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Naomi Klein on Climate Debt: Why Rich Countries Should Pay Reparations To Poor Countries For The Climate Crisis

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Naomi Klein, Amy Goodman - Nov. 23 (Interview) - With the Copenhagen climate summit two weeks away, best-selling journalist Naomi Klein examines the grass-roots movement behind the climate debate proposal that argues all the costs associated with adapting to a more hostile ecology—everything from building stronger sea walls to switching to cleaner, more expensive technologies—are the responsibility of the countries that created the crisis. Klein also discusses the 10th anniversary of the Seattle WTO protests and the 10th anniversary of her first book, “No Logo.”

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On 20th Anniversary of Killings of 6 Jesuit Priests by US-Backed Salvadoran Forces, Thousands to Protest "School of the Assassins" at Ft. Benning

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Blasé Bonpane, Amy Goodman - Nov. 20 (Special Report) - This year’s protest will mark the twentieth anniversary of the murder of six Jesuit priests in El Salvador by the US-backed Salvadoran military. It comes days after the priests were posthumously bestowed El Salvador’s highest civilian award, marking the first time the Salvadoran government has honored the priests since their deaths. To talk about the priests and the overall state of Latin American affairs, we’re joined by Blase Bonpane, director of the Office of the Americas. A former Maryknoll priest, he has worked for more than four decades to promote human rights in Latin America.

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Obama Nominates Pesticide Executive to Be Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the Office of the US Trade Representative

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, Amy Goodman - Nov. 17 (Interview) - President Obama’s nominee for the Chief Agricultural Negotiator in the office of the US Trade Representative, Islam Siddiqui is currently a vice president at CropLife America, a coalition of the major industrial players in the pesticide industry, including Syngenta, Monsanto, and Dow Chemical.

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Ft. Hood Shooter was Cruelly Mistreated and Harassed for his Ethnicity

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

stopwar.lafilmonline.com - By Jon Raymond, Phillip Rucker, Amy Goodman, Mike Baker - Nov. 10 (News Report) - Everyone else just sat down there and drunk their beer and looked at him and giggled at him,” the woman said, starting to cry. “They just would laugh at him when he walked down with his Muslim clothes. . . . He was mistreated. He didn’t have nobody. He was all alone. He went to his apartment there and was all alone.

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The Tortured Logic Continues

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Nov. 04 (Opinion) - Given the excesses of the Bush administration and Barack Obama’s promise of change, it has surprised many that these policies are continuing, and that Congress and the courts have not closed this chapter of U.S. history. President Obama has never once condemned extraordinary rendition.

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Congress Considers Revoking Health Insurance Industry's Exemption from Antitrust Laws

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous - Oct. 20 (Interview) - Democrats say the McCarran-Ferguson Act of 1945 has granted the insurance industry a captive market with no curbs on price fixing and other anti-competitive practices. Last week the Justice Department’s top antitrust regulator, Christine Varney, voiced support for a repeal. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi are also backing a repeal, and New York Senator Charles Schumer has called for including it as part of the healthcare reform bill. The House Judiciary Committee plans to vote on the issue on Wednesday.

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Amnesty International Head Irene Khan on "The Unheard Truth: Poverty and Human Rights"

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!) - Oct. 16 -

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As Foreclosures Hit All-Time High, Wall Street on Pace to Hand Out Record $140B in Employee Bonuses

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By William Black, JUAN GONZALEZ,AMY GOODMAN - Oct. 15 (News Report) - The Dow Jones Industrial Average has topped 10,000 for the first time in a year, as JPMorgan Chase reported massive profits in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that major US banks and securities firms are on pace to pay their employees about $140 billion this year—a record high. But on Main Street, foreclosures are also at record levels, and the official unemployment rate is expected to top ten percent.

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Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj Zizek on Capitalism, Healthcare, Latin American "Populism" and the "Farcical" Financial Crisis

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - Oct. 15 (Interview) - Zizek’s latest offering also excerpted in the October issue of Harper"s magazine opens with the words: “The only truly surprising thing about the 2008 financial meltdown is how easily the idea was accepted that its happening was unpredictable.” He goes on to recall how the demonstrations against the IMF and the World Bank over the past decade all protested the ways in which banks were playing with money and warned of an impending crash. They were met with tear-gas and mass arrests. The message, he writes, was “loud and clear, and the police were used to literally stifle the truth.”

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"Sick for Profit": Robert Greenwald Documentary

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzales - Oct. 08 (Review) - Sick for Profit, a documentary by Robert Greenwald, contrasts the salaries of insurance company CEOs with the experiences of policyholders denied medical claims. We play an excerpt.

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Fired UN Official Peter Galbraith Accuses the United Nations of Helping Cover Up Electoral Fraud Committed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Peter Galbraith, Anjali Kamat, Amy Goodman - Oct. 05 (News Report) - Last week, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon fired the top American diplomat at the United Nations in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith. Galbraith had accused his boss at the UN mission in Afghanistan, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide, of helping cover up electoral fraud and being biased in favor of Hamid Karzai. Galbraith has described the Afghan election as a “foreseeable train wreck” and says the election has “handed the Taliban its greatest strategic victory in eight years of fighting the United States and its Afghan partners."

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Rethink Afghanistan: Filmmaker Robert Greenwald Launches Film Opposing Escalation of War

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!) - Oct. 02 -

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Mother Speaks Out on Insurance Giant CIGNA's Denial of Healthcare to Cancer-Stricken Twin Daughters

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Stacie Ritter, Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman, Wendell Potter - Oct. 01 (Special Report) - Stacie Ritter’s twin daughters were diagnosed with cancer at the age of four. Their insurance provider, CIGNA, denied them coverage even though they had been covered by the family’s former insurer. The incident marked just the latest chapter in the family’s ongoing troubles with the health insurance industry. A few years ago, the Ritters filed for bankruptcy due to their high medical expenses—even though they had health insurance at the time.

