August 5 - When Monopolies Rule Our Access to Communications; Al Qaeda is in Iraq for Real This Time; The Lure of Performance Enhancing Drugs

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Part 1	We begin with the growing public outrage over the standoff between the two corporate giants Time Warner Cable and CBS who in the last 12 months earned $7.65 billion and $3.65 billion in profits respectively. Susan Crawford, who served as Special Assistant to President Obama for Science, Technology and Innovation Policy and is the author of “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age” joins us. We discuss what recourse customers who are being denied service they are paying for, have, given the passivity of the FCC and the absence of a Congress more beholden to contributors than constituents.
Part 2	Then we examine the irony that one of the lies Bush/Cheney sold to get us into the Iraq war, their claim that Al Qaeda was setting up a base in Iraq, is now becoming a grim truth as Al Qaeda in Iraq’s Sunni resurgence against Maliki’s corrupt and sectarian government gains momentum. Peter Van Buren, a 24 year veteran State Department official who served in Iraq and is author of “We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People” joins us to look into the fragmentation of a country the Bush Administration liberated, that is now dominated by Iran.
Part 3	Then finally, we speak with an expert on drugs in sports, Dr Gary Wadler, a physician and Chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List and Methods Subcommittee. We discuss today’s suspension of 13 baseball players, including three-time American League MVP Alex Rodriguez who will be sidelined for 211 games through the 2014 season. We discuss the problem that won’t go away and what can be done to clean up sports.