“Over 1 billion people are chronically hungry,” says the U.N., yet it would take only $44 billion per year to end hunger globally.
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The controversial TV anchor has resigned from CNN amid a campaign to force him off the air due to his reporting on Latinos and immigrants. Past Democracy Now! Coverage of Lou Dobbs:
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Thanksgiving is around the corner, and families will be gathering to share a meal and, perhaps, enjoy another annual telecast of “The Wizard of Oz.” The 70-year-old film classic bears close watching this year, perhaps more than in any other, for the message woven into the lyrics, written during the Great Depression by Oscar-winning lyricist E.Y. “Yip” Harburg.
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“Extraordinary rendition” is White House-speak for kidnapping. Just ask Maher Arar. He’s a Canadian citizen who was “rendered” by the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured for almost a year.
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U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Chancellor Keesling died in Iraq on June 19, 2009, from “a non-combat related incident,” according to the Pentagon. Keesling had killed himself.
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Climate-change activists, from pranksters to presidents, are stepping up the pressure by staging elaborate stunts.
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Lt. Dan Choi doesn’t want to lie. Choi, an Iraq war veteran and a graduate of West Point, declared last March 19 on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” “I am gay.” Under the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” regulations, those three words are enough to get Choi kicked out of the military.
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Journalist Christian Parenti responds to our interview with Kevin Bales, founder of Free The Slaves
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A landmark lawsuit brought by the families of four employees of the security firm Blackwater USA killed in Iraq three years ago has been partially derailed. This week, a federal judge ordered the lawsuit to be decided behind closed doors in arbitration—allowing Blackwater to avoid public examination of its practices in Iraq. One of the three arbitrators could be William Webster, who served as head of the FBI and CIA under President Reagan and has personal and business ties to several Blackwater lawyers. We speak with Bill Sizemore of the Virginian-Pilot, and Jeremy Scahill, author of “Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army.” [includes rush transcript]
Blackwater has remained relatively quiet in the face of its critics, but last week, the company’s founder, Erik Prince, wrote an article to the Grand Rapids Press in response to a series of articles in the paper on Blackwater. The paper has referred to Jeremy Scahill’s book as putting Prince in the national media spotlight. We get Scahill’s response, and hear about his recent visit to Prince’s hometown and new Blackwater sites in California and Illinois. [includes rush transcript]
Leading Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has tapped Blackwater executive Cofer Black as a senior campaign advisor. Romney has called for a doubling of the US prison camp at Guantanamo. Black–who has been vice chairman at Blackwater for two years–was director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center during 9/11 and led the agency’s hunt for Osama bin Laden. [includes rush transcript]
Environmentalist Paul Hawken has come out with a new book, “Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming.” Hawken is a best-selling author and one of the leading architects and proponents of corporate environmental reform. [includes rush transcript]