Fallon Muzzled by Pentagon: Thanks to AP for reminding us that it's business as usual in Washington with Saturday's "Pentagon Rules Out Fallon Testimony". We are not surprised that Adm. William Fallon, announcing last week that he was resigning as chief of the U.S. Central Command in Iraq and Afghanistan, will not testify along with Gen. David Patraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker before Congress April 8 and 9 on the way ahead in Iraq and with troop withdrawals. This decision, made by the Pentagon, has nothing to do with Fallon's abrupt retirement or Fallon's view that a war with Iran is an exceedingly bad idea. Nosirree! Join us to find out more.
How Quickly We Forget: Greg Mitchell's "The Iraq Follies", published March 11 in
www.motherjones.com is a thoughtful summary of 18 nearly forgotten examples of faulty media coverage of the war, ranging from Bill O'Reilly's promise the day before the invasion to apologize to the nation and would never trust the administration again id no WMDs were located in Iraq, to David Brooks' claim on Meet the Press in July 2007 that if the U.S. pulled out, 10,000 Iraqis a month would perish, and then having to admit he simply pulled those numbers out of the air. More of the same indeed. Listen up for details.
Kicked to the Curb from Congressional Panel: An important lesson is to be learned through Mother Jones' March 14 editorial comment, "Credit Card Industry Kicks Consumers Off Congressional Panel" . This time, Marvin Weatherspoon and several other consumers who were set to relate their tales of credit card companies upping their interest rates to the moon with respect to a hearing on the Credit Card Holders Bill of Rights were unable to do so without signing a very broad waiver of rights. A win for the big boys. Outrageous!
Screws Tighten: The only question we have is how much? We discuss commentary of two financial analyists appearing on Sunday's Meet the Press, Nicole Colson's "Can You Afford to Feed Your Family" published March 22/23 in
www.counterpunch.org, CNN's Jen Haley's "What Bad Banking News Means to You", "The Hidden Casualties of America's 'War on Crime' " published Friday on Counterpunch, and Ryan Grim's "Paying Through the Nose", published March 19 in Mother Jones. A must-listen segment that covers the economic waterfront from a number of different angles.
The Elephant Lurks in the Room: "Talking about race: Um you first" published by Stephanie Simon and Richard Fausset in Sunday's L.A. Times and Rev. Otis Moss III's Easter sunrise sermon round out the podcast. A thought-provoking finish for sure.
We'll be back Thursday March 27. Unless we run away. Thanks for listening.
