Tell Somebody

Dr. Margaret Flowers of Physicians for a National Health Plan (www.pnhp.org) is the featured guest on this edition of Tell Somebody. Dr. Flowers was one of 13 single-payer healthcare advocates arrested in May for demanding that a single-payer healthcare reform advocate be included "at the table" with all the for-profit healthcare campaign donors at U.S. Senate Finance Committee hearings.  Dr. Flowers was able to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in June, and on August 4th was heard on Tell Somebody.  Right-click on the mp3 file at the bottom of this posting and "save as", or subscribe to Tell Somebody, for free, at the iTunes store to hear what she had to say. Links to Dr. Flowers' testimony and more information, including contacts for local advocacy, here http://tellsomebodyradio.blogspot.com/2009/08/dr-margaret-flowers-next-up-on-tell.html Also this week, the Department of Energy is looking for a national dump site for mercury.  In an inter-governmental agency memo, M

In the summer of 1967, U.S. Marine Corps Staff Sergeant Bryce Lockwood, Russian linguist,  boarded the spy ship U.S.S. Liberty in Rota, Spain and was below decks when the ship was hit by an Israeli torpedo that killed 25 - sailors, marines, and a civilian. In an account that originally aired on two editions of Tell Somebody sandwiched around the 2008 presidential election, Lockwood tells his story of surviving the attack. Lockwood was awarded the Silver Star for his acts after the torpedo strike. I'm posting this as a companion to my interview with James Scott about his new book Attack on the Liberty.  James Scott is the son of another Liberty Silver Star holder, John Scott.  You can download an mp3 of that show here: http://www.tellsomebody.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=509525  

On June 8, 1967, fighter jets and torpedo boats attacked a defenseless U.S. spy ship off the coast of Egypt.  After an assault lasting over an hour, 34 U.S. sailors, marines, and civilians were dead, 174 wounded, and the ship was in danger of sinking with a house-sized torpedo hole in its side.  The attackers?  The Israeli Air Force and Navy. Investigative journalist James M. Scott, son of a Liberty survivor, has written a new book, Attack on the Liberty - the Untold Story of Israel's Deadly 1967 Assault on a U.S. Spy Ship (Simon & Schuster 2009). From the back cover of the book: "The specter of the Liberty has haunted the Navy and the intelligence community for decades.  The underlying question the attack raised in 1967 still resonates: how do politics and diplomacy impact battlefield decisions?  In the case of the Liberty, the White House - afraid of offending Israel's domestic backers at a time when it needed support for its Vietnam policy - looked the other way.  Likewise, Congress failed to formally

Be sure to scroll down for links to past shows - also scroll through www.tellsomebody.us We talked a lot on Tell Somebody about bad media coverage generally, and specifically on the subject of healthcare reform: Tom Klammer: Who Sits at the Health-Reform Table? Recently on Counterspin on KKFI, we heard about a Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting online petition demanding that TV networks stop their blackout of single payer.  I read more at www.fair.org, and then I contacted FAIR's communications director, Isabel Macdonald, who told us more about the petition, and gave a preview of coming attractions in FAIR's magazine Extra! And, again, please hold up your hand if you already knew that 85% of the non-nuclear components for the US nuclear weapons arsenal are made right her in Kansas City.  GSA/NNSA/PIEA and a compliant Kansas City, MO city council have worked a tax break deal with private developers to boondoggle- er I mean build - a new WMD plant, and DOE is looking at dumping waste mercury in the old plant.

Alternative Radio director and founder David Barsamian sits down at his home in Boulder, Colorado to talk with Tell Somebody.   In a June article about Barsamian’s keynote appearance at a Canadian media conference, a Canadian news site, www.hour.ca writes that “Dating back to the 1980s, Alternative Radio, founded by Armenian-American journalist and author David Barsamian, has been a shining example of an independent media initiative that wields international scope while maintaining fierce independence and strong ties to social movements." "Radio is uniquely positioned to deliver intellectual content, particularly because a listener is not distracted by the image, as in TV or the Internet," says Barsamian. "I think that for ideas and serious talk, radio is the singular medium that can offer a real ability for listeners to really delve into the profound issues of our time." http://www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=17473 Barsamian is winner of the Media Education Award, the ACLU's Upton Sinclair Award for

This edition of Tell Somebody has a guest host. Nilufar Movahedi is the host of two shows on Iranian music, culture and politics on 90.1 FM KKFI - Saba Wind of Love is for English speakers, followed by Sayeh for Persian speakers.  Saba and Sayeh can be heard on 90.1, streaming at www.kkfi.org , on Sundays at 3-5 pm Central. On this edition of Tell Somebody, Nilufar talks with an Iranian-Canadian who blogs at www.sidewalklyrics.com under the name "Pedestrian." They talk about the June 12 election in Iran, coverage of election and its aftermath in the Western media, and related issues.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/44093 http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/02-5 http://www.consortiumnews.com/2009/070109b.html   President Obama held a town hall meeting on healthcare in the White House recently, with Charlie Gibson and Diane Sawyer on hand, pretending to be journalists.  Single payer advocates were excluded, but corporate interests were, once again, very well represented.  A woman in a bright yellow jacket was seated on the front row of the event in the East Room of the White House could be the poster child for corporate health care interests.   

