Tell Somebody Looks Back at 2009

Mohammed Atwa

The December 29th, 2009 edition of Tell Somebody takes a look back at 2009.

After dealing with some old voicemail, I went back to a November 2008 conversation with Paul Street, author of Barack Obama and the Future of American Politics. Nobody who heard that show had any cause for surprise that Obama is not very 'progressive.'

During the Obama transition, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern appeared on the show every week, we heard part of one of those shows, and then an excerpt from a conversation with Mohammed Atwa, a Kansas Citian born and raised in Gaza, where his mother and brother still live.

Healthcare was featured on several shows last year - on this show I played excerpts from two of them: Kansas University School of Medicine medical student Tim Lyon and Physicians for a National Health Program co-founder Dr. David Himmelstein.

Internationally acclaimed environmental activist Vandana Shiva spoke about her book Soil, Not Oil on a show in March - an excerpt from that show is included, and then part of a conversation with Alternative Radio's David Barsamian.

So, a partial look back at 2009 on Tell Somebody. The hour ended with a lot of highlights left out - you can scroll through all the shows you missed at http://www.tellsomebody.libsyn.com/ , including a multi-installment reading of a first-hand account of the February, 1917 Russian Revolution, never before seen in English, more local and national figures speaking on healthcare, Kansas City Missouri Public Library Director R. Crosby Kemper, hearings and personal testimony on the Kansas City Plant that makes 85% of the components for the U.S. nuclear weapons arsenal, and the plans for a new plant, Democracy Now's Amy Goodman, Free Press's Professor Robert McChesney and much more.

Tell Somebody!!

click here for a link to hear the show:

Tell Somebody Looks Back at 2009

A family poisoned and oppressed in Kansas

Missed a past edition of Tell Somebody? Scroll through www.tellsomebody.us for links!

I just got an email with links to some troubling information about Westar- one of the links is to the site of past Tell Somebody guest Mark Crispin Miller - will be looking into all this a little more later, but for now, just passing on some links.
http://markcrispinmiller.com/2009/12/a-family-poisoned-and-oppressed-in-kansas/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qQ8BZwmVhc
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EHbDNfBgLk&feature=related

Marjorie Cohn on Iraq Pregnancy Policy-/-Gregg Lombardi on Eviction Notice for Renters-/-KC Plant Testimony

Link <- to audio of this week's show

A new law requires lenders to give at least 90 days notice to renters in foreclosure cases, and Legal Aid of Western Missouri Executive Director Gregg Lombardi wants to hear from renters in that situation if that law isn't being complied with. I talked about this with Lombardi after receiving the email below:

About one in every four foreclosures in Kansas City is on a rental property. A new law requires lenders who foreclose on rental properties to give the renters who are up to date on their rent at least 90 days to move out of the property. In some cases, the lender may be required to allow the renter to stay much longer than 90 days.

Legal Aid of Western Missouri believes that many lenders may not be complying with this law and we are eager to take on cases to stop these unlawful evictions.

If you or anyone on your staff is aware of any low-income person in Jackson County who is being evicted from a foreclosed property, please have them call our intake line at (816)474-6750. We cannot guarantee that we will be able to represent all renters who are in this situation, but we will do our best to represent as many as we can.

After that, I talked to Thomas Jefferson Law School professor and past president of the National Lawyers Guild Marjorie Cohn about a Stars and Stripes report that Major General Anthony Cucolo, commander of US forces in northern Iraq, had put in place a policy whereby US personnel could face court martial and possible jail time for becoming pregnant or impregnating other personnel. Several days after the broadcast, Cucolo's superior issued orders to rescind the policy.

Also, I played audio from a town hall meeting on health issues faced by workers at the Bannister Complex, home to the Kansas City WMD plant, and then ended the show with The Recipe's take on the third amendment.

For a downloadable mp3 of the show, click here:
Prof. Marjorie Cohn on Iraq Pregnancy Policy-Gregg Lombardi on Renters Foreclosure Evictions

links:
http://marjoriecohn.com/
Top U.S. general in Iraq halts pregnancy policy
http://kcnukeswatch.wordpress.com/

Now Online: Will Supreme Court Completely Sell Out Democracy? Plus KC Plant Town Hall

Missed a prior show? Scroll through http://www.tellsomebody.us/ & http://www.tellsomebody.libsyn.com/

On this edition of Tell Somebody, Craig Holman, Legislative Representative for Public Citizen talks about Citizens United v FEC, a case which the Supreme Court has already taken up, expanded in an unusal way, and seemed poised to issue a ruling on. Is this really such a big deal?
http://www.citizen.org/
http://www.dontgetrolled.org/

http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=8B811860-18FE-70B2-A84D447CBD611957
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/09042009/transcript2.html

Plus, Ann Suellentrop and Maurice Copeland talk about a town hall on the the health problems faced by Kansas City WMD Plant workers exposed to myriad toxic substances.

http://www.pitch.com/2009-11-19/news/honeywell-workers-exposed-to-beryllium-now-face-berylliosis-and-cancer

http://kcnukeswatch.wordpress.com/

Click here for a link to a downloadable mp3 of this show:

http://tellsomebody.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=562563 or subscribe to the podcast, for free, at the iTunes store.

Tom Klammer

mail@tellsomebody.us

The Film Big River, Classic Bill Moyers, & The Recipe for the First Amendment

Missed a recent edition of Tell Somebody? Take a scroll through http://www.tellsomebody.us/ and http://www.tellsomebody.libsyn.com/

The film makers who brought you King Corn have a sequel out called Big River. On the December, 2009 edition of Tell Somebody, I talked about the new film with Curt Ellis (he's the one on the right in the picture).

King Corn, featured on Tell Somebody in April 2008, is the story of two easterners who go to Iowa and plant, tend, and harvest one acre of corn, modern industrial agriculture-style, and take a wide-ranging look at big corn's effects on our fast-food nation.

Recently I got an email from Curt Ellis saying that they had a sequel out so I got him on the phone to hear more about the new film.

Then, on news that Bill Moyers is retiring from his PBS show, and that PBS is cancelling NOW with David Brancaccio, I took a look back at the first National Conference on Media Reform put on by http://www.freepress.net/ in November, 2003. The second half of this week's show features excerpts from Bill Moyers' keynote speech there.

Finally, the show ends with spoken word artists, The Recipe. They've got a new CD called Expressions Without Weapons, that has 10 tracks expressing their take on the Bill of Rights. I end the show with the first track, Pledge of Allegiance.

You can find a link to an mp3 of this show here: Big River/King Corn Producer Curt Ellis plus Classic Bill Moyers.

By the way, Theodore Priest Hughes and Desmond Jones, aka The Recipe, are among the people quoted in a front page article in this week's Wednesday Sun newspaper, along with past Tell Somebody guests Ann Suellentrop and Jane and Henry Stoever. The article is about the Kansas City WMD Plant - Kansas City nurse says no to nukes -

You can find several editions of Tell Somebody featuring the plant - just put "Kansas City Plant" or "PIEA" in the search box at http://www.tellsomebody.us/

Tom Klammer
send me an email! mail@tellsomebody.us

Native Spirit Radio on Sprouts & King Corn

If you heard the Native Spirit Radio edition of Pacifica's Sprouts and would like to hear the longer version, look here: Native Spirit Radio's Rhonda LeValdo.

For a link to my 2008 interview with Curt Ellis about the 'prequel' to Big River, click here: 2008 King Corn Interview with Curt Ellis.

Tom Klammer mail@tellsomebody.us