December 18 - An Iraqi Perspective on the U.S. Withdrawal; Mugging the Middle Class; Unrest in Kazakhstan

Full Program	LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM
Part 1	We will begin with an Iraqi perspective of the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Raed Jarrar, an Iraqi political analyst and blogger joins us to analyze why Iraq, with enormous oil resources and a greater national income than Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan combined, who have four times Iraq’s population, has a lower standard of living than its neighbors.
Part 2	Then we will examine the political dysfunction in Washington as the House appears ready to reject the compromise to extend the payroll tax cut for two months. Lawrence Mishel, the president of the Economic Policy Institute who is the author of the authoritative study of the American workforce, “The State of Working America” joins us to discuss the implications for working Americans if this tax cut is taken away by House Republicans who appear determined to protect tax cuts for the one percent by holding an extension of a modest boost in the family income for most Americans hostage to an oil pipeline.
Part 3	Then finally we will look into the unrest in Kazakhstan where oil workers have been on a seven month strike against a State oil Company half-owned by Chinese interests. William Fierman, a professor of Central Eurasian Studies and Political Science at Indiana University joins us to explain the source of the violence that has left many dead and dampened the celebration of the 20^th anniversary of independence for this former Soviet Republic that has had the same corrupt leader before and since its independence.
	MUSIC: Beach House - Used To Be; Arcade Fire - Intervention; Built to Spill - Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss; Against Me! - Problems