Obamacare and the Supremes: KPFK 3/28

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For decades nobody thought an individual mandate for medical insurance would be unconstitutional – until two years ago.  Now it looks like the Republicans on the Supreme Court may strike it down. WILLIAM E. FORBATH reviews this week’s arguments before the Supremes – and the politics behind them.  Willy teaches constitutional law at the Univ of Texas law school.

Also: “Trouble in Paradise”: JOSH KUN talks about popular music subcultures in LA, 1945-80. Josh teaches at USC and is curator of the exhibit at the Grammy Museum, 800 W. Olympic Blvd., downtown LA, and he will host “A Night at the Ash Grove” at the Museum on April 5. PLAYLIST: Johnny Otis, “Harlem Nocturne” 1945; Ritchie Valens, “La Bamba” 1958; Thee Midnighters, “Whittier Blvd” 1965; Buffalo Springfield, “For What It’s Worth” 1966; Beach Boys, “Heroes and Villains” 1967.

PLUS: FORMER SENATOR RUSS FEINGOLD says the cynical exploitation of the fears generated by 9/11 have undermined our ability to adjust effectively to America’s new place in the world.  His new book is WHILE AMERICA SLEEPS: A Wake-up Call for the Post-9/11 Era

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Those Crazy Conservatives: KPFK 3/21

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Were conservatives always this crazy? Only 12 percent of Mississippi Republicans believe Barack Obama is a Christian.  And of course there’s Rush Limbaugh.  But RICK PERLSTEIN says this is nothing new;  “they’ve been this crazy for a long time.” Rick is the author of the classic Nixonland and writes a column for RollingStone.com.

Plus: Mitt Romney won the Illinois primary last night; he also says Obama wants higher gas prices and Obama has hurt, rather than helped, the current economic recovery.  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment — he writes a a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: sometimes ordinary people fight injustice; sometimes whistleblowers refuse to sell toxic products.  EYAL PRESS looks at unlikely resisters demonstrating different kinds of moral courage.  His new book is BEAUTIFUL SOULS: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times.

Our Afghan Failure: KPFK Wed. 3/14

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TOM HAYDEN says “the people of Afghanistan don’t want us there; our troops can’t defend a country that doesn’t like us, and therefore the time has come for us to leave.”  Tom wrote about “The Failure of Gradualism in Afghanistan” today for TheNation.com.

Also:  In the fascinating spectacle of the Republican primaries, Alabama and Missippi voted yesterday—and Mitt Romney faced a devastating defeat, coming in third – far behind Rick Santorum, who won both. JOHN NICHOLS will comment – he blogs for TheNation.com and his new book is Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street.

Plus: Watergate is the terrific new novel by THOMAS MALLON, where he imagines what “our long national nightmare” might have been like for a kaleidoscopic gallery of characters, from ex-CIA man Howard Hunt to White House secretary Rosemary Woods to Pat Nixon—in love with another man.  Mallon’s other novels include Dewey Beats Truman and Fellow Travelers.

Romney after Super Tuesday: KPFK Wed. 3/7

The Republican primaries on Super Tuesday left Mitt Romney in the lead, but not by enough–JOHN NICHOLS comments.  Hhe’s Washington editor of The Nation and a frequent guest on MSNBC; his new book is Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street.

Also: the Republicans and women – after Rush Limbaugh called a female law student a slut and a prostitute when she testified before Congress on women’s health issues, after the Republican frontrunners didn’t really challenge Rush – where does the Republican party stand with women voters today?  BETSY REED, executive editor of The Nation, will explain–she is co-editor of the Sarah Palin book Going Rouge.

Plus: ROBERT PROCTOR says “the cigarette is the deadliest artifact in the history of civilization.” He’s Professor of the History of Science at  Stanford University, and author of the monumental new book Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition. Check out the tobacco documents archive online at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu/ .

