Summary: Unions, Elections, and other ways to fight corporate power! This week on Talking Left, we wanted to cover the news that the corporate media refused to talk about, and talk about a few ways we can get involved. First we spoke with Justin Duckham, the Chief Washington Correspondent for Talk Radio News Service, about the government oversight panel that said the NSA spying programs are illegal. This week, the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board issued a report that called for the end of phone data collection. The Board said that this NSA program violates our civil liberties, breaks the law, doesn't keep Americans any safer, and should be shut down. This is a huge development in the fight against government spying, and it will be interesting to see if our President takes anything that the board said to heart. Next we spoke with Doug Cunningham of Workers Independent News about a big labor case that went before the Supreme Court this week. Harris v. Quinn challenges public unions' ability to collect agency fees from non-members, and this case could be a huge blow to workers if the Justices rule against unions. Without these fees, unions are stuck negotiating for everyone - regardless of the cost - and non-union members get a free ride. Our right to unionize has been under attack for decades, but there are things we can do to push back. Support organizations like Workers Independent News, help low-wage workers form unions, and keep up the fight against corporate power. After that we heard from Brad Friedman of The Brad Blog about the Presidential Commission on Election Administration. This week, this bipartisan commission released a series of common-sense recommendations to avoid long lines and chaos on election day. In addition to expanding early voting and online registration, the commission called for some more worrisome changes like "updating voting machines." As Brad always explains, these "updated" machines should not include touch-screen and other electronic means that are completely unverifiable. We could save tons of money, and protect the integrity of our elections, by simply going back to paper ballots. We also discovered a great resource over at SupportTheVoter.org - where you can find model legislation on issues like instituting a national right to vote. Also during this show, we mentioned the "10 Days to Stop Fast Track" campaign. If you'd like to join their fight - which will be going on until January 31st - find out how you can get involved at StopFastTrack.com. And, if you haven't already, please be sure to join the fight to restore internet freedom. You can sign the petition calling on the FCC to restore net neutrality over at FreePress.net! Thanks to Rocky Mountain Mike for writing and producing our incredible theme music! Please check out his amazing Sound Cloud! Thanks to We Act Radio - 1480AM WPWC, Radio or Not, and SoFlo Radio- for helping to ensure all listeners have corporate-free, independent radio! And, of course, thanks to you, our listeners, friends, and family - for supporting us through all of our crazy shows, dreams, and political addictions!! You can also follow all of the news about upcoming topics and guests on our Facebook page and on Twitter @TalkingLeft. And you can subscribe to Talking Left free on iTunes! As always, thanks for listening!
