Living in the USA

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
The Minnesota Supreme Court has finally ruled — unanimously — that AL FRANKEN is the winner of the recount in his Nov. 3 Senate race with Republican Norm Coleman — and Coleman has conceded.  It’s all over —  Senate Democrats can seat Franken  next week, giving them 60 votes as the move to consider global warming and  health care.   JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation comments; and we listen to our 2003 interview with Al Franken — he was funny.

Plus: The Slave Next Door — KEVIN BALES talks about human trafficking and slavery in America today–in the most mundane middle class suburbia.  He’s president of Free the Slaves in Washington, D.C.  and Professor of Sociology at Roehampton University, London.

Also: Can one reporter change the world? I.F. STONE thought so – he’s the subject of a terrific new biography, American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone –written by D. D. GUTTENPLAN.  He’s London correspondent for The Nation and an award-winning former writer for New York Newsday and other publications.  Izzy of course edited I.F. Stone’s Weekly, now archived at its own website; he also had an amazing career before he launched the Weekly.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
What’s going on right now in Iran — what the protests tell us about the new generation of Iranians, and about the future of the Islamic Republic — and what Obama, and the American Left, should do to support democracy and oppose tyranny.
MARK LeVINE will explain. He teaches the history of the modern Middle East at UC Irvine and has written four books, including Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam and Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989.

Also: “The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan” – JAMES MANN talks about the hidden history of the end of the Cold War, and about Reagan’s split from the Republican right in his second term, and about his fear of nuclear war. Mann is the author of the much-admired book Rise of the Vulcans, on the Bush White House; his new book is The Rebellion of Ronald Reagan: A History of the End of the Cold War.

for the record: I did not have a show today at 4 on KPFK — where the fund drive continues!

‘3 Days of Peace & Music’: that was Woodstock, summer of ’69, a climactic moment of the sixties and an unforgettable concert film.  In the KPFK fund drive today, we feature a new DVD “Woodstock Ultimate Collector’s Edition” with an all-new cut of the film, plus some fabulous extras: concert footage from two great bands, Creedence Clearwater Revival and the Grateful Dead, that didn’t appear in the original film.  Also: performances from two other acts that weren’t included in the original film: Paul Butterfield and Johnny Winter — along with additional numbers by several artists that did appear in the movie, including Joan Baez, Joe Cocker and the Who.  And of course Jimi Hendrix.  This glorious 3 DVD set, released today, can be yours for a pledge of  $150.   call 818-985-5735 during the show, 4-5pm,  or pledge online www.kpfk.org/pledge/catalog/

For the KPFK fund drive we are featuring celebrated Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins — he says “there are no gods;” religion is “nonsense” and “a divisive and oppressive force.” He been called “the world’s most prominent atheist” – and when he makes his case for rationality and science, he’s witty, well-informed and wonderfully articulate.
Richard Dawkins DVD “The Root of All Evil” — $100 pledge
Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion — $100 pledge
call 818-985-5735 during the show, 4-5pm, or pledge online at www.kpfk.org.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, Dean of the Law School at UC Irvine,will comment on Obama’s pick of Sonia Sotomayor for the Supreme Court. He calls her “a superb choice.”

Also: After the State Supreme Court’s Prop 8 ruling: Is 2010 “too soon” for another gay marriage initiative campaign? Or could a grassroots organizing effort accomplish what the “No on 8” campaign failed to do? RICK JACOBS will comment – he’s founder and chair of the Courage Campaign, and he says “It’s time to go on offense. To be fearless in our fight for equality. Starting right now.”

The war on terror is un-winnable: That’s what REZA ASLAN says. Instead of claiming that Al Qaeda and the Taliban represent “evil,” he argues, the US should address the underlying social and political roots of conflict and terror — and also look at the traditions of religious violence found in Judaism and Christianity.
Reza’s new book is HOW TO WIN A COSMIC WAR: God, Globalization, and the End of the War on Terror.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
Yesterday’s election, in which California voters rejected five budget measures, dramatized the crisis in governing the state with the 8th largest economy in the world. HAROLD MEYERSON will comment on the popular revolt against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the legislature, which is not allowed to pass a budget by a simple majority vote. Harold is an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.

