Tonight we talk about conflict minerals,  the historic exploitation of Congo and the role that Western nations
and multi-national corporations continue to play in the exploitation  of the resources of Africa.

We hear from many people, including Aaron Hall,  from the enough Project, Kambale musavuli, spokes  person from Friends of the Congo,Chouchou Namegabe Nabintu (recorded before the senate committee on foreign relations on May 13th, 2009), and more.

Exploring fear and loathing on the Populist Right with Arthur Goldwag

Its no surprise that the confluence of the internet and the 24-hour news cycle has enabled extreme groups once relegated to the fringe of American politics to enjoy unprecedented influence on political discourse. The paranoia and scapegoating of today's Tea Party, however, reflect a disturbing pattern in our history that fueled hysteria about the Illuminati of the 1790s, anti-New Deal forces of the 1930s, and McCarthyism of the 1950s. What is new about the "new hate" is its ability to project itself and the willingness of politicians to exploit it for their own purposes.

Well-read Red, Clayton Morgareidge, comments on the spectacle of electoral politics, the presidency itself, and how voting is over-rated as a form of social action when so much that matters is decided, when addressed at all, by other means and to other ends. The presidential election is a reality TV-show as irrelevant to our lives as the gossip on Jersey Shore, Chris Hedges argues and Clayton reads, while the debates fomented by the Occupy movment about inequality, corporate malfeasance, the destruction of the ecosystem, and the security/surveillance state are the only ones that matters right now.

Bill Resnick interviews William Beeman, author of "The Great Satan and the Mad Mullahs: how the US and Iran demonize each another". They talk about the history and patterns of this demonization, and why & how the same people who argued for war in Iraq over weapons of mass-destruction are doing it again with Iran (and again with little or no evidence). 

William Beeman is a professor of anthropology and chair of the department at University of Minnesota. He also maintains a blog on Culture and International Affairs.

 Tom Becker hosts today Old Mole and we hear about the war drums being beat over Iran, the kabuki theatrics of electoral politics, a cold war waged with drones, and about the African Film Festival.

 Thanks to all you folks who called in to support KBOO and the Old Mole!  If you didn't get to it, you can use the tip jar at the top of this page!

  It's the Winter Membership Drive! Abe and Joe take your contributions, your phone calls, and hold forth on the newly-unaccountable U.S. military. Plus, the latest in the Great Birth Control Fracas of 2012.