On our 'Best of Hell: 2008' we featured the following interviews:
From June 14, David Cay Johnston is an independent
investigative journalist, formerly with The New York Times,
now focusing on the subject of taxation. David's most recent
book is last year's "Free
Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves
at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill."
From October 4, author Dave Zirin writes the column
'The Edge of Sports' at http://www.edgeofsports.com
and is a regular contributor to SI.com, The Nation, SLAM
and the Los Angeles Times. Dave's new book is "A People's
History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press).
From November 29, BlackCommentator.com editorial board
member Larry Pinkney who writes the column "Keeping
It Real." Larry is a veteran of the Black Panther Party,
the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa,
a former political prisoner and the only American to have
successfully self-authored his civil/political rights case
to the United Nations under the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights.
From October 11th, Thomas
Frank whose latest book is "The Wrecking Crew:
How Conservatives Rule" (Metropolitan Books). Tom is
a regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal.
We played a 'Moment of Truth' delivered by Jeff Dorchen
back on July 19th entitled, "Thomas Friedman Versus The
Methodist Fish Fry." We also replayed Todd Williams,
'Our Man in Budapest' and the former host of Hungarian TV's
Feszti
Korkep, giving us a report from May 31st.
Lew Daly is a senior fellow of Demos and the author
of God and the Welfare State. Lew is co-author of the new
book, "Unjust Desserts: How the Rich are Taking our
Common Inheritance and Why We Should Take it Back"
(New
Press).
Steven
Kinzer, author of "Overthrow: America's Century
of Regime Change from Hawaii to Iraq" (Times
Books). Stephen was the Latin America correspondent
for the Boston Globe, the New York Times bureau chief in
Turkey, Germany and Nicaragua, and has written several books
on foreign affairs. Stephen's recent writing includes, "The
Reality of War in Afghanistan."
Jerome Slater is the University Research Scholar
at SUNY-Buffalo. Jerome writes regularly on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict and other foreign policy issues for professional
journals, and is the author of many articles in Tikkun.
His most recent story is, "The
Irresponsibility of Thomas Friedman."
Our irregular correspondents were:
live in the studio, Dr. Krys Bigosinski, MD returned
as an irregular correspondent ...
and from Los Angeles Jeff
Dorchen delivered a 'Moment of Truth.'
Gerard Prunier were on to discuss his opendemocracy.net
article, "The eastern DR Congo: dynamics of conflict."
Gerard is research professor at the University of Paris.
He is the author of 1998’s The Rwanda Crisis: History
of a Genocide, 2007’s revised edition of "Darfur:
The Ambiguous Genocide", and 2006’s "From
Genocide to Continental War: The Congolese' Conflict and
the Crisis of Contemporary Africa."
author, education theorist, 1960s antiwar activist and
former member of the Weather Underground, Bill Ayers.
Bill is a Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior
University Scholar in the College of Education at the University
of Illinois at Chicago, holding the titles of Distinguished
Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar. He
is the author of, among other titles, "Fugitive Days:
A Memoir," (Beacon)
which came out in 2001 and has just been re-released. He
is also co-author, with Bernardine Dohrn, of the upcoming
"Race Course Against White Supremacy" (Third
World Press) which is to be released in January. Shortly
after Election Day, Bill wrote the article, "What
a Long, Strange Trip It's Been: Looking back on a surreal
campaign season."
Scott Horton is an attorney who specializes in
human rights and the law of international conflict and is
a lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School. A life-long human
rights advocate, Scott served as counsel to Andrei Sakharov
and Elena Bonner, among other activists in the former Soviet
Union. He is a co-founder of the American University in
Central Asia, where he currently serves as a trustee, and
has been involved in some of the most significant foreign
investment projects in the Central Eurasian region. Scott
recently led a number of studies of abuse issues associated
with the conduct of the war on terror for the New York City
Bar Association, where he has chaired several committees,
including, most recently, the Committee on International
Law. He is also a member of the board of the National Institute
of Military Justice, the EurasiaGroup and the American Branch
of the International Law Association and a member of the
Council on Foreign Relations. Scott writes the daily blog
'No Comment' at Harper's.
Scott's December cover story in the newsstand edition of
Harper's is called, "Justice After Bush: Prosecuting
an Outlaw Administration." He also writes a regular
column for the American Lawyer.
journalist Robert Dreyfuss is a contributing editor
at the Nation,
whose web site hosts his The
Dreyfuss Report. Bob is the author of "Devil's
Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist
Islam" (Metropolitan
Books). His most recent writing includes, "Still
Preparing to Attack Iran: The Neoconservatives in the
Obama Era."
economist Steve Fraser is a visiting professor
of Economic History at New York University. Steve is a consultant
and Editor-at-Large for the New Labor Forum at the Joseph
S. Murphy Institute of Labor and Community Studies at the
City University of New York. He is the author of "Wall
Street: America's Dream Palace" (Yale
University Press). He is also co-founder of the American
Empire Project. His most recent writing includes, "Beyond
the Bailout State: Roosevelt's Brain Trust vs Obama's
Brainiacs."
