This American Life had a great show (for DU'ers) last week: Stern, Zogby &

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this story about terror trials:

The Facts Don't Matter.

In 1942, George Dasch, pictured, led a team of eight Nazi saboteurs who landed on the beach on Long Island with plans to blow up factories up and down the Eastern seaboard. They were arrested by the FBI, and found guilty of war crimes in a military tribunal. The FBI claimed to have broken the spy ring and foiled the plot on its own. In fact, the FBI only became aware of it when Dasch went to FBI headquarters and turned himself and the others in. And though all the men were found guilty, one of them might not have been a spy at all, just an unlucky kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. How this case became a Supreme Court precedent, Ex Parte Quirin, used to justify current administration policies on detaining enemy combatants, despite the problems in the original case.

You can listen to the whole show at the website: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/

I really think this is a must-listen show for people who consider themselves aware of contemporary political issues.

Listen all the way to the end. They do a very interesting story about Zogby's polling in Wisconsin.

It's hard to hear about the Bush-like things FDR did during WWII, and I disagree wth the conclusion about the political significance of the undercount of Edwards's poll numbers in WI (I think he could have won if more people knew he was closer to Kerry before the primary). However, these are both very important stories to hear.

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1. kick. This is really one of the best TALs I've heard recently.