Local activists working for single-payer healthcare are the main focus of this week's show, but we start with a little coverage of WMD in Kansas City.  Most people don't know that a plant in Kansas City produces about 85% of the components for the United States' nuclear weapons arsenal.  The General Services Administration and the National Nuclear Security Administration have teamed up with private developers,  compliant Kansas City politicians, the KC Planned Industrial Expansion Authority (PIEA)- a state chartered quasi-city agency - and the Lathrop & Gage law firm  to come up with a $600 million + Kansas City tax-abated, PIEA-owned new WMD components plant built in a soybean field they contrived to have designated as "blighted." We have some short excerpts from the latest PIEA hearing, where boosters speak and power-point at length, and critics, including a former employee charging poor work place hazard handling are removed by security. After that, we listen to Dee Berry and Mary Lindsay, local activ

 The FCC is seeking public input as they formulate a national broadband strategy. They are seeking public comments until July 8th – The media reform advocacy group Free Press recently released a paper: Dismantling Digital Deregulation: Toward a National Broadband Strategy . The paper argues that America’s broadband failure is rooted in poor policy decisions made by the FCC. Free Press believes the FCC must learn from their past mistakes in order to create a national broadband strategy that finally delivers fast, open and affordable Internet to everyone.   We'll hear from Free Press' Campaign Director Timothy Karr. http://freepress.net/files/changing_media.pdf http://www.freepress.net/summit Dismantling Digital Deregulation: Toward a National Broadband Strategy  On June 10th we read in the Kansas City Star that former U.S. Representative Karen McCarthy is suffering from Alzheimer's Disease and is now living in a area nursing home.  We'll repeat part of an interview McCarthy gave to Tell Somebody last summer w

David Himmelstein, M.D. — Harvard Medical School, co-founder, Physicians for a National Health Plan is the guest on this edition of Tell Somebody. The following came in a press release from Public Citizen: Two-Thirds of Bankruptcies Are Medically Related; National Health Insurance Needed NowStatement of Sidney Wolfe, M.D., Director, Health Research Group at Public CitizenA nationwide study showing that 62 percent of bankruptcies in 2007 were related to medical bills or illness underscores the need for a single-payer health care system.The study, conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Law School and Ohio State University (David Himmelstein, Steffie Woolhandler, Elizabeth Warren and Deborah Thorne) found the high bankruptcy rate even though more than three-quarters (78 percent) of the people having medical bankruptcies had health insurance - mainly private insurance - at the start of their illness. It is astounding that medically related bankruptcies increased by half from 2001 to 2007 - we

What is the true cost of Chevron?  At http://truecostofchevron.com/, we read that "Chevron shareholders were given a full account of the true costs of Chevron's global operations by a delegation of representatives of Chevron affected communities from the across the nation and around the world. Outside supporters filled the entryway, closing Chevron's front gate with a vibrant rally. Representatives from Nigeria, Ecuador, Richmond and the Philippines, were joined inside by those representing communities from Burma, Kazakhstan, Iraq and Alberta to present to shareholders an alternative annual report, The True Cost of Chevron." On this edition of Tell Somebody, I talk with Antonia Juhasz, principal author of the alternative report. And, in a blog on the Women in Media and News website, WIMN founder and Executive Director Jennifer L. Pozner asks Will Media Report Dr. George Tiller’s Murder as an Act of Terrorism?  http://www.wimnonline.org/WIMNsVoicesBlog/?p=1264 I talked to Pozner about media coverage of Dr. T

What did Colin Powell know, and when did he know it? “Why do they hate us?’ Does torture work? Former Vice President Dick Cheney has come out of his non-disclosed location, “oozing out a slimey speech” at the American Enterprise Institute and making multiple TV appearances in defense of torture. Ray McGovern has been listening - to Cheney, but also to retired Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s former Chief of Staff. Ray McGovern was a 27 year CIA analyst under seven presidents, and he’s talking to Tell Somebody again.

www.freepress.net www.tellsomebody.us On Thursday, May 14th, 2009, Free Press held a Summit on Changing Media at the Newseum in Washington, DC.  Acting FCC Chair Michael Copps and Free Press' Senior Program Director Craig Aaron were among the featured  speakers.  Aaron's talk was headlined 'Journalism Is a Public Service.' On this edition of Tell Somebody, I talked about the summit with Craig Aaron, and also aired the comments made by Michael Copps.  