Our irregular correspondents were:
Danny Muller of Peace
Action Maine returned to give us a 'Wasted Energy Report'
...
producer Laura
Mayer debuted as an irregular correspondent ...
Chris Hedges is a senior fellow at The Nation Institute
and a Lecturer in the Council of the Humanities and the
Anschutz Distinguished Fellow at Princeton University. Chris
spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent in Central
America, the Middle East, Africa and the Balkans. He is
the author of the best selling "War Is a Force That
Gives Us Meaning," which was a finalist for The National
Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction. He was also part
of the New York Times team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize
for the paper’s coverage of global terrorism and he
received the 2002 Amnesty International Global Award for
Human Rights Journalism. Chris will be on to discuss his
most recent columns at truthdig.org, "America’s
Wars of Self-Destruction."
Frances Fox Piven is on the faculty of the Graduate
Center of the City University of New York. She is the author,
most recently, of Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People
Change America. This week, she wrote the Nation article,
"Obama
Needs a Protest Movement."
journalist and author George Packer was on to discuss
his latest story in the New Yorker, "The
New Liberalism." In that article, George writes,
"Reagan couldn’t cancel Roosevelt’s legacy;
Obama won’t be able to obliterate Reagan’s."
George’s most recent book is "The Assassins' Gate:
America in Iraq" which came out in 2005.
journalist Robert Parry, whose work can be found
at ConsortiumNews.com,
returns to This is Hell! In 1984, Bob won the prestigious
Polk Award for National Reporting by breaking many of the
Iran-Contra stories for Newsweek and The Associated Press.
His recent columns include, "Obama, Ask the Kremlin
about Gates," "Iraq War Foes Get Short Shrift,"
and "What Must Be Done Now!."
journalist, lecturer and media critic Jeff
Cohen is the founding director of the Park
Center for Independent Media and endowed chair/associate
professor of journalism at Ithaca College. Jeff also founded
FAIR,
the national media watch group, launching FAIR's magazine,
Extra!, and their nationally-syndicated radio show, “CounterSpin.”
Jeff formerly co-wrote - with past This is Hell! guest Norman
Solomon - the nationally-syndicated Media Beat column.
Jeff was Communications Director of the Kucinich for President
campaign in 2003. Jeff also was a daily commentator on MSNBC
in 2002, a weekly panelist on the Fox News Channel's “News
Watch” from 1997–2002, and a co-host of CNN's
“Crossfire” in 1996. He was senior producer of
MSNBC's Phil Donahue show until it was terminated on the
eve of the Iraq war. His most recent book is "Cable
News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media,"
which you can buy through his web
site. This week, Jeff wrote the article, "What
Indy Media Heroes and History Can Teach Us."
BlackCommentator.com editorial board member Larry Pinkney
writes the column "Keeping It Real." Larry is
a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister
of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political
prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored
his civil/political rights case to the United Nations under
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Larry will be on to discuss his two-part BlackCommentator
piece entitled, "An Obama Presidency: More of the Same
- Only Worse." Here's links to part
one and part
two. His most recent column is called, "Prepare
for Repression, Subterfuge and Continuing Wars."
Our irregular correspondents were:
Dan "The Auto Man" Litchfield
returned with a report on America's beleaguered industry
...
and Kevan
Harris, 'The Radical Pessimist,' was radically pessimistic.
This is Hell! presents "The Best of the Worst of the
Economy: America's Inevitable Economic Collapse in Hellish
Review."
From February 16, John Miller, a professor of economics
at Wheaton College who writes for Dollar and Sense. We talked
with John about his latest article, "Stormier
Weather: The economic recovery that's been officially
underway since late 2001 is probably over—too bad many
Americans never got to experience it." Dollars &
Sense had these kind words about our on-air conversation
with John:
From April 5, Jeff Faux, founder and former president
of the Economic Policy Institute (http://www.epinet.org/)
where he is currently a distinguished fellow. Jeff's most
recent article as of this date was a piece in The Nation
entitled, "Is
This The Big One?" Jeff is also a contributing
editor to American Prospect and a member of the editorial
board of Dissent.
