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Spying on Americans: George Bush says it’s a good thing – and he also thinks the president has the power to do it. DAVID COLE disagrees – he teaches law at Georgetown and his new book is Terrorism and the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties for National Security. His new article in The Nation looks at the many ways President Bush has abused the power of his office.

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Also: gay cowboys and straight cowboys: JOHN POWERS will explain the difference — a talk about Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain” and Tommy Lee Jones’s “Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada.” John writes the “On” column for the LA Weekly, he’s a commentator on NPR’s “Fresh Air with Terry Gross.”
His book Sore Winners: American Idols, Patriotic Shoppers, and Other Strange Species in George Bush’s America is out now in paperback.

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And we”ll have our Washington political update with HAROLD MEYERSON. Harold is political editor of the LA Weekly, editor at large of the American Prospect, and op-ed page columnist for the Washington Post.

Plus: YOUR MINNESOTA MOMENT: neighbors of a state prison in suburban Minneapolis say they do NOT want a 12-foot security fence built – they say the prisoners make good neighbors.

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Dec. 8 is the 25th anniversary of the killing of JOHN LENNON. We’ll commemorate that anniversary by listening to some rare audio from the Pacifica Radio Archives documenting Lennon’s engagement with the anti-war movement of the sixties: ABBIE HOFFMAN talking about John Lennon in a 1981 interview, PETE SEEGER rembering how he lead half a million people singing “Give Peace a Chance” at the Washington Monument in 1969, Lennon’s own voice from the bed-in in Amsterdam in 1968 and the Free John Sinclair concert in 1971 – and, throughout the hour, some of our favorite Lennon music.
Playlist: “Instant Karma!,” “Come Together,” “The Ballad of John and Yoko,” “John Sinclair,” “Stand by Me,” “Oh Yoko.”

Also: KPFK SPORTS! Today: a look at the Oakland Raiders fan empire with JIM MILLER and KELLY MAYHEW, authors of the new book Better to Reign in Hell: Inside the Raiders Fan Empire.

Plus: What’s next in California politics: SHEILA KUEHL, state senator from Santa Monica, with comment and analysis.

Today’s news update: Twenty-five years after John Lennon’s murder, the FBI has declared it will appeal a recent federal court decision ordering release of the last ten pages of the Lennon FBI file. The FBI says it would not release files about Lennon on the grounds that they contain information provided by a foreign government under a promise of confidentiality.
More info: www.LennonFBIfiles.com.

Girl Groups of the Sixties: LISTEN ONLINE
Raw emotion, youthful energy, and teenage angst in a new 4-CD Rhino box set: One Kiss Can Lead To Another: Girl Group Sounds Lost & Found. Jon Pareles of the New York Times wrote, “to hear all these long-suffering voices is to realize that feminism didn’t arrive an instant too soon.” GARY STEWART and CHERYL FARBER, producers of the 120-track collection, will explain. PLAYLIST: “Needle in a Haystack,” The Velvelettes (1964); “Nobody Knows What’s Going on in my Mind but Me,” The Chiffons (1965); “Nothing but a Heartache,” The Flirtations (1968); “I Never Dreamed,” The Cookies (1964); “I’m Blue (The Gong-Gong Song),” The Ikettes (1961)

PLUS: The war in Iraq has reached a decisive moment, now that all major Iraqi political parties have called for an American withdrawal. TOM HAYDEN asks “is the war ending — or is the anti-war movement ending in 2006?” Tom will talk about “What To Do For Peace Now.” Plus Tom’s appeal for clemency for Stanley “Tookie” Williams, the convicted murderer facing the death penalty despite his important work for a gang truce.
Tom’s most recent book is a new edition of The Port Huron Statement: The Visionary Call of the 1960s Revolution, for which he’s written a new introduction, “The Way We Were.”

ALSO: President Bush in a speech today announced a “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq.” For comment and analysis we turn to DAVID CORN — he’s The Nation‘s Washington editor and he writes the “Capital Games” column for the magazine. He’s also a commentator on Fox News, and his most recent book is The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception.

BOB SCHEER UPDATE: Susan Brenneman, Deputy Op-Ed Editor of the L.A. Times, invited MIKE DAVIS to write a “long essay” for the Times op-ed page. Mike replied: “Dear Susan, I hate to respond to your kindness with a polemic, but after the purging of Bob Scheer there is no way that I would contribute to the Op-ed section or even allow one of my pieces to be reprinted. As in the past, please be assured that I have only the highest respect for you and other friends at the LAT, but I won’t collaborate with the institution. Hope you understand. warmest, Mike Davis”

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IRAQ UPDATE: For the first time, Iraq’s political factions on Monday collectively called for a timetable for withdrawal of US forces, putting new pressure on the Bush White House. ROBERT SCHEER will provide comment and analysis: in his column today, at RobertScheer.com, he says “You’ve got to hand it to Dick Cheney; no other modern politician has come so close to perfecting the theater of the absurd. Even as he protests his innocence of lying about matters of state, he lies about matters of state.” Next Tuesday Scheer launches TruthDig.Com— a web magazine providing provocative content and in-depth coverage of current affairs — sign up today!

