The Jeff Farias Show

at 5 PM my interview with Chris Prelitz author of Green Made Easy: The Everyday Guide for Transitioning to a Green Lifestyle.

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@ 3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here on: • Roots Up Radio • Jerva Westerort Local Community Radio: 91.1 Stockholm, Sweden

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·         Ted Kennedy, My Friend and Colleague – Sen. Robert Byrd

·         Yes. Get Health Care Done. For Ted. – Bill Scher

·         Limbaugh Congratulates Himself On Kennedy Death Prediction – Rachel Weiner

·         Kennedy’s life work honoured

·         China’s transplant organs mostly from death row

·         The Secret Government – Christopher Hayes

·         Carrying Teddy’s Torch: Where Do We Go From Here? – Nick Baumann

·         CrossRoads Afghanistan

·         Top U.S. regulator vows to defend net neutrality

·         UK caves to Hollywood, orders net cut-off for ‘hardcore‘ downloaders

·         ISP that cut off Pirate Bay hit hard, site is back online in hours

·         ‘No foreign link’ in Iran unrest

·         The trials of election monitoring

At 4 PM Scott Horton.

Contributing Editor, Harpers Magazine joins us to discuss the torture memos and recent revelations.

·         Seven Points on the CIA Report

·         Holder’s Modified, Limited Hangout

·         Guess What: Cheney’s CIA docs don’t say what he claims they say

·         Holder Names Prosecutor: Progress or Whitewash?, E.Etheridge

·         Obama White House v. CIA; Panetta Threatened to Quit – Tensions Lead to CIA Director’s “Screaming Match” at the White House – M.Cole, R.Esposito & B.Ross

At 4:30 – David N. Gibbs.

David is an Associate Professor of History and Political Science at University of Arizona. He has written & researched extensively on Afghanistan, a Guide To Using Classified Documents, as well as spoken on Political Bias in International Relations Research. David joins us to discuss his new book, First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, June09.

Even as they criticized the George W. Bush administration for invading Iraq, leading liberals defended Clinton administration war-making in the Balkans. Sharply challenging this positive assessment is David Gibbs of the University of Arizona. A man of the left, Mr. Gibbs nonetheless disputes the nostrums of so-called humanitarian intervention. His assertions are contentious but well-supported. Attacking Serbia turned out to be neither humanitarian nor prudent. Perhaps Mr. Gibbs’ most controversial assertion is that “the containment of allies remained a major US objective” behind Washington’s Balkan policy. Mr. Gibbs too quickly dismisses the professed humanitarian objectives of allied officials — Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright may really have seen Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic as Hitler reincarnated. Nevertheless, Mr. Gibbs offers an important antidote to the self-serving propaganda emanating from Washington and allied capitals. Mr. Gibbs’ most important success is demonstrating the enormous complexity of the multiple Balkan conflicts. The bloody disintegration of Yugoslavia involved a catastrophic mix of murderous local factions, brutal regional players and foolish Western decisions. Shamefully and tragically, U.S. policy consistently delayed peace and intensified conflict. “First Do No Harm” highlights the many inconvenient truths of the Balkan imbroglio. … BOOKS: ‘First Do No Harm‘: Clear-eyed analysis of ‘Harm‘ done by Balkan war, Washington Times, Doug Bandow, Originally published 28.Jul.09 Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. A former special assistant to President Reagan, he is the author of several books, including “Foreign Follies: America’s New Global Empire” (Xulon Press).

At 5 PM – Dr. Paul Hochfeld.

Frustrated with the health care ‘options’ coming out of Washington, D.C., six “Mad as Hell” Oregon physicians are taking an unprecedented road trip across America to lobby Congress for a single-payer health care system. A big part of their plan is to take the entire country with them.

Called a “Care-A-Van,” these road-tripping Oregon physicians will leave in a used motor home from Portland, Oregon on September 8th, inviting doctors and ordinary citizens from other states to join them on their twenty-city tour across the country. Their journey will culminate in a D.C.-based event on September 30th, scheduled to take place on the steps of Congress. Demonstrating with the doctors will be thousands of fellow ‘Mad as Hell’ single-payer advocates, all adorned with the movement’s new symbol – the white ribbon. Their demand: Single-Payer Now!

“We’re mad as hell because our health care system is run by people who profit from illness” says Dr. Paul Hochfeld, lead Mad As Hell Doctor and producer of the documentary Health, Money and Fear. “The rest of the civilized world has test driven single payer and it works. But elected officials in America won’t even allow a discussion.”

“The public option is a trap.” Hochfeld continues. “It sounds very reasonable, but the problem with it, no matter what the final bill looks like, is that it will continue to allow private medical insurance companies to dictate America’s public health policies. And that’s just plain wrong.”

Several national, single-payer advocacy organizations including Physicians for a National Health Program, Health Care Now, Single Payer Action, and even groups like Progressive Democrats of America and Jobs with Justice are supporting the Oregon physicians by setting up Mad as Hell  Town Halls across the country in anticipation of their arrival.

“People need to understand what single-payer is–and isn’t,” says Dr. Mike Huntington, a radiologist from Corvallis, Oregon and fellow Mad As Hell Doctor. “It isn’t Socialism, any more than police and fire are Socialism. And it doesn’t require any more money. Simply put, single-payer is a way to take the current premium payments that go to a thousand different private insurance companies, and redirect them into a single, public fund that insures everyone. That’s all it is. But when we do this, lots of wonderful things happen, not the least of which is to save Americans 500 billion dollars a year starting day one. That’s billion – with a ‘b.’ America needs this information. That’s why we’re taking the tour.”

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@ 3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here & simulcast on: • Roots Up Radio • Jerva Westerort Local Community Radio: 91.1 Stockholm, Sweden We hope to hear from you !

At 3:15 – David Cole.

David will be commenting on this weeks events regarding prosecution of WarCrimes. David is a professor at Georgetown University Law Center & longtime critic of the CIA’s interrogation tactics. He is author of The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable which features a foreword by Philippe Sands. David is legal affairs correspondent for The Nation, a frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books, and author of the American Book Award-winning Enemy Aliens. David lives in Washington, D.C.

