February 27 – The Real Stratfor Scandal; More Corporate Tax Cuts?; Fact-checking Romney’s Union Bashing

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with an analysis of the 5 million internal emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor that was hacked into by Anonymous who passed them on to Wikileaks who released them today along with a press conference in London featuring the Yes Men who were the target of an investigation by Stratfor on behalf of their client, Dow Chemical.  Mark Perry, an intelligence and foreign affairs analyst joins us to discuss the quality of this data dump.

Part 2

Then we look into the Obama Administration’s proposed overhaul of corporate taxation and how much of corporate America’s record profits are being hidden abroad in tax shelters. Scott Klinger, the Tax Policy Director of Business for Shared Prosperity joins us to discuss why corporations are sitting on piles of cash as their political hirelings beat the drum for more corporate tax cuts while the economy remains stalled because of the lack of demand by consumers who don’t have purchasing power because they are being downsized.

Part 3

Then finally we discuss the Republican primary campaign in Michigan where Mitt Romney is making appeals to restore the endangered middle class while bashing unions. Al Benchich, the former president of UAW local 909 who retired from GM after 36 years, joins us to discuss how the denigration of unions has accompanied the downsizing of the middle class and how the concessions the UAW made in the so-called “government bailout” have helped revive General Motors at the expense of providing new workers with a living wage.