A sudden increase in gas prices across the nation, and particularly in California, has threatened to derail the minuscule advances in economic recovery. The LA Times reported yesterday that gas prices are “up 5% in just the last week and nearly 9% higher than a month ago.” The effects of higher gas prices on the Presidential election have already become a topic of discussion in the media and Republican candidates for the nation’s highest office have already started blaming President Obama for the uptick.

The global economic recovery is also seemingly slowing, undermining overly optimistic projections by economists only a few months ago. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) announced today that its 34 member nations saw slower economic growth – only 0.1% this past quarter, compared to 0.6% in the earlier quarter.

Today, we turn to a familiar voice in the progressive community commenting on the broad political and historical context of our current economic climate: Noam Chomsky, MIT professor of Linguistics and a critic of American domestic and foreign policy. His wide-ranging criticisms have made him an enemy of the powerful, and a beloved intellectual for generations of progressives. He has written over 100 books, and is one of the most cited living sources in the world.

Currently in his eighties, he continues to travel extensively, lecture widely, and write prolifically. Noam Chomsky spoke just a few weeks ago at the University of Maryland at an event that was filmed and whose recording was generously made available to KPFK by the Real News Network.

The Real News is a non-profit viewer funded daily video news and documentary service that, like KPFK, does not sell advertising or accept government or corporate funding. Find out more about them at RealNews.com.

Thank you Gifts:

Noam Chomsky on Crisis and Hope – DVD – $75

Howard Gardner interviews Noam Chomsky – DVD – $100

Noam Chomsky 2 DVD pack – $150

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Audio Stream | Podcast | Mp3 Download

This week on Uprising:

* US and Israel Saber-Rattling Against Iran Reaches New Heights
* Dissecting Obama’s Budget Proposal
* Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street

* * *

US and Israel Saber-Rattling Against Iran Reaches New Heights

Rhetoric in Washington DC and Tel Aviv over possible war with Iran has heated up to such an extent, over past weeks that even US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said he expects Israel to attack Iran within the next few months. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s every move is being interpreted in the American and Israeli media as provoking war. On Wednesday, his witnessing of the lowering of fuel rods into the core of a nuclear reactor contributed to the war hysteria. Also helping to ramp up speculation has been Ahmedinejad’s threat to shut down the Straits of Hormuz, through which a significant portion of Iranian oil is transported.

An international inquiry into several bomb blasts in Thailand, India, and Georgia, apparently targeting Israeli diplomats, has been linked to Iran, as well as the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Investigators are seeking several suspects in the various countries. Meanwhile, an on-going epidemic of murders of Iranian nuclear scientists has also added to the tensions, with the Iranian government accusing Western powers and Israel of orchestrating the murders. In fact, last week, senior US officials, speaking to NBC news on condition of anonymity, confirmed that a dissident Iranian group, trained and funded by Israel, has been carrying out the murders of nuclear scientists.

Here in the United States, President Obama has added Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, to the US Treasury’s list of designated global terrorists, saying that it “supports global terrorism, commits human rights abuses against Iranians and participates in ongoing repression in Syria.”

And, a group of 32 senators from both major parties have backed legislation this week saying they would support President Obama in his attempt to stop Iran’s nuclear program, even if it meant going to war. Senator Lieberman, who introduced the bill said, it sends a message “clearly and resolutely to Iran, you have only two choices: peacefully negotiate to end your nuclear weapons program or expect a military strike to disable that program.” While Obama has said he does not prefer a military strike, he has said all options are on the table.

GUEST: Muhammad Sahimi, professor at the University of Southern California and lead political columnist for the website PBS/Frontline/Tehran Bureau

Dissecting Obama’s Budget Proposal

President Obama this week announced his budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year, a plan that includes undoing the Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making over $250,000 a year and increasing capital gains taxes from 15% to 35%. Republicans and conservative pundits predictably rejected the President’s plan outright. A number of companies like AT&T and UPS, have banded together to lobby Congress to maintain the current tax rate for capital gains and dividends. Addressing a live audience in Virginia on Tuesday, Obama also reiterated his support for the Buffett Rule – a tax on millionaires, invoking an often-repeated fact: that billionaire Warren Buffett’s secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Overall, the budget projects increased revenues of $1.3 trillion.

Despite the rain of right wing criticism, Obama has also consistently picked up a standard conservative talking point, and this week was no exception – he asserted the importance of reducing the federal deficit by making what he called “difficult cuts,” and “tough choices.”

