The list of this week’s guests on “This is Hell”:http://www.thisishell.net/, follows the articles.

Dayton Daily News (12/5/05) “The worst Christmas specials and TV movies ever.”:http://www.daytondailynews.com/l/content/oh/story/living/holiday/2006/12/05/ddn120606lifebadholidaytv.html Dreck the halls with forgettable holiday movie and television fare … fa la la la la, la la la la. “Here are our picks for the 10 worst Christmas movies and TV specials. Beware — they’re pure jingle hell.” But they forgot Santa’s Slay based on the old Santa is the demon-son of Satan storyline, with Robert Culp, Fran Drescher, James Caan and, as the biggest biceped Santa ever, wrestler Bill Goldberg. Luckily, I have seen only six of these and I’ll admit I kind of liked the Sandler movie.

Rumbo via New America Media (12/15/06) “Corrupt Military at the Border.”:http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=27c2704478d30beb2b0e570a7ec3e3fd “Corruption seems to be on the rise among military personnel stationed along the U.S.-Mexico border,… In the last two years, 99 U.S. soldiers were convicted of abetting the cross-border drug trade, FBI director Robert S. Mueller told the Senate Judicial Committee on Dec. 6. The agency has assigned 622 special agents to investigate the problem – compared to 358 in 2002. Mueller also told the Committee that more than 1,060 public servants have been convicted of similar corruption during the same period.”

All Things Considered, NPR (12/14/06) “Border Fence Firm Snared for Hiring Illegal Workers.”:http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6626823 Audio. “A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company’s work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico.”

American Prospect (12/14/06) “Justice Deported.”:http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=12297 Tuesday’s immigration raids on meatpacking plants weren’t about curbing identity theft, they were about union-busting. “[Immigration and Customs Enforcement] rhetoric would have you believe these deportees had been planning to apply for credit cards and charge expensive stereos or trips to the spa. The reality is that these meatpacking laborers had done what millions of people in this country do every year. They gave a Social Security number to their employer that either didn’t belong to them, or that didn’t exist. And they did it for a simple reason: to get a job in one of the dirtiest, hardest, most dangerous workplaces in America. Mostly, these borrowed numbers probably belong to other immigrants who’ve managed to get green cards. But regardless of who they are, the real owners of the Social Security numbers will benefit, not suffer. Swift paid thousands of extra dollars into their Social Security accounts.”

Military orders reporters to testify against Watada, “It is not a journalist’s job to testify against their own sources.” Inter Press Service (12/14/06) “Reporter Summoned to Testify Against War Resister.”:http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35857 “The U.S. military subpoenaed an independent journalist Thursday, demanding she testify as a witness for the prosecution of First Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to be court-marshaled for refusing to serve in Iraq.” “It’s absolutely outrageous. It’s a journalist’s job to report the news. It is not a journalist’s job to testify against their own sources.” More. Truthout (12/15/06) “Truthout’s Sarah Olson Subpoenaed in Watada Case.”:http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/121506J.shtml “In addition to Olson, Truthout reported Wednesday that Captain Dan Kuecker, the Fort Lewis, Washington-based Army prosecutor pursuing charges against Watada, had stated his intent to subpoena Truthout Executive Director Marc Ash, Truthout reporter Sari Gelzer, and contributing reporter Dahr Jamail to testify at Watada’s court-martial. As of Thursday, none of the three had been served with subpoenas.” Is this a prosecutor’s fishing trip or an exercise in intimidation?

Counterpunch (12/14/06) “Racism in the US Farm Program.”:http://www.counterpunch.org/pennick12142006.html The Plight of Black Farmers. “In 1999, black farmers in the United States reached a $2.8 billion settlement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in a class-action discrimination lawsuit. But the problems are ongoing. In fact, under various farm bills and trade agreements, discrimination has expanded to farmers throughout the world.”

Mother Jones (12/14/06) “Congress vs. Big Pharma: Let the Games Begin.”:http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2006/12/big_pharma.html Doughnut holes, drug scams, and Dingell: With the pharmaceutical industry cozying up to the Democrats, reform may be DOA for now — but watch for a few killer investigations. “With its stranglehold on the nation’s health care bills and its record-high profits, including billions from public coffers, no industry may be an easier target for reform than Big Pharma. But don’t hold your breath for any meaningful reforms from the next Congress, given that even the most obvious ideas—such as expanding the Medicare drug benefit and opening the door to drug imports from Canada and elsewhere—will face unrelenting pushback from the massive drug lobby. In the end, Congressional Democrats may not accomplish much to help patients, but they will likely launch the first serious investigations of the industry in decades.” More. New Internationalist (12/14/06) “Big Pharma.”:http://www.newint.org/issue362/contents.htm The Case Against Big Pharma. Links to several articles.

