Bill Moyers Journal (audio) | Pbs

Two years after Katrina, casinos, hotels and condos are coming back strong in the hardest hit areas of Mississippi, but tens of thousands of people are still displaced-in limbo with no solution in sight. Bill Moyers Journal profiles a group known as The Steps Coalition, which is fighting on behalf of families who are still in need of housing, and examines what's happened to the money Congress sent to rebuild. The Steps Coalition argues that Governor Haley Barbour's recovery plan has made it difficult for the states' poorest families to rebuild. Also on the program, a different take on immigration from author Manuel A. Vasquez. "This whole concept of illegality...is really problematic. Because it really doesn't go to the complexities of the situation," he says.

Bill Moyers interviews best-selling historian Thomas Cahill in a far ranging interview that takes viewers from the Coliseum in Rome to death row in Texas and examines what our attitudes toward cruelty can tell us about who we are as Americans. "However difficult it may be the only way you are going to gain closure is to let go of your hatred" says Cahill, who is best known for his The Hinges of History series of books, which includes the widely read How the Irish Saved Civilization. Cahill says his books ask how we became the people we are: "It's human cruelty that is evil. We're not willing to acknowledge that this is inside of us. It's there," he says. "I'm really interested inwhat's good about us."

Big Media is pushing the FCC to relax ownership rules again to give conglomerates more control over what Americans read, see, and hear. What most Americans don't know is that the FCC plans to fast track the rule changes and cut off public comment in December. Who wins and who loses? Bill Moyers Journal reports on the real-world consequences of media policy through the lens of how it affects minority media ownership in America. Also on the program, Moyers interviews Katherine S. Newman, author of The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America, about the millions in America, who despite decent wages can't access public assistance and are one step away from poverty.

How far can a President go to defend the nation? Bill Moyers Journal examines the unprecedented Presidential power some say is being amassed by our current Administration and kept secret in the name of national security. Moyers gets perspective from Charles Fried, who teaches Constitutional law at Harvard law School and served as solicitor general in the Reagan Administration, and Fritz Schwarz, who served as counsel to the U.S. Senate select committee led by Frank Church of Idaho that uncovered decades of abuse by the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

Blackwater CEO Erik Prince has been on the PR offensive this week, appearing on television to answer questions about his security firm Blackwater and its involvement in the shooting deaths of Iraqi civilians. Why is the press buying it? Bill Moyers interviews journalist Jeremy Scahill to help separate the spin from the reality. Scahill is an award-winning investigative journalist and the author of the bestselling book, Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army.

Could we see a repeat of the big stock market crash of '29? This week on Bill Moyers Journal, veteran market watcher Robert Kuttner and Wall Street insider William H. Donaldson give their read of the current economic landscape and discuss the risks of the deregulation of the financial industry. Donaldson was the 27th chairman of the SEC and is the former chairman and chief executive of the New York Stock Exchange, and Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine and was a longtime columnist for Business Week. Also, novelist and essayist Anouar Majid, who talks about the necessity for dissent in his most recent book, A CAll FOR HERESY: WHY DISSENT IS VITAl TO ISlAM AND AMERICA and honoring Doris lessing.

As leader of the politically powerful group Christians United for Israel (CUFI), Pastor John Hagee wants to bring millions of Christians together to support Israel. But some say his message is dangerous: "It is time for America to...consider a military preemptive strike against Iran to prevent a nuclear holocaust in Israel and a nuclear attack in America." Bill Moyers Journal reports on CUFI and then gets theological and political context from Rabbi Michael lerner, editor of TIKKUN, a Jewish journal of politics, culture, and spirituality, and Dr. Timothy P. Weber, an evangelical Christian, historian, and the author of ON THE ROAD TO ARMAGEDDON: HOW EVANGElICAlS BECAME ISRAEl'S BEST FRIEND. Also on the program, a year after the tragic shooting, Bill Moyers looks at what the Amish can teach us about healing.

Is there a crisis in American capitalism? Investment industry giant John Bogle says that as more and more money managers take control over corporations on Wall Street, Main Street is paying the price. Named by Fortune magazine as one of the four "Giants of the 20th Century," Bogle tells Moyers: "The evidence is quite compelling that today corporations are run in a very important way to maximize the returns of its managers at the expense of its stockholders." Also on the program, NPR's Deborah Amos-just back from Damascus-and The New Yorker's George Packer on the Iraq war and what you haven't heard from Washington.

Forty-five years after the publication of Rachel Carson's landmark book Silent Spring, which launched the modern environmental movement, her disturbing story of how toxic chemicals were poisoning the earth still resonates. But who was Rachel Carson? And what can the ferocious debate she started and the vicious attacks she endured tell us about environmentalism in the 21st century? Bill Moyers Journal looks at the life and legacy of Rachel Carson through an extraordinary portrayal of her in a one-woman play performed by veteran stage actress Kaiulani lee, whose play A Sense of Wonder has been the centerpiece of regional and national conferences on conservation, education, journalism, and the environment for more than ten years. The broadcast combines excerpts from the play, an interview with lee and documentary reporting on Carson's life and work in a powerful look at this scientist, writer, and seeker of the truth.

