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2012 Program Archive
April 24 - Pentagon/ CIA Turf Wars; The Little-known Turkey/ Armenia Protocols; Preventing Current and Future Genocides
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We begin with the Secretary of Defense’s announcement that the Pentagon is revamping its spy operations to focus on new threats in the Asia/Pacific region such as China. A retired CIA Operations Officer who received the agency’s “Medal of Merit", Gene Coyle joins us to discuss the turf wars between the Pentagon and the CIA, now led by a former General.
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Then on Armenian Genocide Commemoration Day we will examine the almost unreported diplomatic history of the Turkey/Armenia Protocols with a former State Department Advisor involved in the effort to end the denial and division between the two countries. David Phillips, the Director of the Program on Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights joins us. |
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Then finally we speak with Scott Horton, a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harpers in Legal Affairs and National Security. We will examine the Obama Administration’s efforts in the new area of human protection with its Atrocity Prevention Board designed to prevent genocides that have previously gone on unabated while the great powers wrung their hands on the sidelines. |
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| MUSIC: The Beatles - Come Together; Major Lazer (Ft. Amber Coffman) - Get Free; Bob Dylan - Chimes of Freedom |
April 23 - The Atrocities Prevention Board Is Not An Afterthought; An Analysis of The French Presidential Election; Could Germany Leave The Eurozone?
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We will begin with the President’s announcement today at the National Holocaust Museum that he was commissioning the first-ever National Intelligence Estimate on mass killings that his newly created Atrocities Prevention Board would not be treating “as an afterthought or a sideline in our foreign policy”. Rachel Gerber, who works on human protection and worked for the UNHCR and was present at the Holocaust Museum, joins us. |
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Then we will look into the results in the first round of French Presidential elections that seem to spell the end for Nicholas Sarkozy. Philipe Marliere joins us. He is a professor of French and European Politics at University College in London who studies the French Socialist Parties, French politics and European Social Democracy. We will discuss the alarming rise of the French right who got one fifth of the vote, largely from young French workers, 30% of whom are unemployed. |
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Then finally as stocks plunged today in Europe and on Wall Street as a result of the French elections and the collapse of the Dutch government, we will revisit the malaise in the Eurozone where the cost of Spanish debt has reached unsustainable levels, austerity has proven to be disastrous, and there is no money for stimulus. The head of the Levy Economics Institute, Dimitri Papadimitriou joins us. |
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| MUSIC: Fionn Regan - Genocide Matinee; Ella Fitzgerald - I Love Paris; Lady Gaga - French Revolution |
April 19 - Fact-Free America; The Gulf Two Years Later; Stepping Up For Earth Day
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We begin with American Historian James Loewen whose famous quote “People have the right to their own opinions, but their own facts” was expropriated by George Zimmerman on his new website along with quotes from Thomas Paine and Edmund Burke. Since James Loewen has taught race relations for 20 years and has written about “Sundown Towns” that kept blacks out, he is none too happy to be featured on Zimmerman’s website. He has an article at the History News Network “George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin and Me”.
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Then, since tomorrow will be the second anniversary of the BP blowout in the Gulf, we speak with Aaron Viles, who leads the Gulf Restoration Network’s response to the BP drilling disaster and the organization’s efforts to protect and restore coastal habitats throughout the Gulf. We will discuss the contrast between BP’s slick propaganda campaign on TV and the reality on the shores and in the waters of the Gulf and the failure of the Justice Department to prosecute anyone. |
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Then finally as Earth Day approaches, we get an assessment of where we stand in the face of the Global Warming Crisis. And since our government is paralyzed by powerful interests who continue to propagate denial, we look into what citizens can do to save the planet. Gar Lipow, the author of a new book “Solving the Climate Crisis: Public Investment in Social Prosperity to Cool a Fevered Planet”, joins us |
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| Music: Sam Cooke - A Change is Gonna Come; Ben Harper - Excuse Me Mr; Dirty Projectors - Cannibal Resource; Xavier Rudd - Messages |
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April 18 - Sudan Declares War on the South; The Real Issues in the War on Women; The Story That Killed Dan Rather's Career and Helped Re-elect George W. Bush
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We begin in and discuss what amounts to a declaration of war today on South Sudan by the Northern Sudanese leader General Omar Bashir, himself a war criminal indicted by the International Criminal Court. Sondra Hale, who has been visiting, studying and working in Sudan for the past 50 years, joins us to discuss an impending outbreak of war against the world’s newest country over contested oil fields the Chinese have developed. |
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Then we look into the so-called “war on women” that has been fanned by an overblown spat between Hilary Rosen and Ann Romney over working moms versus stay-at-home mums. The President of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Dr Heidi Hartmann joins us to discuss the real issue obscured by this fatuous debate, which is that women are not paid equally for equal work. And given that 95% of women in America don’t have rich husbands and work for a living, the Ann Romney flap is not a women’s but a class issue. |
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Then finally we speak with Joe Hagan who has an article at the Texas Monthly, “Truth Or Consequences”. We revisit the pivotal “60 Minutes” story in the 2004 Bush/ Kerry campaign that could have contrasted the war hero Kerry with a draft dodger who, because of family connections, received favorable treatment to enter the Air National guard. Joe Hagan answers the mysteries still surrounding the story that killed Dan Rather’s career and helped re-elect George W.Bush. |
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| MUSIC: South Sudan National Anthem; John Lennon - Woman is the "N" of the World; Jim O'Rourke - Prelude; Green Day - Favourite Son |
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April 17 - Obama Takes on the Oil Speculators; Waning U.S. Influence in the Americas; A Realistic Analysis of the "Arab Spring"
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We begin with an analysis of the President’s proposals today to stop Wall Street speculation which is driving up the price of gasoline as much as 40%. Michael Greenberger, the former Director of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, who have oversight over trading in commodities, joins us to discuss whether these proposals, assuming they are enacted, will stop the gouging at the pump by Wall Street predators and parasites. |
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Then we assess the recent Summit of the Americas in Colombia that was upstaged by a minor scandal involving Obama’s Secret Service detail that the conservative media have been trying to tie to the president and milk for all it’s worth. We get a critique on what actually transpired among the hemisphere’s leaders and how much the U.S. is being left behind. Elizabeth Dickinson who writes the UnderReported column for the World Affairs Journal where she has an article “At the Summit of the Americas, Washington Looks Behind the Times”, joins us. |
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Then finally we are joined in the studio by UCLA historian James Gelvin, an expert on Syria and the Middle East, who has a new book “The Arab Uprising: What Everyone Needs to Know”. We discuss the misreading and misunderstanding of the so-called “Arab Spring” that is prevalent in the West and the media, and the various revolutions in the region, and get a sobering briefing on the future of Syria. |
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| MUSIC: Doom - Gazillion Ear; Immortal Technique - Peruvian Cocaine; Dirty Projectors - Rise Above; Muse - Uprising |
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