February 10 – To Kill or Not to Kill an American with a Drone; Obama’s Embarrassing Diplomatic Appointees; Robert Reich on his Film “Inequality for All”

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Obama Administration weighing options on whether to approve a lethal drone strike against an American citizen accused of being an al- Qaeda operative. Mary Ellen O’Connell, a Professor of Law and Research Professor of International Dispute Resolution at the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame joins us to discuss whether or not the new counterterrorism guidelines for the president’s kill list will restrain Obama who has been criticized by the Republican Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee for not removing terrorists from the battlefield because of “self-imposed red tape”.

Part 2

Then we look into some of the president’s appointments, following the embarrassing lack of basic knowledge about the countries that the political appointees to be U.S. Ambassadors to Norway and Hungary displayed in their confirmation hearings. Henri Barkey, a Professor of International Relations at LeHigh University who was a member of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff joins us to discuss his article in The Washington Post” “Obama’s Ambassador Nominees are a Disservice to Diplomacy’ and the state visit by French President Francois Hollande who visited Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello with Obama unaccompanied by his estranged partner who is still piqued by the apparent affair Hollande had with an actress.

Part 3

Then finally former Labor Secretary Robert Reich joins us to discuss how to address growing income and wealth inequality in America which is the subject of a new documentary feature about him “Inequality For All”. We discuss the need for a popular revolt against the domination of our politics and economy by a handful of plutocrats and giant corporations who have purchased the best government that money can buy, a government that needless to say, does not work for the middle class or working Americans who must mobilize to take back their government and their economy.