October 26 - Justifying Poll Taxes and the Need for a Constitutional Right to Vote; The Moral Complexities of Political Assasination

We begin with successful efforts to suppress the vote ahead of the upcoming midterm election, particularly in Texas where the Supreme Court recently upheld a restrictive voter ID law that many consider a poll tax. Jonathan Chait, a writer for New York magazine where he has a new article “How Conservatives Justify Poll Taxes”, joins us to discuss why there is not a constitutional right to vote in the United States and the reasons behind why the Republicans are likely to win the upcoming elections by fair means or foul.

Part 2

Then we speak with the former veteran CIA officer Robert Baer, the author of four New York Times bestsellers, including “See No Evil”, the basis of the movie Syrianna which earned George Clooney an Oscar for his portrayal of Robert Baer. Baer is now a national security affairs analyst for CNN and his latest book, just out, is “The Perfect Kill: 21 Laws for Assassins”. We discuss the recent terrorist attacks in Canada and what motivates the attackers, as well as explore the grey area of political assassination, given that Baer himself, while working for the CIA as its top officer in Iraq between the two Iraq wars, was informed by the FBI that he was under investigation for the attempted murder of Saddam Hussein. We examine the moral complexities of preventing death by killing a Hilter or a Pol Pot, and the current role of drones as America’s weapon of choice, which also appear to be a weapon of executive assassination that Baer was accused of, that today Presidents can use with impunity, in spite of the collateral damage and blowback they cause.