Living in the USA

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In an effort to shore up his support among Jewish voters, many of whom voted for Hillary, Obama visits Israel Tuesday and Wednesday. His schedule includes trips to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial, and Sderot, the town that is the frequent target of Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza. AMY WILENTZ will comment – she was Jerusalem correspondent for The New Yorker. Her most recent piece, in New York magazine, discusses Jimmy Carter�s place in the current campaign: ‘a walking McCain talking point.’

Plus: Women in politics after Hillary: there’s a serious shortage of women in elected office. In the aftermath of Hillary�s campaign, HAROLD MEYERSON looks at the future of women in politics — and who is leading the next wave of female candidates. Hint: they aren’t from states where religious traditionalism is strong, or where old-line political organizations hold power. Harold is executive editor of The American Prospect and op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.
SEE the Vanity Fair McCain parody of the New Yorker‘s Obama cover.

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Young people in the Mideast are not all religious fundamentalists. MARK LeVINE found Morroccans who loves Black Sabbath, rappers in the Gaza Strip, and a young Lebanese singer who quotes Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song.’ — Heavy metal, punk, hip-hop, and reggae are each the music of protest — across North Africa and the Mideast, Mark says. Mark is a musician and historian at UC Irvine; his new book about the globalization of popular music is HEAVY METAL ISLAM: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam.

Also: UC Workers on strike: JACK MILES writes in the LATimes, “A single parent living in Riverside County or Orange County needs to earn $24.74 an hour to make ends meet. . . . But after 10 months of negotiation, $11.50 an hour is the last, best offer the 10-campus University of California has made to 8,500 gardeners, janitors, kitchen workers, parking attendants and the like. In response, their union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3299, called a five-day strike, which began Monday.” — continued here.

Plus: one Guantanamo story: Adel Hamad was a hospital adminsitrator from Sudan who was doing refugee relief work in Pakistan when he was taken from his apartment, hooded and shackled, and moved to Guantanamo Bay on charges of connections with al-Queda. He�s been there for four years. He has an attorney: STEVEN T. WAX, a federal public defender in Portland. Steve�s book is KAFKA COMES TO AMERICA: Fighting for Justice in the War on Terror — A Public Defender�-‘s Inside Account — he�ll be speaking in the ALOUD series at the downtown LA public library, 5th and Flower streets, Wed. at 700pm: reservations free but recommended: here.

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‘If a place is truly beautiful,’ BARBARA EHRENREICH says, ‘you can’t afford to be there.’ Barbara’s new book is THIS LAND IS THEIR LAND; she’ll be reading and signing at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont, Thursday July 10, 7:30pm.
JOIN Barbara and the L.A. CLEAN Carwash campaign
WATCH Barbara on The Colbert Report— she tells Stephen, “I’m talking about the super-rich. I don’t think you qualify.”

Plus: LALO ALCARAZ of the Pocho Hour of Power talks about “Clash of the Pochos,” the July 27 KPFK benefit concert featuring Culture Clash.

Also: Obama in the center: TOM HAYDEN says Obama “could put his entire candidacy at risk if his audacity on the war in Iraq continues to shrivel.” Tom writes about Obama and the war in the new issue of The Nation. We’ll also talk about his life as a writer, and the relationship between writing and activism.
His new book, a collection of his writings over the last 40 years, is Writings for a Democratic Society: The Tom Hayden Reader.

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Ike was right about the Military-Industrial Complex — that’s what ROBERT SCHEER argues. The US military budget for 2008 was $647 billion, more than 25 percent larger, in real terms, than the one for 1968, at the height of the Vietnam war. The military-industrial complex today is more powerful, more wasteful, and more destructive than ever. Bob is editor in chief of Truthdig.com, co-host of ‘Left, Right and Center’ on KCRW; his new book is The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America.

Also: A Palestinian life: Sari Nusseibeh is a leading Palestinian intellectual and political figure, a long-time advocate of a two-state solution, and the PLO’s chief representative in Jerusalem in 2001 and 2002. His memoir Once Upon a Country is out now in paperback (originally broadcast May 2, 2007).

Plus: the ‘good news’ from Iraq, we are told, is that ‘the surge is working,’ violence is down. TOM ENGELHARDT says ‘don’t be fooled’: “Iraqis are still dying in prodigious numbers, and significant numbers of those dying are doing so at the hands of Americans.” Tom’s prediction: “This cannot end well. Not for Washington. Not for the U.S. military. Not for Americans. And, above all, not for Iraqis.” Tom edits the indispensable blog TomDispatch.com; his new book is The World According to TomDispatch: America in the New Age of Empire.

Your Minnesota Moment: A state judge in Minneapolis ruled that Wal-Mart violated state laws on rest breaks and other wage matters more than 2 million times and as a result could face more than $2 billion in fines.

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Politicians tell us how smart the American people are. But the evidence is overwhelming: American voters are ignorant, shortsighted and swayed by meaningless rhetoric. A Washington Post poll in 2003 found that 70 per cent of Americans believed Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11. A majority continued to believe this even after the 9/11 Commission reported that the claim was groundless. RICK SHENKMAN, author of the new book JUST HOW STUPID ARE WE? says we can blame the president and the media, but we also have to face the truth about the American voter. Rick teaches history at George Mason U. and founded the History News Network website.

Also: BARBARA EHRENREICH tried living on low-wage work — she tells that story in her classic book Nickel and Dimed, out now in a new paperback edition (originally broadcast May 22, 2003.

