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2012 Program Archive
August 14 - Ryan Reignites the War on Women; Media Wars in the Middle East; Wind Energy on the Move
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We begin with a perennial issue that divides if not dominates American politics, and that is abortion, now returning to center stage with Paul Ryan on the Republican ticket. Best-selling author Frank Schaeffer joins us. He is the son of Francis Schaeffer who began the anti-abortion movement in this country and was one of the founders of the religious right. We discuss the latest round of abortion politics brought on by Paul Ryan who opposes all abortions including those for victims of rape, as well as all forms of contraception. |
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Then, as the proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran over Syria is not just being fought in the streets of Aleppo, but is raging over the airwaves across the Arab world, we look into the media wars in the Middle East. An expert on the Arab media, Marwan Kraidy, a professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, joins us to discuss the double standard in coverage of the Arab spring revolutions by Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. |
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Then finally, while Mitt Romney was in Ohio today accusing Obama of waging a war on coal, the president visited Iowa to tout wind energy. Dr Harold Prior, the founder and Executive Director of the Iowa Wind Energy Association joins us to discuss a thriving and growing industry that employs 75,000 Americans and generates 50 gigawatts of power. An industry that Romney dismisses as “imaginary” and Ryan says is a “fad”. |
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August 13 - Is Netanyahu About to Bomb Iran?; Paul Ryan's Appeal to Blue Collar Voters; "Letters to a Young Activist"
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We begin and go to Israel where there are intensifying reports in the press that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak are determined to bomb Iran soon, in the fall, before the American election. The former spokesman for Shimon Peres, Gideon Levy joins us. He has an article in Ha’aretz “The Hour of the Warmongers” and we discuss the growing alarm in Israel that their leaders are bent on war with Iran. |
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Then we go to Madison, Wisconsin and examine the local reaction to Paul Ryan’s ascendance as Vice President on the Republican ticket. Matthew Rothschild, the editor of The Progressive magazine joins us to discuss the political skills of his neighbor in nearby Janesville, who regularly gets reelected in a blue collar district, appealing to working Americans, even though his policies and priorities benefit the super-rich, undermine the middle class and punish the poor. |
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Then finally we speak with sociologist Todd Gitlin about his latest book “Letters to a Young Activist” which teaches protestors and dissenters how it was done in the 60’s and how it can be done more effectively today. As America lurches further and further to the right, we discuss idealism, identity politics and the legacy of activism in the 60’s and whether similar protest movements can be revived today. |
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August 12 - The Romney/ Ryan Race to the Right; Paul Ryan and the First Family of "Frackers"; Undoing Pennsylvania's Voter Purge
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We begin with Jonathan Chait, a writer for New York Magazine who has extensively profiled Paul Ryan, just chosen by Mitt Romney as his Vice-President on the Romney/Ryan R&R ticket. We discuss why someone who has been a Washington insider with little to no experience in the public sector, who voted for TARP and the Budget-busting prescription drug bill, is the darling of the Tea Party. |
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Then we look into the source of the Ryan family wealth which comes from oil and gas extracted by hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” in the state of Oklahoma. Karen Webb, an Oklahoma-based journalist and regular contributor to the Oklahoma Observer joins us to discuss how Paul Ryan’s father-in-law Dan Little manages the family business for his nephew Congressman Dan Boren, having signed 325 oil and gas leases between 2005 and 2011 for the family who are heavily involved in “fracking”. |
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Then finally we look into what is being done in the state of Pennsylvania to overcome voting restrictions that a Republican leader in the legislature boasted “will deliver the state of Pennsylvania for Mitt Romney”. Will Bunch, an award-winning Senior Writer with the Philadelphia Daily News joins us to discuss how many of the million voters who have been suppressed, will get their voting rights back before November. |
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August 9 - Syria's Bloody Stalemate; When the U.S. Senate Did The People's Business; Ruining Water While Running Out of It
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We begin with an assessment of the Free Syrian Army which appears to have been driven out of parts of Aleppo. Robert Baer, a veteran CIA officer who operated in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, joins us to discuss the disarray amongst opposition fighters and, since Saudi Arabia is taking the lead in arming and equipping the insurgency, not surprisingly there is a growing influx of Wahhabis into the battle to topple the Assad regime. We look into what with end the stalemate and who will influence and shape Syria’s future. |
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Then we speak with a veteran of the U.S. Senate who worked for Senators Gaylord Nelson, Abe Ribicoff, Thomas Eagleton, Robert Byrd and Jay Rockefeller. Ira Shapiro, the author of a new book “The Last Great Senate: Courage and Statesmanship in Times of Crisis”, joins us to speak about a time when the Senate worked for the American people, before it fell into the grip of gridlock. We discuss how the poisonous partisanship and the purging of moderates by the Tea Party can be be reversed. |
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Then finally we examine a newly released study in the journal Nature titled “Demand for Water Outstrips Supply”. Emily Wurth, the Water Program Director at Food and Water Watch, joins us to discuss the extraordinary amounts of water being used by oil and gas companies that ends up polluted from the growing practice of “fracking”, hydraulic fracturing. We also look into the contamination of increasingly depleted aquifers from “fracking.” |
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August 8 - A Real World Version of the "Hunger Games" Coming Soon; Chevron Fire Spikes Gas Prices; Teddy Bears Attack Belarus
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We begin with a real world version of the hunger games, coming to a country near you. Michael Klare, the Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College joins us. We discuss his article in the current issue of Mother Jones, “The Hunger Wars in our Future: Heat, Drought, Rising Food Costs, and Global Unrest”. |
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Then we look into the fire at the Chevron oil refinery in Richmond, California that is causing a sudden spike in gas prices on the west coast. Roger Kim, the Executive Director of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network who has been active in environmental issues with citizens in the community surrounding the refinery, joins us to discuss local anger at Chevron and why the refinery build in 1902 has had problems with fires following a 2007 fire that shut down the refinery for that year’s first quarter. |
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Then finally we speak with David Marples the President of the North American Association for Belarusian Studies about how Europe’s last dictatorship has dealt with the attack of the teddy bears. Following the prank by a Swedish public relations firm that parachuted 800 teddy bears into a town in Belarus, the Swedish Ambassador to Belarus has been expelled by the country’s paranoid dictator Lukashenka, who retaliated in a fit of fury, firing a slew of generals in charge of air defenses for failing to protect the motherland. |
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