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2012 Program Archive
December 18 - The Maker of the Gun That Killed the Schoolkids Issues "Man-Card" to Customers Who Buy It; Will Obama Sell Out Seniors?; Who is Profiting From the Destruction of the Congo?
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We begin with the shocking confirmation that America’s sick gun culture is fueled by gun manufacturers, in particular the makers of the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the recent massacre of schoolchildren. In an explicit ad campaign Bushmaster ties manhood to using their assault rifle, issuing "man-cards" to customers who buy this military weapon. Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon’s Washington political reporter joins us. He has two articles at Salon “Assault Rifle Company Issues “Man-Cards” and “The Answer is Not More Guns”. |
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Then we look into rumors that President Obama might sell out on Social Security in the current negotiations on the so-called “fiscal cliff”. Robert Weissman, the President of the Washington D.C.-based consumer watchdog group Public Citizen joins us to discuss his concern that instead of taxing Wall Street, the White House might be ready to ship senior citizens down the river and start taxing grandma. |
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Then finally, with hearings about to start in the Senate Armed Services Committee into the tragic resource war in the Congo where five million have died so that we can get cheap components for consumer electronics, we speak with a Congolese expert on who is profiting from the destruction of his country. Georges Nzolgola-Ntalaja, professor of African Studies and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina joins us to discuss a much-needed change in U.S. policy towards the Congo. |
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December 17 - Corporate America and the NRA's Deadly Alliance; Heroic Teachers in a Profession that's Denigrated; "Rampage: The Social Roots of School Schootings"
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We begin with an examination of how some of America’s biggest corporations, as members of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, have joined forces with the NRA to strike down gun laws and implement permissive conceal and carry gun laws as well as make it easier to buy machine guns. Lisa Graves, the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and publisher or Alecexposed.org join us to discuss the extent to which corporate America has blood on its hands. |
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Then following the recent display of heroism by five teachers who died protecting young children, we look into the corporate war on teachers with Henry Giroux, a writer and the current Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. We discuss the denigration and downsizing of teachers and the de-funding of their unions by corporate and billionaire backers of ALEC and their political hirelings in Congress and State legislatures. |
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Then finally Katherine Newman joins us. She is the Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and author of “Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings”. We discuss the latest classroom massacre in America and her article at CNN “In School Shootings, Patterns and Warning Signs”. |
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December 16 - The Bloodless Political Assasination of General Petraeus; How Syria is being Destroyed; A Survivor of America's Worst Gun Massacre Speaks Out
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We begin with a veteran CIA officer who served in the Middle East, Robert Baer, and discuss the endgame of the Syrian civil war that is likely to intensify, as well as comment on the revival of the issue of the use of torture depicted in the new movie “Zero Dark Thirty”. We also examine the real reasons behind General Petraeus’s ignominious departure as head of the CIA in what amounts to a bloodless political assassination. |
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Then we continue our examination of the Syrian tragedy as not just lives. but a country is being destroyed, with Charles Glass who was ABC News’ chief Middle East correspondent and is the author of “Tribes and Flags: Adventure and Kidnap in Greater Syria”. We discuss his article at the New York Review of Books “Aleppo: How Syria is Being Destroyed”. |
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Then finally, in the aftermath of the worst mass killing in America since the Virginia Tech massacre, we speak with Colin Goddard who was shot four times and was one out of seven of a class of seventeen to survive the Virginia Tech shooting, with three of the four bullets still in his body. With calls to revive the assault weapons ban, we discuss the NRA’s continuing role in preventing law enforcement authorities from correlating data on those with mental illness and those who are able to purchase military-style firearms. |
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December 13 - Rethinking our 30 Year-Long Failed Iran Policy; The Senate's Rejectionist Block of Isolationist Ignoramuses; Closing Offshore Tax Loopholes for U.S. Corporations
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We begin with the forthcoming P5+1 talks with Iran which many see as a last chance for the U.N. Security Council plus Germany to make a deal with Iran before their elections begin. Flynt Leverett and Hillary Mann, co-authors of the new book “Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran” join us to discuss the need for the U.S. to rethink its 30 year-long failed policy towards Iran. |
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Then we speak with former New York Times U.N. correspondent Barbara Crossette who now covers the U.N. for The Nation where she has an article “Once Again, Senate Republicans Reject Human Rights”. We discuss the growing number of treaties on the rights of children, women and the disabled that the U.S. has signed but failed to ratify due to the rejectionist block of ignorant and isolationist Republican senators who see U.N. treaties as a plot by foreigners to impose a vast gay, feminist, socialist conspiracy on American life. |
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Then finally we speak with Eric LeCompte, the director of the Jubilee USA Network which focuses on development in relation to the international debt crisis. We discuss the need to close corporate offshore tax loopholes that deny the U.S. Treasury $150 billion a year which is a lot more than the automatic spending cuts that will take place in 2013 if Congress fails to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff”. |
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December 12 - The Day After for Labor and the Democrats in Michigan; Why China Protects North Korea's Ruling Dynasty; A General on Why We Should Cut the Defense Budget
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We begin with a post-mortem on the defeat for labor and the Democrats as the state of Michigan, the birthplace of the labor movement, became the 24th state to adopt the anti-union right to work law. A specialist on labor at U.C. Berkeley, Dr. Harley Shaiken joins us to examine how the Republicans snookered Labor and the Democrats and what can be done to reverse the situation. |
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Then we look into the latest successful missile test by North Korea that has boosted the prestige of the emperor-like boy-leader whose subjects are dancing with joy in the streets. Sue Mi Terry joins us. She was the deputy national intelligence officer for East Asia at the National Intelligence Council and the Director of Japan, Korea and Oceanic Affairs at the National Security Council. While China has appealed for calm, we discuss the reasons why China protects the family dynasty that rules this erratic failed state on its border. |
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Then finally we speak with a general who wants to cut the Pentagon budget that has been largely exempt from alarm over the so-called “fiscal cliff”. General Robert Gard, the Chairman of the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation and a former executive assistant to two secretaries of defense joins us to discuss the low-hanging fruit that could be easily cut from the bloated defense budget and would improve the nation’s national security and economic health. |
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