From April 19, Michael Hudson, a former Wall Street
economist whose specialization was in the balance of payments
and real estate at Chase Manhattan Bank, Arthur Anderson,
and later at the Hudson Institute. In 1990, he helped establish
the world's first sovereign debt fund for Scudder Stevens
& Clark. Michael was Congressman Dennis Kucinich's chief
economic advisor in the recent Democratic primary presidential
campaign. He has also advised the US, Canadian, Mexican
and Latvian governments, as well as the United Nations Institute
for Training and Research. A Distinguished Research Professor
at University of Missouri-Kansas City, he is the author
of, most recently, "Super Imperialism: The Economic
Strategy of American Empire" (Pluto Press). The week
of this interview, Michael wrote the article, "Hillary
Joins the Vast, Rightwing Financial Conspiracy."
From July 5, Dean Baker is the co-director of the
Center for
Economic and Policy Research. Dean is the author of
"The
Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government
to Stay Rich and Get Richer." He also has a blog, "Beat
the Press," where he discusses the media's coverage
of economic issues. You can find it at the American Prospect's
web site.
Dean had just written the article, "Help
Workers, Not Wall Street," for the Guardian.
Our live irregular correspondents were:
live from Budapest, Todd Williams was the host
of the recently canceled Hungarian TV show "Feszti
Korkep" ...
Andrew Bacevich, author of the new book, "The
Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism"
(Metropolitan
Books). Andrew is a professor of history and international
relations at Boston University. He retired from the US Army
with the rank of colonel.
John R. MacArthur, publisher of Harper's Magazine,
is an award winning journalist and author. His new book
is called, "You Can't Be President: The Outrageous
Barriers to Democracy in America" (Melville
House).
This week's irregular correspondent was Jeff Dorchen
who delivered a Moment
of Truth entitled, "Finding common ground with the
crazy stupid white people."
Michael Schwartz is the author of "War Without
End: The Iraq War in Context" (Haymarket
Books). Michael is a professor of sociology and the
founding director of the Undergraduate College of Global
Studies at Stony Brook University.
Thomas
Frank whose latest book is "The Wrecking Crew:
How Conservatives Rule" (Metropolitan Books). Tom is
a regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal.
live from Afghanistan, Anand Gopal discussed his
TomDispatch article, "The
Surge That Failed: Afghanistan under the Bombs."
Anand is a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor,
based in Afghanistan.
Steven Rosenfeld is a senior fellow at AlterNet
and author of "Count My Vote: A Citizen's Guide to
Voting" (AlterNet Books). His recent writing at AlterNet
includes, "Voter Purges Could Cause Florida-like Presidential
Recounts," "Democratic Election Protection Strategy's
Missing Link: Electronic Vote Counts," and "Big
Presidential Vote Count Error Found and Fixed in New Mexico."
Thomas Ferguson is professor of political science
at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Thomas is the
author of "Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party
Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems"
(University of Chicago Press). He is also a contributing
editor at The Nation where his most recent writing includes,
"Bridge
Loan to Nowhere."
Alan Snitow wrote last month's TomDispatch article,
"Drinking
at the Public Fountain: The New Corporate Threat to
Our Water Supplies." Alan Snitow made the documentary
"Thirst" with Deborah Kaufman. The film brought
attention to the global movement against water privatization.
Their book
by the same name exposed how the corporate drive to control
water has become a catalyst for community resistance to
globalization. Alan is on the board of Food
and Water Watch.
And our irregular corespondents were:
live from Portland, Maine, Danny Muller of Peace
Action Maine gave us his 'Wasted Energy Report' ...
live from Cochabamba, the Democracy
Center's Jim Shultz explained what the hell is
going on in the near civil war in Bolivia. You can read
Jim's blog by visiting http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/.
The Democracy Center "works globally to advance social
justice through investigation and reporting, training citizens
in public advocacy, and leading international citizen campaigns."
journalist and author Nomi Prins most recent writng
includes the articles, "Will
the Government Bailout Work?," "The
$700 Billion Bailout Plan's Fine Print" and "Why
the Bailout Sells America Short." Nomi is a Senior
Fellow at Demos, a non-partisan public policy research and
advocacy organization. She is the author of 2004's "Other
People’s Money: The Corporate Mugging of America"
(The New Press), which was chosen as a Best Book of 2004
by The Economist, Barron's and The Library Journal. She
also wrote 2006's "Jacked: How 'Conservatives' are
Picking your Pocket (whether you voted for them or not)"
(Polipoint Press). Nomi worked on Wall Street as a managing
director at Goldman Sachs, and ran the international analytics
group at Bear Stearns in London.
author Dave Zirin writes the column 'The Edge of
Sports' at http://www.edgeofsports.com
and is a regular contributor to SI.com, The Nation, SLAM
and the Los Angeles Times. Dave's new book is "A People's
History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press).
