Start your engines – GOP race to the White House begins January 3rd. California High speed rail. Hitchens obit. KPCC film critics Andy Klein, Wade Major and Charles Solomon join Larry to review the week’s new film releases including Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Carnage and more. TGI-FilmWeek! Screenwriter, novelist, commentator John Ridley on upcoming film "Red Tails."
Start your engines – GOP race to the White House begins January 3rd
Last night, the seven remaining Republican candidates squared off in Sioux City, Iowa, in the final debate before the race to the nomination begins. The starting pistol will be fired just three weeks from now, with the Iowa caucus on Jan. 3.
Frontrunners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney held center stage in last night's debate, but avoided doing direct battle, preferring to set their sights on the sitting president. Most of the sparks came from the other contenders.
Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann skewered Gingrich for accepting a $1.6 million consulting job with Freddie Mac; he later accused her of misstating the facts about his record on abortion. Bachmann also tangled with Texas Representative Ron Paul over foreign policy, after Paul espoused caution over waging war on Muslim countries.
Romney chose to highlight his private-sector experience in contrast with Obama's, saying that the president "doesn't know how the economy works." No clear winner emerged from the evening, leaving the Iowa contest to be anybody's guess.
While Romney is the favorite in New Hampshire, which holds the first primary election on Jan. 10, a win for Gingrich in Iowa might pave the way for him to surge ahead there, and in the other upcoming primaries in South Carolina and Florida. Meanwhile, Texas Governor Rick Perry, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum and former Utah governor Jon Huntsman hope to gain some ground, but without a showing in Iowa, their campaigns might just grind to a halt.
WEIGH IN:
With so much at stake, how did the candidates do in last night's debate? Can Gingrich learn to tame his 'zany' demeanor? Will ultra-conservatives rally behind Romney? After Iowa, will this finally become a two-man race? Who do you want to see go up against Obama in 2012?
Guests:
Arnold Steinberg, veteran Republican political strategist and analyst
Jonathan Wilcox, Republican Strategist and adjunct professor at University of Southern California; former speech writer for Governor Pete Wilson
Are we over high speed rail in California?
Critics of California's bullet train both here and in Congress are vociferously challenging the decision to start the high speed rail system in the Central Valley, and claim the project is already over budget and rife with wasteful spending.
Despite these attacks, Joseph Szabo, the Federal Railroad Administration chief is pledging $3.3 billion to start construction of the state high speed rail system next year. In a congressional hearing yesterday, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members repeatedly questioned Szabo about why the first leg of the statewide project was scheduled to begin in the state's least populated region.
Republican Congressman from Tulare, Devin Nunes whose district would actually be served buy the rail line, also questioned why the California High Speed Rail authority had spent $800 million over the last 15 years on political consultants and public relations, saying that if high speed rail were really supported in the state, a multi-million dollar PR campaign would not be necessary. Defenders of the decision to start the rail project in the Central Valley say projects like this are typically started in the center of their rail lines in order to test equipment.
The project's critics also raised questions yesterday in the hearing about whether federal funding will continue for the project if the state's own bond money doesn't materialize. Szabo steadfastly defended the project and the funding the federal government has committed to it. There is talk in California of a ballot measure to repeal the decision to build a high speed rail system in the state.
WEIGH IN:
Now that the project looks more costly and more complicated than it did when it was first proposed to voters, would you still support it?
Guests:
Kitty Felde, Washington Correspondent
Elizabeth Alexis, Co-Founder Californians Advocating Responsible Rail Design (CARRD); yesterday, Alexis testified at the House Committee on Transportation and Infratructure about High Speed Rail
Christopher Hitchens: 1949 - 2011
The world lost one of its most noted contrarians yesterday. Christopher Hitchens, the opinionated essayist, master debater and journalistic devil's advocate, succumbed to esophageal cancer last night. Larry spoke with Hitchens in 2007 about his book "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything." We revisit that conversation in which Hitchens characteristically challenged the world's dominant sacred cows and delved into what brought meaning to his life. We also invite resident skeptic, Michael Shermer, on the program to share some drinking stories he had with Hitchens.
WEIGH IN:
Love him or hate him, what qualities did you respect most about Christopher Hitchens? Do you still find yourself agreeing or disagreeing with any of his opinions? How did one man gain such admiration for being so disagreeable?
Guest:
Michael Shermer, Founding Publisher of Skeptic Magazine; Executive Director of the Skeptics Society; monthly columnist for Scientific American
FilmWeek: Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Carnage and more
KPCC film critics Andy Klein, Wade Major and Charles Solomon join Larry to review the week’s new film releases including Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, Carnage and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Andy Klein, film critic for KPCC
Wade Major, film critic for KPCC and boxoffice.com
Charles Solomon, animation critic for KPCC, author and historian for amazon.com
Screenwriter, novelist, commentator John Ridley on upcoming film "Red Tails"
John Ridley, it’s fair to say, is a modern day Renaissance man. As a screenwriter he’s best known for films like "U-Turn," "Three Kings" and "Undercover Brother," a hilarious spoof about a low-rent private eye with a seriously ‘70s sense of style complete with impressive Afro.
He has written numerous novels including "Those Who Walk in Darkness" and "A Conversation with the Mann" about an aspiring black comic’s rise to near-fame and fortune during the Rat Pack era. In his graphic novel, "The American Way," Ridley offers up a unique take on the superhero myth seen through the Cold War politics and civil rights upheavals of the early '60s.
Now, the multi-talented man is working on a new novel based on his 2006 socio-political essay “The Manifesto of Ascendancy for the Modern American Nigger,” published in Esquire. "Red Tails," which Ridley wrote for Lucasfilm, will be released on January 20, 2011. Directed by Anthony Hemingway and starring Cuba Gooding Jr., “Red Tails” tells the true story of the Tuskgee Airmen, a highly successful African-American aerial combat unit that overcame segregation and racism to win the right to fight in missions throughout Europe and Northern Africa in World War II.
Ridley joins Larry in-studio to dish about his dizzying list of projects, past and present and his ongoing effort to keep it real.
Guest:
John Ridley, screenwriter and author; his works include the feature films "Red Tails," "U-Turn," "Three Kings," and "Undercover Brother"; novels "The Drift," "Those Who Walk In Darkness," "A Conversation With the Mann," "Love is a Racket," "Everybody Smokes in Hell," and "Stray Dogs"; and the graphic novel "The American Way."