Background Briefing - Thursday, November 18, 2010

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Today we will look into a number of stories and issues in the news. We will begin in a moment and discuss the need for progressives and economists to create alternatives to the deficit hawks' mantra that dominates the debate. Senator Bernie Sanders, the longest serving Independent in the history of the US Congress, joins us to call for an alternative to the deficit hoax that is being sold to the American people by the right wing echo chamber that dominates our airwaves who are ginning up a phony crisis that has everyone but the top 2 percent tightening their belts, while we can't afford to extend unemployment benefits, but need to extend tax cuts for the richest Americans.

Then we will talk about the apparent scuttling of the START treaty by Republican Senators who seem determined to risk America's security because they are so intent on denying President Obama any legislative success. William Hartung, who is Director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New American Foundation, joins us to attempt to understand why the party that has always claimed to be tougher on defense is so driven by petty political partisanship that they are prepared to undermine national security and endanger America.

Then finally we will examine whether we live in a meritocracy anymore and whether Americans respect excellence and still believe in fair play. Incredibly enough these issues have been raised by the outrage expressed in the press and the blogosphere from inquiring minds who want to know how Bristol Palin was elevated to the finals of ABC's “Dancing With The Stars” at the expense of the clearly much more talented African-American performer Brandy. Leo Braudy, a professor of literature, film and cultural history at USC, joins us to figure out whether the votes were rigged by the Tea Party for political gain or by Disney for ratings, and what this tells us about the health of our culture and our political future.