February 26 – Obama Threatens Karzai; The Latest Plan to Suppress Democratic Votes in Ohio; The Pentagon’s Smoke and Mirrors Budget

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Full Program	LISTEN TO FULL PROGRAM
Part 1	We begin with Tuesday’s apparently contentious phone conversation between President Obama and Afghan president Karzai and look into whether any kind of settlement is possible before the U.S. and NATO deadline to pull out of Afghanistan at the end of the year. Christine Fair, a former United Nations political officer in Afghanistan who is a professor in the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University, joins us to discuss Obama’s bitter divorce from a corrupt partner he inherited from George W. Bush and his threat to leave no troops behind to stabilize a country that can not pay its way and is likely to fall apart.
Part 2	Then we look into the decision by Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State to suppress Democratic votes by cutting early voting on weekday evenings and Sundays to block the black church’s “Souls to the Polls” voting drives. Robert Alexander, the Chair or the Department of History, Politics, and Justice and professor of political science at Ohio Northern University joins us to discuss a flagrant attempt to limit African American voting in this year’s mid term election in which low voter turnout helps Republicans.
Part 3	Then finally we speak with Jo Comerford, the Executive Director of the National Priorities Project about the 2015 defense budget which does not translate into less spending when you add the extra $26 billion Obama is expected to ask for, the extra $115 billion over four year Hagel is proposing, and the $85 billion Overseas Contingency Operations “slush fund”.