Clippings for 12 September 2010

September 11 Happened to All of Us

Marcia Alesan Dawkins writes for Truthdig.com: "Tensions are high in Tennessee, as they have been all over our nation, in anticipation of the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Controversies abound. Mosque-building, book burning and threats of violence are making it increasingly difficult to separate what pastor/author Rick Warren is calling 'church and hate.'"

The Self-Inflicted Wounds of 9/11
Melvin A. Goodman, Truthout: "Nearly twice as many Americans have died fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan than were lost in the 9/11 attacks. The total cost of these long wars will be in the trillions of dollars. When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, the cost of oil was less than $25 a barrel; the price reached $140 a barrel in 2008 and, currently, the price is still three times the 2001 levels. The entire national security system has suffered as a result of the wrong-headed actions of the Bush administration in Iraq and the Obama administration in Afghanistan."

Hate Takes Center Stage
Faiz Shakir, Benjamin Armbruster, George Zornick, Zaid Jilani, Alex Seitz-Wald, Tanya Somanader, and Max Bergmann write the Progress Report for Think Progress: "Hate pastor Terry Jones and his small Dove World congregation are planning an event to burn the Quran in Gainesville, FL on the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. His plan -- dubbed "International Burn a Quran Day" -- has now become a global story that, according to top American commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus, could endanger the lives of American forces and American foreign policy goals. While similar acts from Jones and others went widely ignored in the past -- in 2008 the incendiary Kansas-based Westboro church burned a Quran on a Washington D.C. street --  today they are front-page news. So what changed? Jones' event comes at the end of a hate-filled summer in which the right wing fostered anti-Muslim vitriol has risen to unprecedented levels. This has led to a growing sense both in the U.S. and around the world that perhaps Jones' hateful plan is not just an isolated incident, but is reflective of an increasingly intolerant America. If  Jones follows through, it will inevitably further endanger our troops and increase animosity toward the United States. But this act of hate -- just like the burning of a cross, or painting of a swastika -- is also about the response it elicits. The response in the form of public statements and counterprotests will likely demonstrate the strengths, not the weaknesses, of American values: a country that not just protects the freedom to demonstrate, while showing that hate-filled individuals such as Jones in no way represent America."

How Much "Success" Can Afghans Stand?

Nick Turse provides the following analysis for TomDispatch: "Almost a decade after the US invasion, life for Afghan civilians is not a subject Americans care much about and so, not surprisingly, it plays little role in Washington's discussions of 'success.' Have a significant number of Afghans found the years of occupation and war 'successful'? Has there been a payoff in everyday life for the indignities of the American years - the cars stopped or sometimes shot up at road checkpoints, the American patrols trooping through fields and searching homes, the terrifying night raids, the imprisonments without trial, or the way so many Afghans continue to be treated like foreigners, if not criminal suspects, in their own country? For years, American leaders have hailed the way Afghans are supposedly benefiting from the US role in their country. But are they?"

Calls for Change of US Strategy in Afghanistan Grow Loude
Jim Lobe reports for Inter Press Service: "In a new report released here Wednesday, a bipartisan group of some three dozen former senior officials, academics, and policy analysts argued that the administration's ambitious 'nation-building' efforts in Afghanistan are costing too much in U.S. blood and treasure and that, in any event, '(p)rospects for success are dim.'"

Soldiers With Brain Trauma Denied Purple Hearts, Adding Insult to Injury

T. Christian Miller, ProPublica and Daniel Zwerdling, NPR, report: "The U.S. Army honors soldiers wounded or killed in combat with the Purple Heart, a powerful symbol designed to recognize their sacrifice and service. Yet Army commanders have routinely denied Purple Hearts to soldiers who have sustained concussions in Iraq, despite regulations that make such wounds eligible for the medal, an investigation by NPR and ProPublica has found." Photo: Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images - A U.S. Marine runs to safety moments after an IED blast in Garmsir district of Helmand Province in Afghanistan on July 13, 2009.

Why Peaceniks Should Care About the Afghanistan Study Group Report
Robert Naiman, The Huffington Post: "Peace activists can't be satisfied with being right; they also are morally compelled to try to be effective. And part of being effective is giving consideration to, and seeking to publicize, arguments are likely to end the war sooner rather than later. This is why it is important for as many people as possible to read and digest the short and accessible report of the 'Afghanistan Study Group' which has been publicly unveiled this week. The assumptions and conclusions of the ASG report should be the subject of a thousand debates. But there are a few things about it that one can say without fear of reasonable contradiction. The authors of the report oppose the war and want to end it."

Racialized Memories and Class Identities - Thinking About Glenn Beck's and Rush Limbaugh's America

Henry A. Giroux, Truthout: "Echoes of racism now present themselves in multiple forms and are spreading across the country like a highly contagious virus. This is obvious in terms of a racist cultural pedagogy spread largely through a right-wing cultural apparatus. But its traces and effects can also be found in acts of real violence that now run like a highly charged electric current through the mainstream media, which both reproduces representations of racist violence while failing to comment on it critically." Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: Gage Skidmore, Karl Schmeck 1, 2

The Tortoise Economy
Robert Reich comments for Robert Reich's Blog: "Word from the twelve Federal Reserve Banks, summarized in the Fed's so-called 'Beige Book,' shows the economy slowing in July and August. Duh. But the Fed is quick to point out the economy overall is still growing - even though it's growing more slowly than in the spring. Can we have a moment of realism here, please? In 2008 and 2009 the economy fell into the deepest hole it's been in since the Great Depression. Since then we've been struggling to get out. We're failing big time."

The United States of Inequality - The Great Divergence 2010: What's causing America's growing income inequality?
Timothy Noah writes the first in a six-part series for Slate: "In 1915, a statistician at the University of Wisconsin named Willford I. King published The Wealth and Income of the People of the United States, the most comprehensive study of its kind to date. The United States was displacing Great Britain as the world's wealthiest nation, but detailed information about its economy was not yet readily available; the federal government wouldn't start collecting such data in any systematic way until the 1930s. One of King's purposes was to reassure the public that all Americans were sharing in the country's newfound wealth."

