Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
2012 Program Archive
September 4 - Can Obama Re-awaken the Youth Vote?; Does Obama's Foreign Policy Success Count?; The Black Money Behind the Reverend Moon's Cult
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with David Halperin, a former White House speechwriter and senior policy advisor for Howard Dean who was counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee. We discuss the challenge Obama faces in reviving and reawakening the youth vote and the extent to which trying to ease the growing burden of student loans and extending healthcare coverage will activate the dormant student movement. |
 |
|
|
Then we go to the Democratic convention in Charlotte and speak with Colin Kahl, a former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense and advisor to the Barack Obama Presidential campaign about what role foreign policy, which was barely mentioned by Romney and Ryan in Tampa, will play at the Democratic convention. Since national security, which has traditionally been a Democratic weakness, is considered one of this president’s greatest strengths, we look into how much it counts when jobs and the economy are on most people’s minds. |
 |
|
|
Then finally, with Monday’s death of the right-wing Korean cult leader the Reverend Moon, we examine the shadowy connection of black money behind the Unification Church which was founded with the help of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency. Steven Hassan, a former member of the “Moonie” cult who is now the founder of the Freedom of the Mind Resource Center, joins us to discuss how Moon and his shadowy backers helped fund the Christian Right in this country. |
 |
| MUSIC: Arcade Fire - Wake Up; Lead Belly - Down By The Riverside; Wilco - Theologians; The Beatles - Think For Yourself |
Tags:
September 3 - Reclaiming The American Dream; The State of Working America; "A Bold New Call for a Maximum Wage"
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
Today on Labor Day we examine the state of working and middle class Americans who for the last few decades have seen the American dream recede out of reach for many, while a few wealthy families like the Waltons, the heirs to the WalMart fortune, have seen their wealth grow to the extent that just one family has wealth equivalent to the combined total of the bottom 40% of all Americans. Dr Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley who studies labor, information technology, the organization of work, global economic integration, and trade joins us. |
 |
|
|
Then we speak with Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute and principal author of the authoritative text on the American workforce, “The State of Working America”. We will discuss his latest report “Unions, inequality, and faltering middle-class wages”. |
 |
|
|
Then finally veteran labor journalist Sam Pizzigati joins us. He is the editor of the online newsletter Too Much and his most recent article is “A Bold New Call for a Maximum Wage”. We discuss his proposal of tying the minimum wage to a maximum wage and how working and middle class Americans can reverse the erosion of their standard of living and their share of the American pie. |
 |
| MUSIC: Billy Bragg - Power in a Union; Against Me! - Those Anarcho Punks Are Mysterious; Pete Seeger - Union Maid; Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues |
Tags:
September 2 - A "Clear Red Line" to Stop Iran; The War Not Mentioned; On-going Secret Cyber Wars
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with increasing rumors of war, in spite of warnings from Angela Merkel and the U.S. scaling down of a joint exercise with Israel, on Sunday Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu called for a “clear red line” to stop Iran. The former Senior Director for Middle East Affairs at the National Security Council Flynt Leverett joins us to discuss a possible pre-election Israeli strike on Iran and the IAEA report that Iran has doubled its capacity to enrich uranium at the underground Fordo plant.
|
 |
|
|
Then we discuss what was barely mentioned at the Republican convention, Afghanistan. Rajiv Chandrasekaran, a senior correspondent and associate editor at the Washington Post joins us. He is the author of the new book “Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan” and we look into the serial blunders that have mired the U.S. in its longest war, a war in which most NATO casualties now result from Afghans turning their guns on their Western trainers. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we look under the radar to examine blowback in the cyber wars going on now in the Gulf and elsewhere, with veteran intelligence correspondent Richard Sale. We examine the August 15 attack on Saudi Aramco and the August 29 attack against Qatar’s RasGas by malware called “Shamoon”, apparently in retaliation for a cyber attack on the Iranian oil industry earlier this spring by malware called “Wiper”. |
 |
| MUSIC: The National - Start A War; Titus Andronicus - Four Score and Seven; Yacht - We Have All We Ever Wanted |
Tags:
August 30 - Are the Republicans Serial Liars?; Fact-Checkers Play Catch-up; The Six Billon Dollar 2012 Election
|
|
LISTEN FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with Michael Cohen who is covering the Republican convention in Tampa for the UK Guardian and the Observer and discuss last night’s speech by Paul Ryan that has fact-checkers working overtime. And we preview Mitt Romney’s big speech tonight that will be boosted by an appearance by Clint Eastwood. |
 |
|
|
Then we speak with Tom Rosenstiel, the founder and director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism about the role of the press in reporting apparent lies and distortions and the subsequent role of fact-checkers in correcting the record. We discuss the aftermath of the Paul Ryan speech and the extent to which the original lie carries more weight than follow-up efforts to refute the lies. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we discuss the record-breaking six billion dollar 2012 election with Michael Franz, the co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project which tracks political ads in top races across the country. His books include “Campaign Advertising and American Democracy” and “Choices and Changes: Interest Groups in the Electoral Process”. |
 |
| MUSIC: Bob Dylan - Idiot Wind; M. Ward - Cosmopolitan Pap; DJ Shadow - Why Hip Hop Sucks in 96'; Shabazz Palaces - Echo from the Hosts that Profess Infinitum |
Tags:
August 29 - Ann Romney Improves Mitt's Likeability; The Return of Condoleezza's War Party; The GOP's Wisconsin Contingent
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with Peter Canellos, the editor of the Boston Globe’s Editorial page who served as editor of the Globe’s seven-part series on Mitt Romney. He joins us from Tampa, Florida and we discuss whether Ann Romney’s well-received speech last night will improve her husband’s likeability factor which is at 29% compared to Barack Obama’s 51%. |
 |
|
|
Then we preview Condoleezza Rice’s speech to the Republican convention with someone who worked with her in the Bush Administration, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, the former Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell. We look into what a Romney foreign policy might look like, given the preponderance of Neocons on his team, and what wild cards might happen in terms of overseas crises that could sway the election. |
 |
|
|
Then finally John Nichols, The Nation magazine’s Washington correspondent and the associate editor of the Capitol Times, the daily newspaper in Madison, Wisconsin joins us. We discuss the Wisconsin contingent; Governor Walker, the head of the RNC Reince Priebus, and tonight’s keynote speaker Paul Ryan, the Republican Vice-Presidential nominee, as well as try to determine how Paul Ryan can sell himself as a savior of Medicare which the Ryan Plan intends to cut. |
 |
| MUSIC: The Pretenders - Human; Born Ruffians - Retard Canard; Edwin Star - War |
Tags:
RSS Latest Radio Programs
Pacifica App