California Propositions; Tax Me?

As Californian voters set to vote on whether or not to extend taxes on sales, car regsitration, etc., plus other budget stop-gap measures, we bring you pros and cons of the state propositions Californians will vote on Tuesday. (See: http://www.voterguide.sos.ca.gov/title-sum/prop1a-title-sum.htm).

Subversity aired Monday 18 May 2009 at 9 a.m.

We also aired a program, "Tax Me, I'm Yours" from Making Contact, the National Radio Project, courtesy of NRP.

First produced for tax time, the Making Contact program, talks to folks who say we need to reframe the tax structure to support and sustain "the commons"... those public spaces and common grounds we all share. From upper income New Yorkers to public school teachers in Nevada, many are saying, 'tax me, I'm yours.'

Featuring:

Jo Comerford, National Priorities Project (NPP) executive director; Mike Lapham, Responsible Wealth project director (Project of United for a Fair Economy); Allen Bromberger, Manhattan law firm attorney; Bob Fulkerson, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada (PLAN) executive director; Anne Peer, Grady Tarbutton and others who testified at a Reno Town Hall Budget meeting; Kim Klein, Building Movement Project member.

For more information, see: http://www.radioproject.org/archive/2009/1509.html

Prison Industrial Complex; Free Press and Anti-Communism

For our 23 July 2007 show, we focused on two timely issues, California's prison industrial complex, and a breaking story, the implications for free press as certain anti-communists in Little Saigon protest the courageous reporting of Viet Weekly.

We talked with UC Riverside ethnic studies assoc. prof. Dylan Rodriguez about his campaign to fight California's expansion of the prison industry, the biggest such expansion thus far. The activist cum professor will be making a presentation Monday evening at a public forum at the Ontario City Library, 215 East C. St., Ontario that begins at 6:30 pm.

In addition we bring you a report from this past weekend's anti-communist demonstration against a courageous magazine, Viet Weekly, currently under siege by anti-communist demonstrators in Garden Grove. We talk with the lone counter protester,at this past Saturday's protest, James Du, a Vietnamese immigrant for some 30 years, who speaks up for the importance of free speech. Unfortunately Viet Weekly no longer publishes its English section.

See my 1999 Los Angeles Times op ed on an earlier anti-communist protest, Little Saigon Slowly Kicking the Redbaiting Habit.

To listen to the show, click here: