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info on Podcast Show #13

Activist David Swanson joins Peter to talk about a host of progressive issues, Harper’s magazine DC editor Ken Silverstein rates the prospects for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, and Gary Chew reviews 2 summer movies. Swanson’s new book, due 9/1/09, is “Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency…” In this podcast, he offers strong views on investigations of torture, detention, wiretapping and abuse of the state secrets privilege. He also talks about Obama’s use of signing statements, which he had sharply criticized as a candidate just a year ago; he also talked about the progressive lobbying against the recent $100 billion supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan.  Silverstein, who also writes the Washington Babylon blog at Harpers.org, details the array of lobbyists, corporatists, and Democrats who are trying to kill labor’s top agenda item, and says Obama is not pushing it at all.  And Gary Chew tells us about the new Harry Potter flick and Sacha Baron Cohen’s new insult and gross-out movie, Bruno.  www.tulsatvmemories.com

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Info on Podcast #14

US Escalation in Afghanistan, the Truth about Cronkite and Vietnam, the voice of a former US detainee and torture victim, and an alert about new interrogation legislation. Norman Solomon, author of War Made Easy and producer of a documentary based on the book, talks about Obama’s escalation in Afghanistan, his plans to visit soon, and the truth about Walter Cronkite and Vietnam. While pursuing a story about Britain’s victims in the “war on terror”, PBC found Moazzam Begg, the director of Cageprisoners.com, and learned of Begg’s own story of torture by US personnel in Afghanistan followed by 2 years at Gitmo.  Then he talked with Bill Quigley, Legal Director at the Center for Constitutional Rights who issued an alert about a Senate bill that would ban contractors from conducting interrogations and require video taping of terrorist interrogations.  The alert asks you to contact your senator and ask them to support the bill, despite reported opposition from the Obama White House.

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British relief worker detained for 3 years by CIA

Listen to this clip! It’s from my conversation with Moazzam Begg, founder cageprisoners.com. Begg, a British relief worker, was detained by the CIA and held for three years in several prisons, including Guantanamo. “Were you tortured?” I asked. “That goes without saying,” he answered.

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Podcasts now available at iTunes!

We are pleased to tell you that the PBC podcasts are now available at iTunes!  You may continue to access them here, but for most people, it’s easier to subscribe to the podcast series, and each new show will be automatically downloaded to the iTunes folder on your computer.
Click here to subscribe now!

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info on Podcast #11

Peter Laufer, author of The Dangerous World of Butterflies, Inside Talk Radio and many other books, and musical satirist Roy Zimmerman are guests.  Laufer is a colorful writer who takes us deep into the buttefly zone–conservationists, exploiters and smugglers who prize these beautiful creatures–and we meet the cop and the smuggler he tracked and jailed.  Laufer, a radio talk show host and program director, also offers comments on the current state of talk radio.  Then Roy Zimmerman joins us and performs a new song about the politics of torture, “San Francisco Values”. www.royzimmerman.com

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info on Podcast #10

In this wide ranging conversation with British journalist Andy Worthington, author of “The Guantanamo Files”, Peter B. inquires about the origins of US detention and torture policies, confirms that the vast majority of prisoners were innocent of any terrorism crimes, and talks about his “crazy Mofo” theory that drove Cheney (further) to the dark side. [Warning: crude language intentionally used.] Worthington debunks the claims of Gitmo prisoners who were released and, according to the Pentagon, “returned to the battlefield”.  And he details the treatment of al-Libi, who was tortured into false claims of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda and al-Libi’s recent death by “suicide” in a Lybian prison.  www.andyworthington.co.uk For the 4th of July, Peter plays a sung version of the Declaration of Independence, and tips you off to a YouTube video with a new Declaration that cites current crimes against our constitution.

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info on podcast #9

Robert Dreyfuss spoke to us in podcast #1, and returns as promised in this episode to describe the events around the election in Iran.  He comments on what he saw in Tehran, the role of the Basij thugs, Obama’s comments and the blowhards of the right, like Sen. Lindsay Graham.  And he tells us why he has compared Ahmadinejad to O.J. Simpson. www.thenation.com  Then Brad Friedman updates us on the contested election in Minnesota, and PBC asks if  Sen. Franken will be funnier than Al Franken the radio talk show host.  Brad also talks about the red flags that raised questions for him about the Iranian election, and closes with 2 cases of Republican voter fraud, including Ann Coulter.  www.bradblog.com

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info on Podcast #8

Journalist Charles “Chuck” Bowden checks in from the Arizona border with Mexico, and talks about the Mexican journalist who is seeking political asylum in the US (www.motherjones.com). Be sure to listen to the final 5 minutes, as Chuck sums up the vexing problems:  if the drug trade were halted, the Mexican economy would collapse.  And former Alabama Governor Don Siegleman talks about his political persecution, which started with Karl Rove and his cronies, and continues under the Obama Justice Dept.  www.donsiegelman.com, www.legalschnauzer.blogspot.com

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info on Podcast 7

Following an expose on Scientology in a Florida newspaper (www.tampabay.com) attorney Ford Greene tells us what goes on in this secretive, autocratic “religion”.  And journalist Dahr Jamail compares the radioactive messes our government has made on US Indian reservations and in Iraq.  Dahr also talks about Iraq and Afghanistan war resisters–in and out of uniform–detailed in his powerful new book, The Will to Resist. www.dahr.org

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info on Podcast Show #4

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Writer Richard Rapaport takes us back in time, when the GOP attacked health care reform as “socialized medicine”. The AMA hired Ronald Reagan and organized Operation Coffee Cup to mobilize Republican women to deliver the talking point. Dave Meserve, former City Council member in Arcata, California, talks about the federal court overturning the ballot measures Meserve wrote which banned military recruiters from contacting underage teens. And our own Tommy Panik, our in-depth-undercover-low-budget-investigative-reporter, indulges in ridiculous speculation about recent injuries to Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

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Podcast #3

Just a year ago, John Laird was battling Arnold Schwarzenegger over the California budget mess. The former Chair of the Assembly Budget Committee talks about the ongoing fight, and Arnold’s plans to blow up the Waste Management Board (where Laird now works) even though it gets no revenue from the state general fund. Peter B. also talks with Roger Shuler of legalschnauzer.blogspot.com about the case of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who was railroaded into prison by pals of Karl Rove and is getting stiff-armed by the Obama Justice Department.