Progressive Commentary Hour

Progressive Commentary Hour - 04/16/12

Big Food, Monsanto, GMOs and threats to American farming

Ronnie Cummins is the Executive Director of the Organic Consumers Association and author of “Genetically Engineered Foods: A Self Defense Guide for Consumers”. He has been a life-long activist in the human rights, anti-nuclear, labor and agricultural movements. His current goal through the Association is to increase organic agriculture to at least 30 percent by the year 2015 and to further a global moratorium on genetically engineered crops.  www.OrganicConsumers.org

David Murphy is the founder and executive director of Food Democracy Now!, a grassroots movement of more than 250,000 American farmers and citizens dedicated to reforming our food and agriculture. In 2007, he organized the Food and Family Farm Presidential Summit, where 5 of the 6 Democratic candidates pledged their support to help save family farm agriculture and laid out their plans to create a more sustainable future for rural America. www.FoodDemocracyNow.org

Progressive Commentary Hour - 04/09/12

Manuel Pérez-Rocha helps to coordinate the Networking for Justice on Global Investment project at the Institute for Policy Research, an independent think tank for progressive policy making in Washington DC; he directed the Institute’s "NAFTA Plus and the SPP Advocacy Project," as part of the Global Economy Project. He is a Mexican national who has led tri-national efforts to promote just and sustainable alternative approaches to North American economic integration for more than a decade. Manuel worked for many years with the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade and continues to serve on its executive committee. www.IPS-DC.org NAFTA’s failed promises- big business prospers as poverty increases.

Progressive Commentary Hour - 04/02/12

Politics of Medicine

Pt 1 DEATH BY MEDICINE

“In 2012, America has become the most overmedicated society in history. Indeed, there is a medication for every condition…We never stop to question why we need all these drugs.  We never even notice that they aren’t making us better, or that we can’t get off them once we start taking them.  Why do we refuse to see that despite all these medications we are nevertheless the sickest industrialized nation on earth?”

Pt 2 THE FDA:  PIMPING FOR BIG PHARMA

“Most Americans misunderstand what FDA drug approval means.  They believe that the FDA only approves drugs that are effective and safe, and that advertising of pharmaceuticals on television and in print has been approved by the FDA as well.  Ironically, this couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

PART III  SCIENTIFIC STUDIES: CLINICAL EVIDENCE OR A LICENSE TO KILL?

“After so many approved drugs and vaccines have later been shown to cause harm, somehow we miraculously wipe the slate clean after every incident and our faith in the pharmaceutical companies and the entire medical profession is restored to 100%”.

Progressive Commentary Hour - 03/26/12

Brandon Turbeville author & political writer for Activist Post, has published over one hundred articles dealing with a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, & civil liberties. He is the author of “Codex Alimentarius - The End of Health Freedom”, “7 Real Conspiracies”, & “Five Sense Solutions”.  Why should Americans be worried with the flurry of Congressional bills and Executive Orders that increase the power of the presidency to take control over the lives and resources of the nation? Discussing the NDAA, the recent National Defense Resource Executive Order and other legislative acts that are increasingly stripping away freedom and democracy.

Commentary: “The Polite Conference Rooms Where Liberties Are Saved and Lost” [Chris Hedges 26March12 www.truthdig.com]

Progressive Commentary Hour - 03/19/12

The Failures of our largest Environmental organizations and their sell out corporate polluters Derrick Jensen Derrick Jensen has become one of the nation's leading voices of cultural and environmental dissent, who writes on how civilization is devastating the environment and the natural world, and our society's denial of that fact. In 2008, Utne Reader listed Derrick among the 50 visionaries changing the world. In sharp contrast to environmental optimists who believe working within the corporate system will offset the tenuous planetary balance threatened by climate change, Derrick has advocated for many years a "dismantling of civilization" which can include radical dissent as well as imparting wisdom to our children. He has received many awards for his writings, including the two "Endgame" volumes. His most recent book "Dreams" is a critique against the fundamentalist Christian legalist morality and materialist scientism hat define western civilization and reinforce their disregard and violence against nature. Has there ever been an environmental movement in America -- and the failures of Big Green organizations Thomas Linzey Thomas Linzey is an attorney and the Executive Director of the Commnity Environmental Legal Defense Fund - a nonprofit law firm that has provided free legal services to over five hundred local governments and nonprofit organizations since 1995. He is a cum laude graduate of Widener Law School and a three-time recipient of the law school's public interest law award. He was also a finalist for the Ford foundation's Leadership for a Changing World Award, and is a recipient of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union's Golden Triangle Legislative Award. Thomas was admitted to practice in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Third, Fourth, Eighth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeals, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. He is a co-founder of the Daniel Pennock Democracy School - now taught in 24 states across the country to assist groups to create new community campaigns wich elevate the rights of those communities over rights claimed by corporations. Thomas is also the author of Be The Change: How to Get What You Want in Your Community (Gibbs-Smith, 2009), and co-hosts Democracy Matters, a public affairs radio show broadcast from KYRS in Spokane, Washington. Website: www.CELDF.org

Progressive Commentary Hour - 03/12/12

HIV/AIDS Special Clark Baker Clark Baker is a former officer of the LAPD in Los Angeles, who left after retirement 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. Website: Office of Medical and Scientific Justice www.OMSJ.org Liam Scheff Liam Scheff is an investigative journalist and researcher addresses scientific discoveries, the medical cult and politics of scientism - especially concerning infectious disease, vaccines and prescription drugs - and issues concerning race, class and culture. He has been an activist for children and adolescent rights, and broke the story about government agencies, particularly the NIH, and Big Pharma's hidden experimental trials with dangerous HIV drugs on New York City orphans. Liam is a co-host Robert Scott Bell's program on health, and has been published in the New York Press, LA Citybeat, Salvo, Hustler and others. He is a contributing investigator for the Office of Medical and Scientific Justice and founder of ReduceTheBurden.org Website: www.LiamScheff.com and www.ReduceTheBurden.org Celia Farber 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." She also has enemies, of course. Her 2006 article for Harper's magazine detailing the totalitarian corruption of HIV/AIDS research was titled "Out of Control: AIDS And The Corruption of Medical Science." The attacks from the AIDS industry were predictable and fierce. Nevertheless, she won the 2008 Semmelweis Clean Hands Award for Outstanding Investigative Journalism. Celia will also be starting to host her own program, entitles Radio Free Science, on the Progressive Radio Network this Friday, March 16th at 3pm Eastern Time.

Progressive Commentary Hour - 03/05/12

Our delusional democracy and the failure of our Two-Party System Joel Hirschhorn is the author of Delusional Democracy: Fixing the Republic without Overthrowing the Government” and is a co-founder of Friends of the Article V Convention. He is a frequent commentator and writer on the need for a second American Revolution to restore American democracy and the need for reform constitutional amendments. Joel is a former senior official at the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and National Governors Association, and a former full professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Jim Garrison is the co-founder and president of Wisdom University and President of the State of the World Forum as part of the Gorbachev Foundation, which he co-founded. In 2000, he initiated the launch of the Commission on Globalization which challenged the existing global governance system and gathered leaders together to define viable alternatives. Jim has graduate degrees in religion and theology from Harvard and Cambridge universities, and is the author of “Civilization and the Transformation of Power” and “America as Empire: Global Leader or Rogue Nation”.

Progressive Commentary Hour

Progressive Commentary Hour

Progressive Commentary Hour