At 4 PM – Loretta Napoleoni.

Loretta is an Italian economist, author, journalist and political analyst. She is an expert on the financing of terrorism and is well known internationally for having calculated the size of the terror economy. Napoleoni was born and raised in Rome, Italy. An active member of the feminist movement in the mid 1970s, she was a Fulbright scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Washington, D.C., and a Rotary Scholar at the London School of Economics (LSE). She has a M.Phil. in Terrorism from LSE, a Master’s in International Relations from SAIS, and a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Rome. Napoleoni’s writing appears regularly in many journals and publications, including several European newspapers. She has worked as a foreign correspondent and columnist for several Italian financial papers. She was among the few people to interview the Red Brigades in Italy after three decades of silence. Napoleoni has written novels, guide books in Italian and translated and edited books on terrorism. Her best-selling book Terror Incorporated, published by Seven Stories Press, was translated into 12 languages. Dossier Baghdad is a financial thriller set during the Persian Gulf War. Another nonfiction book, Insurgent Iraq: Al-Zarqawi and the New Generation, was also published by Seven Stories Press. Her latest book, Rogue Economics, was published in April’08 by Seven Stories Press in the US, and Turnaround in the UK. As an economist, Napoleoni has worked for several banks and international organizations in Europe and the United States. In the early 1980s, she worked at the National Bank of Hungary on the convertibility of the Hungarian forint that became the blue print for the convertibility of the ruble a decade later. As well as lecturing regularly on the financing of terrorism, Napoleoni advises several governments on counter-terrorism. As Chairman of the countering terrorism financing group for the Club de Madrid, she brought heads of state from around the world together to create a new strategy for combating the financing of terror networks.

at 5 PM Daniel Pinchbeck.

Daniel is author of Breaking Open the Head, a book, which includes a cultural history of psychedelic use, philosophical & critical perspectives on shamanism, and personal explorations, ranging from transcendent to terrifying. His book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, is considered seminal. Daniel has been interviewed & discussed throughout contemporary media, including Rolling Stone & he has written for many publications, including Esquire, The New York Times Magazine, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. In 1994, he was chosen by The New York Times Magazine as one of “Thirty Under Thirty” destined to change our culture.

Pinchbeck lives in New York’s East Village, where he is editorial directory of Reality Sandwich. He writes a column, Prophet Motive, for Conscious Enlightment publishing, which appears in Conscious Choice (Chicago), Conscious Choice (Seattle), Whole Life Times (LA), and Common Ground (SF). He is cocreator of the animation project, PostModern Times.

Daniel Pinchbeck…is rapidly becoming our generation’s foremost proponent of controlled psychedelic experimentation. — The Nation “Pinchbeck presents the most fascinating publishing oddity of the season. In almost 400 pages of handsome prose, the author riffs on Einstein, Nietzsche, Stonehenge, Hopi mythology, and alternate states of consciousness.” — Time Out New York “Pinchbeck’s exotic epic is a paradigm-buster capable of forcing the most cynical reader outside her comfort zone.” — Publishers Weekly “In 2012, his part memoir, part anthropological journey through many things spiritual, metaphysical, and just plain eerie, Pinchbeck illuminates not the world’s end but the many ways in which our social structures are disintegrating.…Into 2012 Pinchbeck fits Jung, crop circles, Martin Heidegger’s critique of technology, the ecological theories of Rudolf Steiner, the parables of Christ, Jared Diamond’s Collapse, and even the confessions of Whitley Strieber…a box of treasures.” — LA Weekly “A ride worth taking, partly for the wild entertainment value but also because the book is a document with genuine sociopolitical relevance.…Pinchbeck delivers his eco-political message in the form of a syncretic mad masterpiece.” — Reason Magazine

While researching, Daniel visited shamans in West Africa, Mexico, and the Ecuadorean Amazon – not to mention the fabulous neo-shamanic Burning Man festival in the Nevada desert. In Gabon, a small country on the Equator, he went through a Bwiti initiation, eating iboga, a psychedelic rootbark inducing a trance that lasts for thirty hours. The bark powder temporarily releases the soul from the body, allowing the initiate entry into the African spiritual cosmos, where he is shown the outline of his fate. Some of the Bwiti call this ceremony, “breaking open the head.” The book describes how Daniel’s own head was broken open, and how he has gingerly attempted to put the pieces back together again. It also expands into subjects ranging from the socio-political (corporate globalization, new technologies) to the mystical (Western esotericism, Buddhism, gnosticism, alchemy, 2012) that he hopes to explore in future works. Daniel’s perspective is that all of these subjects are inextricably related, and that the contemporary situation drastically confirms André Malraux’s dictum, “The 21st Century will be mystical, or it will not be.”

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@ 3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here & simulcast on:

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·         Jerva Westerort Local Community Radio: 91.1 Stockholm, Sweden

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·         “Critics say the methods approved in the memos amount to torture: Obama exempts CIA ‘torture‘ staff – BBC CIA agents who used harsh interrogation techniques on terrorism suspects during the Bush era will not be prosecuted, US President Barack Obama has said. The assurance came as memos were released detailing the range of techniques the CIA was allowed to use during the Bush administration.”

·         Report: CIA threatened detainee families – Forbes “A newly declassified CIA report says interrogators threatened to kill the children of a Sept. 11 suspect. The document, released Monday by the Justice Department, says one interrogator said a colleague had told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that if any other attacks happened in the United States, “We’re going to kill your children.”

·         Rendition of Terror Suspects Will Continue Under Obama – The Obama administration will continue the Bush administration’s practice of sending terror suspects abroad for interrogation but will monitor to insure they are not tortured, officials said.

·         “The U.S. Department of Justice has recommended re-opening prisoner abuse cases that had been denied by the Bush administration. This news comes as the DoJ is about to disclose the details of prisoner abuse gathered in a 2004 report from the CIA’s inspector general. This could be the first step in exposing and holding to account those who approved, engineered, and carried out the secret torture program that continues to taint America’s position in the world.”

