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Our new president’s first week was a good one, with big steps on torture, Gitmo, health care, education, and ending the secrecy that charactized the Bush era — but will he succeed at repairing the economy?  Will he be able to help with foreclosures?  JOHN NICHOLS will comment — he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation and he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.
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Also: the Academy Award nominations are out — we’ll talk about some of our favorites, including “Milk,” starring Sean Penn as gay activist Harvey Milk, and “Waltz with Bashir,” the Israeli animated film about soldiers’ memories of the 1983 massacres at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
Award-winning film critic ELLA TAYLOR will comment —  she’s written for the LAWeekly, the Village Voice, the LA Times, the New York Times, The Atlantic and the Guardian.

Plus: our Gaza update from ROBERT DREYFUSS — he covers national security for Rolling Stone, and also writes for Mother Jones, The Nation and The American Prospect.

More stuff to read: my new piece in The Nation, “Rick Warren’s Clout.”

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ERIC FONER, KATHA POLLITT and HAROLD MEYERSON comment on Obama, history, and our future.
Highlights of Obama’s  inaugural address:  “We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals”; and “To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

–Eric teaches American history at Columbia, and has written many books, most recently Our Lincoln. His new essay in The Nation, “Our Lincoln,” explores the ways Americans have examined themselves though the lens of Lincoln.

–Katha is a poet, essayist, and columnist for The Nation, author most recently of Learning to Drive­.  She wrote about Rick Warren for the LA Times, and her most recent column is “Caroline and Me.”

—Harold is editor-at-large of The American Prospect and an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, where his latest column is about Obama’s speech.

Playlist: Stevie Wonder, “Higher Ground” — he sang it Sunday at the Lincoln Memorial concert for Obama; Beyonce, “At Last” — she sang it for Barack and Michelle Obama at the Neighborhood Ball last night.

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Five days left on the Bush countdown clock; in the president’s exit interviews, he has defended his handling of Katrina, Iraq, and Gitmo.  JOHN NICHOLS will comment on Clinton replacing Condi Rice, and whether Eric Holder will investigate Bush Administration constitutional violations.   John is Washington Correspondent for The Nation, and he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Plus: Growing up black and affluent in LA:  JENNIFER BASZILE remembers the seventies in Palos Verdes – she was the first black female professor in the Yale history department, and her powerful and beautifully written new book is The Black Girl Next Door.

Also: Growing up in Iran in the eighties: AZAR NAFISI was expelled from the University of Tehran in 1981 after refusing to wear the veil. She went on to write the best-seller Reading Lolita in Tehran, and now she has a new memoir out: Things I’ve been Silent About.  Azar Nafasi will be speaking tonight/Wed. in the downtown LA Public Library ALOUD series at 700pm – 5th and Flower streets.

Gaza update: Israel for the first time in its 60-year history has banned Arab parties from participating in the upcoming election: READ the news in Haaretz.

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The Gaza disaster: MARK LeVINE comments on Israel’s invasion, now 12 days old, which has killed 660 Palestinians – while Palestinians have killed 6 Israelis.  Mark teaches Mideast history at UC Irvine, his most recent book is Heavy Metal Islam, and he’s written for the WashingtonPost.com, Al Jazeera International, and the Huffington Post.  READ Mark’s latest blog post on Gaza at History News Network.

Plus: Our Washington update: HAROLD MEYERSON of the Washington Post op-ed page talks about Obama’s latest appointments; and Your Minnesota Moment: Al Franken wins–but doesn’t take his Senate seat – yet.  READ Harold’s new piece, “A Page from the Hoover Playbook.”

Also: The hidden history of the Reagan revolution: corporate execs opposed to labor unions, government regulation and welfare spending were more important than right-wing Christians, anticommunist neo-cons and disgruntled working-class whites—that’s what KIM PHILLIPS-FEIN says.  They provided the money and the organization for a war against New Deal liberalism. Kim teaches US history at NYU and writes for The Nation; her new book is Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan.

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Our year-in-review show features, first, IRAQ: the Forever War. DEXTER FILKINS  has covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001 for the New York Times. Filkins describes “an arid, hopeless policy” in an unforgettable book: The Forever War. (originally broadcast 9/17/08)

Obama and History: ERIC FONER comments — he teaches American history at Columbia U.,  and is the author of many books, most recently Our Lincoln.  His recent essay in The Nation, “Rooted in Reconstruction,” explores the history of black politics in America.  (originally broadcast 11/5/08)

Politics in 2008: DAVID CORN, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones, reviews the year in politics – and considers the future of the Republicans.  (originally broadcast 12/17/08)

Your Minnesota Moment: it looks like AL FRANKEN will win the Minnesota Senate contest — and that Republicans in the Senate will try to block seating him.  Details at TPM Election Central.

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The war on Christmas continues!  CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS says “Religion poisons everything.”  You say religion might not be true, but it provides comfort in the face of suffering and death?  Hitchens replies: “How contemptible.” His number one best-seller is God Is Not Great. (Originally broadcast 5/30/07.)

