Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
January 8 - War Games in Increasingly Troubled Waters; Pushing Iran to the Wall; Bringing Down the Assads and the Neighborhood
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with the collision course the U.S. and Iran are on that could result in a another war in the Gulf which at a minimum would drive oil prices way up in an election year. A veteran CIA officer Robert Baer joins us to discuss the lethal mixture of Iranian paranoia, Israeli threats and American election-year politics that, combined with provocative naval exercises, could result in an incident that would spark a wider conflagration. |
 |
|
|
Then we continue looking into this incendiary mix with Vali Nasr, an Iranian-born professor of International Politics at Tufts University who was recently the Senior Advisor to President Obama’s Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. We discuss Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s trip to Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador and Nicaragua to gain support as sanction ratchet up and Iran announces a new drill to close the Straights of Hormuz, codenamed “The Great Prophet’ that will coincide with joint US/Israeli exercises in the Gulf, codenamed “Austere Challenge 12”. |
 |
|
|
Then finally as Arab League Foreign Ministers meet in Cairo, we assess new efforts to give some backbone to the Arab League monitors in Syria as the Assad clan continues its murderous repression of the Syria people. Dr Muraf Jouejati, a former Syria diplomat in touch with the Syrian opposition, who now teaches at the National Defense University, joins us. We discuss whether UN Human rights experts will be allowed in to bolster the toothless mission that has so-far been unable to stop the killing. |
 |
| MUSIC: Edwin Starr - War (What Is It Good For); The Shins - So Says I; Built to Spill - Temporarily Blind; |
January 5 - Santorum's Sanctimony; "The Tide of War is Receding"; Protecting Predatory Lenders
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with a profile of the latest rising star in the Republican presidential primaries, Rick Santorum. Dr Terry Madonna, the founder of the Keystone Poll and an expert on Pennsylvania politics joins us. He has closely followed Rick Santorum’s political career for decades and we try to assess Santorum’s chances of becoming the nominee as well as his aggressive stance on social issues where he has not only crusaded against gay marriage and abortion but also opposes contraception. |
 |
|
|
Then with the president making a rare appearance at the Pentagon today where he presented a new Defense Strategic Review and announced “the tide of war is receding”, we get an analysis of what a leaner U.S. military might look like from Winslow Wheeler, who has worked on national security issues for 31 years as a senior Senate staffer and at the General Accounting Office. He is now director of the military reform project at the Center For Defense Information and is the author of “The Wastrels of Defense: How Congress Sabotages U.S. Security”. |
 |
|
|
Then finally, with the president’s recess appointment of Richard Cordray, we examine what is behind Republican attempts to block the new head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau from assuming his office. The author of “Broke USA: From Pawnshops to Poverty Inc. - How the Working Poor Became Big Business” joins us. Gary Rivlin is a special correspondent for Newsweek and the Daily Beast and he explains why the Republicans are protecting payday lenders, mortgage companies, debt-collectors and other predators. |
 |
| MUSIC: Of Montreal - Enemy Gene; Modest Mouse - Broke; Conor Oberst - Roosevelt Room; Primus - Those Damned Blue Collar Tweekers |
Tags:
January 4 - The GOP Candidates and God's Plan; The Backlash Against Putin; An Analysis of What is in the NDAA
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with the invocation of God in the Republican primaries where both the winners and losers in Iowa made election night speeches attributing America’s freedom and greatness to God and their political purpose, guidance and fortunes to the will of God. Frederick Clarkson, the author of “Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy” joins us to discuss the threat posed by Romney and Santorum to the separation of church and state that John F. Kennedy stated as an absolute in the 1960 presidential campaign. |
 |
|
|
Then we look into the growing opposition in Russia to Putin’s prolonged rule as demonstrations against the regime and the electoral fraud carried out by the ruling United Russia party are growing ahead of the March 2012 presidential elections. Daniel Treisman, the author of “The Return: Russia’s Journey from Gorbachev to Medvedev” joins us to shed light on an enigmatic country that emerged 20 years ago from the collapse of the Soviet Union, as an unruly democracy that Putin has since transformed into an authoritarian capitalist state. |
 |
|
|
Then finally we try to determine what is in the National Defense Authorization Act President Obama recently signed into law accompanied by a signing statement. With civil libertarians on one side convinced it opens the door to an American police state, and on the other side an overwhelming majority of the Senators and Congressmen who signed it, insisting it protects the rights of American citizens and legal residents, we examine the bill’s contents with Dahlia Lithwick, a contributing editor at Newsweek and a senior editor and legal correspondent at Slate, where she specialized in covering the Supreme Court and judicial issues. |
 |
| MUSIC: My Morning Jacket - Gideon; Devotchka - How It Ends; Bright Eyes - Easy/ Lucky/ Free; Shabazz Palaces - Free Press and Curl |
Tags:
January 3 - "Incredibly Expensive and Disturbingly Lazy"; Young Iowans For Ron Paul; The Author of "Why Iowa?"
