AMY GOODMAN: Today we look back at 2009. And we’ll begin where it began: in January.

Headlines for January 5, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Israeli ground troops and tanks have pushed deeper into Gaza and surrounded Gaza City, effectively splitting Gaza into two sections. At least 531 Palestinians have died over the past ten days. Five Israelis have died since the fighting began.



Headlines for January 5, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The United States blocked a UN Security Council statement on Saturday calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.



Headlines for January 6, 2009:


PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH:

All of us, of course, would like to see, you know, violence stop, but not at the expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from happening again.

Headlines for January 6, 2009:


DR. MADS GILBERT: The statistics are clear. Among the 2,400-2,500 injured, 45 percent are women and children. And then there are also all the civilian men. So the large majority of the injured, the victims, are women, men and children civilian.



Headlines for January 13, 2009:


ANTOINE GRAND: There is no place safe in Gaza for the civilians. They’re afraid to stay home. They’re afraid to move. They’re also afraid to go down the street to try to find some water or to try to buy some food. No electricity, no water, difficult access to hospitals, ambulances that are not able to reach some places to collect the wounded.

Headlines for January 12, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The nation’s official unemployment rate has jumped to 7.2 percent as employers eliminated over 500,000 jobs in December.


CAMPBELL HARVEY: Right now it seems like we are losing about half a million jobs every month. So the situation is very dire. And combined with this, there’s no obvious end in sight.



Headlines for January 20, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on Saturday, ending a twenty-two-day assault on Gaza that killed more than 1,300 Palestinians, most of them civilians and at least one-third children.



Headlines for January 20, 2009:


PALESTINIAN WOMAN: [translated] All our homes have been destroyed. Even this little boy does not have a home. What is his fault? Look at him. What do they want from us? Our houses? Why do they want to destroy them? Why do they destroy our homes?



Headlines for January 13, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: President Bush held his final news conference Monday.

PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: There have been disappointments. Abu Ghraib obviously was a huge disappointment during the presidency. Not having weapons of mass destruction was a significant disappointment. I don’t know if you want to call those mistakes or not, but they were — things didn’t go according to plan. Let’s put it that way.



Civil Rights Icon Rev. Joseph Lowery Delivers Benediction at Obama Inauguration (1/21/09):


REV. JOSEPH LOWERY: We pray now, o Lord, for your blessing upon thy servant, Barack Obama, the forty-fourth president of these United States, his family and his administration.



Headlines for January 21, 2009:


CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: I, Barack Hussein Obama…


PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: I, Barack…


CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: …do solemnly swear…


PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: I, Barack Hussein Obama, do solemnly swear…


CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: …that I will execute the office of president to the United States faithfully…


PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: …that I will execute…


CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS: …faithfully the office of president of the United States…


PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: …the office of president of the United States faithfully…



Pan-Africanist Scholar Ali Mazrui on the Election of Barack Obama as the First Black President in the Western World (2/16/09):


ALI MAZRUI:Barack Obama, himself, becomes the most powerful single black individual in the history of civilization, you know? There’s never been a person in control of the resources which the United States has, of the creative and destructive powers that the United States has…So he’s easily the most powerful single black individual that’s ever walked planet earth. And that’s a major breakthrough in race relations.



Headlines for January 21, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed, why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than sixty years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.



Headlines for January 22, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: President Obama is expected to sign executive orders today for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay prison and secret CIA jails overseas.


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Guantanamo will be closed no later than one year from now.



Headlines for January 28, 2009:


ROBERT GATES: There is little doubt that our greatest military challenge right now is Afghanistan. As you know, the United States has focused more on Central Asia in recent months. President Obama has made it clear that the Afghanistan theater should be our top overseas military priority.



Headlines for February 10, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The situation we face could not be more serious. We have inherited an economic crisis as deep and as dire as any since the Great Depression.



Human Rights Watch’s Kenneth Roth on Obama’s Use of State Secrets and Israel’s 22-Day Attack on Gaza (2/16/09):


AMY GOODMAN: What is this latest on the Obama administration twice invoking the state secrets privilege over the past two weeks?


KENNETH ROTH: They seem to be continuing the Bush administration’s policy of relying on the doctrine of state secrets to cover up inquiries by civil litigants into what went wrong with the Bush administration’s policies, whether that’s snooping on Americans or torturing suspects.



Penn. Judges Get Kickbacks for Placing Youths in Privately Owned Jails (2/17/09):


AMY GOODMAN: An unprecedented case of judicial corruption is unfolding in Pennsylvania. Several hundred families have filed a class-action lawsuit against two former judges who have pleaded guilty to taking bribes in return for placing youths in privately owned jails.


KURT KRUGER: I was never offered a lawyer, never explained my rights to a lawyer or what benefits it would have. I was just sent away to Camp Adams for at least ninety days, and I spent the better part of four-and-a-half months there.



Critics Charge Executed Chimpanzee Cartoon is Veiled Racist Reference to Obama (2/19/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: A series of protests are scheduled outside the New York Post today to condemn the publication of a cartoon that critics say depicts President Obama as a chimpanzee.



Hundreds Protest NY Post Cartoon Seen as Racist Depiction of Obama (2/20/09):


REV. AL SHARPTON: I said that even though they called us chimps, we came to let them know we’re not chumps.


Headlines for February 27, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: President Obama has unveiled a $3.55 trillion spending budget for the coming fiscal year. On Thursday, Obama said the plan includes tax relief for lower-income Americans while repealing Bush administration tax cuts for the wealthy.


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: No part of my budget will be free from scrutiny or untouched by reform.


Rocky Mountain News Ends Publication in Latest Casualty of Ailing Newspaper Industry (2/27/09):


AMY GOODMAN: That’s a pretty amazing story, Rocky Mountain News closing up. You’ve got the Minneapolis Star Tribune in bankruptcy. The Chicago Tribune, the Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle is in deep trouble, even the New York Times.


Headlines for March 2, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: As a candidate for president, I made clear my support for a timeline of sixteen months to carry out this drawdown, while pledging to consult closely with our military commanders upon taking office to ensure that we preserve the gains we’ve made and to protect our troops.



Headlines for March 3, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In Washington, DC, more than 2,000 activists blocked the gates of a coal-fired power plant on Capitol Hill Monday in what was described as the largest display of civil disobedience on the climate crisis in US history.



Capitol Climate Action: Mass Civil Disobedience in DC Against Use of Coal at Capitol Hill Power Plant (3/2/09):


JUDY BONDS: I’m very proud to be here today with the youth of America that’s demanding change and demanding that the adults take responsibility for creating a mess.



As Obama Hosts Summit on Healthcare, Marginalized Advocates Ask Why Single Payer Is Ignored (3//6/09):


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: In this effort, every voice has to be heard. Every idea must be considered. Every option must be on the table.


JUAN GONZALEZ: While the President said every idea must be considered, the idea of creating a single-payer national health insurance program has already been rejected.



