Tim Robbins is the artistic director of the Actor’s Gang and an Academy-award winning actor, director, producer, and writer.
He won an Oscar for his role in “Mystic River” and is well-known for his roles in numerous films over the past two decades including “The Shawshank Redemption”, “The Player”, “Bull Durham”, and “Bob Roberts.” His best known directorial ventures include the award-winning “Cradle Will Rock” and “Dead Man Walking.”

It looked like it was business as usual for President Barack Obama on the first day of his Martha’s Vineyard vacation, as he spent five hours golfing with Robert Wolf, president of UBS Investment Bank and chairman and CEO of UBS Group Americas. Wolf, an early financial backer of Obama’s presidential campaign, raised $250,000 for him back in 2006, and in February was appointed by the president to the White House’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Economic recovery for whom?

Listen to this Column

A Florida immigration judge has dismissed the deportation case against Youssef Megahed. The The 23 year old Florida Student was arrested by federal immigration agents in April just three days after a jury acquitted him on federal explosives charges. After hearing a week of evidence put forward by Homeland Security Attorneys, immigration judge Kenneth S. Hurewitz said “I don’t believe the government has met its burden in this case.” He dismissed the case before the defense had to present any witnesses.

Read More on this story

Watch/Read/Listen to Democracy Now! coverage here

Sitting on death row in Georgia, Troy Davis has won a key victory against his own execution. On Aug. 17, the U.S. Supreme Court instructed a federal court in Georgia to consider, for the first time in a formal court proceeding, significant evidence of Davis’ innocence that surfaced after his conviction.

Read More

Listen to this Column

The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered a new evidentiary hearing for death-row inmate Troy Anthony Davis. The court ruled that Davis should have another chance to prove his innocence before the state of Georgia puts him to death. Watch/Listen to Democracy Now! coverage of Troy Davis case.

President Obama presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, to 16 people in a ceremony today at the White House. Check out Democracy Now!’s past interviews with some of those who received the award:

* Rev. Joseph Lowery
* Mary Robinson
* Archbishop Desmond Tutu
* Muhammad Yunus

Imagine the scene. America 2009. Eighteen thousand people have died in one year, an average of almost 50 a day. Who’s taking them out? What’s killing them? Terrorism is not the culprit here: It’s lack of adequate health care.

Read More

Listen to this Column

We recently hosted a debate between Latin America historian and New York University professor Greg Grandin and Lanny Davis, a former special counsel to President Clinton who’s now a paid lobbyist for Honduran business leaders backing the coup government. A few days after the debate, Grandin posted this response.

The Guardian newspaper of London published a story about the U.S. military spying on peace activists in Washington State. While the Guardian credits Democracy Now! for breaking the story in an exclusive national broadcast, The New York Times, which ran a piece a few days afterwards, does not.

Though Barack Obama first called the Honduran military’s removal of Zelaya a coup, his administration has backpedaled. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Zelaya’s attempt to cross the Nicaraguan border into Honduras “reckless.” Could well-placed lobbyists in Washington be forging U.S. foreign policy?

Read More

Listen to this Column