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"We're talking about taking back the country." — Barry Gordon
"You're ... setting an example to others in the media: that you don't have to be timid." — Rep. John Conyers Jr.
"Barry, you keep speaking your words, speaking your mind, speaking your heart." — Burt Bacharach |
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BARRY GORDON — lifelong entertainer, longest-serving president of the Screen Actors Guild, and former candidate for Congress — is talking politics, entertainment, and other hot topics. Down-to-earth, with a voice known to millions, Barry's takes on the political ballgame are smart and lively, filled with passion and humor. Throughout this last year, Barry has fielded calls from listeners and interviewed some of the top guests on the air today: Political Leaders, including ...Senator Barbara Boxer Senator Byron Dorgan Former Senator and Presidential Candidate Gary Hart Rep. John Conyers Jr. Rep. Brad Sherman Rep. Henry Waxman FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich Former Ambassador Peter Galbraith Former Ambassador Swanee Hunt Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson Jerry Brown, California Icon Bev Harris, Founder of BlackBoxVoting.org Dolores Huerta, Legendary Labor Leader Paul Rieckhoff, Veterans Activist Scott Ritter, Former U.N. Weapons Inspector Cindy Sheehan, "Peace Mom"
Andy Stern, President of the SEIU
John Sweeney, President of the AFL-CIO Bestselling Authors, Renowned Commentators, and Respected Scholars, including ...Dr. Helen Caldicott, The World's Leading Anti-Nuclear Activist Noam Chomsky, Professor of Linguistics and Advocate for Peace David Corn, Washington Editor of "The Nation" and Bestselling Author Craig Crawford, Washington, DC Columnist and TV Commentator Catherine Crier, Court TV Host and Bestselling Author John Dean, Watergate Principal and Bestselling Author Lou Dobbs, CNN Business and Financial Anchor Michael J. Gerhardt, Professor of Constitutional Law Robert Greenwald, Documentary Filmmaker Thom Hartmann, Progressive Talk Show Host Arianna Huffington, Author & Multi-Media Commentator Paul Krugman, New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Robert Kuttner, Co-Founder of "The American Prospect" Michael Lerner, Progressive Rabbi Mark Crispin Miller, Author/Activist/Scholar Markos "Kos" Moulitsas, Top Blogger Greg Palast, Investigative Journalist William Rivers Pitt, Bestselling Author Ron Suskind, Bestselling Author Helen Thomas, Dean of the White House Press Corps Gore Vidal, Iconic American Writer and Intellectual Jim Wallis, Progressive Christian Leader Lawrence Wright, Bestselling Author Howard Zinn, Legendary Historian and Activist Representatives of Influential Organizations and Publications, including ...ACLU Amnesty International USA Campaign for America's Future Center for American Progress Center for Public Integrity Common Cause Demos Economic Policy Institute Free Press "The Hotline" from the National Journal Group IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America) Media Matters for America "Ms." Magazine Planned Parenthood Sierra Club WakeUpWalMart.com Celebrated Entertainment Figures, including ...Ed Asner, Barry's Fellow Former President of the Screen Actors Guild Burt Bacharach, Legendary Composer Ed Begley Jr., Actor and Environmental Activist Terence Blanchard, Grammy-Winner Chris Bliss, Comedian / Activist / Juggler Extraordinaire Andy Borowitz, Humorist Scott Dikkers, Satirist, Editor-in-Chief of "The Onion" Nora Dunn, "Saturday Night Live" Alum Argus Hamilton, Comedian and Nationally Syndicated Columnist Chris Lemmon, Actor/Author Son of Barry's Old Friend Jack Lemmon Lisa Loeb, "Billboard"-Topping Singer/Songwriter Robert Loggia, Actor Jim Meskimen, Impersonator (Jibjab), Improvisationist, & Funnyman Chef Harry Schwartz, Popular TV Personality Kenneth Turan, Film Critic of the Los Angeles Times Billy West, Voice Artist ("Ren & Stimpy" and many others) Michael Wilmington, Film Critic of the Chicago Tribune And Many More!Please see the Podcast Archives for a complete rundown of our great guests and diverse topics. |
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"Campaign Boot Camp: Basic Training for Future Leaders" by Christine Pelosi |
Christine Pelosi's boot camps for political candidates showcase techniques in management, message, money, and mobilization that have helped win Congress back for the Democrats and made her mother the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives! This book tells how it's done. Distilling best practices from well-known political figures and advocates, Pelosi focuses on seven fundamental steps to launching successful campaigns for candidates and causes. "Campaign Boot Camp" combines a call to public service with a concise methodology for successful involvement in participatory democracy.
— From the Book Description
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"Blackbirds: Volume 1" by Andre Coleman |
Set in the small Southern town of Dernier, Louisiana, during the Jim Crow era, "Blackbirds: Volume 1" tells the story of one summer in the lives of 16-year-old Joshua McCray, his siblings Lincoln and Rita, and their parents Robert and Leona. This book is the first in a five-volume set following one family from 1955-1970 as they struggle with race, justice, loss, and the pain of growing up.
