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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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March 31 - Bi-partisanship on Immigration; Shooting Down Gun Control in the Senate; How Gay Adoption Has Gone Under the Radar
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We begin with the possibility that a bi-partisan bill on immigration reform will be introduced in the Senate later next week and speak with Angela Maria Kelly, Vice President for Immigration Policy and Advocacy at the Center For America Progress, who was director of the Immigration Policy Center and prior to that was deputy director at the National Immigration Forum. She is the author of a new report which is an economic analysis on the impact of legalizing 11 million immigrants now living and working in the shadows. |
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Then we look into the chances of any restrictions on criminals and the mentally ill obtaining firearms passing in the Senate, given the threat of a filibuster by Rand Paul, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. William Vizzard, a veteran in law enforcement who was a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms and is the author of “Shots in the Dark: Policy, Politics and Symbolism of Gun Control” joins us. We discuss the impasse over gun safety with a president determined to prevent another massacre like Newtown and senators beholden to the NRA, equally determined to block any gun control measures. |
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Then finally we examine the paradox that in spite of the bigotry and banning of gay marriage, gay adoption has proceeded apace and largely under the radar. Alison Gash, a professor of political science at the University of Oregon and author the forthcoming book “Below the Radar: How Silence Can Save Civil Rights” joins us. She has an article at The Washington Monthly “Under the Gaydar: How gays won the right to raise children without conservatives even noticing”. |
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March 28 - Obama's Plea to Turn Heartbreak Into Action on Gun Violence; Saudi Dissenters Sent to Syria for Jihad; Democracy in Retreat in Thailand, Venezuela, the Philippines, Taiwan and Russia
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We begin with President Obama’s emotional plea today to the nation not to forget the recent massacre of children in Newtown and to turn the heartbreak into something real that will reduce gun violence. Saul Cornell, the author of “A Well Regulated Militia: The Founding Fathers and the Origins of Gun Control in America” joins us to discuss whether the Senate can be shamed into action on a watered-down gun control measure before it. |
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Then we look into how the Saudis are offering young anti-government protesters who have been arrested a ticket out of jail if they go to Syria to fight in a “jihad” against the Assad regime. Freelance journalist Reece Erlich, who has written an article at GlobalPost, “Saudi Youth Fighting against Assad Regime in Syria”, joins us to explain the duplicity of the Saudi government in outsourcing the arming of Syrian rebels to wealthy Saudis who procure arms for the most radical fighters like the al-Nusra front. |
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Then finally we examine the reversal of democracy in Thailand, Venezuela, the Philippines, Taiwan and Russia with Joshua Kurlantzick, the author of a new book “Democracy in Retreat: The Revolt of the Middle Class and the Worldwide Decline of Representative Government”. He is a fellow for Southeast Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations and is a former columnist for Time, and a correspondent for The New Republic, The American Prospect and Mother Jones. |
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