Other titles is this series:

• The Usual Suspects Are Innocent
• Did Immigration Create the Great Divergence?
• Did Computers Create Inequality?
• Can We Blame Income Inequality on Republicans?
• The Great Divergence and the Death of Organized Labor

Here's What's the Matter With Kansas
Kevin Drumm writes for Mother Jones: "Why has income inequality grown so explosively over the past 30 years? Why do so many working and middle class voters cast their ballots for a party that's so obviously a captive of corporations and the rich? Why is there no longer any real sustained effort to improve the lot of the middle class?"

It's the Mortgages, Stupid

Robert Scheer comments for Truthdig: "This week's proposals by the Obama administration to deal with the persistent economic crisis will be, as with previous plans that involved trillions of taxpayer dollars, little more than salt in the wounds. Once again the strategy is to stimulate the economy by funding projects and tax cuts while ignoring the root cause of the problem: a housing foreclosure meltdown that has chilled the spending of a majority of American consumers."

Illegal immigration: What's the real cost to taxpayers?
Edward Schumacher-Matos comments for the Washington Post: "In 1909, at the height of the last great immigration wave, when immigrants reached a peak of almost 15 percent of the U.S. population, they made up about half of all public welfare recipients. They were two-thirds of welfare recipients in Chicago. In the country's 30 largest cities, meanwhile, more than half of all public school students were the children of immigrants. They were three-fourths in New York."

A Chance for Supreme Court Damage Control
E. J. Dionne, Jr. writes for Truthdig: "Imagine that your neighbors started getting letters describing all sorts of horrific deeds you had allegedly performed. Wouldn’t you feel you had the right to know who was spreading this sleaze—especially if the charges were untrue?"

The Neoliberal Bait and Switch
David Sirota writes for Truthdig.com: "In simplistic, Lexus-and-Olive-Tree terms, the neoliberal economic argument goes like this: Tariff-free trade policies are great because they increase commerce, and we can mitigate those policies’ negative effects on the blue-collar job market by upgrading our education system to cultivate more science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) specialists for the white-collar sector."

Why Is College So Expensive? The War on Public Universities
Amy DePaul writes for AlterNet: "With 220,000 students, 10 campuses strung across America’s most populous state, five medical centers, three national science laboratories and groundbreaking academic research, the University of California (U.C.) has long symbolized excellence in public higher education. But all that may be changing as a result of budget cuts, reduced access and tuition hikes plaguing public colleges in California and across the country."

Tea Party vs. U.S. Social Forum: Mass movements that matter for media—Round 2
Julie Hollar writes for Extra!: "When it comes to covering activist gatherings, corporate media have established clear standards: Numbers don’t count nearly as much as politics do. Last fall, when tens of thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender activists and their allies marched on Washington in a grassroots rally for equality, media gave it far less coverage than the similarly sized, largely corporate-funded Tea Party protest in Washington just a month earlier (Extra!, 12/09). So it came as little surprise that the Tea Party Convention this February would get more coverage than the June U.S. Social Forum, five days of strategizing, organizing and activism inspired by the World Social Forum launched in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 2001. What was a little shocking, though, was just how stark the difference was."

Right-Wing Republicans vs. Corporate Democrats vs. Progressive Populists
Norman Solomon comments for Truthout: "Progressives need to fight back - today, tomorrow and every day. The electoral struggle is just one part of what's needed to build effective social movements, but it's an important part. And that effort should include primary battles to elect real progressives to Congress. One such election is coming up Tuesday in Rhode Island, where progressive populist David Segal is running against corporate Democratic insiders to fill the seat of retiring Congressman Patrick Kennedy."

Koran-Burning Pastor Was Once The GOP's Poster Child For German Intolerance Of Christians

Megan Carpentier writes for Talking Points Memo: "Terry Jones, the pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center who plans to burn Korans on Saturday to the chagrin of many anti-Islam and anti-mosque advocates, has a long history of claiming that he is the one subjected to discrimination. Before he moved to Florida in 2008 to take the helm of the DWOC, he had a small church in Cologne with some pretty big problems -- and plenty of prominent Republicans had his back."

Two Multibillionaire Brothers Are Remaking America for Their Own Benefit
Jim Hightower comments for Truthout: "Do you buy Northern tissue, Brawny paper towels, Dixie cups or Vanity Fair napkins? These well-known brands are owned and produced by Koch Industries (pronounced 'coke') in Wichita, Kan. Koch is also a major producer of oil, gas, timber, coal, cattle, refined petroleum, asphalt, polyethylene plastic ... and much, much more.... Charles and David Koch, who control this family-owned empire, have a net worth of $14 billion each, ranking both in a tie for the 19th richest person on the planet.... Charles and David have used the wealth they draw from Koch Industries to fuel a network of three Koch Family Foundations, which have set up and financed a secretive army of political operatives dedicated to achieving the brothers' antigovernment, corporate-controlled vision for America."

Fox Calls for Repeal of the 20th Century
Matthew Gertz provides the follow news analysis for Media Matters: "Since President Obama's election, Fox personalities have expressed opposition to or called for the repeal of virtually every progressive achievement of the 20th century, including Social Security, Medicare, the Americans with Disabilities Act, portions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the 16th and 17th Amendments to the Constitution."

GOP Recruits Homeless People to Run as Green Party Candidates

Marc Lacey reports for the New York Times: "Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk." Photo: Joshua Lott for The New York Times - Steve May, right, a Republican, recruited three street people, from left, Thomas Meadows, Anthony Goshorn and Benjamin Pearcy, to run as Green Party candidates in Arizona.

Right-Wing Tilt on Sunday Morning: The conservative records of talking-head lawmakers
Jim Naureckas and Alyssa Figueroa write for Extra! : "Lawmakers talking about U.S. policy issues are the bread and butter of the Sunday morning news shows—NBC’s Meet the Press, ABC’s This Week, CBS’s Face the Nation and Fox News Sunday. An Extra! study of the lawmakers who appear on these shows finds they have voting records that tilt to the right. Extra! studied the guests on these four programs from January 25, 2009—the first show after Obama’s inauguration—until April 25, 2010, more than a year into his administration. Guests who were current members of the Senate or House of Representatives, or former members since 2001, were tallied by voting record (in the 111th Congress or, for former lawmakers, the most recent available) according to the VoteView system."

