HD008-Immigration [7:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

This week, Hawke and Dove deconstruct the ideological divide over immigration, and the current immigration bill being debated in congress, each illuminating their positions with cogent analysis and outright self-interest. Discussed are the American ideals of protectionism, the “melting pot,” and the virtue of cultural assimilation as demonstrated by Jim Henson’s creature shop.

Among the probing questions posed by Myron Bunkerling are the following:

1. Regarding the bill’s so-called “pathway to citizenship,” are we rewarding those who came to the United States ilegally?

2. Under this new bill, those seeking citizenship may have to pay hefty fines and wait up to 13 years to achieve citizenship - is this a just practice?

3. There is a lot of disagreement as to the source of illegal immigration - many blame illegal aliens and/or undocumented workers, yet others blame the employers who hire them. Who should the government prosecute - employers or employees?

4. Many fear that by allowing un-checked immigration, we would be in danger of diluting American culture, so is the answer assimilation or tolerance of these divergent cultures?

5. This bill calls for the enhancement of border security. How would Hawke or Dove “fix” border security?

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 HD007 - The Shadow Candidates - will they or won't they? [6:44m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Will they or won’t they? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of politicians. Hawke and Dove do.

It takes a lot of guts to run for President. It takes a lot of balls to run for President. It takes a lot of money too. So a lot of people don’t run for president - they just talk an awful lot about it. And then there are those that commentate. In this episode, Hawke and Dove discuss the commitment issues and general lack of machismo among public figures that are publicly flirting with the idea of running, but who don’t want to enter the race until they are either assured that they have a really good chance, or until their mommies let them, whichever comes first.

Covered in this episode:
Fred Thompson
Newt Gingrich
Chuck Hagel
Al Gore
Melinda Doolittle
and more.

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 HD006 - Scoring the Debates (Democratic and Republican) [9:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Hawke and Dove score the first debates of the 2008 Presidential Campaign. This is a lot different than scoring AT the debate, which neither Hawke nor Dove achieved. But there is still time to make up for mistakes made at these, the first Democratic and Republican candidate debates. Politics is like Hollywood for ugly people, so our intrepid commentators hold out hope.

In this episode, Hawke and Dove take on each candidate one by one in order to rate their performance. You may be surprised at who crosses the aisle to support the various conservative and progressive ideals as represented by various candidates.

Candidates covered (or uncovered, as the case may be), on the Democratic side: Hilary Clinton, Barak Obama, John Edwards, Christopher Dodd, Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel; on the Republican side: John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sam Brownback, Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore, Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, and Ron Paul. Oh, and there may have been a couple of other doddering old white dudes in there somewhere.

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 HD005 - The War In Iraq [10:21m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Political pundits Hawke and Dove take on the Iraq war. Conservative Hawke and Liberal Dove tried to ignore the war, then debated about how to engage, and ultimately are commenting on the war as a last resort. In the process, we learn about etiquette in Professor Dove’s Para-psychiatric Religious History classroom, and Hawke reveals the real reason the United States is embroiled in Iraq. Feel free to comment on Episode 5 at the Hawke and Dove blog.
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