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2012 Program Archive
July 10 - Was Arafat Poisoined?; Cracks in Assad's Inner Circle?; A Report From An Amnesty International Researcher Who Risked Her Life To Document Crimes Against Humanity In Syria
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We begin with a bizarre story that emerged after a nine month investigation by Al Jazeera indicating Yasser Arafat might have been poisoned with Polonium. This has led to today’s filing in a French court by Arafat’s widow Suha, asking for an investigation into her husband’s death eight years ago in a French military hospital. A long-time CIA operative who worked in Lebanon and the West Bank, Robert Baer, joins us to discuss why the Palestinian authorities have approved the exhumation of Yasser Arafat’s body and what a new autopsy might find. |
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Then we look into Syria’s killing machine, its armed forces, whose officer corps dominated by the minority Alewites, is showing signs of fissures with the recent defection of an Assad family friend, the son of a former defense minister, General Manaf Tlass. Dr David Lesch, the author of “The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar Al-Assad and Modern Syria” joins us. He knows the Assads and General Tlass and we get some insight into the inner working of a ruthless family dynasty holding onto power by killing any and all Syrians who might oppose them. |
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Then finally we are joined in the studio by Amnesty International’s lead crisis researcher, Donatella Rovera, who risked her life by crossing the border into Syria where she recently spent weeks inside 23 villages following the path of the Syrian army, documenting a trail of atrocities, war crimes and crimes against humanity inflicted on innocent men, women and children. We discuss why the world is doing nothing to stop this on-going slaughter of innocents. |
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| MUSIC: Leonard Cohen - The Future; The Plasticines - Human Rights; Richie Havens - License to Kill (Bob Dylan) |
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July 9 - Rigging Pennsylvania for Romney; How Deep is the Rot in the Global Banking System?; Romney's Koch Problem on Long Island
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As a trial begins today in Texas to prevent the disenfranchisement of millions of voters in what will likely be a test case to uphold the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, we begin with the brazen political purge of up to 800,000 eligible voters underway in the important swing state of Pennsylvania. The founder of the Keystone Poll Dr Terry Madonna, a professor of Public Affairs at Franklin and Marshall College, joins us to discuss how the Republican State House Majority Leader let the cat out of the bag when he said that a new law supposed to prevent voter fraud, is, quoting him, “gonna allow Governor Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania”. |
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Then, following news of the Libor scandal that revealed the interbank rate for trillions in derivatives and billions in consumer loans has been rigged, we get an analysis of how much global high finance is an inside job, a rigged casino, that allows bankers and traders to legally rip off a gullible public and get away with what should be criminal, but for the fact that regulators and politicians have been bought off. The author of “The Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present”, Jeff Madrick, joins us. |
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Then finally we speak with one of the organizers of a demonstration that took place yesterday on Long Island as Mitt Romney attended three lavish fundraisers at the estates of Revlon’s Ron Perleman, then Clifford Sobel’s estate, then finally a $50,000 per head, $75,000 per couple fundraiser at David Koch’s estate. Lisa Tyson, the Director of the Long Island Progressive Coalition joins us to discuss protests that featured a banner flying overhead that read “Romney has a Koch problem” as well as a truck festooned with corporate logos with a plastic dog on the roof. |
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| MUSIC: Immortal Technique - Rich Man's World; The National - Mansion On The Hill; The Kinks - Money & Corruption/ I Am Your Man |
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July 8 - How Corporations Hide Political Donations; Infrastructure as a National Security Priority; More Scrutiny of Religion Needed
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We begin with the New York Times investigation into tax-exempt 501C-4’s, designated for “social welfare” by the IRS, that are being used by some of America’s biggest corporations to shield voters and shareholders from knowing about corporate donations to political campaigns and candidates. Bruce Cain, a professor of Political Science at Stanford University who was up until recently the Executive Director of the University of California’s Washington Center, joins us. |
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Then we look into the massive power failures in the east, with citizens sweltering in the dark for over a week without electricity to cool them and refrigerate food. A leading authority on the production, management and delivery of energy to large populations, David Freeman, the former head of the TVA, New York Power and the LA DWP, joins us to discuss the growing vulnerability of the grid to increasingly destructive weather from climate change, and what can be done to prevent future failures. |
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Then finally we discuss the separation of church and state, and the extent to which religious groups have it both ways, enjoying tax-exempt status while demanding access to the public square and a greater voice in politics, while at the same time insisting their theological doctrines be kept secret and off-limits from enquiry by the press. Steven Pizzo, a Pulitzer-prize nominated investigative journalist joins us. He has an article at the Smirking Chimp, “Cultist? Crazy? or Both?” |
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| MUSIC: Kurt Vile - Puppet To The Man; Boards of Canada - Energy Warning; Modest Mouse - Classy Plastic Lumber; John Lennon - God |
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July 5 - Lessons Not Learned From Fukushima; Can Money Buy Ohio the Key Swing State?; PRI Buys Vote Then Cheats Voters
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We begin with today’s release of a Japanese Government inquiry into the Fukushima nuclear meltdowns which concludes that the disasters were man-made. A long-time nuclear industry insider, Arnie Gundersen joins us to discuss how instead of learning from the Japanese disasters, the U.S. nuclear industry had the head of the NRC forced out for trying to increase safety measures in U.S. nuclear power plants with identical reactors and similar vulnerability to earthquakes and tsunamis. |
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Then we look into the politics of the critical swing state Ohio, which President Obama visited today, along with surrogates for Mitt Romney; Tim Pawlenty and Bobby Jindal. An expert on election law and civil rights, Daniel Tokaji, a professor of Law at Ohio State University, joins us to discuss the unprecedented attention and money pouring into Ohio, a state with a recent history of voting irregularities. |
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Then finally we go to Mexico City for an update on the disputed election recount of last Sunday’s vote. Tim Johnson, the Mexico City Bureau Chief for McClatchy Newspapers joins us to discuss mounting evidence of flagrant vote-buying by the PRI, whose candidate Pena Nieto won in part thanks to gift cards that were redeemed at grocery chains now with empty shelves and lots of unhappy customers who found the gift cards were only worth a fraction of what the PRI had promised them for their vote. |
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| MUSIC: Gil Scott Heron - Shut Um Down; Radiohead - Electioneering (cover); Modest Mouse - Ohio; Molotovs - Gimmie The Power |
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July 4 - The Founder's Rhetoric and Today's Results; Pursuing Happiness and Popping Pills
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Today on the fourth of July we examine the enduring gulf between the lofty rhetoric of the founding father Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence and the reality of today where our American democracy is looking more and more like a plutocracy controlled by venal and selfish oligarchs. Allan Lichtman, a professor of History at American University and author of “White Protestant Nation” joins us to analyze how much the founders were committed to participatory democracy and how much they wanted to protect property rights of the elite and deliberately make a system less responsive to the have-nots.
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Then we look further into the not-so-evident truth that all men are created equal, and explore the notion of the pursuit of happiness. Stephan Schwartz, a Senior Fellow at the Samueli Institute and editor of the daily web publication Schwartzreport.net joins us to discuss the extent to which we have successfully pursued happiness given our growing inequality and disparity in wealth, our global record of having the most people incarcerated, the developed world’s most expensive healthcare system that produces the worst results, an epidemic of obesity and a frayed social safety net under attack from billionaires and their political hirelings, who along with the media, are managing to persuade a lot of Americans that their happiness and well-being will be improved if they get less government services for their taxes, while giving the billionaire job creators more tax breaks. |
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| MUSIC: MC5 - American Ruse; Primus - American Life; Ray Charles - America The Beautiful; Shabazz Palaces - Free Press and Curl |
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