Headlines for March 12, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed the Bush administration ran an “executive assassination ring” that reported directly to former Vice President Dick Cheney.



Seymour Hersh: Secret US Forces Carried Out Assassinations in a Dozen Countries, Including in Latin America (3/31/09):


SEYMOUR HERSH: Congress has no oversight of it. It’s an executive assassination wing, essentially. It’s been going in — under President Bush’s authority, they’ve been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or to the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving.



Headlines for March 16, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The failed insurance giant AIG is preparing to pay out $450 million in bonuses to top executives and other employees despite receiving a $173 billion government bailout.



LAWRENCE SUMMERS: We are a country of law. There are contracts. The government cannot just abrogate contracts.



Headlines for March 20, 2009:


JOAN NEMETH: Being paid $15,000 an hour compared to your workers’ hours at $8 or $10 or even $15, where’s the justice in that? There is no justice in being paid that much more.




Headlines for March 18, 2009:


REP. BARNEY FRANK: I think the time has come to exercise our ownership rights — we own most of the company — and then say, as owner, “No, I’m not paying you the bonus. You didn’t perform.”



Mark Danner: Bush Lied About Torture of Prisoners (3/18/09):


AMY GOODMAN: I spoke to Mark Danner about the secret Red Cross report he obtained and what it reveals about the Bush administration’s treatment of prisoners.



MARK DANNER: The United States tortured prisoners and, secondly, that this activity was illegal and constituted a breach of international and domestic law.


AMY GOODMAN: So, Mark Danner, did President Bush lie?


MARK DANNER: Yes. Yeah, he did.



Headlines for April 2, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The G20 summit has begun in London following a day of protest from thousands of people. On Wednesday, dozens were arrested at demonstrations throughout London’s financial district.



Thousands Flood London’s Financial District to Protest G20 Summit (4/2/09):


TONY BENN: I have never in my long life known a time when public opinion was so divided from government opinion. And I think that’s happening not only in London, but all over the world.



Headlines for April 6, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In economic news, the nation’s unemployment rate has reached 8.5 percent, the highest it’s been in twenty-five years. 663,000 jobs were lost last month. A total of 5.1 million jobs have been lost in the past fourteen months.



LESLIE CAGAN: We need money pouring into job creation, and we need to deal with the global crisis of the environment. So there’s much to do, above and beyond bailing out bankers and continuing to pour money into wars.




Testimony of 12-Year-Old with Two Moms Moves Some Vermont Legislators to Support Gay Marriage Bill (4/8/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Evann Orleck-Jetter testified at the public hearings on gay marriage last month before Vermont’s Joint Senate and House Judiciary Committees.


EVANN ORLECK-JETTER: There aren’t any examples of a family like mine. If my parents could just have the right to get married, this would make such a difference. It hurts me sometimes when I feel invisible, because few people understand my feelings about my family, and few people want to ask about families with two moms.



“Without Struggle, There Is Nothing”–Mumia Abu-Jamal Speaks from Death Row about His Case, Prison Reform and “Jailhouse Lawyers” (4/16/09):


AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to my interview with author, journalist, death row prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. Last week, the Supreme Court denied his appeal to overturn his conviction for the 1981 killing of a white police officer following a controversial trial before a predominantly white jury.



MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: The fight goes on. I am a believer firmly in “without struggle, there is no progress.” Frederick Douglass used to say that, of course. It was true then; it’s true now. You know, without struggle, there’s nothing. There really is nothing. So we struggle on.




Headlines for April 17, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The Obama administration has released four Bush administration memos that gave CIA interrogators the legal basis for torture at Guantanamo Bay and other foreign jails.



Obama Releases Bush-Era Memos Authorizing Torture Techniques, Rules Out Prosecuting CIA Interrogators who Carried Them Out (4/17/09):


SCOTT HORTON: These are techniques that federal prosecutors previously charged as crimes. Moreover, in prosecutions that occurred at the end of the World War II, American federal prosecutors sought the death penalty, sought capital punishment, for people who did these things.



Headlines for April 22, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it’s appropriate for them to be prosecuted.



Headlines for April 27, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: A former Marine corporal who fought in Afghanistan testified last week on Capitol Hill and urged lawmakers to oppose President Obama’s escalation of the war in Afghanistan.


RICK REYES: As a Marine, I was willing to give my life for my country and still am. But invading and occupying Afghanistan, sending more troops to solve what is a political problem, is not the answer.



Headlines for April 29, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania has announced he’s leaving the Republican Party to join the Democratic caucus on Capitol Hill.



SEN. ARLEN SPECTER: As the Republican Party has moved farther and farther to the right, I have found myself increasingly at odds with the Republican philosophy and more aligned with the philosophy of the Democratic Party.




Headlines for April 30, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The World Health Organization is warning the swine flu outbreak is at the imminent stages of becoming a global pandemic.



JANET NAPOLITANO: We have been preparing as if we are facing a true pandemic, even though we don’t know the ultimate scope of what will occur.




Legendary Folk Singer & Activist Pete Seeger Turns 90, Thousands Turn Out for All-Star Tribute Featuring Bruce Springsteen, Joan Baez, Bernice Johnson Reagon and Dozens More (5/4/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Legendary folk singer, banjo player, storyteller, and political and environmental activist Pete Seeger turned ninety on Sunday.



PETE SEEGER: Normally I’m against big things. I think the world is going to be saved by millions of small things. Too many things can go wrong when they get big.



12-Year-Old US Citizen to President Obama: “I Want My Mom Back” (5/5/09):


AMY GOODMAN: At the top of the agenda for immigrant rights advocates is ending the spate of deportations that have separated more than a million families. We’re going to turn now to one family torn apart by deportation who have brought their case to Capitol Hill.



GERARDO ZAMUDIO: I am in Washington, because I would like — I would like my mom back, and I would like to talk to President Obama, because I want my mom back and I know that he can help us.


Up to 150 Afghan Civilians Killed in US Attack on Western Province (5/6/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Dozens of civilians were killed Tuesday in a US bombing in Afghanistan in what may be one of the highest civilian death tolls of the war.



Headlines for May 7, 2009:


HILLARY CLINTON: I wish to express, you know, my personal regret and certainly the sympathy of our administration on the loss of civilian life in Afghanistan.



Headlines for May 5, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The US military is denying it has allowed soldiers to try to convert Afghans to Christianity, following a report on Al Jazeera that showed pictures of soldiers with Bibles translated into Pashto and Dari.



LT. COL. GARY HENSLEY: The Special Forces guys, they hunt men, basically. We do the same things as Christians: we hunt people for Jesus.



EXCLUSIVE…Pentagon Pundits: New York Times Reporter David Barstow Wins Pulitzer Prize for Exposing Military’s Pro-War Propaganda Media Campaign (5/8/09):


AMY GOODMAN: New York Times reporter David Barstow. He recently won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting for exposing how dozens of retired generals working as radio and television analysts had been co-opted by the Pentagon to make its case for the war in Iraq.



