Marjorie Cohn Transcript

January 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Announcer: You’ve been listening to Sound Authors, where authors sound off. If you’d like more information about Sound Authors and Dr. Kent’s guests, visit soundauthors.com, now, back to Dr. Kent and friends.

Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to the show this beautiful, sunny day out in New York. My next guest on the show is a professor of law.Her new book is called “Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law.” And I’d like to start out with a little quote that tops her website, which says, “So, was there a need for yet another anti-Bush book? Well, it turns out there was.” That was written by William Fisher.Welcome to the show, Marjorie.

Marjorie Cohn: My pleasure, Kent.

Kent: And give me a little nutshell about your book before we start.

Marjorie: Well, I thought it was important to have a volume that people could carry around with them that would lay out, in very readable terms, how the Bush administration is breaking the law.And many people say, “Well, why did you just limit it to six ways?” Of course, there are many more than six, but I wanted it to be something that was affordable and didn’t look like Webster’s unabridged dictionary.

Kent: [laughs]

Marjorie: So I identified what I thought were the six most egregious examples of lawbreaking: the war of aggression in Iraq, the torture of prisoners, summary execution and willful killing, the Guantanamo gulag, spying on Americans, and refusing to execute the law.

Kent: Wow. That’s quite a list. And I’m sure, in your head, it took a long time to compile that to just six reasons.

Marjorie: It did. And I write almost weekly articles on my blog that you just mentioned, and so I’ve really been studying this all along, ever since Bush became president.And it wasn’t so hard to write the book, because I just continued to chronicle what I had already been…I mean, the news comes out on almost a daily basis that demonstrates this lawbreaking.And as soon as I wrote the book, it was out of date, because then we had the US attorney firing scandal, the new attorney general who says he doesn’t know whether water-boarding is torture even though everyone else does know that it is, and the torture tape cover-up scandal now, which is being investigated by Congress and the Department of Justice. And the list goes on and on and on.

Kent: So, if this presidency has been such a debacle in so many ways–and all the American people even read about this in the daily paper–how was nothing done, and why?

Marjorie: Well, I think the primary problem is that, since 9/11–and I don’t believe that Bush planned 9/11, although I think he’s taken advantage of it to ram through Congress a number of things, such as the PATRIOT Act, the Iraq war, the Military Commissions Act, the so-called Protect America Act.But every time he wants something done, he waves the 9/11 flag, I think, in an insult to the victims and the families 9/11, and says, “We need this so I can keep you safe.”And in fact, the things that he’s doing don’t keep us safe; they make us less safe, by incurring more wraths against the United States.When people in other countries see the Iraq war, which has claimed not just almost 4, 000 Americans but, by some accounts, more than a million Iraqis, when they see the torture taking place, they hate America even more.

Kent: Absolutely.

Marjorie: But what Bush has done is to succeed in keeping Congress terrorized, so that if Congress does not go along with what he wants and give him all these things, then they’re soft on terror. And I think that’s the problem.

Kent: So, one thing. I’ve spent a great deal of time thinking about politics. I lived in the Middle East for a time, in Jerusalem. And it’s so sad for me to hear: a million people. Where does that figure come from, and is it valid, in your opinion?

Marjorie: Well, it comes from a group… The British journal, “The Lancet” said, I believe it was almost two years ago, that there were more than 650, 000 excess Iraqi deaths.That is, above and beyond the Iraqis who died from the punishing sanctions of the Clinton administration actually was responsible for, since the beginning of this so-called Operation Iraqi freedom?

Kent: Wow.

Marjorie: And recently, the organization called Just Foreign Policy has estimated that more than one million Iraqis have been killed since this Operation Iraqi Freedom began.In fact, the Australian-born journalist John Pilger wrote: “The scale of death caused by the British and US governments may well have surpassed that of the Rwanda genocide, making it the single biggest act of mass murder of the late-20th century and the 21st century.” Those are pretty strong words.

Kent: That’s certainly true. I’m getting the chills here. I had one of my friends killed brutally. He was an Arab-Israeli and was killed because he went the wrong way in a demonstration.And I think of that one person, and I see his face. It’s amazing to think that a million people, and that the American people wouldn’t know about that. Maybe it is coming through the media. I read the German newspaper and things like that, and it does come through there. But why doesn’t it come through mainstream media?

