Reporters on the east coast give us a storm update, and we consider the impact of Hurricane Sandy on the presidential election. We also examine the problems and controversies of e-voting in swing states, discuss the Supreme Court wiretapping case, and speak with Senator Dianne Feinstein about her plans for the next six years. All that and more on today's AirTalk.
East Coast braces for historic hurricane Sandy
As Hurricane Sandy moves closer and closer to the East Coast, it promises plenty of damage and destruction. With winds reaching speeds of over 90 miles per hour, millions of people are expected to lose power.
New York City is already flooding, and expecting a storm surge of up to 11 feet tonight when Sandy is expected to make landfall. Meanwhile, cities near the water are already feeling the storm’s impact. Our team of reporters on the East Coast weigh in on the effects of Hurricane Sandy. How do you prepare for natural disasters?
Guest:
John Lacorte, senior meteorologist, national weather service
Kitty Felde, KPCC reporter, KPCC reporter, currently in Maryland's Eastern Shore along Chesapeake Bay
Mark Austin Thomas, veteran news anchor; former KPCC mid-day host, currently in Park Slope section of Brooklyn, New York
Mary Plummer, KPCC producer for Take Two, currently in Manhattan, New York
Brian Watt, KPCC reporter, currently stranded in the Bronx, New York
How will Hurricane Sandy affect next week’s election?
The seemingly never ending election of 2012 has seen many twists and turns, but now mother nature has gotten in on the act and thrown a colossal storm into the mix. Hurricane Sandy is expected to make landfall somewhere on America’s heavily populated Eastern seaboard later today and the giant storm has already snarled travel and prompted evacuations and closures in many states – among them the battleground states of Florida, Virginia and New Hampshire.
Both candidates have been reluctant to score political points in the hours before Sandy hits en force - campaign events have been cancelled and President Obama made his way back to Washington to switch from campaign to leadership mode – but will the truce hold once the wind have died down and the waters recede? Sandy provides sitting president Barack Obama with an opportunity to look and act presidential, provided FEMA and other government agencies don’t have a sequel to President George W. Bush’s widely panned response to Katrina in 2005. But Mitt Romney’s campaign has been surging with Election Day a week from tomorrow.
What kind of effect will Hurricane Sandy have on the campaigns in these crucial final days? How will Romney and Obama’s responses to Sandy’s destruction affect voters?
Guest:
Mike Allen, chief political correspondent, Politico
In swing states, electronic ballots continue to cause controversy
Voters using electronic ballots are on guard this year – as election day approaches, technical problems and controversial ownership issues haunt electronic vote machines in several battleground states. In Ohio, electronic ballots are cast with machines owned by Hart InterCivic, a company with financial ties to Mitt Romney’s Bain and Co., Tagg Romney’s Solamere, and several Romney campaign donors.
The links between the Republican candidate and the Ohio machines have sparked worry and discussion about the potential for a repeat of the 2004 Diebold controversy. In Pennsylvania, Virginia, Colorado, and Florida, e-voting machines have been reported to have hard-to-detect glitches which may be impossible to correct. Problems with voting machines can have a serious impact on an election this close, especially in hotly contested states, where a single machine with a significant malfunction could sway the entire race.
According to new reports, electronic ballots in battleground states could compromise the integrity of the election, prompting demands from anxious voters for paper ballot backup. Should states use electronic ballot machines to tally votes? How should the economic ties between candidates and the companies that own e-voting machines factor into their use in an election? Do you prefer to vote on paper ballots, or with a machine?
Guests:
David Dill, Founder, Verified Voting - non-governmental organization working toward accuracy, integrity and verifiability of elections; Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University
Lori Steele, Chairman & CEO, Everyone Counts, Inc. -- a San Diego based Internet voting company that provides services for governments across the country
Senator Dianne Feinstein counting on six more years
Dianne Feinstein was thrust into the national spotlight in 1978 when San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk was killed by a gunman. Feinstein, who was president of the Board of Supervisors at the time, went on to succeed George Moscone, who was also killed that day, as mayor. She went to Washington in 1992 as one of the first two female U.S. senators, along with fellow Californian Barbara Boxer and was the first woman to head up the Senate Intelligence Committee. In that role, she used her office to call for accountability from the CIA and spearhead investigations into the agency’s Bush-era interrogation practices.
RELATED: Check out our voter guide to help prepare for election day
A longtime supporter of liberal causes such as gay marriage, gun control and immigration reform, Feinstein nevertheless has shown centrist colors, voicing support for the death penalty and voting in favor of the war in Iraq. She is known in Washington as a thoughtful and deliberate legislator who works toward bipartisanship in congress, as well as a tireless champion for the Golden State.