·         Holder to Appoint Prosecutor to Investigate CIA Interrogations of Terrorists ABC News’ Jason Ryan reports: Attorney General Eric Holder is set to name a veteran federal prosecutor to investigate CIA terror interrogations, sources tell ABC News. John Durham, who has been investigating the destruction of the CIA waterboarding tapes, will be charged with reviewing and investigating whether CIA interrogators and contractors violated U.S. torture statutes.

·         “Guantanamo prisoner detained as teen released, meets with Karzai Mohammed Jawad, whose confession to throwing a hand grenade that wounded two US soldiers was rejected as coerced by torture, was helicoptered into Kabul“

·         Shackles & blindfold for freed detainee on his way home – Mohammed Jawad, who may have been as young as 12 when he was arrested in 2002 for allegedly throwing a grenade that wounded two American soldiers, pronounced himself “very happy” but tired after a day in which he arrived in Afghanistan on a U.S. military flight — in shackles and blindfolded, according to his lawyer.

·         ACLU Responds to DOJ Investigation of Gitmo Defense Lawyers – Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, to this morning’s news that some military defense lawyers are under investigation by the Justice Department

Hour 1.0: Immanuel Ness.

Immanuel is Editor of International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to Present, an eight-volume, five-thousand page peer-review historical work with over 750 contributors which was published in 2008. Immanuel Ness is Professor of Political Science at Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, United States & he is also the Director of the Graduate Political Science Program at the Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education in New York City, & he has taught at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Union Leadership Program & Cornell University Institute for Labor Relations. Immanuel’s current research examines the working class & labor unions from an historical-comparative perspective in a regional, national, & global context.

Ness is a graduate of New York University & Columbia University, & holds a PhD in Political Science from the City University of New York. He is author of scholarly articles, chapters, review essays, & books on labor organizing, trade unions, migration, & unemployment, including Immigrants, Unions, & the New U.S. Labor Market, is co-editor of Real World Labor & Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History, & Chains of Migration (forthcoming), & (as editor) the Encyclopedia of American Social Movements, recipient of an American Library Association Best Reference Award in 2005. In 2006, Ness received the Christian Bay Award for best written paper presentation in New Political Science from the American Political Science Association.

Ness is currently working on research projects on workers councils & workers control (with Dario Azzellini) & Organizing Anarchy, with Jeff Shantz. He is conducting a major historical research project on global migration.

We’ll also be sharing today’s earlier conversation with John Pilger.

John is a world-renowned journalist, author & documentary filmmaker, who began his career in 1958 in his homeland, Australia, before moving to London in the 1960s. He regards eye-witness as the essence of good journalism. John has been a foreign correspondent & a front-line war reporter, beginning with the Vietnam War in 1967. He is an impassioned critic of foreign military & economic adventures by Western governments.

Believing a journalist also ought to be a guardian of the public memory, John often quotes Milan Kundera: “The struggle of people against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.” “It is too easy,” John says, “for Western journalists to see humanity in terms of its usefulness to ‘our’ interests & to follow government agendas that ordain good & bad tyrants, worthy & unworthy victims & present ‘our’ policies as always benign when the opposite is usually true. It’s the journalist’s job, first of all, to look in the mirror of his own society.” Noam Chomsky wrote: “John Pilger’s work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought to light have been a revelation, over & over again, & his courage & insight a constant inspiration.” Harold Pinter wrote: “John Pilger unearths, with steely attention, the facts, the filthy truth, & tells it as it is.” Salman Rushdie called him “a photographer using words instead of a camera.”

A sampling of his many books includes: The Last Day (1975), Aftermath: The Struggle of Cambodia and Vietnam (with Anthony Barnett, 1981), The Outsiders (with Michael Coren, 1984), the excellent Heroes (1986), A Secret Country (1989), Distant Voices (1992), Hidden Agendas (1998) & The New Rulers of the World (2002).

For more biographical details, go to the introduction in Articles

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@ 3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here and simulcast on:

·         Roots Up Radio

·         Jerva Westerort Local Community Radio: 91.1 Stockholm, Sweden

We hope to hear from you ! It’s First Amendment Friday: Your soapbox all topics are on the table.

·         At 4 PM Lt. Eric Shine will discuss his case.

·         At 5:30 David Malsch with this week’s movie reviews and DVD releases.

Tune in for the Saturday Progressive Line Up:

·         2pm The Robert MacDonald Show

·         3pm America at Work with Roman Ulman

·         5pm The Progressive Coalition with Lennie Clark

·         6pm The David Link Show

Our goals for change and making you the focus of our common dreams are ongoing! Tune in and contribute to our efforts with your voice! We are coming to you live for 3 hours and want you calls! Join us at TJFS for an informative and interesting conversation about issues affecting our world!

Tune in Sunday from 9 AM – noon for Sunday Morning Coffee with Sarge

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@ 3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here and simulcast on:

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At 3:15 Scott Horton, Contributing Editor – Harper’s Magazine to discuss John Yoo. We’ll be continuing our coverage from yesterday regarding the ongoing protest at torture memoist John Yoo’s classroom at UC-Berkeley.

