Living in the USA

“It’s not a bill I’d vote for” – that’s what Howard Dean says about the health care bill the Senate Finance Committee passed yesterday with one Republican vote. Meanwhile, the Dems are caving on the banking bill:  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he’s an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, where his new piece is “Who Will Rein In Wall Street?”

Remember Ramparts? Remember the energy and political punch of this glossy New Left muckraking magazine?  PETER RICHARDSON explains how Bob Scheer and Warren Hinckle did it – his new book is A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America.

Also: the rise and fall of cigarettes in America.  ALLAN BRANDT talks about “the drama of consumer desire” in which advertising made cigarettes the tobacco of choice for nearly half of all Americans in 1950. Brandt teaches at Harvard medical School; his book THE CIGARETTE CENTURY: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast May 23, 2007)

For the record: today at 4 on KPFK, the fund drive will feature a guest host.

JOHN NICHOLS explains what’s next after the Senate Finance Committee deleted the public option from the health care bill the Senate will consider–despite the fact that the latest polls show 65% of the public in favor of a public option, which would allow people under 65 to buy into Medicare instead of private insurance.  John of course is Washington Correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

The KPFK Fund Drive continues: Our featured premium today will be the great book LIES MY TEACHER TOLD  ME by James Loewen. He surveyed the 12 leading high school American history textbooks and found “an embarrassing blend of bland optimism, blind nationalism, and plain misinformation.”    We’ll also feature the audio book of this devastating and important critique of what’s wrong with high school history today.

Only YOU can end the KPFK fund drive! call 818-985-5735 during the 4pm hour to pledge, or pledge online at www.kpfk.org.

Special note for listeners to the KPFK fund drive: during the 4pm hour today we will NOT cure cancer.   If you have cancer, go to the doctor.
PS: The truth about 9-11: 19 guys flew 4 planes into 3 buildings and a field.   George Bush’s role: incompetence.

For the record: today at 4 on KPFK, the fund drive will feature a guest host.

When Obama speaks to the nation (and Congress) about health care tonight, he needs to insist on a big and comprehensive plan that includes a genuine public option: “Medicare for all.”  JOHN NICHOLS will talk about what we want from Obama tonight.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: “THE LONG SIXTIES” – TOM HAYDEN argues that the movements of the sixties achieved deep reforms that made Obama’s election possible.  Obama, he says, in a “pure child” of the sixties – today caught between the social movements that propelled him to the presidency and the forces maintaining the present structures of power.  A commitment to the sixties goals of peace, justice and the environment could make Obama a great president.   Tom’s new book is THE LONG SIXTIES: From 1960 to Barack Obama.

Disasters can be  “a door back into paradise, the paradise in which we are who we hope to be, do the work we desire, and are each our sister’s and brother’s keeper.”  That’s the startling argument REBECCA SOLNIT makes; her new book is A PARADISE BUILT IN HELL: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster. I will be in conversation with Rebecca tonight/Wed. in the L.A. Public Library ALOUD Series, 7pm, downtown at 5^th and Flower streets.  Make a reservation HERE.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
FRIEDRICH ENGELS – “a foxhunting man, a womanizing, champagne-drinking capitalist” – and a lifelong revolutionary (and also collaborator of Karl Marx). Also, “far more adventurous than Marx when it came to exploring the ramifications of his and Marx’s thinking.” TRISTRAM HUNT explains – his eye-opening new bio is MARX’S GENERAL: THE REVOLUTIONARY LIFE OF FRIEDRICH ENGELS.

Plus: our political update: How bad are things going for the Obama health care plan?  JOHN NICHOLS will comment on Obama’s bruising august — he’s Washington correspondent of The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: HENRY FORD’s Amazon colony: Ford’s greatest success of course was the auto assembly line; his greatest failure was an attempt to build a midwestern small town in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest.  NYU historian GREG GRANDIN tells that story – his book is FORDLANDIA: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
HAROLD MEYERSON talks about Ted Kennedy’s place in American politics — “He was, as he lay dying, new again,” Harold writes at The American Prospect Online — because “Kennedy outlived the Reagan-Thatcher conservative era to which for so many years he had led the opposition.”

Plus: Iraq: the Forever War.  DEXTER FILKINS  covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan starting 2001 for the New York Times.  Filkins describes “an arid, hopeless policy” in an unforgettable book: The Forever War.  It’s out now in paperback.  (first aired 9/17/2008)

And we feature a special Ted Kennedy edition of Your Minnesota Moment: Minnesotans remember Kennedy’s visits to the state.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
Two stories about health care in America: in LA, a week-long free clinic at the Forum in Inglewood brought thousands of people to camp out in the parking lot in the hopes of seeing a doctor or a dentist – dramatizing the problem of health care in America today. KIMI YOSHINO will explain – she was there, covering the story for the LA Times. The clinic was organized by the Remote Area Medical volunteer corps, an amazing organization.  More from Natasha Vargas-Cooper HERE

Meanwhile in DC, Obama first said he was willing to give up a public option for health care; then he said maybe not. Then liberals in the House said they would not vote for any bill unless it included a public option.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he’s an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.

Also: The “State Secrets Privilege” allows the president to withhold documents and block civil litigation in the name of national security. It didn’t always exist – it was created in 1953. BARRY SIEGEL will explain how that happened — his book CLAIM OF PRIVILEGE is out now in paperback. (Originally broadcast 6/25/08)  Update on Obama and the State Secrets privilege from the NY Times HERE and ACLU HERE.

And  we’ll also listen to music from Les Paul — he died Aug. 13 at 94.  Playlist: “How High the Moon,” “The World is Waiting for the Sunrise,” “Bye Bye Blues.”

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
BARBARA EHRENREICH asks: Is it a crime in America to be poor? “You won’t be arrested for shopping in a Dollar Store,” she says, “but if you are truly, deeply, in-the-streets poor, you’re well advised not to engage in any of the biological necessities of life — like sitting, sleeping, lying down or loitering.” Barbara wrote about poverty for the New York Times op-ed page; her most recent book is This Land is Their Land.

Plus: JOHN NICHOLS on “the Cheney-like secrecy of the Obama White House.”  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

And MICHAEL POLLAN and his Eater’s Manifesto: he says “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly vegetables.” He will also provide his critique of the “Nutritional Industrial Complex.” Michael Pollan is the author of the number one-bestseller IN DEFENSE OF FOOD — it’s out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast 2/13/08)

Also: who will serve on Obama’s death panels — the ones Sarah Palin says will give the thumbs-down to her baby Trig?  We’ll have a report.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
Are people really turning against Obama’s health care plan? That’s what polls say.  That’s what Republicans are working on.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he’s an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.  Also: Gallup Poll shows only 5 Republican states.

And  JANE MAYER of The New Yorker talks about the “vast, secret regime of pain and torture” created by the Bush White house.  Her award-winning book The Dark Side is out now in paperback.  This is part 2 of my conversation with her in the downtown LA Public Library ALOUD series.  (Thanks again to Louise Steinman and the ALOUD staff for making this audio available for broadcast.)

And we’ll talk about bottled water: do you really need to drink bottled water?  Water from Fiji, or France, or the Sierras?  Do you really need nine glasses a day?  How bad is municipal tap water?  Elizabeth Royte has some answers – her book Bottlemania: Big Business, Local Springs, and the Battle Over America’s Drinking Water is out now in paperback. (originally broadcast 7/30/08)