Democracy Now! May 15, 2002

9:01-9:06 Headlines: 9:06-9:07 One Minute Music Break 9:07-9:20 A BBC INVESTIGATION REVEALS THAT THE HEAD OF THE ORGANIZATION OF PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES WARNED VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT HUGO CHAVEZ OF LAST MONTHS ATTEMPTED COUP SEVERAL DAYS IN ADVANCE A BBC investigation has revealed that the head of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries warned Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez of last months attempted coup several days in advance. OPEC Secretary general Ali Rodriguez said OPEC learned that Libya and Iraq had planned to call for a new oil embargo against the US because of its support for Israel. Rodriguez warned Chavez the US would prod a long-simmering coup into action to break any embargo threat. It was Venezuela who shattered the oil embargo of 1973 by replacing Arab oil with its own huge reserves. Guest: Greg Palast, reporter for BBC Televisions 'News Night,' author of 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy' and writer for the London Guardian Contact: www.gregpalast.com 9:20-9:21 One Minute Music Break 9:21-9:40 STUPID WHITE MEN: AUTHOR MICHAEL MOORE TAKES ON BUSH, THE SO-CALLED WAR ON TERROR, AND OTHER SORRY EXCUSES FOR THE STATE OF THE NATION Michael Moore begins his new book, Stupid White Men, like this: The following message was intercepted by U.N. forces on 9/1/01, at 0600 hours, from somewhere within the North American continent:I am a citizen of the United States of America. Our government has been overthrown. Our elected President has been exiled. Old white men wielding martinis and wearing dickies have occupied our nation's capital. We are under siege. We are the United States Government-in-Exile. Many say that President George W Bushs so-called war on terror has accomplished the impossible: it has unified a nation after one of the most contentious elections in US history. Less than half of the electorate voted for Bush while barely half the population voted at all, and hundreds of thousands of African-Americans were disenfranchised in the decisive state of Florida. As the Bush administration spends ever more billions of dollars on the war, radically independent filmmaker and author Michael Moore urges us to remember how it all started, and who our president really is. We go now to a speech he gave a few weeks ago at California State University, Los Angeles. Guest: MICHAEL MOORE, author of best-selling book, Stupid, White Men ON VIDEO Contact: www.michaelmoore.com 9:40-9:41 One Minute Music Break 9:41-9:58 STUPID WHITE MEN, CONTD 9:58-9:59 Outro and Credits