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KAREN BASS started out as a community organizer in South L.A.; now she’s a member of Congress.  Today she’s at the Congressional Black Caucus Jobs Fair in L.A. — we’ll ask her about Obama and jobs, and why she voted in favor of the debt ceiling bill when so many of her colleagues in the Black Caucus voted No.

Also: HAROLD MEYERSON with our political update: he says “The Republicans will raise your taxes” — the payroll tax, a tax on working and middle class people.  Harold writes for the Washington Post op-ed page and he blogs for The American Prospect.

Plus: the Battle for COSTA MESA: the Republican city in deep Orange County is under attack from right-wing Republicans — TAD FRIEND says the battle there is “reminiscent of an earlier anti-union era, when the Pinkertons battered the Wobblies with fists and clubs.”  Tad Friend wrote about Costa Mesa politics for The New Yorker this week.

For the record: KPFK on Wed 8/24 & 8/17 pre-empted my show for special fund drive programming. Please pledge — call 818-985-5735, or online at kpfk.org.

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SKIP GATES is the Harvard professor of African American studies who had that “beer summit” at the White House with President Obama and the Cambridge cop who arrested him for breaking into his own house.  He talks about what it means to be “black” in Latin America — and about that White House meeting.  Skip’s new book is Black in Latin America.

We’ll also have a KPFK Sports report!  Views from left field — of pro football’s “concussion culture,” the way sex is used to sell women’s sports, and how NFL players beat owners in their latest battle – DAVE ZIRIN explains all — and all of these are stories in the Nation magazine’s new sports issue, and Dave is the guest editor.   He blogs at EdgeofSports.com.

Plus the media’s role in the fate of the world: MARIA ARMOUDIAN has the bad news about the media’s role in promoting genocide and war – and she also has some good news about places where the media contributed to reconciliation and justice.  Maria has written for the New York Times, the L.A. Times, Salon, and The Progressive .  And she’s the host and producer of Pacifica Radio programs The the Scholars’ Circle and the Insighters, heard here on KPFK Sundays at noon.  Her new book is KILL THE MESSENGER.

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Obama’s surrender to Republicans “savages programs for the lower and middle classes, while hedge fund managers and oil companies probably won’t sacrifice a cent.” JOHN NICHOLS will comment — he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: from the archives: our interview with TERRY GROSS of NPR’s “Fresh Air” — her show is heard by  4.5 million people on 450 stations.  Topics:  what went wrong in her interviews with Hillary Clinton, Nancy Reagan, and Bill O’Reilly. Also, I ask  “What is the deal with rumors that you are a lesbian?”  Her book, All I Did was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists, is out now in paperback.  (Originally broadcast 11/17/04)

Plus: the L.A. Art scene in the 1960s: in 1960 L.A. had no museum showing contemporary art, and only a few galleries — which is exactly what Ed Ruscha, David Hockney, Judy Chicago and John Baldessari liked about it.  HUNTER DROHOJOWSKA -PHILP tells all – her new book is Rebels In Paradise: The Los Angeles Art Scene and the 1960s.  Hunter will be in conversation with Eve Babitz at the Hammer Museum, Westwood & Wilshire, tonight/Wed. at 7:00pm—the event is free.

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What Happens When Three Sputtering Economies Collide? MIKE DAVIS connects the dots between China’s bubble, the Euro’s trouble, and the unfolding disaster in Washington.  Mike wrote about it for TomDispatch.com; he teaches writing at UC Riverside.

Plus: The mess in Washington: HAROLD MEYERSON looks again at Obama’s concessions to the House Republicans, and their refusal to accept and claim victory.  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and is editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: The Trouble with the Tomato: BARRY ESTABROOK reports on the winter tomato crop in Southern Florida – ground zero for slave labor.  Also, the tomatoes taste like cardboard.  Barry’s new book is Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed our Most Alluring Fruit. His article for Gourmet on labor abuses in Florida’s Tomato fields received the 2010 James Beard Award for magazine feature writing. Read it here.  And he blogs at PoliticsofthePlate.com.

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The Republicans were winning everything in the budget debate – then they threw it all away.  We’ll have our political update from ARI BERMAN of The Nation.

Plus: “Being a white man in America is not what it used to be,” says GARY YOUNGE. He asks why so many people today are retreating into the refuges of religion, nationality, and race. Gary is a columnist for The Nation and the Guardian; his new book is WHO ARE WE: and Should It Matter in the 21st Century?
WATCH Gary’s videos for The Guardian of his 2010 roadtrip across the US HERE and HERE
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Also: Banned by Google! GREG MITCHELL has a new book out, about Hiroshima and Nagasaki – but Google told him they were “suspending” his online ad for the book on the grounds that it quote “promotes violence.”  The book is ATOMIC COVER-UP: Two US Soldiers, Hiroshima & Nagasaki, and the Greatest Movie Never Made.
WATCH banned footage of Hiroshima & Nagasaki HERE

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Yesterday Wisconsin voted in the first round of the campaign to recall Republicans in the state legislature — and all six “real” Democrats won their primaries, defeating the fake Democrats run by the Republican establishment. The big elections will be Aug. 19. JOHN NICHOLS of The Nation reports from Madison.
READ The Nation‘s investigation of ALEC HERE

GARY SHTEYNGART talks about his hilarious political satire set in “the near future” – SUPER SAD TRUE LOVE STORY. It’s about a world where the Bipartisan Party rules and where everybody gets their news either from Fox Liberty Prime or Fox Liberty Ultra.  And then Lenny meets Eunice. . . WATCH Gary’s video HERE;   GET Gary’s iPod app HERE

Plus: our political update from HAROLD MEYERSON, who says Obama has “moved so far to the right that he has picked up many of the ideals the Republicans have jettisoned and embraced them as his own.”  Harold writes a column for the Washington Post op-ed page and he’s interim executive editor of the American Prospect.