Originally Published on OpEdNews
This is a transcript of an interview conducted on the Rob Kall Bottom Up Radio Show, WNJC 1360 AM, on Wednesday, July 18, 2009Thanks to the OpEdNews.com transcription team, headed by Paula Sayles.
Rob Kall: Welcome to the Rob Kall Radio Show. Tonight we're going to have a conversation with Maggie Jackson the author of Distracted: The Erosion of Attention in the Coming Dark Age. First, a little bit of recent news.-
The CIA has kept secrets from Congress and the big secret was that former Vice President Dick Cheney told the CIA to keep the secrets and the secrets were about assassination squads.- This is making big news.- Today it was the main article in The Wall Street Journal, the NY Times and the Washington Post.- My question is will Congress do anything about it?- Will Attorney General Eric Holder launch any kind of an investigation?-
This is serious stuff.- These institutions of spying are supposed to be accountable.- When they don't tell what's going on to the people that are supposed to track them, then there's something really broken.- The question is, will Obama and his Administration attempt to fix it, or will they let it rest so they can retain the power that it gives to the Executive Branch?-
Then, we have, in Congress right now, hearings.- The Senate is interviewing Judge Sonia Sotomayor.- The question is, just how ugly will the minority Republicans get in questioning a clearly qualified candidate?- How many Republicans will decide to not vote in support of her when she is probably the most qualified candidate in decades?-
And then, just on a humorous note, Nancy Wheeler goes by the handle "Empty Wheel" on Firedoglake.- She is somebody I have met many times at different progressive media events.- Nancy was on MSNBC yesterday and they were talking about the CIA secrets and Cheney's assassination squad and she pointed out how for five years, Congress talked about and investigated Bill Clinton and his blowjob.- Yes, the BJ word.- And all of a sudden, when she said that word, pointing out how they spent five years on that, and would they spend any time on investigating CIA secret death squads, what did they talk about?- Oh, those words, those two terrible words!- And of course, that was a way to distract away from the real issue which is death squads, secret death squads hidden from Congress.- And so, we get into distraction.- And, Maggie?
Maggie Jackson:-Yes.
Rob Kall:-We're going to talk about distraction tonight.- We're going to talk about Maggie Jackson's -brilliant book that talks about how we may be entering a dark age, an age of distraction and an erosion of attention.- Boy, taking on some big stuff here.
