Background Briefing - Wednesday, December 1, 2010

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Today we will look into a number of subjects and issues in the news. We will begin in a moment and discuss the one - two financial punches aimed at the American people today. ONE, the President's Deficit Commission's recommendations to slash taxes for the rich and corporations while asking working Americans to work longer until they are 69 to collect Social Security while cutting Medicare, education, environmental cleanup and senior housing. And TWO, the Fed's release today of who they gave $3.3 trillion in cash to in the fall of 2008, more than a thousand big corporations including McDonald's, GE and the Bank of America, who got bailed out overnight, indicating who is first in line in America with your tax dollars, while the unemployed, waiting in line, are denied benefits. Joining us is Chuck Collins who directs the Program on Inequality and The Common Good who co-wrote with Bill Gates Senior “Wealth and Our Commonwealth”.

Then we will get a reaction to the Wikileaks release of diplomatic cables questioning China's patience with the North Koreans and the possibility that they would welcome a reunified prosperous Korea under the control of the South with Chinese access to resources in the North. We are joined by Gordon Chang who is an International Policy Analyst and the author of “Nuclear showdown: North Korea Takes On the World”. Since the Chinese government has blocked Wikileaks and dismissed its leaks as gossip, we will try to get an understanding of the apparent division within the leadership between those who favor China's economic interests with the U.S., South Korea and Japan and those like Wu Dawei, the top Chinese negotiator with North Korea, described in a leaked cable as an arrogant former Red Guard who favors spouting Karl Marx.

Then finally we will hear from the Emmy and Peabody-winning filmmaker of a new feature documentary premiering tonight at 7.30 PM on Showtime “The Other City”. On this day, World AIDS Day Susan Koch joins us to talk about her film that is set in the nation's capitol which also happens to be ground zero for the highest concentration of AIDS in America, mostly affecting Washington DC's poor and non-white residents.