·         Ambassadorships for Sale By Scott Horton, Harper’s, 29.Jul.09 …As the Los Angeles Times noted in a recent editorial, the United States is the only major country that regularly hands out choice ambassadorships as a favor for campaign funding bundlers. The process cheapens our diplomatic relations and sends a bad message to the states to which these ambassadors are sent. And it’s getting cruder and greedier. A cynic studying the latest batch of nominees might conclude that the price of an ambassadorship has soared from roughly $200,000 under the Rovian regime to $500,000 under Rahm Emanuel. Under Barack Obama, the process of political payoff through ambassadorial appointments has matched and appears poised to exceed the already extremely abusive system that Karl Rove put in place under the Bush Administration. In his first six months, Obama has forwarded 58 ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation. Retired career diplomat Dennis Jett reports in the Daily Beast that 32 of these nominees—55% of the total—are political appointees. Political appointees are not per se objectionable. …

·         Second-Tier Countries Get Stronger U.S. Envoys by Leslie Campbell, Embassy Magazine, 12.Aug.09 Should Canadians be surprised, maybe even offended, that only one senator managed to show up for the Aug. 5 hearing to examine the nomination of Chicago native and Democratic Party fundraiser David Jacobson to be ambassador to Canada? Surprised no, offended, yes. Some may argue that the apparent apathy toward President Obama’s choice for envoy to Canada is a sign of the strong, comfortable relationship between the countries and an indication of complete Senate confidence in the president’s pick. Unfortunately, the more likely explanation is that senators don’t think it matters much who is sent to Canada, as opposed to important countries like Japan, China, India and Brazil. … Even second-tier countries get better treatment. … While it’s not news that Canada doesn’t register in Congress, it’s unfortunate that when it comes to ambassadors, President Obama doesn’t put Canada in the same category as other countries with which the U.S. has important strategic interests—the world’s largest trade relationship notwithstanding.

·         Yoo for the Defense By Scott Horton, Harper’s, 30.Jan.09

Yoo Returns to Berkeley By Scott Horton, Harper’s, 17.Aug.09 …In the overall order of things, it’s good that the dean of a professional school stands up for a faculty member under broad public attack for unpopular views. It’s right to insist on proper process and to oppose a rush to judgment, even though it’s ironic in this case, since Yoo’s offenses include some measure of just that. Academic freedom is important, particularly for a university, and a faculty member should not be expelled simply because of public agitation. But Dean Edley’s remarks—brief as they are—reflect a refusal to grapple with some serious issues. Edley states that “no law enforcement or even bar proceedings have been initiated,” which is flatly false. In fact, Yoo is the subject of a pending criminal investigation in Spain’s Audiencia Nacional, where investigators are probing his role in a process that led to the torture of five Spanish subjects. In a preliminary ruling, the court found that culpability for these crimes lies principally with the “intellectual authors” of the torture program, and particularly the lawyers who gave permission for it. Does Dean Edley think the university should be oblivious to foreign legal proceedings or to crimes committed against foreigners? …

At 3:30 Michelle Rainey returns with an update regarding the fate of the BC3

HEALTH: Medical marijuana Marijuana’s journey to legal health treatment: the Canadian experience Mon.17.Aug.09 …Terrence Parker — was the one that changed everything.

The Toronto man had been charged with pot possession many times, as he made no secret of using it to control his epileptic seizures. But his lawyers used a different defence for his 1996 charges. This time, they said the charges violated Parker’s charter rights.

The defence worked. On Dec. 10, 1997, a judge ruled that people must be able to access necessary medical treatment without fear of arrest. Parker became the first Canadian to be exempted from further prosecution for either possession or cultivation of marijuana. A subsequent appeal upheld the lower court ruling. Justice Mark Rosenberg of the Ontario Court of Appeal wrote that “forcing Parker to choose between his health and imprisonment violates his right to liberty and security of the person.”

Still, the legal evolution of medical marijuana had more distance to go. There were no guidelines on how the few Canadians who’d been given an exemption from Canada’s marijuana possession laws were supposed to get their drug — which, after all, was still illegal to distribute. …

After four years of politically charged legal wrangling, two employees of Canada’s so-called “Prince of Pot” have avoided prison for their roles in exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. by mail-order. Employees of Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’ get probation, ending years of legal wrangling By Ian Ith, Seattle Times staff reporter After four years of politically charged legal wrangling, two employees of Canada’s so-called “Prince of Pot” have avoided prison for their roles in exporting marijuana seeds to the U.S. by mail-order.

The plea deal, finalized on Friday, sets the stage for the Prince of Pot himself, Marc Emery, to surrender to U.S. authorities later this year to face prison time. That will close the long-running, high-profile case that had pitted some of Canada’s most vocal marijuana activists against the Justice Department in a war of words. U.S. District Judge Ricardo Martinez accepted the deal for Michelle Rainey, 38, and Gregory Williams, 54, to be sentenced to two years of probation for conspiracy to manufacture marijuana. Both may return to Canada, where they remain active in the marijuana-legalization movement. Rainey and Williams were indicted along with Emery in 2005 on drug and money-laundering charges for running a lucrative mail-order pot-seed business out of Emery’s Vancouver book-and-paraphernalia shop that doubled as headquarters for British Columbia’s Marijuana Party. Emery claimed to have sold some 4 million pot seeds, most to customers in the United States. Williams took phone orders, and Rainey helped pack up the seeds and ship them. … Emery remains outspoken that the charges stem from his activism having “insulted” the Bush administration. “This is their revenge, but it will backfire on them, I’m convinced,” he said. “It’s all politically motivated. Only the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) denies that. To everyone else it’s patently obvious.” Nonetheless, he said he was relieved prosecutors had backed off on his friends. “I’m pleased they won’t be going to jail, and they’ll still be able to do their work in Canada,” he said.

4 PM Sharon Salzberg is cofounder of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) in Barre, Massachusetts. A student of Buddhism since 1971, Sharon is one of America’s leading meditation authors, teachers & guiding meditation retreats worldwide since 1974:

·         Sharon’s latest book is “The Kindness Handbook“, published by ‘Sounds True‘.

·         She is also the author of: “The Force of Kindness“, published by Sounds True

·         “Faith: Trusting Your Own Deepest Experience“, published by Riverhead Books

·         “Lovingkindness: The Revolutionary Art of Happiness“, published by Shambhala Publications.

For more information about Sharon or the Insight Meditation Society, please visit: Insight Meditation Society Sharon Salzberg Special Offer package from Sounds True.

