Leid Stories
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Leid Stories – 05/17/13
Obama: No Rescue for Haitians, But Rescue Him More than three years after a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake and 52 significant aftershocks hit Haiti, killing 316,000 people, dispossessing 3 million others and literally shutting down the impoverished nation, a program that would have allowed U.S.-based Haitians to send for their distressed …
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Leid Stories – 05/16/13
In Washington, The Blame Game’s At A Slow Burn Fully one-third of the committees in the Republican-controlled House in some way are investigating the Obama administration. They’re not in a hurry; in fact, they really, really want to take their time—say, another three years or so. Good government is not …
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Leid Stories – Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say! –...
It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories, and listeners’ considered opinions on news issues and events they think warrant closer attention take center stage. What’s expected? Well, say what you mean, and mean what you say. It’s not about being “right” or “wrong.” It’s about presenting an idea or point of …
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Leid Stories – Obama’s Dilemma – 05/14/13
Ensnared in a tangle of carefully choreographed probes into his administration’s role in a range of hot-button issues, President Obama no doubt has gotten the gist of the Republicans’ true intentions: to keep him on the defensive with well-placed jabs while they hone their muscle for the lethal blow—impeachment. Leid …
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Leid Stories – Lame Duck Impeached: Special on the...
It was a bruiser of a week for President Obama, but a comeback of sorts for Republicans, who have made their intentions clear: Obama is to be a lame duck president and, preferably, impeached. Leid Stories explains how Obama and his administration breathed new life into the deflated Republican Party …
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Leid Stories – Feed Your Brain with History – 05/10/13
Leid Stories is pleased to present noted historian, political scientist and author Gerald Horne in an exciting lecture, “The World and African Americans”– how, from the 17th century to the present, African Americans have allied with the foes of foes to progress.Dr. Horne holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores …
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Leid Stories – Terrorism and Obama’s Errorism – 05/09/13
William Blum, who has been chronicling the seamy underside of U.S. foreign policy and covert operations since leaving the State Department in 1967, explains why President Obama “could be charged with serious crimes for allowing the United States to fight on the same side as al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Libya …
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Leid Stories – 05/08/13
Obama’s Cash-Flush Cabinet, Cash-Cow Politics and Cash-Strapped Budget Almost halfway into the first year of his second term, President Obama’s Cabinet remains seven slots short of a full team. He certainly won’t win a diversity award; his Cabinet will have fewer African Americans and Latinos than Clinton did 20 years …
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Leid Stories – Brisk Trading At the Thought Exchange –...
It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories. Bring your brilliant analyses and considered opinions of current issues and events to the thought exchange and fearlessly present them for public inspection, discussion and debate. But be prepared to be challenged – with all due respect, of course!
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Leid Stories – Benghazi: The Gift That Keeps On Giving –...
House Republicans this week will launch yet another inquiry into the events that led to the terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Lybia, on Sept. 11 last year that claimed the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. But behind the quest for truth about …
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Leid Stories – Justice Denied, Injustice Approved –...
“Attorney-at-War” Alton H. Maddox Jr. discusses egregious examples of race-based prosecutorial, judicial and official misconduct in several high-profile cases that made defendants of African American victims and plaintiffs of implicated whites, who should have been, and still should be, targets of prosecution. He also explains how and why decades-long demands …
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Leid Stories – Living with Osama bin Laden’s Ghost –...
On this day two years ago, President Barack Obama was announcing that a team of U.S. Navy Seals had breached the walls of a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and found and killed the FBI’s most wanted person, Osama bin Ladin. They took his body back via helicopter to a …
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Leid Stories – War With Syria: Not If, But Soon –...
The U.S. war-making machinery already has mobilized troops for possible military engagement in Syria. Hawks in Congress — with Sen. John McCain (AZ) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (S.C.) in the lead — have all but sanctioned a full-scale blowout against Bashar al Assad’s regime as the only solution to the …
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Leid Stories – So, What You Gotta Say? – 04/20/13
It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories, when listeners offer their takes on major issues and events for consideration and debate. No need to panic; all opinions and points of view are welcome and respected. But be prepared to defend your position if prodded – with great love and respect, of …
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Leid Stories – Smooth Operator: The FBI and Homegrown...
In the aftermath of the April 15 Boston Marathon twin bombings, there are more questions than answers—not only about the shadowy figures said to be the terrorists, but also about the performance of governmental agencies and authorities charged with countering terrorism. Stephen Lendman, a renowned author and research associate at …
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Leid Stories – So, Where Are You From?: The Many Shades...
It’s a simple-enough question that immigrants commonly are asked. Repeatedly. But it actually is loaded many shades of meaning that even the questioner or the person being questioned understands. Leid Stories deconstructs the question. Are you ready for the answer to it? -
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Leid Stories – The “T” Word: A Political Quandary (Part...
We continue the conversation on terrorism, looking in particular at our twisted relationship with it. We are inclined to condemn it as an undemocratic means of social and political control, but even in routine ways we endorse, accept and insist upon its application to achieve what we define and defend …
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Leid Stories – The “T” Word: A Political Quandary –...
What is it about the word “terrorist” that—pardon the pun—terrorizes people who consider themselves politically left of center? They just hate to use the word. So, naturally, Leid Stories devotes today’s program to just that subject, hoping to expose what for many is a quandary: using the language and definitions …
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Leid Stories – The Media, the Marathon and Mind Control...