DAVID BARSTOW: So they saw this group, and they saw in this group a way of taking the media filter, which politicians are always so fond of complaining about, and turning the media filter into more of a media megaphone.



Headlines for May 12, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The Iranian American journalist Roxana Saberi was released from an Iranian jail Monday and has been reunited with her family.


Baucus’s Raucous Caucus: Doctors, Nurses and Activists Arrested Again for Protesting Exclusion of Single-Payer Advocates at Senate Hearing on Healthcare (5/13/09):


SEN. MAX BAUCUS: Committee in order. We will stand in recess until the police can restore order.


SUE CANNON: We want single payer at this table. Healthcare is a human right. We want guaranteed healthcare.


AMY GOODMAN: Five people were arrested yesterday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on healthcare reform and charged with “disruption of Congress.


DR. MARGARET FLOWERS: We really requested to Senator Baucus that he include a single-payer advocate at these roundtable discussions, and we were told very clearly that there would be no invitation coming. And so, we felt that and I felt that we couldn’t be silent any longer. We needed to stand up on behalf of our patients, on behalf of our colleagues, and speak out.



Tamil Tiger Leader Killed; Sri Lanka Claims Victory in 25-Year Civil War (5/18/09):


ANJALI KAMAT: Today’s top story is Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka’s quarter-century-long civil war is in its final throes, with the militant Tamil separatist group the Tamil Tigers, or the LTTE, almost completely defeated. The United Nations says nearly 7,000 civilians were killed and over 16,000 wounded since January.



Headlines for May 21, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In Pakistan, the UN is warning the exodus of Swat Valley residents fleeing government-Taliban clashes could turn into the worst displacement crisis since the Rwandan genocide. Around two million people have fled their homes since fighting broke out three weeks ago.



Headlines for May 22, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Let me begin by disposing of one argument as plainly as I can: we are not going to release anyone if it would endanger our national security.



Human Rights Attorney Vince Warren: Obama’s “Preventive Detention” Plan Goes Beyond Bush Admin Policies (5/22/09):


VINCE WARREN: The idea of detaining people not because they’ve committed a crime, but because of their general dangerousness or that they may commit a crime in the future. That’s something that the documents that President Obama was standing in front of, particularly the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, simply doesn’t permit.



Headlines for May 27, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: After completing this exhaustive process, I have decided to nominate an inspiring woman who I believe will make a great justice: Judge Sonia Sotomayor of the great state of New York.



Obama Nominee Sonia Sotomayor Poised to Become First Hispanic Supreme Court Justice (5/27/09):


JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: Although I grew up in very modest and challenging circumstances, I consider my life to be immeasurably rich. I was raised in a Bronx public housing project but studied at two of the nation’s finest universities.




Headlines for June 1, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In Kansas, police have arrested a fifty-one-year-old anti-abortion activist in connection to the murder of Dr. George Tiller. Tiller was shot dead Sunday as he attended services at his church in Wichita.



Dr. George Tiller (1941-2009): Murdered Abortion Provider Remembered for Lifelong Dedication to Women’s Reproductive Health (6/1/09):


ELLIE SMEAL: Every day he was thanked by women whose lives he saved. He was a humanitarian, a person who — I think his family said it so well. He was dedicated to women and to women’s rights everywhere. And he did what he knew he should do as a skilled physician.



“Anti-Abortion Violence and Terrorism Has to Stop”–One of Last Doctors to Practice Later-Term Abortions Blasts Murder of His Friend George Tiller (6/10/09):


DR. WARREN HERN: Of course, this is a great loss for women, but this means that we have a very highly organized, active, well-armed and well-funded terrorist movement in the country that opposes the basic premises of American society.



In Cairo Speech, Obama Calls for “New Beginning” Between US and Muslims Worldwide (6/4/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: President Obama delivered a highly anticipated speech in Cairo, Egypt, today, aimed at Muslims across the world.



PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I’m also proud to carry with me the good will of the American people and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: As’salaamu alaykum.



“Guantanamo at Home”: Muslim American Syed Fahad Hashmi Held in 23-Hour Solitary Pretrial Confinement for Over Two Years in Case Resting on Plea-Bargaining Government Informant (6/5/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: Twenty-eight-year-old Syed Fahad Hashmi, known to his family and friends as Fahad, has been held in pretrial solitary confinement in a federal prison in Manhattan for over two years now.



FAISAL HASHMI: Imagine for yourself, you’re a pretrial detainee, not convicted of anything, and you’re held in these conditions where you’re not allowed to move, not allowed to talk.



Shell to Pay Out $15.5 Million to Settle Landmark Lawsuit over Death of Nigerian Activist Ken Saro-Wiwa (6/9/09):


AMY GOODMAN: The oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to pay a $15.5 million settlement to avoid a trial over its alleged involvement in human rights violations in the Niger Delta.



JUDITH BROWN CHOMSKY: Well, I believe they settled because they didn’t want the public exposure of their relationship with the military government and their involvement in human rights abuses in Ogoni and in Nigeria.

AMY GOODMAN: Hope, War and Resistance: Democracy Now!

looks back at 2009. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We return to Hope, War and Resistance: Democracy Now! looks back at 2009.

Hundreds of Thousands Protest in Tehran Accusing Ahmadinejad of Stealing Election; Guardian Council Orders Partial Recount (6/16/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Our top story of the day is Iran, where protests against Friday’s election results continue for the fourth day, and the powerful Guardian Council says it’s ready to hold a recount of disputed votes. The announcement follows a mass rally Monday in Tehran of several hundred thousand people who defied an official ban on a public rally to protest the election results. Iranian state radio reports seven people were killed at the rally.



NAHID SIAMDOUST: Riot police, as well as Basijis, dealt really, really heavily with demonstrators and protesters, who were gathered in smaller pockets around town, as opposed to the huge demonstration yesterday. The government has been really shutting down many means of communication, the internet, pro-Mousavi sites, text messaging. So information is — information channels are blocked, and it’s hard to know exactly how many people have been killed.



Protests Continue in Iran; Government Cracks Down on Foreign Media (6/17/09):


ARANG KESHAVARZIAN: For many Iranians, it’s not simply about whether — who won and who lost this debate, but it’s about the basic procedures and laws related to the election that were violated.



Report: Goldman Sachs on Pace to Pay Out Record Bonuses this Year (6/22/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Goldman Sachs has just said that their staff can look forward to the biggest bonus bailouts in the firm’s 140-year history. How is this possible?


NOMI PRINS: It is possible because our government has chosen to effectively give Goldman the money to do that, in a number of different ways. So when Goldman says — has the nerve to say, feels entitled to say — that it’s going to pay its bankers record bonuses after the travesty that it and other banks have created in the markets, it is on the back of federal subsidies that effectively come from our pockets.


Somalia Declares State of Emergency After Intense Fighting (6/22/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn now to Somalia, where thousands have fled the capital of Mogadishu as government forces continue to fight opposition Islamist fighters.



