One on one with Prof. Henry A. Giroux. A collaboration with Truthout.org this conversation covers Giroux’s new book, “Youth In a Suspect Society: Democracy or Disposability” [Palgrave/McMillan] which links the corporate propaganda aimed at young people to the pathologies that are created, producing the “youth crime complex”. Giroux is a deep thinker, and his unique analysis connects the commodification of our young people with the erosion of the social compact and the dominance of “the market” in America today. Using California as an example, we discuss the disinvestment in education– to the point that we spend more on prisons than schools. Giroux is the Global TV Network Chair Professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. 
Year: 2009
Info on Podcast #62
Prof. Stephen Zunes on US repudiation of the Goldstone report; activist David DeGraw says to Wall St.: “Stop, Thief!!” and Tommy Panik files an exclusive report. Zunes is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco, and writes for Foreign Policy in Focus. He deplores the 11/4 House vote, 344-36, to reject the Goldstone Commission report as “deeply flawed”, and the comments of UN Ambassador Susan Rice and State Dept’s P.J. Crowley that investigating alleged war crimes by Israel and Palestinians would impede the peace process. DeGraw runs the website www.ampedstatus.com and has intense feelings about the grand larceny of our financial sector presided over by Paulson and Geithner. Panik is our in-depth undercover low budget investigative report, and updates us on White House basketball, Levi Johnston and the Palin soap operas, and the recent reunion of the Cheney torture team.
A Letter to the Governator
Dear Arnold,
You sure showed Tom Ammiano how clever a governor can be. Sure, he shouldn’t have called you a liar (even though it’s true) or told you to kiss his gay ass, and you shouldn’t have been at that Democratic fundraiser in San Francisco anyway—but your pal Willie Brown invited you and since you’re not doing anything in Sacramento these days, you dropped in and got a predictable response.
So when you stopped bluffing about vetoing all the bills this year (but it was a really cool bluff, cuz it came from you) and signed some of them, you vetoed a minor bill authored by Ammiano and sent him a custom veto letter that was so clever that the letters on the left margin spelled “Fuck youâ€. This is the coolest, most clever F-bomb since the pop group April Wine released the song “If You See Kay†back in the ‘80’s, your steroids-and-groping decade. You and the frat boys in your office must’ve spent hours crafting the letter and admiring it, and I’ll bet you did it all on a furlough day so taxpayers weren’t pinched by it.
And it was so cool that you resisted the urge to call Ammiano a “girly manâ€, since he’s about the only member of the legislature who would take it as a compliment. The editorial writers at the San Francisco Chronicle weren’t that cool—the left margin of their editorial slamming your F-bomb spelled out “grow up, girlyman†which is just so, well, 2005.
What’s even cooler is that you have been sodomizing California’s Democrats on just about a daily basis since the summer of 2008. Since our real Governor, Grover Norquist, wouldn’t allow the GOP members of the legislature to work with you to resolve the budget crisis that you created when you killed the car tax on your first day in office (way cool–$26 billion cool!) you managed to get the Democrats to bend over and take it—leading up to the May special election. The Dems acted like your sex slaves—telling us that unless we approved that 6-pack of poison, that life as we know it would cease. The voters are smarter than you all reckoned, and rejected your “solutions†because they knew they were phony.
So then you spent the summer in Sacramento (not cool) and alienated most of the legislators by demanding an all-cuts budget with massive disinvestment in education and a clever offshore oil drilling scheme that didn’t generate much money and showed us that your concern about climate change is just an act from a bad actor.
And after the Democrats survived all-nighters and gave in to virtually all of your demands, you screwed them again with line-item vetoes of programs like domestic violence hotlines, even though you didn’t have the power to do so. Now that’s really clever and very cool—you rock, dude! Who needs a legislature or even a constitution when you’ve got power derived solely from ego?
Over the next 5 to 10 years, as we struggle to repair the considerable damage that you’ve done to California and its most vulnerable people, we will marvel that you were so clever, and so cool as you imposed disaster capitalism on California, dismantled Pat Brown’s dreams and left the rubble to his moonbeam son.
Your stint as governator may be your only foray into politics; I hope so. But I expect that you will let Carly Fiorina run against Boxer as the Republican, and jump in as an independent in the general, and hope that you can write a script that covers your massive failures to date. And we will scour that script carefully for crude and cryptic messages in the left margin.
Info on Podcast #61
Robert Parry comments on Matthew Hoh’s resignation and criticism of US Afghanistan policy; attorney Michael Risher of the ACLU talks about DNA profiling, and PBC pays tribute to the late Norton Buffalo. Parry says the US has given al Qaeda more than they wished for, and talks about Obama’s decision on troop additions. We also talk about Daniel Ellsberg and the new documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America. And Parry takes a swipe at the mainstream media for declaring the “public option” dead, prematurely. Risher tells how California’s Prop 69 requires police to take DNA samples from felony suspects, even those who are innocent or not charged, and those samples stay in the DNA crime database. And Norton Buffalo, the harmonica genius who died on October 30, is warmly remembered by Peter B.