Continuing with our coursework in media literacy, Leid Stories examines the mainstream media’s self-assigned role in a perceived “national crisis.” Coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings and aftermath continues to reflect and reinforce the desired objectives of the state, even at the expense of journalistic independence and integrity. There is …
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Leid Stories – 04/22/13
A Triumph Over Terrorism? America’s “Teachable Moment” The intent was to strike terror in the hearts and minds of Americans, and, to some degree, they succeeded. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother Dzhokhar—the alleged terror tag team in a just-plain-stupid plan to exact revenge for something or other (it’s …
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Leid Stories – Terror In Our Midst – 04/19/13
The Boston Marathon bombings, allegedly by two Chechen nationals, have revived the long-simmering questions: Why? Why us? These questions were raised in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks by al Qaeda terrorists, who unleashed unspeakable violence on innocent people in the United States. There answers about how they …
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Leid Stories – Uncovering Media Coverage (Part 3) –...
By popular vote, Leid Stories picks up from where it left off yesterday with our discussion on ways in which the media shape our attitudes, opinions, the decisions we make, and even what we know—or, more accurately, think we know. We return to media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings, …
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Leid Stories – Uncovering Media Coverage – 04/17/13
The Boston Marathon bombing is a case study in ways the media shape what we know–or, more accurately, what we think we know—about issues and events occurring in and/or having impact on our everyday lives. Leid Stories conducts a media literacy class to shore up listeners’ acuity as consumers of …
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Leid Stories – So, What’s On Your Mind? – 04/16/13
Bring your best thoughts, opinions and ideas about issues and events you deem important to the gathering place and share with others. But be prepared to defend yourself—intellectually, of course, and with great love and respect. -
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Waging Peace to End Two Wars – 04/15/13
On this day 46 years ago, the anti-war and civil rights movements launched a masterful peace offensive that proved to be one of the most successful tactics in forcing the enactment of several pieces of civil rights legislation and an end to the Vietnam War. On April 16, 1967, peaceful …
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Leid Stories – The Quest for Justice: Economic,...
Dr.Algernon Austin, director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute, outlines how President Obama can correct entrenched, race-based economic disparity. Harold Washington’s election on April 12, 1983 as the first African American mayor of the City of Chicago remains a template for high-stakes …
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Leid Stories – Gunning for A Win – 04/11/13
In an all-out effort to score a win on gun control, President Obama and his handlers unleashed every weapon in his arsenal. When First Lady Michelle Obama went gunning for support in Chicago yesterday, breaking her own vow to steer clear of politics, it confirmed the Obama camp’s fear of …
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Leid Stories – The Obamas’ Dramas: Are We April Fools? –...
Never mind that the last approved budget was done by George Bush in 2007 for the 2008 fiscal year, President Barack Obama today delivered his way-overdue, embargoed budget with his odd way of touting the deep, Solomon-like wisdom with which he deals with all things: It’s fair because it’s not …
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Leid Stories – Express Yourself! – 04/09/13
It’s an open forum today on Leid Stories. Bring your best thoughts, opinions and ideas about issues and events you deem important to the gathering place and share with others. But be prepared to defend yourself—intellectually, of course, and with great love and respect.
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Leid Stories – 04/08/13
So now comes The Budget—the thing that will lay bare President Obama’s true political stripes. Republicans having frustrated movement on any of his hot-item“reform” issues—gun control, gender rights and immigration—Obama has been deprived of political victories that would have strengthened his hand in negotiations, if only as evidence that he …
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Leid Stories – Talk That Talk! – 04/05/13
It’s open forum on Leid Stories, when listeners offer their opinions and ideas about issues and events they think warrant closer attention.Bring it on, but be prepared to be challenged—with love and respect, of course! -
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Leid Stories – A Powerful Alliance – 04/04/13
How the Emancipation Proclamation Changed the Civil War Forging an alliance with well-placed African American leaders and military tacticians who had been working secretly on their own as a national network to abolish slavery, Abraham Lincoln gained strategic advantage in his desperate efforts to quell rebellion by the Confederate …
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Leid Stories – Alton H. Maddox Jr., Attorney at War –...
“The People’s Attorney,” for decades a legal strategist and litigator of precedent-setting criminal and civil-rights cases in New York City and in the South, discusses major developments in the explosive and still-ongoing (since 1987) Tawana Brawley case, involving the alleged kidnapping and rape of the then-15-year-old African American girl by …
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Leid Stories – Identity Politics & Power In...
It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories, and listeners discuss and debate whether identity politics is a valid strategy for empowerment; does it threaten the possibility of coalition building; and why many consider it a throwback that has no place in forward-thinking social and political movements.
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Leid Stories – If Not Now, When? – 04/01/13
It’s hard to tell, given the lackluster response from both the elected leadership and the electorate in Black and Latino communities across the country, but there’s a war going on against their children and it is having genocidal effect. The failing educational policies of the Obama administration, mere recasts of …
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Leid Stories – The Crisis In Education: A People’s...
Leid Stories conducts an on-air “people’s symposium” on fundamental questions and issues that are painfully evident in the current national crisis in education.All ideas and considered opinions are welcome in this exchange, which seeks to link public discourse on the subject with empowered advocacy and action. In Part 3, the …
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Leid Stories – The Crisis In Education: A People’s...
Leid Stories conducts an on-air “people’s symposium” on fundamental questions and issues that are painfully evident in the current national crisis in education.All ideas and considered opinions are welcome in this exchange, which seeks to link public discourse on the subject with empowered advocacy and action. In Part 2, we …
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Leid Stories – The Crisis In Education: A People’s...