Plus: The ‘State Secrets Privilege’ allows the president and the executive branch to conceal conduct, withhold documents and block civil litigation in the same of national security. It didn’t always exist — it was created in 1953. BARRY SIEGEL, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, has undercovered the facts that led the Supreme Court to create the privilege — a mysterious 1948 crash of an Air Force B-29 in Georgia, and the efforts of the families of the men who died in the crash to find out what happened. Barry�s new book is CLAIM OF PRIVILEGE: A Mysterious Plane Crash, a Landmark Supreme Court Case, and the Rise of State Secrets.

Okay, the primaries are over. How much damage did Hillary do to the Democrats — and to Obama? “The Clintons have behaved execrably,” Bob Herbert writes in the NYTimes, “But weak-willed party leaders showed neither the courage nor the inclination to stop them from fracturing the party along gender and ethnic lines.” HAROLD MEYERSON will comment: he’s executive editor of The American Prospect and writes for the Washington Post op-ed page.

Also: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times: AMY GOODMAN talks about grassroots activists who have taken politics out of the hands of politicians, ordinary citizens who have challenged injustice — and won. Amy of course is host of �Democracy Now� , which airs on KPFK and more than 600 radio and TV stations around the world and on Democracynow.org. Her new book, co-authored by her brother David Goodman, is Standing Up to the Madness.

We will be featuring Standing Up to the Madness today as a KPFK fund drive premium – Pledge Online.
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Plus: Leonardo DiCaprio’s documentary “The 11th Hour” argues that we’ve arrived at the last moment when change is still possible, when our impact on the earth’s ecosystem is not yet fatal. We’ll talk about the film and listen to clips featuring Minister Mikhail Gorbachev, scientist Stephen Hawking, R. James Woolsey (former head of the CIA) and sustainable design experts.
We will be featuring “The 11th Hour” as a KPFK fund drive premium–pledge online.

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The Age of Reagan: is it coming to an end? In 1964 the conservative movement seemed nearly dead. Then it manged to seize power and dominate American politics for the past 35 years. Historian SEAN WILENTZ will talk about Ronald Reagan – how his rise was hardly inevitable; how his successes had little to do with conservative ideology; and how the nearly forgotten Iran-Contra scandal was a fundamental challenge to the constitution and democracy. Sean teaches history at Princeton; his new book is The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974-2008.

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment: in preparation for the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, the local FBI is soliciting informants to keep tabs on local protest groups and their “vegan potlucks” — a report by Matt Snyders in CityPages.

Also: The “Frozen Chosen:” MICHAEL CHABON won the Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier and Clay – now after seven years he’s back with another one that’s dazzling fun: The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, out now in paperback. In the wake of WWII, the US permits immigrant Jews to settle in Sitka, Alaska (which was in fact proposed by FDR) after the defeat of the nascent state of Israel. Our hero is detective Meyer Landsman, “a crazy little Jew with a question and a gun.” (originally broadcast May 9, 2007)

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST: at iTunes we are listed under “News & Politics” and “4 O’Clock Wednesdays.”

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ARIANNA HUFFINGTON talks about Tuesday’s primaries, which finally gave Obama a majority of pledged delegates from primaries and caucuses. The big questions: Will Hillary’s white supporters vote for Obama in November? And how strong a candidate will John McCain be? Arianna of course is co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post; her new book is Right Is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe Hijacked America, Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe (and What You Need to Know to End the Madness).

Plus: BARBARA EHRENREICH talks about the politics of joy – her book Dancing in the Streets is out now in paperback. (originally broadcast Jan. 10, 2007)

Also: In the last Gilded Age, people stood up to greed – why don’t we? STEVE FRASER talks about irrational exhuberance and market panic; dreams of wealth and hatred of the power of money. He wrote about “The Two Gilded Ages” for TomDispatch.com, and his new book is Wall Street: America’s Dream Palace.

More stuff to read: “Nixonland, Then and Now” — my interview at TheNation.com with Rick Perlstein.

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After Goldwater’s defeat in 1964, all the pundits said the Republican right was dead. Eight years later, in 1972, Richard Nixon won 49 out of 50 states – exploiting the toxic resentments, cultural paranoia and racial hatreds of the era. Do we still live in Nixonland? RICK PERLSTEIN says “yes we do.” His new book is NIXONLAND: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America.
Rick will be reading Thursday, May 15, 7PM, at Pi on Sunset (next door to Book Soup), 8828 Sunset Blvd. in West Hollywood.

Plus: Politics and modern music: teenage Hitler went to the Strauss opera “Salome”; Stalin walked out on a Shostakovitch opera—a bad sign; and Joe McCarthy subpoenaed Aaron Copland (but missed the fact that in the 1930s he had spoken to communist farmers in Minnesota). ALEX ROSS will explain; he’s music critic for The New Yorker, his award-winning book is THE REST IS NOISE: Listening to the 20th Century, and his famous website is www.TheRestIsNoise.com.

News update: The new campaign slogan chosen by House Republicans — “Change You Deserve” — turns out to also be the trademarked slogan of the antidepressant Effexor.

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JOHN NICHOLS comments on Tuesday’s primaries in North Carolina and Indiana – and talks about Obama’s problem with Democrats. Among Clinton backers in Indiana, 33 percent say they would vote for McCain and 17 percent say they would not vote. Among Clinton supporters in North Carolina, it’s even worse: 38 percent say they would vote for McCain, and 12 percent say they would not vote. Obama, Nichols writes, “clearly has a November problem on his hands.” John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: PICO IYER talks about the DALAI LAMA and TIBETAN PROTEST against Chinese repression of their culture and religion. Pico Iyer first met the Dalai Lama 33 years ago and has travelled with him extensively in the last few years, writing about his work as a politician, religious leader and celebrity — while “the country he was born to rule is slipping ever closer to extinction.” Meanwhile many Tibetans criticize the Dalai Lama for not supporting Tibetan independence or militant protest. Pico Iyer’s new book is THE OPEN ROAD: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama.