Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
On tonight's Declaring Independence:
The first guest is Mike Lillis, the congressional correspondent for the Washington Independent. We'll be talking about a bunch of issues, from the healthcare debate in Congress to the global warming bill to the Sotomayor nomination to Al Franken finally joining the Senate.
The second guest is Jeff Sharlet, author of the book The Family: Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.
As always, you can listen to the show live between 6 and 7 pm EST by clicking here.
Comments
First time I've caught part (last 15 m) of your show and it's nice to have a voice to go with the face and virtual personality. You have a good radio voice, Ed. And how can you have bumper music like "How Can I Miss You If You Won't Go Away" and not sound good?
*its amazing what they can do these days with those micro-circuits*
Posted by: Crudely Wrott | July 9, 2009 7:02 PM
I was able to catch the last 40 minutes of the show.
For me the most interesting question of the show was how Democratic Representative Bart Stupak D-1st District, and Hillary Clinton fit in to The Family. Unfortuantely I was interrupted and missed Sharlet's answer. Part of my interest in that question is that Stupak, a pro-life Democrat, is my Congressman and from my perspective, is an excellent Congressman for our district. In addition, I find Ms. Clinton to be a pragmatic person where I have difficulty envisioning her being a part of some subversive group whose interests were in direct odds with the country's.
Mr. Sharlet came across as a smart, well-informed, and most importantly, intellectually honest interview subject. Like a good scientist, he appeared to neither extend his observations beyond the facts nor resorted to hyperbole or overly simplistic answers.
However, and maybe because I only caught 30 minutes or so of the interview, I found it difficult to conclude there is some overarching conspiracy that risks the republic. Nor did I perceive them to be any more dangerous than someone who was a member of the The Federalist Society. Neither of these may be Sharlet's thesis either. Do I underestimate the threat, or isn't there one and this is merely about knowing more about how D.C. works and how certain individuals grow their power and influence?
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/09/hillarys-prayer-hillary-clintons-religion-and-politics
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 9, 2009 7:45 PM
I inadvertently hit "Post" instead of preview; the above link is intended to encourage readers to read this linked Mother Jones article about Clinton's religious faith, where a substantial part of the article covers her involvement with The Family. Jeff Sharlet, the author of the book that Ed interviewed, recommended it and I enjoyed reading this article.
I read the MJ article prior to sharing my thoughts above, which validated for me at least (having not read Sharlet's book) that there appeared to be little cause for concern regarding Clinton's actual ambitions being wildly different than her public pronouncements. A larger concern is that Clinton having loose informal ties to the group may help the group appear to be less threatening to our national interests than they really are.
Posted by: Michael Heath | July 9, 2009 7:55 PM
Glenn Beck makes up stories...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYqQ9xaGvlg
Posted by: 386sx | July 10, 2009 4:40 AM
I may have missed this in a previous post but is there any chance you'll be updating the missing podcasts?
Posted by: Strider | July 10, 2009 12:01 PM