Trevor Aaronson interviewed on RT, February 14, 2013

9/11 changed everything. Or so Washington DC would have you believe.

Certainly, it was the biggest act of terrorism to date on American soil, even if it was not the first. But rather than the uncomfortable evaluation that would be necessitated by fighting domestic terrorists like Timothy McVeigh, 9/11 gave us an identifiable foe: Muslim extremists. Granted, it took some time for us to finesse the message down to Muslim extremism, causing its own form of discomfort as we went through the permutations of a "crusade", Islamofascism, etc, etc.

But there was no question people were frightened by 9/11 and demanded proof that our country would not be caught flat-footed again. And therein lies the danger that author Trevor Aaronson documents in The Terror Factory. Not content with just throwing Homeland Security money at low-probability targets as Lucas Stadium in Indianapolis, the American people wanted to see that terrorists were getting snapped up before they had the chance to wreak havoc.

But how many of the over 500 terrorism cases prosecuted since 9/11 were legitimately thwarted bad actors? The answer is, not many. For every Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, there are dozens of terrorists like the Fort Dix Five, who appear to have neither the wherewithal nor the capacity to commit an act of terrorism without the express enabling of FBI informants. And that is what The Terror Factory examines: how many of these terrorism prosecutions were the result of enablinga and entrapment? From the publisher:

An outgrowth of Trevor Aaronson's work as an investigative reporting fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, which culminated in an award-winning cover story in Mother Jones magazine, The Terror Factory reveals shocking information about the criminals, con men, and liars the FBI uses as paid informants--including the story of an accused murderer who has become one of the Bureau's most prolific terrorism snitches--as well as documenting the extreme methods the FBI uses to ensnare Muslims in terrorist plots, which are in reality conceived and financed by the FBI.

The book also offers unprecedented detail into how the FBI has transformed from a reactive law enforcement agency to a proactive counterterrorism organization that traps hapless individuals in manufactured terrorist plots in order to justify the $3 billion it spends every year fighting terrorism.

Trevor Aaronson is here with us today to discuss the way the domestic prosecution of the "War on Terror"™ has become warped and twisted into a mockery of investigations, entrapment and the persecution of hapless Muslims in the name of keeping the country safe.

Please join me in welcoming Trevor to C&L and let's discuss The Terror Factory.

If there ever was an example of following your passion, it has to be Lizz Winstead. In an industry that regularly relegates women to novelty acts, she has carved out a long and considerable career as a comedian. And she's done so without censoring her wit or her political ideology, even though managers told her that would be the death knell to her career.

Born the youngest in a conservative Catholic family in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Lizz bristled at the conventions and restrictions of her upbringing. She didn't know what she wanted to do, but she knew that it didn't involve getting married, having kids and moving to the suburbs. A natural performer, Lizz discovered her calling in college, when a friend suggested that she perform at an Open Mic night at a local comedy club. But her stand up found a real voice after the first Gulf War and her outrage at the political propaganda swirling around was only topped by her exasperation at the media. That led to the creation of The Daily Show, where they tweaked both politicians and the journalists who covered them by imitating them. Lizz was the Head Writer for The Daily Show, without any television experience. But even without a resume behind it, she changed the media landscape. And then she did it again, by co-founding Air America and the show Unfiltered with the wonderful Chuck D and a little radio newbie named Rachel Maddow.

All this and more are chronicled in her first book, Lizz Free or Die. Lizz has written essays covering her childhood, relationship with her church, her siblings, her parents, her dogs, friends, lovers, and bosses and the process of finding her way and her voice. It is funny, raw and always indomitably Lizz.

Lizz Free or Die will be released on May 10, but you can pre-order her book at indiebound now.

And best of all, Lizz Winstead is here to talk to us about her experiences and her book. Please join me in welcoming Lizz to C&L, and let's talk Lizz Free or Die.

(Warning: May not be safe for work or children)

I have met many people through this job: politicians, pundits, journalists and other movers and shakers. Some people I've met make little impression, some I've written off as self-interested above all else. And then there are people you get to know who you just wish you could call a friend in real life.