Chalmers Johnson wrote the TomDispatch piece,
"We
Have the Money: If Only We Didn't Waste It on the Defense
Budget." Chalmers is the president of the Japan Policy
Research Institute and professor emeritus at the University
of California, San Diego. Chalmers wrote the trilogy that
includes, "Nemesis: The Crisis of the American Republic,"
(Metropolitan
Books) "Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of
American Empire" (Metropolitan
Books) and "The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism,
Secrecy, and the End of the Republic" (Metropolitan
Books).
Our irregular correspondents this Saturday were:
Jeff Dorchen deliver a Moment
of Truth entitled "Don't Piss On My Face and Tell
Me It's Raining" ...
and live from San Francisco, Kate O'Donnell gave
us her Woman's Perspective on Sarah Palin.
John Atlas is founder, president and former executive
director National
Housing Institute. NHI is "a think tank dedicated
to promoting empowerment and community building strategies
that will help lead to affordable housing, urban revitalization,
and an engaged civil society. NHI produces studies dealing
with public housing, homelessness, employee-assisted housing,
and crime prevention, and publishes Shelterforce, the oldest
independent magazine dedicated to creating and preserving
thriving communities". John co-wrote the story "
Foreclosing on the Free Market: How to Remedy the Subprime
Catastrophe" in the Fall issue of the New
Labor Forum.
Read John's blog at http://www.rooflines.org
Ken Menkhaus is a political science professor at
North Carolina’s Davidson College and a former political
advisor to the UN Operation in Somalia. Ken has a new report
out called, "Somalia: A Country in Peril, A Policy
Nightmare." In the report, Ken says, "US counterterrorism
policies have not only compromised other international agendas
in Somalia, they have generated a high level of anti-Americanism
and are contributing to radicalisation of the population
… In what could become a dangerous instance of blowback,
defence and intelligence operations intended to make the
United States more secure from the threat of terrorism may
be increasing the threat of jihadist attacks on American
interests." You can find Ken's report at the Enough
Project's web site (http://www.enoughproject.org/).
This week's irregular correspondent was Jeff Dorchen
who delivered a Moment
of Truth entitled, "Wall Street Celebrates Socialism."
live from Estonia, we will speak with Rein Müllerson
who wrote the article, "The
world after the Russia-Georgia war," which is posted
at openDemocracy.net. Rein is professor and chair of international
law at King's College, London. Rein has been a visiting
professor at the London School of Economics, a member of
the United Nations Human Rights Committee, and (in 1991-92)
first deputy foreign minister of Estonia. He is the author
of seven books on international law and politics, including
most recently, "Central Asia: A Chessboard and Player
in the New Great Game" (Kegan
Paul).
This week's irregular correspondent was Jeff Dorchen
delivered a Moment
of Truth
Mark Weisbrot, co-director at the Center
for Economic Policy Research, who has just co-authored
a report entitled, "Oil Drilling In Environmentally
Sensitive Areas: The Role of the Media."
Matt Kennard is a writer who, while studying for
his Master's in Investigative Journalism at Columbia University
in New York. looked into the increasingly liberal attitude
of the US military to allow neo-Nazis and white supremacists
to serve in the armed forces.
Read Matt's work at http://nazisinthemilitary.com/
Jessica Montell, executive director of B'Tselem,
the Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied
Territories. Jessica will discuss her group's work on human
rights and their "Shooting
Back" project.
Here's how B'Tselem describes the project: "In January
2007, B'Tselem launched "Shooting Back", a video
advocacy project focusing on the Occupied Territories. We
provide Palestinians living in high-conflict areas with
video cameras, with the goal of bringing the reality of
their lives under occupation to the attention of the Israeli
and international public, exposing and seeking redress for
violations of human rights."
as a reporter, Gregg Erickson (http://www.ericksoneconomics.com)
has covered Sarah Palin for over 20 months. Gregg is an
independent economic consultant serving clients in "government,
business and the legal profession." He is also editor-at-large
and reporter for the Alaska Budget Report, a newsletter
covering the state's the state budget, economy and government.
And Gregg's a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News and
the Juneau Empire.
Dr. Phillip Butler wrote the opinion piece, "Why
I Will Not Vote for John McCain," for the web site
Military.com.
Phil is a 1961 graduate of the United States Naval Academy
and a former light-attack, carrier pilot. In 1965 he was
shot down over North Vietnam where he spent eight years
as a prisoner of war. He is a highly decorated combat veteran
who was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legion of Merits,
two Bronze Stars and two Purple Heart medals.
After his repatriation in 1973 he earned a PhD in sociology
from the University of California at San Diego and became
a Navy Organizational Effectiveness consultant. He completed
his Navy career in 1981 as a professor of management at
the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
Phil then founded Camelot Enterprises, a management seminar,
professional speaking and consulting services business.