Working With Your Enemies Sharon Salzberg, HuffPo, 1.Aug.08 Recently I led a workshop with my friend, Bob Thurman, on working with your enemies. The workshop was in Washington DC, which seems a particularly apt place to explore the consequences of being stuck in a tight worldview of “us” and “them”; many would say it is a notable spot to examine the corrosive effects of habitually relating through fear, anger, and alienation. I started by telling a story about a time I was on a train going down the Hudson Valley to New York City, and found myself sitting between a woman having a moderately loud conversation on a cell phone, and a man growing increasingly agitated at the volume of her call. As the ride went on, accompanied by the steady sound of her voice and the minute details of her plans, he wiggled, and grunted, and muttered, then finally exploded. “You’re making too much noise!!” he yelled at the top of his lungs. I looked over at him and thought, “Well, so are you!” What came to my mind next was the quotation widely attributed to Albert Einstein, “The significant problems we face can not be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” It takes strong insight and often a good deal of courage to break away from our habitual ways of looking at things, to be able to respond from a different place. …

At 4:30 Nick Reding was born in Saint Louis, Missouri, and received his B.A. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Northwestern University in 1994. Nick has an MFA in Creative Writing from N.Y.U., where he was a University Fellow from 1995 til 1997. He lived in New York City for thirteen years, where he worked as a magazine editor, a graduate school professor, and a freelance writer. Nick has written for Harper’s, Food and Wine, Outside, Fast Company, and Details. He lives with his wife and son in Saint Louis.

His first book, “The Last Cowboys at the End of the World“, was published by Crown in 2002. “Methland” is his second book.

MethLand: The Death and Life of an American Small Town By Amy Lorentzen, The Canadian Press …In “Methland: The Death and Life of an American Small Town,” Reding uses Oelwein, Iowa (population: 6,100) – but he stresses that the same story is unfolding in rural communities throughout the nation. The book has earned strong reviews and is drawing national attention to the issues behind meth’s status as the heartland’s drug of choice. … the author of a well-received book about methamphetamine’s grip on a small town, believes the drug is “only a symptom of a larger economic and ultimately political problem.” “That problem is essentially that people can’t make money anymore to do the jobs that have kept places in the middle of the country going for a century,” he says during a telephone interview from his St. Louis home. Meth “just sort of moves into the vacuum” as people struggle to earn a living now that farm and factory jobs have evaporated with the consolidation of the agriculture industry, he says. … He says some people don’t want to talk about the area’s meth problem “any more than you would want to talk about … there being incest in the family.” “I am not surprised by the collective denial that some of the people in the community have expressed,” Hallberg says. “If you did not work in the emergency room, if you did not work in the police department, if you were not with (human services), many things would seem normal and you would not be aware of the problem.” Ultimately, Hallberg says, it’s more important to deal with meth’s victims and the town’s problems than debate the book’s merits.

At 5:30 Richard Koman ZDNet’s Government & Technology analyst will join us again to discuss the importance of privacy & free speech… & the impact upon honestly representative government.

Richard Koman is a lawyer & freelance writer based in Sonoma County, California & delivers news and analysis on IT and enterprise computing in city, state & federal government.

In 2003-04, Richard traveled to Uganda to set up the Uganda Digital Bookmobile, an on-demand printing operation for rural schools. He works on SiliconValleyWatcher, ZDNet blogs, and is a regular contributor to the O’Reilly Network.

·         ‘Server in the Sky’: FBI international biometric db planned Posted by Richard Koman @ January 14, 2008

·         FBI building massive biometric database Posted by Richard Koman @ December 24, 2007

The First Amendment rights of anonymous defamers Richard Koman, ZDNet Government, August 20, 200 Yesterday I wrote that a Manhattan federal judge has ordered Google to tell supermodel Liskula Cohen the identity of the blogger behind the “Skanks of NYC” blog, which brands Cohen “a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank.” Now that that’s been done, Cohen plans to go ahead with a defamation suit against the woman. Is this just Gawker-worthy gossip? Actually, no. The decision highlights a number of recent decisions on a critical Internet issue — when may a private litigant force third parties (ISPs or search engines) to strip anonymity from their users? To be clear, this is a First Amendment issue. … An author’s decision to remain anonymous, like other decisions concerning omissions or additions to the content of a publication, is an aspect of the freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment. Balancing those First Amendment protections against the right of a plaintiff to remedy a defamation, where do courts draw the line in the Internet context? As far as I know, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, which includes Manhattan, has not held forth on this question. But just days ago the D.C. Circuit issued a major ruling, essentially upholding the 2005 Delaware Supreme Court decision of Doe v Cahill. …

As a technology writer since the mid-1980s, Richard Koman has documented the role of computing in the transformation of the graphic arts, the growth of the Web and the birth of the peer-to-peer phenomenon. He worked as a book and web editor for O’Reilly Media throughout the 1990s, editing several influential websites and numerous best-sellers. As a lawyer, as well as a tech writer, he brings a unique perspective to the blog’s intersection of law, government and technology.

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@ 3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here and simulcast on:

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At 3:30 Katie Halper (director/ producer) is based in New York City, where she was born and raised. Katie is a 3rd generation <em>Kinderlander and traces her camp roots back to her grandmother who was raised in the historic Coops. Katie graduated from Wesleyan University where she wrote an oral history thesis on the Spanish Civil War, which she then turned into an hour long award-winning documentary, La memoria es vaga (Memory is Lazy). La memoria es vaga has been screened in film festivals and is shown in schools and universities throughout Europe and the United States, and was commercially and theatrically distributed in Spain. Before this directorial debut, co-produced Embedded, Tim Robbins film, based on his play about media coverage of the war in Iraq, which was shown at the Venice Film festival and premiered on the Sundance Channel. Katie was also a producer of Free to Fly: the U.S.-Cuba Link, a documentary by the award-winning director Estela Bravo, about the travel between the U.S. and Cuba. Katie directed outreach and organizing for the documentary The Take about the workers’ movement in Argentina, by Shock Doctrine author Naomi Klein and Avi Lewis. More recently, Katie and NYU Spanish Department Chair James Fernandez, co-directed New Yorkers Remember the Spanish Civil War, an oral history video project made for the Museum of the City of New York’s exhibit “Facing Fascism: New Yorkers and the Spanish Civil War.” Katie is also a comic, writer, and blogger, who co-founded the political comedy group Laughing Liberally and has performed at venues including The Culture Project, Symphony Space, and Town Hall. Katie writes for Alternet, The Huffington Post, WorkingLife, Culture Kitchen, Open Left, 23/6, and Takepart. Katie is one of the artistic directors of The Tank, a non-profit and profit-sharing performing arts space for emerging and estabished artists. Katie joins us today to discuss, among other things, “Another Camp Is Possible“

