The Brian Lehrer Show

Balancing Act

Friday, October 06, 2006

We continue our 2006 election series 30 Issues in 30 Days with Issue 10: Presidential Power in the War on Terror – How Much is Too Much? Former Bush advisor John Yoo argues expanded powers are necessary and former Reagan advisor Bruce Fein argues Bush has gone too far. Also, Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 previews his New Yorker Festival performance piece “My Road to 9/11.”

Listen to the whole show

It's the economy stupid

Daniel Gross writes the moneybox column for Slate magazine
and
Mike Mandel, chief economist for BusinessWeek
- do decreasing oil prices have anything to do with the mid-term elections?

On the Road Again

Lawrence Wright , staff writer for The New Yorker and author, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Knopf, 2006)
- on his New Yorker Festival performance piece, "My Trip to Al-Qaeda"

30 Issues in 30 Days, Issue 10: Presidential Power

John Yoo, professor of law at UC Berkeley, former counsel to the US Justice Department (2001-2003), and author War by Other Means: An Insider's Account of the War on Terror (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006)
and
Bruce Fein, constitutional scholar and former Associate Deputy Attorney General in the Reagan administration
- debate the limits of presidential power

Minute Men and Columbia

Nat Hentoff, columnist for the Village Voice and the Washington Times
- why Columbia University students stormed a stage when the leader of the Minute Men anti-immigration group spoke, with calls on the limits of free speech on campus.