Democracy Now! January 30, 2002

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:07-9:20 WAR ON TERRORISM, WAR ON THE RECESSION: BUSH DELIVERS HIS FIRST STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS President Bush gave his first State of the Union Address last night. He spoke for nearly 50 minutes, pausing every few minutes for the boisterous cheers of both Republicans and Democrats. Among the members of the audience: Hamid Karzai, the new Afghan interim ruler; Shannon Spann, the widow of CIA agent Johnny Michael Spann; and more military brass than the Capitol building has seen in decades. VIDEO: BUSH: EXCERPT FROM THE 2002 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:21-9:45 AS BUSH DELIVERS HIS FIRST STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS, DEMOCRACY NOW CONVENES A SHADOW CONGRESS TO RESPOND The last time George Bush stood before Congress, it was just days after the September 11th attacks. On that evening, he declared in no uncertain terms his so-called war on terror. Now, nearly five months later, he has pledged to push that war still farther beyond Afghanistan to a dozen countries that he said harbor so-called terrorist camps. He also warned of an axis of evil nations like North Korea, Iran and Iraq, and said the United States would not allow them to threaten the world with weapons of mass destruction. Towards these ends, he asked Congress to increase Pentagon spending by nearly $50 billion. It would be, Bush boasted, the largest increase in military spending in two decades.At the same time, the President also proposed doubling spending on so-called Homeland Security measures. This, he referred to as his second big priority. It includes intelligence gathering, border security, and local emergency response programs. The measures are expected to cost the nation almost $40 billion. As for domestic issues what Bush called the final great priority of [his] budget the President spoke, once again in military terms, of making war on the recession to bring economic security to the country. He asked Congress to back his education, free trade, and corporate tax break policies, as well as to embrace his welfare, health care, and environmental initiatives. With the address dominated by talk of war and terrorism, however, he offered few details on the policies. Today, on Democracy Now!, we have convened our own kind of congress to respond to the Presidents address. Call it a shadow congress, with members like Howard Zinn, Blanche Wiesen Cook, Adolph Reed, Sonali Kolhathar and Ralph Nader. GUEST: HOWARD ZINN, radical historian, activist, and author of A Peoples History of the United States GUEST: BLANCHE WIESEN COOKE, Distinguished Professor of History and Womens Studies at the John Jay College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Author of multiple books, including "The Declassified Eisenhower" and "Eleanor Roosevelt: A Biography" GUEST: ADOLPH REED, Jr., Professor of Political Science at the New School University and an active member of the Labor Party. Some of his books include: "WEB Du Bois and American Political Thought " and "Class Notes: Posing as Politics and Other Thoughts on the American Political Scene" GUEST: SONALI KOLHATHAR, spokesperson for the Afghan Women's Mission, which works closely with the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA).LINKS: www. afghanwomensmission.org, www.rawa.org GUEST: RALPH NADER, Green Party Presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. He is currently on tour for his most recent book, Crashing the Party: Taking on the Corporate Government in an Age of Surrender (phone) www.citizen.org 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:45-9:58 STATE OF THE UNION: DEMOCRACY NOW CONVENES A SHADOW CONGRESS CONTD 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS Presented music: 6 If I Only had A Brain Yip Harburg From: Yip sings Harburg (Koch international classics 3-7386-2-H1) 20 Goose Steppin Suzanne McDermott From: Rosema Red Records (info@rosemared.com) 40 We Shall Not Be Moved Sweet Honey in the Rock From: Still the Same Me (Rounder Kids www.rounder.com) End: Movement of the People Fela Anikulapo Kuti w/Egypt 80 From: Live in Amsterdam (MCA records 314 549 250-2)