Also: Killing civilians in Afghanistan: TOM ENGELHARDT says Americans quickly forget the news reports from the backlands of the “war on terror,” but “forgetting doesn’t work so well in those backlands. When your child, wife or husband, mother or father is killed, you don’t forget.” Tom is the legendary editor who publishes the indispensable TomDispatch.com.

Plus: KATHA POLLITT is the award-winning columnist for The Nation – she’s also a poet, essayist, and blogger – and her book LEARNING TO DRIVE: AND OTHER LIFE STORIES is out now in paperback — the Boston Globe called it “painfully hilarious to read.” (originally broadcast 9-5-07)

Your Minnesota Moment: The state supreme court will begin hearing arguments in Norm Coleman’s challenge to Al Franken’s senate victory on June 1, with a decision expected before the July 4 weekend.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
Democrats in Congress are rushing to approve billions in war spending without debating heightened US involvement in Afghanistan and Pakistan. TOM HAYDEN comments: he wrote about “The Politics of Escalation” at TheNation.com.

Also: In the fight for his health care program, Obama seems to have neutralized some powerful potential opponents.  JOHN NICHOLS explains: he’s Washington Correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Plus: SUSAN CHOI’s novel A Person of Interest explores the personal and political repercussions set off by a campus bombing reminiscent of the Unabomber and the Wen Ho Lee case. Publishers Weekly called the book haunting”; Booklist called it ‘mesmerizing’; and The New York Times called it ‘beautifully written.’ It’s out now in paperback. (Originally broadcast 4-2-08)

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
How Obama should engage the Muslim World: University of Michigan historian JUAN COLE says the Muslim world is not a new Soviet-type Bloc but rather is full of close allies or potential allies; Iran is not an implacable enemy of the U.S.; Al-Qaeda is not a mass movement but rather a small political cult; American “energy independence” is impossible — we will need Islamic oil for the rest of the 21st century.  Juan writes the indispensable blog “Informed Comment”; his new book is Engaging the Muslim World.

Also: How a new form of slavery was imposed on hundreds of thousands of African-Americans after the Civil War until World War II: DOUGLAS BLACKMON found that tens of thousands of southern blacks were arrested, often for “vagrancy;” unable to pay their fines, they were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries and farm plantations. Douglas Blackmon’s book Slavery by Another Name won 2009 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

Plus: Is Dick Cheney now the leader of the Republican Party? BART GELLMAN of the Washington Post talks about Cheney’s past — his hidden role in the Bush administration’s most fateful choices: shifting focus from al Qaeda to Iraq, unleashing the National Security Agency to spy at home, and promoting “cruel and inhuman” methods of interrogation.  Bart Gellman’s book ANGLER won the L.A. Times Book Prize for Nonfiction for 2009.
WATCH Bart Gellman on The Daily Show HERE.

LISTEN ONLINE TO THIS SHOW – SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
Obama’s Hundred Days: maybe you heard: he’s got wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a deep recession, rising unemployment, a failed auto industry and escalating problems in health care, education, and energy. HAROLD MEYERSON will comment — he’s editor at large of The American Prospect and writes an op-ed column for the Washington Post.

Also: A forgotten Israeli advocate for Palestinian rights: in the mid-1950s Brandeis Professor Simon Rawidowicz called for an end to discrimination against Arab residents of Israel—and for the “right of return” of Arab refugees from 1948. But he never published his writings on the topic. Now they have been published in full by UCLA historian DAVID MYERS – he’s Director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, and his new book is Between Jew and Arab: The Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz. “uncannily pertinent to the Jewish situation now”—Leon Wieseltier.

Plus:
FRANK GEHRY: the architect and his creative process. BARBARA ISENBERG has been talking with Frank Gehry for twenty years – about how he came up with the design for Disney Hall, how his ties to artists have always been stronger than to architects, and how he keeps inspiration going at age 80. Barbara is a former staff reporter for the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal; she’s also written for Time, Esquire, and London’s Sunday Times. Her new book is Conversations with Frank Gehry.