“Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim: The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate” – Betrand Russell

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GUEST: Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Director of the L.A. County Federation of Labor

On Thursday September 28th the immigrant rights movement plan to hold the largest act of civil disobedience on record in the history of Los Angeles. Demonstrators will march on the Century Corridor near Los Angeles International Airport. LAX Century Corridor is the largest tourism sector in Los Angeles and home to over a dozen hotels that employ thousands of immigrant workers. Many immigrant workers in those hotels do not earn a living wage and have no access to affordable healthcare. Organizers hope to shut down Century Boulevard for several hours during rush hour traffic. Hundreds of immigrant workers, religious leaders, community activists and students plan to risk arrest to protest against the exploitation …

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GUEST: Nomi Prins, author of “Jacked: How ‘Conservatives’ are Picking your Pocket (Even if you didn’t Vote for Them),” and a senior fellow at Demos, a public policy think tank in New York City

As we come upon the Congressional elections in November, Republicans are gearing up to fight to keep control of Congress. A new book called “Jacked: How ‘Conservatives’ are Picking your Pocket (Even if you didn’t Vote for Them),” takes apart Republicans policies, scandals, and blunders. Jacked is written by Nomi Prins, a senior fellow at Demos, a public policy think tank in New York City. Her book gives the reader a guided tour of a typical American wallet. Each chapter matches a wallet item to a set of political topics. For example, the driver’s …

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GUEST: David Lochbaum, author of a new report called “Walking a Nuclear Tightrope,” and Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists

No U.S. nuclear power reactor has experienced significant core damage since the partial meltdown at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island (TMI) in 1979. Does this mean that nuclear power is safer today? Not according to a new report by the Director of the Nuclear Safety Project at the Union of Concerned Scientists. The report is entitled “Walking a Nuclear Tightrope: Unlearned Lessons of Year-plus Reactor Outages,” and is the first study to analyze every US nuclear power outage lasting a year or longer. David Lochbaum, the report’s author identifies common themes among extended outages and steps the Nuclear Regulatory …

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GUEST: Glen Ford is a writer and radio commentator, formerly with the Black Commentator. He is now affiliated with ‘The Black Agenda Report.’

This week’s commentary is called:

The U.S. Against the World

Let us return to the United Nations forum, a place where the United States has felt above inhabiting since shortly after the U.S. and its war-time allies created the global institution, right after World War Two. Back in that day, the United States was the undisputed military power in the world, the only one with nuclear weapons, which it had used on the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan – incinerating hundreds of thousands. The U.S. was also by far the biggest economic force on the planet. Fully half the finished products produced by the people of the world – …

“Human history begins with man’s act of disobedience which is at the very same time the beginning of his freedom and development of his reason.” — Erich Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion

I just returned from a five day book tour on the East Coast of Canada with my partner and co-author, Jim Ingalls. We were there to promote our new book, “Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence.” Despite the fact that Canadian troops in Afghanistan number only 2,300 compared to the US’s 20,000, there is a far more vibrant nation-wide debate about the presence of Canadian troops in Afghanistan, compared to here in the US. Newspapers cover the issue daily, albeit inaccurately. And most polls show that Canadians are not in favor of having troops present. Much of the rhetoric to justify troops in Afghanistan is reminiscent of the same type of rhetoric of “liberation” that the Bush administration used after 9/11. There is talk of “Canada’s responsibility” to Afghanistan. Unfortunately, rather than doing the constructive work of peacekeeping which Afghanistan could conceivably benefit from, Canadian forces …

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GUEST: Maxine Hong Kingston, editor of “Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace,” author of many books including Warrior Woman, China Men, and The Fifth Book of Peace

Maxine Hong Kingston is a well-known writer and poet based in Oakland, California. In 1976 she wrote the acclaimed novel, The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts,” which explored ethnicity and gender roles, especially in the context of her experience as a Chinese-American woman. The Warrior Woman, and her follow up novel, China Men both won the National Book Critic’s Circle Award. In 1991, a firestorm in Oakland wiped out Maxine’s home as well as an unfinished manuscript. She turned that experience into an opportunity to teach writing to war veterans and for years now has conducted …

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GUEST: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

Empire Notes are weekly commentaries filed by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary is part 4, on the “War on Terror.”

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

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GUESTS: Zahid Butt, member of the Los Angeles Taxi Workers Alliance, Gary Blasi, UCLA Professor and co-author of the report, “Driving Poor,” Associate Director of the Institute of Industrial Relations

This afternoon, the Los Angeles Taxi Workers Alliance, or LATWA, will be holding a community hearing calling for reforms to the Taxicab Industry. Panelists at the hearing include LA City Council member Wendy Greuel and Taxicab Commissioner Bruce Iwasaki. Coinciding with the community hearing will be the release of LATWA’s report on recommendations for the LA taxicab industry. The report entitled “Sweatshops on Wheels,” was primarily researched and written by Betty Hung of the Legal Aid Foundation. The report recommends improvements in wages, health insurance, and workers compensation, as well as financial transparency and corporate accountability. …