Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Hans Bennett, Journalists for Mumia

On December 6th, NBC’s Today Show will feature a new book coinciding with its release date about death-row journalist Mumia Abu Jamal. The book’s title, “Murdered by Mumia,” reveals its intent. It is co-written by the widow of the Philadelphia Police Officer that Abu Jamal was convicted of killing, Maureen Faulkner, and conservative radio talk show host Michael Smerconish. The book, say Faulkner and Smerconish is “the first … to carefully and definitively lay out the case against Abu-Jamal, and those who’ve elevated him to the status of political prisoner.” Fearing a program rife with bias, the group “Journalists for Mumia” are calling on NBC to ensure that all sides are fairly represented on next week’s Today Show. They contend that there has been …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Mumia Abu Jamal, political prisoner and award winning journalist

Mumia Abu Jamal is an award winning journalist and political prisoner. Today’s commentary is called The Obama Factor.

Listen to Mumia’s audio commentaries at www.prisonradio.org.

Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about the Zong Massacre

Produced by Radio Rootz.

Radio Rootz works in public schools to train teens in media literacy and radio production. Rootz Youth analyze and critique the media, and learn how to create news that reflects their voices, issues, and communities. For more information, visit www.radiorootz.org

“AIDS is essentially a crisis of governance, of what governments do and do not do to for their people …We have demanded too little from our leaders, excused far too much.” — Gregg Gonsalves, from a speech at the 2006 Toronto AIDS Conference

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Laila El-Haddad, Palestinian freelance journalist, photographer, and blogger who lives in Gaza and the US; co-director of the short film, Tunnel Trade, and blogger for Raising Yousuf

Yesterday a one-day Middle-East summit in Annapolis, Maryland resulted in the Israeli and Palestinian heads-of-state agreeing to a joint document that commits them to work toward a peace treaty by the end of 2008. Delegates from nearly 50 nations including the Arab League and most Middle East countries, attended the conference, the first of its kind in 7 years. President Bush, criticized internationally for not doing enough about the Israeli occupation intends to mark the end of his presidential tenure with at least a symbolic end to the decades-long conflict. But a senior Hamas official remarked, …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Eric Isaacson, Partner in the law firm, Coughlin-Stoia, and cooperating attorney with the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties

If you live in San Diego and are a welfare recipient, investigators from the County’s DA office can show up unannounced and without a warrant to search your home in order to to confirm that you are eligible for government aid. Failure to submit to the searches results in losing your eligibility for welfare benefits. But attorneys with the ACLU, acting on behalf of six single parents say the 10 year old practice violates the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches. A federal judge ruled the searches to be constitutional for San Diego County, and a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

GUEST: Lucas Guttentag the Director of the ACLU Immigrant’s Rights Project

In a follow-up to a story we covered recently the Department of Homeland Security asked last Friday that the federal case over Social Security “No Match” letters be suspended. The Bush Administration had originally hoped to use social security records as a tool to enforce immigration laws. Under the proposed “no match” plan, employers would have had to fire workers within ninety days if their social security numbers were unverifiable. But a coalition of labor and immigrant rights groups filed a lawsuit against the proposal on the grounds that it relied on a heavily flawed database. Due to that fact, they contend that thousands of citizens and legal immigrants would be subject to being unjustly …

Listen to this segment | the entire program

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 commentary is about declining violence in Iraq.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

Listen to This Radical Day in History

… about the Treaty of Hopewell

Produced by Radio Rootz.

Radio Rootz works in public schools to train teens in media literacy and radio production. Rootz Youth analyze and critique the media, and learn how to create news that reflects their voices, issues, and communities. For more information, visit www.radiorootz.org

“Immigration is the sincerest form of flattery.” – Jack Paar