Leid Stories conducts an on-air “people’s symposium” on fundamental questions and issues that are painfully evident in the current national crisis in education. All ideas and considered opinions are welcome in this exchange, which seeks to link public discourse on the subject with empowered advocacy and action. Related articles Leid …
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Leid Stories – Battling the Blackboard Bungle – 03/26/13
All across America, especially in major metropolitan areas, public schools in African American and Latino communities are being shut down at an alarming rate. City administrations are giving all kinds of explanations – budget issues, declines in enrollment, parental preferences for charter schools, etc. But overwhelmingly it’s because the targeted …
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Leid Stories – Adding Injuries to Insults: Obama’s...
On the same day that his home city, Chicago, announced the closing of 54 public schools allegedly to contain costs over the next 10 years, President Obama was in Israel assuring its war-fixated government of billions of dollars in military and economic support. Zero-sum thinking not only has become Obama’s …
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Leid Stories – One Man’s Quest for Justice (Part 2) –...
He was a young Secret Service agent in Chicago in 1960 when he was asked by President John F. Kennedy himself to join the White House Secret Service detail. Abraham Bolden by then had been the first African American in several law-enforcement positions he’d held; this was a dream come …
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The Gary Null Show – Headed For Catastrophe – 03/21/13
Geoengineering: heading towards a planetary catastrophe in the years ahead Dane Wigingtona geoengineering scientist with a background in solar energy who is highly regarded as one of the foremost experts and commentators on stratospheric aerosol geoengineering and solar radiation management. He is a former employee at Bechtel Corporation and …
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Leid Stories – One Man’s Quest for Justice – 03/20/13
He was a young Secret Service agent in Chicago in 1960 when he was asked by President John F. Kennedy himself to join the White House Secret Service detail. Abraham Bolden by then had been the first African American in several law-enforcement positions he’d held; this was a dream come …
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Leid Stories – Checking Unchecked Police Powers –...
The trial of a class-action federal lawsuit could bring a long-sought-after end to the controversial stop-and-frisk police practice that overwhelmingly targets African American and Latino males. The trial venue is New York City, where men of color accounted for 83% of more than 531,000 such actions last year alone. But …
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Leid Stories – America’s Deadliest Export? – 03/18/13
It’s democracy, says William Blum, whose obsession since leaving the State Department in 1967 has been chronicling and exposing the seamy underside of U.S. foreign policy. In a wide-ranging interview with Leid Stories, Blum expounds on the theme of his latest book—that America’s superpower status is directly linked to actions …
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Leid Stories – Stop and Frisk: Everyday Terror in NYC –...
A class-action lawsuit alleging widespread, routine civil-rights violations of men of color by New York City police comes to trial in federal court next week. The NYPD will have to explain why, in one year alone, police made 685,724 stops of Black and Latino males under its stop-and-frisk “anti-crime” tactics …
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Leid Stories – 03/14/13
Oblivious to the glaring irony that the “grassroots” Organizing for America is holding a two-day “Founder’s Summit” at a posh boutique hotel in Washington, D.C., President Obama and campaign-holdover execs running OFA insist the organization is just outside insurance against inside resistance to the “people’s” legislative priorities. But suspicions abound …
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Leid Stories – In Pursuit of Justice – 03/13/13
We are inclined to believe that America has turned the corner on inequity and injustice. To some extent it’s true. But the most powerful argument that there’s still a long way to go exists, ironically, in its courts, where the festering sore that is America’s racial divide is seen in …
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Leid Stories – 03/12/13
In this regularly occurring feature of Leid Stories, listeners define the issues and events important to them and engage in discussion and debate.
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Leid Stories – Obama to Haitian Immigrants: “I’ll Get...
Conspicuously absent from national discussion and debate about immigration reform is the plight of a group that President Obama himself had promised special consideration: Haitians in the United States who want to bring their families in strife-torn, post-earthquake Haiti to live with them. Obama had promised to speed up the …
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Leid Stories – Gender Fender Bender – 03/08/13
On International Women’s Day, Utrice looks at the women’s-rights struggle through a multifaceted prism shaped by personal experience and the intersection of race, class, culture and gender.
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Leid Stories – Crow And Humble Pie – 03/07/13
President Barack Obama indeed has been smacked down by the Republicans. No doubt about it. It’s fair warning that he needs to get his act together. But can he? The president appears to have more political burdens than he reasonably can handle – a continuing checkmate in Congress, a ragtag …
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Leid Stories – Chavez Remembered – 03/06/13
President Hugo Chavez is remembered for his campaigns against poverty – not only in his beloved Venezuela, but throughout Central and South America and the Caribbean. Plus, in Open Forum, listeners offer their perspective on issues and events they deem important.
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Leid Stories – OBAMA SEQUESTERED – 03/05/13
President Barack Obama’s double talk and outright lies about the sequester and related matters are the focus of this edition of Leid Stories.
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Leid Stories – The Lowdown on Obama’s Smackdown –...
It’s a chastened, crestfallen President Obama who sits behind his desk today — brooding, no doubt, over the stunning smackdown he received last week from a pack of old-guard Republicans well versed in the game of chicken. Leid Stories shares the lowdown on the smackdown. Plus, defensive journalism – reading …
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Leid Stories – Two Wrongs Can’t Get It Right – 03/01/13
If ever there was a reason to absolutely hate America’s two-party system, this is it. Used to be, we could choose between the lesser of two evils and the evil of two lessers. Now, even that’s gone. Two utterly wrongheaded political parties, stunningly inept and unsuited for governing, blithely and …
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Leid Stories – Pop Quiz – 02/28/13
Listeners exchange opinions and views about issues and events they believe warrant closer attention. Plus, it’s Pop Quiz! Test your advanced listening ability; your keen analytical skills; your knowledge of U.S. history, particularly of the modern civil-rights era and contemporary politics;your innate journalistic skills; and your ability to present your …
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Leid Stories – Open Forum – 02/27/13
Listeners exchange opinions and views about issues and events they believe warrant closer attention.
