A national organization of 17,000 physicians are urging defeat of the Senate version. Burt's guest on this show is Dr. Thomas Clairmont of PNHP who argues the current bill is worse than doing nothing.

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In the greatest recession since the Great Depression, it seems much of FDR's New Deal is applicable once again. On this Portside, Burt's guest is Steven Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center. How much of the New Deal is applicable to America's current high unemployment? Would massive spending on public works jobs help or hurt the economy? There's a lot to think about from this podcast.

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It's quite different from the old Parti Quebecois. At a recent convention a new left-leaning independent Quebec begins to emerge. Burt's guest is Richard Fidler who reported on the well-attended gathering. There may be much for us who live south of the border to learn.

 

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Cash for clunkers worked well, helping people get more fuel efficient cars. Now there's an idea called Cash for Caulkers, a new program to create jobs retrofitting homes and businesses, addressing global warming and helping to break our oil addiction. On this show,Burt's guest is Les Leopold author of "The Looting of America," who has both praise and criticism for the Cash for Caulkers idea.

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On December 10, 1948 the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, with Eleanor Roosevelt leading the effort. Sixty one years later, what is the status of those inherent rights across the world? The northeast regional Director of Amnesty International checks in.

 

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It's been a decade after the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, the Depression-era safeguard that prohibited the commingling of commercial and investment banks. This repeal gave rise to all-in-one financial behemoths like Citi, ushered in the too-big-to-fail era, and nearly toppled the global financial system. Today all taxpayers are paying the price. On this Portside, Burt Cohen talks with Nomi Prins,author of "It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street." Before becoming an economic journalist and author, Nomi worked on Wall Street as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, and worked at Bear Stearns in London. If you care about reining the power of Wall Street this is a show you won't want to miss.

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Many Americans are angry at bigness and frustrated with their own sense of powerlessness. it would be logical for these sentiments to support progressive populism, but instead the hard right seems to own it. On this edition of Portside, Burt talks with Michael Lind, Policy Director of New America's Economic Growth Program and many questions are answered. Some Democrats get it, but most do not.

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The international community refused to recognize the coup of June 28th, which ousted the elected president of Honduras. On November 29th an election was held, but most nations do not recognize it as legitimate. On this Portside, Burt Cohen gets the lowdown on the realities on the ground in Honduras from Vicki Gass of the washington Office on Latin America. What does all this mean for US relations with Latin America?

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