February 21 - The Disappeared in Mexico's Drug War; Hagel's Revenge?; The Consequences of the Sequester

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Part 1	We begin and go to Mexico City for a reaction to the report by Human Rights Watch that over 20,000 Mexicans have disappeared, many at the hands of the military, during the last six years, in addition to the 70,000 who have died in the drug wars. Joining us to discuss the grim legacy of President Calderon is Ioan Grillo, who covers the drug war in Mexico for Time, CNN and the PBS NewsHour, and is author of “El Narco: Inside Mexico’s Criminal Insurgency”.
Part 2	Then, with 15 Republican senators writing to the President today asking him to withdraw the Hagel nomination, we speak with former Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb about his article at Foreign Policy “Hagel’s Revenge: How Obama’s new Pentagon chief can get back at his Republican Enemies”. We discuss the all-but-certain confirmation of the new Secretary of Defense and how, if he chose to, Secretary Hagel could move bases and defense contracts from South Carolina and Texas to punish Senators Lindsay Graham and Ted Cruz for their unwarranted and disgraceful attacks on his integrity and character.
Part 3	Then finally, we examine why the global markets went down today, falling after some members of the Fed expressed concerns in just-released minutes of the board’s January meeting, about continuing to buy 85 billion dollars worth of bonds every month. Dean Baker, the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research joins us to discuss the consequences of the impending sequester cuts, on top of money already taken out of a weak economy by the fiscal cliff deal, that are certain to slow growth and economic recovery.