Marjorie: That’s a great question. Also, we don’t see the caskets coming back of American soldiers. I think that the Bush administration learned a lesson during Vietnam, which is that if you put on television what’s really happening that the American people are not going to stand for it.So, not only don’t we see the caskets of American soldiers–and Bush does not go to funerals of American servicemen and women, because he doesn’t want the press coverage…

Kent: Wow.

Marjorie: He doesn’t want people to know about that. But we don’t see the images that they see in the Arab and Muslim world, they see on Al Jazeera: pictures of Iraqi children blown apart by American bombs.

Kent: Not even. I saw that one…

Marjorie: We don’t see that. We’re shielded from that by the corporate media.

Kent: One of the most formative experiences of my life was being in Jerusalem, actually lived in Bethlehem behind the Palestinian lines of course.I speak Arabic and all that, and I was living in a happy little world, and then all of a sudden when I watched the TV, it wasn’t the Olympics anymore. It was pictures of people being shot, and it is a horrible thing to see that on television, but at the same time, at least you see it.

Marjorie Cohn: Right. Speaking of Bethlehem and the Palestinians, I just want to say one thing, and that is that after 9/11, the tragedy on 9/11 where we were attacked by 19 men who blew themselves up, 15 of whom came from Saudi Arabia. None of them came from Iraq or Iran by the way.The 9/11 commission did an exhaustive study about why we were attacked and why we didn’t know about it, but they really didn’t ask the primary question.Which is, why did these men all sacrificed their lives? Why did they hate the United States so much?So, I did a little research, and I thought, “Well, I’d go right to the horse’s mouth, ” and so I read what Osama Bin Laden had written, and of course, I’m no fan of Osama Bin Laden, but I thought maybe that would give me a clue to why 9/11 happened?Sure enough, the three main gripes of Osama Bin laden were number one, the presence of US troops, foreign troops in the holy land, Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Where Mecca and Medina, the two holy Muslim sites are.The second was the punishing sanctions, the deaths of more than a million Iraqis during the 90s from these punishing sanctions.The third pet peeve of Osama Bin Laden was Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. Of course, Bush has given lip service to that conflict, he has no intention of really helping to honestly broker any kind of peace, and Congress has been complicit in that.When Israel invaded Lebanon, not last summer, but the summer before, the senate unanimously passed a resolution praising Israel for its restraint in not hurting Palestinian civilians and yet condemning the Hezbollah rather, and yet condemning Hezbollah.In fact, the majority of civilians that were killed were killed by Israel.So, you have the very strong Israel lobby, the APAC, which Joe Lieberman is very close to, and Joe Lieberman wants to attack Iran, because for some reason Israel thinks that Iran poses a threat to it, even though Iran has not invaded not any other country or threatened to invade Israel or the United States. Iran hasn’t invaded any other country for hundreds of years.Yet, if you see all the major candidates, they talk about Israel’s foreign policy uncritically and they criticize the Palestinians, so I think that there is - and Israel is kind of a sacred cow in that sense, but what’s happening is that, that uncritical support of Israel and the lack of criticism is really hurting the Jewish people I think more than helping them, because it makes them more vulnerable.What its doing is, it’s also making us less safe and more vulnerable to terrorism, because they aren’t really getting at the real reason why people resent the fact that there are foreign troops in their lands killing their people.

Kent Gustavson: Wow. Professor Marjorie Cohn’s new book is called ‘Cowboy Republic - Six Ways the Bush Gang has defied the Law’. In closing here, let’s talk a little bit about - in such a time of change — but we have another year of the presidency.I think today or yesterday, the new president inaugurated. Why are we focused on the new person, and we just give our president free reign, and how you call them the Bush gang?