 Mother's Day was first organized in 1870 by the abolitionist, suffragette and poet Julia Ward Howe to promote peace and speak out against war.  Julia's Voice ( www.juliasvoice.org ) was first organized last year to try to bring Mother's Day back to its origins.On this edition of Tell Somebody, we'll talk to Sara Sautter and Elizabeth Barker of the Julia's Voice steering committee about the history of Mother's Day and plans for Mother's Day 2009 and beyond.Also, an exclusive interview with Ra'ed Jarrar about U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.  An Iraqi-born U.S. citizen who was in Baghdad for Shock and Awe, Jarrar currently works for AFSC in Washington, D.C.

Rachel Corrie was killed 6 years ago while trying to save a Palestinian family from having their home demolished, and possibly from their own deaths, by a US-supplied Israeli bulldozer. On what would have been Rachel Corrie's 30th birthday, I had the opportunity to see the play My Name is Rachel Corrie at the Unicorn Theater in Kansas City, and to meet again with Rachel's parents, Craig and Cindy Corrie.  I recorded a conversation with them the next day, and part of it can be heard on this week's edition of Tell Somebody.  More information on Rachel Corrie at www.rachelcorriefoundation.org. Tent State University returns to UMKC Wednesday-Friday, April 22nd-24th with free food, speakers, and much more.  UMKC student and Tent State organizer Jessica Farmer came to the KKFI Studios to tell us about it. Bill Wickersham, founding member of the Missouri University Nuclear Disarmament Education Team (MUNDET), will be speaking on Monday April 27th 2009 in the Business Center at Longview Community College.  Wickersham

Recently, Robert McChesney put out an email that said,in part, "The Nation just published an article I wrote on the crisis on journalism with my friend John Nichols. It is titled " The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers," though it concerns the entirety of journalism. If this is an issue that you care about, I think you might find the piece of more than passing interest. We make an argument to address the problem going far beyond most of what has been proposed to date." In this edition of Tell Somebody I talk to McChesney about the future of journalism.

Democracy Now host Amy Goodman is my guest on this edition of Tell Somebody.  Just ahead of an appearance in Kansas City in a benefit for 90.1 FM KKFI, Goodman talks about her book Standing Up To The Madness, Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times, co-authored with her brother, David Goodman. After that, Part VI of Eyewitness to the Russian Revolution, a never before published account of the February Revolution in Petrograd, Russia in 1917, by Hugo Hakk, Estonian officer in the czar's army, used with permission of his daughter and translator, Liia Hakk.

A recent column by Democracy Now host Amy Goodman cites a study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting that found that in the week before Obama’s health-care summit, of the hundreds of stories that appeared in major newspapers and on the networks, “only five included the views of advocates of single-payer—none of which appeared on television.” Most opinion columns that mentioned single-payer were written by opponents. I thought it might be a good time to reach into the archives and give another listen to a December, 2004, conversation with Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Steele.  Jim Steele was co-author, with Donald L. Barlett, of Critical Condition, How Health Care in America Became Big Business & Bad Medicine.  Even after four-plus years, the diagnosis of the problem as laid out in the book holds up. After that, Part V of Eyewitness to the Revolution, Hugo Hakk's account of the February, 1917 Russian Revolution breaking out in Petrograd, just translated this month by his daughter Liia Hakk. Tom Klammer

A musical break by my alter ego and friends, Albert and the Labortones. This started rattling around in my head several years ago and refused to not come out.    I Want My Democracy.  NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Vandana Shiva on her book Soil Not Oil, and Part IV of Eyewitness to the Russian Revolution. Vandana Shiva is a world-renowned environmental leader and thinker.  Her latest book is Soil Not Oil, Engironmental Justice In An Age Of Climate Crisis.  On this edition of Tell Somebody, I talk to Vandana Shiva about the book. "A must-read for anyone who takes the future of the planet seriously,  Soil Not Oil dares us to imagine a world where people matter more than profits." www.navdanya.com www.southendpress.org Then I finish up the show with Part IV of Eyewitness to the Russian Revolution.  Hugo Hakk, machine gun trainer/officer in the Czar's Army is on leave from the Eastern Front in WWI and finds himself in Petrograd just as the February Revolution is breaking out in 1917.  After a side trip to Finland, he's back in Petrograd on International Women's Day.  Tell Somebody is a locally produced weekly public affairs program on 90.1 FM, KKFI, Kansas City Community Radio. Tom Klammer host and producer www.kkfi.org w