Living in the USA

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ROBERT REICH on Obama’s economy: the Senate has failed to pass unemployment extension, and is getting ready to approve tax cuts for the rich.  Robert Reich was secretary of labor under Bill Clinton; his new book is Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future.

Our Haiti update from AMY WILENTZ: elections last Sunday – no results yet.  And almost a year after the killer earthquake, a million people are still homeless. And now there’s a cholera epidemic.  Amy wrote about the elections for the New York Times op-ed page.

Lincoln and slavery: how our greatest president changed his mind about abolition, war, emancipation, and black voting rights, and why he gave up the idea that freed slaves would have to leave the US:  Columbia University  historian ERIC FONER explains — his new book is The Fiery Trial: Abraham Lincoln and American Slavery.

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MIKE DAVIS talks about CHALMERS JOHNSON, our most brilliant and acute critic of American empire, author of the award-winning Blowback and more recently The Sorrows of Empire and Dismantling the Empire. He died Saturday.  Also we’ll listen to my last interview with Chalmers.
READ Tom Engelhardt on Chalmers Johnson’s passing HERE.

Plus: DANIEL ELLSBERG has been arrested more than 60 times – but not for the Pentagon Papers.  In this interivew he recalls his anti-war activism in — and out — of jail.

Also: GREIL MARCUS has been writing about BOB DYLAN since the mid-sixties, working with “a fan’s intensity and a detective’s persistence.”   Greil’s new book, collecting 40 years of criticism — and ending with Dylan’s performance on election night in 2008 in Minneapolis, is Bob Dylan by Greil Marcus: Writings, 1968-2010.
Playlist: “With God on our Side,” Live 1964 at Philharmonic Hall (with Joan Baez); “Like a Rolling  Stone,” Best of the Original Mono Recordings.

It’s the Pacifica Archives fund drive, and we’ll be featuring Pacifica audio documentaries on Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon:  for Jimi Hendrix, an amazing show featuring rare recordings and interviews with blues singer John Hammond (who befriended the young Hendrix in Greenwich Village in 1966), Chas Chandler from The Animals (who brought Hendrix to England and became his manager), as well as Hendrix biographer David Henderson.

The Pacifica Archives Campus Campaign places unique historical audio in college and school libraries: 180 hours of audio in two volumes from the vault:  Civil Rights, 1968, Women’s Studies, The Environment, Malcolm X, Noam Chomsky, and Studs Terkel, Black Power, and more.  Presented in mp3 format on 18 discs, this set requires a pledge of $250 — please call during the show — or pledge online HERE.

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George W. Bush’s book tour, interviews plugging his memoirs, has gotten low ratings on TV –– GREG MITCHELL reports on media and politics hits and misses — he writes the indispensable “Daybook” every morning at TheNation.com, and he’s the author of Campaign of the Century, the amazing story of Upton Sinclair’s run for governor in California in 1934.

Also: GAIL COLLINS, the New York Times op-ed columnist, traces women’s progress from the fifties to the present, from “My Little Margie” to Hillary for President — and Sarah Palin for Vice President.  Her book When Everything Changed is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 11/18/09)

Plus:  Survivors of the Gulag after Stalin:  STEPHEN COHEN has spent 30 years interviewing Stalin’s victims, and talks about how they survived and their long struggle to obtain justice in Russia today.  Steve’s new book is The Victims Return – he’ll be speaking and signing Friday Nov. 19 at 700pm at Book Soup on Sunset Strip.

More stuff to read: for the 40^th anniversary of Doonesbury,  “My favorite Doonesbury character, Mr. Butts” – at TheNation.com, HERE.

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Our election analysis the morning after: HAROLD MEYERSON of the Washington Post looks at the Democrats’ loss of working-class whites in key midwestern states; JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation says first-term presidents often suffer mid-term setbacks–the question is what Obama will learn from this one; and ARI BERMAN, author of Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party, says it’s time to revive the 2008 grassroots Obama movement.  His essay “Boot the Blue Dogs” appeared on the New York Times op-ed page.

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Six days out from the midterm elections, the punditocracy predicts massive losses for Democrats in the House.  California, however, remains the exception – Republican candidates Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina seem to face certain defeat.  What explains California’s exceptionalism?  We’ll ask HAROLD MEYERSON — he writes columns for the op-ed pages of the Washington Post and the L.A. Times — and JOHN NICHOLS — he’s Washington Correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: TOM HAYDEN on the new WikiLeaks: the largest classified military leak in history –400,000 pages that document the brutal war and occupation in Iraq.  Tom of course is a leading voice for ending the wars in Iraq and Aftghanistan, after 40 years of activism, politics, and writing.

for the record: my show today at KPFK is pre-empted for special fund drive programming.  Please pledge — call 818-985-5735, or online at kpfk.org.

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Campaign update: Michelle Obama campaigned in Milwaukee today for endangered progressive Senator Russ Feingold — and our JOHN NICHOLS was there. He says she was terrific. John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

And 84-year-old ELMORE LEONARD has just published his 48^th novel: Djibouti.  We’ll ask him about his famous “rules for writing” (originally broadcast 2/28/2004)

Also: How to Win Elections: JAMIE COURT explains how to win grassroots campaigns, pass ballot box laws, and get the change we voted for.  Court, a longtime organizer of ballot campaigns and other initiatives, is the author of The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell. WATCH Jamie’s 30-second video now running in Times Square on the Jumbotron HERE.

KPFK kicks off a special twelve-hour Lennon 70^th birthday celebration Saturday Oct. 9 at noon, and I’ll be hosting the first hour.  We’ll be listening to my interview with Yoko last week, plus the new “Stripped Down” versions of the great songs on “Double Fantasy”— remixed to bring up Lennon’s voice and remove some of the rest – starting with “Starting Over” and “I’m Losing You.”  We’ll also be featuring my long-ago interviews  with Abbie Hoffman and Pete Seeger about Lennon.

Plus;  highlights from the great documentary “The US vs. John Lennon,” featuring the bed-in for peace, Beatle record-burnings, and Geraldo Rivera, Tariq Ali and Gore Vidal on Lennon.
It’s the KPFK fund drive, and we’ll be featuring as thank you gifts the DVD of “The US vs John Lennon,” plus the new “Double Fantasy Stripped Down” CD, and a few surprises.  Please listen – and please call 818-985-5735 and pledge during the show!  Saturday noon-1:00pm, 90.7FM, streaming live at www.kpfk.org.

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Bob Dylan in America: SEAN WILENTZ talks about Dylan’s work as a songwriter and performer and his deep roots in Amercan culture.  His new book is Bob Dylan in America – Martin Scorsese says it is “as thrilling and surprising as listening to a great Dylan song.”  We are featuring the book as a premium in our fund drive – please call and pledge during the show, 818-985-5735, or online at kpfk.org.

Also: JOHN NICHOLS with our political update – how bad are things for the Dems?  Why is Wisconsin’s progressive hero Russ Feingold in trouble?  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.  DOWNLOAD the entire new issue of The Nation HERE.

Plus: a chat with YOKO ONO about her plans for Oct. 9, which would have been John Lennon’s 70^th birthday.  KPFK will feature a 12-hour John Lennon special on Oct. 9 – I’ll be hosting noon-100pm, featuring lots of rare audio, and the documentary “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” on DVD as a fund drive premium.