Economics: Pay very close attention to this segment in which we discuss Mike Whitney's "A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions", and UPI's "Forecast: U.S. dollar could plunge 90 pct" published Saturday in Information Clearing House. We're not sure what to do about the plunging housing market, banks being buried in debt, global credit markets in crisis, and dollar's decline, but it is clear that knowledge empowers. Anyone with ideas about how to fix this train wreck, please weigh in.
Eighth Amendment: We devote much of our time to a discussion of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to hear Baze v. Rees and a companion case, involving two Kentucky inmates' claims that the three drug cocktail used to execute prisoners is cruel and unusual punishment. Thanks to a query from one of our listeners, we discuss the history behind this amendment and the evolving standards set by the Court in its attempts to define punishment that is unacceptably both cruel and unusual. We rely on Wikipedia, Linda Greenhouse's "Justices to Enter the Debate Over Lethal Injection" published September 26 in the N.Y. Times, Rob Hotakainen's "Death-penalty cases on hold pending Supreme Court review" published Nov. 12 in McClatchy Newspapers and Darryl Fears' "Lethal Injection to Get Supreme Test" published Nov. 23 in the Washington Post for reference. Interesting!
Doctor Faces Felony Charges for Trying to Help: We are outraged about the story of Dr. Catherine Wilkerson, who witnessed both police brutality and another health professional's violating "first do no harm" principal at a political event at the University of Michigan about a year ago. Attempting to give medical attention to a protestor who had lost consciousness in a cop's grip, Wilkerson was shoved, threatened, blocked, ignored, physically attacked, and eventually charged with two felonies after filing a complaint of police brutality. Her trial is set this week. Thanks to Counterpunch for reminding us this is no longer the same country we once knew. Go to
www.counterpunch.org and read "Scenes from a Cop Riot" March 13 for Dr. Wilkerson's complete story.
We'll be back Thursday November 29. We hope. Do a little holiday shopping in our store! Thanks for your support.