The Military's Media Megaphone and the US Global Military Presence
Tom Engelhardt writes for TomDispatch: "To grasp the changing nature of military influence domestically, consider the military's relationship to the media.... Generals and admirals now mouth off regularly on a wide range of policy issues, appealing to the American public both directly and via deferential (sometimes fawning) reporters, pundits, and commentators. They and their underlings clearly leak news repeatedly for tactical advantage in policy-making situations. They organize what are essentially political-style barnstorming campaigns for what once would have been 'foreign policy' positions, and increasingly this is just the way the game is played."

July 15 Pt 2 - An Interview with Michael Ramsdell

For our second hour we welcome director Michael Ramsdell in a discussion of his film Anatomy of Hate; Dialogue of Hope, which screened earlier this spring here in Manhattan. The film reveals the shared narratives found in individual and collective ideologies of hate, and how we as a species can overcome them. The DVD is available for check out from the Manhattan Public Library.

Ramsdell states: "Standing amidst anti-gay picketers and Nazi rallies, dodging stones and rubber bullets in the West Bank, riding combat patrols outside of Baghdad, and working amidst the bodies of dying and deceased soldiers in the CASH, I was provided the opportunity to explore humanity's inclusionary and exclusionary divisions to a significant degree. What I found was, for me, life changing."

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2008 Show Archive

Here's the best of our 2008 shows...


18 December 2008 - Sustainability Conference - What's next for NBAF?
On this week's show, we open with Ben Champion and Barbara Anderson who discuss the up-coming "Leading Kansas in Sustainability Conference" which will take place at K-State on January 23rd. For more information about the conference visit: http://sustainability.k-state.edu/conferences/leadingkansas/ During the second half, Dale Askey of No NBAF Kansas joins us to discuss what options exist now that it has been announced that the new lab will be coming to Kansas.

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11 December 2008 - Shepherd's Crossing
During the first half of this week's show we welcome Jan Connizzo, Executive Director of Shepherd's Crossing, to discuss the services offered and how listener's can support their mission to fight poverty in Manhattan. During the second half, we hear two recent clips from CounterSpin. In the first clip we hear an analysis of why the media supports Obama's cabinet appointments. In the second we learn some important information about the Fairness Doctrine.

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4 December 2008 - Manhattan Boys and Girls Club; UDHR at 60 and the work of Amnesty International
During the first half of this week's the show, Community Bridge welcomes Joyce Glasscock, Executive Director of the Boys and Girls Club of Manhattan to talk about their new building and programs. In the second half we discuss the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the work of Amnesty International with Frank St. George and Rob Dunn from the K-State Chapter.

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20 November 2008 - Economic Bailout and World AIDS Day
Community Bridge opens the show featuring Amy Goodman interviewing Naomi Klein, author of Shock Doctrine. Klein discusses the economic crisis and efforts by the administration and congress to give enormous sums of money to people Klein refers to as "bailout profiteers" and the multi-trillion dollar crime scene that is unfolding in the last days of the Bush administration as they once again raid the US Treasury to give money to their rich friends. During the second half of the show we welcome Dusty Garner from the Regional AIDS Project to talk about the activities what will be happening around World AIDS Day on December 1.

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13 November 2008 - Fair Trade Marketplace and International Education Week
During the first half of this week's Community Bridge, we welcome Prof. Torry Dickinson and Linda Teener, Executive Director of UFM Community Learning Center to talk about fair trade and the up-coming Fair Trade Marketplace to be held next week, Nov. 18 and 19 from 10 am to 6 pm at the K-State Student Union. In the second half we explore International Education week with Prof. Barry Mitchie.

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6 November 2008 - Election Wrap-up
As a result of the election, the political landscape has changed in the US, or has it? This week Community Bridge will take an objective look at this week's election results and discusses what the future may bring. Join our guests, Prof. Joseph Aistrup from K- State's Political Science Department, who will give an analysis for both national and state results, along with community activist Jan Garton and K-State Young Democrat Bryan Cox for a discussion of what it all means.

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23 October 2008 - An Interview with Ray McGovern

This week Community Bridge welcomes Ray McGovern as our guest. McGovern served as a CIA officer for 27 years under seven presidents and nine CIA directors. For the past seven years McGovern has been a prominent and outspoken commentator on intelligence-related issues, and a very vocal critic of President George W. Bush's use of government intelligence to justify the Iraq War.

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CCHW 2008 - Muslims in the Media

The A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications' Media Professional Day was held as part of the 2008 CCHW and featured Mahnaz Shabbir presenting "Muslims in the Media," - an analysis of of the stereotypes used by mainstream media to depict Muslims and the Islamic faith. This lecture provides basic information on Islam; challenges the stereotypes the media uses; and, challenges the listener use critical thinking when decoding the messages the media transmits.
Mahnaz Shabbir is president of Shabbir Advisors. Ms. Mahnaz was awarded the Kansas City Press Club Journalist of the Year for 2003 and received another Journalism award in 2005. In March 2004, she received the YWCA award for the Gold Honoree in the category of Racial Justice at their annual luncheon banquet. In November 2005, Shabbir received a special recognition award from the Crescent Peace Society for her contributions in community service. On September 11, 2006, Shabbir received the Human Rights award from Church Women United.

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2 October 2008 - Domestic Violence Awareness Month
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month and Community Bridge opens its October line-up with Tychelle Jones from the Domestic Violence Task Force to discuss and educate on this issue during the first half of the show. In the second half we welcome Representative Sydney Carlin, who will discuss why she is running for office, her accomplishments during her past six years of service, and what are some of the issues facing the Kansas Legislature this session.

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18 September 2008 - Community Cultural Harmony Week
Community Cultural Harmony celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Doug Benson, Candi Hironaka, and founder, Barbara Baker, discuss its impact on the K-State and Manhattan communities as they review this year's calendar of events.

