SHOWS 101-125
SHOWS
101-125
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Former UNSCOM weapons inspector Scott Ritter with a blistering speech on the need for militaancy to stop Bush's war, and an open letter from a former military conscientious objector urging troops to resist service in Iraq. |
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Radio adaptation of video doc "The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm" that looks into the motives behind the first war on Iraq, and gives the lie to the present US government justifications for its new war... and in the second hour "9/11 and Future Wars" a recent lecture by John Judge fitting the 9/11 scenario into the context of a long-pursued elimination of American democracy by corporate fascist forces. |
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Steven Hill of the Center for Voting and Democracy talks about his book Fixing Elections: The Failure of America's Winner-Take-All Politics, how the electoral system rigs in elections in favor of the Replublicrats, legally - and then an extended conversation with Mark Dunau, an organic farmer running for Congress as a Green |
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We Americans stand at a turning point - the question before us is whether we insist on being the people of a democracy or acquiesce to being the subjects of an empire. |
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America has had a split personality from its beginnings; a group of people who came to these shores seeking freedom of religion and association waged a campaign of genocide against the original inhabitants in order to take their land for themselves. They had a revolution in the name of freedom while keeping millions of others as slaves. While immigration was encouraged in order to expand the borders of new country, the new Americans were disdained and ill treated on the basis of the race and ethnicity. After years of civil rights struggles by people of color in this country, racial profiling is still the norm in law enforcement practice, and it has, under the so-called war on drugs, resulted in a prison population where racial minorities are make up the majority, even though, percentage wise, white people break laws as often as people of color. The aftermath of last years terrorist attacks has brought this ugly current of institutionalized racism in American life raging to the surface, and the Bush administration has led the way by its policies. On Sept 21 in Seattle, a panel of city, state and federal governmental officials heard testimony from members of ethnic and religious minority groups who have been the victims of hate crimes and discrimination in the aftermath of Sept. 11 This panel was a civil society initiative organized by Hate Free Zone, a coalition of over a hundred community groups. |
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An extended interview with anti-racist activist Michael Novick, author of "White Lies, White Power" on the history of the US as an imperial power, and how that relates to the "War on Terrorism" |
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An examination of the actions and policies of the US government in Latin America can shed light on the real goals of the Bush Administration' s " war on terrorism." The" war on terrorism" is merely a new name for decades-old policies that have brought misery and murder to every country south of the US border. Long before Sept 11, 2001, the US government has been engaged in bringing to power and maintaining tyrannical regimes in Latin America. The justifications have evolved to match the rhetoric of the times: anti-communism, the war on drugs and now the war on terrorism or the ever-popular excuse, "promotion of democracy". We'll contrast the rhetoric with the reality - that what is at issue in Latin America, as well other parts of the world, including the middle east, is the ability to control the natural and human resources of other nations in a manner that will be profitable to American mutinational corporations and capitalists. Key among these resources is of course, oil. In the first hour, radio and print journalist and author Bill Weinberg will focus on what looks like Americas's new Vietnam, Colombia, as well as the fight of indigenous people in neighboring countries to protect their land and resources from being stolen by IMF-supported privatization and development. In the second hour we'll hear what it feels like to be to be the grist for the imperial mill, from two Latin Americans, a small farmer in Colombia and a famous Chilean man of letters. |
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9-11 analyzed a as a latter day "Reichstag Fire". In 1933, the German parliament was burned down, most likely by the Nazis themselves, and used as a pretext to for dictatorship, repression and the imposition of the Nazi agenda on the world. Six hours before the Reichstag fire, Rudolf Diels, head of the. Political Police since and subsequently head of the Gestapo, wrote the following police radio telegram which was sent to all police stations in Prussia at about 6:00 p.m.: ‘Communists reportedly plan to carry out systematic raids on police squads and members of nationalist associations with the aim of disarming them.’ ... ‘Suitable countermeasures are to be taken immediately, and where necessary communist functionaries placed under protective custody.’ The arrests carried out the next night had thus already been initiated on the afternoon of February 27.” before the fire had even occurred. Regardless of who actually planned and executed the fire, it is clear that the Nazis immediately took advantage of the situation in order to advance their agenda. Two decrees put into effect only one day later, the “Decree on the Protection of People and State”, subtitled “against communist acts of violence endangering the state,” and the “Decree Against Treason of the German People and High-Treason Activities,” were used to annul practically overnight the essential basic rights incorporated in the constitution of the Weimar Republic. These so-called “fire decrees” stayed in effect until the end of the Third Reich and formed the pseudo-legal basis for the entire Nazi dictatorship. Justified under article 48 of the Weimar constitution that allowed for suspension of rights in the event of national emergency, these decrees eliminated:
A supplemental decree created the (Storm Troops) and SS Federal police agencies. Hitler's political opponents were rounded up, jailed and killed. What followed was a multi-year reugn of terror that left tens of millions millions dead and brought on a world war. In the aftermath of the third Reich, the oft asked question was "how could the German people allow these things to happen?" Easily. They simply did what they were told. They went to war when told. Turned in dissenters deemed enemies of the state in the name of national security. Didn't criticize their leaders, obeyed their bosses. From the rigged 2000 presidential election to the question s surrounding foreknowlwdge of the Sept 11 attacks to the USA Patriot Act to the pre-planned invasion of Afganistan to the snitch-on-your neighbor Operation TIPPs to the Department of Homeland security, it seems that 21st century Americans may be faced with a similar choice. |
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For more than 50 years, Israelis and Palestinians have been at war for control over the land each calls home. Religion, geopolitics and history feed into a conflict that grows more desperate and lethal as the years pass. Within each society, a small but growing number of people are becoming convinced that they must take a stand to de-escalate the violence in order to make peaceful coexistence between their people's possible. To do so, they have had to oppose both their governments and the general sentiment in their societies, especially in the case of of our first and featured speaker, Dani Vos, an Israeli soldier who is one of the founders of what has been called the Refusenik movement. Vos is among a group of about 500 Israeli soldiers who have refused to participate in maintaining the increasingly bloody occupation of Palestinian territories that has been in effect since the end of the 1967 war. |
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A look behind some American illusions. The 9-11 attack has been compared with Pearl Harbor and that comparison may be more apt than many think. In the first hour, an interview with the author of a book that documents that the so-called surprise attack was anything but; it was deliberately provoked in order to gain public support for war, and US leaders deliberately sacrificed the lives of several thousand in order to fuel public outrage. In the second hour of the program, we'll take a look at the mechanics of elections, and the means whereby those in power rig the outcome through pefectly legal methods, and then we'll take a look at the national labor relations act of 1935 - which purports to help workers, but many say, actually serves to limit the ability of workers to organize and challenge the wage system. |
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An exploration of the conflict between democracy and hierarchy: methods and philosophy of consensus decision process, and and theory on making democratizing economies, Participatory Economics. |
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The system of neoliberal economics, advocates a market-based, profit-making approach to universally necessary resources and services. This system, which now increasingly dominates global economic activity, is celebrated by its advocates as more efficient and productive than public or non-profit ownership. One might ask the question, for whom is this system efficient and productive ? Telephone users have seen their phone bills go nowhere but up since deregulation, and energy ratepayers in California were fleeced like sheep by energy companies like Enron. We in New York State face a similar threat this winter. The so-called free marketers have also set their sights on the social security system, and have advocated turning it over to Wall Street. In the second hour of our program, Smihty returns with the Wizards of Money to explain how the social security system is funded and how US Imperial priorities threaten the retirement benefits of future workers, and vice versa. Whereas government ptograms are not based on profit and at are at least nominally operated for the benefit of society, the privatization of many of these functions creates an incentive for the perpetuation of social problems since one person's problem is another person's profit. The career of Vice-President Dick Cheney, who many consider to be the de facto president, is an example of how the system works. in the first hour we'll take a look at Cheney and his connection to the Halliburton corporation |
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Scott Ritter, former Marine and Weapons Inspector in Iraq and Jeff Paterson, former marine who refused to fight in the 1991 war against Iraq, speak out against the current US Goverment war plans re: Iraq For more on the incredible music of Ethan Miller see www.jedcenter.org |
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Sea levels and temperatures are rising, and the global capitalist economy is staggering under the weight of its own corruption. As we shall hear in our first hour world oil production may begin a permanent decline as early as next year. Political and business leaders, instead of facing the coming crisis and attempting to make provisions for the benefit all while there is still time, are instead acting like pickpockets on a sinking ocean liner, grabbing what they can and heading for the lifeboats. Meanwhile, opposition is rising to the latest neoliberal trade treaty under the WTO, that hopes to sweep away even the meagre remaining benefits that governments provide to the average citizen. In the second hour, Wizards of Money returns with a look at the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the growing worldwide resistance to it by civil society groups. |
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Earlier this week, George W Bush gave an address on the issue of corporate book cooking to a select group of Wall Street VIP's. Media commentators noted that Bush's audience seemed unimpressed with his pronouncements regarding corporate vice and virtue, and his plans to crack down on evildoers. More than likely, the speech did not impress because his financially sophisticated audience is in on the dirty little secret - what is portrayed as aberrant criminality is merely business as usual, and the financial shenanigans of the Enrons and Worldcoms stand out only by virtue of the scale, not the nature, of their actions. . Considering the involvement of the Bush family and their associates in financial scandals past and present, the speech was a fine piece of hypocrisy. On the program, Dr. Michael Parenti and Dr. Cecilia O'Leary on Patriotism, the "War on Terror" and the Pledge of Allegiance, and Joel Kovell on the capitalism versus the environment. Plus a look at Wal-Mart's corporate double standard in its treatment of workers, versus the American flag. |