Media coverage of the budget proposal has skewed severely toward conservative values. A typical example is the Washington Post – generally thought of as a liberal newspaper. In the Post’s February 14th analysis of Obama’s budget, the report’s authors interviewed almost exclusively pro-business voices from such institutions as the US Chamber of Commerce, major corporations like Deloitte and KPMG, as well as Republican officials like former Louisiana Republican Congressman Jim McCreary, and current Michigan Republican Congressman Dave Camp.

GUEST: Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet. He is the author of The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy: And Everything else the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America

Read Holland’s work online here: www.alternet.org/authors/6645/

Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street

A year ago on Valentine’s Day 2011, unionized teaching assistants from the University of Wisconsin – Madison converged on their state capitol for a “Don’t Break My Heart” demonstration against Republican Governor Scott Walker. Walker, in office for less than 2 months at the time, outraged Wisconsinites by introducing so-called “budget repair” legislation that stripped public employees of many collective bargaining rights. He tried to fast-track approval, announcing on February 11th that he wanted it passed within the week. However the protest by the teaching assistants drew state-wide attention to the issue and sparked weeks of protests at the capitol with crowds topping 100,000 people on some days. The nation was riveted to coverage of events as they unfolded.

Democratic lawmakers fled the state to prevent a vote on the legislation from taking place. A diverse array of Wisconsinites turned out to protest day-in and day-out, from students and community supporters to unionized workers from the private and public sectors, including firefighters and police officers. Protesters eventually occupied the capitol building and the world began watching and cheering-on the movement. The protesters were fed by pizza ordered for them by supporters across the US, and from as far away as Egypt. Wisconsinites were not deterred by freezing temperatures and they fought against being locked out of their own capitol building.

On March 10th Republican state legislators defied their opponents and the bill was passed amid cries of “shame” from protestors. Governor Walker signed it into law on March 11th. Protesters brought a legal challenge against the bill and continued demonstrating against it for months, erecting a tent city outside the capitol building which they dubbed “Walkerville.” They remained active in their state’s budget negotiations, agitating against Walker’s extreme conservative agenda. In June 2011 activists changed their focus, mounting an effort to recall Walker and some state legislators. By mid January of this year, over 1 million signatures in support of a gubernatorial recall election were gathered. It is expected that the minimum number of 750,000 signatures will be certified as valid and that Walker will be forced to run for his office again this year. This week protests will be held daily in Madison Wisconsin to mark the movement’s one year anniversary.

Journalist John Nichols, associate editor of the Capitol Times in Madison, Wisconsin and a correspondent for The Nation magazine, chronicled his state’s transformation into the headquarters for the labor movement and the inspiration for protests around the country. Nichols’ surveys a year of popular action in the US in his new, highly anticipated book, aptly named Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street. John Nichols’ Uprising is more than a history. In his book he analyses how Wisconsin and Occupy Wall Street revived American dissent and changed our national discourse.

GUEST: John Nichols, associate editor of the Capitol Times in Madison, Wisconsin and a correspondent for The Nation magazine, author of many books including Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day

“The spirit of resistance not just to political power but to the corporations that pull the puppet strings of our politicians, the reoccupation of public space that had been co-opted by the elites, the reassertion of rights that had languished for too long: all of this and more [has] provided an outline for a new politics of protest.” — John Nichols, from Uprising: How Wisconsin Renewed the Politics of Protest, from Madison to Wall Street

Rhetoric in Washington DC and Tel Aviv over possible war with Iran has heated up to such an extent, over past weeks that even US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said he expects Israel to attack Iran within the next few months. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s every move is being interpreted in the American and Israeli media as provoking war. On Wednesday, his witnessing of the lowering of fuel rods into the core of a nuclear reactor contributed to the war hysteria. Also helping to ramp up speculation has been Ahmedinejad’s threat to shut down the Straits of Hormuz, through which a significant portion of Iranian oil is transported.

An international inquiry into several bomb blasts in Thailand, India, and Georgia, apparently targeting Israeli diplomats, has been linked to Iran, as well as the Lebanese group Hezbollah. Investigators are seeking several suspects in the various countries. Meanwhile, an on-going epidemic of murders of Iranian nuclear scientists has also added to the tensions, with the Iranian government accusing Western powers and Israel of orchestrating the murders. In fact, last week, senior US officials, speaking to NBC news on condition of anonymity, confirmed that a dissident Iranian group, trained and funded by Israel, has been carrying out the murders of nuclear scientists.

