Summary: It all comes down to the money! This week on Talking Left, we covered a ton of different topics, but most of them connected in one way: money. AND - for the first time ever, Talking Left was taking your calls LIVE! In hour one, we talked about some of the under-reported news of the week, and got in to Tesla's extortion of the state of Nevada. At one point in this nation, our strong infrastructure and educated workforce was enough to entice businesses to locate here. Now, we're not only seeing states compete against each other, we're all competing with overseas workers. Tesla may be a great company when it comes to ending our addiction to fossil fuels, but that doesn't mean they should get to skip out on paying taxes. In hour two, we gave you a different spin on Eric Cantor moving to a Wall Street investment bank... courtesy of the fine folks at Crooks and Liars. It's outrageous that Cantor is permitted to skip out on the end of his term to cash in big as a bankster, but it's even scarier to think about what his staffers may be up to. Congressional staffers are unelected and unaccountable, and many of these powerful individuals are simply starting a much more lucrative career as K Street Lobbyists. We need to stop the revolving door in Congress, and it's about time to start thinking about how those laws should also apply to staffers. And, speaking of corruption - we also spoke with James Cullum, Capital Hill Reporter for the Talk Radio News Service, about the recent conviction of former Governor Bob McDonnell. In addition to being an incredible photo journalist - and be sure to check out his work here - James also covered Virginia politics for years. He gave us his take on the scandal, the conviction, and how the people and the state of Virginia may feel about the whole ordeal. In the third hour, we spoke with two incredible guests. First up, we spoke with Kymone Freeman of We Act Radio, about the ongoing effort to find justice for Mike Brown. Kymone and the amazing people over at the National Black United Front are working to turn Ferguson from a moment into a movement. Be sure to follow We Act Radio for news of upcoming events, and use the hash tag #DCFerguson to follow along on social media. Last, but certainly not least, we heard from Ian Millhiser of Think Progress, about two other huge stories this week. Ian helped us understand the DC Circuit Court's decision to withdraw an earlier ruling on the Affordable Care Act, and put the issue before all the judges on that panel. To learn more about that case, check out Ian's article, "Federal Appeals Court Withdraws Decision Defunding Obamacare." As if that news wasn't enough to talk about, Ian also explained exactly why the Louisiana Judge who upheld that state's same-sex marriage ban was wrong, wrong, wrong - and not simply in a moral way. As usual, Ian made it easy to understand some very complex cases, and we can hardly wait until the release of his upcoming book: "Injustices: The Supreme Court's Nearly Unbroken History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted." As this was also the first week we started taking your calls live, we wanted to give a special shout out to our first callers. Big thanks to Marty and Snorky for helping us break the ice, and here's the link that Snorky mentioned, as promised: www.islandconnect.com/partner/IIC 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, Netroots Radio, SoFlo Radio, and Radio or Not,- for helping to ensure all listeners have corporate-free, independent radio! 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!
