April 11, 2010

Broadcast Date: 
Apr 11 2010

A look at the right's latest fantasy: a Cloward-Piven conspiracy paved the way to the election of Barack Obama and a federal takeover of American society; a Berkeley Student Senate divestment resolution faces the wrath of AIPAC; plus the perfect storm: welfare time limits hit just as low-wage jobs get harder to find.

Episode segments
  • From Berkeley to Tel Aviv
    American Politics, National Politics, Israeli Politics, Israel/Palestine, Occupation, Jewish
    Cecilie Surasky is Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for Peace and founder of Muzzlewatch, JVP's blog that documents efforts to silence open debate about Israel-Palestine policy. (And check out The Only Democracy?, the new JVP blog that monitors the state of civil liberties in Israel and the Occupied Territories.)
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    In this month's conversation with Cecilie Surasky we talk about the organized Jewish community's efforts to overturn the UC-Berkeley Student Senate vote on divestment and the secret house-arrest, gag-order and treason charges against Israeli whistle-blower Anat Kam. (For the latest on the Berkeley campaign go to Jewish Voice for Peace.  And for background and details on the Anat Kam case, see Richard Silverstein'g blog. Silverstain first broke the story.

  • The Cloward-Piven Conspiracy
    National Politics, Electoral, Domestic Policy

    Richard Kim is a senior editor of The Nation.  His article, "The Mad Tea Party" appears in the April 12th 2010 edition.  He is the co-editor (with Betsy Reed) of Going Rouge: Sarah Palin, An American Nightmare.

    Frances Fox Piven is a political scientist, activist, educator, and a widely respected analyst and critic of America's social welfare system.  Her most recent book is Challenging Authority: How Ordinary People Change America. 
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    In 1966, Richard Cloward and Frances Fox Piven co-authored an article in The Nation magazine, "The Weight of the Poor: A Strategy to End Poverty."  Little did they know at the time that some 44 years later, that article would be seen by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, David Horowitz, and others on the delusional right, as the blue-print for a radical takeover of the United States and the ur-text for the election of Barak Obama and the recent financial meltdown. 

  • The Perfect Storm: Loss Your Welfare and Your Job
    National Politics, Domestic Policy

    Aine Duggan is Vice President of Research, Policy and Education for The Food Bank for New York City.

    Seth Wessler is a writer in Brooklyn New York, whose work explores the politics of race, inequality and the nation state.  He is the author of "Timed Out on Welfare, Many Sell Food Stamps."
    Esther Kaplan and Marilyn Kleinberg Neimark

    The current recession has thrown into sharp relief the inadequacies of America's social policies as millions of families find themselves both out of work, no longer eligible for TANF  (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the product of 1996's welfare reform) and entirely dependent on food stamps. We talk with Seth Wessler and Aine Duggan about how these families are managing to get by and what is needed to transition from termporary recession responses to sustainable solutions. For a copy of the Food Bank report we discuss in this segment, click here.