Most Recent program:

June 29th, 2003

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Nicholas Confessore (Editor Washington Monthly www.washingtonmonthly.com) on how the GOP is turning Washington's K-street lobbying industry into an arm of the Republican Party and how this strategy plays into the larger goal of establishing a de facto one-party rule in the USA.  This comprehensive political strategy, masterminded by movement conservatives in positions of power and influence such as Tom DeLay, Grover Norquist, Karl Rove and others, seeks to make the Republican Party indistinguishable from corporate cartels and utterly dominant in American life, with a consequent transformation of public service to private profit, the end of social programs, the shrinkage of the middle-class and the gulf between rich and poor expanding to third-world dimensions.  This important discussion, and the article which inspired it, are not to be missed.
 
Dr. Rahul Mahajan (Author of "The New Crusade: America's War on Terrorism" and "Full Spectrum Dominance: US Power in Iraq and Beyond."  Dr. Mahajan is a member of the Nowar Collective, the National Board of Peace Action, and the National Committee of the National Network to End the War against Iraq.  He holds a PhD. in physics from the University of Texas at Austin.  www.rahulmahajan.com ) on what's really happening in Iraq, how the United States will impose "full spectrum" dominance in the Middle-East and elsewhere and how US foreign and economic policies support repressive and kleptocratic regimes worldwide.  Dr. Mahajan addresses US manipulation of the UN, the NeoCon agenda for the world and the price to the citizens of the US and the world of the NeoCon empire.
 
Dr. Cheryl Rubenberg (former Professor of International Studies, Florida International University.  Author of "The Palestinians in Search of a Just Peace," "Israel and American National Interest: a Critical Examination," and "Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank") on the under-reported back-story of the "Roadmap to Peace."  Dr. Rubenberg addresses the unlikelihood of success, after 35 years of military occupation,  for the peace effort, the questionable sincerity of the participants, the dubious authenticity of the hand-picked by the US and Israel Palestinian representative.  She questions the Israeli commitment to a just long-term settlement, given the powerful political and religious forces in Israel that insist of the sovereignty of Israel over the occupied territories.  She notes open discussion in Israel of "Palestinian transfer" (see www.gamla.org.il/english ).  Dr. Rubenberg offers a simple prescription for a genuine peace: honesty, fairness, abandonment of the settlements, a real state with real democracy, and respect for the humanity of both sides.  Can this become a reality?