Progressive Commentary Hour

Progressive Commentary Hour - October Surprise - 01/21/13

Barbara Honegger is a former White House Policy Analyst and Special Assistant to the Assistant to the president for Domestic Policy and a nationally recognized investigator and author about the attack on the Pentagon during 911. She was called as an expert witness at the First International Hearings on 911 held in Toronto in September 2011.  Earlier, Barbara was a Senior Military Affairs Journalist at the Dept of Defense’s Naval Postgraduate School. Barbara is perhaps best known for her book “October Surprise”, which exposed the Reagan teams Irangate and led to a full federal investigation in the House.  She is also among the first of 50 high level former and current government officials to call for a new 911 investigation and she is a founding member of the International organization, Political Leaders for 911 Truth.

Progressive Commentary Hour - Major Cabinet changes for Obama’s second term – 01/14/13

Ray McGovern served as an Army intelligence officer and a CIA analyst from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Among his duties was preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s most senior national security advisers. Since retiring from government service, he has been one of our nation’s most vocal peace activists and journalists. In 2003, he helped create Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose the way intelligence was being falsified to “justify” war on Iraq. Ray’s opinion pieces appear in many leading newspapers here and abroad, including a major section in an important book, “Neocon’d Again” dealing with America’s war in Iraq.  He holds degrees in theology and philosophy from Fordham University, is a graduate from Harvard Business School and has a certificate of theology from Georgetown University. Prof.  Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He is recognized as one the country’s leading scholars of U.S. Middle East policy and of strategic nonviolent action, Professor Zunes received his PhD. from Cornell University and previously served on the faculty of Ithaca College, the University of Puget Sound, and Whitman College. He serves as a senior policy analyst for the Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, a contributing editor of Tikkun, and chair of the academic advisory committee for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Among his publications, the most recent is “Western Sahara: War, Nationalism and Conflict Irresolution” For the past 30 years, Robert Scheer has built a reputation as one of the nation’s most honest and insightful political writers. From 1976 to 1993 Robert was a national correspondent for the Los Angeles Times, reporting on the Cold War, arms control, and national politics.  He is a professor at the University of Southern California Annenberg School of Journalism and editor in chief of the Webby Award winning internet magazine Truth Dig.com.  He is regularly heard on the NPR program “Left Right and Center” on KCRW in Santa Monica.  Robert has a graduate degree in economics from UC Berkeley and has been a fellow at Yale and Stanford universities. His latest r book “The Great American Stickup: How Regan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main  Street” is one of the more concise publications outlining the causes and intrigues that brought forth our great recession BOOK:  “The Great American Stickup: How Regan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main  Street”

Progressive Commentary Hour - Christian Fiala - 01/07/13

A special bonus interview with Christian Fiala on HIV and AIDS. Dr. Christian Fiala is a gynaecologist and obstetrician and currently working in Vienna, but has extensive experience in Thailand and Africa. April, 2007, he established the Museum of Contraception and Abortion. For almost 20 years he has been following critically the scientific and political discussion on the epidemiological aspects of AIDS and contributed actively. He was a member of the Presidential AIDS Advisory Panel in South Africa. Dr. Fiala has published many papers focused on the problems of AIDS in Africa and the definition of AIDS. is the author of the book "Do We Love Dangerously? - A Doctor in Search of the Facts and Background to AIDS" (Lieben wir gefaehrlich? - Ein Arzt auf der Suche nach den Fakten und Hintergruenden von AIDS) (1997); and the article in English, Aids: are we being deceived?

Progressive Commentary Hour – special on AIDS – 01/07/13

Prof. Peter Duesberg is  professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California at Berkeley.  He was the first to isolate a cancer gene through his work with retroviruses back in 1970and mapped the genetic structure of this class of viruses. His work in retrovirus research awarded him an election to the National Academy of Sciences and Outstanding Investigator Grants from the National Institutes of Health.  Based upon his knowledge of retroviruses, he has been at the forefront in challenging the virus-AIDS hypothesis and has published in the world’s leading medical journals.  As a consequence, Dr. Duesberg’s hypothesis has won support from many scientists who have been outcast from publishing their views, including nobel laureates such Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR technology.

Celia Farber is a journalist who covered the HIV wars extensively since 1987, in various magazines. Some of these writings are collected in her book: "Serious Adverse Events: An Uncensored History of AIDS" published by Melville House Press, (now Random House) in 2006.

Activist Michael Callen called Farber "..the best AIDS journalist in the world."   Her 2006 article for Harper's magazine detailing the corruption of HIV/AIDS research was titled "Out of Control: AIDS And The Corruption of Medical Science." Attacks from the AIDS industry on Celia's research have been predictable and fierce. Nevertheless, she still won the 2008 Semmelweis Clean Hands Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism.

Clark Baker is a retired officer of the LAPD in Los Angeles, who left in 2000 to become an independent writer and private investigator.  He is now the founder of the Office for Medical and Scientific Justice in Southern California, which spearheads investigations into the politics and fraud of various medical related groups and individuals, including the pro-AIDS industry and academia.  Clark serves on the Board of the Semmelweis Society International, a foundation that awards individuals for their scientific independence in innovative research and critical thought in the absence of invested interests.  He has written extensively on his investigations into the activities of the pro HIV community.