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Leid Stories – Haiti’s Heartbreak – 02/26/13
Haiti has been reeling from a cholera epidemic that, since 2010, has afflicted more than 600,000 people and claimed more than 8,000 lives. The improper disposal of human waste by U.N.-authorized personnel was cited as the original—and continuing—source of the problem, but the U.N. won’t accept responsibility, says Ezili Danto, …
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Leid Stories – After Their Break, We Won’t Get One –...
Fresh from a one-week break—the extremely urgent business of the nation put on hold so they could relax and do nothing—Congress and President Obama return to “work” today, ready to resume their familiar partisan prating about who’s responsible for … doing nothing. But it’s Sequester Deadline Week, isn’t it? All …
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Leid Stories – My Cab Ride From Hell: A Political...
A harrowing cab ride home one rainy night is recalled as a perfect metaphor for where we are as a nation: Relegated to the back seat as mere passengers, we’re in the hands of a government that can’t see where it’s going but won’t take directions. In the real-life story, …
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Leid Stories – A Mixed Bag of Lessons – 02/21/13
Leid Stories highlights three cautionary tales: Bulgarians show what government by the people for the people really means; sequestration may in fact have a huge unintended benefit; and, in Chicago, a Jackson family implosion. -
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Leid Stories – Dorner: Racism & Rage (Part 2)
Flooded with calls yesterday from listeners wanting to express their views on Christopher Dorner, Leid Stories continues the conversation todayon how we interpret the actions of the ex-officer, who authored his own death wish in a 23-page “manifesto” and then declared war on the LAPD for wrongfully dismissing him from …
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Leid Stories – 02/19/13
It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories. Listeners debate two issues. Are Republicans on the side of right when they claim a “massive coverup” on Benghazi and therefore entitled to interrupt or obstruct the business of government in pursuit of mere allegations? Or, is their way of continuing the do-nothing strategy …
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Leid Stories – The Filibuster – 02/15/13
Yes, it was dramatic, stalling the confirmation of Chuck Hagel as secretary of defense by precedent-setting filibuster. But Republicans got what they wanted, and the Democrats could do nothing about it. They regained lost clout, brought some errant members back to the fold, compelled compliance from the White House …
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Leid Stories – Capitol Offenses – 02/14/13
Treasury nominee Jack Lew gets grilled on a $900,000 Citigroup bailout bonus and an offshore investment account. Defense nominee Chuck Hagel’s confirmation gets staled by a Republican filibuster. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta fires damning parting shots at Congress. Plus, more detailed analysis of President Obama’s State of the Union address. …
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Leid Stories – Obama’s SOTU: Same Difference – 02/13/13
Yes, it was a different President Barack Obama speaking to Congress and the nation last night. And no, it wasn’t. For, his State of the Union address was both a reiterated wish list of policy “reforms” he’d like attached to his name before he leaves office and a velvet-smooth admission …
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Leid Stories – State of the Union: Obama’s Big Sell –...
It’s the first year of his second (lame-duck) term and President Barack Obama has a steep hill to climb — convincing a wary nation he’ll pull it through. A patchy four years didn’t deliver the decisive (and numerous) victories he’d hoped for; vengeful Republicans, a do-nothing Congress and misplaced political …
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Leid Stories – Obama’s Post-Racial Economy – 02/11/13
It will come as no surprise that President Obama will focus on the economy in his State of the Union address tomorrow — and, specifically, his second-term initiatives to save “the middle class.” What Obama calls the “middle class,” though, warrants examination. Why? Because he’snottalking about two sizable constituencies that …
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Leid Stories – Hearing Reveals Obama’s Audacity –...
HisAudacity of Hopemight have been a bestseller, but what has yet again surfaced in the confirmation hearing of John Brennan, his nominee for CIA director, is the audacity of the president. As with the Benghazi hearings, it is clear that President Obama and those he entrusts with the nation’s security …
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Leid Stories – Invisible All Over Again – 02/07/13
Millions of Americans seem to have disappeared. Gone without a trace, without notice. Surely such a thing would merit media coverage. Surely our commander in chief would make an effort to find them. Well, no. And no. Leid Stories explains why the legacy-building, second-term president maintains his political distance with …
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Leid Stories – Racism In America: Unfinished Business –...
On June 12, 1963, four prominent activists –Alan Morrison, New York editor ofEbonymagazine; Wyatt T. Walker, chief of staff of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and executive assistant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; James Farmer, national director of the Congress of Racial Equality; and Malcolm X, minister of the …
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Leid Stories – Racism In America: The Struggles Within –...
