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2011 Program Archive
December 15 - Playing Politics with the Bill of Rights; The Militarization of Our Judiciary; What we Lost to Iran
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We begin with two assessments of the dangers posed to our civil liberties by the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act the president threatened to veto but will now sign. First we speak with Scott Horton, who is a professor at Columbia Law School and a contributing editor at Harpers in legal affairs and national security. We try to understand why this law that the heads of our military and national security establishment did not want, that has the civil liberties community alarmed, was not vetoed by the president. |
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Then joining us for a further discussion of this bill that goes much further in militarizing law enforcement than anything the Bush/Cheney Administration ever proposed, is Aziz Huq, a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg who is now a professor of Law at the University of Chicago. We examine the objections that civil libertarians and our top military and national security officials have about the bill and how much the compromise language that was sufficient for the president to withdraw his veto, leaves open the possibility of a further erosion of the bill of rights and a future abuse of power. |
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Then finally we look into what the U.S. Intelligence community lost in the capture of a top-secret state-of-the-art drone now in Iranian hands. One of the world’s leading experts on mercenaries, robotics and future warfare, Peter Singer, a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative joins us. We discuss how much of a treasure trove the largely intact Sentinel drone will be for the Russians and Chinese and how it ended up on display by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps. |
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| MUSIC: Shabazz Palaces - Free Press and Curl; Arcade Fire - The Well and the Lighthouse; Fugazi - Provisional; Black Sabbath - Electric Funeral |
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December 14 - Obama Will Not Veto the Assault on the Bill of Rights; The Real Reason the Post Office is Going Broke; "Can the World Live With A Near-Nuclear Iran?"
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We begin with Shahid Buttar, the executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee to discuss the contents of the Defense Authorization bill the President had threatened to veto but now appears willing to sign into law. We examine provisions in the bill the Pentagon and the FBI opposed which the White House now accepts and determine how much they pose a threat to the civil liberties of Americans exercising their constitutional rights under the first, fifth and sixth amendments. |
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Then, with the announcement of a moratorium on the planned closure of more post offices and 250 mail processing plants that would eliminate 28,000 more jobs, we discuss the real reason the Postal Service is in financial difficulty, as opposed to the often-stated misreporting by the mainstream press that the Internet is putting the post office out of business. The president of the National Association of Letter Carriers, Fredric Rolando joins us to lay out the reasons why the same Congress now calling for a plan to save the Postal Service, is responsible for shackling it with a uniquely onerous pre-funded health and retirement fund that has billions in surplus. |
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Then finally we examine an alternative approach to the growing confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program. Mohammed Ayoob, the University Distinguished Professor of International Relations at Michigan State University joins us to discuss why Iran wants a nuclear weapon and how best to deal with them once they have it. He has an article at CNN “Can the World Live With a Near-Nuclear Iran”. |
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| MUSIC: Dirty Projectors - Rise Above; Conor Oberst - Get Well Cards; Fleet Foxes - Helplessness Blues; The Shins - We Will Become Sillouettes |
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December 13 - "My Occupy LA Arrest"; The 10 Greediest Americans; Kicking the Euro Down the Road
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We begin with Patrick Meighan, a writer best know for his work on “Family Guy” and “Titus” who was arrested and imprisoned earlier this month while participating in the “Occupy LA” protest at City Hall. He tells us the story of his treatment at the hands of the LAPD that the mainstream press failed to report and we discuss the rough treatment those protesting the destruction of our economy get in contrast to the kid glove treatment of those who reaped billions in profits while bringing economic ruin upon millions of their fellow citizens who in turn bailed them out with taxpayer money that has rewarded Wall Street while Main Street languishes. |
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Then we hear about “The 10 Greediest Americans of 2011". Sam Pizzigati, a veteran labor journalist and fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies joins us to discuss his hall of shame list of America’s greediest CEO’s who get exorbitant paychecks and bonuses while laying off workers, cutting their benefits, squeezing their pay and making them work longer for less. |
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Then finally we discuss the likelihood of the Euro crisis resuming soon in the wake of a European summit that many analysts feel did not solve the problem but kicked the can down the road. Stephen Walt, a professor of International Affairs at Harvard University joins us to discuss the financial crisis that will not go away and we also talk about his latest article at Foreign Policy, “Five Potential Game-changers in International Diplomacy”. |
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| MUSIC: Fugazi - Cashout; Dirty Projectors - Gimmie Gimmie; Ben Harper - Mister; LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations |
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December 12 - A Reality Check on Our "Success" in Iraq; What We Are Leaving Behind in Iraq; The U.K. Out in the Cold?
