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December 23 - Blessing Kerry While Defaming Hagel; The Deafening Silence Following Woodward's Bombshell; The NRA's Bizarre Press Conference
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We begin with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, who was Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff and discuss the nomination of Senator John Kerry to be the next Secretary of State, which will apparently sail through the Senate. Meanwhile the expected nomination of Senator Chuck Hagel to be the next Secretary of Defense is under intense fire from the AIPAC lobby and neoconservatives who are desperately trying to torpedo Hagel’s chance of heading up the Pentagon. |
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Then we continue the conversation and speak with Roger Morris who served on the National Security Council under presidents Johnson and Nixon until resigning over the invasion of Cambodia. We look into the evolution of Lieutenant John Kerry who testified against the Vietnam War that he fought in before the very same Senate Foreign Relations he later came to head. We will also discuss the explosive story the press are ignoring; the bombshell tape Bob Woodward uncovered that ended up in the Style pages of the Washington Post revealing how Fox News tried to run General Petraeus for president. |
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Then finally we speak with the Alternet’s Washington Bureau Chief Adele Stan who attended the NRA’s press conference where they proposed posting armed guards at every school in America. We discuss why the gun lobby that has only 4.3 million members is able to wield so much power on Capitol Hill and her article at Alternet.org “NRA’s Bizarre Press Conference: More Guns Now!” |
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| MUSIC: The Flaming Lips - Waiting on a Superman; The Rolling Stones - My Sweet Neocon; Derek and the Dominos - Tell the Truth; The Roots - Guns are Drawn |
December 20 - Paying For Civilization; Big Oil Escapes the Fiscal Cliff; A Petty Putin is Peeved at America
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We begin with economist Jeffery Sachs who is Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of “The Price of Civilization: Reawakening American Virtue and Prosperity”. We discuss how in spite of the political wrangling, both the House and the White House would shrink our government back to the Eisenhower era with plans that would make deeper cuts than if we went over the so-called fiscal cliff. |
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Then we continue the discussion on how lopsided the debate is in favor of cutting government services instead of raising taxes, and how little the American people realize what they are about to lose whichever deal is struck. Andy Kroll, a staff reporter in the Washington D.C. bureau of Mother Jones joins us to discuss his article at Mother Jones “Will Big Oil Keep the Subsidies in a Fiscal Cliff Deal” and how cuts in subsidies to big oil, who are now making record profits, are barely on the table and not in the cards. |
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Then finally we discuss the latest crackdown on dissent in Russia by Vladimir Putin who held a marathon press conference today where he opined on whether the world will end tomorrow according to the Mayan calendar and offered citizenship to a French actor looking for a tax haven. Nina Khruscheva, a professor of International Affairs at The New School joins us to discuss the increasingly peeved and petty Russian leader who was forced to answer uncomfortable questions about corruption and a ban on U.S. adoption of Russian children. |
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December 19 - The NRA's "Gun Rights" a Modern Fabrication; The Myth of Armed Citizens Winning America's Freedom; An Examination of the Benghazi Report
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We begin with an analysis of the legal history of the Second Amendment which has been interpreted by the NRA and gun rights activists to bestow constitutional rights on the unrestricted ownership and use of guns in America. Professor of History and Chair of Education at New York University, Jonathan Zimmerman joins us to discuss his article in the Christian Science Monitor “Sandy Hook: The NRA’s Gun ‘Rights' Are a Fabrication of Modern Times”. |
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Then we speak with Michael Lind, who has an article at Salon.com “Guns Have Never Saved Us”. We further discuss how gun advocates have misread the Second Amendment and examine the real historical record that shatters the cherished myth America won its freedom from the Red Coats because of individual gun-ownership and that an armed citizenry protects our liberties from government tyranny. |
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Then finally we look into the findings of a report by an independent panel who investigated the Benghazi incident that Fox News and the Republicans have been trying to blow up into a major foreign policy issue. The author of “America’s Other Army: The U.S. Foreign Service and 21st Century Diplomacy” and former Financial Times and Washington Times correspondent Nicholas Kralev joins us. He has travelled the world with four U.S. Secretaries of State – Hillary Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and Madeleine Albright. |
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| MUSIC: Willie Nelson - Come on back Jesus; Xavier Rudd - Pockets of Peace; The Beatles - Happiness is a Warm Gun; The Police - Message in a Bottle |
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December 18 - The Maker of the Gun That Killed the Schoolkids Issues "Man-Card" to Customers Who Buy It; Will Obama Sell Out Seniors?; Who is Profiting From the Destruction of the Congo?
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We begin with the shocking confirmation that America’s sick gun culture is fueled by gun manufacturers, in particular the makers of the Bushmaster assault rifle used in the recent massacre of schoolchildren. In an explicit ad campaign Bushmaster ties manhood to using their assault rifle, issuing "man-cards" to customers who buy this military weapon. Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon’s Washington political reporter joins us. He has two articles at Salon “Assault Rifle Company Issues “Man-Cards” and “The Answer is Not More Guns”. |
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Then we look into rumors that President Obama might sell out on Social Security in the current negotiations on the so-called “fiscal cliff”. Robert Weissman, the President of the Washington D.C.-based consumer watchdog group Public Citizen joins us to discuss his concern that instead of taxing Wall Street, the White House might be ready to ship senior citizens down the river and start taxing grandma. |
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Then finally, with hearings about to start in the Senate Armed Services Committee into the tragic resource war in the Congo where five million have died so that we can get cheap components for consumer electronics, we speak with a Congolese expert on who is profiting from the destruction of his country. Georges Nzolgola-Ntalaja, professor of African Studies and Afro-American Studies at the University of North Carolina joins us to discuss a much-needed change in U.S. policy towards the Congo. |
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December 17 - Corporate America and the NRA's Deadly Alliance; Heroic Teachers in a Profession that's Denigrated; "Rampage: The Social Roots of School Schootings"
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We begin with an examination of how some of America’s biggest corporations, as members of ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, have joined forces with the NRA to strike down gun laws and implement permissive conceal and carry gun laws as well as make it easier to buy machine guns. Lisa Graves, the Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy and publisher or Alecexposed.org join us to discuss the extent to which corporate America has blood on its hands. |
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Then following the recent display of heroism by five teachers who died protecting young children, we look into the corporate war on teachers with Henry Giroux, a writer and the current Global Television Network Chair in English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University. We discuss the denigration and downsizing of teachers and the de-funding of their unions by corporate and billionaire backers of ALEC and their political hirelings in Congress and State legislatures. |
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Then finally Katherine Newman joins us. She is the Dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University and author of “Rampage: The Social Roots of School Shootings”. We discuss the latest classroom massacre in America and her article at CNN “In School Shootings, Patterns and Warning Signs”. |
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