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2013 Program Archive
January 14 - Did the Government Hound an Internet Freedom Fighter to His Death?; The French Intervene in Mali Against the So-called Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb; American's Wages Go Down While Profits Go Up
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We begin with the suicide of the 26 year old Internet entrepreneur and advocate for the electronic commons Aaron Swartz, who appears to have been hounded to his death by over-zealous government prosecutors unable to distinguish between malicious hackers and defenders of free speech and freedom of information. His friend and mentor, the Director of the Center for Ethics at Harvard and a Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School, Lawrence Lessig joins us to discuss the tragic loss of this young progressive activist. |
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Then we examine the intervention in Mali by French forces to prevent a takeover of the country by Islamists rebels from the north who are alleged to be members of AQIM, Al Qaeda In the Islamic Maghreb. The former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell joins us to discuss the likely short-term outcome and the longer-term possibility of a protracted guerrilla war in a failed state where world heritage sites have already been desecrated by rebels who are cutting off hands in the name of Islam. |
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Then finally we look into the state of working America where wages as a share of America’s gross domestic product fell last year to a record low of 43.5 percent, down from 49% in 2001. Economist, author and analyst Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute, joins us to discuss how wages are falling while profits are rising and how much stagnant wages are contributing to the growing income inequality in America. |
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January 13 - Will Jack Lew Work For Main Street or Wall Street?; Karzai's Duplicitous Double Dealing; Amy Wilentz on Haiti Three Years After the Earthquake
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We begin with an overview of the economic challenges ahead facing the new Secretary of the Treasury and the extent to which he understands them. Robert Johnson, the Executive Director of the Institute For New Economic Thinking joins us to discuss whether Jack Lew recognizes the systemic risk posed by the big banks and whether they are sufficiently regulated to prevent another meltdown which the Treasury will not have the funds to bail out next time. |
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Then, with President Obama having just met in the Oval Office with Afghanistan’s kleptocrat-in-chief Hamid Karzai, we are joined by Robert Pelton Young, an author, filmmaker, journalist and explorer who has just spent five weeks on missions in the mountains of Afghanistan with U.S. Special Forces hunting the Taliban. We discuss what is happening on the ground as Karzai asks for more American money for his family and cronies. |
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Then finally, with yesterday's observation of the third anniversary of the Earthquake in Haiti which took 300,000 lives and left over a million homeless, we are joined in-studio by Amy Wilentz, the author of the new book, Farewell Fred Voodoo: A Letter From Haiti. She also has an article in Sunday’s LA Times, “For journalists today, the whole world is watching”. |
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January 10 - Will Budget Reform Supersede Financial Reform at Treasury?; A Lifeline For Obama in the Debt Ceiling Showdown; Scientology "The Church of Fear"
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We begin with an examination of whether the choice of Jack Lew as Secretary of the Treasury means that financial reform will not be a priority in Obama’s second term. Michael Greenberger, the former director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission joins us to discuss whether budget reform will supersede financial reform in the next four years. |
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Then we speak with Edward Kleinbard, who was Chief of Staff of the U.S. Congress’s Joint Committee on Taxation, to explore an alternative scenario the president might follow to avoid the threatened shutdown of the U.S. government by Congressional Republicans over the debt ceiling. We discuss Ed Kleinbard’s plan to issue federal scrp if the Treasury is unable to issue new debt, which is outlined in his article in the New York Times “The Debt Ceiling’s Escape Hatch”. |
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Then finally, with the Church of Scientology marketing its brand of so-called religion in a television ad campaign, we speak with John Sweeney, a veteran BBC war correspondent and award-winning investigative journalist about his latest book “The Church of Fear: Inside the Weird World of Scientology” that chronicles his contentious experiences with the Church of Scientology filming the 2007 BBC Panorama special “Scientology and Me” and his 2010 follow-up “The Secrets of Scientology”. |
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| MUSIC: MGMT - Congratulations; Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush - Don't Give Up; The Beatles - You Never Give Me Your Money; Frank Zappa |
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January 9 - Obama's New Man at the Treasury; What Can Be Done to Reduce Gun Violence?; The Hottest Year on Record but Denial Still Dominates
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We begin with an assessment of the likely new Secretary of the Treasury Jacob “Jack” Lew who is currently President Obama’s Chief of Staff. Felix Salmon, a financial journalist and blogger for Reuters joins us to discuss the choice of this consummate Beltway insider to head up Treasury who, although Speaker Boehner asked Obama to replace him as negotiator, will apparently continue to do battle with the Republicans. |
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Then we look into what the President, who has deputized Joe Biden to take on the task of reducing gun violence in this country, can achieve in the face of determined, organized and well-funded opposition. Saul Cornell, the author of “A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America” and “The Second Amendment Goes to Court”, joins us to discuss what could be achieved through executive order short of the American people standing up to the NRA. |
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Then finally, with 2012 the hottest year on record in the lower 48 states, we speak with Daphne Wysham, the founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. We discuss what little the U.S. is doing to slow climate change compared to poor countries like Uruguay which will be 90% energy renewable by 2015, and Germany and Denmark who are also on track to be 100% renewable in spite their lack of sun and wind compared to the U.S. |
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| MUSIC: Fiddler on the Roof - If I Were a Rich Man; The Roots - Guns are Drawn; The Beatles - Happiness is a Warm Gun / Here Comes the Gun |
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January 8 - Can Our Bloated National Security Establishment be Reformed?; Hagel's Chances of Being Confirmed; Venezuela's Constitutional Dispute as Chavez Misses His Own Inauguaration
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We begin with an analysis of whether there will be a real change in our national security establishment that is so bloated and expensive that it is becoming a threat to America’s economic health and security. A former National Security Council senior staffer for two presidents, Roger Morris joins us to assess whether Chuck Hagel will be able to reform the Pentagon in the face of the shrill opposition from neoconservative shills for the military industrial complex. |
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Then we examine further Hagel’s chances of being confirmed as Secretary of Defense with many of his former Republican Senate colleagues leading the charge against him. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb joins us to discuss the forces arrayed against Hagel and the growing number of former senior military, diplomatic and national security officials coming forward to support his nomination. |
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Then finally, following the announcement today that President Hugo Chavez will not be attending his own inauguration in Venezuela of Thursday, we speak with Jennifer McCoy who is the director of the Carter Center’s Americas Program who has conducted election monitoring in Venezuela and is the author of “The Unraveling of Representative Democracy in Venezuela”. We discuss the growing constitutional dispute between the government and the opposition, whose leader said today “There is no monarchy here, and we aren’t in Cuba”. |
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