At a time when congress’ overall approval rating is less than 15 percent, Feinstein’s soars at 50 percent. She’s now running for her fourth term, and while her challenger, Republican Elizabeth Emken, has hinted that it’s time for Feinstein to step aside, she shows no signs of slowing down. Despite undergoing knee surgery last year, she seems as eager as ever to sprint up the Capitol steps. Yet there’s one exercise Feinstein has refused to partake in: she has continually sidestepped Emken’s challenges to debate, merely saying, “I’m running my own campaign.” And with polls showing the incumbent 26 points ahead, clearly she doesn’t feel the need to discuss it.
What are Feinstein’s plans for the next six-year term? What changes does she think the next administration will bring? How has she succeeded in a GOP-weighted congress? Feinstein will be 85 when her next term ends – will she be ready to retire?
Guest:
Dianne Feinstein, U.S. Senator for California (D)
Supreme Court hears ACLU case against government surveillance of Americans
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is calling for amendments that would limit government surveillance to only suspected terrorists and criminals. The organization also wants the government to be more transparent about how the law is being used and to place more restrictions on the information that is gathered about innocent Americans.
The Supreme Court heard arguments today (Monday) on whether plaintiffs represented by the ACLU have the right to challenge the constitutionality of the law that authorizes the National Security Agency (NSA) to conduct comprehensive surveillance of Americans’ emails and phone calls. The law that made the ACLU’s challenge possible is called the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.
The ACLU filed the lawsuit in 2008 on behalf of attorneys and human rights, labor, legal and media organizations whose work requires them to engage in telephone and email conversations with people outside of the U.S. The Justice Department asserts they should not be able to sue without first showing that they have actually been monitored under the program, but it also claims that the government should not be required to reveal whether plaintiffs have been targeted.
Is this a case of the NSA over-stepping their boundaries? Should the U.S. be able to spy on their own citizens without a search warrant?
Guest:
David Rivkin, Partner, Baker Hostetler law firm, Washington D.C., Previously at the Department of Justice among many other government counsel positions. Mr. Rivkin has filed Supreme Court and appellate amicus briefs in several leading post-September 11 National Security cases.
Laurie Asseo, Supreme Court reporter, Bloomberg News
Peter Bibring, senior staff attorney, ACLU of Southern california
USC / LA Times poll indicates California voters more tolerant of undocumented immigrants
A recent poll from USC Dornsife and the Los Angeles Times shows a trend towards acceptance of undocumented immigrants in California. In 1994, Proposition 187, a ballot initiative banning undocumented immigrants from California public schools and hospitals, passed with 59 percent of the vote, though most of the measures were never enacted.
The new poll shows that today, the proposition might not pass at all: results were nearly tied. Though there are no propositions on immigration reform on this year’s ballot, the survey results are a sign of a shift in attitudes towards immigrants who enter the country illegally. Though some of this change has to do with the increasing Latino population, analysts argue it’s indicative of a larger movement towards tolerance for undocumented immigrants.
How might opinions on immigration continue to change? What kinds of propositions concerning undocumented immigrants might California see on future ballots?
Guest:
Dan Schnur, Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics at USC and adjunct faculty at USC Annenberg School
Halloween is getting bigger, but is it also getting too scary?
Americans love to be scared, and the number one day of the year that people revel in all things spooky is Halloween. Every year, in the weeks leading up to October 31st, teens line up at haunted houses, porches are lined with flickering jack o’ lanterns, the latest installments of horror movie franchises arrive at the local Cineplex and kids of all ages dress up in costumes for parties and trick-or-treating.
RELATED: Show us your Halloween costumes!
Halloween has become big business; American consumers are expected to shell out billions of dollars for costumes, candy and decorations in 2012, and the popularity of the holiday just keeps growing. It's gotten so big that its now the second most expensive holiday after Christmas.
"Halloween was a $4 billion industry now it's an $8 billion industry. It gets longer and longer," said David J. Skal, author of "Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween. "Our favorite holidays have a lot to do with each other, and there's always been this blurring. Tim Burton had it right with the 'Nightmare Before Christmas'."
As historians have examined the ways in which an era’s horror movies reflect larger societal fears, Halloween has long drawn criticism from more conservative types who feel that a holiday that glorifies vampires, viscera and witches is against their religion, or at least uncouth.
And as the commercialization of the holiday increases as time creeps forward, some parents have noticed that kids’ costumes have become increasingly gory. A sheet-over-the-head ghost costume just doesn’t have the same ghoul appeal to a youngster who lives in a world of blood spattered video games and TV shows full of zombies with a penchant for brains. Perhaps most disturbing is that costumes are available that allow kids as young as four or five to dress up as fictional killers like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, or Jason Voorhees, all of whom all racked up significant onscreen body counts of unfortunate teens in horror movies from the 1980s and 90s.
"The rise of gruesome prosthetics in film have been mirrored year after year in more and more bloody and disgusting costumes," said Skal. "I don't read a lot into it, I don't think our kids are becoming psychopaths because of this."
That being said, how young is too young for Halloween’s gorier costumes? What does our obsession with being scared say about our society?
Guest:
David J. Skal, lecturer, filmmaker and author of several books, including “The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror” (Faber & Faber 2001)