Category: Podcast Info

One on one with Prof. David Ray Griffin, focusing on the two most recent of his 35 books: The Mysterious Collapse of World Trade Center 7: Why the Final Official Report About 9/11 is Unscientific and False and Osama bin Laden, Dead of Alive?

Building 7 is the gateway to busting the myths of 9/11 embraced by the discredited 9/11 Commission. Dr. Griffin talks about how Van Jones was vilified just for signing a petition calling for a new investigation, and about the effort to pass a NYC referendum enabling a new inquiry.

He offers many examples of the NIST reports exagerrations and fabrications, and concludes that WTC was brought down in a controlled demolition. In the bin Laden book, he details all of the reports of bin Laden’s death, evaluates the credibility of video and audio releases attributed to bin Laden, and concludes that he is probably dead.

www.davidraygriffin.com

PDA Special Report. Here’s a special dispatch from the western conference of Progressive Democrats of America, www.pdamerica.org.  Activists from CA, OR, WA and AZ gathered to talk policy and strategy.  The meeting was hosted by the California Nurses Assn, and CNA Political Director Michael Lighty updates us on the health care reform battle, including the Kucinich amendment, mandated coverage, the public option and more.  We also talked to Marcy Winograd,  who is a bright and well-informed challenger to Rep. Jane Harman (D?-CA) in June 2010.  Marcy talks about health care, Afghanistan, wiretapping, and Harman’s embarrassing wiretapped call. www.winograd4congress.com
www.davidraygriffin.com

Journalist Reese Erlich, just back from Afghanistan, and analyst Conn Hallinan talk about the so-called “good war”.

And filmmaker Joe Berlinger talks about his new documentary, CRUDE: The Real Price of Oil and the 17-year legal battle over Chevron-Texaco’s toxic mess in the Amazon Basin.  Erlich reports on his on-scene observations and comments on reactions of Obama and Clinton to Gen McChrystal’s report and call for more US troops, and Hallinan debunks some of the American myths about the present and future in Afghanistan.

Read Hallinan’s commentaries at FPIF.org, Foreign Policy in Focus, especially his comparison to a Rubik’s Cube.  Berlinger, who also produced a documentary about Metallica, follows the efforts by Ecuadorian lawyer Pablo Fajardo to take on oil giant Chevron, which inherited Texaco’s liability for a mess estimated to cost $27 billion to clean up.

Berlinger is quite articulate; he describes the human toll of the mess, and the recent effort by allies of Chevron to entrap Judge Juan Nunez on video–which Chevron has seized on.  More info at www.crudethemovie.com and www.amazonwatch.org

Sibel Edmonds ungagged!

In this exclusive one on one interview,  Sibel tells the story of her hiring at the FBI, the administrative missteps and criminal behavior she became aware of, Turkey’s use of bribes and personal matters to compromise members of Congress and a top State Dept. official to advance its interests, and her revelations about Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) which have prompted a bitter attack in response from the congresswoman’s spokesman–and an open letter from Edmonds to Schakowsky inviting her to hold hearings on all of Sibel’s information.  We were not able to get all the details in one interview, so Sibel has agreed to do another episode in the near future.

For more information on this explosive account that remains blacked out by US corporate media, go to www.123realchange.blogspot.com and www.bradblog.com

Melanie Sloan of CREW reveals the 15 Most Corrupt elected officials in Washington, DC; then Harper’s writer Gideon Lewis-Kraus takes us to Washington, California, where everybody’s growing pot; and Prof. Larry Bogad of UC Davis talks about political theater, including the recent scam edition of the New York Post.

Sloan also gives the details of Rep. Mike Ross’s (D-Arkansas) sweet deal with a drug retailer–he and his wife sold their pharmacy for far more than it was worth (like Duke Cunningham) and Ross is the leading Blue Dog blocking progressive health care reform.

Lewis-Kraus introduces us to Buck and Tyedie Bob in tiny Washington, CA, and talks about the prospects of legal weed.  And Bogad is aligned with the Yes Men, who stage anti-corporate stunts worldwide;  he’ll tell us about the spoof on The Post and other political theater.

David Cay Johnston comments on Wall street bailouts and weak prospects for new regulation;  Prof. Joshua Clover details plans by faculty, students and employees to shut down the entire University of California statewide on September 24;  Bob Hertz of HealthCareCrusade.com shreds the Baucus proposal and advocates for us, the consumers; and PBC rants about the latest wave of anti-Obama propaganda.

Johnston is the former NY Times reporter and author of Free Lunch; he now teaches about the history of financial regulation at Syracuse College of Law.  He breaks down the meltdown in plain terms, and doesn’t think we will see any major re-regulation to prevent a repeat.  The flash political cartoon at the beginning of the segment is at MarkFiore.com  Tuition and fees at UC have increased 277% since 2000, and Prof. Clover explains their demands.

Bob Hertz offers a vision for American healthcare that is sensible, affordable, and probably unattainable in this political chapter.  And PBC closes with a rant on the latest right wing email barrage, a series of lengthy emails purportedly from “concerned Democrats” who use guilt by association to call Obama a communist and list the same phony charges that show up on teabagger protest signs and GOP fundraising letters.

Jeff Halper on Israel/Palestinian conflict, Dr. Margaret Flowers on health care reform, and Gary Chew reviews The Informant.  Halper is an Israeli Jew and coordinator of Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.  He comments on the UN report on Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza in 12/08 and the “false symmetry” of news accounts that accuse both sides of war crimes.  He talks about the expansion of settlements by Netanyahu, “spitting in the face” of Obama, and the prospects for peace.  Dr. Flowers got arrested in a Senate committee when she spoke out in favor of single payer, and she has joined the Mad as Hell Doctors on their road trip to D.C.  Chew tells us Matt Damon is great as a whistle-blowing executive of Archer Daniels Midland in The Informant.  Gary’s reviews are online at www.TulsaTVmemories.com

Just back from Afghanistan, Norman Solomon reports on the tense scene in Kabul, fraud in the recent election, and the range of groups that comprise “the Taliban” in US media terms.  We also talk with activist and author Dave Berman about advocacy journalism and his new videoblog.

Norman is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy and author of “War Made Easy”; he was an Obama delegate to the convention last year, and is critical of Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan.  We also talked about the campaign of Progressive Democrats of America, “Healthcare Not Warfare” and Norman’s deep disappointment with the Democrats’ handling of the health care reform effort.   In the second segment with Dave Berman, PBC discloses plans to co-host a cable access channel show with his neighbor in the office building, Larry the Lawyer. And we encourage you to be the media and get the book Be The Media.

Investigative reporter Peter Lance, former ABC correspondent and author of “Triple Cross”, tells why prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald tried to block publication of the book, which exposes Fitzgerald’s failures, including the case of Ali Mohamed–the al Qaeda spy who pentrated the CIA, FBI and Special Forces and trained the 1993 World Trade Center bombers.  This is the 6th in the Boiling Frogs interview series, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds.  Get more information at www.123realchange.blogspot.com and www.peterlance.com

PBC comments on Obama’s speech on healthcare, and the well-funded corporate mobs determined to block any reform; and psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Kaye raises important issues about America’s torture programs.

As you listen to PBC’s commentary on the health care struggle, look at this chart that depicts the network of well-funded opponents and their connections to Tom DeLay, Jack Abramoff, and other GOP operators. PBC explains how the sliming of Van Jones, and the White House response, will only encourage Glenn Beck and others to continue attacking.

Dr. Kaye has great insights into the roles that psychologists and other professionals played in the implementation of torture procedures, and reports that the CIA was experimenting on US soldiers before 9/11. Read his article at www.pubrecord.org