Month: May 2010

California Special! PBC was asked by listener Ethan Knox to comment on the June 8 primary election. While he does not explicitly endorse candidates or tell you how to vote, your over-opinionated humble host is quite willing to tell you how he’s going to vote: Republican. That’s right, as an independent (decline-to-state) voter in California, Mr. Collins will be voting against the mega-wealthy corporate tools, Meg Whitman and Carlyfornication Fiorina. This podcast covers the races for governor, statewide constitutional offices, Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat, and 5 ballot measures, including 2 insidious initiatives openly written and promoted by corporations. And PBC apologizes for the reduced podcast schedule as he leaves for a week’s vacation; he pledges to deliver more podcasts starting in June.

Naomi Wolf, author and activist joins me and Sibel Edmonds for the next installment of the Boiling Frogs interview series. Wolf has been outspoken about the loss of civil liberties and our creeping police state. Wolf’s latest book is The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.

Steven L. Pease, author of The Golden Age of Jewish Achievement. Pease, a retired CEO and venture capitalist, talks about his interest in Jewish culture that developed as he worked with many Jews in business. As a gentile, he has an outsider’s appreciation for the cultural and religious characteristics–especially the commitment to education–that have enabled Jews, especially Americans, to excel in numbers that are disproportional to the population. For example, Jews make up about 2/10ths of one per cent of the world population, but 31% of the Nobel Prize winners in medicine have been Jewish.

Journalist Paul Fitzgerald on US drone attacks; Nancy Talanian on adopting refugees from Guantanamo. Fitzgerald and his wife Elizabeth Gould first covered Afghanistan for CBS in 1981, later for PBS. We talk about their latest dispatch at Boiling Frogs about the negative impact of US drone strikes, which kill 50 civilians for each alleged terrorist assassinated. We talk about Karzai’s visit to Washington, the US efforts to undermine his peace feelers to the Taliban and other opponents, Gen. McChrystal’s spin on “progress” in the war, and much more. Fitzgerald refers listeners to an article by Nathan Freier linked here. Talanian is director of No More Guantanamos and talks about a Russian named Ravil Mingazov who was ordered released on May 13 by a federal judge, after 8 years at Guantanamo without charge or trial. The towns of Amherst and Levitt have offered to accept Mingazov and another prisoner. While Obama has pledged to close Gitmo, his Justice Dept. continues to hold men the courts have ordered released and to use legal maneuvers to continue to detain innocents. We also talk about the administration’s efforts to block legal action by Canadian Maher Arar to vindicate his rendition, torture and imprisonment by the US. The second segment starts at about 57:13

Outspoken Professor Francis Boyle discusses the October 2001 anthrax attacks, the technology behind the letter to Senator Daschle, and assesses the case based on his years of expertise with America’s bio-weapons programs, and as an expert who was responsible for drafting the Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act of 1989, which was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. This is the next episode of the Boiling Frogs interview series, cohosted with Sibel Edmonds. Boyle discusses possible motivations behind the anthrax attacks, including those held by criminal elements within the US government to foment a police state, and the investigation that never was. Professor Boyle talks about Israeli war crimes as crimes against humanity, and more.
Boyle is a human rights lawyer and professor of law at the University of Illinois. As an internationally recognized expert, Professor Boyle serves as counsel to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to the Provisional Government of the State of Palestine. He is the author of several books, including The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence published by Clarity Press.

War Correspondent Anand Gopal on Afghanistan/Pakistan; Veronique Raskin on organic wines. Gopal is an independent reporter who writes for The Nation, Wall Street Journal and Christian Science Monitor. He was our guest in January regarding his reporting on American night raids and secret detention centers in Afghanistan, and in this conversation he updates us on the US assaults on Marjah and Kandahar, Karzai’s efforts to engage Taliban leaders in peace talks (thwarted by the US), Taliban leader Zakir (former Gitmo prisoner) and other issues. He also confirms the comment made on MSNBC this week by NYT reporter and former Taliban hostage David Rodhe: Taliban members do not believe that al Qaeda was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. Veronique unveils the new Peter B. Collins Organic Wine Club–sign up and get 3 great bottles per month for just $49.99 plus shipping. She talks about her French origins, and her vision of organic wines that goes all the way back to 1980. Your wine purchases and/or club membership help support the PBC Show! The second segment starts at about 44:00

Moonie Paper Going Down?Journalist Robert Parry of Consortiumnews.com has filed a Special Report on financial problems at Moon’s Washington Times which has been a reliable propaganda organ for the GOP for more than 20 years. John Gorenfeld also joins the conversation, author of Bad Moon Rising: How Rev. Moon Created The Washington Times, Seduced the Religious Right, and Built an American Kingdom. Moon has poured more than $3 billion into this rag, and reportedly much of that money was laundered from drug profits; Parry and Gorenfeld note that the mainstream media and Democrats have accepted the Moonie paper and its biased reporting with little criticism, and that it has been bypassed by Fox News and others as the megaphone for GOP talking points.

Spill, Baby, Spill! Investigative reporter Jason Leopold of Truthout.org exposes the sorry record of BP on oil spills, its failed ombudsman program, Halliburton’s contribution to the Horizon debacle, and BP’s failures on a larger Gulf platform, Atlantis. We also discussed the politics of Obama’s recent call to expand offshore drilling, hours before the president backtracked and said no new leases will be issued until safety concerns are addressed. Read Leopold’s excellent article here.