About the Author
Andre Coleman has worked as a professional and freelance reporter for almost 20 years. His work has appeared in Black Voice News, the Daily News, the Burbank Leader, LA CityBeat, LA ValleyBeat, Out Front Magazine, and the Pasadena Star-News. Currently Andre is the city reporter for the Pasadena Weekly; and he often hosts "NewsRap," the popular Pasadena cable access TV show created by Barry Gordon. With the publication of his first novel, "A Liar's Tale," Andre founded Razor7 Publishing. Andre got real life lessons in politics in 1969 when his family became the first black family to move into an affluent neighborhood and the next year that school district, Pasadena Unified, became the first school district west of the Mississippi forced to implement court ordered busing. Coleman was one of the first children on the bus. "I am the black experience," he said. "From integration to excellence."
-- After the Book Description
"Dahr Jamail does us a great service, by taking us past the lies of our political leaders, past the cowardice of the mainstream press, into the streets, the homes, the lives of Iraqis living under
U.S. occupation. If what he has seen could be conveyed to all Americans, this ugly war in Iraq would quickly come to an end. A superb
journalist." —Howard Zinn
We walk slowly under the scorching sun along dusty rows of humble headstones. She continues reading them aloud to me, "Old man wearing jacket with dishdasha, near industrial center. He has a key in his hand." Many of the bodies were buried before they could be identified. Tears welling up in my eyes she quietly reads, "Man wearing red track suit." She points to another row, "Three women killed in car leaving city by American missile."
As the occupation of Iraq unravels, the demand for independent reporting is growing. Since 2003, unembedded journalist Dahr Jamail has filed indispensable reports from Iraq that have made him this generation's chronicler of the unfolding disaster there. In these collected dispatches, Jamail presents never-before-published details of the siege of Fallujah and examines the origins of the Iraqi insurgency.
Dahr Jamail makes frequent visits to Iraq and has published his accounts in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has regularly appeared on
"Democracy Now!," as well as the BBC, Pacifica Radio, and numerous other networks.
— From the Book Description
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"The Short Bus: A Journey Beyond Normal" by Jonathan Mooney |
Labeled dyslexic and profoundly learning disabled with attention and behavior problems, Jonathan Mooney was a short bus
rider -- a derogatory term used for kids in special education and a distinction that told the world he
wasn't normal. Along with other kids with special challenges, he grew up hearing himself denigrated daily. Ultimately, Mooney surprised skeptics by graduating with honors from Brown University. But he could never escape his past, so he hit the road. To free himself and to learn how others had moved beyond labels, he created an epic journey. He would buy his own short bus and set out cross-country, looking for kids who had dreamed up magical, beautiful ways to overcome the obstacles that separated them from the so-called normal world. In
"The Short Bus," his humorous, irreverent, and poignant record of this odyssey, Mooney describes his four-month, 35,000-mile journey across borders that most people never see. He meets thirteen people in thirteen states, including an eight-year-old deaf and blind girl who likes to curse out her teachers in sign language. Then
there's Butch Anthony, who grew up severely learning disabled but who is now the proud owner of the Museum of Wonder. These people teach Mooney that
there's no such thing as normal and that to really live, every person must find their own special ways of keeping on.
"The Short Bus" is a unique gem, propelled by Mooney's heart, humor, and outrageous rebellions.
About the Author
Jonathan Mooney graduated from Brown University with an honors degree in English. A recipient of the Truman Fellowship for graduate study in the field of learning
disabilities and special education.
— From the Book Description
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"Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic" by Chalmers Johnson |
Chalmers Johnson is the bestselling author of "Blowback," a prophetic account in which he linked the CIA's clandestine activities abroad to disaster at home, and of "The Sorrows of Empire," where he explored the ways in which the growth of American militarism and the garrisoning of the planet have jeopardized our stability. In this long-awaited work, the final book in what has become known as the Blowback trilogy, "NEMESIS: The Last Days of the American Republic" (Metropolitan Books/an imprint of Henry Holt and Company; February 6, 2007), Johnson shows how imperial overstretch is undermining the republic itself, both economically and politically.
Delving into new
areas -- from plans to militarize outer space to Constitution-breaking presidential activities at home and the devastating corruption of a toothless
Congress -- "NEMESIS" offers a striking description of the trap into which the dreams of
America's leaders have taken us. Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail just what the unintended consequences of our dependence on a permanent war
economy are likely to be. What does it mean when a nation's main intelligence organization
becomes the president's secret army? Or when the globe's sole "hyperpower" is no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders and becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all time?
"American veterans of World War II, Korea, or Vietnam simply would not recognize life in the modern armed services," Johnson writes. "When you include its array of privately outsourced services, our professional, permanent military costs around three-quarters of a trillion dollars a year." He goes on to warn that "we are not actually paying for these expenses. Chinese, Japanese, and other Asian investors are. We are putting them on the tab and so running the largest governmental as well as trade deficits in modern economic history. Sooner or later, our militarism will threaten the nation with bankruptcy." In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that financial bankruptcy could herald the breakdown of constitutional government in America -- a crisis that may ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.
