July 20, 2013 – Archives/Pod Casts Hour 1 – Hour 2 – Hour 3
Hour 1: Corydon B. Dunham
Joining Amerika Now during the first hour is First Amendment lawyer and former NBC Executive Vice President Corydon B. Dunham to discuss whether Americans are better off not knowing too much. His book is Government Control of the News: A Constitutional Challenge.
In the wake of NSA secrets revealed, Corydon Dunham points to steps toward news censorship. President Obama and lawmakers defend National Security Agency spying programs that secretly collect Americans’ phone records and access U.S.-based internet servers. They promise the country that “no one is listening to your phone calls or reading your emails.”
“This is a program that works,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) told CNN. “It’s a program that does not listen to your conversation. It’s a program that is overseen by the courts. And our role in government is to protect the country from these terrorist attacks.”
Basically, we’re being told that it’s in our best interests to blindly trust the government with our personal communications because it knows what’s best for us, says Dunham, author of Government Control of News: A Constitutional Challenge.
“Maybe I could buy that if I hadn’t spent nearly 25 years as the head the NBC legal department dealing with government censorship through the Fairness Doctrine,” Dunham says.
Dunham notes the leak about the NSA spying programs follows on the heels of the Justice Department’s secret subpoenas of telephone records for 20 phone lines in Associated Press bureaus.
AP President Gary Pruitt has said that soon, the public will know only “what the government wants the public to know.”
“Pruitt is much closer to the truth than he may realize,” Dunham says.
Obama has already begun quietly using the FCC to take over the broadcasting spectrum and sell it to Internet carriers, where news may then fall under government oversight. This will end free, over- the-air broadcasting and end or cripple television news and talk shows.
The White House regulatory czar has long claimed the government should take over the news and use it, particularly television news, to achieve its political objectives.
Cory will discuss government censorship and which party or parties support it as well as how The Fairness Doctrine has been abused. He’ll also discuss censorship in terms of national security and whether Obama is more aggressive than past presidents in his efforts to stifle the free flow of information. Additionally, Dunham will talk about whether the government will have control over content on the Internet once the broadcast spectrum is transferred and what, if anything, we Americans do about all of this to stop it.
Corydon B. Dunham is a Harvard Law School graduate. His “Government Control of News” study was expanded and developed for the Corydon B. Dunham Fellowship for the First Amendment at Harvard Law School. As an NBC executive from 1965 to 1990, Dunham oversaw legal and government matters and Broadcast Standards. He served on the Board of Directors of the National Television Academy of Arts and Sciences and American Corporate Counsel Association.
PLEASE CALL 800-259-5791 TO SPEAK WITH CORY DUNHAM.
Hour 2: David Hagberg
Bestselling author David Hagberg joins Amerika Now during the second hour to discuss his new book (co-authored with former Senator Byron L. Dorgan) entitled Gridlock (Tor Forge, July 2013).
The U.S. Power Grid system is one of the most vulnerable aspects of America’s infrastructure and could likely be the next target of a terrorist attack. Unfortunately, a number of highly-placed officials believe foreign powers have ALREADY infected our electrical systems with a crippling computer virus. The CIA knows it’s there…but can’t remove it without destroying the computers it has already infected.
Using this information as their premise, former Senator Byron L. Dorgan and former Air Force Cryptographer David Hagberg have written a book (Gridlock) that explores what happens when this scenario actually plays out. Combining Dorgan’s in-depth knowledge of energy policy and defense and Hagberg’s action-packed narrative, Gridlock explores the repercussions of what might happen should there be a terrorist attack on our electrical system grids.
During the interview, David will discuss how countries such as Russia and China may have already infected our electrical systems with a powerful virus that can’t simply be removed…without destroying the computers it has already invaded.
He’ll also talk about other fascinating facts such as how huge transformers the size of Greyhound buses are used to regulate the transmission of power in the U.S., yet there are basically no stockpiles of these vital transformers, which are manufactured overseas with delivery times of up to three years. If terrorists targeted these transformers, America would be in big trouble!
Some of the other facts David will discuss include:
-Why there is no such thing as a National Electrical Grid (like our national highway system) and how there are three main power grids, all of which do not connect with one another in any way. He’ll also talk about why power can’t be shunted from one grid to another.
-There aren’t enough high voltage transmission lines to handle excess power by alternative energy sources. It’s why many solar generating companies have gone bankrupt – they can’t export their power. It has nowhere to go.
-Electricity can’t be stored, not for a second. It must be used the moment it is produced. Too much power and the turbines need to be shut down…too little and there’s brownouts. Not an effective system and there is no margin for error.
-How there is NO national electrical authority with any real power to effect change – instead there are 127 control centers which mostly work independently of each other. So there is no central authority to regulate, maintain, and update our electrical systems.
Be sure to listen in as David Hagberg discusses Gridlock, an eye opening wake-up call to the major problems and vulnerabilities of America’s electrical systems.
David Hagberg is a former Air Force Cryptographer who has traveled extensively throughout Europe, the Arctic, and the Caribbean. He has published more than 20 novels of suspense, including the New York Times bestsellers Allah’s Scorpion, The Expediter and Abyss.
For more information, please visit www.david-hagberg.com.
PLEASE CALL 800-259-5791 TO SPEAK WITH DAVID HAGBERG.
Hour 3: Barbara Chepaitis
Joining the show during the final hour is author Barbara Chepaitis to discuss her recently published book, Saving Eagle Mitch: One Good Deed in a Wicked World (SUNY Press, 2013).
In the spring of 2010, as the world’s economy faced a potential meltdown and the U.S. tried to win one war and maneuver its way out of another, one lone Steppe Eagle, shot down on a firing range in Afghanistan, faced problems of his own. Fortunately, help came in the form of former Army Ranger Scott Hickman and his friend, Navy SEAL Greg Wright, who took the eagle in and gave him the healing he needed. They named the bird Mitch. But it wasn’t long before they realized they needed to find a safer home for Mitch than the war zone they were in. Through the strange synchronicities of time, place and the Internet, they got in touch with Pete Dubacher, Founder of the Berkshire Bird Paradise in upstate New York. Dubacher, in turn, enlisted the help of my guest tonight, Barbara Chepaitis, who was just celebrating the release of her book, Feathers of Hope about Pete and his bird sanctuary.
Tonight, Barbara shares her story of what happens when matters of the heart come into conflict with rules and regulations, and how one person can make a difference in a troubled and confusing world.
Faced with a host of bureaucratic and regulatory obstacles, Chepaitis soon found herself cold-calling the White House and the Department of State, while simultaneously utilizing Internet media, the press, and social networks to try to accomplish one good deed in a world that looked more wicked every day. Along the way, she learned a great deal about the nature of personal power as well as the nature of institutions that usually present themselves as faceless and indifferent to individual needs.
Saving Eagle Mitch is an inspiring, gritty look into what happens when one person decides to make a difference in the world and why such a seemingly small act of grace was necessary to create a greater good.
Barbara Chepaitis is the Fiction Director for the Western State College of Colorado’s graduate program in creative writing. She’s also the author of a number of other fiction and nonfiction books.
If you’d like more information about Barbara, please visit her website at www.wildreads.com. And if you’d like more information about the Berkshire Bird Paradise, please visit their site at www.birdparadise.org.
NO CALLS PLEASE AS THIS SEGMENT WAS PRERECORDED.
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