As a professional keynote speaker he told his story of how
POW's were able to survive and succeed. In 2000 he retired
as a traveling professional speaker and consultant. He is
now a peace and justice activist with Veterans
for Peace.
Barbara Crossette wrote the article "After
Musharraf" for The Nation this week. Barbara is
a former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, was
South Asia bureau chief from 1988 to 1991 and UN bureau
chief from 1994 to 2001.
James K. Galbraith, author of the new book, "The
Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market
and Why Liberals Should Too" (Free Press).
Alice Farmer wrote a joint report for Human Rights
Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union this week entitled,
"A
Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in
US Public Schools." Alice is the Aryeh Neier Fellowat
Human Riughts Watch and the ACLU.
Ivan Eland wrote this week's Consortiumnews.com
story, "Mixed
Truth of the Russia-Georgia War." Ivan is Director
of the Center on Peace & Liberty at The
Independent Institute. He has spent 15 years working
for Congress on national security issues, including stints
as an investigator for the House Foreign Affairs Committee
and Principal Defense Analyst at the Congressional Budget
Office.
Timothy Canova wrote the article, "The
Legacy of the Clinton Bubble" for the Summer edition
of Dissent. Timothy is the Betty Hutton Williams Professor
of International Economic Law at the Chapman University
School of Law in Orange, California.
And our irregular correspondents this were reporting in from
a fishing trip in western Michigan.
Dr. Krys Bigosinski, MD, a former college athlete
himself and currently studying sports medicine, gave us
his thoughts on the Olympics ...
Christian Parenti returned to This is Hell! Christian
is the author of, most recently, "The Freedom: Shadows
and Hallucinations in Occupied Iraq" (New Press). This
week, he wrote the Nation piece, "Class
Struggle in the New China."
Peter Rogers who wrote the Scientific American
article, "Facing
the Freshwater Crisis." Peter argues that, "As
demand for freshwater soars, planetary supplies are becoming
unpredictable. Existing technologies could avert a global
water crisis, but they must be implemented soon." Peter
is Gordon McKay Professor of Environmental Engineering and
professor of city and regional planning at Harvard University.
He's also a senior adviser to the Global
Water Partnership, an organization devoted to improving
global water-management practices, as well as a recipient
of Guggenheim and Twentieth Century Fund fellowships.
Stacey Philbrick Yadav is assistant professor
of political science at Hobart and William Smith Colleges
in Geneva, New York. Last summer, she was a faculty affiliate
of the Center for Arab and Middle East Studies at the American
University in Beirut. This week she wrote the Middle East
Report article, "Lebanon’s
Post-Doha Political Theater."
And our irregular correspondents were:
live from some social science convention in Boston, 'The
Radical Pessimist' Kevan Harris ...
live in studio, Dr. Krys Bigosinski talked up something
medical ...
and also live in the studio, Jeff Dorchen delivered
a Moment of Truth.
live from (not) Dublin, Lyndall Stein is executive
director of Concern,
an "humanitarian organisation dedicated to the reduction
of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination
of extreme poverty in the world’s poorest countries."
Lyndall's most recent writing includes her openDemocracy
article, "Ethiopia:
the tears and the rains."
Ismael Hossein-zadeh teaches economics at Drake
University and is the author of "The Political Economy
of U.S. Militarism." (Palgrave-Macmillan).
Ismael's most recent writing includes the Counterpunch pieces,
"Is
There an Oil Shortage?" and "Are
They Really Oil Wars?"
Lawrence Velvel is the Dean of the Massachusetts
School of Law, Lawrence writes the blog Velvel
on National Affairs, where his most recent entries are
entitled "Zbigniew Brzezinski, Lawrence Wilkerson,
And Barack Obama On Afghanistan," "Forgetting
The Fundamentals In Regard To Oil And Afghanistan,"
"Evil Judges And Dumb Politicians," and "Prosecuting
For War Crimes: As Lincoln Said, The Battle Of Today Is
Not For Today Alone, But For A Vast Future." He is
an honors graduate of the University of Michigan Law School,
has practiced law in the public and private sectors, and
been a law professor. He is also the author of "Thine
Alabaster Cities Gleam (Doukathsan
Press) which is "a look at the determinants of
success in America during the last half of the 20th century
and extensively criticizes the dishonesty, elitism, celebrification
and braggadocio that now pave the road to success in our
society and are tarnishing the American Dream."
And our irregular correspondents this week include:
live from Portland, Maine, Danny
Muller gave us his 'Wasted Energy Report'
live from New York City, Drew Youngren ...
live from San Francisco, Kate O'Donnell gave an
'Antarctic Perspective' ...