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We begin with two perspectives on our withdrawal from Iraq that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki applauded as a success at the White House where President Obama spoke of the impressive progress made by Iraq. First, Middle East Scholar and Iraq specialist Juan Cole joins us to analyze what this long and expensive war achieved for the United States that appear to have left Iran in charge of Iraq’s destiny. And what we are leaving behind in a country broken by a war we waged based on specious claims. |
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Then we speak with a former Deputy Director of the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, the only Intelligence Agency that told the truth about Iraq’s alleged WMD’s and resisted the Bush Administration’s manufactured case for war. Wayne White joins us to reflect on where Iraq is today as opposed to before under Saddam Hussein, and whether this largely defenseless country with deep internal divisions will hold together, presided over by a corrupt and weak government over which the U.S. has little influence while Iran seems to call the shots. |
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Then finally we examine the apparent self-marginalization of the U.K. in Europe, following the British Prime Minister’s rejection of an agreement that came out of the recent European summit. James Cronin a professor of History at Boston College who chairs the British Study Group at Harvard’s Center for European Studies joins us to discuss a possible rift in Britain’s ruling coalition and whether London’s financial center really did veto the European agreement as Prime Minister Cameron has claimed. |
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| MUSIC: MGMT - Pieces of What?; My Morning Jacket - Gideon; Fionn Regan - Shadow of an Empire; Vera Lynn - There'll Always be an England |
December 11 - The Military on Our Streets?; Is Hugo Chavez Close to Death?; Occupy Student Debt
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We begin with an analysis of the Defense Authorization Bill that the President has threatened to veto, with Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson who was Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff and went public with his knowledge of torture approved by the Bush Administration. We look into provisions in the bill that appear to increase the role of Guantanamo Bay rather than close the place that has become synonymous with torture, as well as provisions that allow for American citizens to be arrested on U.S. soil and be held indefinitely without trial. We also explore other aspects of the bill that appear to make a war with Iran very likely and will drive up the price of oil in an election year. |
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Then we look into rumors swirling around in Venezuela that Hugo Chavez is close to death. Javier Corrales, a professor of Political Science at Amherst College and author of “Dragon in the Tropics: Hugo Chavez and the Political Economy of Revolution in Venezuela” joins us. With Presidential elections scheduled for October of next year, we examine the likelihood that the terminally ill leader will not run, but without any clear succession in place, the possibility of civil unrest looms. |
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Then finally we explore the role of student debt in the “occupy” movement with Andrew Ross, who is Professor of Social and Cultural Analysis at NYU and one of the organizers of the Occupy Student Debt Campaign. With student debt reaching one trillion dollars this year and the White House apparently buckling under pressure from well-connected lobbyists representing the for-profit colleges, we examine the reversal of reform of a 30 billion dollar predatory industry that thanks to its friends on Capitol Hill, is allowed to make enormous profits as a private enterprise that is 90% funded by the taxpayer. Meanwhile, more often than not, they provide students with a worthless education while saddling them with a mountain of debt. |
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| MUSIC: Dirty Projectors - Police Story; Cancion de Hugo Chavez; The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio; Vampire Weekend - The Kids Don't Stand A Chance |
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