Quick: what does OFA stand for? Most of you probably think Obama for America, the organizing group that led the 2008 and 2012 election campaigns. But in 2009 OFA became Organizing for America. And just last month OFA morphed yet again into Organizing for Action. Brian Lehrer talked with Nicholas Confessore, who writes about campaign finance and big-money lobbying for the New York Times, about the latest incarnation of OFA, which looks an awful lot like a traditional lobbying organization providing big donors direct access to the Obama administration. Plus, an OFA reading list. Check it out.
The Brian Lehrer Show is taking your one-liners on fb, twitter, and compiling favorites on the web. So, how cold is it?
Yesterday the Bronx’s own Sonia Sotomayor swore in Vice President Biden, today at 11 she talks with Brian Lehrer. Tune in!
From a few minutes ago in Studio K, here’s a bit of Brian Lehrer pre-recording an interview with Jon Huntsman. Hear the answer to the first questions and the full interview at 10am on WNYC!
Happening now on the 9th floor, side by side editorial meetings with the Brian Lehrer Show and Radiolab.
Happy 1/3/13. You’re not triskaidekaphobic are you? Brian Lehrer broke down the superstition on his show earlier today.
Grimm: We were all set to go, and this was simply a betrayal on Speaker Boehner’s behalf.
Lehrer: Does this make you question your support for re-electing him as speaker?
Grimm: Unfortunately, it does.
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New York representative Michael Grimm talking with Brian Lehrer about the last-minute, late-night decision to not vote on the Sandy relief bill in the House. More. Audio: |
There’s no one answer at moments like this, but I know this - to do nothing is to be complicit.
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| — | Connecticut Congressman John Larson speaking with Brian Lehrer |
David Lynch trying to convince Brian Lehrer that he should get back into Transcendental Meditation. Full audio.
-Jody, BL Show-
In this country, we often think of China first as an authoritarian state that engages in human rights violations. It was chilling to stand in Tiananmen Square as a tourist. But that said, I came away with the impression that China’s leadership sees its form of government as less like, say, Kim Jong Un’s and more like Michael Bloomberg’s: a non-ideological technocracy.
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| — | Brian Lehrer, reflecting on his recent trip to China. He and his fellow travelers will be sharing their thoughts on the BL Show blog over the next week. And check out pictures from the trip. |
He has so much to say he doth filibuster himself.
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| — | John Dickerson of Slate imagining what Shakespeare would say about Mitch McConnell this week. Talking with Brian Lehrer. |
Brian Lehrer’s back from his trip to China, and listeners are helping him catch up on the local news he may have missed. Take a listen and add your own.
-Jody, BL Show-
During Katrina, some people did do terrible things that were reported in the media, but we forget that people do terrible things in everyday life, and act as if there’s no crime and no violence. After Katrina there was a huge amount of bad stuff reported on, but a huge amount of altruism and volunteerism and restoration on a scale we’ve almost never seen.
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| — | Rebeca Solnit talking with Brian Lehrer on how communities band together - and how the media under-reports the good stories - after disasters, from 9/11 to Katrina to Sandy. Listen here. |