Lizz Winstead is the latter. I cannot tell you how much I want to tell you that Lizz and I are BFFs. She is simply one of the warmest, funniest, most genuine people I've met through the blogosphere. Blue Gal and Driftglass were lucky enough to meet her at Netroots Nation last year and can confirm just how great she is. As a matter of fact, Lizz kindly offered to let me couchsurf at her place to join them--based on nothing but our single degree of separation of John Amato--but I was stuck at home with the kids.

However, I'm going to boost my degree of separation by one by hosting a book chat on Lizz's new book "Lizz Free or Die" this Thursday, May 3, at 11:00 am Pacific/ 2:00 pm Eastern. The book is a collection of autobiographical essays on finding her voice, confronting and questioning the institutions of her upbringing and finding humor in it all. Lizz's sense of humor and sharp political wit has enabled her to reshape the national dialog as the co-creator and former head writer of The Daily Show and one of the founding voices on the late, lamented Air America and the Unfiltered show, with Chuck D and Rachel Maddow. You can catch her now regularly on The Ed Show on MSNBC.

Lizz's book will be released May 10 and she'll be here to answer your questions on Thursday. Mark your calendars.

Please join us TOMORROW for a live book chat with Craig Crawford, co-author of Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do. The chat will be held at 1 pm Eastern/10 am Pacific.

Open thread below.

Things are tough all over...unless, of course you're one of the elites.

Not one of those liberal elites Fox News is always grumbling about. But the true elites. You know, the ones who get bonuses bigger than the ones they received last year despite being bailed out by the Feds. Or who post record profits despite a soft economy and record gas prices. Or who complain that they can't possibly compete with a federal public option, despite having a literal cartel and a near monopoly. Those who tell you that the problems in this country can be blamed on labor unions, illegal immigrants, lazy people who won't try harder to get off unemployment rolls, or gay people who want to have their partnerships legally recognized.

What do those elites have in common?

Greed. Simple, all-American greed.

In the last thirty years, greed has over taken our society and economy, grabbing our politicians, our media and too many people for whom the benefits don't trickle down into their Chicago School of Economics/Friedmanesque/free market-worshipping grasp. We have gone from Gordon Gecko's "Greed is good" to the GOP's implicit mantra "Greed is patriotic" and that force to get the most for ourselves, the hell with everyone else has driven this country to the brink of a second great depression and all but killed our middle class.

Jonathan Tasini has chronicled the reasons and people responsible for the looting of America in his new book, The Audacity of Greed. The corporate executives who bust unions and lay off workers while jet-setting in their multi-million lifestyles; the politicians too beholden to corporate interests to regulate industries to protect Americans to the media that reinforces and celebrates the robbing of average Americans as something to which one should aspire.

From Jonathan's official bio:

Jonathan Tasini is executive director of the Labor Research Association. The longtime president of the National Writers Union, he was the lead plaintiff in Tasini vs. The New York Times, the landmark electronic rights case that took on the corporate media's assault on the rights of freelance authors. In 2006 he ran against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for the US Senate in New York. He has written about labor and economics for a variety of publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal, and has appeared on CNBC and Fox News. He is currently challenging Kirsten Gillibrand for the 2010 Democratic nomination for US Senate from New York.

Howie Klein has an autographed copy of The Audacity of Greed that we will be giving out to the C&Ler whom Jonathan has determined asked the best question.

So with that, please join me in welcoming Jonathan Tasini to C&L.

Our food system is broken.

Our nation is collectively getting heavier and heavier and suffering the effects of it in our health (and the taxes that puts on our broken health care system).

In poorer neighborhoods, the issue is even more stark. Access to healthy options are almost non-existent and with uninsured and underinsured populations, the impact is nothing less than killing those least able to defend themselves.

Jill Richardson started writing about the obesity epidemic on Daily Kos back in 2006 to great response. She's expanded her research to look at how agriculture has changed over the last 50 years and how the answer to our broken food system is simply to alter our methods towards sustainability. That research has resulted in the book we're going to discuss today: Recipe For America.

Jill looks at organics, government subsidies, foreign methodology to agriculture, the impact of pesticides and food delivery systems to break down in a easy-to-understand breakdown of the tangled and interdependent food system. She even gives some simple ways that we can change the system that will benefit all of us immeasurably.

