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Once upon a time America was both prosperous and relatively equitable. But that economy was captured by a financial elite when Reagan became president, and the Democrats have failed to fight back. ROBERT KUTTNER argues that we need to rebuild the “equalizing institutions” that set limits on markets in labor, stocks and technologies. Kuttner is the founder and coeditor of The American Prospect; his new book is THE SQUANDERING OF AMERICA: How the failure of our Politics Undermines our Prosperity. Kuttner will be speaking Mon Nov. 26, 8pm at Town Hall’s Writers Bloc in UCLA’s Melnitz Hall in conversation with Arianna Huffington .

Also: The Weather Underground bombed hundreds of sites, but killed only their own members – three of them, in a bomb-making accident, at the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion in 1970. CATHY WILKERSON survived that explosion and escaped, got onto the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list, lived underground for years, then emerged as a citizen, mother, and teacher. Her new book is Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman.
READ my Dissent piece “The Weatherman Temptation.”

Plus: American economic domination didn’t always bring hell to the Third World. Before Reagan, the US ran a politically savvy empire that brought a modicum of economic growth to poor countries. That’s what ALICE AMSDEN argues – she teaches political economy at MIT and wrote ESCAPE FROM EMPIRE: The Developing World’s Journey Through Heaven and Hell.

More stuff to read: my new piece at the Huffington Post, Seymour Hersh: Obama ‘Only Hope’ for US-Muslim Ties.

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What’s really at stake in the writers’ strike? HOWARD RODMAN explains the issues (hint: when Viacom fired its president Tom Freston in 2006, he received $60 million in severance pay — more than all of the DVD money paid to WGA members that year). We’ll also talk about how the writers can win. Howard is a board member of the Writers Guild of America, West, and a professor of screenwriting at USC; his screen adaptation of Savage Grace, starring Julianne Moore, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007 and opens in 2008.
WATCH the hilarious “Heartbreaking Voices of Uncertainty”

Also: BENAZIR BUTTO AND PAKISTAN’S FUTURE: AMY WILENTZ talked with the opposition leader just before she returned to Pakistan, where she called on Pervez Musharraf to resign and was placed under house arrest. Amy teaches literary journalism at UC Irvine; she has written about Butto for the Huffington Post, and her profile of Butto appeared in More magazine.

Plus: one Iraq story: in March, 20 people were killed in the bombing of Baghdad’s Mutanabbi Street market—bookseller’s row, the embodiment of the city’s venerable intellectual history. The ALOUD series at the downtown LA Public Library will hold a “Memorial Reading for Mutanabbi Street” Mon, Nov 19, 7 PM – we’ll speak with Beau Beausoleil, Sholeh Wolpé, and Louise Steinman, curator of the ALOUD series and organizer of the LA Mutanabbi program—she was profiled in the LA Times on Sunday.

More stuff to read: my new piece in The Nation about Clarence Thomas.

KPFK elections update: the voting deadline has been extended to Dec. 9. Please support the slate endorsed by the Committee to Strengthen KPFK: www.candidateslate.org

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“We hope we’re about to elect FDR,” New York Times op-ed columnist PAUL KRUGMAN says, “but we might be about to elect Grover Cleveland.” He said he was referring to the front-runner, Hillary Clinton. Krugman’s new book is The Conscience of a Liberal; I spoke with him at ALOUD at Central Library, a free series at the Los Angeles Public Library presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles, and we will broadcast highlights of that conversation.

ALSO: Bush’s policies on “fighting terrorism” have made us not only less free, but also less safe: that’s what DAVID COLE says. He’s a law professor at Georgetown U, a contributor to Salon.com and The Nation. His new book is LESS SAFE, LESS FREE: Why America is Losing the War on Terror.

Plus: REPORTING IRAQ: what the key journalists have to say about the “good news,” and the bad. We’ll speak with JOHN PALATTELLA, co-editor, along along with Mike Hoyt and the staff of the Columbia Journalism Review, of Reporting Iraq: An Oral history of the War by the Journalists who Covered it. John has written for the L.A. Times Book Review and the Washington Post Book World, and he’s the new literary editor at The Nation.

More stuff to read: my piece at the Huffington Post: “NYT’s Krugman: Hillary — The Next Grover Cleveland”?