The art and soul of Sam Cooke: a black performer who was among the first to blend gospel music and secular themes — from “You Send Me” in 1957 to “A Change is Gonna Come” in 1964.
Friend of Malcolm X and Cassius Clay, he was shot and killed in Los Angeles in 1964. PETER GURALNIK , author of DREAM BOOGIE, will talk about the triumph of Sam Cooke – and we’ll listen to some Sam Cooke songs.
PLAYLIST: “Touch the Hem of His Garment” 1956
“You Send Me” 1957
“Bring it on Home to Me” 1962
“A Change is Gonna Come” 1964
“Twistin’ the Night Away” 1962

ALSO: E. L. DOCTOROW’s amazing new novel, THE MARCH
is set in the middle of Sherman’s Civil War march from Atlanta to the sea, the moment of revolutionary destruction of planter property and liberation for thousand of slaves. Richard Eder of the L.A. Times described it as “a serious novel that is at the same time entrancing fun: a panoramic vision of war filtered through its disorders; often brutal and, at times, oddly human.”
DAVE ULIN, book editor of the L.A. Times, will comment – he wrote about Doctorow for The Nation.

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ARNOLD’S INITIATIVES:
HAROLD MEYERSON will have analysis of Tuesday’s election results, where voters rejected every one of Schwarzenegger’s ballot propositions — plus an abortion-parental consent initiative designed to get conservatives to the polls. It’s a stunning defeat for the governor.

Harold is political editor of the LA Weekly, editor at large of the American Prospect, and op-ed columnist for the Washington Post.
(Arnold portrait by Caricature Zone.)

PLUS: Republican defeats around the country:
JOHN NICHOLS comments on good news for Democrats from New Jersey and especially Virginia, a red state where Bush himself campaigned last week. John is co-author with Robert McChesney of a new book, TRAGEDY & FARCE: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy.
John Nichols is Washington correspondent for The Nation; Robert McChesney teaches at the University of Illinois.
Nichols and McChesney will be talking about Tragedy and Farce Wed. nite at 730pm at Barnes & Noble, 1201 – 3rd St. Promenade in Santa Monica.

ALSO: DON’T GET TOO COMFORTABLE: DAVID RAKOFF looks at American greed, vanity, selfishness, and vapidity — and explains why “the cudgel-like USA Patriot Act” convinced him he should become an American citizen. (He had been a Canadian citizen.) David Rakoff is a regular contributor to Public Radio International’s “This American Life” with Ira Glass.

Bad news: the LA Times is killing Robert Scheer’s column. Scheer has been a hero and friend of mine for 25 years, and his column has been indispensable, exposing the lies and coverups of the Bush White House — and has been attacked relentlessly by Bill O’Reilly and Rush Limbaugh. The Times‘s publisher seems to think a blander, more centrist op-ed page will help slow their declining readership. Let the Times know we want Robert Scheer back: Write a letter to Jeffrey M. Johnson, Publisher; Los Angeles Times; 202 W. 1st St.; Los Angeles, CA 90012

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Arnold’s Initiatives: How did we get here?
AMY WILENTZ will explain the background next week’s special election — she’s a contributing editor to The Nation and also writes for the New York Times and the L.A. Times — her new book is Armed Response: Coming to California in the Age of Schwarzenegger— it’s a political memoir that will be out next fall.
Web Extra: LA Times poll shows 3 of 4 Schwarzenegger initiatives way behind with voters.

ALSO: The Rise of American Democracy, from Jefferson to Lincoln:
Princeton historian SEAN WILENTZ “takes his place among the finest writers of history America has produced,” says Philip Roth. “He redeems the time he writes about without sentimentality or cynicism and with a deep understanding of every last detail of the American political tradition.”

PLUS:
Fascism in America: FRANK RICH talks about a novel in which a fascist is elected president of the U.S. in a time of fear – not 2004, but rather 1940.
The novel is Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America — it’s out now in paperback. Frank Rich writes those great op-ed columns in the Sunday New York Times.
(Archive edition, originally broadcast Sept. 29, 2004.)

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The Plamegate Indictments: We’ll have analysis from JOHN NICHOLS, Washington correspondent for The Nation. He says the issue is not simply outing a CIA agent, or lying to the special prosecutor — the issue is lying to the American people about the reasons for going to war. John writes “The Online Beat” at www.TheNation.com — and his new book is The Rise and Rise of Richard B. Cheney: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Most Powerful Vice President in American History — it’s out now in paperback from the New Press.