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11 September 2008 - A discussion with Stan Cox about the effects of 9-11

On the seventh anniversary of the events of 9-11 Community Bridge welcomes back to the show Stan Cox for a discussion of how this event has affected civil liberties and the rule of law in the post-9-11 era. We have posted several articles on our blog that related to the topics Cox discusses. We recommend these articles to our listeners as background to the topic of this show. During the second half of the show, we tune into CounterSpin for the September 8th show and a discussion of the police-state like actions taken against the press and protesters at the Republican National Convention.


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4 September 2008 - An Interview with Charles McVey
Community Bridge welcomes Kansas singer/songwriter Charles McVey for a discussion of his music. McVey's music reflects a heavy '80s new wave influence, mixed with subtleties of the piano and soothing harmonies. McVey has added himself to the growing ranks of "out" musicians and makes no apologies for who he is. His approach is non-confrontational and open which allows his music to transcend gender and sexual identity.


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21 August 2008 - Water Policy for Kansas
Community Bridge welcomes representatives from the Manhattan/Riley County League of Women Voters who discuss the recent study on water policy for Kansas conducted by the state organization. In an age of changing climate and more demand for water from agri-business and ethanol production, will Kansas have water to drink in the future? Karen Mayse and Hilary Esry discuss what the League has discovered and what they are proposing as state water policy for the future.
Please see the links to water, water policy and its history in Kansas in the postings under "Commentaries, Articles, Resources."

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14 August 2008 - Opposition to NBAF
Since our 17 July show about the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), opposition about locating the facility in Manhattan has increased as more area citizens have become informed about the pathogens which will be studied at the location. Community Bridge welcomes Stephen Anderson, Debbie Nuss and Paul Irvine to discuss the opposition's take on the issue of locating the NBAF in Kansas. For more information, visit their blog at: http://nonbaf.wordpress.com In the final 15 minutes of the show we connect with Carol Barta, chair of the Manhattan Alliance for Peace and Justice who briefly discusses the panel on energy which will take place Monday at 7:00 pm at the Public Library Auditorium.

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7 August 2008 - Poverty in the Little Apple
This week Community Bridge welcomes Mandy Chapman Semple, Executive Director of the Manhattan Emergency Shelter as we take a look at reality of poverty in Manhattan. The 2000 census placed 24% of Manhattanites living in poverty. Most dismiss this figure as "caused by the student population," but as Mandy will discuss, poverty in Manhattan is very real and not limited to "a bunch of college kids throwing off the statistics."

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31 July 2008 - The Child Care Crisis
This week, Community Bridge looks at the growing child care crisis in Manhattan and the surrounding community. Affordable, quality child care is becoming harder and harder to find, with many programs having waiting list of hundreds of children. Join City Commissioner Bruce Snead, Susie Kufahl, assistant administrator of the Riley County Health Department, and Jayme Morris-Hardeman, Executive Director of Sunflower CASA, in a discussion of the topic, the work the area Child Care Task Force has conducted and what the future holds for child care.

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17 July 2008 - NBAF in Manhattan

The proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF), which K-State and Manhattan are under among the final five possible locations under consideration for this new facility, is the topic of this edition of Community Bridge. Opening the show is Ron Trewyn, Vice President for Research and Jerry Jaax, Associate Vice President for Research Compliance at K-State. They give an overview of the facility and respond to questions concerning safety issues at the facility. Responding to their presentation will be Sylvia Beeman.
The proposed facility will occupy 48 acres. The estimated construction cost is $563 million with an annual payroll of $27 million. Additional infrastructure requirements include new power lines and a sewage treatment plant.
To read an op-ed by Paul Irvine, a contributing writer to the Manhattan Mercury, opposing the placement of the NBAF in Manhattan, click here.

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10 July 2008 - A conversation with Kevin Willmott
This week Community Bridge engages Kevin Willmott, assistant professor in the Film Studies Department of Kansas University about his recently released film, Bunker Hill, in a discussion of what democracy means in the post 9-11 United States.
Willmott's Bunker Hill looks into the American psyche in the post 9-11 era. A former Wall Street executive comes to Bunker Hill, KS, to reconnect with his ex-wife and daughters. Soon after he arrives, all power is lost as well as communication with the outside world. At a lost to explain what happen, militant forces coalesce to protect the citizens from an unseen enemy. As unfounded fears run wild, torture, illegal searches and murder becomes become part of the new reality. Visit the film's website at: http://www.bunkerhillthemovie.com/

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26 June 2008 - Flint Hills Pride/MSCDR Petition Ordinances

During the first half of the show members of Manhattan's LGBT community talk about the Pride events scheduled for the weekend. During the second half, Debbie Nuss and Kathy Dzewaltowski from Manhattan Citizens for Sustainable Downtown Redevelopment discuss the organization, discoveries made during their recent law suit against the city and their efforts at petition ordinances designed to bring citizen control back to the redevelopment project.

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19 June 2008 - Voter ID Laws

This week Community Bridge takes up the topic of the Republican-led efforts to pass laws that require proof of identity in order to vote. Republicans leaders claim that the laws are needed because voter fraud is a reality. Numerous studies by Secretaries of State and independent researchers show that voter fraud is a myth. Recently the US Supreme Court upheld an Indiana law, which lead to 12 Roman Catholic nuns, all of whom were registered voters, being barred from voting in the Indiana presidential primary. If voter fraud is a myth, why are the Republicans pushing for this legislation and why should you be concerned about it? Tune in to find out. Guests included Diane Kuhn, President of the Kansas League of Women Voters, and Debbie Nuss, local community activist and League member. Together they will discuss what happens when voter ID laws are passed.

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5 June 2008 - Community WiFi
Community wireless networks are being built using WiFi, or "Wireless Fidelity", a standard technology that provides wireless Internet connection using unlicensed spectrum. These networks are being built by a variety of organizations including volunteer cooperatives, non-profit organizations, local governments, business development associations and educational institutions — many in partnership with each other. The networks are helping to deliver Internet access to residential neighborhoods, downtown business districts, low income and transitional housing projects, city parks and Native American Tribal reservations. Our guests, Joshua Montgonery, founding member for the Lawrence Freenet Project, and Prof. David MacFarland, recently retired professor of journalism and mass communications here at K-State, discuss community WiFi.

