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How Obama should engage the Muslim World: University of Michigan historian JUAN COLE says the Muslim world is not a new Soviet-type Bloc but rather is full of close allies or potential allies; Iran is not an implacable enemy of the U.S.; Al-Qaeda is not a mass movement but rather a small political cult; American “energy independence” is impossible — we will need Islamic oil for the rest of the 21st century.  Juan writes the indispensable blog “Informed Comment”; his new book is Engaging the Muslim World.

Also: How a new form of slavery was imposed on hundreds of thousands of African-Americans after the Civil War until World War II: DOUGLAS BLACKMON found that tens of thousands of southern blacks were arrested, often for “vagrancy;” unable to pay their fines, they were sold as forced laborers to coal mines, lumber camps, brickyards, railroads, quarries and farm plantations. Douglas Blackmon’s book Slavery by Another Name won 2009 Pulitzer Prize for nonfiction.

Plus: Is Dick Cheney now the leader of the Republican Party? BART GELLMAN of the Washington Post talks about Cheney’s past — his hidden role in the Bush administration’s most fateful choices: shifting focus from al Qaeda to Iraq, unleashing the National Security Agency to spy at home, and promoting “cruel and inhuman” methods of interrogation.  Bart Gellman’s book ANGLER won the L.A. Times Book Prize for Nonfiction for 2009.
WATCH Bart Gellman on The Daily Show HERE.

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Obama’s Hundred Days: maybe you heard: he’s got wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, a deep recession, rising unemployment, a failed auto industry and escalating problems in health care, education, and energy. HAROLD MEYERSON will comment — he’s editor at large of The American Prospect and writes an op-ed column for the Washington Post.

Also: A forgotten Israeli advocate for Palestinian rights: in the mid-1950s Brandeis Professor Simon Rawidowicz called for an end to discrimination against Arab residents of Israel—and for the “right of return” of Arab refugees from 1948. But he never published his writings on the topic. Now they have been published in full by UCLA historian DAVID MYERS – he’s Director of the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, and his new book is Between Jew and Arab: The Lost Voice of Simon Rawidowicz. “uncannily pertinent to the Jewish situation now”—Leon Wieseltier.

Plus:
FRANK GEHRY: the architect and his creative process. BARBARA ISENBERG has been talking with Frank Gehry for twenty years – about how he came up with the design for Disney Hall, how his ties to artists have always been stronger than to architects, and how he keeps inspiration going at age 80. Barbara is a former staff reporter for the LA Times and the Wall Street Journal; she’s also written for Time, Esquire, and London’s Sunday Times. Her new book is Conversations with Frank Gehry.

The L.A. Times Festival of Books at UCLA is back this weekend — it’s always a great event, and this year more than 100,000 people are expected.  I’ll be moderating a panel Sunday at 11am in Haines Hall 39 on “CLIMATE IN CRISIS” featuring
–Stephan Faris, author of FORECAST: The Consequences of Climate Change, from the Amazon to the Arctic, from Darfur to Napa Valley
–Edward Humes, author of ECO-BARONS: The Dreamers, Schemers and Millionaires who are Saving our Planet;
–William J. Kelley, co-author of SMOGTOWN: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles;
–Daniel Sperling, co-author of TWO BILLION CARS: Driving Toward Sustainability.

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For our Festival of Books preview show, we’ll feature LATimes columnist STEVE LOPEZ – the film of his book “THE SOLOIST” opens Friday in LA, it’s the story of a homeless violin player on skid row and the newspaper columnist who becomes friends with him – starring Jamie Fox and Robert Downey Jr.  Steve will be speaking at the BookFest Sunday at 1:30 on a panel moderated by film critic Ella Taylor.  (originally broadcast 4/16/08)

Also: DAVID ULIN, book review editor of the LA Times, will talk about the troubles in the book business, and the troubles at the LA Times – he’ll be speaking at the BookFest Saturday at 130 on “Publishing 3.0”; Saturday at 330 with Columbine author Dave Cullen, and Sunday at 10:30 he’ll be moderating a fiction panel.

Plus: The Black Girl Next Door: that’s the title of a powerful new memoir by JENNIFER BAZILE, she was the first black female professor of history at Yale – and she’s been named one of “thirty leaders of the future” by Ebony magazine. She’ll be talking about growing up black and middle class in LA in the seventies at the BookFest Sunday at 1:30.  (originally broadcast 1/14/09)

. . . and I’ll be moderating a panel on “Climate in Crisis” Sunday at 11 in Haines Hall 39.

