November 19 - Republicans Taunt Senate Democrats; The War Within The War Among Syrian Rebels; The Flow of Saudi Money to Salifists in Syria

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with what appears to be a taunt by Senate Republicans to dare the Democrats to go ahead and make their day by changing the senate rules to end the Republican abuse of the filibuster that just blocked Obama’s latest nominee to the third of three vacant seats on the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. A veteran Senate Senior Staffer Mike Lofgren, the author of “The Party is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats became Useless and the Middle Class Got Shafted”, joins us to discuss whether Harry Reid will make good on his threat to invoke the so-called “nuclear option”.

Part 2

Then we go to Jordan to speak with Nicholas Heras, a Contributing Editor and Analyst with the international affairs journal Fair Observer. We discuss the bombing of the Iranian embassy in Beirut and the war within the war amongst the Syrian rebels where the more secular Free Syrian Army has clashed with the Salafist Al Nusra Front who in turn have clashed with other al Qaeda affiliated groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, turning northern Syria into a patchwork of warring fiefdoms.

Part 3

Then finally we speak with Saudi expert Toby Jones, a professor of history at Rutgers University and author of “Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia”. We discuss the role of Saudi and Gulf money pouring into Syria in support of the hardline Salafist groups among the Syrian opposition and the hollow nature of the Saudi regime’s claim that in spite of a powerful secret police and omnipresent religious police that keep such a tight lid on the feudal kingdom, they are unable to stem the flow of private money funding al Qaeda affiliated groups in Syria.