Radio Curious

The decision of the United States Supreme Court, in the case of Citizen’s United v. Federal Elections Commission in January 2010, substantially changed the political process in the United States. That decision held that corporations have the same constitutional rights as have individual people. Four of the nine Supreme Court Justices believe the Citizen’s United was wrong. So many other American’s share that belief that a nationwide grass roots effort called Move to Amend has been organized to promote the 29th Amendment to the United States Constitution. This new amendment would change the result of the Citizen’s United decide and declare:

“The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only. Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.”

An amendment to the Constitution requires a two thirds vote of approval in both the House of Representatives and in the United States Senate. It then must be adopted by three-fourths, or thirty-eight, of the fifty states to become the law of the land.

Many city councils including those of Los Angeles, New York, and Portland, Oregon, have passed resolutions urging their congressional representatives to support this amendment. Listeners in Mendocino County, the home of Radio Curious, may soon sign petitions to put a similar resolution on the November 2012 ballot.

Our guest in this edition of Radio Curious is David Cobb, an attorney from Texas, on leave from his trial practice to promote the adoption of this constitutional amendment. David Cobb visited the studios of Radio Curious on February 13, 2012, to talk about Move To Amend. We began our conversation when I asked him to explain why the constitution should be amended to repeal the effect of the Citizen’s United decision.

The books David Cobb recommends are “Gangs of America, The Rise of Corporate Power and the Disabling of Democracy,” by Ted Nace, and ”Corporations Are Not People: Why The Have More Rights Than You Do and What You Can Do About it,” by Jeff D. Clements.

The Move To Amend website is www.movetoamend.org.

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Have you ever asked yourself ‘why is the law so perverse? Why is it directed away from what is right or good?’ This program is about the why the law is sometimes called stupid, irrational or perverse in a conversation with author and Pennsylvania law professor, Leo Katz.

His book, “Why the Law is So Perverse,” presents the multiple conundrums based on legal consequences that are sometimes unintended. We visited by phone from his home in Philadelphia, PA on November 27, 2011, and began our conversation when I asked him to describe, using the examples in his book, how the legal system in the United States evolved to create conundrums, contradictions and unintended consequences.

The book Prof. Leo Katz recommends is, “The Assault,” by Harry Mulisch.

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The history of the Mendocino Environmental Center, as told by its co-founder Betty Ball, is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious. Betty and her late husband Gary Ball, founded the Mendocino Environmental Center, based in Ukiah, California in early 1987, which soon became a central organizing hub for several environmental movements in Northern California.

The issues in those years included protection of the Northern California coast from off shore oil drilling, an effort which has remained successful; the Forests Forever initiate campaign in behalf of the Heritage Tree Preservation Act, which narrowly lost a state-wide California election in 2002; and Redwood Summer, a non violent civil disobedience effort to protect old growth redwood trees in northern California from being logged, modeled after the Mississippi Summer civil rights projects in 1964. Shortly before the planned beginning of Redwood Summer in June 2000, Judi Bari, a Redwood Summer organizer was severely injured in a car bomb explosion in Oakland, California. In a subsequent civil jury trial the F.B.I. and the Oakland Police Department were found liable for certain matters related to the bombing, and ordered to pay over $4,000,000.00 compensation. The bombers still remain at large.

These and other issues are discussed in this interview with Betty Ball, which was recorded for video and audio broadcast on November 7, 2011, at the studios of Mendocino Access Television in Ukiah, California. We began when I asked Betty Ball what drew her and her late husband, Gary Ball into the environmental movement.

The books that Betty Ball recommends are any written by Arundhati Roy, Derrick Jensen or Chris Hedges.

This interview with Betty Ball was recorded for radio and television broadcast with the generous cooperation of Mendocino Access Television in Ukiah, California, and the engineering assistance of Mikah Mate.

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Racial Politics in America is the topic of this edition of Radio Curious, in our third visit with author and Harvard Law School Professor Randall Kennedy, whose latest book is “The Persistence of the Color Line:  Racial Politics and the Obama Presidency.”  Kennedy is also the author of  “Nigger:  The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word,” and “Interracial Intimacies:  Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption.”  We visited by phone from his home in Massachusetts on October 28, 2011, and began our conversation when I asked him to describe the current role of race in American politics.

