Bernard Parks; Quality of Life Bills; Conservative Shiite Nominated to be Iraqi Prime Minister; Secret Negotiations Between the U.S. and Iraqi Insurgents
Bernard Parks
Los Angeles city councilman and former LAPD chief Bernard Parks joins Larry Mantle to talk about his candidacy for Mayor of Los Angeles.
Quality of Life Bills
State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata has proposed a package of legislation addressing quality of life issues, specifically encouraging the construction of affordable housing in high-density areas. Larry speaks with Alan Lowenthal, Republican State Senator representing California’s 27th district (Long Beach), Dick Ackerman, Democratic State Senator representing the California’s 33rd district (covering the eastern portion of Orange County), and Mark Pisano, Executive Director of SCAG, the Southern California Association of Governments.
Conservative Shiite Nominated to be Iraqi Prime Minister
Ibrahim Jafari, a top leader of the Islamic Dawa Party, was unanimously nominated yesterday as Prime Minister of Iraq. Confirmation by the National Assembly is expected. The selection of Jafari, a religous scholar with ties to Iran, has put the United States in a difficult position. How much of an Islamist is Ibrahim Jafari? How close is he to Iran? And what does this mean for the fledgling democracy in Iraq? Larry is joined by Basam Al-Husseini, Spokesman for the Future of Iraq Group and national trainer for the Iraqi elections in the U.S., Michael O’Hanlon, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, Brookings Institution, and Danielle Pletka, Vice President, Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute, to discuss the nomination.
Secret Negotiations Between the U.S. and Iraqi Insurgents
According to a new Time magazine report, U.S. intelligence officers are in secret negotiations with leaders of the Iraqi insurgency in an attempt to end the conflict. Larry Mantle talks with Time magazine State Department Correspondent Elaine Shannon and Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the History Department of University of Michigan, about the details of the negotiations, and the possible implications.