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2013 Program Archive
May 23 - A Lawyer for 11 Guantanamo Prisoners on Obama's Speech; Obama's Call to End the "Perpetual" War on Terror; The Truth About the "Too Big to Jail" Bankers
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We begin with two different impressions of President Obama’s speech today at the National Defense University where he called for an end to the endless war on terror. First Carlos Warner joins us. He is an attorney with the Federal Public Defender of the Northern District of Ohio who represents 11 Guantanamo prisoners. We discuss why the president has not closed Guantanamo which again Obama called for today. |
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Then we speak with Peter Singer the Director of the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence at the Brooking Institution who was coordinator of the Obama ’08 campaign defense policy task force. He has an article at the Los Angeles Times “Finally Obama Breaks his Silence on Drones” which we discuss along with the president’s call to end the “perpetual” war on terror which Obama called “self-defeating”. |
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Then finally we look into the DOJ and Treasury documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by Bartlett Naylor, the financial policy advocate for Public Citizen who served as chief of investigations for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee. He joins us to discuss this new evidence that completely undercuts claims by the Department of Justice that they did not prosecute “too big to jail” bankers because of a fear that the whole financial system might unravel if some big Wall Street bankers went to jail. |
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May 22 - Increasing Tensions Between the White House and the Press; The Brazen Hypocrisy of Oklahoma's Senators; A Cure For Capitalism
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We begin with increasing tensions between the White House and the press over the government’s snooping on the AP and a Fox News reporter which has prompted the New York Times to editorialize that the Obama Administration “has moved beyond protecting government secrets to threatening fundamental freedoms of the press to gather news”. A former Justice Department legal ethics advisor who now represents whistleblowers, Jesselyn Radack, joins us. She is the National Security and Human Rights Director at the Government Accountability Project. |
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Then we speak with Arnold Hamilton, the Editor of the Oklahoma Observer, about the hypocrisy of Oklahoma’s Senators Inhofe and Coburn who have consistently opposed federal disaster aid that the state now sorely needs. Following the disastrous destruction of lives and property from tornados that killed young children in their unprotected schools, we discuss the Republican-dominated state government’s war on education where the school budgets have been cut by 30% in the past few years, with the governor proposing teachers arm themselves at their own expense while she cuts their pay. |
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Then finally Richard Wolff, Emeritas Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts and author of “Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism” joins us to offer his critique of U.S. and global capitalism. With the rich getting richer, and the poor poorer, we discuss what can be done to revive a democracy captured by plutocrats and corporatists to restore a government of the people, by the people.and for the people. |
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May 21 - Stepping on Each Other's Toes in a Diplomatic Dance; Genocide Verdict Anulled in Guatemala; Apple Avoids U.S. Taxes on Billions in Ireland
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We begin with an analysis of whether or not the U.S. and Russia, let alone the Syrian parties themselves, will be able to come to an agreement over peace talks on Syria. Former White House Middle East Advisor Ambassador Marc Ginsberg joins us to discuss Russia’s insistence that Iran join the international conference and remarks from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov cautioning against arbitrary deadlines, implying Secretary of State John Kerry is getting ahead of himself. |
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Then we look into today’s annulment by Guatemala’s highest court of the verdict of genocide against General Rios Montt who was sentenced to 80 years for the deaths of 1,700 of the 200,000 Mayan Indians murdered by the Guatemalan military. Anita Isaacs, a Professor of Social Sciences and Political Science at Haverford College and author of “The Politics of Transitional Justice in Postwar Guatemala” joins us to discuss her recent article at The New York Times “We Enabled Genocide, but the Elite Committed it”. |
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Then finally, we speak with Lee Sheppard, a contributing editor of Tax Notes who was recently named one of the Global Tax 50 most influential players in international taxation by International Tax Review. We discuss today’s hearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations where the CEO of Apple, Tim Cook was grilled over avoiding $9 billion in taxes in 2012 and keeping billions of Apple’s profits in Irish subsidiaries to avoid paying U.S. taxes. |
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May 20 - Change on the Syrian Battlefield and in the Diplomatic Arena; "What Happened to Obama's Promise?"; "Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age"
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We begin with an analysis of whether the tide of battle in Syria is turning in favor of the Assad dictatorship and what that might have to do with talks soon to take place brokered by Russia and the United States. Chris Toensing, an Arabic-speaking specialist on Syria who is the Executive Director of the Middle East Research and Information Project and Editor of The Middle East Report joins us to discuss recent changes on both the battlefield and in the diplomatic arena. |
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Then we speak with Princeton historian Julian Zelizer about his article at CNN “What Happened to Obama’s Promise”, and discuss the criticism of the president coming from his disillusioned supporters on the left who expected a transformational president instead of a transactional one. We examine whether reform is possible in Washington and what Obama could and should do to motivate his spiritless supporters to vote in 2014. |
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Then finally we look into the power of the telecom oligarchs in the new gilded age who are the contemporary equivalent of the railroad barons but exert unprecedented influence over us as the gatekeepers of news and information. Susan Crawford, who served as Special Assistant to President Obama for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy and is the author of the new book “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age”, joins us to talk about how America, where the Internet revolution began, is slipping further and further behind as Americans get gouged by monopolies who charge more and more for less and less service. |
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May 19 - Looking for the "There" There in the Latest Scandals; Poor Morale Among Those With Their Finger on the Nuclear Trigger
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We begin with an analysis of the trifecta of scandal, the IRS, Benghazi and the AP that is supposed to be crippling the White House. For some context we turn to award-winning investigative journalist Mark Feldstein, the author of “Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture”, and discuss the "doctored" White House emails that were leaked to The Weekly Standard and ABC News to breathe new life into the so-called Benghazi scandal and whether there is a “there” there, and what Obama should do to put these manufactured scandals to rest. |
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Then, with recent revelations that Air Force personnel in charge of launching nuclear missiles have been relieved from their posts due to poor morale, we look into the Dr. Strangelovian world of why those who baby sit these Cold War relics under the prairies of North Dakota are disciplined because they recognize the futility of what they are doing. While those who were prepared to destroy the world during the Cold War were given promotions. Rudolf Herzog, the author of “A Short History of Nuclear Folly: Mad Scientists, Dithering Nazis, Lost Nukes, and Catastrophic Cover-ups” joins us to discuss the dark comedy of the nuclear age that still lives on. |
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