The Jeff Farias Show

Wednesday, March 18 2009

We spoke earlier with Andy Worthington, London-based journalist and author of “The Guantánamo Files” (Pluto Press), who recently released the first definitive list of the 779 prisoners held in the US prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Links to the list: Part 1 (ISNs 002 to 200): http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/guanta … st-part-1/ Part 2 (ISNs 201 to 496): http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/guanta … st-part-2/ Part 3 (ISNs 497 to 732): http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/guanta … st-part-3/ Part 4 (ISNs 743 to 10030): http://www.andyworthington.co.uk/guanta … st-part-4/ The list, which is the result of three years’ research and writing about Guantánamo, provides details of the 533 prisoners who have been released, and includes, for the first time ever, accurate dates for their release. It also provides details of the 241 prisoners who are still held, including the 59 prisoners who have been cleared for release). Although some stories are still unknown, the stories of 700 prisoners are referenced either by links to Andy’s extensive archive of articles about Guantánamo, or to the chapters in “The Guantánamo Files” where they can be found. Andy writes: “It is my hope that this project will provide an invaluable research tool for those seeking to understand how it came to pass that the government of the United States turned its back on domestic & international law, establishing torture as official US policy, & holding men without charge or trial neither as prisoners of war, protected by the Geneva Conventions, nor as criminal suspects to be put forward for trial in a federal court, but as ‘illegal enemy combatants.’ I also hope that it provides a compelling explanation of how that same government, under the leadership of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney & Donald Rumsfeld, established a prison in which the overwhelming majority of those held — at least 93 percent of the 779 men & boys imprisoned in total — were either completely innocent people, seized as a result of dubious intelligence or sold for bounty payments, or Taliban foot soldiers, recruited to fight an inter-Muslim civil war that began long before the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, & that had nothing to do with al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden or international terrorism.” http://www.andyworthington.co.uk

At 4 PM Gail Perry Johnston author of ‘The Social Cause Diet: Stories of Satisfying Acts of Service’, a book that discusses volunteerism from the volunteer’s perspective with great tips and information about how to get more involved. The book highlights the rewards of establishing the habit of caring and service to others: living more in the moment, making deeper connections with others, and growing in patience and gratitude—all qualities that make us stronger, and more contented people. Gail Perry Johnston outlines how to take the leap to make service a habit in your life and shares poignant stories of others about their involvement in special service projects and activities. The Social Cause Diet is about developing the long view. Teaching a child to read, helping out a single parent, holding the hand of a dying person, fundraising for a good cause—all of these experiences impact our understanding of what truly matters.” http://www.socialcausediet.com http://www.volunteermatch.org http://www.thevolunteerfamily.org http://www.charitynavigator.org

At 5 PM James Douglass author of JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters . “In this book James Douglass presents a compelling account of why President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and why the unmasking of this truth remains crucial for the future of our country and the world.” “Drawing on a vast field of investigation, including many sources available only in recent years, Douglass lays out a sequence of steps by JFK that transformed him, over the course of three years, from a traditional Cold Warrior to someone determined to pull the world back from the edge of apocalypse. Beginning with the fiasco of the Bay of Pigs Invasion (which left him wishing to “splinter the CIA in a thousand pieces”), followed by the Cuban Missile Crisis and his secret back-channel dialogue with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev, JFK pursued a series of actions - right up to the week of his death - that caused members of his own U.S. military-intelligence establishment to regard him as

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Tuesday, March 17 2009 HAPPY ST. PATRICK’S DAY !!!

At 3:30 Philip Smith, an artist and former managing editor of GQ magazine, reflects on his youth in 1960s Miami. He wanted a father who mowed the lawn, drank beer, and fell asleep in front of the TV. Instead, his dad, Lew Smith, was a successful interior decorator, who went through a macrobiotic transformation and began tuning into mystical vibrations. Young Philip was introduced to fasting and yogic diets, while Lew explored esoteric spirituality, reincarnation, Bach Flower Remedies and such metaphysical arcana as the akashic records, an ethereal Library of Congress of every soul in human history: [Philip] wasn’t sure if this endless invisible database also included reruns of I Love Lucy or Perry Mason, but it probably did. After a 1968 encounter with famed trance medium Arthur Ford, Lew found his true calling as a psychic healer, and overnight our isolated house became Lourdes central. Smith’s fine flair for waggish anecdotes is especially evident in his riotous recall of being suckered into Scientology at age 17. He looks back at his father with much affection in this mirthful memoir that bounces between the comic and the cosmic. Smith is a gifted humorist, and readers are certain to request more merriment” Reviews “Philip Smith’s compellingly readable memoir of his father — a psychic, exorcist, hands-on-healer, and…decorator! — is as entertaining as it is bizarre, all the way to its unexpected and deeply moving conclusion.” — John Berendt, author of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and The City of Falling Angels “At long last, a subject worthy of a memoir. Philip Smith recounts the story of his father, a visionary, a psychic healer, and a saint, with matter-of-fact grace, without ever denying how difficult it was to be the child of a man with unlimited supernatural gifts. Lew Smith was a man we are unlikely to ever see the likes of again, one of the few fathers in literature whose death I mourned as if I’d known him. I wish I had known him; he was a miracle. Every page of Walking Through Walls reminded me of how vast the universe, and how meager the dreams of our philosophies.” — Haven Kimmel, author of ‘Iodine and A Girl Named Zippy’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJ4emXxcysA http://www.walkingthroughwallsthebook.com/Reviews.html