Santorum in Michigan, Newt in L.A.: KPFK 2/15

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NEWT GINGRICH was in Los Angeles this week, meeting Latino supporters in South El Monte and Tea Party members in Pasadena – SEAN WILENTZ will comment on Newt’s history – why so many Republicans hate him.  Meanwhile Rick Santorum tops Romney in the national Republican polls.
Sean is the author of The Age of Reagan and many other books – he teaches history at Princeton.
Also: “CHIMES OF FREEDOM: The Songs of Bob Dylan”: Dylan songs sung by a stellar and diverse group of artists across the generational and musical spectrum: from rock, rap, hip-hop to pop, folk, country, jazz and blues. Patti Smith, Tom Morello, Pete Townshend, Diana Krall, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Eric Burdon, Joan Baez, Kris Kristofferson…. with liner notes by Sean Wilentz.
We are featuring the 4-CD set as a thank-you gift in the KPFK winter fund drive for a pledge of $125.00.  Please call and pledge during the show: 818-985-5735.

Tom Frank: How did the Right do it? KPFK 2/8

TOM FRANK – “the sharpest, funniest political commentator on the scene,” says Barbara Ehrenreich – has a new book out: Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right.  It’s “a brilliant exposé of the most breath-taking ruse in American political history: how the right turned the biggest capitalist breakdown since 1929 into an opportunity for themselves.”

We’ll also be talking with Tom Frank also about the feature-length documentary “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, based on his book with the same title.  Kansas was once one of the most left-wing states in the country; now it’s one of the most right-wing.  What happened? Roger Ebert named the film one of the Ten Best Documentaries of the year.

And we’ll also talk with Tom about The Baffler, the magazine he founded and edited.  “The Journal that Blunts the Cutting Edge.”  The Baffler is back!  coming in March: special issue on the elections, featuring Tom Frank, Barbara Ehrenreich, and Rick Perlstein.

It’s the KPFK spring fund drive, and this hour we will be featuring the TOM FRANK SUPER-PACK (or is it “Super-PAC”?): the DVD of his documentary “What’s the Matter with Kansas?”, his new book Pity the Billionaire; and a one-year subscription to his magazine, The Baffler. Please call and pledge during the show: 818-985-5735.

Newt and Mitt After Florida: KPFK Wed. 2/1

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Maybe you heard the news: Mitt beat Newt in the Florida primary last night.  But both have big problems as challengers to Obama; BETSY REED says, “It’s astonishing that a party with nearly limitless financial resources has such paltry human resources.” Betsy is executive editor of The Nation.

Also: analysis of the Florida primary — and the likely shape of the Obama 2012 campaign.  ARI BERMAN has the news, good and bad — his book Herding Donkeys: The Fight to Rebuild the Democratic Party and Reshape American Politics is out today in paperback, with new afterword.

Plus: Republicans want to repeal “Obama-care” – and they may succeed.  PAUL STARR says must rally around Obama to preserve the president’s key program. Paul is  Pulitzer-prize winning author and co-founder of The American Prospect.  He teaches sociology at Princeton; his new book is Remedy and Reaction: The Peculiar American Struggle over Health Care Reform.

Gail Collins on Newt and Mitt: KPFK 1/25

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GAIL COLLINS, op-ed columnist for the New York Times, talks about Obama, Gingrich, and Mitt Romney, who went on a family vacation to Canada with the family dog strapped to the roof of the car — and also about William Henry Harrison, subject of her new book.

Plus: HAROLD MEYERSON on Obama’s State of the Union—and Obama’s problem with working-class whites. Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: PICO IYER talks about Graham Greene and his masterpiece The Quiet American – a “haunted kinship” links the two writers, whose restless travels and fascinatation with faith suggest some deeper connection.  Pico’s new book is The Man Within My Head. READ an excerpt at the LA Review of Books HERE.

When LA fought about art: LA Times op-ed 1/25

Today we have street art, but we don’t have people fighting in the streets about art.  In 1966, the anti-war Artists’ Tower of Protest on Sunset Strip provoked nightly battles for three months, as pro-war young men attacked the tower, and artists organized a defense squad.  Now it has been re-created as part of Pacific Standard Time. . . .
. . .  continued at the LA Times op-ed page HERE.