At 4:30 Dr Bryant Welch returns. Bryant Welch has been a nationally-prominent psychologist/attorney and author for over thirty years. Dr. Welch graduated from Harvard College and Harvard Law School before receiving his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1976. He is also a Research Associate graduate of the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute. Dr. Welch is an experienced psychotherapist. He has provided over 35,000 hours of direct clinical care to individuals and couples from all walks of life. He is a Distinguished Practitioner member of the National Academy of Practice and holds the Diplomate in Clinical Psychology. In August of 2005, Dr. Welch was awarded the American Psychological Association’s Presidential Citation for his “seminal and unique contribution to professional psychological practice.” From 1986 to 1993 Dr. Welch initiated and ran the American Psychological Association Practice Directorate leading organized psychology through one of its most successful advocacy eras. Under Dr. Welch’s leadership psychologists gained access to practice in Medicare, hospitals, and psychoanalysis. He was also one of the first critics to warn of the dangers of the managed health care system. A past president of the Harvard debate council and successful national debater, Dr. Welch is a highly sought after public speaker. He has provided testimony on psychological matters to all levels of government including the White House, Congress, and the Federal Judiciary. He has been widely recognized as an effective advocate for mental health services and for civil rights. Dr. Welch has written regular monthly columns in the mental health trade press for twenty years and is currently a blogger with Huffington Post. Most recently Dr. Welch has published his first book, State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind, (Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martins Press, June, 2008). The book is a psychological analysis of contemporary American politics.

“This is one of those few books — and a bit undernoticed — that is a virtual Rosetta stone to understanding how so many Americans are living in an alternative reality.” Dr. Welch currently resides on Hilton Head Island, SC where he practices clinical psychology providing psychotherapy and marriage counseling, consults on mental health related matters, and writes on political and psychological issues. - BuzzFlash review

At 5 PM Michael Rachlis Dr. Rachlis practices as a private consultant in health policy analysis. He has consulted to the federal government, all ten provincial governments, and two royal commissions. He also holds associate professor appointments (part-time) with the University of Toronto Department of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Dr. Rachlis has lectured widely on health care issues. He has been invited to make presentations to committees of the Canadian House of Commons and the Canadian Senate as well as the United States House of Representatives and Senate. He is a frequent media commentator on health policy issues and the author of three national bestsellers about Canada’s health care system. HarperCollins published his third book, Prescription for Excellence: How Innovation is Saving Canada’s Health Care System, in paperback in March 2005

Michael Rachlis: A diagnosis from Canada‎ A maple leaf for what ails U.S. health care

Universal health insurance is on the American policy agenda for the fifth time since World War II. In the 1960s, the United States chose public coverage for only the elderly and the very poor, while Canada opted for a universal program for hospitals and physicians’ services.

As a policy analyst, I know there are lessons to be learned from studying the effect of different approaches in similar jurisdictions. But, as a Canadian with lots of American friends and relatives, I am saddened that Americans seem incapable of learning them.

Our countries are joined at the hip. We peacefully share a continent, a British heritage of representative government and now ownership of General Motors. And, until 50 years ago, we had similar health systems, health care costs and vital statistics.

The U.S. and Canada’s different health insurance decisions make up the world’s largest health policy experiment. And the results?

Medicare made easy The solution to our health-care funding problem is innovation, and it’s already working brilliantly in some parts of Canada, says doctor and author. By M.Rachlis, Globe and Mail, Mon.26.Apr.04

Actor Kiefer Sutherland’s Grandfather Tommy Douglas Remembered for Bringing Universal Healthcare System to Canada – Democracy Now

As premier of Saskatchewan, Tommy Douglas pioneered a number of progressive policies there, including the expansion of public utilities, unionization and public auto insurance. But his biggest achievement was the creation of universal health insurance, called Medicare. It passed in Saskatchewan in 1962, guaranteeing hospital care for all residents. The rest of Canada soon followed, province by province. After his death, Douglas earned the title of “The Greatest Canadian” in a poll by the CBC. Democracy Now! speaks with Canadian doctor Michael Rachlis: “…That is, that if you have a single-payer system, like Canada has—and virtually every other wealthy country, as well, has some variation of either a national health system like the UK or, more commonly, a national health insurance program like France and the Nordic countries, etc.—that if you have a single-payer system, when you don’t have to have thousands of actuaries to set premiums or thousands of lawyers in your country to deny care, there’s huge savings on administration, both within the insurance system but also in doctors’ offices. A recent report in the US said over six percent of all doctors’ revenues are spent on billing and reconciliation. The Massachusetts General Hospital has more people working in their billings and reconciliation department than we have at the Ontario Health Insurance Plan head office to administer health insurance for 13 million people. So, all through the system, there is increased administration. And so, Canada spends ten percent of its gross domestic product of our national economy now on healthcare. …”

Donald Sutherland: Stand Up, Max Baucus It must finally be clear to us all that the stumbling block to successful health/disease care reform has been definitively reduced to two words. They’re not “public option” or “single payer”, they’re “Max Baucus”.

At 8:40 we received our expected call-in update from Riya Bhattacharjee & editor, Becky O’Malley

Activists, UC Berkeley Alumni Protest Yoo on First Day of Classes . Category: News Updates from The Berkeley Daily Planet – Thursday August 13, 2009 Four generations of UC Berkeley law school alumni joined activists, community members and lawyers on the Boalt Hall steps to protest former Bush administration lawyer John Yoo’s return to campus Monday.