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SUSAN FALUDI exposes they way the 9-11 attacks led to a call to restore “traditional” manhood, marriage, and maternity. “Once again,” she says, Americans “fled from self-knowledge and retreated into myth.” Susan wrote the unforgettable book BACKLASH; Her new book is The Terror Dream: Fear and Fantasy in post-9/11 America.

also: from the charcoal pits of Brazil to the brothels of Bangkok, 27 million people work as slaves today, more than twice the total number in the 350 years of the African slave trade. KEVIN BALES talks about ENDING SLAVERY— he shows “how our world can be free at last” — Desmond Tutu.
Watch the video: Kevin Bales on ending global slavery.

More stuff to read: my piece at the Huffington Post, “Carl Bernstein: Hillary Will Continue Bush’s Legacy of Secrecy.”

Note: KPFK Elections are now underway — ballots for the Local Station Board have been mailed and must be returned by Nov. 15. Please vote for our slate: you can find it online at www.candidateslate.com.

The KPFK Fund Drive continues — pledge at www.kpfk.org or by calling 818-985-5735.

MIKE DAVIS talks about the politics, and the ecology, of the wildfires burning today in Southern California — which have now destroyed almost 1200 homes and led to the evacuation of almost 1 million people. Mike wrote the now-legendary piece, “The Case for Letting Malibu Burn” — it’s in his book Ecology of Fear, which we will be featuring as a fund drive premium.

also: What is it about Al Gore that drives right-wingers insane?
Apparently it has something to do with his winning the Nobel Peace Prize and the success of “An Inconvenient Truth.” “In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film.” — Rogert Ebert. We will be featuring the DVD of “An Inconvenient Truth” as a fund drive premium. watch the trailer

More stuff to read: my new piece at the Huffington Post,  “[Expletive] the Jews. They didn’t vote for us anyway”: Republicans and Israel.”

The KPFK Fund Drive continues — pledge at www.kpfk.org or by calling 818-985-5735.

Health care may turn out to be a bigger issue in the 2008 elections than Iraq, and the case for universal health care is presented with wit and skill in MICHAEL MOORE’s movie ‘SiCKO.’  Kenneth Turan of the LA Times called “SiCKO” Moore’s “most important, most impressive, most provocative film.” We’ll be featuring the brand new DVD of “SiCKO” as a fund drive premium.
Watch the trailer for “SiCKO”

Also: EVIL PARADISES, edited by Mike Davis and Daniel Bertrand Monk, is a global guidebook to real places that claim to be “utopias” in a capitalist era unfettered by unions or governments. These are worlds where consumption and inequality surpass our worst nightmares. Featured in the book: my essay on Ted Turner’s utopia — two million acres with no people; just him and his herd of bison. We”ll be featuring Evil Paradises as a fund drive premium.

More stuff to read: From the Huffington Post: My piece “Jews, Jesus, and Republicans: Playing Ann Coulter’s Game”
–and my piece “Who Wants to Bomb Iran? Democrats, not Republicans, says Seymour Hersh”

It’s the KPFK FUND DRIVE – CALL/PLEDGE AT 818-985-5735–or at www.kpfk.org
“NO END IN SIGHT” is the first film to chronicle the reasons behind Iraq’s descent into guerilla war, warlord rule, and anarchy. George Clooney says: “Watch this. Get your friends to watch it. Talk about it. Argue about it. And then call someone.” We’ll be featuring “No End in Sight” as a fund drive premium.
WATCH THE TRAILER for “No End in Sight”

Also: Your Minnesota Moment: Is Desmund Tutu bad for the Jews? St. Thomas College in St. Paul thought so—they cancelled a lecture of his because he’s criticized Israeli human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza–and then they changed their mind.

Plus: We have learned that when President Bush says, “We don’t torture,” it’s important to read the fine print. DAVID COLE will explain – he’s a law professor at Georgetown University, a contributor to Salon.com, The Washington Post, and The Nation. He says there’s no evidence our “paradigm of prevention” has done anything to prevent terror.
We’ll be featuring his new book as a fund drive premium: LESS SAFE, LESS FREE: Why America is Losing the War on Terror.

