Keeping Democracy Alive

The Burt Cohen Show - "Fix The Debt:" The 99% Sacrifice, While the 1% Romp - 02/21/13

It may sound fair, but in reality, "Fix the Debt" is the same folks as the bogus No Labels group. Depite the title, it's not about cutting the deficit and reducing the debt, it's really about rich people staying rich and siphoning all the public money they can get their hands on, while telling the rest of America to tighten it's belt for the greater good. Burt's guest, Mark Provost of "US UNcut" and "Flip The Debt", shows that the premise of Fix the Debt would only make our economy worse and increase the deficit.

The Burt Cohen Show - Forward On Climate Rally/Obama and Extrajudicial Killing - 02/14/13

On the first half hour it's Dan Kessler, spokesperson for the environmental group 350.org, discussing the upcoming Washington rally on February 17th to push Obama on the Keystone XL pipleine in specific and climate change in general. He needs the push! And on part 2, it's Center for Constitutional Rights senior attorney Pardiss Kebriaei addressing the significant dangers posed by the Obama Administration's use of extrajudicial killings in foreign policy. Topical music, including the Fugs,  fills out the hour.

Burt Cohen Show - Guatemala's Former Dictator Goes On Trial for Genocide. In Guatemala! - 02/07/13

No one would have thought it possible. Prosecution in an international court would have been stunning enough. But now the amazing has happened: President Reagan's buddy, Guatemala's dictator in the early 80s, General Efrain Rios Montt is on trial for genocide and crimes against humanity in Guatemala itself! He is charged with killing over 1700 Guatemalans, and acording to today's guest, Victoria Sanford, founding director of the Lehman Center for Human Rights and Peace Studies, the evidence is overwhelming.

Burt Cohen Show - A New War: This Time It's Mali - 01/31/13

And we thought the Libya war was tucked neatly away. It seems all those weapons, loosed from the old Qadaffi regime, are now set loose in the desert nation of Mali, a former French colony. French forces are on the ground and in the air, fighting against, well who? Conn Halinan of Foreign Policy in Focus, sheds much needed light on this confusing and exceedingly dangerous situation. A Pandora's Box has been opened in northern Africa, and the likely beneficiaries are the Chinese, but not France or the US. Does the word Quagmire sound familiar?

Burt Cohen Show - A Surprising History of the Second Amendment and the NRA - 01/24/13

The belief that the Second Amendment guarantees every individual the right to possess and carry any sort of gun anywhere is exceptionally recent. Guest on this show is Alternet senior fellow Stephen Rosenfeld, who has written a series of articles revealing history that is very inconvenient to the 2013 leadership of the NRA. He reveals that gun rights and gun control have existed side by side steadily since America's founding. And he also shows that the NRA leadership itself favored reasonable gun regulations until an internal coup in 1977. This is a fascinating history, which should be very useful to move us forward.

The Burt Cohen Show - 13 Ways To Change the Food System in 2013 - 01/17/13

Buying food at the supermarket is like flicking the switch to turn on the power: we don't see it but it has a lot of impact on the environment, and on human health. Guest on this show is Danielle Nierenberg, co-founder of a new think tank called Foodtank.com. She has 13 specific suggestions as to how to create a future which is better for the earth and human health. It'll take some focus, but appropriate changes have already started.

Healing Begun 150 Years After Largest Mass Execution in US - 01/10/13

Very few of us have heard of the US-Dakota War. It happened 150 years ago and ended with 38 Indians being hanged on December 26, 1862. Then it was erased from memory, for whites but not for the Dakota who stayed away from the scene of the horror, Mankato, Minnesota. But on December 26, 2012 a new monument was erected in a moving dedication ceremony. Mankato's Bud Lawrence got the ball rolling for reconciliation  back in 1972 tells us about the war, the tragedy, and the hope.

The Cliff is Bogus: Let's Focus on Full Employment - 01/03/13

Most economists recognize the "fiscal cliff" as an invented crisis. High unemployment is the real problem, yet where is the political pressure on this? Today's guest is Robert Pollin, professor of economics at UMAss Amherst and founding co-director of its hgily regarded Political Economy Research Institute (PERI). In his new book Back to Full Employment, Pollin argues our current preoccupation with the fiscal cliff is all wrong, and that our real national security requres a new focus on federal stimulation of  job growth. Let's do what works!

The Real, Pre-Christian, Meaning of Christmas - 12/27/12

While some argue Christmas is really a religious Christian holiday, that's just not the case. On this show, Burt's guest is the Reverend Selena Fox, a Wiccan priestess, interfaith minister, environmentalist, Pagan elder, author, and lecturer in the fields of Pagan studies, Ecopsychology, and comparative religion. Rev. Fox is a trained counselor and psychotherapist, and began leading public Pagan rituals in 1971 and has done public education about Paganism since 1973.What has come to be known as Christmas really is a holiday for everyone to enjoy and celebrate! Listen in to this fun show.

The Burt Cohen Show - To Solve The Fiscal Cliff, Obama Should Channel FDR - 12/20/12

Not just the right wing plutocrats, but both parties now focus on cuts to solve the deficit and debt problem.Guest on this show is Roosevelt scholar David Woolner who points out why the opposite is needed: America should spend much more to stimulate demand and thus raise more revenue. That is the only approach that will work. Both FDR and Obama faced some similar challenges; FDR took a stand for the common good in opposition to what he saw as the short term greed of the "economic royalists," while for many reasons, Obama and today's Democrats are more accomodating. Woolner insists that approach will not address our economic realities. Huge income disparities are not only morally wrong, he argues, but are economically counterproductive as well. A stimulating discussion.