Living in the USA

LISTEN TO THIS SHOW ONLINE — SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST (requires iTunes)
90 percent of Americans say they’ve never doubted the existence of God. 80 per cent say they are certain they will be called to answer for their sins on Judgment Day. But says EYAL PRESS, the same religious zeal that pushes some whites to the right leads blacks and Latinos in the opposite direction. The secular left, he concludes, should think twice before seeing religious people as their foes.
Eyal’s story, “In God’s Country,” is in Nov. 20 issue of The Nation.

ALSO: The Underground economy of the urban poor: SUDHIR VENKATESH explains the desperate, dangerous, and remarkable ways people survive in a poor black neighborhood, where he found a wide world of work off the books: backyard mechanics, street vendors, hustlers and of course drug dealers. Sudhir teaches sociology and African-American Studies at Columbia and is the author of Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor.

PLUS: Back from Afghanistan: ALISSA RUBIN of the L.A. Times just returned from Khowst where she profiled a woman who serves in the Afghan parliment: Zahera Sharif.
Her father opposed her getting an education, but under Soviet rule she was able to get an M.A. When the Taliban conquered, she was forced to flee to Pakistan. Now she is back, fighting warlord rule.

Finally, JOHN NICHOLS, Washington Correspondent for The Nation, will have comment on the Iraq Study Group Report.

Web Extra: YOUR MINNESOTA MOMENT: Keith Ellison, the newly elected congressman from Minneapolis who is first Muslim elected to Congress, has announced that he will not take his oath of office on the Bible, but rather on the Koran. LA Radio host Dennis Prager says “He should not be allowed to do so — because the act undermines American civilization.”

no show today — instead tune in to hear the Pacifica Archives special “Say It Loud,” featuring the voices of Muhammad Ali, Michael Moore, Gore Vidal, Tariq Ali, Angela Davis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Lily Tomlin, and Malcom X.
please contribute online to the Pacifica Archives — and pick a premium. My favorite: The Ballad of Pete Seeger, an original radio documentary celebrating Pete’s life and times, and featuring a candid conversation with Tim Robbins, and historic audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives.

ALSO: more stuff to read: Michael Moore says “Monday marked the day that we had been in Iraq longer than we were in all of World War II.”

LISEN TO THIS SHOW ONLINE   SUBSCRIBE TO PODCAST
American officials in Baghdad inhabit an isolated world: the Green Zone, a walled fortress filled with villas, swimming pools, and shiny new SUVs. It’s ground zero for cultural blindness, neo-con fanaticism, and imperial fantasy – the place where the American effort to remake Iraq was always doomed to failure. Rajiv Chandrasekaran of the Washington Post tells that story in his new book Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone – it was nominated for National Book Award.

Also: All governments lie: the story of I. F. Stone, iconoclast, rebel, and the most important independent journalist of the 20^th century.
Izzy exposed government lying about the Vietnam war simply by reading the government’s own documents. Myra MacPherson tells his story – her new book is All Governments Lie!: The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I.F. Stone.

Plus: The secret history of disco: disco brought a polysexual, polyracial, polymorphous celebration to a space beyond the reach of church, state and family. We’ll talk about they way it became a worldwide phenomenon, and the way it ended in a homophobic, racist backlash. Our disco man is Peter Shapiro — is book Turn the Beat Around is out now in paperback. PLAYLIST: Bee Gees, “Stayin’ Alive”; Gloria Gaynor, “I Will Survive”; Sister Sledge, “We Are Family”; Chic, “Good Times.” (originally broadcast July 27, 2005.)

And: Your Minnesota Moment: yesterday in Minneapolis, USAir removed 6 Muslim imams from a flight, handcuffed and detained them for several hours — after passengers complained of “suspicious behavior”: praying to Allah.