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Those words from the declaration of independence of July 4 1776 called for an uprising against a tyrannical government. This more than 200 year old call to revolution is celebrated vociferously by the very officials leading that put into place the USA patriot Act, that declares a modern person, echoing Thomas Jefferson's historic call to action, a "terrorist." Tonight. we're going to hear a panel discussion, Liberty versus Security, on the subject of the so-called USA Patriot Act that many regard as legislation that officially initated a government as oppressive, if not more so, than the one that inspired the 1776 declaration. |
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Continuing our series on political repression in America with a look at two historical examples: one from the recent past and another from the early part of the 20th century: the cases of Judi Bari and Daryl Cherney of Earth First! and the framing and execution of anarchist labor activists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the 1920's |
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News reports and even official statements of high ranking officials in several countries have confirmed that warnings of the 9-11 attack were given to the US government by several intelligence agencies including those of Russia, Israel, Egyt and Peru. The Israeli Prime Mnister and the Russian president have gone on record about directing that warnings be delivered. FBI agents have also gone on record as receiving these warnings and attempting to pass them on to disinterested superiors. In spite of this relatively large body of people who were aware that an attack involving the hijacking of aircraft was planned, less than two dozen men were able to hijack four airliners armed only with razor knives. Not even the most minimal directive to increase airport security measures was issued. But after the horse was out of the barn, a flurry of actively activity erupted in short order. While that activity, war abroad and increase of government and police powers at home, is purportedly in response to the attacks the current facts as well as historical precedent shows that the particular nature of the responses are ones that further an ongoing agenda of social control that maintains and increases the wealth and power of those who already possess it. Our next three programs will look at the so-called USA Patriot Act, both in terms of its features and implications for Americans insisting on democracy and resisting capitalism, as well as people around the globe desiring to control their own destinies. On September 14, 2001 George W Bush declared a state of national emergency, Bush issued the following executive orders:
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Teach-in from the SGJ WEF conference. Panelists address the visions and values of the type of world they'd like to see, in contrast to the vision put forth by the WEF Featuring: Starhawk, Barbara Garson, Richard Juarez, Amanda Lugg, Monami Maulik, Cindy Milstein, Jaggi Singh. |
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Our speakers tonight are all members of what our first speaker, reporter Jeremy Scahill calls "rebel media" - those free voices outside the control of the puppeteers who pull the strings. We'll look at corporate media and government collaboration, and its impact on society through the eyes of several people on the front lines of the fight for real free press in America. Jeff Chester, Director of the Center for Digital Democracy speaks on the battle to save open access to the internet, and Amy Goodman speaks on the media's relationsjip to power and those who challenge it. |
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Tonight on the program we'll look at some of the aspects of poverty in America. In the first hour, we'll focus on homelessness, a phenomenon caused by the virtual boom economy and gentrification. In our second hour, Wizards of Money explores the reasons for the growing tide of bankruptcies and the role of the credit industry in this trend. SUMMER
OF FEAR Fear of not finding a safe place to sleep or the next meal aren't the only fears that homeless people face daily. Homeless people in San Francisco, as throughout the U.S, must also deal with the terror of being targets of hate crimes. The national reality of hate crimes due to economic status is just now garnering increased recognition. Clearly, action must be taken to protect America's most vulnerable people - a population forced to live in the public eye. The terror reigns from south Florida to the far reaches of Anchorage, Alaska. "Troll busting" - random attacks on homeless people by packs of mostly Anglo male youths - is a shameful secret in communities across the country. Teenaged boys in Alaska, who beat and stomp on homeless people for sport, recently doused a man with lighter fluid and set him on fire as he slept in a park. In July, another homeless man was set ablaze on Chicago's West Side, where the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless reports skinhead attacks on people who are forced to sleep in the parks by summer's shelter closings. Three Seattle teenagers savagely murdered a homeless man under the bridge where he slept, breaking five of his ribs and stabbing him 18 times in what police describe as a "thrill killing." Two Florida teens stand charged with first-degree murder in Pinellas County after they murdered a 51 year-old homeless man at a bus stop with their fists and feet when he complained about the loud music coming from their car. Two Butte College football players face charges of murder by torture in Chico for the beating death last year of a 47-year-old homeless man who complained as one of the pair urinated on the bush he was sleeping under. As disturbing as these accounts are, what is even more ominous is that homeless people have little protection against such cruelty. Poor people are not a protected class under our civil rights statutes, and none of the hate crime measures currently being debated throughout the U.S. include or acknowledge hate crimes based on economic status. Police seem to prioritize investigations of violent crimes against homeless people only when the need can no longer be ignored. Besides, few of these crimes are ever actually reported; homeless people are reluctant to report violent