ALSO: ROSA PARKS died Monday at 92 — her refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama in 1955 sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott and propelled Martin Luther King to leadership of the Civil Rights movement. HERBERT KOHL says the history books are wrong in describing her as a modest seamstress too tired to move that day; instead she was an experienced activist, a local NAACP official, and a community leader. Kohl’s new book is She Would Not Be Moved: How We Tell the Story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
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PLUS BOB DYLAN’s book Chronicles Volume 1:
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It’s a surprising and wonderful memoir – from the eager unknown, trying to make it in the Village, to the beleaguered superstar of the late 1960s.

We’ll have comment from Princeton historian SEAN WILENTZ – and we’ll listen to SEAN PENN reading from the book — it’s out now in paperback. (Archives edition, originally broadcast March 23, 2005)

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GEORGE BUSH AND THE SUPREMES– Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court has left commentators on the right angry and bitter. HAROLD MEYERSON reports – he writes for the LA Weekly, The American Prospect, and the Washington Post op-ed page, where he has a terrific new piece on “The Right’s Dissed Intellectuals.”

THE SHAME OF THE NATION: Over the past several years, JONATHAN KOZOL has visited nearly 60 public schools. Virtually everywhere, he finds that conditions have grown worse for inner-city children in the last 15 years. A state of nearly absolute apartheid now prevails in thousands of our schools; a protomilitary form of discipline has now emerged, methods of behavioral control traditionally used in prisons but targeted exclusively at black and Hispanic children; and high-stakes testing has taken on pathological and punitive dimensions. Kozol’s first book, Death at an Early Age, won the National Book Award and sold more than two million copies.

A DEVIL’S DICTIONARY OF BUSINESS : from “dead cat bounce” to “Hello Kitty merchandising,” NICHOLAS VON HOFFMAN charts the diabolical terrain of the business world from alpha to omega. Nick von Hoffman wrote a syndicated column for the Washington Post for four years. He is the best-selling author of Citizen Cohn, a book about Roy Cohen, and he’s a columnist for the New York Observer.

Web extra: Marc Cooper writes, “at the offshore betting site bodog.com you can wager real cash money on whether or not Tom DeLay gets convicted. Is this a great world or not? You can make money and watch the Ham Sandwich get sliced!” P.S.: The odds now are 13-10 for conviction.

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THE GODLESS CONSTITUTION: Did the Founding Fathers want America to be “a Christian nation”? ISAAC KRAMNICK says the Founding Fathers had no problem with a Christian people — but they were firm in their insistence on a secular government. His new book is The Godless Constitution: A Moral Defense of the Secular State.

Also: ADAM SHATZ on The Jewish Question in France: how France’s most eminent journalist, Jean Daniel, has for half a century been both a friend to Israel and a defender of Palestinian rights: “a trapeze act that he has managed with extraordinary grace.” Adam is literary editor of The Nation; he wrote about “The Jewish Question” for The New York Review of Books.

Plus: It’s the 100th anniversary of the Wobblies!
PAUL BUHLE has written a fabulous graphic history of the IWW: Mike Davis says “tell the bosses to go to hell and buy an extra copy of this wonderful history.”

And REBECCA SOLNIT talks about her wonderful new book A Field Guide to Getting Lost — it’s a book about uncertainty, trust, loss, memory, desire, and place. She’s an activist and award-winning writer; her last book was the indispensible Hope in the Dark.

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THE RED CROSS MONEY PIT: The American Red Cross has raised more than $800 million for Hurricane Katrina victims. This would be justified if the organization had to pay the cost of the 300,000 people it has sheltered. But FEMA and the affected states are reimbursing the Red Cross under preexisting contracts for emergency shelter and other disaster services. The existence of these contracts is no secret to anyone – except for the American public. Richard Walden comments – he’s president of Operation USA.

Plus: HOWARD ZINN talks about disasters, natural and political – Howard’s new book is Voices from A People’s History. Join Howard, Danny Glover, Viggo Mortensen, Marissa Tomei, Alfre Woodard, Sandra Oh, and others for a night of dramatic readings from people’s history: Wednesday, October 5, 8 PM, Japan America Theatre, 244 South San Pedro Street downtown LA in Little Tokyo. Info: 213-680-3700; voicesla@gmail.com.

Also: INTELLIGENT DESIGN ON TRIAL : This week the Dover, PA court is hearing the lawsuit over teaching “intelligent design” as a requirement in the high school biology curriculum.

Nation magazine columnist KATHA POLLITT comments: she calls intelligent design “road to nowhere, because it insists on fidelity to revealed truths that are not true.” But today 40 percent of high school biology teachers don’t teach evolution, either because it’s socially unacceptable in their communities, or because they themselves don’t believe in it.