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“I would like to give young people solid intellectual, historical support for saying ‘screw you’” – that’s what ANDREI  CODRESCU says, he’s the poet and NPR commentator from New Orleans.  In pursuit of that goal, he has come up with “impractical guide to practical living” – seeing the 20th century as a battle between radical visions of art and revolution: one the one hand, the creative and the absurd; on the other, reason and order. His new book is The Posthuman Dada Guide.
Andrei Codrescu will be speaking in the ALOUD series at the downtown LA Public Library on Tues April 28, 7:00pm.
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Plus: “America hasn’t led on RENEWABLE ENERGY since Jimmy Carter left office and Ronald Reagan ripped out the solar panels from the White House” – that’s what EDWARD HUMES says. Obama knows what has to be done – but an intractable opposition is working to block aggressive government intervention. The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist talks about the environmental heroes of our age. His new book is ECO BARONS: The Dreamers, Schemers, and Millionaires who are Saving our Planet.
He’ll be speaking at the LA Times Festival of Books Sunday April 26 at 11:00am in Haines 39.l

ALSO: SMOGTOWN – Los Angeles, where the enemy “came from within” – from the car-addicted suburban lifestyle that took off after WWII. Environmental journalists CHIP JACOBS and BILL KELLY tell the story of the corporate-tainted science, the immense health costs, and the attempts at cleanup. Their new book is Smogtown: The Lung-Burning History of Pollution in Los Angeles. They will be speaking at the LA Times Festival of Books Sunday April 26 at 11:00am in Haines 39.

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HAROLD MEYERSON reports that the presidents of the two labor federations and of the nation’s 12 largest unions — including the National Education Association, which heretofore has not belonged to any labor federation – yesterday announced the formation of the National Labor Coordinating Committee, an interim body that could pave the way for labor’s reunification by forming a new federation with roughly 16 million members. Harold writes for the Washington Post op-ed page; he also editor-at-large of The American Prospect.

Also: “A MY LAI A MONTH” – NICK TURSE has uncovered crucial evidence that the My Lai Massacre was not an isolated incident, but rather part of a large pattern of US killing of unarmed Vietnamese people. Nick’s article for The Nation, “A My Lai a Month,” won a special Ridenhour Prize for reportorial distinction.

Plus: Dreamers, Believers, Builders, and Killers in California: MARK ARAX breaks with the cliches about California’s sunshine and beaaches with stories reporting on migrant workers from Oaxaca, racism and craziness in the Central Valley, marijuana moguls in Humbold County, and the foreclosure crisis. Mark’s new book is West of the West.
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He’ll be reading and signing at Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave in LA, Wed nite at 730pm.

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Legendary investigative reporter SEYMOUR HERSH says Obama’s best chance for restarting the Mideast peace process is mediating talks between Israel and Syria.  Syria’s president Bashar Assad told Hersh that despite Israel’s war on Gaza, he is very interested in closing a deal on the Golan Heights.  Hersh writes about “Syria Calling” in this week’s issue of The New Yorker.

Plus: in Agfhanistan and Pakistan,  TOM ENGELHARDT says, the US is  “trading in a limited war in a mountainous, poverty-stricken country of 27 million people for one in an advanced nation of 167 million, with a crumbling economy, rising extremism, advancing corruption, and a large military armed with nuclear weapons.”  Tom wrote about “The Great Afghan Bailout” for his indispensable website TomDispatch.com.

Also: What a billion Muslims really think:  the Gallup poll did 50,000 interviews with Muslims  in 35 countries, and found that Muslims and Americans are equally likely to reject attacks on civilians as morally unjustifiable; that large majorities of Muslims would guarantee free speech if it were up to them to write a new constitution — and they say religious leaders should have no direct role in drafting that constitution. DALIA MOGAHED will explain — she’s Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies and co-author of Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think.

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Hunting the Mortgage Predators: BOBBI MURRAY will report on the mortgage-backed securities business and how it propelled the aggressive marketing of hideously risky loan “products.” Bobbi has reported on politics, economics, police reform and healthcare issues for Los Angeles magazine, The Nation and LA Weekly, and she’s a contributor to the new book Meltdown: How Greed and Corruption Shattered our Financial System and How We Can Recover.

Also: RICHARD PRICE talks about his novel LUSH LIFE – it’s out now in paperback, and it’s about intersecting worlds on the Lower East Side: yuppies, Chinese immigrants, kids from the projects, old Jews, and of course the cops.  Michael Chabon calls Richard Price “one of the best writers of dialogue in the history of American literature.”
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Plus: the KPFK Dodger preview!  DAVE ZIRIN is sports columnist for The Nation magazine, their first sports writer in 150 years of existence. He also writes for the L.A. Times and The Progressive; his new book is A People’s History of Sports in the United States – and we’ve seen him recently on the Rachel Maddow show. 

More stuff to read: my new post at TheNation.com, “Obama’s ‘Katrina Moment’?  Never Mind.”