January 5 - Open Rebellion in Iraq; Obama's Wall Street-Friendly Regulators; The Rising Cost of Buying Elections

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the open rebellion in Iraq where Al Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have captured much of Ramadi and most of Falluja as the civil war in Syria appears to be merging with a new civil war in Iraq. An expert on Iraq, Juan Cole, a professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History at the University of Michigan and author of “The Ayatollahs and Democracy in Iraq” joins us to discuss the bitter legacy of the Bush/Cheney war on Iraq where last year over 8,000 Iraqis died in sectarian violence.  

Part 2

Then we look into president Obama’s latest appointments to the critical Wall Street consumer watchdog commission that oversees how much we pay for gas and food, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Michael Greenberger, the former director of the Division of Trading and Markets at the CFTC joins us to discuss the more Wall Street-friendly commissioners Obama is appointing as well as who might succeed the head of consumer protection at the Federal Reserve who is likely to be replaced by a more Wall Street-friendly appointment.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with media critic and reform advocate, Robert McChesney, whose latest book co-authored with John Nichols is “Dollarocracy: How the Money-and-Media-Election Complex is Destroying Democracy”. As this election years begins, we discuss how unbridled campaign spending defines our politics and could signal the end of our democracy with the growing price tag for buying a House and Senate seat up from $845,000 in 2000 to a minimum of $1.6 million  in 2012 for the House, and up from $7.2 million to $10.3 million for the Senate.