January 15 – A Perfect Storm of Dysfunction in Pakistan; Will Wall Street Demand Adult Behavior in Washington?; A Call for More Women in Obama’s Cabinet

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Part 1	We begin with a perfect storm of political dysfunction brewing in Pakistan where the Supreme Court has just called for the arrest of the prime Minister and a fundamentalist preacher is leading a horde marching on the capitol, while all around the country, minority Shia are conducting sit-in protests against a government that does not protect them from religious violence meted out by murderous Sunni fanatics. An expert on Pakistan who speaks the local languages Christine Fair, joins us to discuss a country whose neighbor India is accusing of trying to start another war.
Part 2	Then we look into the warning by the rating agency Fitch that it may downgrade U.S. debt in another self-inflicted crisis over the debt ceiling that calls into question the predictability and reliability of the handling of the nation’s fiscal affairs. William Cohan, a contributing editor at Fortune and the author of “Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World” joins us to discuss whether Wall Street, who gave the bulk of their money to Republicans in the last election, will be able to exert enough pressure on their political hirelings to ensure enough adult behavior to avoid a government default.
Part 3	Then finally, following the president’s re-election victory helped by an overwhelming vote from women, we discuss the deficit of women in the new Obama cabinet with Michelle Kinsey Bruns, the online manager for The Women’s Media Center. They have launched a petition to urge Obama to appoint more women to senior positions, particularly at the FCC to address the paucity of women in the all-white, all-male top management circles of America’s mainstream media.