crimes for many reasons, from investigating officers' frequent attitudes of derision and suspicion toward homeless victims to fear of the police in general. Fear of the police is certainly not unfounded. In America's urban centers, police regularly harass and cite homeless people for panhandling or sleeping in public spaces. And in recent months, police killings of homeless people have been on the rise. In June of this year, an LAPD officer fatally shot a mentally ill 55-year-old homeless grandmother who brandished a screwdriver at him. This incident sparked outrage and controversy due to the extreme and clearly unnecessary measures the police officer took to protect himself. In New York City, whose infamous Street Crimes unit sells t-shirts with the slogan "Certainly There Is No Hunting Like the Hunting of Men," an off-duty officer was recently cleared of any wrongdoing after he jumped out of his car to shoot a "squeegee man" attempting to wash his windshield. He claimed it was self-defense. San Francisco's homeless people are no strangers to hate crimes. Last November, while the "homeless slasher" scrawled arcane symbols in his victims' blood and filled the pages of the local dailies, a few inches recorded the death of a man who was beaten with his own cane and stabbed to death near Sixth and Minna streets. Last month, a homeless man was pummeled by a store clerk on Turk St., despite onlookers urging the assailant to stop. After a Coalition volunteer who witnessed this assault called 911 from a pay phone, he waited over half an hour before police came to take his report. (See "Terror at Turk & Taylor," page 2.) Often homeless crime victims are not given any assistance in swearing out complaints and these reports are routinely given little priority. Arrests are made rarely, even for the most blatant violations of homeless people's civil and human rights. Experts are at a loss to explain the surge in violent attacks by the young and the strong on the destitute and vulnerable, blaming violence in the media, bad parenting, and a lack of morals. But when our law enforcement agencies flaunt their disregard for homeless people's basic safety, and number of police murders of homeless people continues to rise, what message is getting through to America's youth? San Franciscans are concerned about the disregard for others' lives evidenced by these crimes. "There are negative vibes; I can see it in people's faces," said a man living in United Nations Plaza. "There is a lack of humanity in the way [the public] treats us." |
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The institutions that are driving the worldwide neoliberal economic agenda speak of their activities as "development" designed to increase "prosperity" through "economic growth." The well-groomed proponents of these activities speak of their plans and projects in modulated tones of civility in the conference rooms of elegant hotels, while leaving in their wake a worldwide trail of misery, blood, and pollution. The way for this development is opened by coercion, and is meeting increasing and often desperate resistance from millions suffering under these tender ministrations. A growing number of critics, mostly silenced from the mainstream venues of discourse, are articluating an understanding of this development model as global gangsterism. In our first hour of the program we'll hear from Wolfgang Sachs, who will speak on this in the context of "Ecology and Equity: from Rio 1992 to Johannesburg 2002. In our second hour Blake, an anticapitalist activist with CLAC in Montreal, will speak on the G8 summit planned for this summer in Canada and the G8's role in this global class war. |
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Here is Julia Ward Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation written in 1870: "Arise then, women of this day! Arise, all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be that of water or tears! "Say firmly: 'We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have taught them of charity, mercy and patience. We women of one country will be too tender of those of another to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs.' "From the bosom of the devastated earth, a voice goes up with our own. It says, 'Disarm, disarm!' The sword of murder is not the balance of justice. Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession. As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead. Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar but of God. "In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a general congress of women without limit of nationality may be appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, the great and general interests of peace." |
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Regular listeners to this program are familiar with our ongoing series on the workings of the system of finance capital, the Wizards of Money with Smithy, where we have in the past learned the money is created "out of thin air" when private banks make loans to businesses and individuals. Though created out of thin air, it has very real impacts on people's lives and the ecosystem. The amount of money banks are allowed to create is determined by the Federal Reserve, which is actually a private bank regulated by the government. Why then doesn't the government insist that money be created to make a decent life available to all of its citizens? What does this have to do with so-called free trade? In the first hour of the program, someone who is examining these questions and how they are impacting his country, -- Paul Hellyer, the author of Goodbye Canada. In the second hour of the program, Wizards of Money with Smithy returns with an expose on a 1998 financial "investment" scheme that nearly precipitated a worldwide depression. |
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A growing number of voices from across the political spectrum are daring to say that the drug war does not reduce drug use -- That choosing to wage a 'war' on drugs stimulates a violent, underground economy, an economy which would collapse if drug prohibition ended. And that this decades long war on drugs is not making our country safer, simply less free. In the first hour of our program, a documentary by Curt Shcroell focusing on highlights from a drug policy conference held Rice University in Houston, Texas. Then in our second hour, a community forum : NYS Prisons, Inside and Out, which was held in Ithaca as part of a New York interfaith prison pilgrimmage.. |
SHOW
#125 - Sun. 10/27/02