At 4 PM Carl Conetta has been Co-Director of the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA) since January 1991. Prior to joining PDA, Mr. Conetta was a Research Fellow of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies (IDDS) and also served for three years as editor of the IDDS journal Defense and Disarmament Alternatives, and the Arms Control Reporter. As co-director of PDA, Mr. Conetta has authored and co-authored numerous reports on security issues and has published in Defense News, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, NOD and Conversion Journal, the Boston Review, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, the American Sentinel, Security Dialogue, and Hawk, the journal of the Royal Air Force Staff College of the United Kingdom. Mr. Conetta has also made presentations at the Pentagon, US State Department, US House Armed Services Committee, Army War College, National Defense University, UNIDIR, and other governmental and nongovernmental institutions in the United States and abroad. He is a frequent expert commentator on radio and TV. He edits the Chinese Military Power and Revolution in Military Affairs Webpages.

At 5 PM Mamakind (a/k/a Lisa Kirkman) attended the Universities of Lethbridge, Calgary & Poona (Pune, India) working toward a degree in Religious Studies. After the birth of her first child, Mamakind moved to British Columbia to pursue her passion for writing & editing with ‘Cannabis Culture’ magazine, heading out on a long road of anti-prohibition activism. While in BC, she founded a medical cannabis dispensary (the ‘Sunshine Coast Compassion Club Society’), was a contributor to ‘Cannabis Health Journal’, started her own cannabis-related advertising directory, had another baby & was convicted of growing medical cannabis for her sick husband in 2005. MK started contributing to ‘SKUNK Magazine’ the same year, answering stoners’ sex & relationship questions & later moved to Montréal, Québec to become SKUNK’s Senior Editor & Sales Director. After two-and-a-half years of writing, editing & activism in Québec, Mamakind recently moved back to her hometown of Calgary to raise her children, continue her activism (as a member of Calgary420, the ‘Canadian Cannabis Coalition’ & panelist for NORML Canada’s’ Resolving Marijuana Prohibition National Tour’) & contributions to SKUNK, as well as finish writing her book, “A Girl’s Guide to Ganja”. She continues to freelance; she’s the only female blogger on Celebstoner.com, her work has appeared on Ireland’s ‘Cannazine’ website & she has an article appearing in the May `09 issue of ‘High Times’. She’s also developed a writing course called ‘I Wanna Write for the Pot Magazines’ for those interested in breaking into cannabis-related publications. Mama’s favorite strains are DJ Short’s “Flo” & Sensi Seeds’ “Skunk #1. She has an article coming out in the May issue of High Times about the state of cannabis in Canada & is a panelist on NORML’s upcoming “Reconsidering Cannabis Prohibition” national tour when it hits Calgary (a particularly important stop on the tour, seeing as Calgary’s Canada’s Conservative stronghold and home to over 80 000 Americans– the most in Canada). She’s also holding a webinar next month: “I WANNA WRITE FOR THE POT MAGAZINES” & continuing work on a book, “A Girl’s Guide to Ganja”

 http://www.SKUNKmagazine.com

http://www.Celebstoner.com/blogs/mamakind/

 http://cannabiscoalition.ca/

www.myspace.com/mamakind

We also spoke with Joe Brewer, Founder, Cognitive Policy Works Joe Brewer is the founder of Cognitive Policy Works. He is a social entrepreneur and cognitive scientist who brings the bounty of his studies in psychology, cognitive linguistics, complexity and politics to the progressive movement. His writings as a fellow of the Rockridge Institute have drawn international attention, where he applied cognitive frame analysis to the discourse around climate and energy. Joe is working with a community of cognitive and behavioral scientists to build a new foundation for politics in the 21st Century. Cognitive Policy Works is both an educational center that provides professional trainings to people in politics and a research/consulting firm that analyzes the workings of the political mind for nonprofits and social businesses. We’re a team of experts in political behavior and social change with a powerful combination of skills ranging from psychology and linguistics to media studies and strategic planning. Cognitive Policy Works is devoted to the application of the cognitive and behavioral sciences to politics. Our mission is to build a new foundation for politics based on a 21st Century understanding of the mind, one that works for real people as we come together to address the great challenges of our time. http://www.cognitivepolicyworks.com/

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