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2013 Program Archive
April 7 - North Korea has Learned from what Happened to Qaddafi and Saddam; Is Obama Well-Served by the "Liberal Hawks" who Surround Him?; Plan B and the Renewed War on Abortion
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We begin with the looming crisis in Korea between the world’s overwhelmingly nuclear-armed military superpower, the United States, and a delusional failed state that may or may not have a few deployable nuclear weapons, North Korea. With Secretary of State John Kerry’s warning to Pyongyang that the U.S. will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state, a veteran CIA operation officer Robert Baer joins us to look into the minds of North Korea’s leaders who have seen Qaddafi give up his nukes and loose his life and Saddam gave up his WMD only to have his country invaded in search of them. Robert Baer has an article at Time.com “North Korea’s Qaddafi Nightmare”. |
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Then we assess what kind of advice the President is getting from his National Security and Foreign Policy team that is largely comprised of Democratic “liberal hawks” all of whom, except Obama, supported the Iraq war. Roger Morris, who served on the senior staff of the National Security Council under both Presidents Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, joins us to discuss the imperial preening as the White House appears to be overcompensating in their reaction to the saber-rattling of a boy tyrant they refuse to speak with. |
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Then finally we examine Friday’s Federal Court ruling allowing greater access to the Plan B so-called morning-after pill, while moving in the opposite direction, there appears to be a renewed war on abortion across the country as North Dakota, Arkansas, Mississippi and Kansas pass laws banning and restricting abortions in defiance of Roe v Wade. Sharon Levin, the Director of Federal Reproductive Health Policy at the National Women’s Law Center joins us to discuss the state of reproductive freedom in America. |
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April 4 - Exposing the Owners of Fortunes Hidden Offshore; China's Stupendously Corrupt Communist Party; Germany's Economy Slows to "Near Stagnation"
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We begin with the expose of a cache, 160 times larger than the Wikileaks State Department document dump, of 2.5 million files that were cracked open by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, exposing the secrets behind more than 120,000 off-shore companies and trusts that hide the fortunes and identities of politicians, ruling families, Wall Street swindlers, arms dealers and the global mega-rich. Gerald Ryle, the lead author of the ICIJ’s report “Secrecy for Sale: Inside the Global Offshore Money Maze”, joins us.
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Then we look into the staggering corruption inside and at the top of the Chinese Communist Party which exercises one-party absolute rule over a country in which less than half of one percent of Chinese families own 70% of the wealth and where the top seventy members of the National People’s Congress are worth $89.8 billion. Peter Kwong, Professor of Asian American Studies at Hunter College, who studies modern Chinese politics, joins us. He has an article at The Nation “Why China’s Corruption Won’t Stop”. |
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Then finally, with a report out today showing Germany’s economy has slowed to “near stagnation”, we assess the implications of the Eurozone’s deepening recession on the engine of the Euro, Germany. Thomas Kleine-Brockoff, a senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and a member of the German Council on Foreign Relations joins us to discuss Europe’s growing North/South - creditor/debtor split and increasing concerns over the region’s debt crisis and political instability. |
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April 3 - Nuclear Sabre Rattling as North Korea Closes Border; How No Child Left Behind has Led to Cheating; Insurance Giants could Sabatoge Obamacare
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We begin with the deteriorating situation between North and South Korea, with the North closing off access to its Kaesong Industrial Complex for South Korean workers and managers, and a declaration by North Korea’s Army that it has “ratified” a merciless attack against the United States involving a “diversified nuclear strike”. An expert on North Korea, Charles Armstrong, Professor of History and the Director of the Center for Korean Research at Columbia University joins us to discuss what is behind the dangerous threats by North Korea and the brinksmanship from Secretary of State John Kerry who warned that the United States will not accept North Korea as a nuclear state. |
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Then we examine how George W Bush’s signature No Child Left Behind legislation has backfired and led to the rash of cheating on test scores in 37 states, culminating with the arrest of 35 “educators” in Atlanta including the former superintendent who was awarded superintended of the year in 2009. Jonathan Zimmerman, a professor of Education and History at New York University and author of “Small Wonder: The Little Red School House in History and Memory” and “Whose America? Culture Wars in the Public Schools” joins us to discuss this scandal and the NRA’s proposal to arm teachers. |
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Then finally we look into the future of Obama’s Affordable Care Act which could be undermined through a loophole that allows insurance giants to cherry pick and extend policies through 2014, thus weakening the pool and driving up prices in the insurance exchanges scheduled to go into effect on January the first. The former head of corporate communications for Humana and CIGNA, Wendell Potter, who has become a vocal critic of insurance company abuses, joins us to discuss how the Republicans will likely run against Obamacare in 2014 and the insurance giants could help them by sabotaging its implementation. |
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April 2 - The First International Treaty to Curb the Global Arms Trade; The "Monsanto Protection Act"; Canadian Tar Sands Crude Flows Through the Streets of Arkansas
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We begin with the landmark passage today in the U.N. General Assembly of the Arms Trade Treaty, the first international treaty regulating the multi-billion dollar global arms trade. Louis Belanger, the spokesperson for controlarms.org, a coalition of activists who campaigned for a “bulletproof” treaty, joins us to discuss the treaty that Syria, Iran and North Korea tried to block and how it will be implemented. |
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Then we speak with public health lawyer Michele Simon, the president of Eat Drink Politics about what is derisively being referred to as the “Monsanto Protection Act”, a rider inserted by Monsanto’s lobbyists in the recent must-pass continuing resolution that requires the Department of Agriculture to ignore any court ruling that would halt the planting of genetically engineered crops. We discuss how the Senate and the President folded and Michele Simon’s article at Food Safety News “Monsanto Teams Up with Congress to Shred the Constitution”. |
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Then finally we speak with Damon Moglen, the Climate and Energy Program Director at Friends of the Earth, about the rivers of oil flowing through the streets of the town of Mayflower, Arkansas. We discuss the impact of the spill of thousands of barrels of heavy Canadian tar sands crude oil from an Exxon pipeline built in the 1940’s and how this will effect the national debate on the Keystone XL pipeline that will carry the same oil across the U.S. from Canada to Texas. |
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April 1 - Generation X and Y are Changing our Politics; Instead of Escalating, We Should be Engaging North Korea; The Aryan Brotherhood Declares War
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We begin with an analysis of what is behind the changing political attitudes in the country on gay marriage and immigration. Princeton historian Julian Zelizer joins us to discuss his latest article at CNN “Generation X and Y start to rule politics”. |
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Then we speak with the former U.S. Ambassador and CIA Station Chief in South Korea Donald Gregg, who argues that rather than the show of force with B-2 bombers and F-22 fighters, the White House should be pursuing diplomacy with North Korea and negotiating a peace treaty instead of escalating the dangerous confrontation on the peninsula that could lead to a catastrophic war. Donald Gregg has an article at the Los Angeles Times “Reaching out to North Korea: Obama showed on his Middle East trip the power of direct presidential involvement. He should employ the same sort of diplomacy towards Pyongyang”. |
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Then finally we look into the murders of prosecutors in Texas linked to the Ayran Brotherhood of Texas and discuss the growing power and reach of this prison gang involved in racketeering, meth labs and murder. Mark Potok, the director of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Intelligence Project and editor of its quarterly investigative journal “Intelligence Report” and the Hatewatch blog, joins us to discuss what amounts to a declaration of war on law enforcement by the Ayran Brotherhood. |
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