I had the pleasure of guest hosting for Ed Schultz today on his radio show.
It was my first time hosting for Big Eddie, after being a guest on his show at various times over many years. We had much fun today in the bargain! My thanks to him and his crew for so generously and helpfully welcoming me aboard. My thanks also to the folks at my radio home base, KPFK/Pacifica Radio in Los Angeles, for helping us pull it all off at very short notice.
I hope you’ll have fun as well, listening to the show, if you missed it live today. The entire program is archived below (sans commercials!)
My guests included three great, independent, progressive journalists (four, if you include Desi Doyen, who also joined us, as usual):
- MARCY WHEELER , from EmptyWheel.net with the latest on today’s House Intel Oversight hearing on Edward Snowden’s NSA disclosures.
- ARI BERMAN from The Nation to discuss the this week’s Supreme Court rulings on Voting Rights and Voter registration.
- DAVID DAYEN, formerly of Firedoglake.com on his new, disturbing article in the New Republic on how mortgage service providers are strong-arming the victims of the Moore, OK tornado (and other recent natural disasters).
- PLUS! A whole bunch of other stuff, a lot of calls, and plenty of thoughts (and occasional rants) on the surveillance state and the politics of it all. As one very generous emailer wrote me after the show: “You cut right through this unfortunate ‘where does that leave the President?’ talk.” — Well, good! That was my hope!
The audio archives of today’s show follow below. Enjoy!
(Each “Hour” actually 38 mins, now that commercials are removed.)
HOUR 1: I introduce myself to Ed Schultz listeners who may not know me. Much ranting ensues. Then, Ari Berman joins us to discuss SCOTUS and their voting rights rulings, and we fit in a quick call from someone who disagrees with me, kinda, on the NSA matter…
Download MP3 or listen online below…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/EdSchultz_BradFriedman_GuestHost_061813_Hour1.mp3]HOUR 2: More NSA, as Marcy Wheeler checks in, followed by lots of phone calls for the rest of the hour!…
Download MP3 or listen online below…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/EdSchultz_BradFriedman_GuestHost_061813_Hour2.mp3]HOUR 3: We talk with David Dayen about his disturbing new article; Desi Doyen joins us for some Green News Report; and we shoot it out with more callers…
Download MP3 or listen online below…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/EdSchultz_BradFriedman_GuestHost_061813_Hour3.mp3]
With respect to the first call, I think it vital to note that Snowden did not defect to mainland China. He traveled to Hong Kong, the former British Colony, which, while technically a part of China, maintains a quasi-autonomous legislature and a commitment to free speech which cannot be found anywhere on the mainland. (Hong Kong was also the site of the 1948 War Crimes Trials where my father’s testimony helped to convict the members of the Japanese Kempetai who were responsible for his being tortured (waterboarded)).
This fundamental distinction was touched upon in Amy Goodman’s interview of Charles Mok, a legislative councilor representing the Information Technology Functional Constituency of Hong Kong and in Democracy Now’s coverage of the emerging movement amongst Hong Kong citizens in support of Snowden.
Mok noted they “have a one-country, two-system system in Hong Kong and between Hong Kong and the mainland…We do have different governments, even though as a regional government, we do report to the central government.”
Mok observed that if the U.S. sought extradition, Snowden would be entitled to apply to the Hong Kong government “for refugee status.” A Hong Kong court would then determine whether Snowden faced political persecution in the U.S., and Hong Kong’s courts would ensure that Snowden is afforded due process — a once hallowed right in the U.S. which former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales described as “quaint”.
Listening to Marcy Wheeler I had a different take that you may want to use.
The tapping of our phones is not only bad for liberty and democracy, but it’s bad for business. Businesses that provide terrorists with materials could be singled out and accused of aiding a terroroist. Businesses will then need to be wary of who they transact with.
If businesses have nothing to hide and know that they are not aiding terrorists have nothing to hide, therefore they should be fine with the NSA checking on their internet and financial transactions.