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Legendary investigative reporter SEYMOUR HERSH says the White House has changed the targets it plans to attack in Iran. Bush and Cheney have concluded that the public didn’t believe their claims about Iranian nukes, so instead they have targeted the Revolutionary Guard Corps – arguing that they are attacking Americans in Iraq. Hersh broke the story of the My Lai massacre – his report “Shifting Targets” appears in The New Yorker this week. Hersh will be speaking at UCLALive’s Royce Hall Thurs at 8pm — tickets/info at www.uclalive.org.

Also: Why millions of Americans are looking forward to the end of the world — Nicholas Guyatt’s light-hearted report “from the front line of wacky religious fervor” (Observer). His book is HAVE A NICE DOOMSDAY. Guyatt teaches at Simon Fraser U. and writes for the London Review of Books.

Plus: SUPERCAPITALISM: ROBERT REICH says we need to revive the democratic process to bring capitalism under control – with fair taxation, well-funded public education, and organized trade unions. Reich was Secretary of Labor under President Clinton, and now teaches public policy at Berkeley. He’s speaking Thurs. nite at 730pm at Town Hall Writers Bloc in Westwood.

More stuff to read: my piece “Clarence Thomas and Rupert Murdoch” at the Huffington Post. . .
. . . and my piece “John Dean: From Nixon to Bush to Giuliani: ‘Much, Much Worse’”, also at the Huffington Post

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JOHN DEAN says Republican rule has destoyed Congress, the Presidency, and the courts — and he will explain what’s to be done about ignorant and apathetic American voters. He’s the guy who became counsel to the President in 1970 when he was thirty-one, and then served as counsel to President Nixon for a thousand days. His new book is BROKEN GOVERNMENT. John Dean will be speaking tomorrow/Thurs Sept 27: Vroman’s @ All Saints Church, 132 N Euclid Ave, Pasadena, 700pm.

Also: KENTUCKY AT WAR: BOB MOSER of The Nation reports on the 50-State Strategy: Can Democrats win in places they abandoned years ago to the Republicans? Today he reports on the anti-war movement in Louisville and how the effort to unseat pro-war Republican Senator Mitch McConnell in 2008 is looking good. Bob’s reports on politics in the red states will be running in the magazine through the campaign year. Check out the Hillbilly Report and the DitchMitch websites.

Plus: CLASS WAR IN THE AMERICAN WEST: Scott Martelle of the LA Times has a new book about the Ludlow Massacre – the seven-month-long battle in 1914 by striking immigrant coal miners which was ended only by the US army after 75 people on both sides had been killed. The book is BLOOD PASSION. Scott is appearing Sun Oct.7 at 5pm at Book Soup, 8818 Sunset Blvd., W. Hwyd.

More stuff to read: my “Chemerinsky and Irvine: What Happened?” at Inside Higher Ed.
and my “Chemerinsky and the Chief Justice: Something is Wrong” at the Huffington Post

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While President Bush claims “progress” in Iraq, the death toll there has passed one million, according to a British study. LA Times Baghdad correspondent Tina Sussman reported on Sept. 14 that ORB, an agency that has conducted several surveys in Iraq, concluded that 1.2 million Iraqis have died as a result of war-related violence. TOM ENGELHARDT will comment; he keeps track of “Iraq by the numbers” at TomDispatch.com; his book The End of Victory Culture is out now in a new edition.

ALSO: Republicans call it “The Presidential Election Reform Act”; it’s an initiative they are trying to get on the June 8 ballot. Democrats call it another Republican dirty trick – an effort to win the 2008 presidential election by dividing California’s electoral votes. RICK JACOBS will explain – he’s head of The Courage Campaign.

PLUS: Since its founding in 1947, the CIA has consistently failed at its primary mission: to understand the world. Instead, it has been turned into a secret police force. TIM WEINER of the New York Times has spent 20 years studying the Agency, “an incapable and incoherent service whose deepest secret is its own weakness and ineptitude” —most evident on 9-11. Tim is a Pulitzer-Prize winning reporter who broke more than 100 page-one stories on the CIA. His new book is LEGACY OF ASHES: THE HISTORY OF THE CIA. Tim will be speaking tonight at 700pm in the ALOUD series at the downtown LA Public Library, 5^th and Flower streets—the event is officially “full-standby only.”

AND: Your Minnesota Moment:  the ACLU has filed a brief on behalf of Republican Senator Larry Craig, arrested in a  Minneapolis airport men’s room in that gay sex sting operation.  The ACLU argues that Americans have a free speech right to solicit sex that would occur in private.