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment: In honor of Al Franken’s Senate recount, we revisit our interview with him about Rush Limbaugh: “You’ve got to have compassion,” Al says. (Originally broadcast 10/22/02.)

Also: The best of 2008: “The Dark Side” – that’s where Dick Cheney said we would have to go to “achieve our objectives” in the White House’s war on terror. JANE MAYER investigated what “the dark side” really means. Her conclusion: “the dark side” violated the constitution and American freedoms, and also made it harder to pursue Al Qaeda.  Her award-winning book is The Dark Side.  (Originally broadcast 9/3/08.)

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Robert Reich on economics, David Corn on politics, and Juan Cole on shoe-throwing in Baghdad:

ROBERT REICH was Clinton’s Secretary of Labor; now he argues that “What we most lack. . . are the things we use in common – clean air, clean water, public parks, good schools, and public transportation, as well as social safety nets to catch those of us who fall.” His book Supercapitalism is out now in paperback.

DAVID CORN, Washington bureau chief of Mother Jones, reviews the year in politics – and considers the future of the Republicans.

JUAN COLE comments on Arab suprt for the journalist who threw shoes at Bush, and the secret government report on the failure of the US reconstruction effort in Iraq.   Juan’s indespensible Iraq blog, “Informed Comment,” is at JuanCole.com.  Juan’s book Napoleon’s Egypt is out now in paperback.  READ the secret official report on Iraq Reconstruction HERE.  WATCH shoe-throwing video HERE

Your Minnesota Moment: in the Al Franken Senate race, the state Canvassing Board recount of 1500 disputed ballots has begun.

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Corruption in Illinois, bankruptcy in Chicago: HAROLD MEYERSON of the Washington Post op-ed page comments on Governor Rod Blagojevich’s arrest for plotting to sell Obama’s senate seat, and on Sam Zell taking the Tribune Co., and the LA Times, into bankruptcy.

Plus: Kafka Comes to America – attorney Steven T. Wax talks about justice for Gitmo detainees.  (originally broadcast 7-16-08)

And we’ll talk about the financial crisis at MOCA, the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art – the New York Times says the museum has “an exhibition record that many feel is the best in the country and even the world”  — but that its endowment has shrunk from $50 million to $6 million. CHRISTOPHER KNIGHT, art critic for the LA Times, will comment.  more info at MOCAmobilization.org.

Also: Your Minnesota Moment: In the recount in Al Franken’s senate race, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune has incumbent Republican Norm Coleman ahead by 192 votes, but Franken says his own projections have him ahead — by 4 votes.

One more thing: The Department of Homeland Security is now an underwriter of National Public Radio.

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Leftists are worrying about Obama’s national security team—is this the change we need?  JOHN NICHOLS will have our Washington-in-Transition update.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Peter Matthiessen won the National Book Award last week – he’s best known for The Snow Leopard, an account of his spiritual journey in the Himalayas.  PICO IYER will explain – he wrote an introduction to the new Penguin Classics edition of the book.

Your Minnesota Moment: Al Franken’s margin in the Senate recount may down only 13 votes – we’ll listen to more of our 2003 interview, where Franken talks about Rush Limbaugh.  “You’ve got to be compassionate,” he says.

Also: THE JAZZ EAR: jazz musicians not only play differently from others; they listen differently. BEN RATLIFF of the New York Times listened to music with a dozen jazz greats and talked with them about what they heard – we’ll focus on Dianne Reeves. Ben’s new book is The Jazz Ear.  PLAYLIST: Dianne Reeves, “Straighten Up and Fly Right” (2007); Aretha Franklin, “Mary Don’t You Weep” (1972); Sam Cooke, “Try a Little Tenderness” live medley (1964); Mary Chapin Carpenter, “Closer and Closer Apart” (2006); Shirley Horne, “Here’s to Life” (1991).

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Obama’s economic advisors are not a “team of rivals” — they’re a team of Rubins, the same people who brought us the 1999 Clinton deregulation that produced the financial collapse.   ROBERT KUTTNER will comment – he’s co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect, and author of Obama’s Challenge.

Also: The continuing battle against Prop. 8: TORIE OSBORN comments — her piece “Push Back on Prop. 8” appears in The Nation this week.

Plus: Your Minnesota Moment: AL FRANKEN will win the recount by 27 votes, according to the celebrated statistician Nate Silver.  We’ll listen to more of our 2003 interview with Al Franken, when Fox News sued him for the title of his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right.

Also: “Guyland” is the world of white, middle class males aged 16 to 26 whose passions are limited to sports, video games, and depersonalized sex – a world where the number one task is to demonstrate to the other guys that you’re not gay.  Sociologist MICHAEL KIMMEL will talk about this ugly, frightening place.  His book is titled (of course) Guyland The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men.

More stuff to read: my new piece on Nate Silver’s prediction that Al Franken will win by 27 votes at TheNation.com.