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Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why the Media Didn’t Tell You
Paul Waldman, Editor-in-Chief of The Gadflyer and former associate director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, talks about his latest book, Fraud: The Strategy Behind the Bush Lies and Why The Media Didn't Tell You.
He says Bush’s deception is unique. He doesn’t lie to get out of trouble like other politicians do, instead he starts off with a lie to gain public support of his agenda. Mr. Waldman also says he doesn’t believe Bush is “evil” because Bush probably thinks he’s doing the right thing.
The Republican party is good at using clever language to advance their policy goals, according to Waldman, and conservatives alter their language to manipulate the public’s perceptions, ie. “tax plan” becomes “tax warfare”.
You’ll find this show on the Criminal Justice Radio Archive page where you can hear what Mr. Waldman has to say about conspiracy theories, why big businesses don’t pay taxes, the elite and the inheritance tax.
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HIV/AIDS Disclosure and Prevention Education
Every hour two American teens are becoming infected with HIV/AIDS. And that’s just in the U.S. Six thousand teens worldwide become infected every day. Half of the 40,000 new infections in the U.S. each year are people under 25. And between 11 and 15% of AIDS cases in the U.S. occur in people over 50.
Thomas Lister says much of the reason this 24-year-old pandemic is still around is because infected people are not disclosing their HIV status. In fact, a study by the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Tulane University found that 75% are not honest about their HIV status with their partners.
Mr. Lister contracted HIV when his partner lied to him about his positive status. And now he visits schools and talks to teens about HIV/AIDS, disclosure, and what it is like to be lied to and have that lie do so much damage. He’s telling them more than to just have protected sex, he’s bringing a “face and a reality” to the disease.
Mr. Lister reminds us you can’t tell a person’s HIV status by looking at them. And the responsibility for ensuring you don’t become infected lies with you!
Listen to this show on our Criminal Justice Radio Archive page where you will learn the irony of who infected Mr. Lister with HIV/AIDS and what the law says about exposing others to the disease without their knowledge.
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Mentoring
Kids benefit from having someone to look up to. Lori Briggs, Vice President of Community Relations for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tampa Bay, says it’s a big self-esteem boost to have someone who isn’t obligated to like you, like your parents are, want to hang out with you.
Ms. Briggs also says kids know their mentor isn’t a substitute parent. But they do develop special bonds with their “bigs” and look up to them as a role model. The “littles” look forward to spending time with their mentors and they even find comfort in talking with them about tough subjects like their parent’s death or incarceration.
Big Brothers Big Sisters has programs for kids who have experienced domestic violence, HIV/AIDS, or the incarceration of one or both of their parents.
The benefits of mentoring can be significant to a community too. Ms. Briggs says “kids who see it, tend to repeat it”. So imagine the power of exposing children to a different family dynamic than they’ve ever been around, one where people don’t respond with anger and violence.
There are currently 400 children in Hillsborough, Pasco, and Polk counties ready to be matched with mentors. What does it take to be a big brother or sister? Just a few hours a month and a phone call to 888.293.2535 to find your local agency.
Listen to this show in the Criminal Justice Radio Archive page to hear more about the benefits of mentoring from a parent and a “big.”
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Close the School of the Americas
A military training school at Ft. Benning, Georgia is training combat skills, commando techniques, psychological warfare, interrogation, and torture tactics to Latin American soldiers. The school, originally called The School of the Americas, has so far trained 60,000 using manuals that teach trainees to use what they’ve learned against union organizers, human rights advocates and church leaders.
You may think the use of these tactics sounds familiar, a bit like what’s happened at Abu Ghraib. That’s because, as Eric Lecompte, with the School of the Americas Watch, points out, Abu Ghraib is an “illustration of U.S. foreign policy”, rather than an “aberration of foreign policy” like they are trying to claim. Our military has been teaching these tactics for more than 50 years.
Clare Hanrahan, like many others, used civil disobedience to bring the court’s attention to the School. She crossed a line onto the Ft. Benning reservation, was arrested and is now one of 200 people who have served a cumulative 75 years in prison for peacefully protesting against the School of the Americas.
Listen to this show on our Criminal Justice Radio Archive page to find out why peaceful protestors, including former research scientists, nuns, students, former fortune 500 company CEOs, and others like Ms. Hanrahan are being imprisoned for speaking out again perpetrators of massacre, while the teachers, authors of the manuals, and the soldiers who have gone back to their home countries to practice what they’ve learned by killing civilian populations there are acting without punishment.
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What the Future Brings...
Voting Rights airing July 3rd
Eddie Hailes Jr. of the Advancement Project talks about the strategy to purposefully disenfranchise voters in Florida. Who do you think the plan has affected the most?
Psychiatric Diagnosis airing July 10th
Mental illness itself is not a disease, but instead the name for a grouping of conditions affecting a person’s cognitive, emotional, or behavioral functioning. Dr. George Warren, a Psychiatrists who’s practiced in Pinellas county for 35 years, explains the subtle differences and similarities between diagnoses.
Life on the Outside airing July 17th
Author Jennifer Gonnerman talks with the subject of her book, Elaine Bartlett, about the harsh Rockefeller drug laws, life in prison, and the reality of so many women’s return from prison.
Public Defender airing July 24th
Those who can’t afford their own counsel when facing criminal charges are guaranteed the help of a public defender, but it doesn’t come free. Bob Dellinger, a public defender, shares his perspective.
Abu Ghraib means Impunity airing July 31st
Yes, impunity! According to Michael Weinstein, political science professor, the captors at Abu Ghraib not only did the worst thing that could ever be done to a human being by breaking their captives down, but they with exemption from punishment or penalty.
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