The Torture Memos: KPFK Wed. 10/21

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How did torture become official US policy?   What arguments did the Bush Justice Dept. use to justify inhuman, cruel and degrading treatment?  And what is being done to bring to justice those responsible?  DAVID COLE looks at the torture memos released by the Justice Department.  He teaches at Georgetown Law Center, he’s also a volunteer staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights, legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, and a regular contributor to the New York Review of Books. His new book is The Torture Memos.

Plus: THELONIOUS MONK wasn’t a naive, childlike, eccentric character.  Historian ROBIN KELLEY says he was basically a musician trying to make it without compromising his vision.  Robin tells the story of the life, the times, and the music of  “an American original.” Robin teaches at USC; his much-heralded new book is Thelonious Monk.
PLAYLIST: “‘Round Midnight,”  “Well You Needn’t,” “Straight No Chaser,” “Sweet and Lovely” – 1947 Blue Note sessions.
WATCH Robin Kelley on Thelonious Monk HERE.

Wall St. and the Dems – KPFK Wed. 10/14

“It’s not a bill I’d vote for” – that’s what Howard Dean says about the health care bill the Senate Finance Committee passed yesterday with one Republican vote. Meanwhile, the Dems are caving on the banking bill:  HAROLD MEYERSON will comment – he’s an op-ed columnist for the Washington Post, where his new piece is “Who Will Rein In Wall Street?”

Remember Ramparts? Remember the energy and political punch of this glossy New Left muckraking magazine?  PETER RICHARDSON explains how Bob Scheer and Warren Hinckle did it – his new book is A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America.

Also: the rise and fall of cigarettes in America.  ALLAN BRANDT talks about “the drama of consumer desire” in which advertising made cigarettes the tobacco of choice for nearly half of all Americans in 1950. Brandt teaches at Harvard medical School; his book THE CIGARETTE CENTURY: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product that Defined America is out now in paperback.  (originally broadcast May 23, 2007)

Senators: No Public Option – KPFK Wed. 9/30

JOHN NICHOLS explains what’s next after the Senate Finance Committee deleted the public option from the health care bill the Senate will consider–despite the fact that the latest polls show 65% of the public in favor of a public option, which would allow people under 65 to buy into Medicare instead of private insurance.  John of course is Washington Correspondent for The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

The KPFK Fund Drive continues: Our featured premium today will be the great book LIES MY TEACHER TOLD  ME by James Loewen. He surveyed the 12 leading high school American history textbooks and found “an embarrassing blend of bland optimism, blind nationalism, and plain misinformation.”    We’ll also feature the audio book of this devastating and important critique of what’s wrong with high school history today.

Only YOU can end the KPFK fund drive! call 818-985-5735 during the 4pm hour to pledge, or pledge online at www.kpfk.org.

Special note for listeners to the KPFK fund drive: during the 4pm hour today we will NOT cure cancer.   If you have cancer, go to the doctor.
PS: The truth about 9-11: 19 guys flew 4 planes into 3 buildings and a field.   George Bush’s role: incompetence.

UC Budget Protests Draw Thousands: The Nation 9/25

Thursday’s “Day of Action” against draconian budget cuts at the University of California campuses brought thousands of people to rallies at all ten campuses.  At UC Berkeley, 5,000 students and workers, along with many faculty members, rallied at noon.  At the same hour at UCLA, 700 students and workers and a few faculty members gathered at Bruin Plaza.  And 500 rallied at UC Irvine, which Time magazine described as “normally placid.”

The normally placid UC Irvine is where I teach.

The best sign I saw at the UCI rally read “If I wanted to go to a private school, I would have been born into a rich family.”

. . . more at TheNation.com

Obama’s CIA on Campus: The Nation 9/28

The CIA-off-campus protests of the 1980s may need to be revived — this time addressed to President Obama.  The administration has asked Congress to establish a new “intelligence officer training program” at colleges and universities.  The proposal, buried in the 2010 intelligence authorization bill, would invite schools to apply for grants for courses that would “meet the needs of the intelligence community.”  Students taking the courses would have to receive security clearances. . . .

. . . continued at TheNation.com

Obama’s Big Speech: KPFK Wed. 9-9

When Obama speaks to the nation (and Congress) about health care tonight, he needs to insist on a big and comprehensive plan that includes a genuine public option: “Medicare for all.”  JOHN NICHOLS will talk about what we want from Obama tonight.  John is Washington correspondent for The Nation and he writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

tomAlso: “THE LONG SIXTIES” – TOM HAYDEN argues that the movements of the sixties achieved deep reforms that made Obama’s election possible.  Obama, he says, in a “pure child” of the sixties – today caught between the social movements that propelled him to the presidency and the forces maintaining the present structures of power.  A commitment to the sixties goals of peace, justice and the environment could make Obama a great president.   Tom’s new book is THE LONG SIXTIES: From 1960 to Barack Obama.

.Disasters can be  “a door back into paradise, the paradise in which we are who we hope to be, do the work we desire, and are each our sister’s and brother’s keeper.”  That’s the startling argument REBECCA SOLNIT makes; her new book is A PARADISE BUILT IN HELL: The Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster. I will be in conversation with Rebecca tonight/Wed. in the L.A. Public Library ALOUD Series, 7pm, downtown at 5th and Flower streets.  Make a reservation HERE.

Obama’s Bruising August: KPFK Wed. 9/2

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 FRIEDRICH ENGELS – “a foxhunting man, a womanizing, champagne-drinking capitalist” – and a lifelong revolutionary (and also collaborator of Karl Marx). Also, “far more adventurous than Marx when it came to exploring the ramifications of his and Marx’s thinking.” TRISTRAM HUNT explains – his eye-opening new bio is MARX’S GENERAL: THE REVOLUTIONARY LIFE OF FRIEDRICH ENGELS.

Plus: our political update: How bad are things going for the Obama health care plan?  JOHN NICHOLS will comment on Obama’s bruising august — he’s Washington correspondent of The Nation and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: HENRY FORD’s Amazon colony: Ford’s greatest success of course was the auto assembly line; his greatest failure was an attempt to build a midwestern small town in the middle of the Amazonian rain forest.  NYU historian GREG GRANDIN tells that story – his book is FORDLANDIA: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford’s Forgotten Jungle City.

Remembering Ted Kennedy – KPFK Wed 8/26

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HAROLD MEYERSON talks about Ted Kennedy’s place in American politics — “He was, as he lay dying, new again,” Harold writes at The American Prospect Online — because “Kennedy outlived the Reagan-Thatcher conservative era to which for so many years he had led the opposition.”

Plus: Iraq: the Forever War.  DEXTER FILKINS  covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan starting 2001 for the New York Times.  Filkins describes “an arid, hopeless policy” in an unforgettable book: The Forever War.  It’s out now in paperback.  (first aired 9/17/2008)

And we feature a special Ted Kennedy edition of Your Minnesota Moment: Minnesotans remember Kennedy’s visits to the state.