LISTEN TO THIS SHOW ONLINE
Brutal working conditions, food poisoning, animal cruelty, low wages, plus sex and drugs in the packinghouse: those stories are told in the new film “FAST FOOD NATION.” It opens on Friday. ERIC SCHLOSSER, who wrote the book and the screenplay, will talk about how they made what Manohla Dargis of the New York Times calls “The most essential political film from an American director since Michael Moore’s ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’” The film stars Patricia Arquette, Greg Kinnear and Kris Kristofferson.
Watch the trailer for “Fast Food Nation” — Participate in the “Fast Food Nation” campaign — Get the Sustainable Table Eat Well Guide

Also: The good news about Robert Gates: Bush’s nominee for Secretary of Defense is unlikely to get us out of Iraq, but he may help prevent a war with Iran. TOM ENGELHARDT explains — his new book is Mission Unaccomplished: Interviews with American Iconoclasts and Dissenters, and he edits TomDispatch.com, a regular antidote to the mainstream media.
.

Plus: the story of the thousands of American lives unalterably shattered by racial hatred brought on by the passions of war. LINDA GORDON and GARY OKIHIRO have published a collection of never-before-seen photos of the WWII internment of Japanese Americans, shot by the great Dorothea Lange. The book is Impounded, and they have two great websites at LaborArts.org and JapanFocus.org. Linda teaches history at NYU, and Gary teaches international and public affairs at Columbia.

LISTEN TO THIS SHOW ONLINE
JOHN NICHOLS on the Democrats and the war: Congressman John Murtha says the meaning of the election is “get out of Iraq.” But that isn’t what Nancy Pelosi said, or Hillary Clinton. John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation magazine and writes “The Online Beat” blog at TheNation.com. His new is book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism.

HAROLD MEYERSON on what the Democrats will do: vote to raise the minimum wage, negotiate with drug companies for lower prices on Medicare drugs, replenish student loan programs–and if Bush vetoes those things, run on that in ’08. Harold is executive editor of The American Prospect and op-ed page columnist for the Washington Post.

DANNY SCHECHTER on the media, the elections, and the war.  Danny writes “The News Dissector” blog; his new documentary is In Debt We Trust: America Before The Bubble Bursts and his new book is When News Lies: Media Complicity and The Iraq War.

AMY WILENTZ on Arnold’s appeal: in a state dominated by Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein and Nancy Pelosi, one Repubican candidate wins 56-39%. How come? Amy’s new book about California politics, I Feel Earthquakes More Often than they Happen, is a bestseller.

LISTEN TO THIS SHOW ONLINE
How low can they go? HAROLD MEYERSON looks at the last-minute tactics of a party facing electoral disaster. “Stay the course,” he says, has been replaced by “anything goes” — “so long as it helps the Republicans cling to power.” Harold is executive editor of The American Prospect and op-ed page columnist for the Washington Post–READ his column today, “How the Republicans Lost the North.”

Also: Vote fraud on election day? Can hackers get into the new electronic voting machines? How successful will Republican voter suppression efforts be? Without a paper trail, how can we verify that election returns are accurate? ANDREW GUMBEL will report: he’s the author of Steal This Vote: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America (Nation Books) and a US correspondent for The Independent of London. READ Andrew Gumbel’s “Guardian of the Ballot Box” in The Nation.

PLUS: Is Arnold’s star power irresistible? We’ll have SHEILA KUEHL’s analysis of California state races and ballots – including what may be the most important statewide campaign: Debra Bowen for Secretary of State – she has cricitized her oppenent’s certifying the Diebold voting machines, and is running an ad on “Diebold After Dark”. Sheila Kuehl is state senator from Santa Monica, and a Democrat.

WEB EXTRA: “New Voter ID requirement: Platinum AmEx Card” – my piece at TheNation.com.

MORE STUFF TO READ: My new piece at the L.A. Times Book Review: “Following the Leaders: Hitler & FDR.”

LIVE THURS NITE: I will be in conversation with David Nasaw talking about his new book Andrew Carnegie, featured on this show last week. We’ll be at the downtown LA Public Library, 5^th and Flower streets, 7pm – reserve tickets online.