Bill Moyers interviews executive director of the American Civil liberties Union Anthony D. Romero and former Republican Congressman Mickey Edwards about wiretapping and domestic surveillance. And, Jack Goldsmith, former head the Office of legal Counsel at the Justice Department, gives an insider's view of advising the President on the limits of executive power during the war on terror. Also on the program, as proposed new rules may allow coal companies to expand mountain top removal mining, Bill Moyers Journal takes viewers to the mountains of West Virginia, which are being stripped for their coal with often disastrous environmental consequences for surrounding communities, to report on local evangelical Christians who are turning to their faith to help save the earth.

The poetry of Robert Bly has touched on spiritual insights and deep truths about American culture. With more than 30 books, including the National Book Award-winning THE lIGHT AROUND THE BODY, Bly also became known for co-founding American Writers Against the Vietnam War in 1966. His 1990 work IRON JOHN: A BOOK ABOUT MEN is an international bestseller which has been translated into many languages. Also on the program activist and philosopher Grace lee Boggs, who has taken part in some of the seminal civil rights struggles in U.S. history, discusses her belief that real change for democracy will come from the grassroots.

local news is the heartbeat of democracy, so why is it disappearing from many communities around the nation? Media consolidation isn't widely covered by the mainstream press, but potential changes being considered to the rules governing the nation's big media companies could have far reaching effects on democracy. Bill Moyers Journal devotes an hour to this important issue with a report on the disappearance of local news and community radio and in-depth interviews with journalist Rick Karr, media activist Hannah Sassaman, and FCC Commissioner Michael Copps.

As the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina approaches, Bill Moyers gets two views on what the disaster and its aftermath says about American culture and values with Princeton's Melissa Harris-lacewell and author and environmental journalist Mike Tidwell. Also on the program, one of the country's leading historians, Martin E. Marty, who has spent a lifetime unraveling the mysteries of the world's religions, discusses his latest book on the mystery of childhood and what adults can learn from it. And, Bill Moyers bids farewell to Karl Rove.

Bill Moyers talks with author Barbara Ehrenreich about inequality in America and discusses who's worth remembering in the 20th Century with culture critic, Clive James.

Al Qaeda and Iraq, Earmarks, and a Bill Moyers Essay on sacrifice.

The Yes Men - aka Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaum - who discovered that pranks could get press attention to important issues that would otherwise be ignored. Also on the program, renowned poet Martin Espada speaks about his love of language and the human need for poetry as he reflects on how heritage and immigration, and violence and war, have influenced his work.

In the wake of President Bush's commutation of I. lewis 'Scooter' libby's prison sentence, talk of impeachment is gaining steam as a new opinion poll says that nearly half of Americans favor the impeachment of the President and more than half believe Vice President Cheney should be impeached. Bill Moyers gets perspective from Constitutional scholar Bruce Fein, who wrote the first article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton, and The Nation's John Nichols, author of The Genius of Impeachment

Dedicating his life to the exploration of life on Earth, E.O. Wilson is one of the world's foremost authorities on biology. Bill Moyers Journal profiles the author of 25 Books and recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes, who speaks about what humankind needs to understand about the Earth to heal it and about his latest project The Encyclopedia of life - a digital, online catalog of every single living species on the planet. And, Bill Moyers Journal updates a report on the non-profit group, the Earth Conservation Corps (ECC), composed of young adults from the banks of the Anacostia River - an area of environmental disaster and a home for violence. There in the shadow of the Capitol, the ECC works to reclaim a dying neighborhood by providing leadership tools to disadvantaged youth while cleaning up the environment.

With U.S. mortgages entering foreclosure at a record pace, the crisis has far reaching implications, from the financial markets to the financial health of ordinary Americans. For the latest, Bill Moyers interviews assistant business and financial editor at The New York Times Gretchen Morgenson, who has been covering the story. Also on the program: lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, on the secret trade deal negotiated by leaders of the Democratic Party and its implications for labor unions, consumer groups and the environment; life-long GOP insider Victor Gold on the current state of the Republican Party; and Bill Moyers on Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal.

When Harper's Magazine editor Ken Silverstein went undercover to recruit Washington lobbyists to help improve the image of Turkmenistan, a corrupt foreign government with appalling human rights abuses, K-Street firms laid out plans to get the job done. What does it say about the state of influence-peddling in Washington? Bill Moyers gets the inside story from Silverstein. Also on the program, Imam Zaid Shakir has been called a voice of conscience for American Muslims, but his views on Islam in America put him at the center of a heated debate about faith and culture.