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29 May 2008 - Energy Policy
Community Bridge welcomes back Chris Cardinal of the Great Plains Alliance for Clean Energy for this week's show. We will discuss GPACE's take on the 2008 legislative session, what the future holds for clean energy, a comprehensive energy plan for the state, net metering, and more.
Due to a technical problem we join this show already in progress.
As a special feature, this summer we will take a tour of syndicated progressive talk shows which are available on the Internet. This week we will listen to a segment from New Internationalist Radio's "Pathways to Peace," featuring Kathy Black - a convener of the US Labor Against the War, who explains how military intelligence, fundamentalist religion, education, and the American psyche have helped build and maintain US war-mongering.

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15 May 2008 - The ACLU

On this week's Community Bridge we welcome Dan Winter, Executive Director, The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas and Western Missouri.
In an age where fear has dominated national and international politics, the ACLU has stood against the Bush administration's efforts to curtail the rights and freedoms granted by the US Constitution to each person based on their humanity, fought efforts to allow domestic spying on US citizens and challenged the immorality of torture, secret tribunals, and extraditions. As such, they have been vilified by the Radical Right as unpatriotic, when in fact they are fighting to defend the very principles on which our nation was founded.
Mr Winter discusses the ACLU, its goals and projects. Topics include the Patriot Act, LGBT rights, reproductive rights and sex education, as well as other topics.


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1 May 2008 - The Rising Cost of Food

This week we take a local look at the rising cost of food. We begin with a short piece from New Internationalist Radio featuring Rachel Smolker from the Global Justice Ecology Project and author of a report called The Real Cost of Agrofuels: Food, Forest and the Climate. She gives a global assessment of the impact of pouring the world’s grain supplies into our cars’ gas tanks. Then we will tune in locally with Prof. Rhonda Jhanke, sustainable agriculture expert at K-State and author of a new book: Farming in the Dark: A Discussion about the Future of Sustainable Agriculture. Dr. Jhanke discusses the impact of agrofuels on Kansas farmland and the role subsidies play in support corporate agriculture.

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17 April 2008 - The work of the Wheels of Justice Campaign

During the first half of the show Mariya Vaughan and Shireen Roshanravan from K-State's Ordinary Women discuss the organization and the annual "Take Back the Night" march and rally. The second half features a recorded interview with Kathy Kelley and Nora Barrows-Friedman from the Wheels of Justice campaign discussing the war in Iraq and the situation in the Palestine-Israel conflict.

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27 March 2008 - The War in Iraq at Year Five

This week's show opens with Chad Fitzloff from the K-State French Club discussing the up-coming French Film Festival. Then Prof. John Exdell (philosophy) and Prof. Robert Schaeffer (sociology) will explore the impact five years of War in Iraq, has had on our nation and what the price tag - $522 billion with another $70 billion allocated for 2008 on the war has meant to our economy. Every $1 billion spent by the government on education, healthcare, energy conservation and infrastructure creates between 50 and 100 percent more jobs than when that same amount is sent to Iraq. Is George Bush bankrupting our nation?

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13 March 2008 - Audubon of Kansas

David Westfall of K-State ONE opens the show with a discussion about their rally on March 25th. Then, Ron Klataske, Executive Director of Audubon of Kansas joins host Christopher Renner to discuss Audubon's activities and work for the environment. Topics include the reintroduction program of black-footed ferrets; bird populations and birding; impact of ethanol on the prairies and habitat; and, Audubon's efforts at establishing biding and nature trails in Kansas.

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28 February 2008 - Manhattan's Jewish Community

We open the show with a brief interview with Elise Young, Bread for the World’s Mid-Atlantic and Central campus organizer. Then we will learn about the history and activities of the Manhattan Jewish Congregation with guests Janis Clare Galitzer and Charlotte Edelman.

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21 February 2008 - The Kansas Health Policy Authority

Community Bridge looks at the Kansas Health Policy Authority with Barbara Langner, KHPA Director of Policy, along with Jeff Levine, who serves on KHPA's Purchaser Advisory Council, and other members of the KHPA structure, who will discuss the new agency and its role in providing health care to all Kansans.

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31 January 2008 - An discussion with Chris Hedges

Chris Hedge’s will discuss his 2007 book: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, published by Free Press.
Hedges is a Nation Institute Senior Fellow and has spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He was part of The New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for the paper's coverage of global terrorism and received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. His next book, Collateral Damage, co-authored with Laila Al-Arian and published by Nation Books, came out in June 2008.


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An Interview with Eric Nadler

Community Bridge welcomes film director Eric Nadler to the show. Nadler was in Manhattan on Sept. 8 & 9 for the screening of his film - Anthrax War. Nadler discusses the bio-defense industry, why placing the National Bio and Agri-defense Facility (NBAF) in Manhattan is a bad idea, about making film and reflects on the corporate media. Following Nadler's interview we rebroadcast a interview conducted by Paul Jay, Real News Network with Drummond Pike, founder and COE of the Tides Foundation on the state of progressive politics.

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Clippings for 13 September 2009

How 9/11 Should Be Remembered
Rebecca Solnit writes for TomDispatch.com: "Eight years ago, 2,600 people lost their lives in Manhattan, and then several million people lost their story. The al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers did not defeat New Yorkers. It destroyed the buildings, contaminated the region, killed thousands, and disrupted the global economy, but it most assuredly did not conquer the citizenry. They were only defeated when their resilience was stolen from them by clichés, by the invisibility of what they accomplished that extraordinary morning, and by the very word 'terrorism,' which suggests that they, or we, were all terrified. The distortion, even obliteration, of what actually happened was a necessary precursor to launching the obscene response that culminated in a war on Iraq, a war we lost (even if some of us don't know that yet), and the loss of civil liberties and democratic principles that went with it."

Are We Safer than We Were Eight Years Ago?
Patrick Smith writes for Salon.com: "I'm old enough to remember Moammar Gadhafi being interviewed by Mike Wallace on "60 Minutes." It was the late 1970s. I was 13, maybe 14. Then and now, the thing about Gadhafi is that you want to like and respect him. If nothing else, his posing and preening add flash and charisma to the world stage. And how can you not appreciate a world leader so true to his Bedouin roots that he conducts state business in a tent?"