Kai
Wright is a Brooklyn writer and editor whose work
focuses on the politics of sex, race, and health. He is
author of "Drifting Toward Love: Black, Brown, Gay
and Coming of Age on the Streets of New York" (Beacon
Press). Kai's most recent writing includes the American
Prospect article, "America's
AIDS Apartheid: The domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic is increasingly
black and Southern -- and spiraling out of control"
and the Nation story "The
Subprime Swindle: How banks stole black America’s
hard-won wealth and gambled it away in risky investment
schemes."
C. Peter Timmer is a visiting professor with the
Program on Food Security and Environment at Stanford University,
and non-resident fellow with the Center for Global Development
in Washington, DC. This week, he wrote "Japan
and a Solution to the World Rice Crisis" for Japan
Focus.
Russell Carollo is a Pulitzer Prize winning investigative
reporter who now writes for the Sacramento Bee. Russell
just wrote the amazing "Suspect
Soldiers" series which follows the story of "16
Iraq-era soldiers and Marines who ran into trouble with
the law and/or the military. Some had troubled histories
before they joined the service, while others carried that
trouble through their service and back into civilian life."
kitteninfinite is a member of Sex
Workers Outreach Project Chicago, a grassroots organization
dedicated to improving the lives of current and former sex
workers in the Chicago area, on and off the job. SWOP-Chicago
is a political group with a decriminalization agenda, the
human trafficking issue (or the anti-prostitution industrial
complex as kitteninfinite likes to call it) and anti-prostitution
policies that SWOP claims are diverting billions in AIDS
relief funding for abstinence-only missionaries.
Irregular correspondents were:
Kevan Harris, 'The Radical Pessmist,' gave a report
live from Turkey ...
Jeff Dorchen delivered a Moment of Truth entitled,
"Thomas Friedman Versus The Methodist Fish Fry"
...
and Dan ' The Auto Man' Litchfield reported on
what's happening in the automotive industry, and he also
gave us his insight on T. Boone Pickens and Al Gore's plans
for an overhaul of the US energy industry.
Joanne Landey is the co-director of the Campaign
for Peace and Democracy. Joanne's going to talk with
us about the movement against US 'Missile Defense' in the
Czech Republic and Poland.
John
Thomson is research affiliate at MIT and served
as the United Kingdom Ambassador to India and as the Permanent
Representative in the United Nations. He has co-written
"Iran as a Pioneer Case for Multilateral Nuclear Arrangements"
and several other articles about the Iranian nuclear situation.
And our irregular correspondents are:
live from a drum and bass festival in Romania, Todd
Williams, the former host of the recently canceled Hungarian
TV show "Feszti
Korkep" ...
live from a sailboat docked somewhere along the west coast,
Mike Dvorak gave his 'Wind Blows' report. This week,
it was on the utility of using electricity in place of gasoline/diesel
as a transportation fuel ...
and live from San Francisco, Elvis
DeMorrow told us what's creeping around the Konspiracy
Korner.
Pervez Hoodbhoy wrote the article, "Anti-Americanism
in Pakistan and the Taliban Menace." Pervez is
chairman of the Department of Physics at Quaid-e-Azam University
in Islamabad. He is chairman of Mashal, a non-profit organization
which publishes books in Urdu on women’s rights, education,
environmental issues, philosophy, and modern thought. He
is author of "Islam and Science: Religious Orthodoxy
and the Battle for Rationality", now in 5 languages.
In 2003, Dr. Hoodbhoy was awarded UNESCO’s Kalinga
Prize for popularizing science in Pakistan with TV serials,
and his film "The Bell Tolls for Planet Earth"
won honorable mention at the Paris Film Festival.
Rick Shenkman is the author of "Just How Stupid
Are We? Facing the Truth about the American Voter"
(Basic Books), the second chapter of which was excerpted
at TomDispatch.com as the article, "How
Ignorant Are We?: The Voters Choose… but on the
Basis of What?." Rick is an Emmy Award-winning investigative
reporter, New York Times bestselling author, and associate
professor of history at George Mason university is also
the founder and editor of History News Network, a web site
that features articles by historians on current events.
He also blogs at "How Stupid?"
Rami Khouri's most recent articles included, "Winds
of Diplomacy," "Pretzels and Policies with Mohammad
Khatami," "The US War of Ideas at Home,"
"Israel’s New Diplomacy Needs Palestinians' New
Unity," and "Washington’s Grim Performance
in the Middle East." All of these can be read by clicking
here.
Rami is the Director of the Issam Fares Institute of Public
Policy and International Affairs at the American University
of Beirut as well as editor-at-large of the Beirut-based
Daily Star newspaper, published throughout the Middle East
with the International Herald Tribune. In November 2006,
he was the co-recipient of the Pax Christi International
Peace Award for his efforts to bring peace and reconciliation
to the Middle East.
