Episode Info
Show:
Counterpoint
Original Aired:
Monday, June 20th, 2011
8:12PM to 10:00PM
Duration:
1 hour, 48 minutes
Posted:
Monday, June 20th, 2011 8:00PM
Tags:
israel
election
unions
military
rights
palestine
surveillance
gaza
recall
partisan
wisconsin
repression
flotilla
blockade
voters
suppression
lawsuits
Listen
Episode: 06.20.11: Counterpoint host Scott Harris discusses the international flotilla challenging Israel's blockade of Gaza; the Patriot Act & FBI abuse of civil liberties; GOP state legislation favoring voter suppression; an update on Wisconsin's labor struggle
Robert Naiman, policy director with the group Just Foreign Policy talks about his decision to be a passenger onboard the "Audacity of Hope," a U.S. boat that will be part of an international flotilla that will set sale from Greece at the end of June to challenge the Israeli military blockade of Gaza.
Chip Pitts, past president and current member of the board of directors of the group Bill of Rights Defense Committee. Pitts, a lecturer at Stanford Law School, former chair of Amnesty International USA and Co-author and editor of the recent book Corporate Social Responsibility: A Legal Analysis, summarizes the abuses of power perpetrated by the FBI re: their investigation and prosecution of U.S. peace activists, as well as troubling reports on new powers the FBI is giving to its agents.
Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, where she founded and directed the center’s Voting Rights and Elections Project, coordinating litigation, research, and advocacy efforts to enhance political participation and prevent voter disenfranchisement across the country. She discusses new election voting laws being implemented in GOP-controlled states, and the concern that these new laws are designed for partisan political advantage through voter suppression.
Matthew Rothschild, editor of the Progressive Magazine, talks about the recent Wisconsin state Supreme Court decision overturning a stay on implementation of a law which strips Wisconsin's public sector unions of collective bargaining rights, the launching of union federal law suits and the status of recall elections launched against 6 Republican and 3 Democratic State Senators this July.
Some segments of Counterpoint are edited for re-broadcast on the syndicated Between The Lines radio newsmagazine. Visit their web site at http://www.btlonline.org for free subscriptions to mp3 - podcast audio files, program summaries and interview transcripts. An archive of Counterpoint programs are accessible for free at http://www.wpkn.org
Show: Counterpoint
Counterpoint, hosted by Scott Harris heard every Monday on WPKN 89.5 FM,Bridgeport, CT and WPKM 88.7 FM Montauk, NY between 8:00-10:00 pm ET. Webstreaming at http://wpkn.org