The group called for Yoo to be prosecuted and fired from his position as professor of law at UC Berkeley’s Boalt Hall School of Law for writing memorandums which were used to justify extensive policies on detention and interrogation, even torture.

The Obama administration has so far showed little interest in prosecuting those who worked for the Bush administration. Despite criticism from protesters and from the National Lawyers’ Guild about Yoo’s continuing employment at UC Berkeley, Boalt Hall Dean Christopher Edley has defended Yoo’s actions as academic freedom.

Chanting “Yoo should be ashamed,” and “I am so over Yoo,” the crowd assembled outside Boalt Hall at 1:30 p.m. Monday, closely watched by UC police, as students and professors walked in and out of the building.

The event was organized by the National Lawyer’s Guild, World Can’t Wait and Code Pink, whose members dressed up as “Pink Police” and included a dog sporting a pink “arrest torture” button.

When the UC Police Department told the event organizers they would not be allowed to use amplifiers outside the building, the speakers either talked loudly or stood on boxes to have their voices heard.

Members of the National Lawyer’s Guild stressed that Yoo should be held accountable for his actions, which they said had led to the torture of thousands of U.S. political prisoners. …

Zombie attack would be the death of us: study CBC News, Tues.18,Aug.09 … A group of University of Ottawa mathematics students and their professor came to their dire conclusion after developing a simple model similar to one researchers might use to track the spread of a pandemic. The result is food for thought for those who worry the living dead might eat their brains.

“A zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilization, unless it is dealt with quickly,” they write.

The research began as an exercise in mathematical disease modelling, said University of Ottawa assistant professor Robert J. Smith?, whose last name contains a question mark to distinguish his common name from that of other

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@ 3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here and simulcast on:

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At 4 PM William K. Black, Associate Professor of Economics and Law, University of Missiouri – Kansas City and the author of “The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One“. Dr. Black is a white-collar criminologist and former financial regulator. Bill Black has detailed an alarming story about financial – and political – corruption. The specifics go back twenty years, but the lessons are as fresh as the morning newspaper. One of those lessons really sticks out: one brave man with a conscience could stand up for us all.

The financial industry brought the economy to its knees, but how did they get away with it? With the nation wondering how to hold the bankers accountable, Bill Moyers sits down with William K. Black, the former senior regulator who cracked down on banks during the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. Black offers his analysis of what went wrong and his critique of the bailout – Bill Moyer’ Journal, PBS, 3.Apr.09

At 4:30 Cecile Andrews is the founder of the Phinney Ecovillage, a project to build Sustainability and Community in her North Seattle Neighborhood. The theme is living <em>Simpler, Slower, and Smaller. The Ecovillage sponsers a monthly series on Slow Life in Seattle. Cecile has been a visiting scholar at Stanford University where she received her doctorate in education, and an affiliated scholar with Seattle University. A former community college administrator, she now works with community groups to explore the issue of living more simply: how to live lives that are sustainable, just, and joyful. She is director of The Simplicity Circles Project with Seeds of Simplicity a member of the steering committee of The Simplicity Forum. Cecile has co-authored Less is More: Embracing Simplicity for a Healthy Planet, a Caring Economy and Lasting Happiness (Paperback) September 1, 2009

“No good idea stays local for long,” writes Jay Walljaspsr in Less is More, a smart collection of essays that chant the simplicity mantra without oversimpifying the issues at stake. Many of these ideas seem bound to travel far.” – Utne Reader

at 5 PM Conn Hallinan is an analyst for Foreign In Policy In Focus, part of the Institute for Policy Study. A columnist for the Daily Planet in Berkeley, & a contributor to Counterpunch, the Huffington Post, Alternet, & Common Dreams, Conn ran the journalism program at the University of California at Santa Cruz for 23 years, & was a UofC college provost. Conn received a ‘Project Censored’ Award in 2007 for reporting on Latin America, & has a PhD in Anthropology from the University of California at Berkeley. A trade unionist for over 40 years, Conn was arrested during the Free Speech Movement in 1964 & was active against the war in Southeast Asia.

We also spoke with Dr Jo Woodman, campaigner for Survival International, based in London & has worked with Survival for five years on campaigns for the rights of tribal peoples worldwide. Currently leading a campaign helping the Dongria Kondh tribe of Orissa, India to resist a mine on their sacred mountain. Jo Woodman works on Survival’s campaign supporting the Dongria Kondh tribe in India. See our short film ‘Mine’ The case of the Dongria Kondh really highlights the disputed concept of ‘development‘. The government of the Indian state of Orissa is pushing for rapid industrialization and is backing the British mining company Vedanta Resources in its plans to mine the Dongria Kondh’s scared mountain and destroy their forests and rivers. The company’s aluminium refinery at the foot of the mountain has already destroyed the lives of other tribal people who live there. It doesn’t look much like ‘development‘ to those at the receiving end.

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At 3:30 Bob Cesca returns with his take on the healthcare debate. Bob Cesca is the author of “One Nation Under Fear“ — a collection of blog-style essays which examine the politics of fear during the “dark ride” of the Bush years. He’s been a featured blogger/columnist for the Huffington Post since August, 2005. Bob’s posts appear on the front page above-the-fold every Wednesday (sometimes Thursday).

Malkin and Fox News Are Stalking Children Again Michelle Malkin and Fox News Channel have finally blown the lid off the biggest conspiracy of our time. No, it’s not the one about how the Obama administration is going to take over your computer, banish white people to FEMA camps, poison your tap water, murder your special needs children…

When he’s not writing about politics, Bob is also a screenwriter, director and producer, and the founder of Camp Chaos, a new-media production studio based near Philadelphia. His site here

At 4 PM Swami Beyondananda is back! The Swami’s Ompage is here

“They say economic recovery is just around the corner, but I think our karma spun out going around that last learning curve.” ~ Swami Beyondananda

The first boxes of Spontaneous Evolution are being prepared as I write this, and will be here -and ready to ship- within a couple of weeks.

