Alternative Radio Friday 4/13

5:00 pm & 10:00 pm
In Conversation
Kurt Vonnegut

Where recorded: New York, NY
Date recorded: 23 Feb 2003

While attending university in the mid 70s, I probably spent more time reading the novels of Kurt Vonnegut than my college texts. He was my hero, and has become a cultural icon. His observation of the destructiveness and dehumanization of the 20th century, distilled by his rich imagination and quirky view of events and their time frames, make for delightful reading and listening experiences. His irreverence is palpable, as is his disdain for Bush and the current administration. Asked by a journalist for an idea for a really scary reality TV show, Vonnegut responded, "C Students From Yale, it would stand your hair on end." In his book Hocus Pocus, published in 1990, he wrote, "Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe."

Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut was an infantryman in WW2 and was captured during the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944. He was then taken to a POW camp in Dresden in time to experience the horrific Allied firebombing of the city from the relative safety of an underground meat locker. The destruction wrought was greater than that of Nagasaki. He is now a self-described "fourth-generation German-American living in easy circumstances." He has written over 20 books and ranks among America's most widely read and best loved authors.

MAKING CONTACT - a weekly international radio program

April 11, 2007
3:00 pm & 11;00 pm


Taxes are something we all have to deal with, whether we like it or not. They fund basic infrastructure and much needed social programs. The tax cuts of the Bush administration were supposed to create more jobs and redistribute the wealth for average Americans, but have they?

To find out, we talk with a single mom and a tax fairness advocate to debunk some myths about how wealth is created and what people can do to change tax policy. We also look at how an under-reported union between political conservatives and the Christian right preserves the gap between the haves and have-nots.


Featuring:

Harmony Langford, single mom in Flint, Michigan; Anisha Desai, Deputy Director, United for Fair Economy; Tom McClosky, vice president of government affairs and chief lobbyist of the Family Research Council; Rich Meagher, PhD candidate, City University of New York; Max Sawicky, economist at the Economic Policy Institute.

Senior Producer/Host: Tena Rubio
Contributing Producer: Abby Scherr
Mixing Engineer: Phillip Babich
Intern: Alexis McCrimmon
Recording assistants: Richie Duchon, Geoff Brady, Doug George and Robert Frazier

For more information:

United for A Fair Economy
29 Winter Street
Boston, MA 02108
617-423-2148; info@faireconomy.org
www.faireconomy.org

UFE's Racial Wealth Divide Project
www.racialwealthdivide.org

Urban Institute
2100 M Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20037
202-833-7200
www.urban.org

The Public Eye magazine
1310 Broadway, #201
Somerville, MA 02144
www.publiceye.org

Citizens for Tax Justice
1616 P Street NW, Suite 200
Washington, DC 20036
202-299-1066
www.ctj.org

Economic Policy Institute
1333 H Street, NW
Suite 300, East Tower
Washington, DC 20005-4707
202-775-8810
www.epinet.org

Family Research Council
801 G Street, NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
202-393-2100
www.frc.org

Other helpful links:

Economic Self-Sufficiency Coalition of Western New York
716-887-2717; tkerr@uwbec.org
www.esscwny.com

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
820 First Street, NE, Suite 510
Washington, DC 20002
202-408-1080; center@cbpp.org
www.cbpp.org

Public Eye: "Tax Revolt as a Family Value - How the Christian Right Is Becoming A Free Market Champion"
www.publiceye.org/magazine/v21n1/meagher_tax_revolt.html

Third Planet Report, 4/11/07 with host hippielawyer Alan Graf

5:00 pm & 10:00 pm Wed
3:00 pm Thursday
12 noon Saturday

This weeks' Report features the following:

1) Interview with law Professor Bill Quigley regarding two priests he has been representing who were charged with trespassing on a federal facility near Tuscon AZ. The facility teaches torture and interrogation techniques used in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. The priests were caught red handed praying on the base.

The Professor also talks about the continuing dire situation in New Orleans effecting mostly the poor and African-American community and how the government, particularly the federal government, continues to drop the ball.

2) Interview with Ina May Gaskin, world famous midwife and her two friends and associates Helen Knowles and Ping Qiu. Ina May talks about how women are still be subjugated to unnecessary cesarean sections when they could have their babies delivered naturally. Ping Qiu, a Chinese artist living in Berlin and Helen Knowles, an artist and curator from Manchester, England, talk about how their activism for womens' rights and issues is expressed through their art and how their friendship with Ina May influenced their artwork.

3) Interview with civil rights attorney Rose Weber who expresses her concern that the left and progressive movement has unfairly obsessed over Israel and Israel's relationship with the Palestinians. She takes the position that the plight of the Palestinians is more the fault of the Arab nations than Israel

Music and commentary by hippielawyer

http://media.libsyn.com/media/hippielawyer/third_planet_report_4.10.07_copy_2.mp3

-- posted at: 7:33 AM