bikes

Guest host Esther Armah is joined by Rosalind McLymont and and Akiba Solomon to  discuss Black History Month and Raina Kelley's Newsweek piece, The Nation's piece on the media-lobbying complex, and Ishmael Reed's New York Times op-ed about the film Precious. In the Kurdish region of Iraq, the people faced horrendous atrocities under Saddam Hussein, including in some villages the murder of nearly all men and boys. The Kurdish women, however, have been rebuilding and redefining their roles. A film by Mary Ann Smothers Bruni looks at three women who are working to strengthen their region and their nation. "No one could've seen this coming." We heard that line over and over again as the economy crumbled around our ears. Yet many people DID see it coming, and Dean Baker was one of them. Co-Director of the Center for Economic And Policy Research, blogger at Beat the Press, and author of a new book, False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy, Baker is in studio to explain the causes of the crisis, the reasons the stimulus wasn't big enough, and why Ben Bernanke should've been fired, not reconfirmed. Yesterday, we aired the first part of activist and author Herb Boyd's recent trip to Haiti. Here is part 2 of "Haiti's Cri de Coeur" or "Cry from the Heart." Thanks to Free Speech TV for the video. Finally, in a video from Street Films, we take a bike ride to work with Mayor Mike McGinn of Seattle.