UNDOING THE IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY

David Swanson is author of Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union, among the current top-ten Amazon best-sellers. He is founder of After Downing Street, a non-partisan coalition seeking to hold members of the Bush Administration accountable for crimes and abuses of power.

This audio podcast features one of two appearances by David Swanson in the Bangor-Orono area on Thursday November 5, 2009. It is the talk given at the Memorial Union on the University of Maine campus as part of the Thursday series sponsored by Marxist and Socialist Studies and the Maine Peace Action Committee.

David Swanson is introduced by U Maine Professor of History, Alex Grab.

Update Saturday 11/7: Audio and video of David Swanson’s 7pm program at the Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine in Bangor has posted at those links.

The previous post included the full-length keynote talk by Joseph Gerson. There is more information HERE.

Download, rss, and iTunes links are found at this site. The download links are directly below each post. Rss and iTunes links are below near the end of the righthand column.

The first half of this WERU-broadcast version is part of the keynote given by Joseph Gerson of AFSC in New England. He is introduced first by Ilze Pertersons of the , then by Bruce Gagnon of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.

Four additional speakers from the event then address a wide range of local activism on war & peace, environmental, labor, and foreign policy issues. They include:

• Mary Beth Sullivan of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space who discusses economic conversion of Bath Iron Works
• John Banks, Natural Resources Dir. of the Penobscot Nation on local environmental issues
• Steve Husson of Food AND Medicine in Brewer discussing Labor and the Employee Free Choice Act
• Professor Doug Allen of the University of Maine, who ties everything together.

Please also visit the marvelous audio archive site at WERU where you can listen to any WERU public affairs program in case you miss it over the air (or live outside the WERU signal range).

Two additional links that may be of interest are Bruce Gagnon’s excellent blog, Organizing Notes, and the Peace and Economic Security Program for the American Friends Service Committee in New England.

Here are information, links, and the podcast for the peacecast.us/WERU Weekend Voices election special featuring the University of Maine panel presentation, “What are the Key Issues in the Nov. 4th Election?”

This program explores some big ideas that ought to be part of our national discussion–if we think we have a democratic society–even if they seem to be missing or distorted in major party campaigns.

Among the most distorted ideas now running wild in the campaign is that of socialism. While this term is almost universally batted around as a pejorative, our panel make a powerful case in favor of democratic socialism–for the weakened forms we already have, for the stronger forms found in other developed countries, and for comprehensive democratic socialism that would be of great benefit to the American people.

This radio special/podcast is produced by Eric T. Olson. It was recorded at the University of Maine on Thursday October 30, 2008 and broadcast on WERU Weekend Voices for November 1. Panelists include U Maine faculty and Bangor/Orono area community organizers. They are

• Professor Amy Fried, Political Science
• Professor Michael Howard, Philosophy
• Ilze Petersons, Program Coordinator, Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine
• Professor Doug Allen, Philosophy

The event was part of the Fall 2008 Socialist & Marxist Studies Thursday Controversy series.

Here are links to online resources mentioned in the program.

Bailout! A Case for Economic Democracy And Clearing the Path to Socialism
By David Schweickart – Progressives for Obama

“Washington can act with breathtaking urgency when the right people want something done. In this case, the people are the Wall Street titans, who are scared witless at the prospect of their enormous implosion. Congress quickly agreed to enact a gargantuan bailout, with more to come, to calm the anxieties and halt the deflation of the Wall Street giants. Put aside partisan bickering, no time for hearings, no need to think through the deeper implications. We haven’t seen ‘bipartisan cooperation’ like this since Washington decided to invade Iraq.” –William, Greider, The Nation, August 18, 2008

TrueMajority.org
“Wall Street has actually convinced a lot of us that what’s good for the Dow Jones Average is good for us real people. But for eight years while bankers raked in billions, ordinary Americans have seen their real wages drop, jobs sent overseas, health insurance rates skyrocket, and now thousands are losing their homes.

We need our government to actively work for US in fixing this mess, so let’s tell Congress it’s time to start over and pass a New Deal for Main Street.”

National Priorities Project
“According to a new report from National Priorities Project (NPP), the United States is spending between $97 and $215 billion dollars annually on military action to defend access to oil and natural gas reserves around the globe. The Military Cost of Securing Energy provides a critical analysis of the military cost of defending U.S. energy concerns overseas. The report estimates that the military spends up to 30 percent of its annual budget to secure access to energy resources internationally.”