Michael Boldin, founder of the Tenth Amendment Center, discusses Thomas Jefferson's suggested response to government run amok: nullification; why a compromise agreement on raising the US debt ceiling will mean the current Republican resurgence has already fizzled out; the persistence of state medical marijuana laws despite federal government outrage and unfavorable SCOTUS rulings; why those trying to effect change within government should stick to the local and state levels; the misuse of...
01/20/11 – Philip Weiss – The Scott Horton Show
Philip Weiss, investigative journalist and author of the blog MondoWeiss, discusses the mounting pressure on the US to refrain from vetoing a UN resolution critical of Israel’s illegal settlements (even J Street is on board); the glaring omission of George Mitchell from Obama’s new Mideast task force, which is full of establishment hacks and pro-Israel pundits; the continuing pretense that equal concessions must be made in a two-state solution, ignoring the reality of occupation and the vastly...
01/20/11 – Muhammad Sahimi – The Scott Horton Show
Muhammad Sahimi, Professor of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Southern California, discusses the power struggle between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Khamenei in Iran; how Ahmadinejad's appointment of a well-regarded moderate foreign minister could help achieve a compromise with the US on a low-enriched uranium swap deal and Iran's nuclear enrichment program in general, as well as easing the sanctions that are crippling Iran's economy; Hillary Clinton's...
01/19/11 – Gareth Porter – The Scott Horton Show
Gareth Porter, independent historian and journalist for IPS News, discusses Ike Eisenhower’s extraordinary (but too little too late) farewell address; how the overblown Soviet threat and missile gap hoax scared Americans enough to boost the bottom line of defense contractors; how the unlimited supply of government money corrupts otherwise solid businesses that are forced to compete with insiders and cheats; how the perquisites of government/military employment, though relatively harmless in...
01/19/11 – Greg Mitchell – The Scott Horton Show
Greg Mitchell, author of the Media Fix blog for TheNation.com, discusses why all those people claiming WikiLeaks never released anything noteworthy, need to actually read the cables, or at least follow Greg on Twitter or at TheNation.com, where he has 53 consecutive days of noteworthy WikiLeaks updates; how the mainstream media’s disinterest in WikiLeaks is compensated for by region-specific media outlets reporting on significant local events (the revelations of Tunisia’s government...
01/19/11 – Nick Baumann – The Scott Horton Show
Nick Baumann, assistant editor at Mother Jones, discusses the favorable court proceedings on behalf of Gulet Mohamed, a teenage US citizen detained and mistreated in Kuwait for a month, that may have him headed home soon; the clear Constitutional and legal precedents that prevents the government from banishing a US citizen (in Mohamed’s case, by placing him on the no-fly list, knowing Kuwaiti law demands deportation by a direct flight); FBI interrogators who won’t take 'no' for an answer, and...
01/18/11 – Jason Ditz – The Scott Horton Show
Jason Ditz, managing news editor at Antiwar.com, discusses Ehud Barak's decision to abandon the sinking ship that is Israel's Labor party; the departure of IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi, one of the few Israeli government officials to oppose an Iran offensive; why the West may be completely wrong about Mahmoud Ahmadinejad; and the prosecution of former CIA officer Jeffrey Alexander Sterling for telling James Risen that the CIA gave Iran nuclear blueprints.
01/17/11 – John V. Walsh – The Scott Horton Show
John V. Walsh, frequent contributor to Counterpunch.org, discusses the Left's outrage about Sarah Palin's virtual cross hairs (in the wake of the Tucson shootings) and near-silence about the real cross hairs of helicopter gunships and Predator drones killing civilians overseas; the American reverence of government officials, especially in death, and the popular belief in the righteousness of state-sanctioned murder; the spectacle of Obama being cheered like a rock star while delivering his...
01/17/11 – Will Grigg – The Scott Horton Show
Will Grigg, blogger and author of Liberty in Eclipse, discusses how little has changed since 1967 when MLK referred to the US government as 'the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today;' the incongruence of the US government’s taken-for-granted massive and arbitrary use of violence abroad and the official uproar over the relatively few casualties in the Tucson shootings; conflating 'anti-government' speech (aka First Amendment protected dissent) with incitement to violence; and Rep....
01/14/11 – Rep. Walter Jones – The Scott Horton Show
Rep. Walter Jones, eight term Congressman from North Carolina, discusses why he regrets his initial support for the 'unnecessary' Iraq War; the high cost we pay in blood and treasure for continuing the boondoggle in Afghanistan; why a super-debtor nation like the US can’t afford to continue policing the world; how a visit to Walter Reed to see the war wounded can change one’s opinion on US foreign policy; and the small-but-growing Congressional Republican opposition to the Afghanistan...
01/14/11 – Jack Hunter – The Scott Horton Show
Jack Hunter, talk radio host and newspaper columnist, discusses the cycle of hypocrisy, Left and Right, that turns skeptics to statists whenever their party occupies the White House; why conservatives like Grover Norquist, despite his hypocrisy, should be applauded for questioning the Afghan War; so-called political 'moderates' who are in fact the most fervent warmongering radicals; and why foreign policy isn’t at all a fringe issue, but the definitive political litmus test that excludes...
01/14/11 – Anand Gopal – The Scott Horton Show
Independent journalist Anand Gopal discusses why counterinsurgency strategy works better in theory than in practice; the short term PR victories in Afghanistan that create long term problems; the only two policy choices deemed worthy of popular consideration: continue the Afghan War forever, or scale down to night raids while moving into Pakistan; how the 'denying al-Qaeda sanctuary' justification for US military deployments ignores the real reasons the 9/11 attacks succeeded; why the...
01/14/11 – Patrick Cockburn – The Scott Horton Show
This interview is from the KPFK 90.7 FM Los Angeles broadcast on January 14th. The original program is here. Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent for The Independent, discusses how Muqtada al-Sadr’s return to Iraq has changed the political landscape and made a full US withdrawal by year’s end more likely; how otherwise-nationalist Iraqis use foreign allies as leverage against domestic sectarian/religious rivals; why the Pentagon seems to have drunk its own surge narrative Kool-Aid (in...
01/13/11 – William Hartung – The Scott Horton Show
William Hartung, Director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation, discusses Lockheed Martin‘s close ties to leading neoconservatives and considerable contribution to US militarism; its domestic expansion into TSA agent training and contract work for the IRS, Postal Service, Census Bureau and FBI; Lockheed's work on the controversial TIA and TALON domestic intelligence gathering programs — going far beyond the role of a typical defense contractor into a big-brother...
01/13/11 – Coleen Rowley – The Scott Horton Show
Coleen Rowley, retired FBI agent and 9/11 whistleblower, discusses the recent COINTELPRO-style government infiltration of a peaceful activist group; planned MLK day protests at FBI Washington headquarters and Quantico Marine base in support of Bradley Manning; how the government’s overreaction to WikiLeaks has led to a culture of paranoia, including a memo warning of 'insider threats' and suspiciously grumpy employees; how the expansive national security state sacrifices our civil liberties...
