October 30 - The Nuclear Option Looms in the Senate; Addressing Bogus Alarmism on Social Security's Solvency; So-called "Islamic Terrorists" Arrested in China

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the showdown in the Senate expected on Thursday when and if the Republicans block the nomination of Patricia Millet to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals that is likely to provoke the so-called nuclear option to reign in the filibuster. Nan Aron, the President and Founder of the Alliance for Justice, joins us to discuss the brazen blockage of Obama’s judicial nominees to the second most important court in the land.

Part 2

Then we get an update on Wednesday’s conference on retirement security in Washington in support of protecting social security in advance of any “grand bargain” that might put it on the chopping block as budget talks begin and the Cost of Living Adjustment for 2014 is announced at 1.5 %, the fourth lowest since the COLA was introduced in 1975. Eric Kingston, the founding co-director of Social Security Works, the organization behind the Strengthen Social Security Coalition, joins us to discuss the forces arrayed to protect Social Security against the powerful interests who want to either cut its benefits or privatize it.

Part 3

Then finally, we look into the arrests by the Chinese Public Security Bureau of five ethnic Uighurs who are being described as Islamic jihadists responsible for an audacious attack at the foot of the Tiananmen Gate near the political heart of the nation. A leading expert on China’s ethnic minorities and in particular the Uighurs, Dru Gladney, joins us. He is a Professor of Anthropology at Pomona College and author of “Muslim Chinese: Ethnic Nationalism in the People’s Republic”.