Here in the United States, President Obama has added Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security, to the US Treasury’s list of designated global terrorists, saying that it “supports global terrorism, commits human rights abuses against Iranians and participates in ongoing repression in Syria.”

And, a group of 32 senators from both major parties have backed legislation this week saying they would support President Obama in his attempt to stop Iran’s nuclear program, even if it meant going to war. Senator Lieberman, who introduced the bill said, it sends a message “clearly and resolutely to Iran, you have only two choices: peacefully negotiate to end your nuclear weapons program or expect a military strike to disable that program.” While Obama has said he does not prefer a military strike, he has said all options are on the table.

GUEST: Muhammad Sahimi, professor at the University of Southern California and lead political columnist for the website PBS/Frontline/Tehran Bureau

A jury awarded a New Mexico man $22 million dollars earlier this year as compensation for the suffering he endured during nearly 2 years of solitary confinement. Stephen Slevin was arrested for driving while intoxicated in 2005 and was locked away in solitary confinement based on the judgment of deputies, who thought he might be suicidal. Slevin’s lawyer says his client was then effectively forgotten for 22 months. Slevin literally wasted away in his cell without regular access to clean water to bathe in and without medical care. He became severely depressed and delusional. He lost a significant amount of weight, developed bed sores, and his foot became infected with a fungus. At one point, after prison officials ignored his requests for dental care, Slevin pulled out his own tooth.

In the summer of 2011 a group of prisoners in solitary confinement at the Pelican Bay facility in California went on hunger strike to protest the inhumane conditions they suffer through, bringing national attention to this issue of solitary confinement as well as the general inhumane conditions in California prisons. In the US an estimated 25,000 inmates are held in solitary confinement where they are restricted to a tiny living space without natural light for 22 hours a day, and they are often denied reading material and any human contact. The conditions have been shown to cause severe psychological stress and are likened to torture. On Monday, continuing the momentum started by the summer hunger strikes, the California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement is holding a protest in Los Angeles as part of a National Day of Occupation to in support of prisoners.

GUEST: Daletha Hayden, spokesperson for California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement (CFASC )

Protest details:

Join CFASC in LA for the National Day of Occupation in Support of Prisoners
When: Monday February 20th at 3:00pm
Where: Outside of the LA County Jail , 441 Bauchet Street, ot the corner of Vignes and Bauchet in downtown Los Angeles
Contact CFASC by email at cfasc12@yahoo.com, or call 714-290-9077

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Obama

The rate of imprisonment in the United States is staggering. As a percentage of the population we imprison more people than Russia, and more than Denmark, Italy, France and Germany, combined. About 2.3 million adults are behind bars in the US, and a disproportionate percentage of black men, and increasingly black women, make up the inmate population. While only about 12% of the US population is African American, 39% of male prisoners, and 28% of female prisoners, are black.

In her groundbreaking book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, civil rights lawyer Michelle Alexander argues that the racial oppression of the Jim Crow era has not been lost to a more racially enlightened age. Alexander finds that the institutional racism exemplified by poll taxes and housing discrimination is exercised as the more socially acceptable practice today of the mass incarceration of black Americans, especially black men. This is not a new idea, as Michelle Alexander points out herself, but she fleshes it out and makes a solid, compelling case that mass incarceration undermines the well-being of entire communities and weakens the very foundation of US democracy. Alexander brought her book to life earlier this year during a talk at the historic Abyssinian Baptist church in Harlem, on January 12, 2012.

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Book and DVD — $150

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Being one of the founding members of the group is only one of many distinctions in Dr. Young’s storied career. Dr. Quentin Young was a founding member of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1964 and volunteered to provide medical care to civil rights protesters in Mississippi during Freedom Summer. He was a personal physician to Martin Luther King Jr and helped the Black Panthers and the Young Lords set up medical clinics in their communities. Dr. Young also provided medical care to protesters injured by police at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago where 23,000 police officers were dispatched to quell protests. He is a personal friend of President Barack Obama with whom he disagrees on the need for single payer healthcare. Visit www.pnhp.org for more information.

Watch a video of the interview here:

Martina Steiner recorded this interview.

President Obama this week announced his budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year, a plan that includes undoing the Bush-era tax cuts for individuals making over $250,000 a year and increasing capital gains taxes from 15% to 35%. Republicans and conservative pundits predictably rejected the President’s plan outright. A number of companies like AT&T and UPS, have banded together to lobby Congress to maintain the current tax rate for capital gains and dividends. Addressing a live audience in Virginia on Tuesday, Obama also reiterated his support for the Buffett Rule – a tax on millionaires, invoking an often-repeated fact: that billionaire Warren Buffett’s secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Overall, the budget projects increased revenues of $1.3 trillion.

