Leid Stories

Leid Stories - New Congress, Old Politics - 01/03/13

The 113th Congress is seated today -- in the aftermath of contentious negotiations on the so-called fiscal cliff and the prospect of continuing partisan acrimony on debt, tax and austerity measures related to the national budget and other leftover domestic and foreign-policy issues. The people worry: "Will this Congress shake off its do-nothing past?" "Will legislators actually carry out our wishes?" "Will President Obama do the right thing(s)?" The real question, says Utrice, is: "Are we prepared for battle?" Because that's what the next four years are going to be.

Leid Stories - A Raw Deal - 01/02/13

We're all forced to start the new year with the results of congressional shenanigans of last year -- a cliffhanger budget that still isn't close to a real deal. In fact, it's a raw deal, and Americans will ultimately pay the price for Congressional and presidential power gone mad. Leid Stories contends that it's not that Congress and the president don't have rules and laws that they must obey in formulating a national budget; it's just that they don't think the 1974 Budget and Impoundment Control Act and a series of other laws and procedures they themselves have authored really to them. Plus, reports raising doubts about how Hillary Clinton sustained her head injury.

Leid Stories - What Was, Is, And Will Be - 12/31/12

Leid Stories wraps up the year with a last look at the ever-unfolding fiscal-cliff drama in Washington and other major stories having inordinate impact on our lives in 2012. Listeners relate how 2012 affected them and what they look forward to and hope for in the new year.

Leid Stories - A Massive Power Failure - 12/28/12

An empty House of Representatives. A sparsely populated Senate. A president holed up in the White House, unable to call his troops to action. And an anxious, bewildered nation holds its breath in anticipation of blows to the gut. It's all part of hardball politics, we're told; not to worry, both sides will come to terms and things will work out in the end. But a massive power failure occurred on Dec. 27, Utrice says, and it was a planned, deliberate effort to sabotage the welfare and security of the American people -- legislative terrorism. Voters should neither forgive nor forget. Plus, the high-volume outbound traffic from Barack Obama's Cabinet: Trouble in River City?

Leid Stories - Behind America's Debt-Based Economy - 12/27/12

Greek economist Yanis Varoufakis, author of The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy, turns prevailing economic theory about debt and the global economy on its head. There is no debt crisis -- either in the United States or in individuals countries of the West currently experiencing sharp economic downturns -- he says. To the contrary, he says, the economic crisis is the result of "too much savings with no place to go."

Leid Stories - The Fiscal Cliff: Legislative Malpractice - 12/26/12

The so-called fiscal cliff, dramatic as it is, is nonetheless the end result of the refusal by Congress to approve a budget for the last three years. Leid Stories makes the case that this is not mere political dealings; it's legislative malpractice, and ought to carry a penalty in much the same way that any other professional found derelict in his/her duties to a client. Listeners chime in with their points of view.

Leid Stories - FRIENDLY FIRE: THE NRA'S SCHOOL-SAFETY PLAN - 12/24/12

Leave it to the NRA to solve America's gun problem with ... more guns. In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, the NRA proposes schools have armed guards (and even administrative personnel and teachers) with firepower to stop mass killers. No need for worrisome debates and legislation, the NRA says, schools can enact their specially-designed counteroffensive right away. Leid Stories reads between the lines of the NRA's plan and deciphers what the gun lobby really wants. Plus, updates on what's not happening in Congress with the so-called fiscal cliff.

Leid Stories - BENGHAZI PROBE: MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS - 12/21/12

The Accountability Review Board's probe of the State Department's handling of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi has left many important questions unanswered. Leid Stories raises them -- not the least of which is, "What did Hillary Clinton know and when did she know it?" And is it surprising that a panel appointed by Clinton to investigate her department would hold her blameless in this debacle?

Also, it's Open Forum; listeners give their takes on issues they think warrant a closer look.

Leid Stories - Harlem: A Case Study in Plantation Politics - 12/19/12

Not long ago, Harlem was a model of black urban achievement and the epicenter of black political power in the United States. Today, Harlem is but a shadow of its former self in almost every way; Harlemites openly concede it. How did this come to be? Kermit Eady, founder of the Black United Fund, attributes the decline of Harlem, and the Harlems of the United States, to "plantation" politics -- black elected officials and leaders willingly becoming stand-ins for political and economic interests bent on exploiting, and ultimately destroying, these once-thriving communities.

Leid Stories - Mrs. Clinton Sends Her Regrets ... - 12/19/12

but, as Leid Stories predicted, she will not be appearing before any congressional committees looking into the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that claimed the lives of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. She's still woozy from fainting and hitting her head -- even has a doctor's note. But members of the Accountability Review Board that probed the Benghazi attack will be talking to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in closed session today about the State Department's "systemic failures" and two deputy secretaries of state will testify in a public session before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday about how the State Department is run. Leid Stories stays on the case, along with other news stories of the day.