May 13 – Who is Secretly Backing Boko Haram?; Obama Determined to Jail James Risen; Chasing the American Dream As Our Fortunes Fade

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the latest efforts to free the kidnapped schoolgirls in Nigeria that might involve a prisoner swap the Nigerian government has signaled it is considering. Nii Akuetteh, an independent policy researcher and analyst who previously served as Executive Director of Africa Action in Washington D.C. joins us to discuss the possibility of exchanging captured Boko Haram terrorists for the kidnapped schoolgirls and what kind of military and intelligence assistance the beleaguered government of Goodluck Jonathan might be getting from the U.S.

Part 2

Then we speak with Matthew Rothschild, the Senior Editor of The Progressive Magazine where he has an article “Obama Threatens Pulitzer Prize-Winner”. We look into the Obama Administration’s efforts to jail The New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter James Risen on Federal contempt of court charges unless he releases the identity of his confidential source on a story involving a botched CIA attempt to provide Iran with a blueprint of a flawed design for a nuclear bomb. The Progressive, along with four other organizations, have generated a petition with 50,000 signatures so far in support of James Risen and his First Amendment rights.

Part 3

Then finally Dr. Mark Rank, Professor of Social Welfare at Washington University St. Louis and Thomas Hirschl, Professor of Development Sociology at Cornell University join us to discuss their new book “Chasing the American Dream: Understanding What Shapes Our Fortunes”. We discuss the book’s extraordinary finding that four out of five Americans at some time experience hunger, homelessness and unemployment, yet we have a government dominated by politicians who serve the interests of the 1% in part because the majority of poor Americans either don’t vote or vote for the interests of billionaires.