2013 Program Archive

September 24 - Iranian Experts on Rouhani's U.N. Speech; Backlash Against NSA Spying at the U.N.; Growing Republican Hysteria Over Obamacare

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We begin with the meeting that did not happen between President Obama and Iran’s President Rouhani at the U.N. because it was apparently vetoed by Iran’s Supreme Leader. First Dr. Trita Parsi, the co-founder and president of the National Iranian American Council joins us to discuss the Iranian leader’s speech to the U.N., and then we will discuss it further with Nader Hashemi the Director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver.

 

trita parsi

nader hashemi
 

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Then we examine the consequences of the NSA’s spying on Americans that the President and the head of the NSA assured us was only directed at foreigners. One foreigner, the president of Brazil Dilma Rousseff, blasted the NSA in her opening speech at the U.N. saying that “without the right of privacy there is no democracy and without respect for sovereignty there is no basis for proper relations amongst nations.” Christopher Sprigman, a professor of Law at New York University joins us to examine the fallout from increasing international outrage over the on-going NSA scandals.

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Then finally we assess what it being done to counter growing hysteria and hyperbole over Obamacare that has Tea Party Senator Ted Cruz vowing to filibuster until he can no longer stand up to save the American people from the impending doom of affordable healthcare. Ethan Rome, the executive director of Health Care for America Now joins us to discuss what Republicans fear most about the Affordable Care Act and why they are determined to shut the government down to prevent its implementation, their fear that Obamacare will work.

 ethan rome

 

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September 23 - Aiding Failed States that Become Havens for Terrorists; Possible Diplomatic Openings with Iran; Getting Heads of State Not on Speaking Terms Together at the U.N.

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We begin with the terrorist attacks in Kenya and Pakistan that targeted Christians and non-Muslims and look into the increasingly dangerous environment for humanitarian and aid organizations as they try to address the underlying problems that cause states to fail and then become havens for terrorist groups like Al Qaeda. James Jennings, the President of Conscience International joins us to discuss the growing challenges of operating in Somalia and Pakistan.

 james jennings

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Then we speak with Flynt Leverett who served as a Senior Director of Middle East Affairs on the National Security Council and is the co-author of “Going to Tehran: Why the United States Must Come to Terms with the Islamic Republic of Iran”. We will discuss possible diplomatic openings between the U.S. and Iran as world leaders meet at the United Nations to address the General Assembly and find a way to proceed on the Russian/American framework for controlling and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. 

flynt leverett

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Then finally we speak with Michael Cohen, a columnist for the UK Guardian and a former chief speechwriter for the U.S. Representative at the United Nations. We will discuss the role that Samantha Power now has representing the United States and how behind-the-scenes and backroom deals can be arranged and orchestrated between heads of state not on speaking terms who need to address common challenges.

 michael cohen

 

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September 22 - The Siege at the Mall in Nairobi, Kenya; A Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria on the Assad Regime; A Catholic Sister Under Fire Redeemed by the New Pope's Words

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We begin with the siege at an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya and speak with Makau Matua, the dean of the Buffalo Law School and a columnist for the Standard on Sunday, one of the two main newspapers in Kenya and East Africa. We discuss the endemic political corruption in Kenya and how much it has hampered efforts to subdue the Somali Al-Shabab terrorists whose murderous rampage in retaliation to 4,000 Kenyan troops in Somalia is meant to drive a wedge between Kenya’s Christian majority and its Muslim minority.

 

 makau matua

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Then we speak with Ambassador Theodore Kattouf, a former U.S. Ambassador to Syria who knows the ruling Assad family and has met with the Syrian dictator’s reclusive and violence-prone younger brother Maher Assad who heads up the regime’s Praetorian Guard and its murderous militias. We discuss Iran’s behind-the-scenes role in bringing about the Russian/American deal to control and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal and the possibility of U.S./ Iranian cooperation in ending Syria’s bloody civil war.

 makau matua

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Then finally we speak with Sister Simone Campbell, the executive director of Network a Catholic social justice network who the previous Pope singled out for criticism for her support of President Obama’s healthcare reform push and her failure to promote church teachings on abortion, contraception and homosexuality. We discuss the new Pope, Francis’s radical reversal de-emphasizing these issues, while calling on the Church to be less judgmental and more pastoral, as well as the fate of the Affordable Care Act after the House’s 42nd vote to kill it in the latest showdown over shutting down the government to defund Obamacare.

 simone campbell

 

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September 19 - A Possible Thaw in U.S.-Iranian Relations; The Paymasters of the Radicals About to Shutdown the Government; The Pope Offers Hope

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We begin with hopeful signs of a thaw in the intractable relationship between the U.S. and Iran following encouraging words from Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani who said his exchange of letters with President Obama has been “positive and constructive”. Middle East expert Rasool Nafisi joins us to discuss Iran’s behind-the-scene brokering of the Russian/American deal on Syria and to analyze the new tone ahead of Rouhani’s visit to New York next week.

 

 rasool nafisi

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Then we examine the bankrolling of the radicals in the House of Representatives who have steamrolled their leadership into agreeing to shutdown the government unless Obama’s signature achievement that was voted into law and upheld by the Supreme Court is defunded. Zephyr Teachout, a professor of law at Fordham University and the former National Director of the Sunlight Foundation joins us to discuss the role of the Koch Brothers in turning the Tea Party from a populist movement into a Congressional caucus of strident shills for right-wing plutocrats.

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Then finally we assess the impact of the Pope’s remarks that the Catholic Church is obsessed with abortion, gay marriage and contraception and should not interfere spiritually in the lives of gays and lesbians. Marianne Duddy-Burke, the executive director of Dignity USA, the leading organization of LGBT Catholics and Frances Kissling, the former president of Catholics for Choice, join us to discuss how Pope Francis’s words might translate into action.

mariane

frances kissling
 

 

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September 18 - Could the Fed's Stimulus to Wall Street be Better Spent on Main Street?; The International Backlash to NSA Spying; A Peace Lobbyist on Ending the War in Syria

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We begin with the Fed’s announcement that it is continuing to pump 85 billion a month into the bond market which prompted share prices to surge on Wall Street. Robert Kuttner, a former chief investigator for the Senate Banking Committee who wrote a column for Business Week for 20 years, joins us to discuss whether quantitative easing is a subsidy for Wall Street that could be better invested in Main Street and his article at the Huffington Post “Summers' End”.

 

 robert kuttner

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Then we examine the international backlash to the extent of NSA surveillance on foreigners that has caused Brazil’s president to cancel a state visit to Washington and call for the creation of a BRICS Internet that would link Brazil, India, China and South Africa. Gigi Sohn, the co-founder and president of Public Knowledge joins us to discuss the collateral damage to America’s technology companies and our Internet-fueled economy, not to mention the future of freedom of information on the Internet that Russia, China, Sudan and Saudi Arabia want to control and censor.

 gigi sohn

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Then finally, Kate Gould, the Legislative Associate for Middle East Policy for the Friends Committee on National Legislation, a Quaker lobby that field the largest team of registered peace lobbyists in Washington, joins us to discuss the challenging prospects for peace in Syria and hopeful signs from Iran, particularly their silence on Assad’s use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians that the Russians are still insisting was a provocation by the rebels.

 kate gould

 

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