SADIA ALI ADEN: You have a humanitarian crisis, a serious humanitarian crisis — the worst in Africa. Over one million people internally displaced, 3.5 million on the verge of starvation.



Actress Daryl Hannah, Climate Scientist James Hansen Among 30+ Arrested Protesting Mountaintop Removal in West Virginia (6/24/09):


AMY GOODMAN: More than thirty people were arrested Tuesday, including the NASA climate scientist James Hansen and actress Daryl Hannah, protesting mountaintop removal in West Virginia.



DARYL HANNAH: I am just absolutely shocked that there are over 400 — 504 mountains that have been blown up and that they pushed out the rubble into the valleys below, crushing over 2,000 headwater streams. And it’s affected over — you know, close to two million acres in this area. And it’s just a completely destructive way of mining.



Headlines for June 26, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The pop music artist Michael Jackson died at the age of fifty. Jackson was one of the most influential musical artists of the twentieth century and a pivotal figure in opening the door for African American artists in popular music.



Headlines for July 8, 2009:


REV. AL SHARPTON: He put on one glove, pulled his pants up, and broke down the color curtain, where now our videos are shown and magazines put us on the cover! It was Michael Jackson that brought blacks and whites and Asians and Latinos together!



Headlines for June 29, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In Honduras, the democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya has been overthrown in a military coup.



In Rare US Broadcast, Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya Discusses Coup, Costa Rica Talks, US Role and More (7/9/09):


PRESIDENT MANUEL ZELAYA: [translated] They attacked my house at 5:30 in the morning. A group of at least 200 to 250 armed soldiers with hoods and bulletproof vests and rifles aimed their guns at me, fired shots, used machine guns, kicked down the doors, and just as I was, in pajamas, they put me on a plane and flew me to Costa Rica. This all happened in less than forty-five minutes.



Headlines for June 30, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The billionaire financier Bernie Madoff has been sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum sentence allowed. Madoff pleaded guilty in March to running a massive Ponzi scheme that defrauded investors of some $50 billion.



Judge Sentences Madoff to 150 Years, But Will Regulatory System that Allowed Massive Financial Fraud Really Change? (6/30/09):


ELLEN BERNFELD: The fact that Bernie Madoff is going to be — spend the rest of his life in jail, you know, that’s a good thing, right? But it doesn’t repair the damage done. And it doesn’t repair the broken system that allowed it to happen.



Headlines for June 30, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: A ship trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza from Cyprus has been threatened by Israel in international waters.


HUWAIDA ARRAF: We hope it’s clear to the international community that this is a deliberate attack, and we hope it also opens their eyes to the policies of Israel, which have nothing to do with security. It has to do with punishing an entire population, and we just can’t accept this.



Headlines for July 1, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Democrat Al Franken has been declared the winner in his Minnesota Senate race against incumbent Republican Norm Coleman.


AL FRANKEN: I’m not going to Washington to be the sixtieth Democratic senator. I’m going to Washington to be the second senator from the state of Minnesota, and that’s how I’m going to do this job.




Headlines for July 2, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In Afghanistan, US forces have launched what’s being described as the largest Marine offensive since the Vietnam War. Some 4,000 Marines and hundreds of Afghan troops are targeting areas in the Helmand River Valley to wrest it from Taliban control.




Greenpeace Activists Hang Banner on Mt. Rushmore (7/10/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: In South Dakota, activists with the environmental group Greenpeace scaled the Mount Rushmore National Monument Wednesday and hung a banner urging President Obama to take action on global warming.


MATT LEONARD: We were basically rappelling off the faces of the monument, hanging a giant banner that, as you said, calling on President Obama to show true leadership in solving the climate crisis.




Headlines for July 13, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In a speech before Ghana’s parliament, Obama urged Africans across the continent to take greater responsibility for stamping out war, corruption and disease plaguing the region.


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Africa’s future is up to Africans. I say this knowing full well the tragic past that has sometimes haunted this part of the world. After all, I have the blood of Africa within me.



Headlines for July 15, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor continue on Capitol Hill.


JUDGE SONIA SOTOMAYOR: I want to state up front, unequivocally and without doubt, I do not believe that any ethnic, racial or gender group has an advantage in sound judging.



Headlines for July 15, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The US Senate is expected to vote this week on a measure that would expand the definition of hate crimes and widen federal authority to prosecute them.


JUDY SHEPARD: This bill will send a great message of respect to the nation that the government understands that hate crimes against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community are on the rise, they are heinous, they’re very violent.



Howard Dean on His Prescription for Real Healthcare Reform (7/17/09):


AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to Governor Dean, Dr. Dean, former head of the
Democratic National Committee.


HOWARD DEAN: I don’t give a damn about the health insurance people being in business or out of business. I want a system that works.



NAACP Turns 100: The History and Future of the Nation’s Oldest and Largest Civil Rights Organization (7/20/09):


AMY GOODMAN: The country’s oldest and largest civil rights organization had its hundredth anniversary celebrations last week here in New York.


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: NAACP, it will not be easy. It will take time. Doubts may rise, and hopes may recede. But if John Lewis could brave billy clubs to cross a bridge, then I know young people today can do their part to lift up our community.




Headlines for July 21, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Four US troops died Monday in a roadside bombing in eastern Afghanistan. At least thirty US soldiers have died so far this month, making it the deadliest month for US forces since the war began nearly eight years ago.



Obama: Cambridge Police “Acted Stupidly” in Arrest of Harvard Scholar Henry Louis Gates (7/23/09):


REPORTER: Recently, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., was arrested at his home in Cambridge. What does that incident say to you, and what does it say about race relations in America?


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home.



Headlines for July 24, 2009:


HENRY LOUIS GATES: But what it made me realize was how vulnerable all black men are, how vulnerable all people of color are, and all poor people, to capricious forces like a rogue policeman. And this man clearly was a rogue policeman.



“They Dump the Sick to Satisfy Investors”: Insurance Exec Turned Whistleblower Wendell Potter Speaks Out Against Healthcare Industry (7/16/09):


WENDELL POTTER: My name is Wendell Potter, and for twenty years I worked as a senior executive at health insurance companies. And I saw how they confused their customers and dumped the sick, so all they — so also they can satisfy their Wall Street investors.




Headlines for July 27, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya briefly returned to Honduras twice in recent days in an attempt to put pressure on the coup leaders who deposed him last month.


HILLARY CLINTON: President Zelaya’s effort to reach the border is reckless. It does not contribute to the broader efforts to restore democratic and constitutional order in the Honduras crisis.



Headlines for July 27, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Republican Governor Sarah Palin has stepped down as governor of Alaska eighteen months before the end of her first term as governor. Palin spent part of her farewell speech criticizing the media.


SARAH PALIN: You represent what could and should be a respected, honest profession that could and should be a cornerstone of our democracy. Democracy depends on you. And that is why — that’s why our troops are willing to die for you. So, how about, in honor of the American soldier, you quit making things up?



