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2012 Program Archive
January 31 - Winning and Losing in Florida; The Backdoor "NAFTA of The Pacific" Deal; Newt The Nasty's Long March
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We begin with the Florida Republican primary where the polls have just closed and we announce preliminary results as they come in. Michael Tomasky, a special correspondent for Newsweek and the Daily Beast joins us. He is the editor of “Democracy: A Journal of Ideas” and we discuss this expensive, contentious and increasingly venomous republican primary that will leave the victor tainted, and the loser defiant. |
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Then joining us in the studio is Matthew Kavenagh, the Director of U.S. Policy and Advocacy at Health GAP (Global Access Project). He joins us to discuss what he considers to be a backdoor deal with Corporate America, the Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement the Obama administration’s U.S. Trade Representative has just made nearby in secret at a Beverly Hills hotel. A deal that leaves labor, environment, AIDS and public health activists frustrated and confused. |
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Then finally Howard Schweber, a professor of Political Science and Law at the University of Wisconsin joins us. He has an article at the Huffington Post “Newt Gingrich and The Politics of Resentment”. We discuss Newt the nasty, tonight’s increasingly incendiary losing candidate, who seems determined to carry on tearing down Romney, the establishment candidate, all the way to August when the Republicans convene in Tampa. |
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| MUSIC: Nina Simone - Funkier Than A Mosquittos Tweeter; James Blake - Limit To Your Love; Bon Iver - Blindsided; Against Me! - Bitter Divisions |
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January 30 - A Stealth Way to Shut Down the Occupy Movement; Is Gingrich the New Goldwater?; Saul Alinsky's Protege on the Real Radical
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We begin with an attempt by a city council to shut down the occupy movement through the courts. Joining us are the attorneys for Occupy Chattanooga, Scott Michelman who is a staff attorney with Public Citizen in Washington D.C. and Chattanooga attorney David Veazey. We discuss this first-of-a-kind suit that tries to force individuals to pay a County’s costs for seeking judicial validation of its own law. |
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Then American University historian Allan Lichtman joins us. The author of “White Protestant Nation: The Rise of the American Conservative Movement” and “The Keys to the White House: A Surefire Way to Predicting the Next President”, he has correctly predicted the outcomes of all U.S. presidential elections since 1984. We will discuss the fear gripping the Republican establishment that 2012 could be a repeat of the 1964 Goldwater blowout if the Tea Party radicals manage to show up at the Republican convention in Tampa with Newt Gingrich as their leader. |
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Then finally, we examine who the real Saul Alinsky was. Not the “Saul Alinsky radical” Newt Gingrich accuses President Obama of being, but the community organizer and political strategist who has been studied on the left and right by Cesar Chavez, Dick Armey, Hillary Clinton and the Tea Party. Alinky’s protégé Nicholas Von Hoffman joins us. He worked with Saul Alinsky from 1953 to 1963 and is the author of the new book “Radical: A Portrait of Saul Alinsky”. |
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| MUSIC: Dirty Projectors - Spray Paint The Walls; CSNY - Deja Vu; Sufjan Stevens; M. Ward - Requiem |
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January 29 - An Update From Tehran, Iran; More Analysis on the West Versus Iran; Egypt's Stolen Revolution
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We begin and go to Tehran, Iran and speak with Ali Arouzi who is the NBC Bureau Chief in Tehran and one of the few western journalists operating in that country. We discuss the arrival of U.N. nuclear inspectors in Iran and the brinksmanship over the increasingly severe sanctions that might lead Iran to cut off oil to its European customers who have joined the U.S. in the sanctions. |
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Then we get another perspective on the growing tensions between Iran and the West with Kelly Golnoush Niknejad, who is the Editor-in-Chief of Tehran Bureau, an independent source of news on Iran that is in partnership with PBS’s Frontline. We discuss the recent report in the New York Times that Israeli war planners think a limited attack on Iran may not lead to the catastrophic consequences many are predicting. |
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Then finally we go to Cairo, Egypt and speak with Sherif Gaber who is an independent blogger active with the group “No Military Trials for Civilians”. We discuss the standoff between the demonstrators in Tahrir Square and the ruling military regime that is reluctant to cede power and is holding the son of a Cabinet Secretary in the Obama White House claiming “foreign interference” in an apparent attempt to distract angry Egyptians from the regime’s intransigence. |
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January 26 - The Defense Cutting Mirage; Romney and Gingrich Trash Each Other Over the Latino Vote; A Former CIA Officer Speaks Out
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We begin with today’s announcement by the Secretary of Defense outlining proposed cuts in the military budget that are in fact not cuts at all. William Hartung, the Director of the Arms and Security Program at the New America Foundation and author of “Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military Industrial Complex” joins us to examine the numbers game and the astronomically expensive and useless weapons programs that are not being cut. |
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Then we do an update on the Florida Republican primary as Gingrich and Romney do battle in a debate tonight to win the Latino vote they are trashing each other’s record over. Joining us is Luis Martinez-Fernandez, a historian of Latin America and the Caribbean at the University of Central Florida. He was born in Cuba, graduated from a Puerto Rican University and currently teaches in Orlando, Florida. We discuss the diverse Latino vote in Florida and the Cuban/America vote the candidates are fighting over. |
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Then finally a 23 year member of the CIA’s clandestine Service who retired in 2007 as Deputy National Intelligence Officer for Transnational Threats, Glenn Carle, joins us in studio. We discuss the recent arrest of an ex- CIA officer for espionage and the legacy of torture that haunts the CIA and caused Glen Carle to resign from the CIA because he could not fulfill his oath to preserve and protect the Constitution. He is the author of the new book “The Interrogator: An Education”. |
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| MUSIC: Bob Dylan - Masters of War; Devandra Banhart - Foolin; Jose Gonzalez - Time To Send Somebody Away; Elvis Costello - License to Kill |
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January 25 - Gingrich's Southern Strategy; A Hostage Rescue in Somalia; A Financial Crimes Unit At Last
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With Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney polling even in Florida and more primaries in southern states to come, we begin with an analysis of Newt Gingrich’s southern strategy with Drew Westen, a political psychologist and neuroscientist and professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Emory University. We discuss what political antidotes could be used against ignorant, racist Republican voters who believe Obama is a Muslim with a fake birth certificate. |
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Then Robert Young Pelton joins us. He is the founder and publisher of the Somaliareport.com and we will discuss the rescue operation in Somalia that freed an American aid worker and a Dane working with a de-mining unit. We examine the changing tactics of piracy in this lawless failed state as pirates move their activities on-shore because of increased naval activity against them. |
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Then finally we speak with Ian Kim, the Campaign Manager of Rebuild the Dream, which along with MoveOn.org and other progressive organization recently sent a letter to President Obama urging him to act and provide mortgage relief for 10 million American homeowners underwater as well pursue criminal charges against those who committed the massive fraud that led to the crash in 2008. We discuss the president’s announcement in last night’s The State of the Union of the creation of a Financial Crimes Unit. |
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| MUSIC: Built To Spill - Temporarily Blind; Led Zeppelin - Down By The Seaside; Fugazi - Cashout; Xavier Rudd - Shelter |
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