In addition to the Heartland Security downloadable audio, and background article on why the world has gone crazy and where to find the key to the “sane asylum” (Institutionalized Insanity), the Swami is offering another article that sheds light on economic history and expands on the essay above: It’s called Original Wealth and People’s Capitalism, and will -along with the other article- be available for download this week.

If you can’t wait a couple of weeks for the book, you can pick up Bruce and Steve’s Spontaneous Evolution 5CD set!

At 4:30 Dean Kuipers – author of Operation Bite Back: Rod Coronado’s War to Save American Wilderness. Dean Kuipers is an editor at the Los Angeles Times. Operation Bite Back, his nonfiction book about eco-radical Rod Coronado and the use of domestic terrorism charges against environmentalists, was published by Bloomsbury USA in June, 2009. His book “Burning Rainbow Farm,” about the 2001 FBI shooting of two libertarian pot activists on a farm in Michigan, was selected as a 2007 Michigan Notable Book. His work has also recently appeared in the 2008 titles, “The Contenders,” in which he wrote on Al Gore, and “Red State Rebels,” where the Rainbow Farm book is excerpted. He is the co-author of “I Am A Bullet,” (Crown, 2000), a collaboration with photographer Doug Aitken on the acceleration of global culture. As a former editor at Spin and Raygun magazines, he wrote extensively on radical movements and rock’n’roll, with cover stories on Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Neil Young, Iggy Pop, Smashing Pumpkins, Cypress Hill, the Rolling Stones and many others. As author and editor of the 1997 graphics/pop culture book, “Ray Gun Out Of Control” (Booth-Clibborn Editions/Simon & Schuster Editions), he worked with contributors Bowie, REM’s Michael Stipe, cyberpunk writer William Gibson and the world’s foremost graphic designers. His work has appeared in Playboy, Rolling Stone, the Los Angeles Times, Interview, Travel & Leisure, Outside, Spin, LA Weekly, and others.

Kuipers has worked on several short films by Doug Aitken and other directors, including Aitken’s “Diamond Sea,” an evocative rumination on the off-limits diamond mining zones of Namibia in southern Africa which debuted in the 1997 Whitney biennial exhibition. In 2000, Kuipers wrote the text for a book of Aitken’s photographs by the same name. His fiction is published in anthologies including Signs of Life and the Black Ice Anthology. Dean’s site is here

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3 PM PACIFIC: call-in 1800.385.1566 Broadcasting live here and simulcast on:

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We hope to hear from you ! We’ll share our earlier conversation with Monica Ralli, artist and green entrepreneur. Monica is the founder and designer of Urth Bags, artfully Eco-friendly handbags made from recycled materials.

At 3:30 Andrew Nusca is a journalist based in New York City. Since March 2008, he has been assistant editor of business and tech Web site ZDNet. He has written for Men’s Vogue, Popular Mechanics and Money and his byline has appeared in The New York Times, The Huffington Post, New York Daily News, Editor & Publisher, New York Press, CNNMoney.com and many others. He also writes The Editorialiste, a media criticism blog. He is a graduate of New York University and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and is a former news editor and columnist of the Washington Square News. He has been named “Howard Kurtz, Jr.” by film critic John Lichman despite having no relation to him. He is the drummer in hard rock band Dibble Edge, which recently released its first full-length album, The Ageless & The Insane.

At 4 pm Amy Efaw author of “After” – tackles an often-sensationalized and little-understood issue—the “dumpster baby”—through the thought-provoking and conversation-starting story of Devon, who is in such deep denial that she refused to believe that she was pregnant. Author Amy Efaw provides a realistic, compelling look into the mind of a teenage girl. AFTER is a taut human drama which takes the reader on Devon’s journey toward clarity, acceptance, and redemption as she copes with the consequences of her actions. Amy first got the idea for AFTER when an off-duty Philadelphia cop and his pitbull found a live baby in a discarded garbage bag. Through her research, she learned the Basic Characteristics for mothers who dump their babies:

·         average age is between 14-25,

·         they’re unmarried and living at home,

·         are “good girls” considered often a “type A” high-achievers,

·         and denies and/or conceals the pregnancy from its conception.

While researching AFTER, she spent several hours each week observing juvenile offenders at Remann Hall Juvenile Detention Center in Tacoma, WA, where the book is set. Approximately one baby is abandoned to a trash can every day in the US. In an attempt to alleviate the growing problem and give pregnant women a way to anonymously abandon their babies without fear of prosecution, states have passed “safe haven” legislation. Yet, news outlets are still reporting these “dumpster baby” stories regularly. So why is this still happening? AFTER attempts to answer that question. We hope you’ll check out Amy’s great websites!

We also spoke with David Hill in a first of our series of interviews with activist researchers from Survival International. David knows a lot about uncontacted tribes particularly in the Peruvian Amazon, where he spent three months in 2006 researching their location and the threats they face (without attempting to make contact with them himself, of course). However, he speaks more generally about uncontacted tribes worldwide, where they are, why they are uncontacted, what threats they face, and what Survival’s campaign for their rights is about.

See the short film and articles on this page of their website for information about uncontacted tribes: details of uncontacted tribes in Peru

We’ll also be sharing our conversation with Felipe Matsunaga from Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Where is the Administration Heading? “Obama’s Slow (and Familiar) Dance With Cuba” …Though it is true that the easing of telecommunications marked a slight departure from the Clinton years, it has served to highlight some of the inconsistencies in the current administration’s timid and minimalist approach toward Cuba. In a largely under-reported event by major media outlets, Microsoft blocked access to its Messenger instant messaging service in Cuba during the last week of May. The company justified its decision by releasing the following statement: “Microsoft has discontinued providing Instant Messenger services in certain countries subject to United States sanctions. Details of these sanctions are available from the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).” Messenger, which had been used as a means of communication on the island for the past decade, had operated in Cuba despite the existence of the embargo….

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