June 1 – The Patriot Act Crashes and Burns in the Senate; Caitlyn and a Growing Awareness of the Transgender Community; A Profile of the Latest Presidential Candidate, Senator Lindsey Graham

Full Program

Part 1

We be begin with the train wreck in the U.S. Senate where the Patriot Act expired on Sunday night after a special session called by Majority Leader McConnell failed to get any bill passed amid acrimony as Republican senators walked out on Senator Rand Paul’s stand on the Senate floor which McConnell denounced as “a campaign of demagoguery and disinformation”, with John McCain remarking later that Rand Paul “would be the worst candidate we could put forward” for the presidency. Elizabeth Goitein, the co-director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice joins us to discuss the next domestic spying bill and her article at CNN “The Battle Over the Patriot Act”.  

Part 2

Then we look into the eye-catching cover of the July issue of Vanity Fair magazine that features a glamorous pose of Caitlyn, formerly Bruce Jenner, with a caption “Call me Caitlyn”. Joe Wenke, a writer, social critic and LGBT rights activist and author of the new book “The Human Agenda: Conversations About Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”, joins us. We discuss how Caitlyn and the Amazon TV series “Transparent” are opening up a conversation of acceptance about the transgender community and the transition that Bruce Jenner is undergoing.  

Part 3

Then finally we get a profile of Senator Lindsey Graham who announced his run for the presidency on Monday in front of the family restaurant and pool hall in Central, South Carolina which he inherited at the age of 22 when both parents died and he was left to bring up his younger sister on his parents Social Security death benefits. Corey Hutchins, who was twice named South Carolina’s journalist of the year and has followed the career of Lindsey Graham, joins us.