Barack Can't Speak to School Children? Why?
Dr. Ron Walters writes for The Black Commentator: "President Barack Obama wanted to do what he and his staff probably thought was an innocuous and very positive gesture – send a message to school kids at their institutions that it was a good thing for them to study hard and stay in school because their future and the future of the nation depended on it. The uproar that this has caused has also shocked and embarrassed many people who not understand why the President of the United States cannot even deliver such a positive message to children without the hard politicization of the event."

The Perfect Storm of Idiocy
Joe Conason writes for Truthdig: "The wild furor over President Barack Obama’s speech to the nation’s schoolchildren raises many questions, but there is only one that really matters. How did America surrender its political discourse—not to mention the news cycle—to the most unreasonable and unstable elements of the far right?"

Do We Get the Leaders We Deserve?
Denis Loo writes for Daily Censored: "The notion that the people get the leaders (and system) they deserve is a common, oft-repeated one. It’s really a restatement of what some scholars call the democracy-at-work thesis: the people collectively and democratically decide who will lead them. Hence, the leaders at any given point in time are the ones that the people chose"

Health Reform and Illegal Immigration: The Truth
Froma Harrop comments for Truthout: "In their tireless efforts to kill health care reform, right-wingers have fanned fears that it would attract illegal aliens. This sideshow is rather twisted because, actually, the reforms would do the opposite. They would help curb illegal immigration. Start with Canada to see how this works. Canadians have universal coverage, a big immigration program and almost no undocumented workers. These things are not unrelated. Government-guaranteed medical care is a big reason why Canada doesn't tolerate illegal immigration. No country can long afford a large subclass of poor workers that pays little in taxes and collects full benefits."

War Drums Begin Beating in Washington

Daniel Luban and Jim Lobe report for Inter Press Service: "As nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West continue to move slowly, U.S. President Barack Obama is coming under growing pressure from what appears to be a concerted lobbying and media campaign urging him to act more aggressively to stop Iran's nuclear programme."

Health Care vs. Warfare: The Future Costs of the Afghanistan War

Jeff Leys writes for Truthout: "On Wednesday, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress on health care. Later this year, he will decide whether to deploy additional troops to the war in Afghanistan on top of the 69,000 troops already deployed. The struggle for health care and the struggle to end warfare are inextricably linked."

Still Homeless, Still Struggling in New Orleans

Jordan Flaherty writes for Counter Punch: "Crawling through a hole in a fence and walking through an open doorway, Shamus Rohn and Mike Miller lead the way into an abandoned Midcity hospital. They are outreach workers for the New Orleans organization UNITY for the Homeless, and they do this all day long; searching empty houses and buildings for homeless people, so they can offer services and support. “We joke about having turned criminal trespass into a fulltime job,” says Rohn."

The Melting Climate Change Deadline

Rachel Morris reports for Mother Jones: "Does cap-and-trade climate change legislation belong on the endangered species list? President Obama wanted to sign a measure before the international climate talks in Copenhagen in December. The House passed the Waxman-Markey bill in June, and Senate majority leader Harry Reid set a firm timetable for the Senate to follow suit. But now the Senate has jettisoned its deadline for the bill, and momentum to quickly pass legislation appears to be vanishing."

A Speech Even Insurance Companies Could Love

Bill Boyarsky writes for Truthdig: "President Barack Obama’s health care reform speech to Congress Wednesday night was impassioned. But the real tip-off on the shape of a final bill could be found on Page A15 of the morning’s Wall Street Journal in an advertisement by insurance industry giants Blue Cross and Blue Shield. The ad, “Healthcare Reform That Works for Everyone,” was placed by the BlueCross BlueShield Association, an organization of 45 insurance companies around the country with more than 80 million customers. The association is a major player in the Capitol. OpenSecrets.org., part of the reformist Center for Responsive Politics, says that in 2008 and 2010 the association gave $3.16 million to congressional candidates, $1.64 million to Democrats and $1.53 million to Republicans."

Republican Politicans Have No Empathy
Joe Conason writes for Salon.com: "In the lyrical conclusion of President Obama's speech on healthcare, he talked about the emotions and experiences that drove his late friend Sen. Edward Kennedy to work so tirelessly and passionately for universal coverage. He tried to describe what Kennedy must have felt as two of his children suffered through bouts of cancer. Ordeals such as those, said the president, had helped Kennedy to understand the "sheer terror and helplessness" of parents whose children are stricken by serious disease, and lack the means to save them."

In the Real World, Health Is a Human Right
Mort Rosenblum reports for GlobalPost: "In Beijing, a 50-cent walk-in EKG determined my killer chest pain was no more than a strained muscle complicated by bad dumplings. In Paris, six weeks of hospital tests and enough meds to choke a moose found an ugly lung shadow was only Balkan pneumonia. The bills came to $1,500, doctors included. And if I’d been on Chinese or French national health plans, I would have been spared even those charges. Nearly every society on earth — socialist, fascist or anything in between — regards not dying needlessly for lack of medical care as the most basic of human rights."

Inside the Mind of Joe Wilson
Richard Benjamin writes for Salon.com: "When he called the president a liar, Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., apparently "forgot" he wasn't at one of those rowdy town halls.
Besides the show of disrespect, and the fact that he was wrong, the legislator's comments expose a virulent racism and paranoia against undocumented workers. As we enter Hispanic Heritage Month, America would do well to examine the legislator's political paranoia instead of rehashing his churlish, attention-seeking outburst. The legislator's behavior is uncommon, but his attitude is not."

The Tea Party Teapot Tempest Rages On
Simon Molay writes for Media Matters for America: "It's fitting that a week that began with conservatives warning about the president indoctrinating schoolchildren would end with those same conservatives acting like schoolchildren in the face of perceived indoctrination. Leading up to President Obama's September 8 back-to-school address to our nation's students, the conservative media loudly voiced their opposition to the speech, insisting that the president was recruiting children to his political goals and conscripting them into his civilian army. Of course, when none of that happened and Obama delivered the speech he intended to deliver, conservatives still managed to declare victory, claiming -- with an admitted lack of evidence and an implied lack of sense -- that the White House had secretly changed the speech in response to their heroic exposé of Obama's attempt to corrupt the minds of the youth."

