Beneath The Surface with Suzi Weissman

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The Bush regime seems to be falling apart.

Its war in Iraq is a catastrophic failure. The I.C.E. raids are its biggest recent success, but deporting a large sector of the immigrant labor force is leaving the produce of U.S. agribusiness rotting in the fields. The scandal of the broken private health insurance system – even as Bush threatens to veto a minimal measure to extend Medicare to children in desperate need – encapsulates millions of Americans’ profound economic insecurity and growing fears for their families’ future.

The real condition of the richest country in the history of the planet is highlighted by events like the collapse of the bridge in Minneapolis, the product of decades of neglect of a decaying American infrastructure; the entombment of miners and rescuers in a Utah mountain mine that no halfway decent regulatory system would ever have allowed to open; the completely broken promises to the people of New Orleans. The housing bubble, prolonged and inflated by the predatory “subprime” mortgage industry, is now rupturing and spreading through the international financial markets with consequences still unknown.

When Karl Rove deserts the ship, you know it’s going down -- and he was joined today by Alberto Gonzales, just in time to avoid impeachment.

And so, we begin tonight’s program by marking the 2nd anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita, looking at how an American city was left on its own with the Rev. James Lawson & Tom Honore.

We then turn to the deportation of Elvira Arrellano and talk to Dan LaBotz about what the ICE raids are doing to labor and agriculture in the absence of a sane and humane immigration policy.

And finally we talk to John Nichols about the top news story of the day, the resignation of discredited Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez.

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Tonight we go beneath the surface on two subjects: Iraq War Deaths and Education.

We begin with Les Roberts - who co-authored the Lancet study published in 2006 that scientifically estimated Iraqi deaths at 650,000 – and ask him about the methodology used, why it was dismissed by both media and the government and whether it can be extrapolated and updated for now.

We then have an extended conversation with Jonathan Kozol, educational reformer extraordinaire about his new book Letters to a Young Teacher, and we’ll talk about the qualities necessary to cut through the dead verbiage of educational reform to get to what it takes to get to real learning.

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We begin tonight's program with this morning's news. Karl Rove, called "Bush's Brain" and master strategist, has resigned, effective at the end of this month. David Corn thinks he should stay, and we'll ask him why.

We then turn to economic news. The fundamentals under our McMansion of equity market hope has started to buckle, and the subprime credit punch Ponzi scheme has led to a liquidity crisis as foreclosures mount and international markets respond. Max Wolff joins us to explain what is going on, whether we should be worried or just plain scared, and what can be done.

And finally on tonight's Beneath the Surface we turn to Russia - still living on oil revenues and increasingly dictatorial, with Cold War tensions mounting. We ask Simon Pirani to assess the Russian economy, politics, and place in the world today.

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On tonight’s program we begin with the “Protect America Act of 2007” passed by Congress over the weekend -- it purportedly modernizes the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978), but some see it as a spying blank check that Congress gave to Bush. We talk to Robert Parry and ask whether the Bush administration is spying on ‘terrorists’ or on us?

Then the incredible comic personality Harry Shearer joins us – that’s right, the Harry Shearer of This is Spinal Tap, The Simpsons & The Simpson movie, KCRW’s Le Show, blogger at the Huffington Post and more. He’s released a new CD today called “Songs Pointed & Pointless,” - and he’ll be performing some of them on Wednesday at the House of Blues - but you’ll hear him right here tonight on his songs, his ideas, his writings and more.

And finally on tonight’s Beneath The Surface we talk to David Olsen, a bicycle and public transit consultant, researcher and advocate, who says that "Fare-Free Public Transit Could Be Headed to a City Near You" – we’ll see what he thinks of the MTA’s new high bus fares in Los Angeles.

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On tonight’s Beneath The Surface we look at the wounds to our democracy – torture, secret detention, illegal surveillance, and the lies that got us into war in Iraq and more with Shane Kadidal of the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Then Allen Ides of Loyola Law School joins us to discuss a remedy: impeachment – as an educative tool that also repudiates the crimes of this administration.

We end tonight’s program with Richard Lichtman on the corruption of morality in politics – and its systemic underpinning, as well as the corrosive legacy that could survive for use by future administrations if left unchallenged.