Marjorie Cohn: Well, that’s a really good question, because the media has just seized upon the campaign like it’s a horse race. Who’s ahead today? It’s like a basketball game.It keeps everybody all excited, but really what’s going on behind the scenes is that Bush has no intention of ever leaving Iraq, and that was clear, because he is building his mega military bases.He’s negotiating an agreement for a permanent US military presence there to encourage the flow of foreign investments to Iraq and preferential treatment for US investments. That’s what operation Iraqi freedom is all about.Meanwhile, I fear that he is going to invade Iran, even though at the unanimous consensus of the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies in the national intelligence estimate recently said that Iran is not pursuing any program of nuclear weapons, and the UN has said that there is no evidence they ever have.Yet, there is this incident in the Straits of Hormuz, where the U.S. was saying that the Iranians were threatening the U.S. ships, and now it turns out they weren’t, and that became very close to a provocation for war between Iran and the U.S., but Dick Cheney really, really wants to go into Iran and change its regime and go after its so called nuclear sites.I fear that even though we have this national intelligence estimate, where our intelligence agencies say Iran is not a threat that Bush is going to do that, when everybody is focusing their attention on these presidential candidates.

Kent Gustavson: Well, we will hope for the best and do what we can as individuals here. I really appreciated speaking with you. My guest is Professor Marjorie Cohn; her new book is called ‘Cowboy Republic - Six Ways the Bush Gang has defied the Law’. You can check out her wonderful blog at www.marjoriecohn.com. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Marjorie Cohn: My pleasure Kent.

Kent Gustavson: My next guest is Susan Jones, a health expert to give us some tips here in January. How can we keep our New Years resolutions? Come on back.

Posted by admin | Filed Under TRANSCRIPTS, Politics, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Anais Mitchell | Vermont Voice

January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Anais Mitchell [10:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we spoke with singer Anais Mitchell of Vermont, from on tour out west. Her songs are somewhere between Bjork and Ani, and her attitude is crisp and cheerful.More about Anais from her website:

“And the big horns blowed and the pianos played/And the music rose to the old man’s ears/I guess those were the olden days/I guess those were the golden years,” sings Anaïs Mitchell on her new record The Brightness. This earnest nostalgia trip says a lot about the kind of art that this Vermont native has been creating since entering the underground folk scene in 2002. At a time when the music industry is playing the role of the slickest of defense attorneys, using flash and dazzle campaigns to distract us from the fact that their clients are terrible, Mitchell is an artist who grew up on a sheep farm. She makes small-sounding, big-thinking folk albums that play like a front-porch serenade. If she feels in a bit of a time warp, you can’t blame her.

Listening to this 25-year-old singer/songwriter perform her meticulously written songs, fervently singing them in a distinctive, almost childlike voice, you’d think it was her life mission to rouse the hearts and minds of her listeners with an acoustic guitar. But Mitchell wasn’t always committed to the idea. “I used to tell people I wanted to be a journalist. There is a lonely egotism and self-composure to journalists. Not unlike artists, they’re always traveling, always writing, loving their loneliness, feeling somehow that they have their finger on the pulse – worshipping the truth and trying to render it legible.”Despite her journalistic leanings, Mitchell started writing songs at age 17 and eventually started performing them live during her school days, which were punctuated by a remarkable amount of traveling. In a short period of time, Anaïs made several trips to the Middle East, and also spent time in Europe and Latin America, studying languages and world politics. This stunning, troubadour-like experience seeped into her music, and she became adept at fusing her passion for literature and journalism in her lyrics.

With a clutch of quiet, ambitious songs in her arsenal, Mitchell recorded her now out-of-print debut, The Song They Sang When Rome Fell (2002), in a single afternoon in Austin, Texas. It was in Texas that Anais discovered the Kerrville Folk Festival, which honored her with the prestigious New Folk award in 2003. Soon thereafter, with the help of Michael Chorney and Chicago-based Waterbug Records, Anaïs released her second album, Hymns For The Exiled, in 2004. The stirring collection of guitar and voice cemented Mitchell’s status as a folksinger to watch, and the record eventually reached the ears of Ani DiFranco, a songwriter whose fusion of personal and political themes was a formative influence on a teenaged Mitchell. After seeing a few of Anaïs’ captivating concerts, DiFranco signed the artist to her label, Righteous Babe Records. “If you knew what Ani DiFranco meant to me as a young woman and a young songwriter … well, I was simultaneously elated and in total disbelief,” Mitchell told a Vermont reporter after joining the RBRrrmy. “It seemed too good to be true.”The same can be said about Mitchell’s Righteous Babe debut, which hits stores February 13, 2007. During the recording process, Anaïs lived above the studio, which was built into an old Vermont gristmill. She could wake up, shake the sleep out of her eyes and record tracks in her pajamas, resulting in a decidedly intimate listening experience. Spilling over with worldly metaphors, intense emotions and unshakeable reverence to the art of song, The Brightness shimmers with creative spark.