The Wing-Nut Code: What Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin Are Really Saying to Their Followers
Adele Stan writes for AlterNet: "When Glenn Beck offers an odd-looking icon for his 9-12 Project, or Sarah Palin says something about her native state that sounds a bit to off-kilter to the ears of those in the lower 48, it's tempting to think, well, they're just nuts.  Perhaps they are, but that's beside the point. The point is that when Beck throws up a graphic of a segmented snake as his project's mascot, or Palin speaks of her native land as the "sovereign" state of Alaska, they're blowing a kind of dog-whistle for the armed and paranoid who make up the right-wing, neo-militia 'Patriot' movement and the broader "Tea Party" coalition."

For Wage-Earning Women a 21st Century Answer
Glenda Holste reports for The Women's Media Center: "The 127th Labor Day in the United States arrives on Monday with women still having the most to gain from belonging to a union. The struggle for fair pay, work-life balance, healthy and safe work conditions, and against discrimination has brought forth women leaders throughout the nation’s history." 

National Equality March: Are You Happy?
David Mixner comments on his blog: "Are you really happy with the progress we have made over the last eight months with this Administration and Congress? Are you really happy with the progress we have made on the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA)? Do you think that the leaders of our political parties have embraced marriage equality and our God given rights, benefits and protections that come with it? Are you content, relaxed and happy with where we are at this moment in history in the struggle for freedom?"
 

Think Again: Why Can't the Media Explain Our Woes

Eric Alterman writes for the Center for American Progress: "The most moving part of President Barack Obama’s powerful speech Wednesday night was undoubtedly the letter from which he read, sent to him from “our beloved friend and colleague” Ted Kennedy. Kennedy had asked, back in May when he wrote it, that the letter should not be opened until after his death. As Obama reported, Kennedy “expressed confidence that this would be the year that health care reform—‘that great unfinished business of our society,’ he called it—would finally pass,” and in doing so, define “the character of our country.” Indeed, it is amazing that while Kennedy served for more than four decades in the Senate and dedicated much of his energy and superb legislative skills to the passage of just such a program, the problem has only gotten worse over time."

A Line in the Sand Against Beck

James Rucker writes for Jack & Jill Politics: "Watching the Glenn Beck show this past month, one might have assumed that Van Jones had assaulted Beck, insulted his wife, and stolen his kids’ lunch money. Beck devoted time on a whopping 16 shows to crafting a distorted, despicable portrait of Van that few who know him would recognize. As political smears go, it was as serious as it gets."

Clippings for 10 Setpember 2009

Who are the Wealth Creators?

Michael Lind writes for Salon.com: "Today is Labor Day, when we celebrate the wealth destroyers – at least if the libertarian right is to be believed. According to many free-market conservatives, economic growth is almost exclusively the result of investment decisions by a small number of rich individuals – the "wealth creators." The wealth creators, according to the conservative press, are constantly being threatened from above by government, which seeks to destroy wealth by taxation, and from below by workers, particularly those organized into unions, who threaten to destroy wealth by insisting that capitalists share a decent amount of their profits with employees. The entire basis of conservative "trickle-down" economics is the idea that the economy will grow faster if the supposed wealth creators keep more of the profits of private enterprise, with less going to taxes and worker compensation."

The Virtues of Deglobalization
Walden Bello writes in Foreign Policy In Focus: "The current global downturn, the worst since the Great Depression 70 years ago, pounded the last nail into the coffin of globalization. Already beleaguered by evidence that showed global poverty and inequality increasing, even as most poor countries experienced little or no economic growth, globalization has been terminally discredited in the last two years. As the much-heralded process of financial and trade interdependence went into reverse, it became the transmission belt not of prosperity but of economic crisis and collapse."

It Could be the End of Our Democracy as We Know It
E. J. Dionne writes for Truthdig.com: "President Barack Obama’s health care speech on Wednesday will be only the second most consequential political moment of the week.  Judged by the standard of an event’s potential long-term impact on our public life, the most important will be the argument before the Supreme Court (on the same day, as it happens) about a case that, if decided wrongly, could surrender control of our democracy to corporate interests."

A 9/11 Reality Check
Robert Scheer writes for Truthdig.com: "What if eight years ago the World Trade Center had been leveled by a small nuclear bomb that took out most of lower Manhattan as well? How many millions of innocent civilians would we have killed in retaliation? Would we still be a free society, or would Dick Cheney have attained the power of a demented king, having moved on from snooping on our phone calls and outing honest CIA agents to destroying the last vestiges of the rule of law?"

How Dick Cheney's Radical Acts in the White House Still Treaten Our Democracy
David Swanson writes for Alternert: "The following is an excerpt from David Swanson's new book, Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union (Seven Stories, 2009), drawn from Chapter 8: "The Cheney Branch on Dick Cheney's power grab and radical transformation of the vice presidency during Bush's presidency. 

"On the same day that the CIA announced it will soon release hundreds of pages of once-classified documents that detail some of the agency's most closely guarded -- and controversial -- secrets of old, it was revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney has been resisting even his own Executive Branch's efforts to find out what kind of secret material his office has been stashing away over the last four years."

Recommended Audio - Democracy Now: Back to School: Military Recruiters Increasingly Targeting High School Teens

As millions of students prepare for the start of another school year, we focus on an issue that concerns many parents: the increasing presence of military recruiters in the nation’s high schools and the military’s ability to gather information about students. We speak with journalist David Goodman about his Mother Jones article “A Few Good Kids?” and with the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Ari Rosmarin, who works on the organization’s Project on Military Recruitment and Students’ Rights.

With US Forces in Iraq Beginning to Leave, Need for Private Guards Grows
Walter Pincus reports for The Washington Post: "As the United States withdraws its combat forces from Iraq, the government is hiring more private guards to protect U.S. installations at a cost that could near $1 billion, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. On Sept. 1, the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) awarded contracts expected to be worth $485 million over the next two years to five firms to provide security and patrol services to U.S. bases in Iraq."

