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Stanley “Tookie” Williams faces execution
GUESTS: Barbara Becnel, Oakland based activist, co-author with Williams.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was asked on Tuesday November 8th to grant clemency to Stanley “Tookie” Williams, the co-founder of the notorious Los Angeles Crips gang who has been serving more than 2 decades on death row. Tookie, the author of award winning childrens’ books, has also been nominated numerous times for the Nobel Peace Prize and the Nobel Literature Prize and was visited in prison by Winnie Mandela. Stanley “Tookie” Williams is scheduled to be executed this December 13th for four murders. In 1992, a judge recommended clemency rather than execution. Oscar winning actor Jamie Foxx played Tookie’s character in a cable TV film called “Redemption”. Foxx has joined nearly 30,000 others in signing a petition to the governor appealing for clemency.

We turn next to Barbara Becnel, an Oakland based activist who has spent years campaigning on behalf of Williams. She first met him while researching a book she was working on, and subsequently went on to help him publish his 9 children’s books. She joins us on the line from Oakland.

For more information, please visit: www.tookie.com

To find out how you can help, please visit: www.savetookie.org

Black Commentator
GUESTS: Glen Ford, co-publisher of The Black Commentator

The Black Commentator is an online political magazine bringing you commentary, analysis and investigation from a black perspective. Today’s commentary is the unrest in France.

The Black Commentator is online at www.blackcommentator.com.

IRS Attacks Progressive Church
GUESTS: Reverend Ed Bacon, of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena

All Saints Episcopal Church, based in Pasadena, is a leading force in the peace and justice movement in Southern California. Last year, their former rector George Regas gave a stirring anti-war sermon right before the Presidential election, that was reported in the media. Among other things, he said, “Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster.” In response the Internal Revenue Service sent the church a letter saying they are under investigation for violating their tax exempt status. According to the LA Times, the IRS investigation into All Saints is part of a larger federal investigation of political activity at churches and nonprofit groups. I spoke recently with Reverend Ed Bacon of All Saints Church.

For more information, visit www.allsaints-pas.org

Caught in the Cross fire
GUESTS: Mark Manning, founder of ConceptionMedia, a film production company dedicated to social interest documentaries

Earlier this month, the US began Operation Steel Curtain in western Iraq near the border with Syria. About 3,500 mostly US and some Iraqi forces, have been deployed, along with 9 airstrikes. Dozens of so-called “insurgents” were killed and the US has detained about 180 men for questioning. US warplanes on Sunday evening targeted several neighborhoods in the town, destroying houses, and killing and injuring dozens of people. The US shelling has demolished government buildings, including a primary school, a preparatory school for boys, the educational supervision building, a post office, a communication centre, and two mosques in the city. Operation Steel Curtain is reminiscent of the US’s actions in Fallujah last year. This Tuesday marked the one year anniversary of the beginning of the US led assault on Fallujah which left thousands of Iraqis dead and hundreds of thousands without homes. I’m joined in studio by Mark Manning one of the film makers of a documentary about Fallujah called “Caught in the Cross fire.”

Empire Notes
GUESTS: Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade

We go now to our weekly commentary Empire Notes by Rahul Mahajan, author of Full Spectrum Dominance and The New Crusade. Today’s commentary tries to explain the slide in Bush’s poll numbers.

Empire Notes is online at www.empirenotes.org.

California’s Post-Election Breakdown
GUESTS: Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center

On Tuesday November 8th Californians went to the polls for a special election called by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The election, costing taxpayers more than $75 million, was the center piece of the “governator’s” reform agenda for the state. He had sponsored several statewide propositions which directly affected organized labor, teachers, public education, and the power of state legislators to draw district boundaries. The ballot also contained a deceptive measure about parental consent for teen abortions, that would have embedded pro-life language in the California constitution. At its heart the election was a direct assault on labor and public workers. But it was also the most important measure of how pervasive Schwarzenegger’s Republican agenda would be in this traditionally Democratic state. The election was also the costliest in history with the yes and no campaigns on the propositions having spent more than $225 million on intense TV ads. On election day however, voters went to the polls in greater than expected numbers and defeated all eight propositions on the ballot, even two propositions that were actually progressive. I spoke with Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center, the day after the election.

Sonali’s Subversive Thought for the Day:
Aristotle once said, “If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.”