Former Sen. John Edwards was supposed to speak in Denver at the Democratic National Convention, but he had an affair. Will the Democrats now forget about his signature issue?
Filed under Weekly Column
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on a book tour, where she is being hounded by activists and questioned about her pledge that “impeachment is off the table.” She responded on the TV talk show “The View,” “If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.” Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind may have provided the evidence she doesn’t want to see.
Filed under Weekly Column
Open opposition, the right to challenge those in power, is a mainstay of any healthy democracy. The Democratic and Republican conventions will test the commitment of the two dominant U.S. political parties to the cherished tradition of dissent. Things are not looking good.
Filed under Weekly Column
Rep. Gene Green (D–TX) is calling on the Pentagon to explain why a military recruiter was given a promotion despite being found to have illegally threatened a teenage boy with jail time if he decided to go to college instead of joining the military. The recruiter was eventually promoted to head a different recruiting station. Green sent the letter questioning Kelt’s new job after his Wednesday appearance on Democracy Now!
Filed under D.N. in the News
With no end in sight in Afghanistan and Iraq, military recruiters must be prevented from using desperate and aggressive measures to lure our nation’s young people—the poorest and most vulnerable—into the line of fire.
Filed under Weekly Column
Amy Goodman reports from the Baltics: “When I arrived in Estonia last week—a former Soviet republic that lies just south of Finland—everyone had an opinion on Barack Obama’s speech in Berlin.”
Filed under Weekly Column
The nominating conventions have become elaborate, expensive marketing events, but most people don’t know the extent to which major corporations fund them, pouring tens of millions of dollars into a little-known loophole in the campaign-finance system.
Filed under Weekly Column
While the presidential candidates trade barbs and accuse each other of flip-flopping, they agree with President Bush on their enthusiastic support for nuclear power.
Filed under Weekly Column
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Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia faces court martial today for refusing to return to Iraq. He eventually applied for conscientious objector status in part because of the abuse of detainees he witnessed in Iraq, not in Abu Gharib but in another facility–Al Assad. We speak with his aunt Norma Castillo en route to the court martial proceedings in Fort Stewart, Georgia. [includes rush transcript]
As India’s Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi stuns the country by deciding to turn down the post of prime minister we go to India to speak with acclaimed Indian author and activist about elections in the world’s largest democracy and occupation in the Middle East. [includes rush transcript]
We go inside a Palestinian hospital minutes after an Israeli gunship bombed a demonstration in Rafah where Israel has been launching one of its largest offensive ever. [includes rush transcript]
A case starting today that pits the Justice Department against New York civil rights lawyer Lynne Stewart is being closely watched by defense attorneys who fear the government aims to limit their freedom to fight for unpopular clients. Stewart is accused of providing assistance to her imprisoned client–radical Egyptian cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman. [includes rush transcript]
Malcolm X was born 79 years ago today. He was shot to death in 1965 at the age of 39. We hear an excerpt of a speech he gave in Detroit just a year before he was gunned down. It is known as ‘The Ballot or the Bullet.’ [includes rush transcript]