Think Vietnam Vets Were Screwed?
Penny Coleman writes for AlterNet: "Gordy Lane is a retired Syracuse police detective who served in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War. As a cop, it was his job to put lawbreakers behind bars, but as a veteran, he understands that when you go to war, 'you come back a little different than when you went over there.' 'Listen,' he says, 'you pop up out of a foxhole, and you blow a guy's head open like a watermelon. The other two guys in the foxhole start patting you on the back and saying, "Good job!" because you just did the worst thing that you can do to another person. How do you translate that into civilian life?' For far too many soldiers, the simple answer is, you don't." 

Censorship American Style: Hide the US War Dead from the American People

Dlindoff writes for This Can't Be Happening: "The Obama administration's freak out, as expressed by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, over the Associated Press Agency's belated circulation of a photograph of a dying US soldier in Afghanistan, Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard, is the latest of example of the hypocrisy of US authorities who claim to be concerned about the feelings of American military families, while really simply desiring to censor the war's horrors from the eyes of the American people."

Dr. Evil's Payday
Daniel Schulman writes for MotherJones: "Early one morning in late April, as the Today Show broadcast live from Rockefeller Center, a group of onlookers gave Matt Lauer a T-shirt emblazoned with the Web address Econ4U.org. "Scored a T-shirt here from these folks promoting economic literacy, which is really nice," the good-natured anchor said, displaying the shirt to nearly 6 million viewers. Little did Lauer know, but he'd been duped into providing that free advertising for a group that promotes payday lending—an industry long accused of preying on low-income Americans with short-term loans carrying huge interest rates."

The Murtha Method
The Center for Public Integrity: "For months, a cloud has swirled around Congressman John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, and the relationship that Murtha and other subcommittee members had with the PMA Group, a lobbying firm filled with former subcommittee aides. Murtha and fellow panel members Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) and Jim Moran (D-Va.) steered a host of earmarks to PMA clients, and those clients and PMA staffers gave campaign contributions to the lawmakers. Aspects of those relationships are the subject of a Justice Department probe, which is thought to be looking at whether there were explicit quid pro quo exchanges of favors for cash, which would make crimes out of relationships that are otherwise legal." 

More People in the US Lack Health Insurance: Census 

Reuters reports: "The number of people living in the United States without health insurance rose to 46.3 million in 2008 from 45.7 million a year earlier, a U.S. Census Bureau official said on Thursday.  David Johnson, who heads the Census Bureau's housing and household economic statistics division, told a telephone conference the data were collected in March of 2008 -- before the sharp economic downturn in the latter part of the year which saw many more people lose jobs and health insurance."

Recommended Audio - Democracy Now: “California’s Real Death Panels”–Data Reveals California’s Private Insurers Deny 21% of Claims
President Obama begins his final drive for healthcare reform tonight with a nationally televised prime-time address to a joint session of Congress. His speech comes after an explosive August recess consumed by raucous town halls and talk of government-run “death panels.” We take a look at California’s “real death panels.” That’s what the nation’s largest nurses group is calling private insurers, as new data reveals they denied one of every five claims over the past seven years. We speak with Charles Idelson of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee.

Mr. President, It's Time to Fight
Bill Moyers writes for Salon.com: "The editors of the Economist magazine say America's healthcare debate has become a touch delirious, with people accusing each other of being evil-mongers, dealers in death, and un-American. Well, that's charitable. I would say it's more deranged than delirious, and definitely not un-American."

Baucus May Move Health Bill Without Republicans
Donna Smith and David Alexandaer report for Reuters:  "The Democratic U.S. senator leading an effort to write a bipartisan healthcare reform bill said on Wednesday he was ready to move forward without Republican support, but still hoped for a deal.  Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus said his plan would be similar to one he discussed over the weekend, which included sweeping insurance market changes and a fee on companies to help pay for the uninsured." 

Food is Power and the Powerful are Poising Us
Chris Hedges writes for Tuthdig.com:  "Our most potent political weapon is food. If we take back our agriculture, if we buy and raise produce locally, we can begin to break the grip of corporations that control a food system as fragile, unsafe and destined for collapse as our financial system. If we continue to allow corporations to determine what we eat, as well as how food is harvested and distributed, then we will become captive to rising prices and shortages and increasingly dependent on cheap, mass-produced food filled with sugar and fat. Food, along with energy, will be the most pressing issue of our age. And if we do not build alternative food networks soon, the social and political ramifications of shortages and hunger will be devastating."

The Nightmare of Christianity
Max Blumenthal from his new book: Republican Gommorah: "A few miles down the road from Colorado Springs [a home to James Dobson's Focus on the Family], in the quiet bedroom community of Eldredge, a deeply disturbed young man named Matthew Murray followed the unfolding debacle at New Life Church [once under the stewardship of Pastor Ted Haggard] with an interest that bordered on obsession. Murray, a sallow-faced, bespectacled 24-year-old, had been indelibly scarred by a lifetime of psychological abuse at the hands of his charismatic Pentecostal parents. Murray's mind became crowded with thoughts of death, destruction, and the killings he would soon carry out in the name of avenging what he called his 'nightmare of Christianity.'"

‘Family Values’ California Politician Caught Bragging About His ‘Sexual Conquests’ With Married Lobbyists

Brad Johnson reports for Think Progress: "A 'family values' California legislator has been caught on tape bragging about having sex in his office with two different women, both married and both lobbyists. Michael Duvall, who sits on the 'Rules Committee that oversees member ethics,' was recorded at a public hearing by a committee room microphone he evidently did not realize was turned on. KCAL-9 reporter Dave Lopez revealed yesterday that Republican Michael Duvall, a two-time assemblyman representing Yorba Linda who is married with two grown children, was recorded “talking about a very sensitive subject into a hot microphone without realizing it..."

The toxicity of truth: White House fails to innoculate itself against rage of the paranoid right

Dan Kennedy writes for the Media Channel: "The fall of Van Jones is an example of the White House failing to innoculate itself against the rage of the paranoid right Fellow liberals, let’s be honest with ourselves. For weeks, the race-baiting right-winger Glenn Beck and his ilk had been gunning for Van Jones, a highly respected White House adviser on green jobs whose former organization, Colour of Change, is a leading force behind an advertiser boycott of Beck’s programme on the Fox News channel.