Democracy Now! Broadcast Exclusive: Declassified Docs Reveal Military Operative Spied on WA Peace Groups, Activist Friends Stunned (7/28/09):


ANJALI KAMAT: We begin with a Democracy Now! broadcast exclusive. Peace activists in Washington state have revealed an informant posing as an anarchist has spied on them while working under the US military.


BRENDAN MASLAUSKAS DUNN: He admitted that, yes, he did in fact spy on us. He did in fact infiltrate us. He admitted that he did pass on information to an intelligence network, which, as you mentioned earlier, was composed of dozens of law enforcement agencies, ranging from municipal to county to state to regional, and several federal agencies, including Immigration Customs Enforcement, Joint Terrorism Task Force, FBI, Homeland Security, the Army in Fort Lewis.



Rep. Henry Waxman on Healthcare Reform, the Waxman-Markey Climate Change Bill and the Expanding Role of Private Contractors in the Battlefield (8/4/09):


SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Democratic Congress member Henry Waxman has represented California’s 30th congressional district for nearly thirty-five years.



REP. HENRY WAXMAN: On the healthcare bill, I don’t want the perfect to be the enemy of the good. I don’t want another fifteen years before we can deal with the issue of healthcare for the uninsured in this country.



Headlines for August 5, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Two American journalists are reuniting with their families in California following their release from imprisonment in North Korea. Euna Lee and Laura Ling of Current TV were freed after a visit by former President Bill Clinton.



Headlines for August 6, 2009:


LAURA LING: We knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end.



In Explosive Allegations, Ex-Employees Link Blackwater Founder to Murder, Threats (8/5/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Murder, destruction of evidence, weapons smuggling, corruption — those are just some of the explosive allegations made by two former employees of the private military contractor formerly known as Blackwater.



JEREMY SCAHILL: These declarations, Amy, are stunning, in the sense that it’s the first time that we really see insiders at Blackwater alleging a direct role by Erik Prince, the sole owner and the founder of the company, potentially in either murdering someone who was cooperating with federal authorities or was intending to cooperate with federal authorities.



Hours Before Court-Martial, Army Resister Victor Agosto Speaks Out on Why He’s Refusing to Fight in Afghanistan (8/5/09):


AMY GOODMAN: A US Army specialist who refused to deploy to Afghanistan faces a court-martial today and up to a month in jail.


SPC. VICTOR AGOSTO: Right now I’m on Fort Hood. And I decided that I just — I couldn’t, in good conscience, deploy to Afghanistan. I don’t believe that we’re actually there to fight terror or that terror can even be fought on the battlefield.



Headlines for August 10, 2009:


SONIA SOTOMAYOR: I, Sonia Sotomayor, do solemnly swear that I will administer justice without respect to persons.



Headlines for August 11, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to an additional eighteen months of house arrest after a controversial trial. Suu Kyi has already spent fourteen of the past twenty years in detention under Burma’s military junta.



Headlines for August 11, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The same critics who say that the United States has not intervened enough in Honduras are the same people who say that we’re always intervening and the Yankees need to get out of Latin America. You can’t have it both ways.



GOP, Right-Wing Pundits’ Misinformation Fuels Hysteria at Democrats’ Public Forums on Healthcare Reform (8/13/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Right-wing opponents of President Obama’s healthcare plan are continuing their efforts to disrupt town hall meetings held by Democratic lawmakers during the August recess.


QUESTIONER 22: What it says is, as a seventy-four-year-old man, if you develop cancer, we’re pretty much going to write you off, because you’re no longer a working citizen who will be paying taxes. What are you going to do about it? You’re here because of the plan we have now.


SEN. ARLEN SPECTER: Well, you’re just not right. Nobody seventy-four is going to be written off because they have cancer. That’s a vicious, malicious, untrue rumor.


Headlines for August 18, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The US Supreme Court has taken the rare step of ordering a federal trial court to conduct a new hearing for Georgia death row prisoner Troy Anthony Davis.



Supreme Court Orders Evidentiary Hearing for Death Row Prisoner Troy Anthony Davis; Rare Decision Could Result in New Trial (8/19/09):


MARTINA CORREIA: You have Sam Millsap, who’s a prosecutor, you have people who support the death penalty and people who are against the death penalty on the same side in a case, saying this is an abomination. You cannot kill people like this, because if you kill Troy Davis, you’re going to expose this system, and you’re going to shut it down, you know. And that’s what this case is about.




Afghanistan Holds National Elections Amidst Violence, Fraud Allegations and Media Censorship (8/20/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: Millions of Afghans are voting in presidential and provincial elections today amid tight security, amid threats of violence from the Taliban, and with thousands of foreign troops still occupying the country, led by the United States.



SONALI KOLHATKAR: Most mainstream media are reporting, that the legitimacy of the occupation by the US and NATO are linked to the legitimacy of these elections. And by that standard, that’s already failed.




Headlines for August 26, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts has died after a bout with brain cancer. He was seventy-seven years old. Kennedy served in the Senate for forty-six years, earning the nickname the “liberal lion” for his steadfast advocacy of progressive causes.



Headlines for August 28, 2009:


REV. JESSE JACKSON: We mourn his passing, celebrate his living. We’re deeply in the debt of Ted Kennedy for his record of high-risk service. When he voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to end legislative Jim Crow, that was tyranny territory. For that, his brothers were killed, Dr. King killed, Medgar Evers killed. When he voted for the Voting Rights Act, he changed the American political landscape. When many would dip out an ocean with a bucket, he built a canal. He changed the course.



Headlines for September 10, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: President Obama intensified his push for healthcare reform Wednesday with a nationally televised address before a joint session of Congress.


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: There are also those who claim that our reform efforts would insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false. The reforms — the reforms I’m proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally.


REP. JOE WILSON: You lie!


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It’s not true.


UN Inquiry Finds Israel “Punished and Terrorized” Palestinian Civilians, Committed War Crimes During Gaza Assault (9/16/09):


JUDGE RICHARD GOLDSTONE: The mission concluded that actions amounting to war crimes and possibly, in some respects, crimes against humanity were committed by the Israel Defense Force.



NORMAN FINKELSTEIN: It was a massacre in Gaza. And you don’t really see that, because they’re measuring everything against what they call the laws of war. But you’re applying laws of war to a massacre. There was no war there.



Headlines for September 16, 2009:


JIMMY CARTER: I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man, that he’s African American.



ACORN Head Bertha Lewis Vows Action on Employee Misconduct, But Warns Group Targeted by “Modern-Day McCarthyism” (9/17/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: The anti-poverty group ACORN is launching an independent review after the group’s workers were caught on camera appearing to encourage tax evasion and prostitution.



BERTHA LEWIS: This is a continuation of the concentrated, relentless attacks on this organization by Republicans, by the right wing, when they couldn’t come up with anything that was true.



Report from Honduras: Ousted President Manuel Zelaya Returns to Honduras in Defiance of Coup Government (9/22/09):


SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Honduran President Manuel Zelaya has made a dramatic return to his country nearly three months after the military coup that forced him into exile.