So please join me in welcoming Jill Richardson to C&L to discuss Recipe for America: Why Our Food System is Broken and What We Can Do to Fix It.

Why?

Just a simple one-word sentence, yet it conveys probably the most anarchic, the most radical, the most provocative and the most democratizing thought in the world. The ability to question....no, the right and responsibility to question is the very cornerstone of our democracy. The Founding Fathers set forth programs and laid the groundwork to check the workings of our govenment by requiring it to answer to the people from which it was composed.

And yet, somewhere in the last forty years ago or so, we've lost our way. We, collectively as a nation, have decided that we needed to focus on the answers rather than ask the questions. We opt to live among others who share our values, rather than stand to have them questioned by other points of views. We select our media sources from those with which we share an ideological point of view, so our preconceived biases never are challenged. We pour money into the self-help industry, looking for someone to give us the answers that we seek, rather than do the hard work of finding our own path or questioning if we need measure our success in the same way. We gravitate towards politicians who appear to us to have the answers, even though the issues that face us cannot be "solved" by simple answers.

Our lack of appreciation of the power and value of questions leave us mostly disengaged from the democracy of which we're a part. Fewer and fewer people have any notion of how government works and that lack of engagement enables life-changing legislation to get passed with little public discussion.

Where did we lose our way? When did questioning stop being an act of democracy and become unpatriotic? How does this bode for our collective future as another generation is raised with fewer skills to look deeper at issues and analyze and synthesize information to consider solutions? Drum Major Institute's Executive Director Andrea Batista Schlessinger looks at this issue in her new book The Death of Why and she joins us here today to discuss it.

It is Andrea's position that so much of the policy debate is won in the framing. How are issues discussed? Through what lens do we approach debates about government and its role in our lives? Are we creating the capacity/will/desire in our young people to question? Are the tools that we give children to learn actually limiting their ability to really think?

These are questions that go right to the heart of where we find ourselves today and some fairly frightening prospects for our future if we don't reintroduce the value of questioning to the next generation.

Please welcome Andrea Batista Schlessinger to C&L and let's discuss The Death of Why:

There are, perhaps, only a few jobs for which you truly cannot prepare, but just leap in and do.

One of those jobs has to be President of the United States. No matter how much you think you've learned--be it in the Senate like Barack Obama, or as the governor of a state, like George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, or even as Vice President, like George HW Bush and Lyndon Johnson--the American presidency is a whole other animal. Often insulated and isolated from those who put you in office, the American president must juggle political, economic, foreign, security and partisan interests to lead the Executive Branch--and the free world--to the best of their abilities.

Obviously, some presidencies are more successful than others.

As journalists assigned to cover the White House, Craig Crawford of CQ Politics and Helen Thomas of the Hearst News Syndicate, together share decades of observing from the White House Press Room. They have watched and noted each success and each blunder. Helen Thomas has covered more presidents than any other present journalist, starting with JFK in 1960, but her career really began in 1945 during Roosevelt's administration. Craig Crawford, who actually interned as a college student in Jimmy Carter's press office, began covering presidential campaigns in 1988 with Ronald Reagan. So there's no shortage of presidential triumphs and stumbles between them, and it is that experience they have collated to create Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do, where they share the attributes of successful presidencies by looking at the choices made by predecessors: from Clinton's prickly and sometimes overly hostile handling of the press to JFK's deft deflectons with humor, from Johnson's brave stance on civil rights, knowing the political costs to him and his party to Reagan's Cold War fight, which alienated him with his conservative base when he began negotiating nuclear disarmament with Gorbachev.

Every presidency is marked with mistakes as the president navigates this unbelievably difficult and occasionally thankless job, but Helen and Craig have listed some basic principles which, if followed, should make any future president successful, such as finding trustworthy advisers, remembering they are not above the law, be honest, have the courage to do the hard thing and keep a clear vision.

I'm happy to have Craig Crawford here with us today to discuss his book, Listen Up, Mr. President: Everything You Always Wanted Your President to Know and Do. Please join us to chat on what makes for a successful American presidency.