Leid Stories

Leid Stories - Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say! - 05/15/13

It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories, and listeners’ considered opinions on news issues and events they think warrant closer attention take center stage. What’s expected? Well, say what you mean, and mean what you say. It’s not about being “right” or “wrong.” It’s about presenting an idea or point of view that sparks vigorous discussion and debate. Be brave! Challenge and be challenged – with love and respect, of course!

Leid Stories - Obama’s Dilemma - 05/14/13

Ensnared in a tangle of carefully choreographed probes into his administration’s role in a range of hot-button issues, President Obama no doubt has gotten the gist of the Republicans’ true intentions: to keep him on the defensive with well-placed jabs while they hone their muscle for the lethal blow—impeachment. Leid Stories returns to yesterday’s discussion, focusing on the ways in which the president’s only hope is to re-cultivate a genuine relationship with his political base—the folks who have walked the walk with him, but whose priorities appear to have been low on his list.

Leid Stories - Lame Duck Impeached: Special on the Republicans’ Political Menu - 05/13/13

It was a bruiser of a week for President Obama, but a comeback of sorts for Republicans, who have made their intentions clear: Obama is to be a lame duck president and, preferably, impeached. Leid Stories explains how Obama and his administration breathed new life into the deflated Republican Party and why he may very well end up being the reason for major setbacks for the constituencies that have most faithfully supported him.

Leid Stories - Feed Your Brain with History - 05/10/13

Leid Stories is pleased to present noted historian, political scientist and author Gerald Horne in an exciting lecture, “The World and African Americans”-- how, from the 17th century to the present, African Americans have allied with the foes of foes to progress. Dr. Horne holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston.  A prolific author, he has written more than 30 books and 100 scholarly papers and reviews on struggles against imperialism, colonialism, fascism and racism. Dr. Horne's undergraduate courses include the Civil Rights Movement and U.S. History Through Film. He also teaches graduate courses in Diplomatic History, Labor History, and 20th-Century African American History.

Leid Stories - Terrorism and Obama’s Errorism - 05/09/13

William Blum, who has been chronicling the seamy underside of U.S. foreign policy and covert operations since leaving the State Department in 1967, explains why President Obama “could be charged with serious crimes for allowing the United States to fight on the same side as al Qaeda-linked terrorists in Libya and Syria and for funding and supplying these groups.” And yesterday’s congressional hearing on the terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, Libya, last Sept 11 not only revealed entirely different narratives of the tragic event from senior diplomatic staff, but also the surest signal yet of a Republican effort to impeach the president.

Leid Stories - 05/08/13

Obama’s Cash-Flush Cabinet, Cash-Cow Politics and Cash-Strapped Budget Almost halfway into the first year of his second term, President Obama’s Cabinet remains seven slots short of a full team. He certainly won’t win a diversity award; his Cabinet will have fewer African Americans and Latinos than Clinton did 20 years ago. But that doesn’t matter. This time around, the lame-duck president is all about his pledge of allegiance to corporate and monied America. His Cabinet appointees and nominees reflect his due diligence. Leid Stories also explains why Obama’s second term will be marked by some of the harshest austerity measures in decades.

Leid Stories - Brisk Trading At the Thought Exchange - 05/07/13

It’s Open Forum on Leid Stories. Bring your brilliant analyses and considered opinions of current issues and events to the thought exchange and fearlessly present them for public inspection, discussion and debate. But be prepared to be challenged – with all due respect, of course!

Leid Stories - Benghazi: The Gift That Keeps On Giving – Impeachment? - 05/06/13

House Republicans this week will launch yet another inquiry into the events that led to the terrorist attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Lybia, on Sept. 11 last year that claimed the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. But behind the quest for truth about the debacle is the clear intent to establish legal grounds for impeachment of the president. Leid Stories explains the Republicans’ move; why Obama ought to thank Hillary Clinton for the mess he’s in; and why Benghazigate will be to Obama what Watergate was to Nixon. Also, Phyllis Bennis of the International Policy Institute discusses the impact of Israel’s airstrikes against Syria on the region and how it will test Obama’s pledge of “unconditional” support for Benjamin Netanhayu’s government.

Leid Stories - Justice Denied, Injustice Approved - 05/03/13

“Attorney-at-War” Alton H. Maddox Jr. discusses egregious examples of race-based prosecutorial, judicial and official misconduct in several high-profile cases that made defendants of African American victims and plaintiffs of implicated whites, who should have been, and still should be, targets of prosecution. He also explains how and why decades-long demands for judicial review of such cases systematically have been ignored or denied. All of the cases, says Maddox, have illegal fault lines that produce predictable results and prove over and over again that there are two systems of justice in America—one white, one black, separate and unequal.

Leid Stories - Living with Osama bin Laden’s Ghost - 05/02/13

On this day two years ago, President Barack Obama was announcing that a team of U.S. Navy Seals had breached the walls of a fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and found and killed the FBI’s most wanted person, Osama bin Ladin. They took his body back via helicopter to a military base in Afghanistan for identification, and then buried it at sea within 24 hours. The nation was ecstatic. The man behind the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was dead, finally dead, and not even in a blaze of glory. Leid Stories elicits from listeners their views on the impact of terrorism on their lives and the way they see the world, now that we live with Osama bin Laden’s ghost.