Info for Podcast #60
Melvin A. Goodman, former CIA analyst and author of “Failure of Intelligence” joins me and Sibel Edmonds for another installment of The Boiling Frogs interview series. Goodman offers sharp criticism of the CIA for its missteps and political players like Robert Gates, George Tenet and Cofer Black. He talks about the risks of further US escalation in Afghanistan and much more. Visit Sibel’s powerful new site, www.boilingfrogspost.com
Info on Podcast #59
Sam Ferguson, Truthout.org reporter, updates the Argentine war crimes trials from Buenos Aires; and activist Kevin Zeese is mobilizing protests against health insurance companies and the US Chamber of Commerce. Ferguson reports on the conviction of Gen. Rovere, who we talked about in podcast #46. He expands on his Truthout story in our conversation, and also tells of his recent trip to Uruguay, where voters did not approve a referendum to repeal amnesty for war crimes. And we talk about the lessons Americans can draw regarding potential trials for war criminals of the Bush/Cheney era. Zeese is Executive Director of Prosperity Agenda and is leading protests of insurance providers–get info here–with Dr. Margaret Flowers and others. We talk about the “public option” and the UFO that rich obstructionists (GOP) call “Obamacare”, and strategies for progressives. We also talk about the Stop The Chamber project to expose the US Chamber of Commerce, including the action of the Yes Men that has drawn a lawsuit from the Chambermaids–preventing Yes Man Mike Bonanno from joining us on this episode. The Yes Men movie opens in San Francisco 10/30 at the Roxie and Kabuki cinemas, plus the Rafael in San Rafael and the Oaks in Berkeley.
Info on Podcast #58
Actor and writer Peter Coyote talks about a secret US raid in Syria in late October, 2008; ex-evangelical Frank Schaeffer warns that the Christian is “trolling for murder”. Coyote recently visited Syria with journalist Reese Ehrlich (hear podcast #41) and they co-authored this important story at Vanity Fair’s website. US commandos swooped down in choppers and apparently killed seven innocent civilians, and the Bush administration claimed they killed an al Qaeda leader who had been dead for more than a year. No surprise: Coyote is a good story teller. Schaeffer was a 2nd generation pro-life Republican, and quit the party in 2000. He now warns that evangelicals have tapped dangerous emotions that could lead to an attempt to assassinate Obama. Great quote: “Christian Zionists love Israel the way oncologists love cancer”. Click here for info on an event in NYC Nov. 5 with Schaeffer and Jeff Sharlet, author of “The Family”.
Info on Podcast #57
Former FBI Agent John Cole talks about his work on counterintelligence, the Sibel Edmonds case and his own experience as a whistleblower. This is the 8th in our series of Boiling Frogs interviews, co-hosted with Sibel Edmonds. Cole has a lot to say about the internal workings of the FBI, and the chilling effect on its employees who witness the retaliation against people like Cole and Edmonds who raised issues of criminal behavior or agency mismanagement. He talks about Turkish and Israeli espionage operations in the US, the infiltration of the Bureau by a Pakistani spy, abuses of FISA applications, the TRILOGY software fiasco, and more. Cole’s new book is “While America Sleeps–An FBI Whistleblower’s story”.
Info on Podcast #56
Peter van Agtmael is an independent photojournalist whose work was recently featured in the New York Times magazine cover story by Dexter Filkins on Gen. Stanley McChrystal and the situation in Afghanistan. The Times has more of his photos in this slide show. Van Agtmael talks about his recent trip to Aghanistan where he met with McChrystal and embedded with US Marines in Helmand Province. He talks about the rugged terrain and extreme temperatures, the morale of US troops, the low trust Afghans have for the Americans, and the recent election. He also described his impressive new photo book about Iraq and Afghanistan combat, “2nd Tour, Hope I Don’t Die” with many powerful photos of American soldiers, including unsanitized shots of the wounded and scenes of soldiers who have come home disabled.
Info on Podcast #55
Nomi Prins, former Wall Street insider and author of the new book, “Pillage”; Prof. Adam Finkel and workplace safety consultant Del Leonard talk about OSHA and the risks facing workers. Prins gives an honest estimate of the massive bailout for the financial industry–$13 trillion and more–and we focus on Citigroup’s plan to pay $25 billion in bonuses while relying on nearly $400 billion of taxpayer money, gaurantees and liabilities. She also datamined Tim Geithner’s phone records, and details fascinating info about who Hank Paulson and others were talking to as the bailout plans were jammed throuhg in the fall of 2008. Dr. Finkel and Mr. Leonard give an overview of the regulation of workplace health and safety, and Finkel tells how he blew the whistle when his Bush-appointed boss declined to inform active and retired OSHA inspectors that they may have serious exposure to beryllium.