Patrick Cockburn is the author of “Muqtada:
Muqtada Al-Sadr, the Shia Revival, and the Struggle for
Iraq.” His most recent writing included, "Who's
Actually Winning in Iraq?"
Dean Baker is the co-director of the Center
for Economic and Policy Research. Dean is the author
of "The
Conservative Nanny State: How the Wealthy Use the Government
to Stay Rich and Get Richer." He also has a blog, "Beat
the Press," where he discusses the media's coverage
of economic issues. You can find it at the American Prospect's
web site.
And our irregular correspondents were:
live from San Juan, Dave Buchen ...
Jeff Dorchen delivered a Moment of Truth ...
and producer Drew Colglazier reported live from
the back of a Mustang in Bedford, Indiana, where he will
be in a parade supporting his brother's campaign for State
Senate.
Mike
Marqusee, is the author of "If I Am Not Myself:
Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew" (Verso
Books). Mike also writes for The Guardian and The Hindu.
Elliot Cohen wrote the truthdig piece, "John
McCain’s Chilling Project for America." Elliot
is the editor in chief of the International
Journal of Applied Philosophy and ethics editor for
Free
Inquiry magazine. He is also the author or editor of
many books in journalism, professional ethics and philosophical
counseling, including his most recent work, 2007's "The
Last Days of Democracy: How Big Media and Power-Hungry Government
Are Turning America into a Dictatorship" (Prometheus).
Elliot was the first-prize recipient of the 2007 Project
Censored Award for his investigative reporting on the corporate
takeover of the Internet. Elliot is a professor of philosophy
and chair of the Department of Humanities at Indian River
Community College in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Paul Street is a writer and author based in Iowa
City. Paul's next book, "Barack Obama and the Future
of American Politics" (Paradigm)
will be released later this Summer. He is also the author
of "Empire and Inequality: America and the World Since
9/11 (Paradigm), "Segregated Schools: Educational Apartheid
in the Post-Civil Rights Era (Routledge) and "Racial
Oppression in the Global Metropolis (Rowman & Littlefield).
He is a regular contributor at Z Magazine's web site, ZNet
where his most recent article was entitled, "’Man’
Versus ‘Nature’?: The politics of the Iowa Floods."
Dr. Stephen
Zunes returns to This is Hell! to talk about his
most recent writing including, "Obama
and AIPAC" and "Why
Obama Won". Stephen is a Professor of Politics
and International Studies at the University of San Francisco,
where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He
is also the author of "Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East
Policy and the Roots of Terrorism" (Common
Courage Press) and co-author (with Jacob Mundy) of the
forthcoming "Western Sahara: Nationalism, Conflict,
and International Accountability" (Syracuse
University Press).
Greg Grandin wrote the TomDispatch piece, "Losing
Latin America: What Will the Obama Doctrine Be Like?,"
earlier this month. Greg teaches history at New York University.
He is the author of "The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin
America in the Cold War" (University
of Chicago Press), Truth Commissions: State Terror,
History, and Memory" (Duke
University Press), "The Blood of Guatemala"
(Duke
University Press), and "Empire's Workshop: Latin
America, The United States and The Rise of the New Imperialism"
(Metropolitan)
which was endorsed by Hugo Chávez when he spoke at
the United Nations.
And our irregular correspondents were:
LaddieO.com
gave us a live report on web, tech and science news from
the hermetically sealed clean room at URL Labs ...
Steven Greenhouse, author of "The Big Squeeze:
Tough Times for the American Worker (Knopf).
Steve has been the labor and workplace correspondent for
the New York Times since 1995.
John
Bowe is the author of "Nobodies: Modern American
Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy
(Random
House). In 2004, John received the J. Anthony Lukas
Work-in-Progress Award, the Sydney Hillman Award for journalists,
writers and public figures who pursue social justice and
public policy for the common good, and the Richard J. Margolis
Award, dedicated to journalism that combines social concern
and humor. He is the co-editor of "Gig: Americans Talk
About Their Jobs which was one of Harvard Business Review's
best books of 2000. He also is co-screenwriter of the 1996
movie, "Basquiat."
Sue Branford is co-editor of Seeding
and manages the publications of the agricultural-diversity
NGO, Grain.
She reports regularly from Latin America for the BBC and
the Guardian. She is co-author with Jan Rocha, of "Cutting
the Wire: the Story of the Brazilian Landless Workers' Movement
(Latin America Bureau) and wrote "Chemical Warfare
in Colombia: The Costs of Fumigation" (Latin America
Bureau) with Hugh O'Shaughnessy. She is also the author
of "The Last Frontier: fighting over land in the Amazon"
and "The Debt Squads: the US, the banks and Latin America."