AMY GOODMAN: We now go directly to the Brazilian embassy, inside, in Tegucigalpa to Andrés Conteris, who works with us at Democracy Now! and on the Program on the Americas director for Nonviolence International.


ANDRÉS CONTERIS: Amy, I’m right here with the President, and he is speaking. I’m going to let you hear his voice and try to interpret a little bit. [translating President Zelaya] “Just the way that they attacked my house and they brutally kidnapped me, this is the way that they are attacking us now even today.”



After 20 Years of Filmmaking on US Injustices, Michael Moore Goes to the Source in “Capitalism: A Love Story” (9/24/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Yes, Michael Moore is back, with his new film Capitalism: A Love Story.


MICHAEL MOORE: I think that this economic system that we have is an evil system. I truly believe that it is essentially designed to cause harm to people.



Nearly 200 Arrested as Police Unleash Tear Gas, Sound Cannons at G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh (9/28/09):


ANJALI KAMAT: As leaders of the world’s richest nations gathered in Pittsburgh for the G-20 summit this past Thursday and Friday, thousands took to the streets in protest amidst a heavy police crackdown.



PROTESTERS: Tell me what democracy looks like!


PROTESTERS: This is what democracy looks like!


STEVE MARTINEZ: Then the police turned on their new weapon of crowd dispersement: the sound cannon.


Author Arundhati Roy on the Human Costs of India’s Economic Growth, the View of Obama from New Delhi, and Escalating US Attacks in Af-Pak (9/28/09):


AMY GOODMAN: We turn to a woman the New York Times calls India’s most impassioned critic of globalization and American influence, Arundhati Roy.



ARUNDHATI ROY: Out of this chaos, something new has to come, and will come, because it cannot go on like this. And I don’t know whether that thing will be worse or will be better, but it can’t go on like this. You know, the kind of polythene bag over our heads has to burst open at some point. You know, we have to be allowed to breathe.



Headlines for October 2, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: In Indonesia, UN officials are estimating at least 1,100 people have died in an earthquake in the western city of Padang. Thousands of people remain missing and feared trapped in the wreckage of shattered buildings.



Sportswriter Dave Zirin on Obama’s Olympic Error (10/2/09):


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I come here today as a passionate supporter of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as a strong believer in the movement they represent, and as a proud Chicagoan.



DAVE ZIRIN: But if they want to spread the fact that it will bring this tangible economic benefit to Chicago, that it’ll benefit the people of Chicago, that is just a fact that is not borne out by anything in Olympic history.



Headlines for October 9, 2009:


JUAN GONZALEZ: In Chicago, seven people were arrested Thursday at a demonstration outside the offices of the insurance giant CIGNA.


PROTESTER: Care is being delayed. People are dying because of that every day. Seven people here today have been willing to be arrested. Let’s let them know we’re with them. We love you guys.

AMY GOODMAN: Hope, War and Resistance: Democracy Now!

looks back at 2009. Stay with us.

[break]

AMY GOODMAN: We return to Hope, War and Resistance: Democracy Now! looks back at 2009.

As US Continues Afghan, Iraq Occupations and Quashes Accountability for Gaza Assault, Critics Decry Awarding of Nobel Peace Prize to Obama (10/9/09):


THORBJORN JAGLAND: [translated] The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prizefor 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.


TARIQ ALI: For all the talk, US soldiers remain in Iraq, and their bases are likely to stay there for some time. And the war in Afghanistan continues unabated, with President Obama actually sending in more troops. More people are being killed, both Afghans and NATO soldiers. The war has been expanded into Pakistan. So this is a sort of odd, though not surprising, choice by the Nobel Prize Committee.



Guam Residents Organize Against US Plans for $15B Military Buildup on Pacific Island (10/9/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: We turn now to the Pacific island of Guam, where the United States is planning an enormous military buildup to the tune of $15 billion.



JULIAN AGUON: I guess the best way to explain the Guam situation is that there’s nothing neo about our colonialism. This is such old school-styled colonialism, it’s unreal. It really is unreal.



Headlines for October 12, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Washington to take part in the National Equality March for gay rights.


PROTESTER: It’s absolutely ridiculous that we have to work so hard to support this country and to be a part of this country and to pay and vote for this country that we should be a question of equality. And it’s just absurd. It’s absolutely absurd. It’s enough.


With Senate Finance Vote, Fate of Public Option Uncertain as Healthcare Reform Talks Move Behind Closed Doors (10/14/09):


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: After many months of thoughtful deliberation, the fifth and final committee responsible for healthcare reform has passed a proposal that has both Democratic and Republican support.



JANE HAMSHER: It contains in it the things that the White House wants, and there is no public option. It taxes benefits for union workers. The AFL-CIO is opposing it very strongly because of that. And I hope that now at least we can have a frank conversation about what it is that the White House is backing.



As US and Other Wealthy Nations Slash Aid, UN Warns of “Silent Tsunami of Hunger” in Global Food Crisis (10/14/09):


ANJALI KAMAT: It’s been described as the worst food crisis since the 1970s. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, more than a billion people, or one-sixth of the world’s population, go hungry every day.



DEVINDER SHARMA: There is no shortage of food in the world. You know, we have about 6.7 billion people on the earth, and we produce food for 11.5 billion people. There’s no shortage. It’s only that one part of the world is eating more, and one part of the world is starving. And I think that’s a distribution problem, the critical problem that we need to address.



Headlines for October 19, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The Pakistani military has launched a major offensive against militants in South Waziristan, the heartland of the Pakistani Taliban. Over 150,000 civilians have fled the region seeking refuge.



The Yes Men Pull Off Prank Claiming US Chamber of Commerce Had Changed Its Stance on Climate Change (10/20/09):


HINGO SEMBRA: The Chamber seeks a solid business solution, one that requires much less intervention and has a proven track record. What we need is simply a carbon tax.


BRIAN SULLIVAN: Breaking news right now, the Chamber of Commerce saying it will reverse its position on the climate change bill and wants a carbon tax.


Alright, so the US Chamber is denying it now. Alright, so, maybe not.


AMY GOODMAN: Well, that’s Fox Business News. You might be able to guess who was behind this prank. Well, if you guessed the Yes Men, you’re right.


155 Killed in Double Suicide Bombing in Baghdad (10/26/09):


SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: In Baghdad, the death toll from Sunday’s synchronized suicide car bombings has risen to 155. More than 500 people were injured. It was the deadliest bombing in Iraq in two years.



RICK ROWLEY: Well, first of all, the first thing to say is that, you know, there is no peace in Iraq, that these bombings, first of all, put the lie once again to the three myths that we’ve been pushed about the war in Iraq: first, the story that the war is over; second, that we won the war; and third, that the lessons of this victory can be applied to Afghanistan.