Guardian (12/15/06) “Convicted murderer takes half-an-hour to die.”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1972728,00.html Slow death prompts renewed calls to end US executions. Convicted murderer takes half-an-hour to die. Man given two injections grimaces in pain. “Witnesses reported that Angel Nieves Diaz, who killed the manager of a Miami nightclub in a robbery 27 years ago, was grimacing with pain and still moving more than 20 minutes after the first injections at the Florida state prison in Starke.” More. Los Angeles Times (12/15/06) “Executions in U.S. drop to a 10-year low.”:http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-na-executions15dec15,1,2728753.story In 2006, 53 death sentences were carried out, down from 60 last year. Public opinion seems to be changing.

Guardian (12/15/06) “‘National Interest’ Halts Arms Corruption Inquiry.”:http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,1972961,00.html “A major criminal investigation into alleged corruption by the arms company BAE Systems and its executives was stopped in its tracks yesterday when the prime minister claimed it would endanger Britain’s security if the inquiry was allowed to continue.”

People and Planet.net (12/6/06) “Ghana’s gold inflicts heavy price.”:http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2894 “Gold mining is Ghana’s most valuable export industry: in 2005, US $1.4 billion worth of gold was shipped from the country, dwarfing the value of its other major foreign currency earners – timber and cocoa. However, very little of the gold revenues stay in the country while damage to the physical environment by both large and small-scale mining is inflicting an incalculable cost to the economy with vast tracts of farming land permanently ruined, forests destroyed and water resources diverted and polluted.”

Human Rights Watch (12/15/06) “Angola: New OPEC Member Should Tackle Corruption Not Critics. Explain Spending of Oil Revenue.”:http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_47580.shtml “The government of Angola, which yesterday joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), should publicly account for how it spends the country’s massive oil wealth instead of harassing citizens who criticize corruption, Human Rights Watch said today.”

WOMENSENEWS (12/11/06) “‘Eve-Teasing’ Makes India’s Streets Mean for Women.”:http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2991/context/ourdailylives “Back in India after 10 years, Kavitha Rao faces the affronts and fears of “eve teasing,” the innocuous-sounding term for street harassment. Those who fight back occasionally suffer violent reprisals, but some activists are braving the risks.”

Guardian (12/14/06) “India’s shame.”:http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1972788,00.html Mohammad Afzal is due to hang for his part in the 2001 attack on India’s parliament building. But was he only a bit player? And is the country trying to bury embarrassing questions about its war on terror? By Arundhati Roy.

Reuters (12/14/06) “India has killed 10 mln girls in 20 years – Renuka Chowdhury.”:http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061214/india_nm/india280322 Ten million girls have been killed by their parents in India in the past 20 years, either before they were born or immediately after, a government minister said on Thursday, describing it as a “national crisis”.

“This is Hell”:http://www.thisishell.net/
This Saturday, December 16th, This is Hell’s guests will include;

• the Reverend Barry Lynn, executive director of “United For the Separation of Church and State”:http://www.au.org/ and author of the new book, “Piety and Politics: The Right Wing Assault on Religious Freedom.”:http://www.pietyandpolitics.com/
• Jonathan Mazower, Research Coordinator at “Survival International:http://www.survival-international.org, will tell us about the landmark decision this week concerning the San bushmen of the Kalahari
• Frida Berrigan, who just wrote, for In These Times, “What We Leave Behind: From Kosovo to Lebanon, cluster bomb casualties continue to mount.”:http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2934/
• Greg Palast, Whose recent article “Tinker Bell, Pinochet And The Fairy Tale Miracle Of Chile.”:http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=11615 has been posted alll over the net.
• Neil deMause, a media critic at “Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting”:http://www.fair.org, will discus his article in the newest issue of FAIR’s publication “Extra!” entitled, “The Smell of Success: After 10 years of ‘welfare reform,’ ignoring the human impact.”:http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3019

If you knew… appears most weekdays as a “blog”:http://mwm.gnn.tv/, and has recently been posted as “an article on Fridays”:http://www.gnn.tv/articles/2793/_f_you_knew. Any comments, suggestions, critiques or leads to articles, are welcomed.
‘If You Knew…’ will soon be announcing some changes, in coordination with the website of the This is Hell radio program. This is Hell broadcasts every Saturday morning at 9 am CMT.