The book Randall Kennedy recommends is “Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination,” by Alondra Nelson.

The interview with Professor Kennedy about his book “Nigger:  The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word,” may be heard here and the interview about his book, “Interracial Intimacies: Sex, Marriage, Identity, and Adoption,” may be heard here.

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Radio Curious host Barry Vogel visits with his law school friend and Peace Corps cohort, Sam Farr, Congressman from Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties, California.  They discuss the political climate the new Tea Party members in Congress since the current session began in January 2011.  They also discuss the Peace Corps and the burgeoning war debt, and the House leadership’s move to eliminate the recycling program and prohibit education about climate change and energy conservation from public schools.

This conversation with Rep. Sam Farr was recorded in his Washington D.C. office September 29, 2011.

The book Rep. Sam Farr recommends is, “Home Grown Democrat: A Few Plain Thoughts From the Heart of America,” by Garrison Keillor.

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This program is the second of a two part series with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman.  We begin when Sheriff Allman explains the “moral dilemma” and then discuss what can be done about it, as well about a lot about Sheriff Tom Allman.

This program was recorded in the Radio Curious studios on August 8, 2011.

The book Sheriff Tom Allman recommends is “Outliars,” by Malcolm Gladwell.

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This program is the first of a two part series with Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman.  Sheriff Allman when he and Radio Curious Host and Producer  Attorney Barry Vogel discuss the procedures to legally grow marijuana in Mendocino County, the problems of large illegal grows, and what is being done about them, the extent the marijuana is a cash crop in Mendocino County, and a lot about Tom Allman. The next edition will be the second half of our conversation. That’s when we discuss the Sheriff’s “eureka” moment, what he wants to do with the rest of his life and a book he recommends.

The interview with Sheriff Tom Allman was recorded on August 8, 2011 in the Radio Curious studios.

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Independence Day begs the question of what freedom and independence means. For Independence Day, Radio Curious brings you an interview with the Headman and War Chief of the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California.  The Winnemem Wintu declared war on the United States in 2004, in response to the “continued cultural genocide” against the indigenous tribe.  Since that time they have been in a state of war against the US Government, which refuses to officially recognize the tribe as Native Americans.  The Winnemem Wintu began their war by holding a traditional war dance at the California State capitol building in Sacramento.

In honor of Independence Day Radio Curious Associate Producer, Christina Aanestad, visits with Mark Franco, Headman and War Chief of the Winnemem Wintu tribe. His wife, Caleen Sisk-Franco is the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe. This interview was recorded in July 2010, at a coming of age ceremony on tribal land along the McCloud River in northern California, near an area where their former villages were flooded to make the Shasta Dam. The conversation began with Mark Franco describing what it means to be the Headman of the Winnemem Wintu tribe.

The Winnemem Wintu website is www.winnememwintu.us/. You may enjoy Christina Aanestad’s interview with Caleen Sisk-Franco, the Chief and Spiritual Leader of the Winnemem Wintu tribe, found here.

The book Mark Franco recommends is “Cadillac Desert:The American West and Its Disappearing Water,” by Marc Reisner.

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In part two in our series, “Greed is Now Respectable,” we visit again with Attorney Prescott Cole, employed by California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform, or “Canhr,” a non-profit agency based in San Francisco, California.  The goal of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform is long term care, justice and advocacy.   Their website, canhr.org, has sections on Elder Abuse and Elder Financial Abuse, Medi-Cal for Long Term Care, Finding a Nursing Home, Lawyer Referral, among many other related topics.  The CANHR phone number within California is (800) 474-1116, and outside of California it is (415) 974-5171.

Our conversation with Attorney Prescott Cole was recorded from his office in San Francisco on June 9, 2011.  We discuss what a reverse mortgage is and the grave and potential economic and social consequences to which purchasers of a reverse mortgage are exposed. We talk about annuities, what they are, what they cost, and why an annuity is a poor investment for seniors. We include a discussion of how Veterans eligible for aid benefits have been lured into giving away their assets in an attempt to become eligible for the aid benefits.

We began our conversation when I asked Precott Cole to tell us about reverse mortgages.

The books Prescott Cole recommends are those written by P.G. Wodehouse, about Jeeves the Butler.

The website for California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform is canhr.org.

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