On June 12, 1963, the very day that civil-rights leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in Jackson, Miss., four New York-based activists, all of them prominent in the struggle for equality, were asked in a wide-ranging discussion with Richard Heffner, host of “The Open Mind” (PBS), to assess the politics of …
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Leid Stories – 02/01/13
Her “exclusive exit interview” with CNN yesterday was an innocuous gabfest. But Hillary Clinton gave her “official” accounting of her four years in office to the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, detailing her triumphs in securing U.S. interests globally with her self-branded “smart” diplomacy, and directing its “pivot” to East …
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Leid Stories – Obama Goes A-Stumping – 01/30/13
This week finds President Barack Obama at full tilt on the offensive. Senate Republicans say they will block confirmation of his Cabinet nominees unless they get answers about the terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. The NRA and pro-gun legislators aim to shoot down his proposals on gun …
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Leid Stories – Rehabbing Hillary Part 2 – 01/29/13
Leid Stories returns to theJan. 27”60 Minutes’” interview with President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and puts it into sociopolitical focus. Plus, listeners chime in with their observations. _
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Leid Stories – Hillary Does Rehab – 01/28/13
You couldn’t tell from her positively giggly “60 Minutes” interview (that aired yesterday) that Hillary Clinton was the same person who couldn’t (wouldn’t?) give a straight answer to two congressional committees wanting specifics about the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year. Yes, it was tragic, …
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Leid Stories – It’s Freeform Friday! – 01/25/13
Listeners offer their analyses of major issues of the day, as well as topics that escaped media attention.
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Leid Stories – The Benghazi Lunge And Parry – 01/24/13
It wasn’t quite the total victory she might have planned for, but it was not a total disaster. Secretary ofState Hillary Clinton yesterday parried most of the partisan lunges at her in consecutive House and Senate hearings on the Sept. 11 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. But …
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Leid Stories – Hillary, The Artful Dodger, Tidies Up –...
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s appearances today before separate House and Senate committees investigating the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, will be nothing more than a bit of light housekeeping before she bolts the Obama administration and tends solely to her personal and political ambitions. …
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Leid Stories – Malice in Mali, Madness in DC – 01/22/13
The escalating war in Mali is a deadly drama with many actors in many roles. France currently is a lead actor in “retaking” Mali, its former colony, from a collapsed government, a military coup, an internal separatist movement, and an incursion of reputed al-Qaeda-affiliated Islamist rebels from neighboring states. But …
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Leid Stories – Messages from King to Obama – 01/21/13
It’s a fortuitous day in history: The nation commemorates both the inauguration of President Barack Obamaand Dr. Martin Luther King Day. How appropriate, therefore, that Leid Stories features messages from King to Obama on leadership, the courage of conviction, justice, the “triple evils” of racism, militarism and economic exploitation, jobs …
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Leid Stories – Polls And PR And Power, Oh My! – 01/18/13
Want to create a lasting alternate reality? Why, just hire yourself the right PR agency and get the right polling service to deliver the right results! Leid Stories examines the art and science of messing with our minds. -
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Leid Stories – Taking Aim at Obama’s Gun-Control Plan –...
President Obama’s gun-control proposals, which he announced yesterday, are the latest in a series of actions and policies that signal what can only be described as disdain for and self-imposed alienation from the African American community, which overwhelmingly delivered victory for him in his two presidential runs. In a searing …
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Leid Stories – Gun Control in the Crosshairs – 01/16/13
President Obama today unveils gun-control measures he hopes to enact into federal law — either with the help of a fractured, combative Congress or via executive order. Either way, it’s an uphill battle, and it doesn’t help that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY), a 2016 presidential hopeful, has stolen his thunder …
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Leid Stories – By No Means A Dreamer – 01/15/13
He was born on Jan. 15, 1929, so Leid Stories honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today. The Nobel laureate delivers a timeless and prophetic speech, calling all people of conscience to be fearless agents of change. In the United States, he says, it means battling “the giant triplets of …
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Leid Stories – Party Planning – 01/14/13
Now is the time. Americans are fed up with a political system that has run out of just about everything — integrity, credibility, accountability, even good ideas. Republicans, chastened by defeat, are attempting a makeover; their brand has lost its luster. Democrats, too, realize they’ve lost ground; they’ll be facing …
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Leid Stories – Oh Bummer: The President Disappoints –...
From his white-male-dominated insider Cabinet to his intent to bypass Congress and legislate by executive order, it’s been rough going for President Barack Obama. But he deserves it. For, the man who (once again) sold himself to a distressed electorate as their standard bearer is proving himself to be a …
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Leid Stories – The Gun Control Debate: It’s A (Mostly)...
Anything strike you as strange about media coverage of the raging gun-violence/gun-control debate in the United States? Here’s a clue: It’s a shutout. Leid Stories explains how and why mainstream media outlets — and many alternative media outlets, too — propagate and reinforce racist narratives that ultimately affect not only …
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Leid Stories – On Point with the Gun Control Debate –...
