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2012 Program Archive
January 17 - Stopping SOPA; "Europe's Transition From Social Democracy to Oligarchy"; What Holds Jordan Together?
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We begin with an update on SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act that Wikipedia is protesting by going dark tonight at midnight for 24 hours. James Losey, a policy analyst with the New America Foundation’s Open Technology Initiative joins us to discuss the dire implications to Internet freedom if this bill passes. He has an article at Slate.com “The Internet’s Intolerable Acts.” |
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Then Michael Hudson joins us, he is the President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, a Wall Street Financial Analyst, Professor of Economics and an economic advisor to governments worldwide including Iceland, Latvia and China on finance and tax law. We discuss the downgrading of a number of European countries and the on-going Euro crisis as well as Michael Hudson’s article in a major German newspaper “Europe’s Transition From Social Democracy to Oligarchy”. |
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Then finally with President Obama hosting Jordan’s King Abdullah today at the White House, we examine why Jordan has not gone the way of other countries as the “Arab Spring” sweeps the region. The Editor of The Middle East Report, Pete Moore, who a Professor of Political Science at Case Western University joins us to explain how the Kingdom, that has the same socioeconomic grievances as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Syria, is holding together. |
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| MUSIC: Yacht - We Have All We've Ever Wanted; Devotchka - How This Will End; Beach House - I'll Take Care of You; Jamie Woon - Wayfaring Stranger |
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January 16 - Voting Rights as a "Moral Imperative"; An Insider on How Iran Avoids Sanctions and Sells its Oil; A Banker Who Did Not Like Dealing With Romney's Bain Capital
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We begin on this Martin Luther King holiday and speak with Gerald Horne, the Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston and discuss today’s announcement by Attorney General Holder on the steps of the State Capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, that voting rights are still at risk in this country where both overt and subtle forms of discrimination are all too common and that the enforcement of these rights is a moral imperative. |
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Then as sanctions ramp up on Iran, we discuss how Iran sells its oil and to whom, are how they get around sanctions, with Dr Sara Vakhshouri, who was an advisor to the Director of the National Iranian Oil Company. She has an article at the Huffington Post, “Closure of the Hormuz Straight: An Actual Threat or Diplomacy?”. |
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Then finally William Cohan, a leading financial journalist who used to work on Wall Street, and did business with Bain Capital during the Romney years, joins us to discuss how Bain Capital specialized in dirty tricks. William Cohan is the author of the recent best-seller “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World”. |
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| MUSIC: Shabazz Palaces - Free Press and Curl/ Yeah You; The National - Start A War; Boards of Canada - Energy Warning |
January 15 - U.S./ Iran Tension and an Israeli "False Flag" Operation; "Pity The Billionaire" - How The Right Continues To Profit From The Crash
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We begin with increasing concern at the White House and among the Joint Chiefs that Israel is preparing to take military action against Iran in spite of U.S. objections. We look into Israeli covert activity that harms U.S. interests with an historian specializing in intelligence, Mark Perry. He has an article at Foreign Policy “False Flag” that reveals how Mossad agents posed as CIA officers to recruit terrorists who killed Iranian soldiers and civilians. |
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Then finally we arejoined by Thomas Frank, the author of a new book “Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right” which examines how the worst economy since the 1930’s that crashed under George W. Bush, brought about a revival of conservatism. |
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January 12 - Sabotaging The Diplomatic Track With Iran; A Setback for Bigotry; One of the West Memphis Three Tells His Inspiring Story
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We begin with an analysis of whether there will be a war with Iran or whether diplomacy will be revived to avert one. Gary Sick, who served on the National Security Council under President’s Ford, Carter and Reagan and was the principal White House aide for Iran during the Iranian revolution and the hostage crisis, joins us. We discuss Hillary Clinton’s condemnation and emphatic denial of U.S. involvement in the assassination of an Iranian scientist that appears to be an effort to derail talks underway in Turkey between U.S. and Iranian diplomats. |
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Then we look into the setback in Oklahoma for proponents of a ban of Sharia law in the United States even though there is a total lack of evidence that anyone is planning or proposing to impose Sharia law on anyone. Faiz Shakir, a Vice President at the Center For American Progress joins us to discuss the casual anti-Muslim bigotry in this country that Fox News inflames and the Republican Party seems to tolerate if not endorse. |
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Then finally we are joined in the studio by the award-winning film maker Joe Berlinger whose latest documentary feature “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” premieres tonight, Thursday on HBO. We talk about the appalling miscarriage of justice the film documents and the bitter-sweet happy ending with the filmmaker and with one of the so-called West Memphis Three, Jason Baldwin, who also joins us to tell his inspiring personal story of enduring eighteen years of imprisonment for a crime he did not commit. |
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January 11 - The Obama Romney Has Invented; Romney's 2012 Campaign Theme; The Chavez/Ahmadinejad Sideshow
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We begin with Dan Kennedy a professor of journalism at Northeastern University who we spoke with some months ago when he wrote an article warning progressives to be careful what they wish for in wanting one of the less electable republicans to get the nomination instead of the more competent Romney. Now that Romney seems likely to be the nominee, we examine the candidate and how he might handle the challenges ahead. |
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Then we look further at the Republican front-runner with Glen Johnson, who is the Politics Editor at the Boston Globe’s online component Boston.com and the lead blogger for the site’s blog “Political Intelligence. He covered Romney’s 2008 campaign and is covering the current one and we discuss the candidate and his likely campaign themes that were outlined in his victory speech in New Hampshire. |
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Then finally we go to Caracas, Venezuela and speak with Virginia Lopez who covers Latin America and Venezuela for the UK’s Guardian newspaper. We get an update on the health of Hugo Chavez and a local perspective on the visit by Iranian President Ahmadinejad who also joined Hugo Chavez for the presidential inauguration of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. |
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| MUSIC: Kurt Vile - Puppet to the Man; Fionn Regan - Campaign Button; Janelle Monae - Cold War; Los Amigos Invisibles - Diablo |
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