This week, her story, "The
world food summit: a lost opportunity" was posted
at openDemocracy.
David Cay Johnston is an independent investigative
journalist, formerly for The New York Times, who now focuses
on the subject of taxation. David's most recent book is
last year's "Free
Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves
at Government Expense and Stick You With The Bill."
Martin Beck Matustik author of "Radical Evil
and the Scarcity of Hope: Postsecular Meditations"
(Indiana
University Press). Martin is Professor of Philosophy
at Purdue University.
Ha-Joon Chang is an economist specializing in development
economics. Ha-Joon Reader in the Political Economy of Development
at Cambridge University. Ha-Joon is the author of several
books including last year's "Bad Samaritans: Rich Nations,
Poor Policies and the Threat to the Developing World"
(Bloomsbury)
and 2002's "Kicking Away the Ladder: Development Strategy
in Historical Perspective (Anthem
Press).
James Howard Kunstler's most recent book is "World
Made By Hand: A Novel of the Post-Oil Future."
Jim also writes The Daily Grunt, if he has something to
say that day, and offers the Eyesore of the Month which
always features a horrific piece of architecture, both at
his web site, http://www.kunstler.com.
And our irregular correspondents were:
Jeff
Dorchen delivered a 'Moment of Truth' live from
WNUR studios ...
Dan "The Auto Man" Litchfield talked
cars ...
and Danny
Muller gave us his 'Wasted Energy Report' live from
Portland, Maine.
Jeff Sharlet is author of the new book, "The
Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American
Power" (HarperCollins).
Jeff is a contributing editor at Harper's and Rolling Stone.
He is also an associate research scholar at New York University's
Center for Religion and Media. He is also the editor of
the web site, The
Revealer.
Dr. Carsten Wieland wrote the piece, "The
Syria-Israel talks: old themes, new setting," at
openDemocracy. In the article, Carsten explains that 'The
latest phase of negotiations between Damascus and Jerusalem
will need the right constellation of events to become more
than another lost opportunity.' He is the author of the
book "Syria - Ballots or Bullets? Democracy, Islamism,
and Secularism in the Levant" (Cune
Press), and "Syria at Bay: Secularism, Islamism
and ‘Pax Americana’" (Hurst).
He is a consultant and journalist and was a research fellow
at Georgetown University in Washington. He spent several
years living in various countries of the Middle East. Wieland
studied history, political science, international relations
and philosophy at Humboldt University in Berlin, Jawaharlal
Nehru University in New Delhi and Duke University in North
Carolina.
the Democracy
Center's Jim Shultz returned to This is Hell!
to give us the skinny on what's happening in Bolivia. You
can read Jim's blog by visiting http://www.democracyctr.org/blog/.
The Democracy Center, based in both San Francisco and Cochabamba,
Bolivia, "works globally to advance social justice
through investigation and reporting, training citizens in
public advocacy, and leading international citizen campaigns."
And our irregular correspondents were:
live from Budapest, Todd Williams was the host
of the recently canceled Hungarian TV show "Feszti
Korkep" ...
Siri
Carpenterwrote the Scientific American article,
"Buried
Prejudice: The Bigot in Your Brain" which says
that 'Deep within our subconscious, all of us harbor biases
that we consciously abhor. And the worst part is: we act
on them." Siri is a science writer and editor and a
social psychologist with a Ph.D. from Yale. His articles
have appeared in Science, Scientific American Mind, Prevention,
ScienceNOW, the HHMI Bulletin, Science News, the APA Monitor
(the magazine of the American Psychological Association),
and the APS Observer (the magazine of the Association for
Psychological Science). Siri is coauthor with psychologist
Karen Huffman, of "Visualizing Psychology" (John
Wiley & Sons).
Jim Quilty, live from Beirut where he is a writer
for the Daily Star. This week, he wrote the Middle East
Report Online article, "Lebanon’s
Brush with Civil War."
AlterNet staff writer Joshua Holland returned
to This is Hell! to tell us about his two-part story, "Enforcement
on Steroids: Homeland Security's Emerging Immigration Police
State." Part one can be read by clicking here.
And here's part
two.
And our irregular correspondent were:
Dave Buchen, 'Our Man in San Juan,' reported to us live
from Puerto Rico.
Jeff
Dorchen delivered a Moment of Truth from Los Angeles.
And from San Francisco, Elvis
DeMorrow told us what's slunking around the Konspiracy
Korner.
journalist Robert Parry, whose work can be found
at ConsortiumNews.com,
returns to This is Hell! In 1984, Bob won the prestigious
Polk Award for National Reporting by breaking many of the
Iran-Contra stories for Newsweek and The Associated Press.
His recent columns include, "Danger:
Tough Talk and Wishful Thinking," and the Alternet
piece, "Dire