Leid Stories debuts a regularly occurring feature of the program, “On Point.” Listeners are randomly paired with each other in lively debate about major issue or event; Utrice serves as moderator. In this edition’s cross hairs: Gun control. Related articles Leid Stories – Obama’s Middle-Class Muddle – 01/07/13 -
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Leid Stories – Pols Gone Wild – 01/08/13
No, it’s not a new reality show, just a new reality that seems to have taken hold of Washington, D.C. On Capitol Hill, folks are behaving badly, up to their old tricks and showing in-your-face contempt for the rule of law and violating the trust of voters. The president, too, …
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Leid Stories – Obama’s Middle-Class Muddle – 01/07/13
TheObama administration and top Democrats in Congress were pleased with the Jan. 4 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report showing an upward tick in employment and a slight dip in the national unemployment rate, at 7.8%. It’s yet another sign that Obama’s economic strategies are working, they said — a …
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Leid Stories – Capitol and Capital Offenses – 01/04/13
It’s official: Old-style politics reigns once again on Capitol Hill. John Boehner, re-elected overlord of the House, swears off any one-on-one meetings with the also re-elected Barack Obama and everyone toes the line while vying for choice committee assignments. Leid Stories also takes a look at the different treatment and …
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Leid Stories – New Congress, Old Politics – 01/03/13
The 113th Congress is seated today — in the aftermath of contentious negotiations on the so-called fiscal cliff and the prospect of continuing partisan acrimony on debt, tax and austerity measures related to the national budget and other leftover domestic and foreign-policy issues. The people worry: “Will this Congress shake …
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Leid Stories – A Raw Deal – 01/02/13
We’re all forced to start the new year with the results of congressional shenanigans of last year — a cliffhanger budget that still isn’t close to a real deal. In fact, it’s a raw deal, and Americans will ultimately pay the price for Congressional and presidential power gone mad. Leid …
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Leid Stories – What Was, Is, And Will Be – 12/31/12
Leid Stories wraps up the year with a last look at the ever-unfolding fiscal-cliff drama in Washington and other major stories having inordinate impact on our lives in 2012. Listeners relate how 2012 affected them and what they look forward to and hope for in the new year. -
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Leid Stories – A Massive Power Failure – 12/28/12
An empty House of Representatives. A sparsely populated Senate. A president holed up in the White House, unable to call his troops to action. And an anxious, bewildered nation holds its breath in anticipation of blows to the gut. It’s all part of hardball politics, we’re told; not to worry, …
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Leid Stories – Behind America’s Debt-Based Economy –...
Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, author ofThe Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy, turns prevailing economic theory about debt and the global economy on its head. There is no debt crisis — either in the United States or in individuals countries …
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Leid Stories – The Fiscal Cliff: Legislative Malpractice...
The so-called fiscal cliff, dramatic as it is, is nonetheless the end result of the refusal by Congress to approve a budget for the last three years. Leid Stories makes the case that this is not mere political dealings; it’s legislative malpractice, and ought to carry a penalty in much …
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Leid Stories – FRIENDLY FIRE: THE NRA’S SCHOOL-SAFETY...
Leave it to the NRA to solve America’s gun problem with … more guns. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the NRA proposes schools have armed guards (and even administrative personnel and teachers) with firepower to stop mass killers. No need for worrisome debates and legislation, …
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Leid Stories – BENGHAZI PROBE: MORE QUESTIONS THAN...
The Accountability Review Board’s probe of the State Department’s handling of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi has left many important questions unanswered. Leid Stories raises them — not the least of which is, “What did Hillary Clinton know and when did she know it?” …
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Leid Stories – Harlem: A Case Study in Plantation...
Not long ago, Harlem was a model of black urban achievement and the epicenter of black political power in the United States. Today, Harlem is but a shadow of its former self in almost every way; Harlemites openly concede it. How did this come to be? Kermit Eady, founder of …
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Leid Stories – Harlem: A Case Study in Plantation...
Not long ago, Harlem was a model of black urban achievement and the epicenter of black political power in the United States. Today, Harlem is but a shadow of its former self in almost every way; Harlemites openly concede it. How did this come to be? Kermit Eady, founder of …
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Leid Stories – Descending The Cliff – 12/18/12
President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner are close to hashing out a budget before the hammer falls at the end of the year. But what will the final product look like? Rebecca Theiss, a budget policy analyst with the Economic Policy Institute, explains.Plus, surprise! Hillary Clinton won’t be able …
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Leid Stories – The Deaths of Innocents – 12/17/12
In the aftermath of the Dec. 14 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., the nation finds itself once again dealing with questions that are hard to answer (Why did it happen? Could it have been prevented?) and harder still to ignore (How many more mass killings will …
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Leid Stories – Hillary’s Take-Out: Fried Rice – 12/14/12
Hillary Clinton, the feminist, winds up her brand-enhancing tenure as secretary of state with a death blow to the ascendancy of Susan Rice. There’ll be no climbing on her shoulders. By deftly playing her cards, Clinton landed a choice slot in the Obama administration and now leaves on a high …
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Leid Stories – Right to Work / Rogue Banks – 12/11/12
With Gov. Rick Snyder’ssignature,Michigan today becomes the second state in the Rust Belt, and the 24th state in the country, to adopt right-to-work statutes. Union opposition was intense, and there was even pressure from the White House and other workers’ rights groups. But is there is deeper meaning to this …
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Leid Stories – It’s What You’re Not That Matters –...
America’s obsession about race has a fairly simple premise: Who and what you think you are aren’t nearly as important as understanding who and what you are not. Not white. While there is intense interest in whether and to what degree the “Nots” have internalized this premise, scant attention is …
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Leid Stories – Cliff Notes – 12/07/12
Leid Stories unmasks the missing factor in congressional debates on theso-called “fiscal cliff” — the Federal Reserve. Plus, it’s Free Forum Friday! Listeners take center stage with their analyses of contemporary news issues and events. Related articles Leid Stories – Alton Maddox, Attorney at War – 12/05/12 Leid Stories – …
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Leid Stories – Alton Maddox, Attorney at War (Part 2) –...
“The People’s Attorney,” Alton H. Maddox Jr., for decades a legal strategist and litigator of precedent-setting criminal and civil-rights cases in New York City and in the South, discusses the landmark victories won in some of his cases, the crisis in black leadership, and why political setbacks should not discourage …
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Leid Stories – Alton Maddox, Attorney at War – 12/05/12
“The People’s Attorney,” Alton H. Maddox Jr., for decades a legal strategist and litigator of precedent-setting criminal and civil-rights cases in New York City and in the South, discusses a range of issues with Utrice Leid in the first of a series of wide-ranging interviews. Related articles Leid Stories …
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Leid Stories – Chaos in D.C.; Chaos in DRC – 12/04/12
Will the bipartisan wrangling over the budget deliver a fair result? Absolutely not, says Utrice in a scathing commentary. Both sides will “compromise” — which means they will agree to do what is politically expedient. Dr. Suleyman Nyang, a political scientist and African scholar at Howard University, gives a primer …
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Leid Stories – What’s Odd – 11/30/12
Leid Stories catches up on oddball politics. -
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Leid Stories – Hillary Clinton And Other Disturbances –...
