KPFA - Living Room

California's prisoners are at the center of the budget debate, as well as an appeal the state is making against a federal court order to improve their condition.  We get the details.  PLUS: memories of calamity survived are frequently suffused with strange joy—the joy of experiencing community, generosity, even heroism.  We needn't wait for disaster to live in such a society, says author Rebecca Solnit.  with host Kris Welch, noon to one.
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guests:  Natasha Minsker, dir. Death Penalty Policy project, ACLU Northern Cal.

        Rebecca Solnit, writer, essayist, activist, author (new book: Paradise Built in Hell: the Extraordinary Communities that Arise in Disaster")

The post Living Room – California prisoners: budget fix or legal problem; Rebecca Solnit. appeared first on KPFA.

Four years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, 1/3 of the addresses in the city are vacant or abandoned, and an estimated 11,000 remain homeless.  How has a change in the White House been felt in New Orleans?  PLUS: as the Obama adminstration  meets with coalfield residents and coal industry reps, how will they know the real residents from Big Coal mannequins?   With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Bill Quigley, human rights lawyer and law professor (Loyola University, New Orleans); current director of Center for Constitutional Rights; live from New Orleans
        Trupania Bonner, exec. dir. Moving Forward Gulf Coast; leads coalition of residents and those still displaced

        Jeff Biggers, author (The United States of Appalachia); writer (Huffington Post)
        Steph Pistello, Alliance for Appalachia

The post Living Room – Katrina 4 years later; Big Coal’s PR blitz. appeared first on KPFA.

Dick Cheney is still defending the ever-more visible Bush torture legacy, while the Obama White House unveils Team Interrogation.  What's the diff?  We find out.  PLUS: Ted Kennedy's legacy, and the future of healthcare reform without him.  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests:  Scott Horton, contrib. ed. Harper's Mag;; adjunct prof. law, Columbia University School of Law
           Christopher Pyle, prof. politics, Mt. Holyoke; author "Getting Away with Torture"
           Benjamin Davis, prof. law, University of Toledo College of Law; member Robert Jackson Steering Committee

           David Swanson, democrats.com
           Peter Canellos, ed. Boston Globe; author Ted Kennedy bio

The post Living Room – Torture, Holder, Cheney; Ted Kennedy appeared first on KPFA.

A Congolese immigrant, in the US for nearly 25 years, with family, job, friends, is snatched in Santa Rosa and shipped to Arizona for deportation.  What's wrong with this picture?   PLUS: progressives strategize over healthcare reform.  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Okili Nguebari and his wife, Sabrina Krauss

        William Greider, political journalist, Nation corres.; former ed. Roling Stone, Washington Post; author (One World, Ready or Not; Who  Will Tell the People; The Soul of Capitalism; Come Home, America)

           Mike Lux, founder/pres/CEO Progressive Strategies; on Obama-Biden transition team, Clinton-Gore transition; Special  Assist for Public Liaison, Clinton White House; author (The Progressive Revolution: How the Best in America Came to Be)

           Jim Cullen, ed., Progressive Populist, pub. Texas and Iowa; assoc. edl Texas Observer

The post Living Room – Immigration nightmare; what’s the progressive strategy re: healthcare??? appeared first on KPFA.

Deadly bombings in Baghdad; the Supreme Court to consider rolling back a century of campaign finance doctrine; climate change bill vs. inexorable climate change.  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Raed Jarrar, Iraqi blogger and activist; Iraq consultant, American Friends Service Committee

        Craig Holman, legislative representative, Public Citizen's Congress Watch

        Center for American Progress

The post Living Room – August 20, 2009 appeared first on KPFA.

Buckets of misinformation  and disinformation about Obamacare are fueling mob-like rage across the land: what will be the result?  The federal minimum wage just increased—to $7.25 an hour.  And this is the good news!  PLUS: a new book about career waitresses finds these women are proud professionals.  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Ellen Shaffer, co-dir. Center for Policy Analysis

          Holly Sklar, author "Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us"; dir. Business for a Fair Minimum Wage Project

          Candacy Taylor, award-winning photographer; author "Counter Culture: The American Coffee Shop Waitress"

The post Living Room – Healthcare mobs; minimum wage change; career waitressing. appeared first on KPFA.

There's more at stake in elections next week in Afghanistan than who wins: violence is on the increase, along with US involvement.  We talk with reporter Tony Cross.  Recently returned from Iran, a Bay Area peace activist has ideas for creating peace.  PLUS: an honored American psychiatrist says he's found the formula for happiness.  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Tony Cross, Radio France International, Free Speech Radio News reporter, on his way to Afghanistan

        Rebecca Griffin, political dir., Peace Action West

        Dr. Mardi Horowitz, prof. psychiatry UCSF; dir Center on Stress and Personality, Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute; author  "A Course in Happiness: Mastering the 3 levels of self-understanding that lead to true and lasting contentment"

The post Living Room – Afghanistan; Iran; happiness. appeared first on KPFA.

Besides the two US journalists, what else did Bill Clinton bring back from North Korea, and what's at stake?   PLUS: how many mistakes can the Republican Party make, with regard to racial politics, and still survive?  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Dr. Kongdan Oh, research staff member, Institute for Defense Analyses, sr. fellow Brookings Institution

        Dr. Ron Walters, prof. Gov't and Politics, U. Maryland, College Park; author (The Price of Racial Reconciliation: the politics of race and ethnicity)
        Glenn Ford, journalist, co-founder The Black Commentator; exec. ed.
        Jamala Rogers, leader Organization for Black Struggle, St. Louis. nat'l org. Black Radical Congress
        Bob Fertik, co-founder Democrats.com

The post Living Room – Openings on North Korea? GOP and race. appeared first on KPFA.

On this date 64 years ago, the US government dropped the first nuclear bomb the world had ever seen on Hiroshima, Japan.  We hear about today's US arsenal.  PLUS: the political situation in Honduras continues in crisis mode, and the US government is backing away from supporting ousted, democratically-elected, President Zelaya.  News and analysis.  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Marylia Kelley, exec. dir. Tri-Valley CARES, from protest at Livermore Labs

         Miguel Tinker-Salas, prof. hist.Pomona College, live from Venezuela
         Clifton Ross, journalist; film director (Venezuela: Revolution from the Inside Out); poet; just back from Honduras
          Daniel del Solar, independent radio producer; just back from Nicaragua

The post Living Room – The anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima; ongoing crisis in Honduras. appeared first on KPFA.

A new film about Rachel Corrie has brought outrage and threats  from sponsors to the SF Jewish Film Festival.  We talk with the filmmaker and with the festival director.   PLUS: it's been called "nerd-on-nerd violence", but the years-long argument over what really happens in the Black Holes of physics is about our understanding of the entire universe.  We talk with the winner.  With host Kris Welch, noon to one.

guests: Simone Bitton, filmmaker (Mur, Rachel, etc.)
          Peter Stein, exec. dir. SF Jewish Film Festival (from 23 July-11 August)

          Leonard Susskind, Felix Bloch Professor of theoretical physics, Stanford; author (The Cosmic Landscape; The Black Hole War) 

The post Living Room – The film about Rachel Corrie; Black Hole wars. appeared first on KPFA.