jwiener

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Our war on Xmas: listening to BOB DYLAN’s Christmas album! Is this a joke — or a tragedy? SEAN WILENTZ explains — he’s official historian at the official Bob Dylan website (he also teaches history at Princeton.)  READ Sean Wilentz on Dylan’s Xmas album HERE.
PLAYLIST: “Here Comes Santa Claus”; “I’ll Be Home for Xmas”; “Must Be Santa,” “Winter Wonderland”; “O Little Town of Bethlehem”  (originally broadcast 11/11/09).

Plus: Egypt: The year in review. From the glorious Arab Spring in Tahrir Square to the disturbing election results this month–ADAM SHATZ comments.  His essay “Whose Egypt?”  appears in the London Review of Books, HERE.

Also: American politics: the year in review.  HAROLD MEYERSON looks at the Republicans, the Democrats, and the Occupyers.  Harold writes a column for the Washington  Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

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In the upcoming Iowa caucuses, Republicans like  anti-war Ron Paul–and Democrats may vote for “Uncommitted” rather than Obama. JOHN NICHOLS explains – he blogs at TheNation.com.

Also: TOM FRANK talks about the “bottomless sense of grievance” on the right today – for example, the “Team Infidel” people who blast Korans with shotguns—see their YouTube video.  Tom wrote about “Semper Infidelis” for Harper’s in December; his new book is Pity the Billionaire.

Plus: GREIL MARCUS on The Doors.  They remain at the heart of “the mythic life of their generation” – and their music still “shimmers with the dread that is with us still.” Greil’s new book is The Doors: A Lifetime of Listening to Five Mean Years. Playlist: “Light My Fire” (live at the Matrix), “L.A. Woman,” “The End,”  “Gloria” (Live).

And we’ll pay tribute to CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS, a frequent guest on the show — with an exerpt from our interview about God is Not Great. Christopher died on Saturday.

Republican states have been changing their laws to make it harder to vote – now activists are challenging those laws, and yesterday Attorney General Eric Holder finally suggested he might enforce the laws the prohibit discrimation in voting, especially when they target minority voters – ARI BERMAN of The Nation will report.

Plus: blacks and guns in America.  ADAM WINKLER looks at the twisted history of guns and gun control in the US.  Today it’s the left that wants gun control, but for most of American history gun control was the program of conservative whites who wanted to keep guns out of the hands of black people. Adam is professor of constitutional law at UCLA; his new book is GUNFIGHT: The Battle of the Right to Bear Arms in America.

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Manufacturing in America: 54,000 American factories have closed in the past decade.  What would it take to bring some of them back from China?  HAROLD MEYERSON reports on differing strategies – match Chinese wages; or beat the Chinese with productivity; or provide government support for manufacturing.  Harold writes an op-ed column for the Washington Post op-ed page and works as editor-at-large of The American Prospect, which features his report, “Back from China?”

Also: Protest in China: the year in review.  JEFF WASSERSTROM talks about strikes and economic actions; environmental protests about a toxic chemical plant: and widespread anger over the cover-up of a high speed rail crash–all of which make for anxious times for the CCP.  Jeff is chair of the history department at UC Irvine; recently he compared the Pepper Spray Cop meme with the Chinese Tank Man.  His latest book is China in the 21st Century: What Everyone Needs to Know.

Plus: The United States of Fear: TOM ENGELHARDT argues that, since 9-11, our leaders in Washington have sent the US down the “Soviet path,” pouring American treasure into the military, war, and national security – and driving our country towards the cliff.  Tom edits the indispensable Tom Dispatch; his new book is The United States of Fear.

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Occupy LA: 1,400 LAPD cops cleared the encampment at City Hall park in the middle of the night last night, arresting  almost 300 people.   ALAN MINSKY was there, reporting for KPFK — we’ll talk with him about the night, the Occupy movement, and of course the future.

Also: the Democratic Promise of Occupy Wall Street — William Greider of The Nation says that, while politics in Washington “now resembles an ecological dead zone,” the Occupy Wall Street movement is — “exhilerating.  ”   We are “witnessing a rare event—the birth of a social movement.”

plus: Live from Cairo: MARK LeVINE reports on the elections, and election violence, in the Middle East’s most important city.  Mark teaches Middle Eastern history at UC Irvine and is a columnist for Al Jazeera English