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Tonight's program is dedicated to Amelia Esther Minsky Nichols, the newest "struggle element" to join parents Alan Minsky and Sheila Nichols in their multi-pronged efforts for a better world.

We begin tonight with a look at the four year occupation of Iraq from the point of view of the Vets. We'll talk to Chris Hedges, whose report based on troop interviews is the cover story of the July 30 issue of Nation. One vet told Hedges and his co-author Laila Al-Arian, that what was wrong was ‘the nature of the situation you're in -- It's not individual atrocity. It's the fact that the entire war is an atrocity."

We then turn to Montana Progressive Democrat Paul Edwards, whose op-ed "Timid Democrats Need to Stand Up or Get Lost" appeared in the Great Falls Tribune and had the whole region talking about its eloquent and hard hitting message: that "The horrific disaster inflicted on Iraq and America must be made to end now, Not some time later, not in months, not after the useless deaths of hundreds more young soldiers, but immediately, with as much efficiency and security as can be managed, and as much assistance and support as can be had from a world community that has long been sickened and appalled by Mr. Bush and his blundering falsity and shameless fraud."

And finally, we talk to Nomi Prins about her thoughts on our criminal justice system: she wrote in NewsDay that the Scooter Libby Case should be used to fix sentencing: The president said the sentence was 'excessive,' but the judge was well within the guidelines.

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The Supreme Court decision on two school desegregation cases (Louisville and Seattle) on June 28 ruled that race cannot be considered in school admissions. Five of nine justices decided that the monumental 1954 Brown v. Board of Ed. decision wasn’t actually meant to ensure racial integration. 5-4, the court said that schools no longer could use race to help integrate their students. In a decision with profound implications for the nation's public schools, -- including LA Unified and its magnet program, the United States Supreme Court invalidated voluntary school desegregation plans. We talk to Nadine Cohen in Boston.

We then look at the national healthcare delivery crisis which is about to get major attention with the opening of Michael Moore’s new documentary SICKO. Jack Rasmus joins us.

And finally, the immigration bill is dead, killed in the Senate. We’ll talk to Alvaro Huerta to figure out what happened and what’s next.

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This week on Beneath the Surface, we bring you excerpts from the Truthdig debate on Religion and Politics, between Chris Hedges (author of American Fascists and War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning), and Sam Harris (author of The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation).

The debate took place on May 22nd at UCLA's Royce Hall and was moderated by Robert Scheer.

On this Memorial Day we commemorate by looking at how to end the war in Iraq – with Tom Hayden, whose new book Ending the War in Iraq continues his years of service to this country: years of anti-war, legislative and oppositional experience combine with his historical understanding, strategic thinking and commitment to peace and justice to lay out a plan to apply public pressure to the pillars of war policy to finally end the war.

But first, we begin with the casualties of this war – the vets who on this day of remembrance are getting short shrift from the medical system they now require for life – and are getting denied benefits due to a diagnosis of personality disorder. Joshua Kors returns to BTS to update us on the saga of mistreatment of the war wounded once they return.

And finally on this Memorial Day we memorialize the ones who aren’t remembered, who die horrible deaths in torrid heat, the workers who trek north to do essential work and feed their families. More of them have died each year in the Arizona desert than all of those who were killed crossing the Berlin Wall in all the years of its existence. We speak to Walt Staton of No Mas Muertes, No More Deaths.

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On tonight’s Beneath The Surface we begin with the escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence – at least five Palestinians and an Israeli woman were killed today. We talk to Hisham Ahmed about the Fatah-Hamas turmoil and the Palestinian authority’s political crisis, and mark the coming one year anniversary of Israel’s war on Lebanon looking at the conditions for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.

We then turn to the emotional immigration debate taking place in the Senate and ask Vanessa Cardenas what is in the deal.

And finally, we talk to Michael Yates about his new book, Cheap Motels and a Hot Plate, an Economist’s Travelogue that the chamber of commerce doesn’t want you to read – going beneath the surface, Michael Yates shows how people live in the places we visit, the underside of the beautiful places.

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