And now, she’ll stamp out AIDS worldwide! Hillary Clinton’s self-serving political ambitions know no bounds — not even as she presented a “blueprint”for a global AIDS program that was started by George W. Bush.This latest move of hers, brazenly overshadowing her boss, is consistent with the Clintons’ way of operating …
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Leid Stories – The Road to Emancipation: Lincoln’s...
Concurrent with the release of Steven Spielberg’sLincoln, Dr. Hari Jones, assistant director and curator of the African American Civil War Memorial, Freedom Foundation and Museum in Washington, D.C., reveals in a riveting presentationhow extensive and well-organized America’s African-descent community was in its determination to end slavery in a parallel struggle …
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Leid Stories – It’s Open Forum Day! – 11/28/12
Listeners have their say on news issues and events — prepared to defend their points of view. Related articles Leid Stories – Talking Points – 11/21/12
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Leid Stories – Israel, Gaza, and International Law –...
Mark LeVine, professor of Middle Eastern history at the University of California-Irvine, discusses the Israel-Gaza conflict in the context of international humanitarian law and the amorphous legal status of Gaza. Plus, more observations from Utrice on Benghazigate. Related articles Leid Stories – Eyes on Gaza – 11/19/12 Leid Stories – …
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Leid Stories – Hillary Again Slithers Through – 11/23/12
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has managed once again to slither through the mud and come out smelling like a rose. The battle over the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi somehow has come to rest squarely on the shoulders of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, putting her and President …
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Leid Stories – Benghazigate – 11/26/12
Hillary Clinton should know a thing or two about handling terrorist attacks on U.S. embassies and diplomatic and military personnel abroad. It was during her husband’s administration, after all, that Americans first learned about Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda (the first World Trade Center Attack), and U.S. diplomatic and …
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Leid Stories – Talking Points – 11/21/12
It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories — listeners share their thoughts and opinions on major issues of the day. Related articles Leid Stories – Eyes on Gaza – 11/19/12 Leid Stories – Required Listening – 09/24/12 Leid Stories – Not Susan, But Hillary – 11/20/12
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Leid Stories – Not Susan, But Hillary – 11/20/12
The current dustup in Congress about the consulate attack in Banghazi on Sept. 11 has put Susan Rice, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in the political crosshairs. But the debacle has all the signs of the sleight-of-hand subterfuge that an astute political observer would associate with the Clintons. Utrice …
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Leid Stories – Eyes on Gaza – 11/19/12
The Israeli-Palestinian airstrike conflict in its sixth day, Netanhayu threatens to unleash a full-scale ground war against Hamas. Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies and an expert in Middle East affairs, puts the current crisis in political and historical perspective. Peace activist …
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Leid Stories – Open Forum – 11/16/12
Utrice explains why “Now Is The Time” to get serious about organizing political alternatives. And listeners offer their analyses and opinions about major issues in the news.
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Leid Stories – U.S. Expansionism’s Dead End – 11/15/12
Andrew Bacevich, professor of international relations and history at Boston University, contends that America’s severe economic woes are rooted in doomed expansionist foreign policies that continue to devour human, capital and strategic resources but yield only an illusion of world domination. Plus, listeners chime in with their takes on current …
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Leid Stories – The Oblique Angle – 11/14/12
Sam Smith, editor ofThe Progressive Review, discusses contemporary political issues — including party politics, President Obama and his administration, the paradox of left-of-center movements, and the need to move quickly on reassembling coalitions to deal with the onslaught to come.
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Leid Stories – Statehood for Puerto Rico? – 11/12/12
In a referendum that coincided with U.S. general elections, Puerto Ricans strongly favored changing their island’s status as a commonwealth to becoming America’s 51st state. The issue is among a list of high-priority items on the Latino political agenda, now reinforced by a strong showing at the polls by Latino …
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Leid Stories – The New Voting Bloc to Obama: “Andale!” –...
Among the precedents set in the 2012 election is the definitive emergence of a Latino voting bloc that played a pivotal role in the re-election of President Barack Obama.Louis DiSipio, a political scientist and professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of California-Irvine, discusses the coalition of heretofore …
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Leid Stories – Obama’s Victory: Shattering America’s...
President Barack Obama’s victory at the polls Nov. 6 is a definitive line of demarcation and departure, not just in American politics, but in the deeply entrenched racist narrative that governs practically all aspects of life in the United States. ”Experts” wax philosophic and scientific about why he won, but …
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Leid Stories – Race and The Race – 10/29/12
Part One of a week-long series.