Progressive Commentary Hour - 12/31/12

Progressive Commentary Hour - A Look Back At Fukushima - 12/17/12

A look back at Fukushima, its continued threats, the extent of the catastrophic consequences both in Japan and elsewhere, and the future of nuclear power.

Dr. Helen Caldicott is perhaps the single most articulate and passionate advocate of citizen action to counter the nuclear and environmental crises. She has a  medical degree from the University of Adelaide Medical School and was an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School until 1980 when she resigned to work full time on the prevention of nuclear war. She co-founded the Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization of 23,000 doctors committed to educating their colleagues about the dangers of nuclear power, nuclear weapons and nuclear war. Dr. Caldicott has received numerous awards, was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Linus Pauling, and has  21 honorary doctoral degrees. The Smithsonian has named Dr Caldicott as one of the most influential women of the 20th Century.

Joseph Mangano is the Executive Director of the Radiation and Public Health Project – a nonprofit organization founded by scientists and physicians to understand the relationships between low level nuclear radiation and public health and the risks of diseases such as cancer and damage to newborns. Joe has published numerous articles and letters in medical and other journals in addition to books, including Low Level Radiation and Immune System Disorders: An Atomic Era Legacy.

Progressive Commentary Hour - The Collapse of American Education - 12/10/12

The Collapse of American Education

• Corporate privatization of the education industry
• Student debt and failure of public school funding
• The rise of cyber education
• The demise of critical thinking in education that threatens democracy and free speech

Professor Henry Giroux (Jeer-oh) holds the Global Television Network Chair of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Ontario Canada and is regarded as a leader in the field known as critical and public pedagogy – a term to describe the nature of spectacle in our new media, body politic and corporate education.  He is a prominent advocate of radical democracy, which opposes the powers of neoliberalism, corporatism, and religious fundamentalism that is now diminishing our population’s sense of civic virtue, free-thought and well being. He has been named among the top fifty educational thinkers of the modern Period.  Henry has authored many books, his most recent being “Twilight of the Social: Resurgent Publics in the Age of Disposability” Danny Weil is a progressive public intellectual and scholar and a publishing editor of young adult reference books on education.  He is frequent contributor to alternative media focusing on the privatization of education and charter schools, the student loan crisis, civil rights and free and democracy.

Progressive Commentary Hour - 12/03/12

Progressive Commentary Hour - Economic Austerity - 11/26/12

Special on Domestic and Global Economic Austerity Catherine Austin Fitts is the president of Solari Inc. and the publisher of the Solari Report, which provides investment consultation for shifting wealth away from financial institutions without acting on our best interests. Earlier, Catherine served as a managing director and a member of the board of directors for the Wall Street investment bank Dillon Read, and was the Assistant Secretary of Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development during the first Bush administration. After leaving the Bush Administration, Catherine founded The Hamilton Securities Group, Inc., an investment bank and financial software developer. in 1996, she and her successful company became targets of a vicious, longlasting "qui tam lawsuit", that resulted in the closing on Hamilton Securities. Fitts was ultimately successful in Court of Claims litigation asserting that the government had no right to withhold monies owed to Hamilton. Her website is www.Solari.com Mar Vorpahl is a seasoned union steward, Latin American solidarity and anti war activist. He is an investigative journalist for Workers' Action- a workers organization dedicated to defending and improving the standard of living and to create a more just and economically viable economy. Marks essays and commentaries frequently appear in Counterpunch, Truth Out and other progressive news and oped sites. His website is www.workerscompass.org Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he taught economics from 1973 to 2008. He is currently a Visiting Professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs of the New School University, New York City. He also teaches classes regularly at the Brecht Forum in Manhattan. Over the last 25 years, he has developed a new approach to political economy that rejects the economic determinism typical of most schools of economics. He has written many books and numerous articles, his latest book being "Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism", which probes the root causes of the economic crisis.

Progressive Commentary Hour - Government Surveilance of American Citizens - 11/19/12

The many ways government has increased surveillance of American citizens Medea Benjamin is a cofounder of the anti-war feminist organization Codepink and a co-founder of the international human rights organization Global Exchange.  For the past 20 years she has been an advocate for social justice. In 2005 she was among exemplary women nominated to receive a collective Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to promote peace.  She is the author of the recent book:  “Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control” which goes into detail about this stealth weaponry, and deals with the dramatic rise of domestic use of drone technology to spy upon citizens.

Chase Madar is an attorney in New York and a member of the National Lawyers Guild, a public interest association of lawyers dedicated to progressive change in our economic, legal and political system and support for human rights over property interests. He is the author of “The Passion of Bradley Manning”, and a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books, Le Monde Diplomatique, American Conservative Magazine, and CounterPunch.

Hanni Fakhoury is a Staff Attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who writes and speaks on issues surrounding the intersection of technology and criminal law, privacy, and free speech. He has argued before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on warrantless cell tracking, The Foundation is an international digital rights advocacy and legal organization devoted to civil liberties associated with technology, the internet and telecommunications and supports litigation to preserve and protect the First Amendment in the face of rapid electronic communications.