Despite the rain of right wing criticism, Obama has also consistently picked up a standard conservative talking point, and this week was no exception – he asserted the importance of reducing the federal deficit by making what he called “difficult cuts,” and “tough choices.”

Media coverage of the budget proposal has skewed severely toward conservative values. A typical example is the Washington Post – generally thought of as a liberal newspaper. In the Post’s February 14th analysis of Obama’s budget, the report’s authors interviewed almost exclusively pro-business voices from such institutions as the US Chamber of Commerce, major corporations like Deloitte and KPMG, as well as Republican officials like former Louisiana Republican Congressman Jim McCreary, and current Michigan Republican Congressman Dave Camp.

GUEST: Joshua Holland is an editor and senior writer at AlterNet. He is the author of The 15 Biggest Lies About the Economy: And Everything else the Right Doesn’t Want You to Know About Taxes, Jobs and Corporate America

Read Holland’s work online here: www.alternet.org/authors/6645/

Listen to the extended interview

This week 50 medical doctors, in a bipartisan effort, filed a brief with the United States Supreme Court to argue that the individual mandate at the heart of the 2010 healthcare reform bill is unconstitutional. The doctors and two non-profit groups are not right wing critics of Obama, but advocates of what’s called “a single payer healthcare” system. Dr. Margaret Flowers, who is also an activist and member of Occupy DC, said the Affordable Care Act and individual mandate requiring all Americans to carry insurance, “[f]unnels more wealth to insurance companies that deny and restrict care.” Joe Jarvis, a doctor from Utah, a Republican and a single payer advocate said he’s opposed to the Affordable Care Act because, “It’s a propping up of the private insurance business model. What they’re trying to do is force us to buy, in most cases, poor quality health benefits.”

Single payer healthcare has been a hot topic since the great healthcare debates of 2009 and 2010, but the organization, Physicians for a National Health Program, has advocated for a single payer system since 1987. The National Coordinator for the program is Dr. Quentin Young.

Being one of the founding members of the group is only one of many distinctions in Dr. Young’s storied career. Dr. Quentin Young was a founding member of the Medical Committee for Human Rights in 1964 and volunteered to provide medical care to civil rights protesters in Mississippi during Freedom Summer. He was a personal physician to Martin Luther King Jr and helped the Black Panthers and the Young Lords set up medical clinics in their communities. Dr. Young also provided medical care to protesters injured by police at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago where 23,000 police officers were dispatched to quell protests. He is a personal friend of President Barack Obama with whom he disagrees on the need for single payer healthcare.

GUEST: Dr. Quentin Young, National Coordinator for Physicians for a National Health Program

Visit www.pnhp.org for more information.

Money Driven Medicine

Expensive medical bills continue to push Americans into bankruptcy while insurance companies and hospitals rake in the cash. Two studies released earlier this year showed medical industry profits continued to skyrocket in 2010, while many US businesses and workers suffered under the high cost of healthcare. The American Hospital Association found that in 2010 community hospitals reported over $50 billion in profits, a 50% increase from the year before. A Bloomberg Government study of health insurance companies found that profit margins widened in 2010 after the passage of the Affordable Care Act. These same insurers lobbied hard against healthcare reform and, together, contributed $82.6 million to the US Chamber of Commerce to fight the bill.

Every few months we hear about the obscene profits healthcare providers collect while insurance premiums and co-pays rise and the quality of care declines. The rising cost of medical care in this country hits the pocketbook of most Americans, and the inability of families and employers to afford health insurance is close to becoming a public health emergency. Patients themselves are increasingly blamed as the cause of rising costs.

Common wisdom holds that Americans need too much care because we are too sick, too overweight, or too old to receive affordable services. A new documentary, based on a book by journalist Maggie Mahar, exposes the complicated mix of factors that drive up the cost of healthcare in the US. Money Driven Medicine, based on Mahar’s book by the same name, makes a solid case for universal coverage by featuring doctors, patients, medical and financial experts who all see that the root of dysfunction in the US healthcare system is the chase for the almighty dollar.

Money Driven Medicine examines why patients are subjected to unnecessary tests and procedures, how hospitals have become engaged in a technology race, why business executives, not medical professionals, run hospitals, and why so many young medical students decide against becoming primary care doctors, choosing specializations instead.

Visit www.moneydrivenmedicine.org for more information about the film.