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2012 Program Archive
September 18 - Romney Accuses 47% of Americans of Not Paying Taxes But Won't Release His; Is Romney Channeling Ayn Rand Too?; "Who Stole the American Dream"
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We begin with the release of comments made at a fundraiser that expose Mitt Romney’s real attitudes towards voters. Tax expert, economist and investigative journalist James Henry joins us to discuss Romney’s contention that 47% of Americans don’t pay income taxes and won’t take personal responsibility and care for their lives. James Henry was the lead researcher on the Tax Justice Network’s recent report “The Price of Offshore Revisited” which reveals how the likes of Mitt Romney hide their money abroad to avoid paying taxes. |
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Then following Romney’s disdainful remarks that reveal contempt for almost half of America’s citizens, we look into the extent to which Mitt appears to be outdoing his running mate Paul Ryan in channeling Ayn Rand. Gary Weiss, an award-winning investigative reporter for BusinessWeek and author of “Ayn Rand Nation: The Hidden Struggle For America’s Soul” joins us to discuss the beleaguered "makers" who have risen above the worthless masses of "takers"- those who lack the initiative to better themselves and prefer to mooch off the successful of the world upon whose shoulders rests the burden of enterprise that subsidizes these ungrateful dependents. |
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Then finally Pulitzer prize-winning author Hedrick Smith joins us to discuss his latest book “Who Stole the American Dream”. We examine the shift in the last few decades in which a greater and greater percentage of the nation’s wealth has been concentrated in the hand of fewer and fewer of the ultra-wealthy, while the American dream has become more difficult for the middle class and impossible for working Americans to attain. |
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September 17 - Do More Jihadis Make Intervention in Syria More Likely?; The First Anniversary of Zuccotti Park; A Friend and Colleague Remembers Slain SEAL Glen Doherty
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We begin with an analysis of whether the current unrest in the Middle East makes it more or less likely the U.S. will intervene in the worsening crisis in Syria. Brian Katulis, a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress who specializes in national security policy in the Middle East, joins us to discuss whether the rapidly-growing jihadi presence in the Syrian opposition will further destabilize the region. |
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Then we go to Zuccotti Park on the first anniversary of the formation of the Occupy Wall Street movement and speak with Arun Gupta who gives us an update on today’s activities and looks back over the year to assess the movement’s impact on American politics and the political discourse that is now framed by the 99% versus the 1% reality of income inequality and unfair tax policies. |
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Then finally we speak with a close friend and colleague of Glen Doherty, the former SEAL who died protecting the U.S. Ambassador to Libya from jihadis who attacked the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi on the eleventh anniversary of 9/11. Mikey Weinstein the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, joins us to discuss Glen Doherty’s other battle against religious fanatics, his fight to stop a fundamentalist Christian coup within the U.S. Armed Forces. |
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| MUSIC: Built to Spill - Things Fall Apart; The Night Watchmen - The Road I Must Travel; My Morning Jacket - Gideon |
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September 16 - The Fundamental Flaws of U.S. Strategic Policy in the Middle East; Understanding Islamic Sensitivites; The Social Gospel Versus the Prosperity Gospel
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We begin with an analysis of the deep and revolutionary changes underway in the Middle East that the U.S. Government and media are not grappling with. Hillary Mann, who served as a Middle East expert on the National Security Council under presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton joins us to discuss the fundamental flaws in U.S. strategic policy in the region that has us mired in empire and blinded by our own virtue. |
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Then we look into the extent to which, as Hillary Clinton suggested, the Arab Spring revolutions have traded the rule of tyrants for the rule of the mob, and examine Muslim sensitivities to religious provocation with Islamic scholar Ambassador Akbar Ahmed, the Chair of Islamic Studies at American University and Chair of Middle East and Islamic Studies at the U.S. Naval Academy. We discuss his contention that America’s war on terror has become a global war against tribal Islam. |
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Then finally we discuss the war within Christianity here in the United States in this election campaign, with Molly Worthen, a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina. She has an article in Sunday’s New York Times “The Power of Political Communion” and we discuss the competing visions of Catholicism between the social gospel of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi and the prosperity gospel promoted by Ayn Rand acolyte and conservative Catholic Paul Ryan. |
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| MUSIC: Randy Newman - Political Science; John Lennon - God; Janelle Monae - Mr President; James Blake - Measurements |
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September 13 - Who is Behind the Hate Film Exploding Across the Muslim World?; The Most Corrupt Members of Congress; The Backlash to Netanyahu's Bellicosity
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We begin with the murky details surrounding who made the obscure film that is causing riots in the Muslim world that are likely to intensify after Friday prayers. Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism joins us to discuss some of the tawdry characters behind the making and promotion of this anti-Muslim hate film, largely disseminated by Egypt’s richest man, a Coptic Christian crony of the disgraced ex-dictator Mubarak. |
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Then we will examine the latest list of the most corrupt members of Congress just put out by the Center for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. CREW’s Executive Director, Melanie Sloan joins us to run down this rogue’s gallery of crooked Congressmen and Senators that include three prominent Californians, Republicans Darryl Issa and Buck McKeon and Democrat Laura Richardson. |
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Then finally we will speak with Dalia Dassa Kaye who is a visiting fellow at the Burkle Center for International Relations at UCLA and the author of an article at CNN, “How to Tackle Iran”. We will discuss the IAEA’s rebuke of Iran and the growing backlash inside Israel to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s bellicosity, raising concerns that he is injecting himself in the US elections to an extent that endangers enduring bonds between Israel and the US. |
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| MUSIC: Bright Eyes - The Trees Get Wheeled Away; Fugazi - Cashout; Built To Spill - Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss; Beach Boys - Barbara Ann |
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September 12 - A Colleague of the US Diplomat Killed in Libya; The Islamophobia Industry's Collateral Damage; Secrets and Lies About 9/11 Uncovered
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We begin with a former colleague of the US ambassador to Libya who was killed along with three other Americans in an attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi. Wayne White, who was the former Deputy Director of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research’s Office of Analysis and a former State Department Intelligence Analyst on Libya, joins us. |
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Then we look into the latest example of ignorant Islamophobia that sparked the riots at the US Embassy in Cairo and the Consulate in Benghazi that led to the deaths of four Americans. Nathan Lean, the author of a new book “The Islamophobia Industry: How the Right Manufactures Fear of Muslims” joins us to discuss the irresponsible hate speech generated by Islamophobes such as this latest five million dollar film by an LA based Israeli real estate developer which opened to empty theaters yet managed to provoke the killing of Americans. |
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Then finally we will speak with Kurt Eichenwald, the author of a new book “500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars”. We discuss the explosive evidence he has uncovered about the reckless dismissal of alarming evidence of the impending 9/11 attack that the Bush White House ignored, and the serial blunders that followed in the tragically misconceived and misdirected war on terror. |
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| MUSIC: Xavier Rudd - Let Me Be; Bob Dylan - With God On Our Side; Devandra Banhart - Foolin; Bon Iver - Blindsided |
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