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Leid Stories – Speaking Affirmatively – 10/19/12
Fisher vs University of Texas, the affirmative-action casebeing deliberated by the U.S. Supreme Court, brings into sharp focus thestill-unresolved question: Howis racial inequity in the United States to be resolved? Critical race theorist Ian Haney Lopez, a professor of law atthe University of California, Berkeley, guides us through the full …
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Leid Stories – Still Talking About It – 10/18/12
Leid Stories picks up from we left off yesterday, with listeners having their say about the presidential election and related matters. Related articles Leid Stories – The Word on Round 2 – 10/17/12 Leid Stories – It’s A Wrap! – 10/05/12 Leid Stories – The Obama-Romney Silence Pact – 10/15/12
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Leid Stories – The Word on Round 2 – 10/17/12
Listeners weigh in on what still is not being said by presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. With the second of three scheduled debates concluded, what’s increasingly clear is not the presidential contenders’ philosophical differences but their shared devotion to corporate-driven economic policies and practices that are at the …
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Leid Stories – Mercy Me – 10/16/12
What’s going on in political life today? Your thoughts and opinions. Related articles Leid Stories – Required Listening – 09/24/12 Leid Stories – It’s A Wrap! – 10/05/12 Leid Stories – Political Alternatives – 09/18/12
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Leid Stories – The Obama-Romney Silence Pact – 10/15/12
They’ll both be talking loudly, but still saying nothing aboutthe concerns of America’s most hard-pressed constituencies. But theObama-Romney Silence Pact comes underclose scrutinyahead of theirRound 2 debate tomorrowat Hofstra University — with a searing commentary and listeners’ opinions. Related articles Leid Stories – Think Tank – 09/27/12 Leid Stories – …
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Leid Stories – Duh-bate II – 10/12/12
Discussion of the Joe Biden / Paul Ryan debate. Related articles Leid Stories – What’s Wrong About Voting Rights – 10/10/12 Leid Stories – It’s A Wrap! – 10/05/12
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Leid Stories – The Prose of the Cons – 10/11/12
Another day, another debate. But as Biden and Ryan square off in Kentucky tonight, voters should keep in mind that the debate, first and foremost, is a sales pitch and they therefore should watch the sleight-of-hand prose of the cons. Listeners give advice on what to look for. Related articles …
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Leid Stories – What’s Wrong About Voting Rights –...
At the heart of discussions about democracy and the role of citizen-voters in assuring and maintaining it is the notion that voters have “rights.” But as the song says, “It ain’t necessarily so.” J. Gerald Hebert, executive director and director of litigation at the Campaign Legal Center, in Washington, D.C., …
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Leid Stories – The Numbing Effect – 10/09/12
A searing commentary — and then and broader discussion with listeners — on the psychology of political defeatism and why the left simply doesn’t get it that repeated losses have a numbing effect on the very constituencies they want to mobilize into action. Related articles Leid Stories – Political Alternatives …
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Leid Stories – Discovering Columbus – 10/08/12
Spoiler alert:Columbus never even set foot in the country he is credited with “discovering.”What heshould get credit for is ushering in tidal waves of genocide, plunder and warthroughout the Americas and the Caribbean. In one of his last lectures, the late Ivan Van Sertima, a world-renowned scholar of early African …
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Leid Stories – It’s A Wrap! – 10/05/12
We close out the week with updates on the FCC’s plan to buy out broadcasters’ bandwidth and then auction it off to the telecommunications industry, and on fresh legal battles looming ahead for the Chicago Teachers Union. And, of course, more debate about the Duh-bate! Related articles Leid Stories – …
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Leid Stories – The Debate After The Debate – 10/03/12
In this open forum, listeners analyze the Oct. 3 Obama-Romney debate on the economy and discuss whether and/or how it has changed their attitudes about politics and the choices they are likely to make come Nov. 6. Related articles Tough Talk for America, A Guide to the Presidential Debates You …
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Leid Stories – You Don’t Say – 10/03/12
Constitutional law expert Kenneth Lasson, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, debunks the popular belief that “freedom of speech” is an absolute right under the First Amendment. He tackles thequestion: How free should free speech be? Related articles Tough Talk for America, A Guide to the …
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Leid Stories – State of the Stake – 10/02/12
Noted labor, racial justice and international activist Bill Fletcher Jr., chairman of the board of directors of the International Labor Rights Forum, founder of the Black Radical Congress and senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C., discusses “What’s Really at Stake on Nov. 6″ — a …
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Leid Stories – Losing Air – 10/01/12
The FCCplansto offer “incentives” to broadcasters to give up their licenses and thenauction off their frequencies to the highest bidders in the telecommunications industry. A good idea? Industry expert Ari Noam calls it a serious breach of the public trust and a losing proposition for consumers. Related articles Leid Stories …
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Leid Stories – Hate in America – 09/28/12
Leid Stories trains the microscope on hate in America — who’s doing it, and whytheir actions and crimes areso hard to control or prosecute. Mark Potok, one of the country’s leading experts onhate groups and extremism, gives a status report on hate groups and hate crimes in America. And Brian …
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Leid Stories – Think Tank – 09/27/12
It’s “Think Tank Thursday” on Leid Stories — an open forum on major issues, trends and developments. But be warned: Bring your best game! Related articles Leid Stories – The Hidden Costs of Wealth – 09/26/12 Leid Stories – Political Alternatives – 09/18/12 Leid Stories – Apparatus of Government – …
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Leid Stories – The Hidden Costs of Wealth – 09/26/12
Dr. Thomas Shapiro, one of the nation’s leading authorities on wealth disparity, discusses the hidden costs of wealth in the United States,its generational impact, and why “wealthfare,” as he calls it, all but guarantees social injustice far into the future. Dr. Shapiro directs the Institute on Assets and Social Policy …
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Leid Stories – Going to the Mat – 09/25/12
Dr. Louis DiSipio, professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at the University of California-Irvine, discusses the complexities of the “new” Latino electorate and why predictions about its political preferences in the 2012 presidential election may be way off the mark. The New York City Parents Unionis gearing up for a …
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