A Critical Ear

While travelling the past few weeks I fell somewhat behind on uploads of the program to the Indymedia Radio site (though I was generally successful with getting them to Audioport on time). I’ve now uploaded the following to that site:

8 May, 15 May, 22 May, 29 May, 12 June.

Yesterday’s edition of the show included an extended discussion of  the Petraeus testimony, an update on the Colombian trade agreement, a brief discussion of events in Ecuador, and of former President Carter’s visit to Palestine. Available for download from WRFU or on Pacifica’s Audioport. Starting, of course, with the Interworld Radio news bulletin.

And some advance notice: next week we’ll be interviewing author Allison Hantschel about her book “Special Plans” and neo-con Douglas Feith, whose memoir is due out shortly. Send us an email with any questions you want to ask her.

I’ve now uploaded yesterday’s show to Radio4All. Those of you with Audioport accounts can also find it there. The first half hour includes InterWorldRadio headlines, a commentary from Matt Rothschild of the Progressive, two feature pieces from InterWorldRadio, and some story headlines from EU Observer. The second half of the show involved discussion with Bob about Iran, starting with Diane Feinstein’s column calling for diplomacy with Iran. Bob also had a piece in the Huffington Post yesterday, analyzing Feinstein’s piece and its context. Direct link to mp3 of show, on Radio4All. (show length 58:02) 

• Full show audio
  Contents:
  • Interworld Radio news headlines (3-4 min)
  • Interworld Radio feature about healthcare services in Zambia (6 min)
  • Discussion of Iran and US foreign policy regarding Iran (30-40 min)
  • Gaza - recent developments and context
  • Jose Padilla (5-10 min)
  • Economic developments in the US - recession or not, policy reactions (interest rates, economic stimulus packages) (10-15 min)
  • Kucinich dropping out of presidential race, impact of media (5-10 min)
  • notices and events (5 min)
• Edited audio of international affairs discussion

Notes and resources:On last night’s show I made mention of an online graphic demonstrating the relative wealth of US presidential candidates. That graphic is available at this post with the large version here showing just what the disparities are. While I’m at it, I misremembered some of the details - Obama is ‘only’ at between $2 and $3 million, while Clinton is up over $34 million and Edwards is over $50 million. Richardson is over $6m while Kucinich is somewhere around $200k. On the Republican side, Huckabee’s personal worth is something under $1m, while all the other contenders listed are over $1m - Thompson at $8m, McCain at $40m, Giuliani at over $50m, and Romney at $350m, though this is believed to be a significant under-estimate.As is noted in the accompanying article, Kucinich is the one with a worth closest to the ‘average’ American, though $200k still puts him well above the median - in 2004 US households had a net worth of just over $100k. I’m not one to attack candidates purely on account of their wealth - as we pointed on during the show, it’s the policies that matter, and criticisms of, for example, Edwards for raising issues of poverty, are cynical and ill-founded. It’s significant, though to note the correlation between wealth and being perceived as a ‘viable’ candidate. Note too that the 2004 CNN figures I reference above show just 6.4m US households with net worth over $1m (excluding primary residence) and around 500k households with net worth over $5m. There are around 100m households in the US (the census’s 2004 estimate was around 107m) which puts Obama firmly in the top 6% of households by wealth (assuming his reported wealth is his household wealth - if not, he’s even more firmly up there). All of the other remaining candidates (now that Kucinich is out) with the exception of Huckabee are firmly in the top half-percent of households by wealth.Bob also referenced a San Francisco Chronicle article criticizing the court decision allowing the exclusion of Kucinich from the Nevada debate.