Joseph Nye of Harvard’s Kennedy School wrote in the New Republic in 2007 that Muammar Qaddafi was interested in discussing “direct democracy.”
Anthony Giddens of the London School of Economics wrote in the Guardian the same year that Libya under Qaddafi could become “the Norway of North Africa.”
Benjamin Barber of Rutgers University wrote in the Washington Post, also in 2007, that Libya under Qaddafi could become “the first Arab state to transition peacefully and without overt Western intervention to a stable, non-autocratic government.”
Great minds think alike? Actually, no: all were being paid by Libyan money. . .
. . . continued at TheNation.com: HERE

For the record: KPFK on Wed 3/2 is pre-empting my show for special fund drive programming. Please pledge — call 818-985-5735, or online at kpfk.org.

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The battle in Wisconsin, now spreading to other states, is not about cutting budgets — it’s about the fundamental right of public employees to engage in collective bargaining.  JOHN NICHOLS will report from Madison  as the unions fight for their lives against Republicans.  John of course is Washington Correspondent for The Nation and write s “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com — we saw him on “The Ed Show” on MSNBC on Friday.

Also: “LENNONYC” –– the new documentary on John Lennon’s life in New York City from his arrival in 1971 to his murder in 1980.  We’ll speak with MICHAEL EPSTEIN, director/producer/writer of the film, about Lennon’s music and politics in those crucial years when he stood up against the Vietnam War and fought Nixon’s attempt to deport him.

LENNONYC, which premiered at the New York Film Festival, is our featured premium in the KPFK Fund Drive this afternoon — please call 818-985-5735 and pledge your support — or pledge online HERE.

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In Egypt, workers are having a revolutionary February.   In the United States, by contrast, February is shaping up as the cruelest month workers have known in decades, as Wisconsin Republicans go after the state’s public employee unions – that’s what HAROLD MEYERSON says — he’s a columnist for the Washington Post op-ed page and Editor-at-Large of The American Prospect.

ALSO: “NOT JUST A GAME”: DAVE ZIRIN, sports editor for The Nation, shows how sports have reflected, and at times shaped, the political battles and social struggles at the heart of American society.  “If there were an award for ‘Most Valuable Sportswriter,’ I would vote for Dave Zirin.”- Howard Zinn.
Dave’s documentary film, “Not Just a Game,” will be our featured fund drive premium this afternoon in the 4pm hour – please call and pledge, 818-985-5735.

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MARK LEVINE reports live from Cairo on the day’s events in Tahrir Square, where Tuesday’s demonstrations were the biggest ever, perhaps 200,000 people.  Mark, a historian at UC Irvine, is the author of Heavy Metal Islam: Religion, Popular Culture and Resistance in the Middle East. His new piece about Egypt is in the Huffington Post, HERE.

Also: Justice and health for girls in prison: LESLIE OCOCA heads the National Girls Health and Justice Foundation.  Today 1 in 5 of the nearly two million youth being held in detention nationally are girls, many of whom have serious physical and mental health needs that are not treated adequately.

Plus: Obama and Egypt: Why won’t our president speak out for democracy when the Egyptians are risking their lives for it?  ARI BERMAN comments: he’s an investigative journalism fellow at The Nation Institute and he wrote about Obama and the Egyptians for The Nation HERE.

For the record: my show today on KPFK is preempted for special programming: “Building a powerful left in the U.S.”