And by no means is Anaïs Mitchell sitting on her laurels. She’s staging a folk-opera based on the myth of Hades and Eurydice, and will be embarking on a winter tour to do what she does best: pluck chords and tell stories.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Folk, MUSICIAN INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Susan Smith Jones | Health & Life

January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Susan Smith Jones: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We spoke with Susan Smith Jones today, who speaks about balance, in life, and with food. She spoke about exercise, and balance in our everyday lives. She has written numerous books, and they are all available from her website.
From www.susansmithjones.com:

For a woman with three of America’s most ordinary names, Dr. Susan Smith Jones has certainly made extraordinary contributions in the fields of optimum health, fitness, and human potential. She not only teaches how to live a healthy, balanced life, she lives it! Selected as one of ten “Healthy American Fitness Leaders” by the President’s Council on Physical Fitness & Sports,* Susan has authored 17 books, including Choose to Live Peacefully, Wired to Meditate, Rejuvenate!,Be Healthy~Stay Balanced, Vegetable Soup & The Fruit Bowl, and her latest bestseller, Unleash the Power of NATUREFOODS™: 50 Revitalizing Foods & Lifestyle Choices that Heal Your Body, Promote Radiant Health & Rejubenate Your Life. She holds a B.A. in Psychology, an M.S. in Exercise Physiology, and a Ph.D. in Health Sciences. For over 30 years, she taught health and fitness to students, staff, and faculty at UCLA.

Susan certainly walks her talk. She has written more than 500 magazine articles, with her picture on several covers, and appears regularly on radio and television talk shows around the country. Her inspiring message and innovative techniques for achieving total health in body, mind, and spirit have won her a grateful and enthusiastic following and have put her in constant demand internationally as a health and fitness consultant and motivational speaker (lectures, workshops, and keynote presentations) for community, corporate, and church groups. She is also founder and president of Health Unlimited, a Los Angeles-based consulting firm dedicated to the advancement of peaceful, balanced living and health education.

Susan is an acclaimed whole-foods chef who works with discerning clients around the world. She creates menus and rejuvenation programs designed to support and complement the needs of her individual clients, as well as the participants at her specialized holistic health retreats. In addition, she serves as a recipe developer and new-product consultant for the health industryAs a holistic lifestyle coach, Susan creates individualized health programs and retreats for her clients. As a spiritual psychologist and meditation counselor, she uses her warm blend of wisdom, vision, and humor to help clients create an empowered presence, so they can live their highest vision and achieve their goals. And, as a trail guide, one of Susan’s greatest passions is taking individuals and small groups of people hiking throughout the Santa Monica Mountains — from one hour easy strolls to all-day treks, to sunrise and sunset celebration adventures.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Motivation, Health, Spirituality, Inspiration, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Marjorie Cohn | Bush’s Gang

January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Marjorie Cohn: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

We had a fascinating discussion with Marjorie Cohn, renowned political expert, about the current administration, and about her new book: Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law (PoliPointPress, 2007)Here is Marjorie Cohn’s biography from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law website:

Professor Cohn is president of the National Lawyers Guild. She lectures throughout the world on international human rights and U.S. foreign policy. A news consultant for CBS News, and a legal analyst for Court TV, she also provides legal and political commentary on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR and Pacifica Radio. Co-author of the book Cameras in the Courtroom: Television and the Pursuit of Justice, Professor Cohn’s new book is Cowboy Republic: Six Ways the Bush Gang Has Defied the Law. She has published numerous articles in such journals as Fordham Law Review, Hastings Law Journal and Virginia Journal of International Law, as well as The National Law Journal, Christian Science Monitor and Chicago Tribune. Professor Cohn is a contributing editor to Jurist, MWC News and Guild Practitioner and her weekly columns appear on AlterNet, Counterpunch, CommonDreams, HuffingtonPost, OpedNews, AtlanticFreePress, AfterDowningStreet, ZNet, and GlobalResearch, and are archived at http://www.marjoriecohn.com/. She has been a criminal defense attorney at the trial and appellate levels for many years, and was staff counsel to the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board. Professor Cohn is the U.S. representative to the executive committee of the Association of American Jurists. The recipient of the San Diego County Bar Association’s 2005 Service to Legal Education Award, Professor Cohn was recognized as one of San Diego’s Top Attorneys in Academics for 2006, and was awarded the 2007 Bernard E. Witkin, Esq. Award for Excellence in the Teaching of the Law by the San Diego Law Library Justice Foundation. She sits on the Advisory Committee of the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego and the Advisory Board for the Haywood Burns Memorial Fellowships for Social and Economic Justice, and serves on the Roster of Experts at the Institute for Public Accuracy. Professor Cohn was a legal observer in Iran on behalf of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers in 1978 and she has participated in delegations to Cuba, China and Yugoslavia. She lived in Mexico and is fluent in Spanish. Professor Cohn has taught at Thomas Jefferson since 1991.

Posted by admin | Filed Under History, Politics, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

Robert Williscroft | Warm Antarctic Water

January 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment

Interview with Robert Williscroft: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Today we spoke with Robert Williscroft, who, among countless other adventures, lived in Antarctica for a time, at the true south pole. He tells a story of how the water was warm — you have to hear this! He also, primarily, speaks with us about true science, and his perspectives on climate change and other issues taking the forefront of environmental awareness today. It was a true honor to speak with this well-decorated gentleman, and his ideas are certainly worth hearing. His new book is called “The Chicken Little Agenda: Debunking Experts’ Lies.” More information on Robert Williscroft from his website:

Dr. Robert G. Williscroft served 23 years in the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). He commenced his service as an enlisted nuclear Submarine Sonar Technician, was selected for the Navy Enlisted Scientific Education Pro-gram, and graduated from University of Washington in Marine Physics and Meteorology. He returned to nuclear submarines as the Navy’s first Poseidon Weapons Officer. Subsequently, he served as Navigator, and as Diving & Salvage and Saturation Diving Officer on both catamaran mother vessels for the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle, and then as Officer in Charge of the Navy Saturation Diving School, and of the Test Operations Group out of San Diego, conducting deep-ocean surveillance and data acquisition.

In NOAA Dr. Williscroft directed diving operations throughout the Pacific and Atlantic. NOAA published his Doctoral dissertation, A Method for Protecting Scuba Divers from the Ha-zards of Contaminated Water, and distributed it around the world to interested ports and di-ving activities. He is a certified diving instructor for the National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI), and has taught over 3,000 individuals both basic and advanced SCUBA diving. He authored three diving books, developed the first NAUI drysuit course, developed advanced curricula for mixed gas and other specialized diving modes, and developed and taught a NAUI course on the Math and Physics of Advanced Diving. He also served three shipboard years in the high Arctic conducting baseline studies, and thirteen months at the geographic South Pole in charge of National Science Foundation atmospheric projects.His military decorations include:Good Conduct MedalNational Service Defense MedalAntarctic Service Medal (w. winterover device)Unit citation (w. bronze star)Submarine Dolphins (Silver & Gold)Fleet Ballistic Missile Patrol Device (w. silver star & 2 bronze stars)Navy Saturation Diving Officer PinNOAA Diving Officer PinAfter retiring in 1985, Dr. Williscroft served as CEO of the largest editorial service in the United States, and founded a publishing company. He sold the publishing firm to serve as Chief Staff Officer for a consortium of five marine industry related firms in San Diego. In 1994 he moved to Philadelphia, and focused on writing, real estate, and the stock market. In 1997, he joined Morgan Stanley as a Series 7 stockbroker. Since 1999 Dr. Williscroft has been independent. He is the author of the recently published popular book on current events: The Chicken Little Agenda – Debunking Experts’ Lies.Dr. Williscroft is divorced and has one son who lives in Chicago. He received his B.Sc. in Oceanography and Meteorology from University of Washington in 1969, and his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Engineering from California Coast University in 1981 and 1983, respectively.

Posted by admin | Filed Under Travel, Science, History, Politics, AUTHOR INTERVIEW, PODCAST

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