Exclusive: Parents of Soldier Who Killed Himself in Iraq Speak Out (10/27/09):


SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: We turn now to a Democracy Now! national broadcast exclusive. Gregg and Jannett Keesling are the parents of Chancellor Keesling, a US soldier who took his own life on June 19th of this year.



AMY GOODMAN: Since Chancellor’s death, Gregg and Jannett Keesling have yet to receive a letter of condolence from President Obama.


JANNETT KEESLING: Chancellor was extremely precious to us. And I sat around thinking, he died on foreign soil for us, you know? He sacrificed his young life, six years. And a letter from the President is a little bit of closure to show us that he appreciated our son’s life. And I know he’s busy with a lot of issues, but this is not one that is so hard to change.



Exclusive: Friend of American Hikers Detained in Iran Speaks Out (11/2/09):


AMY GOODMAN: We end today’s show with a Democracy Now! national broadcast exclusive: an interview with Shon Meckfessel. He’s the fourth member of the group of the three Americans arrested by Iranian authorities in July while they were on a hiking trip.


SHON MECKFESSEL: It’s obvious they’re not a threat to Iran, so I just
don’t understand why they’re being held.



Appeals Court Rules in Maher Arar Case: Innocent Victims of Extraordinary Rendition Cannot Sue in US Courts (11/3/09):


AMY GOODMAN: On Monday, a federal court of appeals dismissed Canadian citizen Maher Arar’s case against US officials for their role in sending him to Syria to be tortured.


MARIA LAHOOD: This decision is broad enough to affect any of us. Basically, if the federal government decides to do something that it purports to be in our national security to do, they could torture any of us, they could kill any of us, and there would be no relief in the federal courts.



Italian Prosecutor in Case Against CIA Operatives Hails Convictions for ’03 Kidnapping of Egyptian Cleric (11/5/09):


AMY GOODMAN: In a landmark ruling, an Italian judge has convicted twenty-three Americans, mostly CIA operatives, for kidnapping a Muslim cleric from the streets of Milan in 2003. We go now to Rome, where we’re joined by Armando Spataro. He’s the Italian prosecutor who brought the case.


ARMANDO SPATARO: I think that it’s a victory for the justice, because the importance of this ruling is clear, according to my opinion — namely, our democracy don’t need absolutely, in fighting terrorism, to use.




Headlines for November 6, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: Thirteen people have been killed and another thirty wounded at a US military base in Texas in what’s believed to be the worst mass killing of its kind in the nation’s history. Military officials have identified an Army psychiatrist named Major Nidal Malik Hasan as the suspected shooter in the attack at Fort Hood.



Headlines for November 11, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: It may be hard to comprehend the twisted logic that led to this tragedy. But this much we do know: no faith justifies these murderous and craven acts; no just and loving God looks upon them with favor.



Farewell to the Firehouse: After 8 Years at Downtown Community Television Landmark, Democracy Now! Moves to New Home (9/13/09):


AMY GOODMAN: We bid a fond and painful farewell today to our beloved firehouse, which has been our hearth and home for the last eight years, and bid our farewell to its owners, Keiko Tsuno and Jon Alpert. We moved here just before the September 11th attacks. We were the closest national broadcast to Ground Zero. The firehouse became our shelter in the storm and has been for all of these years.



EXCLUSIVE: Civil Rights Attorney Lynne Stewart Responds to Court Ruling Upholding Conviction and Ordering Her to Prison (11/18/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart has been ordered to prison to begin serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence after a federal appeals court upheld her conviction on Tuesday. Lynne Stewart was found guilty in 2005 of distributing press releases on behalf of her jailed client, Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, also known as the “Blind Sheikh,” who’s serving a life sentence on terror-related charges.


LYNNE STEWART: I made these decisions based on my understanding of what the client needed, what a lawyer was expected to do.



Amy Goodman Detained at Canadian Border, Questioned About Speech…and 2010 Olympics (11/30/09):


CBC NEWS ANCHOR: Are Canadian border guards trying to limit speech? An American journalist is outraged by what happened to her on the way to Vancouver last night. She was detained and questioned about what she was planning to say about the Olympics. Our “Go Public” reporter, Kathy Tomlinson, has the exclusive top story.


KATHY TOMLINSON: An award-winning US journalist, Amy Goodman is well known in alternative media circles.


UNIDENTIFIED: Amy Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!

AMY GOODMAN: I didn’t know we needed to have even a visa coming into Canada.


KATHY TOMLINSON: Here to promote a book.


AMY GOODMAN: Clearly he wasn’t going to let us go.


KATHY TOMLINSON: She wasn’t sure she’d get in.


AMY GOODMAN: They took the passports and then said, “Pull over.”


KATHY TOMLINSON: You were flagged right off the bat?


AMY GOODMAN: Uh, yeah.


KATHY TOMLINSON: Goodman was grilled at the Peace Arch border Wednesday, asked repeatedly what she’d be talking about.



Hondurans Divided After Coup Backer Wins Presidential Election Boycotted by Zelaya Supporters (12/1/09):


AMY GOODMAN: On Monday the State Department praised this weekend’s Honduran elections, which saw coup backer and wealthy landowner, Porfirio Lobo, emerge victorious with 55 percent of the vote. Zelaya supporters boycotted the election, and many Latin American countries have refused to recognized its outcome.



ANDRÉS CONTERIS: Amy, President Zelaya clearly says that this election has to be rescinded. It cannot be justified in any legitimate way because of the very poor participation by the electorate. It needs to be reprogrammed, and that is the only way that democracy can return to this country, because this election was an instrument of the coup regime to cover up the repression that they’ve been doing and to try to reach out to the international community.



In Third Week of Hunger Strike, Ailing Western Saharan Human Rights Activist Aminatou Haidar Demands Moroccan Authorities Allow Her Return to Occupied Homeland (12/1/09):


AMY GOODMAN: Aminatou Haidar began a hunger strike inside Lanzarote airport in the Canary Islands over two weeks ago. She demanding she will — that she be allowed to return to her home in the Western Sahara. But she remains in the airport, surrounded by supporters, her health deteriorating.



MOULOUD SAHID: She is forty-two years old. She already has experienced jail, disappearance and torture under Morocco for many years. She was a blindfolded for four years in a Moroccan jail, where she was given for disappeared. And her only crime is to claim her right to the free expression, the right of the people in Western Sahara to have a day where they can choose their destiny.



Headlines for December 2, 2009:


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan.


NIR ROSEN: Obama mentioned the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. He mentioned al-Qaeda presence in Afghanistan. What about the American occupation of Afghanistan? What about all the innocent people being killed there today, thanks to American counterinsurgency, counterterrorism operations only further increasing ethnic tensions? You’re going to have a civil war in Afghanistan between Tajiks and Pashtuns at some point. And it’s going more and more in that direction.




Climate Countdown: Largest Climate Summit in World History Opens in Copenhagen (12/7/09):


AMY GOODMAN: We’re inside the Bella Center, where thousands of delegates from over 190 countries are gathering for the largest climate summit in history. Over the next two weeks, a hundred world leaders are expected to attend the UN conference that’s been described by some scientists as the most important the world has ever seen.



