Nicole kicks off Thanksgiving week with a look at the news- from the fight over immigration reform to the wait for a Grand Jury decision from Ferguson. Howie Klein joins in to talk about alternatives to Hillary Clinton, and Vice News' Jason Leopold reports on Ferguson, the CIA's torture report and the FCC's cozy relationship with the industry they're supposed to be regulating.
Nicole talks about the Democratic Party and her belief that it needs to make some big changes. Huffington Post's Ryan Grim explains Elizabeth Warren's new leadership position in the senate, and their ill-fated decision to hold a vote on the KXL pipeline. In hour two, it's Flashback Friday with Aimee Mann and Michael Penn
Last Thursday, a federal judge ruled that BP’s “gross negligence” and “willful misconduct” had caused the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 and that the company’s “reckless” behavior made it subject to fines of as much as $4,300 a barrel under the Clean Water Act. Antonia Juhasz, Oil and Energy Analyst and author of three books - Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill, The Tyranny of Oil: The World's Most Powerful Industry--and What We Must Do to Stop It , and The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time - joined me on the show this morning to [...]
I'm one of the lucky ones. My father paid my way through college, as he did for my two sisters as well. We all went to Florida state universities and, back in the 1970's and 80's, tuition was remarkably inexpensive. In 2013, the average college graduate embarked on the next chapter of his or her life with $35,200 of debt and, sadly, limited career and income opportunities. Senator Elizabeth Warren had long advocated for relief and, last May, introduced the Bank on Students Loan Fairness Act, which could come up for a vote tomorrow, and would allow people with higher interest [...]
In his masterpiece, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised," Gil Scott-Heron offers an unbridled indictment of the failure of the corporate media, which has only gotten exponentially worse in the four decades since we first heard it. An updated version would certainly include some reference to today's predicament. Senator Al Franken calls the fight for Net Neutrality "the free speech issue of our time" . Presidential candidate Barack Obama promised that he'd always support and would only appoint FCC commissioners who'd uphold his belief in the need for a free and open internet. So, WTF is going on with Chairman Tom [...]
We'll begin with the fun stuff. Yes, that's a young me at KLOS in Los Angeles with Ringo Starr. Proof that I have met a Beatle! As the nation remembers back 50 years ago this week when The Beatles invaded America, played the Ed Sullivan Show and changed our lives, I noticed an article about an old friend of mine who owns a piece of that Beatles history! Andy Geller hit it big in the world of voiceover. In 2002, at the top of his game and a known collector, he learned about the piece of backstage wall at The [...]
That's who I felt like today, ranting and raving about the madness that's taken over, seemingly, EVERYTHING! From the bullshit about Benghazi, to the wrong outrage over the IRS, to Apple and others dodging their taxes, to cutting programs for the neediest among us, to the epidemic of sexual assault in the military, to the dysfunction in Washington, to the warming of our planet, to the vilification of teachers and civil servants and union members, to wimpy appeasing politicians.... I could continue, but I think you get the idea. We talked about all of these subjects and more today with [...]
We dodged a big bullet in the form of Mitt Romney last night. American won a number of victories last night on a few fronts, but truly, our work is just beginning. Since President Obama will now have a second term - and a good majority in the Senate - we have a fighting chance to insure the longevity of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid - and the other ideals that make this nation great. But "fighting" is the operative word there, as the Republicans might be bad winners, they're certainly very sore losers. As we saw during this election [...]
Listen to this episode: {play}http://traffic.libsyn.com/radioornot/20120906_Nicole_Sandler_Show_-_Clinton_Warren_and_the_Nun_off_the_Bus.mp3 {/play} Podcast: Play in new window While the interwebs and TV pundits were buzzing this morning about Bill Clinton's fiery speech last night at the Democratic convention in Charlotte, I was marveling at how moved I was by a nun. Sister Simone Campbell came off the bus to talk to the American people and counter the anti-Christian message being sent by the Catholic bishops. Although there were a number of great speeches yesterday, Day 2 of the 2012 DNC gathering (quite a contrast from last week's GOP mess), I was shocked at how much a [...]
Same shit, different week. As summer drones on, the elected elite continue arguing about the wrong issue. The problem is not the debt ceiling. The problem is massive unemployment. And those elected to represent us in Washington DC aren't doing a damn thing to fix it. I love speaking with Howie Klein because he's informed and engaged on all of it. Howie, who blogs at Down With Tyranny and runs the Blue America PAC (along with Digby and C&L's John Amato), was out of the country on vacation for a while. So today, we were able to catch up on [...]