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Two Powerful Anti-War Voices; Swanson and Thistlethwaite

Activist/author David Swanson returns to talk about his latest book, War Is a Lie and Rev. Susan B. Thistlethwaite on her new book, Dreaming of Eden: American Religion and Politics in a Wired World. Swanson is the veteran activist who worked for ACORN and was press secretary on the 2004 presidential campaign of Dennis Kucinich. He writes and speaks passionately about America’s wars, past and present, and how war fever is generated by politicians and the media with deception and manipulation. Informed by WikiLeaks, we identify some of the current lies that surround our military operations in Pakistan, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen, and we talk about the role of the corporate media in promoting propaganda over truth. Swanson will be in California starting 12/18. While the book is available at Amazon, Swanson is boycotting Amazon for cutting off WikiLeaks servers. You can get his book for half price, and get details on his speaking tour here. Rev. Thistlethwaite is a UCC minister and former president of the Chicago Theological Seminary, where she is now a professor. In our second segment starting at 54:00, she talks about the dangers of religious fundamentalism in our wired world, the need for progressive Christian voices to counter the impact of Christian fundamentalists, and the false notion of American exceptionalism most recently promoted by Sarah Palin. We also talk about the fight for economic justice that is playing out in the battle over the Bush tax cuts. Thistlethwaite is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and you can read her recent commentaries here.