Ending the New Deal
January 13, 2005(broadcast stream 
) (.wma download)
In the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century, much of the world was run by corrupt monarchies and crony capitalists, who manipulated market forces and governments worldwide to enrich themselves. As the wealthy consolidated power, the poor were left to labor away with no hope of ever achieving financial security. (There was not much of a middle class.) Read Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle for a good description of America at the turn of the 20th Century.
Then the system collapsed in the early 1930’s into a World-Wide Great Depression and the misery hit a boiling point. In Europe, a desperate people turned to Fascism. In the Soviet Union, they turned to Communism. And in the United States, they turned to Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.
The New Deal and other progressive reforms promised all Americans a minimum security net, so they would have food and shelter, education, and a chance to pursue the American Dream. If they became sick or an accident disabled them, they would be provided for. They needed no longer to fear economic insecurity in old age. Their financial markets would be regulated to prevent greedy corporate robber-barons from stealing their hard-earned wealth. And their food and water and drugs would be regulated by the Government to ensure their safety.
Labor was rewarded. Lazy unearned wealth was taxed. Happy Days Were Ours Again.
Now the Bush Administration is doing its best — in some ways secretly and in some ways quite brazenly — to reverse the gains of the New Deal: to heavily tax hard work while “reducing burdens” on unearned lazy wealth; to return economic insecurity to those facing sickness and old age, to again reward greedy corporate robber barons with unregulated markets so that they can easily slurp up American’s hard-earned income, to again allow pollution of our air and water, and to allow drug companies to put their profits ahead of our safety.
The question is not whether the Republican One-Party Government is working hard to reverse the New Deal. The question is whether Americans realize it. Has the cruelty of 9/11 blinded Americans to the greater danger around them?
How Corporations Buy Politicians
January 12, 2005(broadcast stream ) (.wma download)
Guest: Bruce Freed, Co-Director of the Center for Political Accountability.
[Ed: The day after this broadcast, the Washington Post reported on its front page the large corporate donations to the President’s Inauguration campaign.
As the Presidential Inauguration approaches, corporations are shelling out more than $40 million dollars to buy access to the President. They shell out millions more to fete the Republican Congress. What are they getting for their money? Today, we explore the details of this legal and illegal bribery, corruption, and quid pro quo that is endemic to our One-Party State and rarely reported on by a quiescent corporate press. Mark finds the legal corruption more scandalous than the illegal corruption.
(Meanwhile, the President is making District of Columbia taxpayers — who, unlike other American citizens, are not allowed self-government or representation in Congress — foot the bill for his security. Since the residents of Washington are not allowed to participate in American democracy, I think the D.C. government should skimp on the President’s security. Maybe he should move the inauguration to a city where the people are free to elect their leaders. The People of Dallas, for example, may be more inclined to fork over their hard-earned wages to secure the President’s umpteen Inaugural Balls.)
Debate Tuesday
January 11, 2005(broadcast stream ) (.wma download)
Guest: Bill Rice, host of the conservative podcast and blog, TwoRights.com and frequent op-ed contributor to the Detroit News
THE INSIDE SCOOP is podcast as well. If you like THE INSIDE SCOOP, click
Vote for Mark! to vote for it and give it more prominence in the “pod-community.”
How We Could Protect the Right to Vote
January 10, 2005(broadcast stream ) (.wma download)
(some technical sound quality problems in broadcast…)
Guest: Michael North, President of North Communications which specializes in public access touchscreens, wireless internet, and internet security. Michael North also was instrumental in the 2001 challenge to the Florida Presidential Electors and the 2005 challenge to the Ohio slate.
North has a plan for “Universal Voting by ATMs” that, he claims, would prevent fraud and restore confidence in American voting. Check out North’s plan by clicking USA-Vote: A Proposal for Universal Voting.
The Most Dangerous Country in the World
January 9, 2005(broadcast stream ) (.mp3 download)
Not Iraq. Not Afghanistan.
It’s Iran. And we’re doing nothing about it.
PLUS Mark’s comments on the Palestinian Elections today and why he hopes the expected winner, Mahmoud Abbas, is a colossal liar.
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