.
And so, man, we found this snake skin down in the basement, the stoop downstairs in the storage area.
It's about six foot five, six, bigger than Andre.
And he said they called the Exterminator and all this and that.
So where's the snake's skin?
Well, they got rid of it.
And the guy came out and he put mothballs all around the perimeter of the building.
And then he plugged all the cinder blocks up.
And I asked him, well, what's that for?
Well, that's to keep the snakes from coming in.
And I said, well, what about the ones that's trying to get out?
Because hopefully LRM is like Green Acres.
It's in the middle of a cornfield in Millington, Tennessee.
And the look on Andre's face was just priceless.
And then Hurricane Katrina comes through town, what was left.
And Andre had another run-in with the snake in the transmitter room, and he left.
And then that's when all the babies started popping out left and right.
And they shut down the station one night because the snakes crawled across that one minister's feet while he was sitting in the studio.
That was enough to that did that did Andre in.
You see what I'm talking about, ladies and gentlemen?
Going to tell you about behind-the-scenes stories that you would never have known about.
I remember one day I was sitting there doing the show.
Now, Art would get up and leave his booth from time to time after he got us up and running and do this and do that if we were in between callers.
I was sitting there doing the show in front of the mic at 1380, and I turned around.
Art's holding the snake right in front of me.
This one was alive, it was caught on a piece of like sticky paper or something.
But snakes, rats, it made whatever hair you still had at the time stand on the zen.
And I still had a little bit back then.
I guess that's what took the final few strands.
But nevertheless, I can remember the first night I met Art.
We had a couple of other program directors, a couple of other producers.
And Art was coming in to be the full-time producer for our show at the time.
And it was drills.
It had all been loosey-goosey.
You know, me and Austin would cut up more than we talked about the issues back in the early days.
And Art came in.
He said, You want to be a professional show?
This is what you're going to have to do.
And he set us down and he got it right.
And he produced a few spots for us to make us sound a little more credible.
And again, I say, I mean, he's just played a tremendous role in the development of this show.
And you still hear from him every week in the spot breaks.
And he still does commercials for us.
He's still, you know, a lot of the commercials you hear.
And at least I'm on the show every week, unlike you.
Well, you give me that.
What about Winston?
Well, hey, you know, Winston's not the host.
He's a co-host.
That's true.
Hey, now, I used to know when Jess and Austin and I were changing your diapers in the studio.
You know, we were passing notes to Danny in the control room.
Well, giggling and whatever.
Oh, now, you know, we shared a lot of stories.
A lot of stories not fit for radio.
These stories won't even make it to the book, the kind of things we would talk about.
Well, Eddie said we're a tight group, and he's right.
Nobody's tighter than you, baby boy.
Oh, my God.
Hey, I want to comment on that.
I got an email from one of our listeners who said that Paula Zod has a new show on, oh, what did he say?
He's on TLC or on Discovery.
No kidding.
Yeah, she's interviewing like murderers or something like that.
I emailed the guy back, so maybe she'll get a hold of James for killing her career.
Maybe my TV career can be resuscitated.
Now, you had a good thing going with her.
Oh, God, no.
I mean, CNN bankrupt just putting spray doll on that chrome dome of yours.
Oh, you know, they did.
That's another scene from that.
I remember flying back to Memphis, and I caught all kinds of hell from you because you had sat there and analyzed how many words I said in the hour compared to the other people.
And he said, What did you even go up there for if you want to say more than that?
But anyway, people can still watch those, by the way, at the website.
But yeah, you're not kidding, Art.
They sat there and airbrushed me for an hour.
We watched you with sunglasses on.
Trying to get that shine off my head.
But we got less than a minute, guys.
From the hearth, though, all kidding aside, thank you all for what you've done for this show.
I am blessed to be able to continue to work with you all and call you friends and talk to you every week and email with you every week and do the show.
It wouldn't be here without you.
Ladies and gentlemen, in the listening audience, thank you for humoring us and allowing us to share with you some of the stories that have gone on over the course of our five years in this business.
We'll be back to business next week with our standard fare.
But I thought tonight would be enjoyable.
Remember to donate $25 or more tonight at thepolitical cesspool.org and you'll get that hand signed booklet, Liberalism and Its Effects on American Society.
We got less than 10 seconds for Eddie Miller, Bill Rowland, Winston Smith, Pete Stanton, Keith Alexander, Art Frith, and everyone else who called in tonight.
God bless you.
I'm James Edwards, and we'll see you next week when the sixth year of the Political Assessment Radio Program kicks off officially.
Good night, everybody.
Thanks for joining us tonight in the Political Cesspool.