LISTEN TO THIS SHOW ONLINE
It’s the ugly season of the political cycle, JOHN NICHOLS says: “the time when election day looms close enough that politicians, parties and pundits are willing to utter just about any claim, any innuendo, and libel in order to sway a vote” — especially the increasingly desperate Republicans. John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation magazine and writes “The Online Beat” blog at TheNation.com. His new is book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism.

Also: ANDREW CARNEGIE has been hated by the labor movement ever since the 1892 Homestead Strike, when Carnegie Steel called in a private army of Pinkerton detectives to battle its own employees.
Afterwards, the state of Pennsylvania charged 33 strike leaders with treason. Carnegie Steel remained nonunion for the next 40 years, and Andrew Carnegie went on to become the richest man in the world and a great philanthropist, funding thousands of local public libraries. DAVID NASAW will explain it all – his new book is Andrew Carnegie.
SEE David Nasaw at the downtown LA Public Library, Thurs 11/2, 7pm.

Plus: The Palestinian struggle for statehood: when the UN created the state of Israel in 1948, why did Palestinian society crumble so rapidly? Why there was not more concerted resistance to the process of dispossession?
RASHID KHALIDI points to the British colonial system, to the cynicism of Arab leaders, to the policy US support for Israel – but he also points to failures of Palestinian leadership starting in the 1930s and continuing through Yasir Arafat. Rashid Khalidi is director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, where he holds the Edward Said Chair in Arab Studies; his new book is The Iron Cage: The Palestinian Struggle for Statehood.
SEE Rashid Khalidi at UCLA: Thurs 10/26 – 7pm, Moore Hall;
SEE Rashid Khalidi at Pomona College: Thurs 10/26 – 11am, 333 N. College Way.

No show today — the KPFK Fund Drive continues!

The documentary “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” is playing this week in LA at the Beverly Center 13, in Pasadena at Laemmle’s One Colorado, in Irvine at the Edwards University Town Center, and also in Laguna Niguel, Temecula, La Jolla, Santa Cruz, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Sacramento, Portland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Austin, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, New Orleans, and in New York City at the Sunshine Cinemas on Houston Street.

More stuff to read: “America, Through a Glass Darkly” – my piece about Richard Hofstadter from the new issue of The Nation, online at www.thenation.com.

No show today – preempted by the KPFK Fund Drive.

Your Minnesota Moment: The first Muslim is about to be elected to Congress – he’s Keith Ellison, he’s black, he’s a Democrat, and he’s from Minneapolis: read about him in the New York Times — more info at http://www.keithellison.org/

LISTEN TO THIS PROGRAM ONLINE
The Republicans are the party of extremism – war without end, torture without law, and of course tax cuts for you-know-who. But the House is up for grabs– and now maybe the Senate too. Can the Democrats win? HAROLD MEYERSON has some answers: he writes for the American Prospect and the Washington Post op-ed page.

Also: Classroom politics and ‘Bias’ in our colleges and universities: Michael Bérubé is one of the 101 most dangerous academics in America, according to David Horowitz; Michael says universities are being targeted by the right because they’re the last fortress of liberalism. Michael teaches at Penn State; his book is What’s Liberal about the Liberal Arts? Classroom Politics and ‘Bias’ in Higher Education.

YOUR MINNESOTA MOMENT: Former Minneapolis FBI agent Coleen Rowley is running for Congress — as a Democrat. She’s the one who tried to warn higher-ups about the terrorists learning to fly passenger planes before 9-11.

Plus: GREIL MARCUS on the promise, and the betrayal, of America: he says “The promises America made it itself were so vast they could only be betrayed – and from that betrayal emerged the nation’s prophetic voice. It is this voice that calls America’s citizens to judgment: not the judgment of God, but a judgment they must render on themselves.” Greil’s new book is The Shape of Things to Come: Prophecy and the American Voice.

More stuff to read: “CIA-FBI Cooperation: The Case of John Lennon,” my new piece at the HuffingtonPost.com.

At the movies: “The U.S. vs. John Lennon” is now playing in 17 cities, including L.A., Irvine, Santa Barbara — and Minneapolis.