Left Out is a public affairs program produced by WRCT 88.3FM that discusses the news from a perspective left out of the mainstream media. Left Out is co-hosted by Bob Harper and Danny Sleator. Today's program is produced by Alberto Guzman. Listeners are welcome to call us at (412) 268-WRCT (9728), or send us email.
Be sure to listen to Democracy Now every weekday morning at 8am on WRCT.
Left Out co-host Robert Harper will be a guest on WQED-TV's Off Q program on April 22, 2005.
Listen to the broadcast (requires MP3 player).
Track 1 Willcox interview: (Streaming, Download)
Track 2: (Streaming, Download)
Today our guest is Nathan Willcox of Penn Environment. He's an expert in issues surrounding energy production. Here are some topics to talk about:
The impact of coal-fired power plants on air quality. The pressing issue is that of mercury. Talk about how people get exposed to mercury, and what it does to them. A new coke plant has just been approved according to this article in today's Post-Gazette. It will emit 47 pounds of mercury annually. What is the impact of this mercury? Can this be cleaned up from the stacks? At what cost?
The impact of coal-fired power plants on the land and water. We've discussed long wall mining here on Left Out, as well as mountain top mining. The later is described in painful detail in the latest Harper's magazine.
What SHOULD we be doing about energy? Discuss conservation, renewables and nuclear. (DN today discussed a report about fraud in analyzing the Yucca Mountain facility.)
An article about the hypocrisy of the Republicans in the Schiavo case by William Rivers Pitt.
Two of the 5 points:
-- Republicans, party of the 'Culture of Life,' have not one word to say about Sun Hudson. Hudson was a five-month-old baby born in Texas with a genetic disorder that required him to be sustained on machines. Thanks to a law signed by then-Governor Bush in 1999, Texas hospitals are allowed to remove patients from machines if they deem there is no hope, and if the patient's family cannot afford to sustain care. Sun Hudson was removed from his machines two weeks ago, over the thunderous outrage of his mother, and he died. Congressional Republicans were nowhere to be found when the life left his little body;
-- Republicans, party of Tom DeLay, have not one word to say about DeLay's staggering double standard in this matter. In 1988, DeLay's father was injured in an accident and left in a condition quite similar to that of Mrs. Schiavo. DeLay sat in private counsel with his family, heard the verdict of the doctors that his father would never recover, considered the stated wishes of his father that he did not want to be left to live sustained by machines should such a thing come to pass, and decided to let the man pass. Had a mob of self-righteous Congressional Democrats tried to batter their way into the decision-making process of the DeLay family in 1988, Tom would have likely attacked them with his bug-extermination equipment, and he would have been fully justified in doing so.
Documents obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative political group, through the Freedom of Information Act, reveal that the FBI did permit Saudi nationals, including members of the bin Laden and Saudi royal families, to leave the United States immediately after the 9/11/01 attacks, even though U.S. airspace was closed. Yes, indeed, Mike was right.
Rick Santorum is, true to form, a champion of "tort reform" to restrict the ability of average citizens to seek redress from large companies and health care providers. But only for little people. He himself may seek, and obtain, damages for pain and suffering due to medical negligence, just not you.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who testified before Congress that he never ordered any form of torture in the Iraq war, is a liar.
But lying to Congress is OK, as long as you're a Republican liar. Ask Ollie North or John Poindexter.
On a similar note, check out this article by Robert Parry 'Failing Up' in the Iraq War, which points out that it is precisely the ones who are most responsible for the most atrocious lies, and planning failures about the Iraq war are the ones who have been promoted. (Rice, Wolfowitz) While the ones who tried to stop it, or pointed out problems are all gone.
Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) made the following statement on the Senate floor today:
I don't know if there is a cause-and-effect connection but we have seen some recent episodes of courthouse violence in this country. Certainly nothing new, but we seem to have run through a spate of courthouse violence recently that's been on the news and I wonder whether there may be some connection between the perception in some quarters on some occasions where judges are making political decisions yet are unaccountable to the public, that it builds up and builds up and builds up to the point where some people engage in - engage in violence.
Senate Republicans are endorsing domestic terrorism as a response to their inability to have total control over every single aspect of the government.
Truth Out
Common Dreams
Information Clearinghouse
Cursor
Tom Paine
The Independent
The Guardian
Consortium News