YVO DE BOER: Time is up. Over the next two weeks, governments have to deliver a strong and long-term response to the challenge of climate change.



As EPA Rules Greenhouse Gases Endanger Public Health, a Discussion on Obama’s Climate Change Policies (12/8/09):


DAMON MOGLAN: The fact is the US arrives at Copenhagen putting very little on the table. In fact, right now the US is really the number one impediment in these negotiations.


“Would You Commit Murder?”–15-Year-Old Maldives Climate Ambassador Asks World Leaders to Take on Climate Change (12/8/09):


MOHAMED AXAM MAUMOON: This is a general question I would like to ask you: Would you commit murder? On the basis that you know what you’re doing is wrong and you can see that the victim is begging for mercy and for you to stop what you’re doing.



“We Are Not Begging for Aid”–Chief Bolivian Negotiator Says Developed Countries Owe Climate Debt (12/9/09):


ANGELICA NAVARRO: What we are asking is repayment. We are not asking for aid. We are not asking — we are not begging for aid. We want developed countries to comply with their obligation and pay their debt.



President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: “The Instruments of War Do Have a Role to Play in Preserving the Peace” (12/10/09):


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The instruments of war do have a role to play in preserving the peace. And yet, this truth must coexist with another: that no matter how justified, war promises human tragedy.



Indigenous Activists March on US Embassy in Copenhagen Urging Obama to “Stop the US Energy Industry’s War on Native Peoples and Lands” (12/10/09):


CLAYTON THOMAS-MULLER: You know, today President Obama accepts his Nobel Peace Prize, when we all know that it’s just representing such immense hypocrisy, with calling out 30,000 US troops to continue to go into Afghanistan and oppress peoples in the Middle East. The administration continues to oppress indigenous peoples and racialize communities in the United States and in Canada through their energy and climate policies.


TUVALU SUPPORTERS: Legal treaty now! Legal treaty now! Legal treaty now! Legal treaty now! Now! Now! Now! Now! Now!


ASHWINI PRABHA: We need to look at 1.5 degrees to stay alive. And that’s why I’m here. I’m here because my people are affected by climate change. Our survival is at stake if they don’t strike a legally binding agreement in this city, in Copenhagen, this year, now.



Author & Journalist Naomi Klein: Fate of Planet Rests on Mass Movement for Climate Justice (12/11/09):


NAOMI KLEIN: It’s an opportunity for the groups that are inside the Bella Center who are so frustrated, who want to say no to all of these market mechanisms, who know that there isn’t going to be a deal that is actually going to solve the climate crisis, to not just issue a press release after the fact to say, “Actually, we really don’t like this,” but to go out, sit in the streets with the people who have come to the Bella Center, and make our voices heard together.



Headlines for December 14, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: On Saturday, tens of thousands of people braved near freezing temperatures for a march through Copenhagen to just outside the Bella Center where the summit is taking place. Representatives from various indigenous groups led the march under banners reading “System Change, Not Climate Change.” Organizers say over 100,000 people took part.


“We’re Trying to Provide the Armies that They Lack”–Bill McKibben on Supporting Poor, Vulnerable Nations with Mass Protest Movements (12/14/09):


BILL McKIBBEN: They’re showing unbelievable courage in sticking up against the pressure from the US and others to just cut a deal and go away. They’re demanding their survival be taken seriously. We’re trying to provide the armies that they lack, you know, mobilizing civil society behind the science and behind survival.


Bolivian President Evo Morales on Climate Debt, Capitalism, Why He Wants a Tribunal for Climate Justice and Much More (12/17/09):


AMY GOODMAN: President Morales, welcome to Democracy Now!


PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] Thank you very much for the invitation.


AMY GOODMAN: You spoke yesterday here at the Bella Center and said we cannot end global warming without ending capitalism. What did you mean?


PRESIDENT EVO MORALES: [translated] Capitalism — and I’m speaking about irrational development — policies of unlimited industrialization are what destroys the environment.



Headlines for December 21, 2009:


AMY GOODMAN: The UN climate talks in Copenhagen have ended in failure as world leaders couldn’t agree to a binding deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.



US-Led Copenhagen Accord Decried as Flawed, Undemocratic (12/21/09):


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Today we’ve made meaningful and unprecedented — made a meaningful and unprecedented breakthrough here in Copenhagen. For the first time in history, all major economies have come together to accept their responsibility to take action to confront the threat of climate change.


LUMUMBA STANISLAUS DI-APING: It represents the worst development in climate change negotiations in history.



EXCLUSIVE: Environmental Activist Jeff “Free” Luers Speaks Out in First Interview After 9.5 Years Behind Bars (12/23/09):


AMY GOODMAN: After serving nine-and-a-half years in prison, environmental activist Jeffrey Luers is finally free.



JEFF LUERS: And I think it’s important for people to understand that there’s several people incarcerated in the United States right now that are environmental activists that are being treated like terrorists. They’re our own people engaged in acts of illegal civil disobedience, much like the Boston Tea Party. And historically, it’s people like these that bring about positive social change.



Senate Passes Healthcare Overhaul, Compromise with House Bill Looms (12/24/09):


JUAN GONZALEZ: In a landmark vote, the Senate passed its sweeping healthcare reform legislation this morning.



SEN. HARRY REID: Like other new programs that improved the lives of many and were since strengthened to improve even more — programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security — progress and opportunity are what this historic bill represents.



Kill the Bill or Support Passage? A Debate on Healthcare Legislation Between Insurance Industry Critics (12/29/09):


JON WALKER: There’s just all sorts of problems with the Senate bill and a dramatic number of changes that need to be made if we want to get an actual working healthcare system, as opposed to something that will just funnel lots and lots of money into a broken system that will make it even harder to repair next time.



Botched Christmas Airline Bombing: A Look at Obama’s Handling of the Case and the Media’s Coverage (12/30/09):


PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: When our government has information on a known extremist and that information is not shared and acted upon as it should have been so that this extremist boards a plane with dangerous explosives that could have cost nearly 300 lives, a systemic failure has occurred.



Egypt Denies Gaza Freedom March Access to Border, Hundreds Protest in Cairo (12/29/09):


AMY GOODMAN: In Egypt, hundreds of solidarity activists from around the world are being prevented by the Egyptian government from entering Gaza. Dubbed the Gaza Freedom March, organizers were planning to cross the border last Sunday to commemorate the first anniversary of Israel’s assault on Gaza



HEDY EPSTEIN: There comes a time in one’s life when maybe one needs to do more than just talk and march and picket, and maybe go on a hunger strike, as I am now about to do here, to change the opinion of the Egyptian government so that they will let us go to Gaza. I desperately need to go to Gaza. I have a severe case of Gaza fever, and it can only be cured by going to Gaza.

AMY GOODMAN: Hope, War and Resistance: Democracy Now!

’s look back at 2009.