Chalmers Johnson, president of the Japan Policy Research Institute and professor emeritus at the University of California at San Diego, is the author of the award-winning "Blowback" and "The Sorrows of Empire." A frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times, the London Review of Books, and The Nation, he appears in the 2005 prizewinning documentary film "Why We Fight." He lives near San Diego.
— From the Book Description
Click
here to read a very insightful review of this and two
related books in the New York Review of Books.
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"House of Ill Repute: Reflections on War, Lies, and America's Ravaged Reputation" by William Rivers Pitt |
The presidency of George W. Bush promised to restore integrity to the White House, but instead it has been plagued by scandal. With his strong voice and biting humor, William Rivers Pitt guides readers through a jaw-dropping series of presidential blunders. In this collection of articles that first appeared on truthout.org, he dissects the entire war on Iraq, including the relentless push toward war, the missing weapons of mass destruction, the Halliburton contracting scandals, sectarian violence, and the possibility of a regional conflagration. Others pieces tackle the outing of Valerie Plame, the NSA's warrantless wiretaps, the Abramoff scandal, Lewis Libby's indictment, and the incompetent response to Hurricane Katrina. Several essays focus on Cindy Sheehan and other citizen activists. For anyone who suspects the Bush administration of playing fast and loose with the facts, William Rivers Pitt provides a welcome voice of truth, untainted by corporate ownership.
— From the Book Description
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"A Power Governments Cannot Suppress" by Howard Zinn |
"A Power Governments Cannot Suppress" is Howard Zinn's
major new collection of essays on American history, class,
immigration, justice, and ordinary citizens who have made a
difference.
Like Zinn, "A Power Governments Cannot Suppress" is
something of a national treasure. Having fought in World War II as a
bombardier, Zinn brings a profoundly human, yet uniquely American
perspective to each subject he writes about, whether it's the
Founding Fathers, winning the war on terrorism, respecting the
holocaust, or defending the rights of immigrants. Written in an
accessible, personal tone, Howard approaches the telling of U.S.
history from an active, engaged point of view. "America's
future is linked to how we understand our past," writes Zinn;
"For this reason, writing about history, for me, is never a
neutral act."
Zinn opens the book with an essay titled "If History is to be
Creative," a reflection on the role and responsibility of the
engaged historian. "To think that history-writing must aim
simply to recapitulate the failures that dominate the past,"
writes Zinn, "is to make historians collaborators in an endless
cycle of defeat." "If history is to be creative, to
anticipate a possible future without denying the past, it should, I
believe, emphasize new possibilities by disclosing those hidden
episodes of the past when, even if in brief flashes, people showed
their ability to resist, to join together, and occasionally win. I
am supposing, or perhaps only hoping, that our future may be found
in the past's fugitive moments of compassion rather than in its
solid centuries of warfare."
Buzzing with ideas, stories, and anecdotes spanning from the
Revolutionary War and the War with Mexico through to World War II,
Vietnam, 9/11, and the U.S. occupation of Iraq, Zinn's view of
American history is not a praise of famous leaders, but those who
rebelled against them in the name of social justice. While writing
extensively on current events and the consequences of U.S. policy in
Afghanistan and Iraq, Zinn also dedicates entire chapters to
troublemakers like Henry David Thoreau, Eugene Debs, Philip Berrigan,
Italian immigrants Sacco & Vanzetti, and heralds not the
soldiers who fought for George Washington, but those who deserted
the Revolutionary Army because of intolerable mistreatment from
elitist commanding officers. For Zinn, the voices and stories of
ordinary working Americans, immigrants, working people, and soldiers
comprise the real storyline of our history.
Featuring essays penned over an eight-year period, "A Power
Governments Cannot Suppress" is Howard Zinn's first writerly
work in several years, an invaluable post-9/11-era addition to the
themes that run through his bestselling classic, "A People's
History of the United States."
Howard Zinn grew up in the immigrant slums of Brooklyn where he worked in shipyards in his late teens. He saw combat duty as an air force bombardier in World War II, and afterward received his doctorate in history from Columbia University and was a postdoctoral Fellow in East Asian Studies at Harvard University. Zinn is author of many books, including "Original Zinn: Conversations on History and Politics" with David Barsamian, and the million-selling classic, "A People’s History of the United States."
— From the Book Description
Don't miss Barry's TV talk show,
Webcast 9 to 10 p.m. PT,
Tuesday through Thursday,
on Pasadena56
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"Radio Host Shows It's All Right to Be Left" (The Jewish Journal, 9/8/06)
"Wide
Range of Topics Take the 'Field'" (San Bernardino Co.
Sun, 2/12/06)
"So Very
Barry" (Pasadena Star News, 1/12/06)
Barry
Gordon From Left Field Press Kit 
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