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UN Inquiry Finds Israel "Punished and Terrorized" Palestinian Civilians, Committed War Crimes During Gaza Assault

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Norman Finkelstein - Sep. 16 (News Report) - A United Nations fact-finding mission has found Israel “punished and terrorized” civilians in its three-week assault on Gaza earlier this year and cited strong evidence that Israeli forces committed “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions. More than 1,400 Palestinians—about a third of them women and children—were killed in the assault.

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"The Most Dangerous Man in America": New Documentary Chronicles Story of Daniel Ellsberg, Whose Leak of the Pentagon Papers Helped End Vietnam War

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Daniel Ellsberg - Sep. 16 (Interview) - Daniel Ellsberg once faced espionage charges and possibly life in prison after leaking what became known as the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page classified history outlining the true extent of US involvement in Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg’s actions directly contributed to the end of Nixon presidency and the Vietnam War. His story is chronicled in the new documentary The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.

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Nomi Prins: "Obama Banking Too Much on Banks"

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Amy Goodman - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - Lehman’s bankruptcy set off a series of events across the financial markets, leading to a full-scale economic meltdown. Speaking at Federal Hall, Obama promoted Democratic proposals for new financial oversight and a consumer protection agency to protect Americans from unfair loans, but Nomi Prins, an investment banker turned journalist, says Obama’s proposed reforms don’t go deep enough.

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David Cole on "The Torture Memos: Rationalizing the Unthinkable"

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Amy Goodman, David Cole - Sep. 15 (Opinion) - Legal scholar and attorney David Cole looks at the story behind the infamous Bush administration torture memos. Cole argues the memos show that the United States government’s top attorneys were instrumental in rationalizing acts of torture and cruelty, employing chillingly twisted logic and Orwellian reasoning to authorize what the law absolutely forbids.

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As Obama Escalates War in Afghanistan, US Peace Activists Call for Near-Term Withdrawal of Foreign Troops

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Medea Benjamin, Norman Soloman, Amy Goodman, Sharif Abdel Kouddous - Sep. 15 (Interview) - The coming weeks hold critical significance for the US occupation of Afghanistan. The Senate is expected to vote on the Obama administration’s $128 billion request to fund war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq for the coming fiscal year. Next week, the Obama administration will unveil a report on whether US benchmarks for success in Afghanistan are being achieved. It’s widely believed President Obama will receive a military request to escalate the Afghan war with thousands of additional troops. The apparent congressional unease over a troop escalation comes near Friday’s eight-year anniversary of the vote authorizing the attack on Afghanistan.

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NYT Investigation Exposes Severity of Nationwide Water Contamination; Corporations Violated Clean Water Act Over 500,000 Times in Last Five Years

Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman, Charles Duhigg - Sep. 14 (Investigative Report) - chemical companies have violated the Clean Water Act more than 500,000 times in the last five years. Most of the violations have gone unpunished, with state regulators taking significant action in just three percent of all cases. An estimated one in ten Americans has been exposed to drinking water that has dangerous chemicals or falls short of federal standards.

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Data Reveals California's Private Insurers Deny 21 Percent of Claims

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 09 (News Report) - The California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee has released new data that shows one in every five requests made for medical claims by insured patients, even when recommended by a physician, are rejected by California's largest private insurers.

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White House Environmental Adviser Van Jones Resigns Citing "Vicious Smear Campaign Against Me"

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Amy Goodman - Sep. 08 (News Report) - For the past month, Fox News has run a series of reports on Jones’s alleged association with communists and his decision to sign a petition calling for a congressional probe of the 9/11 attacks. Jones is the founding president of Green for All and author of the book The Green Collar Economy. We speak with James Rucker, who co-founded the group Color of Change with Van Jones, and with Malkia Cyril, founder of the Center for Media Justice. We also talk to Ben Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP.

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Back to School: Military Recruiters Increasingly Targeting High School Teens

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Juan Gonzalez - Sep. 04 (News) - Journalist David Goodman writes in the new issue of Mother Jones, quote, "Using data mining, stealth websites, career tests, and sophisticated marketing software, the Pentagon is harvesting and analyzing information on everything from high school students' GPAs and SAT scores to which video games they play. Before an Army recruiter even picks up the phone to call a prospect, the soldier may know more about the kid's habits than do his own parents."

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"Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party"

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Max Blumenthal - Sep. 04 (Review) - award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal joins us for the first extended interview about his debut book, Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party. The book traces the rise of the radical right in the US and how it used the concept of personal crisis to grow as a movement and eventually capture control of the GOP to transform it from the party of Dwight Eisenhower to the party of Sarah Palin.

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Back to School: Military Recruiters Increasingly Targeting High School Teens

Fri, 04 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez - Sep. 04 (Special Report) - As millions of students prepare for the start of another school year, we focus on an issue that concerns many parents: the increasing presence of military recruiters in the nation’s high schools and the military’s ability to gather information about students.

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Fracking and the Environment: Natural Gas Drilling, Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Contamination

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Democracy Now - By Juan Gonzalez, Amy Goodman - Sep. 03 (Special Report) - Gas drilling companies such as Halliburton say the gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is safe, but opponents contend it pollutes groundwater with dangerous substances. Now, new evidence has emerged possibly linking natural gas drilling to groundwater contamination. ProPublica journalist Abrahm Lustgarten reports federal officials in Wyoming have found that at least three water wells contain chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing.

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