A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

Public Radio International

Wisconsin Public Radio

THE POLITICS OF AUDACITY

Program 08-01-13-A

Listen!

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. It depends on what the meaning of the word "is" is. From Bold declarations to bald-faced lies. In this hour ofTo The Best Of Our Knowledge, the audacity of American politics. How did we get from Thomas Jefferson to William Jefferson Clinton in a little over 200 years? And, where are we headed?

SEGMENT 1:

NPR's Senior News Analyst Daniel Schorr talks with Steve Paulson about the audacity of today's politicians. Schorr thinks the only hope is an alert corps of journalists. Schorr's latest book is "Come to Think of It: Notes on the Turn of the Millennium." And we revisit Donald Rumsfeld on the subject of Weapons of Mass Destruction.

SEGMENT 2:

We revisit President Reagan's threat to fire air traffic controllers in 1981. Also, Rachel Boynton is director of the documentary film "Our Brand is Crisis." She talks with Steve Paulson about her film which follows the efforts of an American political consulting firm which became involved in the Bolivian presidential election. And, we revisit President George Bush aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Also, Jean Edward Smith is the author of "FDR," and tells Jim Fleming about Franklin Roosevelt's Supreme Court-packing scandal of 1937.

SEGMENT 3:

Matt Taibbi is a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine and is the author of "Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire." He talks with Anne Strainchamps about political audacity, voter memory and the scandalous behavior of some defense contractors in Iraq. Also, we hear Archibald MacLeish's poem "The End of the World."

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 08-01-13-A.

................................................................

Books:

Daniel Schorr, Come to Think of It : Notes on the Turn of the Millennium (Penguin)
Jean Edward Smith, FDR (Random House)
Matt Taibbi, Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire (Grove Press)

Music:

• “Go Je Je” by Antibalas off of their “Government Magic” CD on Afrosound Records.

• “Better Man” by Pearl Jam off of their “Vitalogy” CD on Epic Records.

• “There There” by Christopher O’Riley off of his “Hold Me To This: Christopher O’Riley Plays Radiohead” CD on World Village Records.

• “Lights Out” off of the “Clown and Midway Calliope Music: Volume 1” CD on MR. R Records.
  

Distribution dates: week of 01/13/2008 - hour 1

Listen!

................................................................

Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

Wisconsin Public Radio is a service of the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension.

Page design and management by Jim Fleming at Wisconsin Public Radio and Sarah Fleming.

© 2008 WHA Radio and the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. All rights reserved.