Background Briefing has a new home at BackgroundBriefing.org.
Please visit and bookmark the new site. You can search show archives here.
2011 Program Archive
July 5 - Tom Hayden Sits in for Ian Masters--Afghanistan and WikiLeaks
|
|
Listen to Full Program | ||
|
|
Tom Hayden interviews Congresswoman Barbara Lee on her efforts to end the war in Afghanistan |
 |
|
|
|
Tom Hayden talks about his reporting on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks in his new publication for the The Nation, "The Trials of Julian Assange: A View From Sweden." |
 |
|
|
|
Tom Hayden continues an open forum discussion with Alan Minsky and Spencer Downing on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. |
 |
 |
Tags:
July 3 - Surprise GOP Candidate, Michelle Bachmann; Health of Hugo Chavez and Venezuela; Israel and Palestine
|
|
|
|
|
|
Ed Felien, publisher and editor for the Minneapolis alternative monthly, Southside Pride, joins us to talk about the surprise GOP candidate, Michelle Bachmann.
|
 |
|
|
Next, Michael Shifter joins us to discuss the power of acumen in Venezuela if Chavez's health is as grim as some claim.
|
 |
|
|
With the possibility of another flotilla headed for Gaza, Daniel Byman, author of the new book, A High Price, joins us to analyze the political costs of the lack of a peace process between Palestine and Israel. |
 |
Tags:
June 30 - The Human Rights Situation in Libya; How Much is the Noose Tightening on Gaddafi?; Is the New State Budget "California Dreamin" in its Projections?
|
|
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
|
First, we go to the Libyan border with Tunisia to speak with a human rights monitor who has been inside the worst battlefronts in Libya. Sidney Kwiram, who is a consultant with Human Rights Watch, joins us to describe the human rights situation in Libya that was the basis upon which the U.S. and NATO intervened with air power. |
 |
|
|
Then, we look further into the situation in Libya and examine the stalemate with a former Libyan diplomat who was a translator for Moammar Gaddafi, Dr. Abubaker Saad. We also try to assess the strength of the resistance inside Tripoli that indicates how much the noose is tightening on Gaddafi. |
 |
|
|
Then we look into the state of dysfunction here in California and examine the latest budget with Mark Paul, the former deputy Treasurer of the State of California, who will assess the good, the bad and the ugly aspects of Governor Brown’s budget. We will see how much of it is “California dreamin” in terms of revenue projections. |
 |
Tags:
June 29 - Why the Constitution is not on the Tea Party's Side; Riots in Greece; Clarence Thomas to Possibly be Removed
|
Full Program |
LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM | |
|
Part 1 |
We begin with a discussion of the constitutional underpinning of the debt ceiling that is central to the stalled negotiations between the White House and the Republican leadership over deficit reduction, which was the subject of today’s press conference by the President. Jonathan Zasloff, who is a professor of law at the UCLA School of Law, joins us to explain that the constitution, which the Tea Partiers supposedly revere, is not on their side of the debt ceiling issue. |
 |
|
Part 2 |
Then we go to Athens, Greece to talk to Ralph Atkins, a reporter with the Financial Times who covers the European Central Bank. He will give us an update on the riots in the streets in response to the Greek parliament’s passage of austerity measures demanded by the European banks and bond holders to prevent a default on the 340 billion Euro debt that Greece is straining to pay interest on. |
 |
|
Part 3 |
Then former White House Council and best-selling author, John Dean, joins us to talk about how Justice Clarence Thomas could be removed from the Supreme Court following the example and precedent set by Assistant Attorney General William Rehnquist, who launched an attack based on weak evidence against Abe Fortas, who was about to become the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, leading to the ultimate irony of William Rehnquist himself ending up in that very job. |
 |
Tags:
June 28 - Why Obama Is Not Standing Up to the Republicans; The Greek Economic and Political Crisis; Bulger Resurfaces the Wars Between Law Enforcement
|
|
Listen To Full Program | |
|
|
We begin by examining why the president is not standing up to the blackmail by the Republican leadership, who are threatening to destroy the full faith and credit of the United States unless they get their way in cutting Social Security and Medicare. Meanwhile, they refuse to even consider raising revenues, let alone taxing the top one percent. The Executive Director of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Robert Johnson, joins us to explain why the president is not standing with the American people. |
 |
|
|
Then, amid strikes and protests, with the Greek parliament poised to make a crucial vote on the austerity measures required by European banks and bond holders to avoid default, we discuss the Greek economic and political crisis with Theofanis Stavrou, a professor of History at the University of Minnesota and the founder and editor of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies. |
 |
|
|
Finally, we look into the wars between law enforcement that are bound to resurface with the trial of alleged mobster, Whitey Bulger, who was just arrested in Santa Monica. Maria Cramer, who covers crime for the Boston Globe, joins us. She was in court today in Boston as Whitey Bulger arrived in an orange jumpsuit to face a Federal Judge at the beginning of this long and painful trial that promises to be embarrassing for the FBI. |
 |
Tags:
RSS Latest Radio Programs
Pacifica App