Full Program

Part 1

We begin and go to southern Turkey near the Syrian border to speak with Rafif Jouejati, the English language spokesperson for the Syrian Local Coordination Committees, the non-violent umbrella group of the Syrian opposition. We discuss the opposition’s decision to attend the Geneva 11 talks next Wednesday in Switzerland and who among the fractured opposition recently at war with each other, will attend. And what the expectations are for a peace agreement, given Assad’s bottom line that he will not step down, and the opposition’s bottom line that Assad must first step down.

Part 2

Then we look into the latest scandal engulfing New Jersey Governor Christie following allegations by the Mayor of Hoboken that she was pressured to approve a development project the governor was behind in order to receive disaster relief money from Hurricane Sandy that inundated 80% of Hoboken. John Weingart, the associate director of the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University joins us to discuss this latest in a series of scandals following the bridge closure that are dogging Christie who only gave Hoboken $142,000 of the $100 million in FEMA money the mayor asked for.

Part 3

Then finally we get an analysis of President Obama’s recent proposal to reform the NSA’s eavesdropping activities which have been met with tepid approval from the Tech giants who are concerned they will lose between 30 and 100 billions dollars as a result of the NSA’s ubiquitous spying on Internet communications, and an underwhelming response from civil libertarians who feel Obama’s proposals barely begin to address the problem. William Arkin the co-author of the Washington Post’s landmark series “Top Secret America” and the author of the new book “American Coup: How a Terrified Government is Destroying the Constitution”, joins us.

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Senate Republican’s rejection of an effort to restore unemployment benefits to 1.3 million Americans who were cut off on December 28. Joining us is Thomas Hirschl, who recently co-authored a new report at the Associated Press on the widening gap of wealth inequality in the U.S. where 4 out of 5 adults have struggled with joblessness and near poverty. 50 years after the war on poverty was declared, we discuss the war on the poor by Republicans who have cut food stamps and unemployment benefits in an apparent effort to increase poverty in America rather than end it.

Part 2

Then we look into the efforts underway on Capitol Hill to sabotage the P5+1 diplomatic deal with Iran with a new sanctions bill being pushed in the Senate by Republican Mark Kirk and Democrat Robert Menendez.  M.J. Rosenberg, a special correspondent for The Washington Spectator, who worked on Capitol Hill for a number of Democratic Senators and House member for 15 years, and also worked for AIPAC, the lobby behind efforts to scuttle the deal, joins us to discuss what is driving Israel’s Defense Minister to insult America’s Secretary of State and why is AIPAC working overtime to kill Obama’s diplomatic opening with Iran.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Bob Kincaid, the co-founder of the Appalachian Health Emergency Campaign and Chair of the Board of the Coal River Mountain Watch about the broader environmental and health issues effecting the people of West Virginia beyond the current crisis over a chemical spill that has the nation’s attention at the moment.  Apparently the 300,000 residents in the Kenawha Valley are merely the latest West Virginia residents to be exposed to deadly toxins which are routinely used across the state in mining and mountaintop coal removal.