Monday 30 March '09 show

• Peter B. Collins guest hosted for Thom who was flying back from Germany.
• Guest: John Gibler, Global Exchange Media Fellow, author, "Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt". Escalating violence in Mexico and the failure of the U.S. war on drugs…is legalization and regulation the answer?
• Obama going to Britain, upstaged by a Spanish judge with warrants for Bush administration officials for torture.
• Marijuana.
• Bumper Music: Don't Think Twice, It's All Right, Bob Dylan.
• Article: People Died at Three Mile Island.
• Guest: Harvey Wasserman.
  "HARVEY WASSERMAN is author or co-author of a dozen books including "SOLARTOPIA! Our Green-Powered Earth, A.D. 2030"; "Harvey Wasserman's History of the U.S."; and, "A Glimpse of the Big Light: Losing Parents, Finding Spirit".

  With Bob Fitrakis, Harvey helped break many of the major stories surrounding the theft of the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. Their investigative reporting at www.freepress.org prompted Rev. Jesse Jackson to call them "the Woodward and Bernstein of the 2004 election." Their books include How the GOP Stole America's 2004 Election & Is Rigging 2008, and What Happened in Ohio?, co-authored with Steve Rosenfeld, from the New Press.

  Harvey has been a radio talk host at WTVN in Columbus, and with Bob Fitrakis at RadioFreePress.org. His widespread appearances throughout the major media and at campus and citizen gatherings have focussed since the 1960s on energy, environment, peace, justice, U.S. history and election protection. In 1994 he spoke to 250,000 semi-conscious rock fans at Woodstock II.

  With Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Graham Nash and others, Harvey helped found NukeFree.org, which helped stop a $50 billion federal loan guarantee program proposed by the US reactor industry in fall, 2007. He edits the NukeFree.org web site, and is senior editor of www.freepress.org. His articles are posted throughout the internet at www.commondreams.org, HuffingtonPost, Buzzflash, CounterPunch et. al.

  "

  Saturday was 30 years since Three Mile Island. People were killed. Nobody knows how much radiation was released. Study last week, 100 times old estimates. People were unable to get a trial. They said there was no meltdown, but years later a robot found a lot of the fuel did melt. It was citizen action that made them strengthen the dome, which helped prevent a worse disaster. Solartopia book. Unit 2 of Three Mile Island will never reopen. Unit 1 reopened, is still operating, in a re-licensing process. Economics. Aging plants, half are older technology than unit 2. None could withstand a terror attack.

  Nuclear power is being touted as helping climate change. Nuclear plants heat water. Some have had to shut down because the water is too hot, some rivers were made over 90F. The corporate media will not talk about the possibility that people were killed by Three Mile Island. NPR said "no one was killed or even injured, not so much as a strained ankle." Dead birds, bees, farm animal reproductive rate plummeted. A dog born with no eyes. Kittens that could not walk. The plant owners paid people whose kids were born with birth defects.

• It was inspiring the way the people of Fargo rallied during the floods.
• Upcoming Event: May 2 – Denver, CO – Green Festival – Thom is keynoting.
• Upcoming Event: May 2 – Coos Bay, OR – Coos Bay Democratic Club – Peter B Collins is speaking.
• Cap and trade. Peter says tax and dividend.
• Book: "Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy", Peter G. Brown , Geoffrey Garver.
• We would need a huge increase in nuclear power plants to help climate change. Estimate of probability of an accident.
• Peter just felt an earthquake (4.4).
• Nuclear plants, drought. Uninsurable. Senator Kyle stripped out renewables and put in nuclear insurance in legislation last year.
• Bumper Music: Free, Donavon Frankenreiter & Jack Johnson (video).
• In the big 1989 earthquake, Peter was about to get on an escalator to go to the top of stadium, and the sections parted and moved back. The stadium did not crash. He went up. They did not realize how bad it was until somebody showed them pictures.
• AIG. A lot of mortgage brokers sold products customer could not handle. Drugs used to finance covert ops, like Iran Contra.
• Second hand marijuana smoke?
• "You can file our obituary where the sun don’t shine. It’s times like these that raise the important questions. Do you cower, or do you live free. Do you succumb to fear and doubt, or do you seize the throttle and give it a fearless twist forward. From where we sit in the saddle, we see American companies and good old American ingenuity wrenching the life back into this economy of ours. The people rolling up their sleeves and getting it done are the same ones that ride our motorcycles, and you’ll find them wearing blue collars, white collars, pink collars or no collar at all. We’re proud to count ourselves among them. Maybe you’re ready to feel the same way."
  Harley-Davidson ad.
• Guest: labor segment: Andrew Sum, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, on the “blue collar recession”. Who is paying biggest price in recession. Under 30s without college degrees, blue collars manufacturing, good producing, males. Blacks. There are some unique features.
• Bumper Music: Give a Little Bit, Supertramp.
• Guest: Jared Bernstein, the chief economist for Vice President Joe Biden. He co-ordinated the Obama online conference. Obama on legalizing marijuana. The questions were all about the economy. He said the cause was lack of oversight, or enforcement thereof, and the administration is dealing with that. Nationalization. They need authority to deal with other institutions. Detroit.
• Detroit.
• Victoria Jones of Talk Radio News. Press briefing. Detroit, one standard for Wall Street and another for Detroit. The deals with the banks were before Obama came into office. A Michigan Republican said why shouldn't the CEOs of banks go too. The president leaves tomorrow for Europe, G20 summit, NATO summit. Europe skeptical, wants regulation rather than stimulus.