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with David Sirota, a nationally-syndicated weekly newspaper columnist, award-winning radio host and best-selling author. He has an article at Salon that argues the intense media coverage of the Iowa caucuses has been incredibly expensive and disturbingly lazy. |
 |
|
|
Then we speak with a reporter on the ground in Iowa who has been covering the candidates and has spoken with prospective voters. Elise Foley, a reporter with the Huffington Post based in Washington DC, joins us. We discuss how young voters are reacting to candidates trying to appeal to the youth vote and how Iowans who have been bombarded with negative TV ads, are reacting to last-minute pitches by candidates who at the end of the day will be spending up to 250 dollars per vote. |
 |
|
|
Then finally, we look into the significance of this relatively recent electoral phenomenon that is breaking campaign spending records and attracting unprecedented media coverage, yet has a mixed record in picking presidential winners. David Redlawsk, a polling expert and professor of political science at Rutgers University joins us. He is the author of “Why Iowa?: How Caucuses and Sequential Elections Improve the Presidential Nominating Process”. |
 |
| MUSIC: Built to Spill - Center of the Universe; Arcade Fire - City With No Children; Wilco - Side With The Seeds; Radiohead - Electioneering |
January 2 - The Media Bombardment of Iowans; Iranian War Games; "Biden Gets China"
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
We begin with the last day of campaigning before Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses and speak with Mack Shelley, a professor of Political Science and Statistics at Iowa State University. We discuss the apparent tie between front-runners Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney and get a local perspective on the media bombardment of Iowans and a broader national perspective on a growing sense of alienation and disgust with our broken democracy at the same time that unprecedented media attention is focused on the ritual of our democratic electoral process. |
 |
|
|
Then, with President Obama’s recent signing of a controversial bill imposing sanctions against Iran’s Central Bank, and Iran’s retaliation with missile tests and naval exercises in the Gulf, along with a recent threat by Iran’s Vice-President to shut the Straits of Hormuz, we look into whether the U.S. and Iran are on a collision course. A specialist on Iran, Maziar Behrooz, joins us to assess how much both sides are on a trajectory towards war, having trapped themselves into an escalation of rhetoric and actions where any spark could set off a conflagration in a volatile region that supplies 20% of the world’s oil. |
 |
|
|
Then finally the Washington Editor-at-large for the Atlantic and editor-in-chief of Atlantic LIVE, Steve Clemons joins us to discuss the growing importance of the Vice President’s role in foreign affairs with Joe Biden about to take charge of U.S./China relations that the White House recently announced as its new priority in the coming years. We discuss how someone who has been gaining more power and influence quietly working behind the scenes in a number of critical foreign policy areas, could be the subject of rumors that suggest he will be jettisoned from the 2012 ticket for Hillary Clinton to run as vice-president |
 |
| MUSIC: The Strokes - You Talk Way Too Much; Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth; Arcade Fire - Intervention; Bonobo - Kiara |
Tags:
RSS Latest Radio Programs
Pacifica App