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2012 Program Archive
July 24 - The Deadly Endgame In Syria; The First Catholic Official Jailed For Covering Up Child Abuse; The Pain In Spain
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We begin with the intensifying war in Syria where the embattled Assad regime resorted to the use of fixed-wing aircraft today in what is seen as a serious escalation. Joshua Landis the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, who writes the daily newsletter on Syrian politics “Syria Comment”, joins us to discuss the end game in Syria and the possible use of WMD’s. |
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Then we speak with the Executive Director of SNAP, the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests, David Clohessy, about the sentencing today of the first high official in the Catholic Church to go to jail for covering up the abuse of children by Catholic priests. We discuss the long cover up and the billions spent to hide what seems to a systemic problem within the male-dominated Catholic clergy. |
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Then finally we look into the pain in Spain as speculators pile on, forcing up the borrowing cost of Spanish debt to unsustainable levels. Anthony Geist, Professor of Spanish and Comparative Literature at the University of Washington, Seattle joins us. He is just back from Spain and we discuss how the average Spaniard is coping with austerity and soaring unemployment that again exposes the weakness of the political leadership of the Eurozone that appears consistently unable to get on top of a growing economic crisis. |
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| MUSIC: Fugazi - The Argument; Elliot Smith - Abused; Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias - Spanish Eyes; Arcade Fire - Half Light II |
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July 23 - The War on Whistle-blowers; The Phony Markets Versus Government Campaign; Nationalizing the Big Banks
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With editorials in both Monday’s New York Times and Los Angeles Times warning about intensified government efforts to not just go after whistle-blowers and leakers, but journalists too, we begin with Tom Devine, the Legal Director of the Government Accountability Project. He has represented or helped over 5,000 whistle-blowers and we discuss the spy hunt for whistle-blowers in the FDA and efforts in Congress to strengthen whistle-blower protection laws that Senators Kyl and Sessions are trying to sabotage. |
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Then we speak with Princeton historian Julian Zelizer about the Romney campaign’s attempts to portray President Obama as the anti-capitalist candidate and enemy of free enterprise who, according to Mitt Romney, wants Americans to be ashamed of success. The author of “Governing America: the Revival of Political History”, Julian Zelizer has an article at CNN “Campaign 2012: The Phony War of Markets Versus Government.” |
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Then finally historian and political economist Gar Alperovitz joins us. A former Legislative Director in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, he is the co-founder of The Democracy Collaborative and the author of “America Beyond Capitalism: Reclaiming our Wealth, Our Liberty, and Our Democracy.” We discuss his oped in Monday’s New York Times “Wall Street is Too Big to Regulate”. |
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| MUSIC: Stevie Wonder - Big Brother; Fiddler on the Roof - If I Were A Rich Man; Devotchka - How This Will End; M. Ward - Big Boat |
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July 22 - A Survivor of Virginia Tech on the Latest Gun Massacre; How Politics Trumps Public Safety; $21 Trillion Hidden in Tax Havens
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We begin with a survivor of the Virginia Tech massacre, Colin Goddard, who was shot four times and was one out of seven in a class of seventeen to survive the shooting with three of the four bullets still in his body. We discuss why, after Virginia Tech and the mass shooting in Arizona of a U.S. Congresswoman and a Federal Judge, nothing was done to prevent deranged individuals from obtaining military firepower to up the ante and break records in the mass killing of innocents. |
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Then we look into the role of the NRA in preventing the oversight of an industry that manufactures a product that is completely unregulated from a health and safety standpoint. Kristen Rand, the Legislative Director of the Violence Policy Center in Washington DC joins us. |
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Then finally we examine a new report by the Tax Justice Network that reveals the super-rich are hiding $21 trillion in tax havens, the equivalent of the U.S. and Japanese economies combined. Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and columnist with Reuters, David Cay Johnston joins us to discuss the scale of global tax-avoidance that might be as high as 32 trillion. |
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| MUSIC: The Beatles - Happiness Is A Warm Gun; MGMT - Pieces of What; Fionn Regan - Be Good or Be Gone; The Beatles - You Never Give Me Your Money |
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July 19 - Ann Romney's Marie Antoinette Moment; Our Terrorists and Their Terrorists; The Worst Drought Since 1956; The Geopolitics of Drought and Food Prices
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We begin with today’s headline that 50% of the population, that’s half of the people in this country, have only 1% of America’s wealth. The Washington Bureau Chief for Alternet, Adele Stan, joins us to discuss Ann Romney’s Marie Antoinette moment where she told ABC’s Robin Roberts that “we’ve given all you people need to know about our financial situation and about how we live our life”. |
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Then as many celebrate the terrorist bomb that killed members of the Syrian dictator’s inner circle, we look into the double standard in terrorism where many prominent Americans from Newt Gingrich and Rudy Giuliani to Governors Rendell and Howard Dean have taken money from the Iranian MEK, designated by the U.S. Government as a terrorist group. Jeremiah Goulka, who has an article at the American Prospect “Caught in a Bad Alliance”, joins us to discuss Israel’s and the neocon’s favorite terrorists. |
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Then we look into the worst drought since 1956 that is devastating corn and soybean crops and causing the price of corn to go up more than 50% in the last four weeks. Purdue University Agronomist Tony Vyn joins us to discuss the impact of the drought on food prices and food security. |
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Then we explore the global impact of droughts in the United States, Russia, the Ukraine and Australia on the global prices and availability of food. Eric Holt-Gimenez, the Executive Director of Food First and the Institute for Food and Development Policy joins us to discuss the geopolitics of drought that could lead to instability and revolutions. |
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| MUSIC: The National - Mansion On A Hill; Rolling Stones - My Sweet Neocon; Dirty Projectors - Cannibal Resource; M. Ward - Get To The Table on Time |
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July 18 - Media Shills For Mitt; Is Assad Circling The Drain?; The Future Plans of China's "Princelings"
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We begin with the revelation that CNN’s Senior Political Analyst, the highly respected former White House insider David Gergen, had ties to Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital while commenting on the firm to the media. Veteran financial investigative reporter William Cohan joins us. A former Wall Street banker who had dealings with Bain Capital, Cohan found Bain not to be the sterling company that David Gergen describes as having a positive reputation within the business community of Boston and beyond. |
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Then, following the suicide bombing inside the national security headquarters in Damascus that killed three Generals at the heart of Assad’s military, and with the White House statement that “it’s clear that the Assad regime is losing control of Syria”, a specialist on Syria James Gelvin joins us to examine whether these latest victories for the Free Syrian Army are a setback for the regime or a death blow. |
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Then finally the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Susan Shirk joins us to discuss a front page story in Wednesday’s New York Times about how the children of China’s elite, the so-called “princelings”, who represent the next generation of Communist Party leaders, have met at private gatherings to urge deeper political and economic change. We look into whether the new privileged elite will want to hold onto power or share their wealth with more of China’s citizens. |
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| MUSIC: Kurt Vile - Puppet To The Man; The Doors - The End; Major Lazer - Get Free; Madonna - Material Girl (Chinese Version) |
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